Plenty time to have tested mp

[phunkbot]

I'll try comment as well and also to add a few things I've come across over my ~100-130 mp games so far (on a low - mid pc configuration):

Firstly something I didn't see above - we do get Steam crashes that ruin games, although rare they do happen (most I've got in a single night was two, combined with people dropping out of games during loading and ruining games out of pure profanity it amounted to 5 out of ~10 games for the evening). Making friends (or having ones from previous titles, which I don't ) makes getting into worthwhile fun games easier.

As I've only played previous titles singleplayer I cant compare the balance with that; I'm at around 33000 skill points atm and move about the 30-35k range and I'm glad that there doesn't seem to be a pattern of the type "player 1 brings x units of type a and y units of type b and wins every time, if I do the same I get lots of haxxor skill rating points", also I've encountered people who clearly beat me in what's called "micro" only to then be beaten by my "macro" . I've come out on top against seemingly incredible odds and have had my army wiped out when I was certain I was winning. Against a honorably playing opponent you often get games that come down to 10-15% of the original armies deployed surviving, and when at the end you tell each other "hey, good game - thanks" you both mean it. I'd say its overall a reasonably balanced game, tactics and good fortune (specifically when your troops are being brave ) will carry you trough to victory more so than counting on beating by (abusing) superior unit statistics alone.


Performance-wise the game lives up to my expectations to the fullest; When you're on low - mid it isn't as pretty but it just works fine, it gets choppy for me only on 2v2 ultra armies or on 4v4, provided the game doesn't lag due to poor connectivity.
Also for some reason I have excellent connections when logged in the US- New York server, far better than the European servers and even the one I guess should be the most suitable for me Europe - Southeastern, with more than half the games being 3/3 connections, its noticeable in-game as well.

Without question the biggest thing to look forward to for me is the multilayer campaign, there isn't post victory rape and pillage in the game as it stands

See you guys on the battlefield (first one to actually join the org steamgroup chatroom gets a beer on me ! )