Played it on my home system last night (AthlonXP 2600+, 1GB RAM, Geforce 6800GT), config was 1280x960, no AA, all options set to high or higest and all turned on except advanced shadows... Runs smooth most of the time but you can sense the frame rate dropping when it's busy on screen, no stuttering though... Looks fantastic IMO, no funny light or dodgy colours for me luckily...

Game play, I don't know what people mean about it being too fast, the speeds people move at do not seem unrealistic and the historical battle starts with the sides very close together so the batle starts very quicky which is probaly why it seems so quick... Personally I am not a strong fan of the historical battles in MTW as I perfer a battle to be part of a campaign and have some context and consquences, so for me this demo is only showing part of the game.. It looks good and plays well and the landscapes look a little more realistic this time... This is still total war in style and content but with additonal features too... The special abilities of units in cool and I like the way rallying your troops has been implimented... Nothing in the demo seems to be overpowering and yet nothing appeared uselessly weak, ever the skirmishers have their place and their uses..

Personally I think the tutorial is a bit poor, but I have an idea about that... I reckon the tutorial in the full game is tied to the campaign map and as that is not in the demo they could only use an actual battle portion of the tutorial...