Is the demo legal yet?

**amritochates** · 10-08-2006, 09:39

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http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=58

I just read a post at the .net forums that claims that the Demo has been released in the Subscribers only November Issue of the US Version of PC Gamer and that is the only legal way to get it so far...

Additionally someone had posted the following:

Let me start off by first saying that regardless of my source, I do have the demo and it works fine. The demo features the tutorial battle, an overview movie, the Battle of Agincourt, and the Battle of Pavia. My specs:

X850 XT PE 256 MB
2048 MB RAM
AMD 3200+

I set everything as high as possible at 1280 x 1024 and the game just looks amazing. There's no other way to describe it. I give CoH the effects and physics of course, but Medieval 2 has better looking individual soldiers and terrain. No RTW mod comes close to the detail ingame. With that said, it ran a little sluggish at all high settings, so I think I'm going to tone it down a tad just to make the general feel of the game smoother.

Onto the tutorial. The tutorial was just like Rome's. You started out on the flank, beyond a bridge, fighting a unit or two of Saxons while the main Norman force was on the other side of the river. Your general, Rufus, is eventually ordered onto the flank of the main force and that is where I stopped playing the tutorial. I'm not sure what I was missing, but I moved all of my men into position, and nothing was happening? I'm sure I missed something, but it's not like I needed the tutorial anyway. I went straight into the Battle of Agincourt after that.

Agincourt was interesting, to say the least. I know it was a scripted battle, but for the first few minutes, I did nothing. I just watched as French cav and infantry charged my lines and were slaughtered. They made no effort to flank, no effort to avoid my infantry and go for the archers. Until the second French army attacked my rear, I didn't even have to lift a finger. I pulled some infantry to the rear and then their infantry and cav poured in some more but in the end, I drove back the second army and rounded on the front and won easily. Not much to say for the AI in that battle, but it was scripted. The French did cross the muddy field and get slaughtered so I don't know. Two things I noticed. Archers do not pull their strings. That discussion we had the other day based on that screenshot... they pull nothing. Strings stay tight throughout the animation. It really doesn't look that bad though. Infantry can navigate through spikes pretty easily as well.

I haven't gotten a chance to play anything else yet, but the game feels pretty amazing. The kill animations and blood look fantastic, but my system isn't good enough to play it on the settings I set it to so I don't think I got the full experience. Sure it looked great, but things were less fluent than they should have been. I plan on going back and lowering the settings and hopefully getting a better playing experience. I guess it's looking good, but it's difficult for me to judge the critical things like the AI when the only battles available to us are scripted ones. We shall see.

EDIT UPDATE: The music is great, the sound is great. Muskets sound great. I liked Pavia better than Agincourt, but it may have just been because I was playing with more than 2 FPS. Pavia required more movement, but for some reason I feel disoriented on the battle field. I know I don't have the controls down, it's been so long since I've played Rome and I'm stuck on Company of Heroes controls.

Pavia was a lot of fun though, I can't wait till get Rodeo to mod the demo so we can make custom. Another important note, it seems as if Dismounted Knights are a separate unit than mounted knights. Kind of sucks...

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**doc_bean** · 10-08-2006, 10:16

http://www.pcgamer.com/inthisissue.html

Doesn't say so on the website.

**Monarch** · 10-08-2006, 10:24

Its available, but in accordance with econ's new pinned toppic I shall say no more.

**Callatian** · 10-08-2006, 10:25

Ok ... I got the demo and I'm waiting for it to be declared legal so I can play it

PC Gamer really knows how make people happy. I wonder how Gamspot or other sites feel ... anyway TWC is full of Demo discussion topics and i know you guys here at .ORG konw best since you are closer to devs... so when you will get an official CA statement pls. let me know.

Thanks,
BB/C

**The Blind King of Bohemia** · 10-08-2006, 10:29

Some of us won't even be playing the demo and i doubt the main game at the moment due to me having an athlon

**amritochates** · 10-08-2006, 10:29

Yeaaaaaaaah.........

Beat You all !! was the first to report demo release

**Monarch** · 10-08-2006, 10:32

Yup, congrats, of course you did it after everyone had it...:P

This will probably get closed, which is fair enough.

**Monarch** · 10-08-2006, 10:33

Its legal if you're a subscriber to PC Gamer.

**Gustav II Adolf** · 10-08-2006, 10:37

Yes its true. I have played the demo now. My computer is old so i have difficulties knowing what causes what. My specs are p4 2,8 1G RAM ati 9600 256mb pro. I can play the demo with some lag having all settings on low (in rome i can play with all settings on high or highest without lag).

/G

**Stig** · 10-08-2006, 11:28

BKB what sort of Athlon?
Athlon 64 works normally, as it does support that SSM thingy

But it ain't legal yet, it's weekend so CA devs are not at work, I think they will reply at .com tomorrow

**Sun of Chersonesos** · 10-08-2006, 11:31

so you got the demo through your door and your doubting wether it's legal or not? i'd be jumping to play it straight away

**Stig** · 10-08-2006, 11:37

Originally Posted by Dracula(Romanian Vlad Tepes)

Where can i find the demo.

at some sites and when you download it it's illegal, only if you have PC Gamer you're legal, but I think CA will release the legal one any day this week

**econ21** · 10-08-2006, 11:44

I understand that some people legally have the demo, so I am going to allow discussion of the demo as it pertains to content and gameplay.

Any discussion of where the demo can be illegally acquired or advocacy of piracy is not acceptable, in accordance with:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=70205

**The Blind King of Bohemia** · 10-08-2006, 11:59

Originally Posted by Stig

BKB what sort of Athlon?
Athlon 64 works normally, as it does support that SSM thingy

But it ain't legal yet, it's weekend so CA devs are not at work, I think they will reply at .com tomorrow

Athlon XP mate. God, I really want to play the game! Although CA say's this is just for the demo i can see it being for main release as well.

**Callatian** · 10-08-2006, 12:07

Medieval II: Total War DEMO README

Last Updated: 2006-08-15

INTRODUCTION

Refer to this document if you encounter difficulties with one or more
aspects of installation or running the Demo of Medieval II: Total War
game. Many of the most commonly encountered issues are covered here.

If you experience any problems please make sure that you have the
latest drivers for you PC installed.

www.microsoft.com/directx/
www.nvidia.com
www.ati.com

Please be aware, this software is a demo and is not representative of
the final product, product features are subject to change and
revision without notice. The software wherein is incomplete and is
provided with no warranty of any kind.

_____________________________________________________________________

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

- English version of Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP

- Celeron 1.5GHz Pentium 4® (1500MHz) or equivalent AMD®
processor. The processor must support SSE2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2

- 512MB RAM

- 8x Speed CD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate)
and latest drivers

- 700MB of uncompressed free hard disk space

- 100% DirectX® 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card and latest
drivers

- 100% Windows® 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest
drivers

- DirectX® 9.0c

- 128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support
and the latest drivers. Must be 100% DirectX® 9.0c
compatible*. Nvidia® GeForce 4 Ti 4400 or ATI Radeon® 9800
are the recommended minimum hardware.

- Monitor must be able to display 1024x768 resolution or
above.

* Important Note: Some cards with the chipsets listed
here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features
utilised by Medieval II: Total War. Please refer to your hardware
manufacturer for 100% DirectX® 9.0c compatibility.

______________________________________________________________________

INSTALLATION & SET UP ISSUES

DirectX® Installation

The Medieval II: Total War installer will automatically launch the
DirectX® 9.0c redistributable installer. If you already have this
version or a newer copy of DirectX® this will be detected and the
update will exit with no changes made to your system's DirectX® files.

You can manually install the latest version of DirectX® by going to
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx and downloading the latest
version available.

______________________________________________________________________

VIDEO ISSUES

Monitor Display

Monitor display goes black when the game resolution is set to a value
that the monitor cannot display. The game can only detect the video
modes supported by the graphics card not the monitor. Should you find
you have set the resolution and cannot run the demo, in order to reset
the resolution open the medieval2.preference.cfg file found in the
demo installation directory in a text editor.

Change the following lines to match below:

battle_resolution = 1024 768

Crossfire

Users of Crossfire configurations need to disable crossfire to run
the game.

______________________________________________________________________

GAMEPLAY ISSUES

Tutorial Battle Advice

When playing through the tutorial, if you complete the requested
action before the advisor finishes speaking, the advisor will be
interrupted and will move on the next piece of advice. To ensure that
you hear all of what the advisor has to say, listen to the advisor
before performing the required actions.

Please note that you will not be able to hear the advice again once
you interrupt it unless you restart the tutorial.

______________________________________________________________________

WINDOWS® SPECIFIC OPERATING SYSTEM ISSUES

Windows 2000/XP

If you are running Windows® 2000 or Windows® XP, you must have
Administrator rights to properly install and play the demo.

______________________________________________________________________

LEGAL INFORMATION
______________________________________________________________________

© 2006 The Creative Assembly Limited. Total War, Medieval II: Total
War and the Total War logo are trade marks or registered trade marks
of The Creative Assembly Limited in the United Kingdom and/or other
countries. SEGA and the SEGA logo are either trade marks or
registered trade marks of SEGA Corporation. All rights reserved. All
other trade marks and trade names are the properties of their
respective owners.

**Lord ZORO Savage** · 10-08-2006, 12:43

Originally Posted by Callatian

Medieval II: Total War DEMO README ...

Thank you.

**Callatian** · 10-08-2006, 13:18

Np - my pleasure.

REMEMBER that this demo is a pre-beta build (see date and dev blog who mentions it as pre beta as well as the menus resemblance with the polish menus). The quality may mislead you - the final full version product looks better (*I've played it - trust me). This demo may be like this because it is illegal ... we don't know... yet....maybe it is legal ... ohh wait I bet is not ... crap ...i'm lost.

Wait!!! .... do I start to sound like CA in the polish beta pictures drama story? Ok ... who feels like the second dude here ... I'm the first:

**Stig** · 10-08-2006, 13:28

Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia

Athlon XP mate. God, I really want to play the game! Although CA say's this is just for the demo i can see it being for main release as well.

just download the demo when it gets legal and see if it works, if it does, lucky you

**Furious Mental** · 10-08-2006, 13:34

Don't ask, don't tell

**Callatian** · 10-08-2006, 13:35

Sry Lord ZORO Savage ... but I am a PC Gamer subscriber

so I can enjoy the forbidden fruit legaly ... ;) Btw if you don't believe me that the full version looks better ... ask then a CA dev - hell tell ya the differences.

**just4apetition** · 10-08-2006, 13:47

http://www.petitiononline.com/2908jt01/petition.html

click that link its a petition for ME2 multiplayer campaign please sign it im sorry

that this has nothing to do with the demo but i wanna get this campaign atleast

for lan

thanks chuckles

**Stig** · 10-08-2006, 13:49

Originally Posted by just4apetition

http://www.petitiononline.com/2908jt01/petition.html

click that link its a petition for ME2 multiplayer campaign please sign it im sorry

that this has nothing to do with the demo but i wanna get this campaign atleast

for lan

thanks chuckles

m8 stop spamming threads with that, CA won't put it in, because it's impossible to make one, we had a discussion at .com about it, and it ended with a dev agreeing that it's impossible to make one atm.

**Basileus** · 10-08-2006, 19:27

Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia

Some of us won't even be playing the demo and i doubt the main game at the moment due to me having an athlon

Im in the same boat heh, good thing is i will propably be upgrading/buying a new pc next month if Nvidia realese their DX10 graphics card. Still i think it was a bad move by CA to realese a demo thats not even compatible with most cpus out there.

**Big King Sanctaphrax** · 10-08-2006, 19:35

I hesitate to ask, but...how is the battle/kill speed?

**Divine Wind** · 10-08-2006, 19:48

Check this post out BKS.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...07&postcount=5

**Solon of Athens** · 10-08-2006, 19:55

Originally Posted by Callatian

Ok ... I got the demo and I'm waiting for it to be declared legal so I can play it

PC Gamer really knows how make people happy. I wonder how Gamspot or other sites feel ... anyway TWC is full of Demo discussion topics and i know you guys here at .ORG konw best since you are closer to devs... so when you will get an official CA statement pls. let me know.

Thanks,
BB/C

It's not like we just let everyone post torrent links is it, and in the end it turns out that discussion was allowed, just no links, like we were doing yesterday...

Anyway I think the official line from CA is, talk as much as you like about the demo, post screenies and everything, just no downlaod links...

**Faenaris** · 10-08-2006, 20:40

Originally Posted by Big King Sanctaphrax

I hesitate to ask, but...how is the battle/kill speed?

I want to add something else to Divine Wind's post. While the Kill rates have decreased since RTW, I still think they are a tad too fast. Then again, that could be because my gold chevron foot knights charged a bronze chevron foot knight unit. Morale shattering. :)

So, right now, it is kinda hard to judge the ratio's because the fights are uneven, resulting in faster routing.

**blahblahblah** · 10-08-2006, 21:16

AMD users can't get SSE2?

**King Noob the Stupid** · 10-09-2006, 09:11

Nope, AFAIK only the 64bit AMDs have SSE2 (which is pretty much crap for me because the 64bit things don't fit my socket, I'd need to buy a new board along with the new CPU and a new graphics card, too because I only have an AGP one... and I definitely can't afford all that. I'm off, hanging out in a forum about a game I'll never be able to play makes me feel bad ;))

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