Has anything really changed from CA?

[Divine Wind]

As some closing remarks to this thread I will add a personal measure of where I think this game is at.

Look at my sig. 6.5hrs/ 2 weeks

pre 1.3 this was 80hrs/2 weeks

I dont think Im the only one who has stopped playing this game

Last night I tried to pick up my game again - 2 turns - 2 more nations on the 'at war list'

meh tell em to take a number and get in line

I didnt click a third turn

nothing wrong with this game? then why arnt I playing it

And with Anno 1404 (dawn of discovery), HOI3 on the horizon

TOO SLOW!! CA

I'm exactly the same. After 1.3 came out, the frustration I had with ETW just made me give up entirely with the game. I tried reloading a new campaign last week after work, and almost instantly I was at war with half the world. I was clicking "quit" shortly after.

Empire (and MTW 2 to some extent) just lack something that Shoggie, MTW 1, and Rome had. The latter 3 gave me thousands of playing hours, replayability, role playing, and satisfaction. ETW, and MTW2 have been incredible disappointments for me and I will have to consider any future purchases in the total war series very seriously.

[oldpiker]

ETW is an excellent example of modern gaming trends that promote eye candy over gameplay. The old Commodore 64 from the 1980s hosted some really fine gaming challenges all running within 64 kilobytes. Two I remember fondly are Red Storm Rising, and the original Pirates from Sid Meir. They featured very basic graphics, but both totally immersed you in interesting play. Designers were not tempted to overdo the graphics because the capability was just not there. Instead, they worked within a very limited palette to deliver some genuinely challenging gaming. Don't get me wrong. ETW has the potential to be one of the finest RTS titles ever developed. And let's give them credit...it's a gorgeous piece of work. It just doesn't work because they chose eye candy over effective gameplay. If it didn't have potential I wouldn't have let it torture me through so many crashes over the last few months.

[anders]

about gameplay versus eye candy, and the AI not being able to play its own game from RTW and onwards, I think I would be very happy if we could have the old MTW campaign game back, where apart from economy ( no AI trade lanes) and diplomacy the CAI worked well enough within the games parameters, and add the beautiful looks of MTW2/ETW.