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[LoSboccacc]

Ca now takes connand from sony.

If you want to compare moddability, just look up third age total war and the fourth age, both kick asses at any mod for any subsequent ca game.

But it is not that: the problem is that they release alphas and push fixes as paid expansions. It happened three times in a row now.

[Neonivek]

My issue with the Total War series is they kinda feel... done.

Empire Total War felt like a worse version of Medieval 2 total war and Shogun 2 total war also does away with many of its previous improvements (including a super cheaty AI).

The majesty of the Total war games is sort of being drained from my being. Which is odd compared that many a year ago I would have testified Shogun Total war was one of the best Strategy games ever made.

[Heron TSG]

I don't know what it is, but I simply couldn't stand the battles of Napoleon and Empire, and the campaign maps didn't appeal to me much either. Perhaps the different weaponry. I thought Shogun's map was a little cramped, but the field battles were fantastic. (Barring the retarded gunpowder AI. "Alright, troop! One guy has to reload, we'd better wait here. Oh, enemies 20 paces away? START RELOADING. Don't move! Alright, now hit them with your guns while refusing to retreat!") The katana heroes and similar were a bit ridiculous, but even Rome had elephants and berserkers.

[LoSboccacc]

Medivel shogun and rome battle map where unrealistically cramped but so much better

In the recent games it's always plains. Yes, realistic. Booooring.

[Heron TSG]

Shogun has some pretty neat maps, what with the narrow bridges crossing rivers that are in the process of plunging over cliffs and into the sea, mountains, etc. Most of the maps were kinda lame, though. The best tactical maps I've seen in a Total War game come from Third Age Total War (M2TW mod), particularly in the Misty Mountains. Defending against the goblins as the western Elves, I used three tiers of redoubts to win against 15:2 odds. (Good archers and lots of high ground.) Every time the goblins started getting too close, I had a unit of light lancers charge through a side pass to distract them and get them to chase the cavalry back down the pass a ways. Sometimes the camera freaked out at the height differentials, but it was damn fun.

[umiman]

On release, I'd agree that a lot of the Shgoun 2 maps were repetitive and boring, but if you load up Shogun 2 today after they added an assload of maps, it's honestly very entertaining. Massive mountains, deep valleys, ACTUALLY different castles. Then there are the maps which are 60% bamboo forest, maps where it's predominantly regular forest, coastal maps, etc. etc. etc.

And then there are the maps used in the campaign missions which are just barrels of fun. So much so that I wish they would use some of those maps in the actual grand campaign.

Still, I'm glad to see major populated cities making a return. Though I'll wait to see if they'll actually have proper ones outside of scripted missions.


------------


As for modding support, I'd cut them some slack. Honestly I believe them when they say the game is a lot more complicated than the previous ones with far more interrelated LICENSED software being used to produce content. After all, they can't just willy nilly allow people to use proprietary third person software that they licensed for free. So there's a lot more going on there.

You can't really compare this to older games like Medieval 2, which while amazing... is honestly a lot more simpler in every single way. The animations in Medieval 2 for example is almost nonexistant whereas the animations in Shogun 2 are crazy detailed. The modelling, voice acting, scripting, it's all just a whole lot more work. Even if they made the modding tools available, I highly doubt many people have the time or the energy to put in the same amount of work as CA's dedicated staff to produce something like Stainless Steel for Shogun 2. Even Stainless Steel took many many years to put out.

As quality of games increase, I think this is something we just have to get used to.

[Digital Hellhound]

Mmh, well, I got Shogun 2 fairly late so I didn't personally experience any multiplayer problems or modding slowness people have been talking about. On this, I concede my point. But it seems to me they've fixed most of it, and there's some sort of planned mod summit coming up?

Personally, I'm not afraid of the AI. It was so much better in Shogun 2 (but still prone to the occasional glitch or exploit), they can't make it that much worse here.

[Dohon]

Part 2 of the RPS interview here.

lordcooper, any chance of changing the topic title to something more representative?

[Digital Hellhound]

It doesn't really say anything not covered by other articles already, though.

Ah, I just love RPS. Not only are they sometimes damn funny, they also act can act much more professionally than some gamesites (for example, throwing out both pro- and anti-ending viewpoints on the ME3 ending debacle, not mindlessly hyping everything.). Off-topic, I know, I know.

[lordcooper]

lordcooper, any chance of changing the topic title to something more representative?

 

[Dohon]

lordcooper, any chance of changing the topic title to something more representative?

 

Thanks, dude.

[lordcooper]

TRAILER IS PRETTY

[pisskop]

PTW.  This is the first I'm hearing of it, and just had a gamer's orgasm.  Although I could do without the epic drama.

[Mephansteras]

Hopefully they'll do the game right.

[Zrk2]

I am giddy. Hopefully it'll come out just as I get bored of Empire.