 Thursday Oct 01, 2009
Blogging for Quality – by Mike SimpsonWell, I’ve finally given in and decided to start blogging. It’s something I’ve tried to resist over the years. I’ve also not posted directly on the forums, and it’s mainly because it takes so much time. Many of the issues discussed on the forums are deep and complex, and the arguments well put and compelling. Writing considered and persuasive responses that really deal with the issue is time consuming, and that is time I can’t spend working on the games. So it’s a choice – fix stuff, or talk about fixing stuff. Seems like a no-brainer, but things have changed. I can now add more quality to the games by talking to the community than I can by fixing issues. Quite simply, the quality of what we produce depends directly on how much we get to spend on developing them. How much we spend depends directly on how many people buy the games. The user feedback on sites like IGN directly impacts sales, and that impacts how positively our publisher views the future of Total War, which determines how much we get to spend on the games. Normally it’s a virtuous circle, and that’s allowed us to be very ambitious with what we try to deliver. We were not entirely happy with the state of Empire: Total War when it went out, and are only now getting to a point where we are broadly speaking happy with the game. Our own threshold for how we’d like the game to be is much higher than the commercial threshold required by our publisher. We are, like our community, hardcore fans of our own products, and any imperfections drive us nuts. With Empire: Total War, the virtuous circle turned a little vicious. The community used user ratings and user comments on sites like IGN and Metacritic to highlight weaknesses in the game, to try to encourage us to fix existing issues before working on anything new. I’m not saying that we didn’t deserve to have a fair number of verbal bricks thrown our way. However overdoing the criticism (For example I think a 67% user score on Metacritic is unfair), has the opposite effect to what is intended. Gamers (and reviewers. retailers, marketeers and publishing execs) will be put off Total War. That could mean fewer sales and less money to spend on adding quality to the games. And so I find myself blogging. The aim is twofold. Firstly, I want to explain why we do the things we do, and also a little more detail about what we’re spending our time (and your money) on. That should give the community a much better starting point for discussing issues. Secondly, I want to prove we listen to the community by directly addressing the big issues. I’ll be as honest as I can be without getting sued or fired. Anyway, I started this by saying I’d rather be fixing the game than talking about it. That’s true, but talking about it is a pretty good second best. I’ll start with the 1.5 patch and AI on the next update, and then go on to talk about Napoleon – what it is, why it’s the size it is, how that affects the price. Mike Simpson
Posted by Mark in CA Updates on 5:20:21PM Oct 01, 2009
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Comment # 1
Very interesting read, I’m curious to find out more !
Posted by Joker on October 1st, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Comment # 2
very good blog, interesting how much your speaking out there. so this visious circle you speak off, how will it affect the resources of NTW? And do you think you stand a fair chance of correcting it with the likes of 1.5 patch and warpath?
Posted by vaptin on October 1st, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Comment # 3
It seems obvious to me that the lesson to be learned from this vicious cycle isn’t that users should refrain from posting negative reviews, but that the publisher shouldn’t sabatoge their own investment by pushing out a game that was at least 6 months from completion. The devs may feel trapped in this vicious cycle, but shouldn’t the devs be trying to voice their dilemma to the publisher rather than trying to quell the users’ disent by words?
Not that there’s anything wrong with blogging about this, though, just thought the premise is a bit off.
Posted by outis on October 1st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Comment # 4
I’ve been playing Total War games from their inception and am a big fan of the series. The campaigns were always very enjoyable and better than anything else out there, in my mind. My main frustration with Empire, which on face value is an exceptional addition to the series, is the lack of the greatly anticipated co op campaign mode. This would provide true strategists, in my opinion, the greatest challenge around today of this kind – a brilliant gaming innovation. When is Total War going to implement this system?! If sales are falling, surely something as ground breaking as this would reinvigorate dwindling interest.
For many, this would have been the deciding feature of purchase. I understand the many difficulties that would arise in producing a good RTS co-op campaign game – something that could be played progressively over a series of days/weeks/months – and I believe that the first game to successfully produce one will be fantastic. A 6 player game would be difficult to accomplish but with games like Massive Action being developed (256 players fighting at any one time), how can Creative Assembly not capitalise on this? I can only hope that this feature is included in Napoleon which I think is a good progression from Empire.
I don’t know what other people are complaining about, although I discuss this at length with my friends – also amateur aficionados – One thing that was criticised was the lacking of a greater variety in troop types (as all nations basic infantry was just “line infantry” – which does nothing to differentiate nations in terms of tactical decisions, formation, ability etc) and tactics for the AI e.g. Napoleon’s troops advancing in their formidable columns as opposed to British 2 ranks deep, Portuguese 3 ranks and so on. There should be greater scope for defenders to create defenses that fit the situation rather than particular units being confined to build one structure of particular dimensions. The behaviour of units should be more realistic to their roles in an army – British riflemen would operate in pairs to pick off officers, senior NCOs and standard bearers and so break discipline. I could go on but I really don’t think any of this will be addressed.
Cameron Merchant.
Posted by Cameron Merchant on October 1st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Comment # 5
Hi Mike,
I’m Mandelus, moderator in the biggest german TW Forum – TW Zone – and responsible for ETW and NTW.
So I’m staying day for day on the front and have to sort the things and to help members as the complete community at us do help each other.
P for myself play TW games since 2002 and still love the games, including ETW. So in our forum was of course a wave of critics and still there are critics. So the job of the moderator team at us was to canalize critics and to sort out bull**** too. This was and is sometimes like being “Don Quichotte and fighting against windmills”.
I love ETW and enjoy it, but this doesn’t mean I’m out of critics. However, I prefer the objective criticism in the somewhat quieter doing and we calm also down our communitiy mostly.
Anger is still there but in addition to silly things, there are also factual and accurate reviews. Sometimes the community thinks, they are talking against a wall and not with CA because no response most ways.
A good communication is the base to prevent rumors and anger and halps to become good TW games. But therefor are both sides needed and a calm objective discussion, which is also missing most ways when looking around in most forums.
There are many points – including critics and reviews – where a discussion is needed at least and wil not list them now, Only the newest discovery I will name: Most peoples with crashes since patch 1.4 are using dualcore cpu’s and here the core using by ETW is bad, very bad and the reason beside a higher systemrequirement then before patch 1.4 and huge dump of temporary dates killing the performance and the system at least (this all is mostly confirmed by the communitiy).
However, nice to see you making a blogg now and I will go on here to look what comes all.
Greetings
Mandelus
Posted by Mandelus on October 1st, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Comment # 6
Brilliant idea with the blog Mike. We can’t let the supergeeks who hate Steam, or the people who don’t have proper computers bring down a work of genius such as Empire. I too can’t understand the multitude of bad reviews on Amazon, etc… Not to say there aren’t plenty of bugs. But the grandeur and brilliance of the game clearly outweigh any negatives that may pop up from time to time. Hopefully word of mouth will continue to spread so that more and more people buy it. I myself can’t wait to buy Warpath. And whatever else you’ve got in store for us. Keep up the great work!
Posted by Dave on October 1st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Comment # 7
Always helps when a dev reaches out to the community. I think after 1.5, people will start being much more positive about Empire and CA, and it will naturally help more sells and more people playing the game.
Kai.
Posted by Kai on October 1st, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Comment # 8
“However overdoing the criticism (For example I think a 67% user score on Metacritic is unfair”
67% is generous. You release a game whose history covers a time where 2 superpowers (Britain and France) fought a land and naval war on several continents. Where the main form of combat was 2 lines of infantry fighting it out in tight formations.
Upon release the AI was UNABLE to form a decent formation and where the AI did not use naval invasions or move troops from one continent to another. Thus you released a game that could not do the 2 major things a game of that period needed to do.
You and your beta testers also apparently missed;
AI nations never making peace with each other EVER.
No attacks on the trade zones EVER.
Then we had the 1.2 patch which resulted in the AI army WALKING into the centre of the players line in one big blob. Apparently this was also missed by you and your beta testers.
This was fixed in 1.3 but has now returned in 1.4. Making the central feature of the game, the battles, pointless.
1.4 did make the campaign great (with much improved diplomacy, naval invasions and trade attacks, the AI sending troops to other continents and generally giving the player a hell of a time, as it should be.). However the land battles currenly suck. Sort it out.
Posted by Akimov on October 1st, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Comment # 9
Dear Mike Simpson!
Forum Imperial belongs to the community of fans Product Creative Assembly, in particular, and Empire Total War. Our modifiers even try to modify Empire Total War, but while it does not succeed because of the impossibility of converting files. Will there be such a possibility in the near future? In the announcement of Napoleon Total War stating that as a bonus in the game will be the editor uniforms. How deep modzhno will edit the uniforms? Is this usual repaint, or something more serious?
Thank you in advance for your reply and apologize my bad English. It’s just a machine translation.
Posted by Yamadory on October 1st, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Comment # 10
Heey cheer up you guys i think you are doing a great job! The warpath is awesome and i totaly look forward to playing it. To be quite honest i never encountered any bugs or anything like that
Keep going you guys 
Posted by Magnus on October 1st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Comment # 11
Mike, to be honest, the game should not have been released. If you had waited and fixed the problems you would not have gotten bad reviews.
Empires has made many of use lose faith in the Total War brand. It is up to you to restore our trust.
Posted by Jonno on October 1st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Comment # 12
empire total war ROCKS , i mean , i bought it on june , and it had no bugs and i still play it till now , i am a total war fan since rome , but i like manging and fighting in the game and it’s what i find in empire .
hope napleon be excited.
about the price : +20$ for the special units game isn’t a nice idea , cuz many shops just bought the normal one , although i don’t have a problem to buy it , but i couldn’t find it where i live .
u guys are doing a good job , 2 updates in 1 week , steam wasn’t a bad idea after all .
ty alot for the programers and the readers
Posted by mbeidas on October 1st, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Comment # 13
67% is nearly 7 out of 10, which is a good score. Game magazines have the ridiculous convention where 7 of 10 is ‘average’, but user ratings don’t necessarily conform to the same standard.
Posted by Tim Ward on October 1st, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Comment # 14
I am a old gamer and a great fan of the total war series and have been buying your products for many years. I am extremly unhappy with you move to use “steam” to control your game Empire. It is a poor way of trying to protect your interests and will create a much larger piracy problem. I am sorry but if a fix to this forced internet connect is not supplied there is a extremly good chance that you will lose a fan and supporter of your games and will also inform my comunity not to buy this product as it is a controled game and no longer enjoyable to install and play
Posted by Craig on October 1st, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Comment # 15
Mike thanks for the blog. I will injoy reading it. I give ALL total war games 100% approvel even if glitchy. Why do you ask? NO onei s doing anyhting worth while like it. and your stayign with a more true formula. Though I will push for a gran total war experiance startign with a new revelution/civil war system. You get tones of advice already on such things and don’t need it here.
We the fans of total war injoy and are greatfull for a game that lets us experiance a more true battle enviroment. And adding ships expands it even more. one day I expect to see a verion move flawless from one theater to next a world total war game starting from early greek roman to the first shots of ww1.
I am excited about napoleon and later the civil war expansion. I would olos like to see japan china and the mongols as well at some point. As well as more africa. I am incuraged buy your work and will wait to see what comes next. Keep up the GREAT work. And don’t lesten to us fans. where fickle.
Posted by Thomas on October 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 am
Comment # 16
the movies on it always jump and jitter the audio always stops after a second
thanks
ps. will their be a expansion featuring australia
Posted by tom on October 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 am
Comment # 17
So, while you’re being honest: Any word on the pre-release-promised mod tools from your overlords? Or would they fire you when they found out you told somebody something?
Posted by alpaca on October 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 am
Comment # 18
People were mainly frustrated, I think, because you guys made “The Update” so hard to find. It wasn’t in an obvious spot in the forums, and has a ambiguous name. I know I had a hard time finding out anything before I was finally redirected to “The Update”
Secondly, it makes me annoyed that you talk about wasting time updating the community, when rather than focus on fixing problems and delivering on promises, you’ve spent time and resources on DLC, an expansion, and a new game. (can you tell I bought the game after reading about the multilayer expansion that was to come post release)
Posted by Scott on October 2nd, 2009 at 2:09 am
Comment # 19
as a hardcore fan since rome ill start by…
“Quite simply, the quality of what we produce depends directly on how much we get to spend on developing them”
“how much we spend depends directly on how many people buy the games”
“that impacts how positively our publisher views the future of Total War, which determines how much we get to spend on the games”
Firstly Medieval II and rome was a sucess with good sales so why did empire not get the delay to be like napeoleon or better?Sega did not give you enough money and decided to rush it out and make a second to appease us, it sounds like that to me.
which is kind of backed up by your own comments which state on release you werent happy with the game which i also picked up on from interviews on youtube from a staff comment.
“We were not entirely happy with the state of Empire: Total War when it went out, and are only now getting to a point where we are broadly speaking happy with the game. Our own threshold for how we’d like the game to be is much higher than the commercial threshold required by our publisher”
and so as buyers some of us got enraged by this including myself and promtly returned the game for a refund and let my fury be known on metacritic with a score i thought was justified and also on the forums.
in you opinion this will hurt future TW games making them infact worse.in your words “That could mean fewer sales and less money to spend on adding quality to the games”
so what i should buy the game even tho it plays like a beta in the hope you keep getting funds from sega to release another game which is actually decent and polished?im afriad thats not how the world works, if you have a bad product which has been soiled due to lack of funding and development time then you deserve to be hurt in the sales department and would in any other industry.
i dont have a lack of morals or standards but i do have a lack of money and an eye for a good game.hopefully you can show us us what we know you are capable of with future tw games and learn these lessons which have been brewing for a long long time.your nice guys and honest it seems and very very talented and i loved your old games.
but please adress this sega issue with funding and development time its just not working for us or you.i eagerly await the game i know empire could of been.
Posted by RD on October 2nd, 2009 at 3:59 am
Comment # 20
Good news
Posted by A swede on October 2nd, 2009 at 6:17 am
Comment # 21
I think the criticism has been a bit over-stated. Visually Empire is stunning, the campaign game is better than Medieval II and the battles are pretty good. I don’t look for Total War to deliver a replica of historical reality – there are other, slower-moving games that do that better, but as far as entertainment goes it succeeds.
Keep up the good work, don’t be put off. Glad to hear that you’re still looking to improve with a 1.5 patch.
Posted by Mark Lord on October 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Comment # 22
Keep up the great work guys!
I bought Empire in August and do not regret it at all!
I already put in atleast 100 hours
Posted by Marc on October 2nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Comment # 23
how do i install empire total war the war path expansion? i’ve pre purchesed it.
Posted by frog_bite on October 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Comment # 24
To big to read
.. Do you guys need anyone for testing AI performance call me . I can beat ,in the campaign map in very hard , AI armys more than 3000 mens against 1500 of my owns. About the game, im having some errors that get me out of the game since the last update.And stil in the negotiations i offer ,for example,5 researchs for trade and the AI just simple refuses and why dont the AI sometimes offers us some “gifts” like i do several times to low the hostilites ?
And since the new update came, i started with Prussia and everyone is my enemie even i had Maratha invanding East of Prussia !Like we use to say it was 8 now its 80 !
But once again , i prefer having several enemies than it was no one mooved .
Congratulations and my complements to Total war people for giving me such excellent times since Shogun ,just 1 request ,dont make spend more money on a graphic card again for Napoleon , you loose to
.
Posted by pedro on October 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Comment # 25
Great post Mark
Posted by Marku on October 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Comment # 26
I’m the first to post!
This is great to hear! Thanks for writing us! Being transparent is always appreciated
Posted by chyeaaaa111 on October 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Comment # 27
Seems fair.. I’m really hoping to get an eye-opener on the MP Campaign. I am hereby referring not only to its release, but also the content and scale of the MP Campaign.
Posted by Cosmosis on October 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Comment # 28
Seven months before you decide to own up? What took you so long?
Posted by Elmar Bijlsma on October 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 am
Comment # 29
Thank you very much Mike S, i have very much been intressted by real words from devolupers since my gaming life started in the beginning of the 80’s How are they craeted who makes them etc etc later on it become more and more and eventully a real pro industri, To see the stars that glims and speak to us from heaven at night and days and actully explaines how things are and how you devolupers works in your daily life is truly an amazing and very much appriciated by many,
It’s an a very importent connected to fans and customers, not due only to money or to bee seen, hello here i am and yes i do care?… Just to open a door and speak up is truly a huge impact of your toughts and ideas… And to see things why they happend bad in the first place or how it was possible you become so great etc etc
If possible by time and not silent due to a contract secret things as it’s a competition among others, to see devolupers being true and just open there hearts for the community, fans, customers is one of the best things a company can do. I do understand it’s as you say Mike it takes lots of time and away of energi, but the rewards you gain back is enormes as we gain as much has you as well. Back and forth fresh water that shallows over us to clean up all bad toughts make us start to think in a whole new directions of understandings how things really are and how they work out in a Gaming industri.
I think i have to stop writing here lol because am getting a bet sleepy + i forgot to write a bet more of my toughts and points.
Thanks again for having a time for us all that been with you since the start of Shougan and supported you so your dreams could become true and our dreams as well of what we pleged and dreamed of to see and to controll in our world of history & strategi.
Thanks once more and goodnight, keep on going CA
Br Arek N.
Posted by KERA_AK on October 3rd, 2009 at 1:10 am
Comment # 30
So basically your saying that if we deliver too much criticism as consumers, our games won’t get fixed. Instead we should praise Empire and hope more people buy it so you have more money to fix the game.
Right.
Posted by John on October 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 am
Comment # 31
when you do the 1.5 update can you make the firing sequence more realistic by making the officers in the unit prepare the men to fire instead of the men firing instantly?
Posted by rob on October 3rd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Comment # 32
can you talk abit more about Napolean? is it going to be another Empire Total War? How are you going to distinguish your product with the fierce competition from other stable, more innovative games?
Posted by Alw on October 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Comment # 33
I understand that poor reviews can affect sales and that’s bad for future development. However, it’s not down to the fans to give good reviews; it’s up to the product to earn them.
Posted by Dan Moody on October 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Comment # 34
could you do more work with Scotland? like Clansmen, Highlanders, the regiments and so on
Posted by Callum Cassidy on October 4th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Comment # 35
Mike im looking foreward to your blog, i hope to see some vital improvements come to the game from this. Im a life long fan (playing since i was in the 4th grade) i started off with Rome Total War and i have to say, WOW you guys have come a long way keep it up
Posted by Jacob D on October 4th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Comment # 36
Hey there Mark, I just stumbled on to the community never been a member of it before even though i played most of the TW series and love it to death, recent developments have made me concerned and I don’t know if i should be hopefully you can help me understand so thanks for taking your time!
Posted by Johnny on October 4th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Comment # 37
Very honest and to the point. Thank you for explaining so many points that i hadn’t understood:) i have been buying tw games since vi and hope Napoleonic is a complete game rather than just looking like an addon to empire:) btw where we goin to make another viking invasion;p. or some sort of tw that includes the whole world ? like africa?
Posted by AggonyPitFire on October 4th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Comment # 38
Look forward to it Mr Simpson!
Posted by Ranbir on October 4th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Comment # 39
When does Warpath come out??!!!
Posted by Tom Jones on October 4th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Comment # 40
Hi, i have been playing and buying Total War since awesome Shogun. It is the best series of games i have played. You do great games. Managing the community and the high level of emotional involvement your games produce is difficult and requires time and resources, but is not that difficult. It basically requires information and management of expectations. That means committment to deadlines. Moving deadlines after they have been announced or giving deadlines like “October”, when we are already in October, does not help.
Dont worry about the iceberg tip that is always moaning. Those are not your real target. Your real target are happy with your games and enjoy them. Total War is the best around. Just make sure you keep these target customers happy and treat them as faithfull customers deserve. It would also help to undermine the moaners to collect and share information and opinion from the huge mass of players that dont read blogs, dont visit forums and dont care about melee bugs or weird bugs. You have the tools to collect feedback directly ingame, like you have done with the Warpath ad. Keep up the good job and let us know the release date of Warpath! We are craving to play it.
Posted by Jack on October 4th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Comment # 41
I agree with you whole heartidly that critics have been extremely tough on the small bugs of this game. I have gone through practically every empire bug in the book and yet I am still extremely happy with this game. I was playing Medieval 2 the other day just for kicks and was realizing just how big of a jump empire was. And in compaarison to other empire building games, nothing compares. However, there is still one slice of the ETW pie that hasnt been filled in yet. Mainly this includes Multiplayer Campaign, which has been delyaed for a long time. My friends and I have been waiting for this for a long time and it still hasnt been released. I hope that the extended development time results in much better quality in the final product. I also urge you to not only fill in the ETW pie but add another layer with a LARGE expansion or two. (i suggest an asia war theatre) The total war fanbase is picky, justkeep supplying good content.
Posted by Sam on October 4th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Comment # 42
Well, I have both loved and loathed this game. I have spent more than £500 just to get it. Most has been through damaging my mother board with RAM and, well the rest is boring. The price does reflect my keenness to have this great game. I shoots ball, and that is what I like so much. I like the age of pike and shot so much.
Well, there have been crashes and weird things happening. Some of them still do. Parts of gun crews that cannot be killed when assaulting fortifications and guns that will still not stop firing: I have to tell mortars to fire at some waste ground at the rear of my army, to keep my own men from harm.
I don’t use the forums and the overall effect of having such fantastic troops; my old wargaming armies recreated before my very eyes and moving around and firing (and couging) is awesome. I fully support what you are doing and I’m so sorry if any poor feedback affects what you can do in the future.
While I have your ear; can we have a thirty years war one too? Will it be possible to have regiments of both pike and muskets? Can we recreate Prince Rupert’s charges in the ECW?
Anyhow, for now I await the American Indian update and then, Napoleon.
Your games are the best and you don’t make omelettes without cracking some eggs. Keep up the good work guys.
Posted by Graham Webb on October 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Comment # 43
Thanks Mark, Can’t wait to hear about Napoleon soon!
Posted by James from Maryland on October 5th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Comment # 44
Hi Mike,
Your comments are fair, but you can only score the big marks with a product that meets the promises dolled out before release. I love this game, I’ve loved all of the Total War series right from Shogun – they have all been well made, and fun to play. I have to tell you though, I was really expecting this multiplayer campaign update to be out way before now and still no joy. If i was to go back, I probably would not have purchased the game if I had known that it would be this long for that particular update. Mike, I’m angry about this – I understand that this multiplayer campaign thing has probably been a difficult update to put together, but you said it would be there, and now there is a new game (Napolean) and a module – and I’m wondering if we will ever see the multiplayer campaign update for Empire. Can we get some clarity here?
wiL
Posted by wil on October 6th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Comment # 45
Hi,
67% user score on Metacritic is unfair = true
I’ll start with the 1.5 patch and AI on the next update, and then go on to talk about Napoleon?!
What about the Multiplayer Campagne? No word about it? But I get a Steam Update for Money… Great really, there was a time when a game was finished before it came out and stop crying about it. I just say Blizzard and Starcraft 2.
…
Posted by BloodSharky on October 6th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Comment # 46
Hi i was just wondering if its possible to incorporate the guns when 2 battalions clash like what you see in “The Patriot” and shooting while walking…
I love the game has “afew” bugs but ive been playing it non stop since release
where is the blog again?
Posted by Totalwar fan on October 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Comment # 47
I’m glad that change to Empires are beeing made, what a shame that such an awesome game is so full of bugs basically its got the computer equiovelent of AIDS!!! am verry much looking forward to playing Napoleon just hope that it will be smooth and no Aids plz
Posted by mckirdy666 on October 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Comment # 48
Sorry Mike, but this comes off as self-serving dreck. E:TW was a dog with fleas on release and it deserved to be treated as such. 67% seems awfully generous when you introduce a patch in 1.2 that causes the game to fail altogether on many systems. Frankly, when I haven’t been able to play the game at all because of introduced patch bugs, 0% should be the score. I don’t see where anything above 0% is fair for what has been a coaster.
So the vicious circle of “less sales and less money” is entirely your fault and no one elses. If you had published a product that worked, this wouldn’t even be an issue. Frankly, I’d encourage you to take responsibility, stop blaming the gaming community who have been taken for a ride by CA, make amends (frankly, this DLC should have been your attempt at making amends like The Witcher folks did with their add-on) and then you’ll see the kind of community support which breaks that cycle. We’ve supported you for years and we’re upset. Comments like your above don’t help.
Posted by Walter Blackadar on October 6th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Comment # 49
Sorry to post again:
I also find the game engine is a lot more frustrating when I set my Game graphic to high and if in large scale the game seem to automatically reset itself to normal detail level. I ask around and they all think it because of my PC cannot handle the game fully but when I try out the mods, the add on unit seem to stick to the detail setting without any lag at all. This mean that it wasn’t my PC problem but the game engine itself. And I got nothing against steam since I had another game, Order of war on it as well and it work great with graphic set on max. I know my comments doesn’t sound clear and professional but I just want somebody from the CA to hear my Cry and consider my comment while making the next Total war series. I and all the Fan out there are counting on you guy. If by buying this game and it expansion help to improve the development of the next series then i will still buy the Napoleon just for support but will sure hardly play it.
Posted by TotalWar_loyalFan on October 7th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Comment # 50
I was wondering if Total War Series will be available for Mac anytime in the near future?
Posted by Lance on October 7th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Comment # 51
I’ve been a fan of the Total War series since Shogun: Total War.
Ironically, the only reason I picked it up was that I was reading the novel by James Clavell, “Shogun”, and then happened to be browsing at a video game store at the beach while on vacation. The box caught my eye, then when I looked at it I thought “wow, that sounds super fun! just like what I’m reading..”, and only later found out that it was in fact directly influenced by Mr. Clavell’s story.
I remember playing Shogun: Total War as one of the first games (alongside the original Half Life) that I really got into on the PC. It totally addicted me, and I played it obsessively. I also remember being insanely frustrated with the fact that NO MATTER WHAT, I could *NEVER* play a siege battle as it would invariably cause a CTD, even after applying the latest patch.
Perhaps because of my frustrations, I skipped Medieval: TW, but was won back to the franchise after reading up on the previews of Rome and the promise of a new engine that was leaving behind some of the old bugs. I even preordered it at the local GameStop.. by that time, i was in college.
Basically, the reason I’m giving all this info is to say that A) I’m not a fanboy blindly loyal to the TW franchise, but B) I *am* a fan of the franchise, and was at first gravely disappointed with the Empire release but after 1.4 hit, became instantly satisfied. Can’t wait to see what 1.5 does!
I don’t expect perfection, but can empathize with the frustration that a lot of fans have been feeling over Empire. That said, I’m really excited about this decision, Mr. Simpson, of getting more information to the fans and leveling with us in a frank way. There may be some trolls out there, but I think a lot more of us are adults who are pleased to have an inside view of what’s going on.
I can imagine that designing games is hard, a lot harder than I would ever imagine (I’m talking about the whole process, not just the tech work… developers, publishers, pleasing fans, etc), and am more than willing to give the TW franchise the benefit of the doubt, so long as I have a reason to do so.
Open communication about the complexities involved, and your pleasure (or displeasure) at the state of the game is exactly the reason I’m looking for.
Thanks, Mr. Simpson, for communicating with us. Looking forward to hearing about 1.5 and Napoleon.
Posted by Samuel on October 7th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Comment # 52
Mike, I know you are probably upset with all the critiscism you were met with at launch, but please face facts. The metacritic user score is not unfair… there’s nothing unfair about it, it’s democratic. It’s sign that the development schedule was flawed. I love ETW, but I admit the game was unfinished at release, and it deserved that low score. If you thought you needed a high metacritic score at release to “fool” potential consumers into buying the (unfinished)game in order be able to fix it later on, then your reasoning is questionable. Gamers and reviewers were right to have been upset about it, and their indignation had consequences. What did you think was going to happen??
That said, now that it has been patched, ETW truly functions, and it’s a great game, deserving of a high score. Congratulations!
Posted by fernando on October 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Comment # 53
Mike I know it must be cathartic to write about these issues in a blog but really what is the point. Empire Total War is the latest in a long line of products that should have matured and be working as intended based on the developers previous experience. Why was Empire Total War released in this state? Did you throw out the entire development team from the previous games in the series and start completely from scratch and forget all that knowledge on how to produce a solid game with decent AI?
Posted by Sean on October 8th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Comment # 54
Perhaps Sega’s commercial threshold for release needs to be brought more in line with your threshold for a quality release. I know I haven’t bought the game because of all the issues I’ve heard abs noout when it was released. Now that several patches have been put out, I’ve heard many people in the community say that it is now in a playable state. The problem now though is that it’s the holiday season and a flood of games have started coming out that I want to play right now. Empire Total War will have to wait. Tell your publisher that releasing the game too soon leads to lost sales when the reviews come out, professional or otherwise.
Posted by Sean Beanland on October 9th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Comment # 55
As the forgotten children of Total War, we make a complaint against you since we are not paid attention.
Although we, Turks, also have bought the game, Empire Total War, by paying to you like British, German, Spanish, Dutch, American, Russian, Polish, and French fellows, and also although we are part of Total War community, we are neglected. We demand new effective troop(s) for the Ottoman Empire that has diminishing power after each game patch. Our infantry and cavalry units are weaker against other nations. Although you supplement each nation with troops that give them advantage, you have deprived the Ottoman Empire in terms of troops in the game in the same manner.
When you develop the game, you have the claim that you design it depicting the historical facts. However, there is something you have forgotten, or neglected. The Ottoman Empire hasn’t fallen since it had inferior troops. Rather, the Ottoman Empire has been weakened, and then has fallen since it had to fight on many fronts at the same time.
We also would like to pick, and play the Ottoman Empire in the multi player. In order to that , we, the forgotten nation of Empire Total War, have a request from you that is the necessary changes to be made for the Ottoman Empire.
Posted by ilteris derici on October 9th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Comment # 56
When patch 1.4 was downloaded by Steam, the campaign I was playing would not load. Game crashed when “continue campaign” was selected. also, none of the tiered saves would load. Tech support believes the save file is corrupted, but isn’t really sure. This is the second campaign game I have lost. The first game crashed after over 100 turns. The latest campaign was in the 103rd turn. Very frustrating.
Posted by john nichols on October 9th, 2009 at 5:08 am
Comment # 57
You’re totally right that 67% is an unfair score Mike, but then so is using loyal fans of the TW series as playtesters for an unfinished game you’ve just sold to them at premium price. I’ve been a huge fan of CA in the past but to be brutally honest you got what you deserved with this. You’re right that this could damage the health of the series, which is why the economic decision to release the game unfinished was so stupidly short-sighted. I hope you’ll treat your supporters with more respect in future.
Posted by Harry M on October 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Comment # 58
When is the next installment of the blog to be posted? It has been over a week and I would like to hear more about the openess and honesty of why the game was released in the shape it was. The teaser sentence at the end of the first blog about AI and Patch 1.5 and the next patch has my attention so when will the next post be made?
Posted by Chris Bell on October 9th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Comment # 59
I have played Total War since the very beginning of the series and seen many changes to it over the years .. i even still miss the advisors that were dropped many years ago.
But one thing they all had was decent AI and lots of unique units … until Empire that is.
Generic units with the same faces and stupid AI.
Not to forget the addition of the horrible app STEAM that almost nobody wants on their PC.
Then to top it off you try and sell us the unique units that should have been in the game as DLC.
Empire got the 67% it deserved … worst of the series in my book.
Posted by Tim D on October 12th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Comment # 60
Some of the criticism could have been avoided. Like the ‘blurry text’ for example: By adding a note next to each resolution, to indicate whether it’s supported, or simply not listing a resolution at all (if using it would lead to blurry text) could have avoided a lot of headache for both player and publisher.
I feel like an idiot, but yes, I played Empire for a couple of months in 1024×768 resolution WITH the blurry text. Then one day I decide to up the resolution one notch and: Wow! It was like playing a whole new game! rofl
Posted by J van Oostenrijk on October 14th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Comment # 61
Now since update 1.5 it is impossible to land any troops on any tiny island such as Crete as long as emeny ships are in port. Therefore making it impossible to land troops to free up port so your navy can destroy emeny fleet. Also it has removed all island links like the leeward islands an others had.Therefore if you’re England an want to complete your victory objectives you must wait until your objective fleet is out of port so your fleet can occuppied it and land said troops. This has happened twice since 1.5 been out.Then you wonder why people are mad, it is caused of stupidity like this. Cause now taking any island in the Caribean where the port is seperate, you’re out of luck if you didn’t leave at least one troop behind as you now can never free up said port.Feel free to E-mail me back,or is this E-mail going to join all the others in your trash bin which is probably overflowing by now.I GUESS THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR BEING A TOTAL WAR GAME FAN.
The only thing more STUPID IS SEGA AN STEAM wanting me to upgrade when you’ve ingored anything I’ve ever complained about but then that normal now isn’t?
Posted by William on October 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Comment # 62
I own every total war product ever released. The graphics have gotten steadily better, the AI and stability steadily worse. I pre-ordered but was unable to play Empire for nearly a month but held on hoping for a patch. Once I could play I realized it was even buggier than MTW. It is now better…..but as others have said, if you want good reviews…earn them. Maybe its time to start a CGI movie company and leave strategic games to people who can build AI’s.
As a side note. “play balancing” ala’ Jack Lusted style, has in my opinion damaged the credibility of the basic game experiance in many cases and you then spend time and patches trying to re-fix what should not have been broken to start with. A sloop taking down a 2nd rate ship of the line just because it is a sloop? What were you smoking?
Posted by player on October 14th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Comment # 63
Hold on, most of the criticism I am seeing here is being aimed atthe release of Empire: Total War. Granted that on release there was no great multiplayer, and still plenty of bugs to fix, but you now, this was a really tough game to make interesting. They had to add more abilities and code that allows the AI to better use them (without those abilities it would be lines firing into another all day, boring), and then of course create a huge amount of battlements across 2/3 of the world.
However, if you look at it now with all of patches there has been a lot of progress and right now most of the bugs have been fixed and are gone. Compared to their previous titles CA had work ahead of them to try and make this game. This is a great step up in terms of the scope of the battlefield and campaign compared to others and then trying to add an naval style of fighting as well. That is alot to chew and again what they thought might work might not looking at the community (Like blizzards issues on getting rid of LAN parties) so they send it out as is and meet the community demands along the way. The beginning was tough but after about 7 months came back and now I am enjoying this game greatly.
This game should reviewed again by users and i can tell you many would agree it has gotten better.
To the person waiting for Starcraft 2, yeah I don’t understand how you can compare something that is going to cost $180 that is just the rehash from the original on this blog. Man I love Starcraft but I more of a fan of companies willing to take a gamble to make something better and well try to progress.
Posted by Paul RS on October 16th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Comment # 64
Hi Mike,
Since I don’t get a fine reply to my question I will forward to you my dissatisfaction with the fact that instead I purchased my USA copy of Empire Total War can not download Warpath Campaign from Japan. The same for a friend of mine from China. Thanks to STEAM I was able to convert the language of the game, but now I get patches but not DLC. Why? Please, as always do your best to allow everyone enjoy the new feature of the multiplayer campaign…
Posted by Gianpiero Silvestri on October 17th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Comment # 65
Mike,
I am a knowledgeable PC user and not a newcomer to either Steam or CA games. The game has been published for a year, yet I have not been able to conquer the world in Grand Campaign ONE TIME. Various errors have always found a way to rear their ugly heads, and the most frustrating of all is that in many cases games cannot be saved or loaded, erasing weeks of game play. Support has no good answers, in fact, Support has been non responsive. I have played almost every Total War game up to this point but sadly I will be voting with my dollars. I will no longer purchase any new content until the quality is vetted by the community at large.
Posted by Alex Lei on October 18th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Comment # 66
I understand what you are saying Mike, but I do also have to admit, that ETW is not the game the community has waited for for so long. When ETW was released it was full of bugs, severe programming errors that constantly resulted in ctds and was only offering a small range of unit variety. This has changed a bit within the last 7 months or so, but actually there is still much work to be done. With NTW’s approach now and CA’s statement, that 1.5 would be the last major update on ETW, the community’s hope that this work might be finished in the future, shrinks daily.
From your point of view 67% on Metacritic might sound unfair, but in my own opinion, this result is justified by the fact, that people had expected more from ETW, as there were made promisses which hyped the game into another dimension of strategy gaming. These promisses were only parly kept – for example: Where is the multiplayer campaign? What exactly takes you so long and why are you now talking of it as a BETA-product? Before ETW was released it was stated, that there would be a MP-campaign. In order to include this Campaign into the game, Empire was even delayed for about a month. Then, CA said that the MP Campaign was going through a BETA-phase and testings and would be released via patch a few months later. However, it is still missing and moreover we were told that the Campaign you promised us would be a BETA-produkt (!!!!) when we finally get it making us your vague-free beta-testers for the campaign before it will be finally included as a “full” product in Napoleon.
All in all Empire is not, what it might have been supposed to be. I am gratefull that you supported Empire up until 1.5 thereby killing most of the bugs and crashes I had in my game. There are still some graphics issues to be solved, but this might not be your fault ( I am using a Nvidia card, latest driver 191.07 –> however, I do sometimes have severe graphics problems on the campaign map with flickering shadows and disappearing structures on the map as well as graphic errors in naval battles).
If you say that bad critics of your customers have a negative influence on the amount of money you can spend on the quality of your games, you could also argue the other way around: If there is enough quality in the game, people would rate it positively, resulting in higher sales numbers. But: If there is a lack of quality, then why should people praise the game and should not be allowed to write what they think and why they are frustrated??
Posted by Also Mike on October 18th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Comment # 67
My goodness!
The 67% user score on Metacritic is a reflect of people REALLY think of empire total war and not the hyped up nonsense of an individual reviewer who spent a few hours reviewing the game.
The fact remains that CA has been utterly dishonest with its community. They claim an extensive beta test took place which every sane man and his dog knows is complete rubbish. So many massive bugs passed through this so called ‘beta’ phase that within a day, there were pages of bugs over at totalwarcenter. The game, in typical CA tradition, was release way too early as has occurred in MTW and Rome TW. Then roughly patched up over the next few months. Today, the game is still buggy (mine does not start since the last patch even after a full reinstall). Mod tools, multiplayer etc etc all hyped to sell but never delivered. For 5+ years people have repeatedly told you about how important the AI in these games is and its always the same promises and always the same disappointment. Now, to top it off, CA move straight into a new cash cow while complaining about bad press.
I’m sorry, CA brought this upon themselves entirely.
Posted by Visitor 42 on October 19th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Comment # 68
Thanks for trying,but as for many of us it’s a little late. I’ve tried being kind an understanding as unlike many I understand the need to work on the next game. But the flaws have finally caused me to deleted ETW, a fact which wasn’t help by my e-mails being not posted or blocked by ETW team. I guess that is the way SEGA now does business by only posting the good fan mail. At one time I was looking forward to the next TOTAL WAR game but like the others in my gaming group,we’ll skipped TOTAL WAR as being unrespondsive.
THANKS
Posted by William on October 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Comment # 69
I have bought 2 copy’s of this game in the hope´s of a MP campaign I have accepted steam even if it is a pain,by making the “essential in my opinion “Game Mods harder to install and keep installed . I have bought all the extras. But I still cant play the campaign against any challenging opponent. Don’t get me wrong I love the game and I would certainly have been willing to pay double for it even if the promise of MP had not been dangled in front of me . I just feel a bit disappointed and mislead.
Posted by Gordon Boggon on October 21st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Comment # 70
I JUST LOVE THIS GAME! And please read this Everything is done in every detail, everything is so real you feel like a king, the leader when you play campaign – fashion! and my dad has started to play this now! everyone should realize that this game is the best ever made! and so I learned a lot about history, THANKS TO EMPIRE TOTAL WAR!
Posted by Benjamin on October 21st, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Comment # 71
I think you guys should go back and redo Rome Total War. To be honest its the best and most entertaining so far. I have bought every game since Rome Total War and none in my opinion have topped it. It’s a game that once you beat the campaign you can go back to it and play it again and again, unlike Empire. If you redid Rome Total War, for example better graphics and better handling i think it would be one of the greatest, if not the greatest strategy game ever to be made. Sorry if its out of context, but i just want my opinion to be heard. I think that if you do go back and make this game it will make up for Empire Total War. I am not saying that i didn’t like it i thought it was an okay game, not worth all the money i paid however. Anyways, i think the people who are really unhappy about Empire Total War and the Total War team will be likely to forget and forgive the game if you make a great game like Rome Total War. Thanks, eric
Posted by Eric w on October 21st, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Comment # 72
Glad to hear 1.5 is being worked on… I hope this bizarre bug I’ve stumbled upon where your own ships get “stuck” in your own ports and can’t be moved out has already been identified and a fix is being developed… if it hasn’t been I’d be happy to send in a saved game to demonstrate the quirk.
How sad to have a fully armed Heavy 1st Rate in port… and you can’t acutally go and fight with it.
Posted by Krupo on October 27th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Comment # 73
Oh wait, we’re already at 1.5 … I hope there’s still a 1.6 to fix those little remaining quirks?
Posted by Krupo on October 27th, 2009 at 3:36 am
Comment # 74
I don’t understand why can’t you learn from some of the most succesful pc gaming companies like blizzard and valve, they continue to support their games after many years… Lets take Blizzard for example… they only release incredibly polished games and even then they continue to release minor and mayor patches for them… right now blizzard is about to release a new mayor patch for diablo II, a 9 years old game… and with every new patch sales rise again… isn’t that what you want for ETW? That is the main strenght of the pc market… if your game is great people will buy it even after a long time… lots of fans were waiting to get new pcs to buy ETW but after the reviews and without patches they are not going to buy it… I know because I am one of them…
It is sad to leave such a marvel, such a unique gem in an unfinished state… I was going to say that it is insane considering how much you will sell in the next years if you polish and finish it… but I was wrong it is not insane… it is a crime against pc gaming and the loyalty of your fans.
Posted by Luis Saguier on October 27th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Comment # 75
In the interest of being constructive, I wanted to suggest a couple things for Naploeon:
-an email link easily findable in the game to immediately report bugs- maybe you just didn’t quite understand this, but when getting to CA to report items, the easiest place to hope to get the word out and get it fixed was IGN forums– you head problems off with consumers by maintaining active communication with them
- You really ought to consider breaking the game into modules if at all possible and letting gamer groups put the individual modules through their paces and make suggestions- you might be shaking your head, but I can just about guarantee we get treated like a herd of guinea pigs ala Empire again and you know where I’m going. Consider even an unpolished, Flash game style presentation of what the final product would play like and I’m certain there would be at least SOME useful feedback coming your way
-Finally, within the game itself, I thought that a lot of gamers might appreciate getting a bit more in game reward “moments”. Leveling up, finishing missions– all of these things are what we play for; the reward, the victory, the sense of accomplishment. All I was going to recommend with this was that the game pause a bit more at these moments and do more to recognize what the player did to arrive at this moment in the game– a montage perhaps of critical moments in battles, important decisions made, all culminating in the player being crowned, having a medal pinned on, whatever– but it just seems too often that this aspect of gaming gets overlooked– BUT– if you look back at the “old” games– M1 Tank Platoon, for example, you could always promote and award medals to your crews– this in turn led to you ( at least I did) caring about them continuing on with you from mission to mission. And I guess that’s what I feel like has been a glaring ommission from Empire and really, Medieval and Rome too– you saw the supposed generals in the game– but why should you care about them? Live or die, no sweat, either way you can get another one. I am merely submitting that when you cause the gamer to form an emotional attachement to the characters and story, you have dramatically increased the value of the game to that player. All the graphics out there can’t do that, as several animators have learned– it still comes down to the story and making the viewer care about it.
Posted by KwazyWabbit on October 29th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Comment # 76
Empire is great and 67% is an unfair score.Still,I can’t say that campaign is better than ones in Medieval II TW and Kingdoms.But battles – battles are magnificent,absolutely great,outclassing those from Medieval II TW for 5 stars.Mike,CA was brilliant,but brilliant,without flaw until ETW.With ETW you ruined your reputation.Yes,battles are best until now,campaign ok,graphics superb,but the game itself doesn’t have the soul and the visibility of all the hard work given by CA,like previous games…Napoleon is your chance to spit in everyone face about the quality of TW games!And the most important – Total War series should be ultimately historically accurate!Not like Americas and Crusades Campaign(they are so historically inaccurate),but more like Teuonic or Britannia campaign.I know that the historical inaccuracy is done for the sake of gameplay,but still this is Total War,the greatest leader of historical games,and it should be the mirror of reality and historical accuracy of the chosen time… Thank you,Marko
Posted by MarkoT on November 1st, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Comment # 77
Hey, neat, I actually got censored here. I was comment 40, but apparently they didn’t like what I had to say. I didn’t use curses nor, as far as I can recall, did I make personal attacks.
In essence, I said 67% public score was entirely fair, considering the state of the game AT RELEASE. Yes, it has improved dramatically since then, but even at 1.5 we’ve still got bugs (I’d like to be able to repair my forts please…as is, I’ve been tearing them down).
I do hope Napolean is more polished, and that it will add to the grand campaign of vanilla ETW. I like the grand campaign mode, I especially like that there’s now prestige victory, as well as ‘conquer X territories including these, by this date’. I look forward to see how mutliplayer campaign will work. I look forward to seeing what the next time period of the next TW will be (after Napolean, which is more of an expansion, EVEN IF it will be stand-alone).
Anyways, keep plugging along, and please keep supporting ETW. It still needs love.
Posted by Deliverator47 on November 8th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Comment # 78
STILL WAITING ON THE MULTIPLAYER CAMPAIGN YOU PORMISSED US.
Posted by Dawoad on November 8th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Comment # 79
I’m an older gamer and this is the first time I’ve sought out a forum for feedback. I love this series and have bought every game since Shogun when it first came out. I’m trying to play Empire TW and can’t because “The Steam Servers are currently too busy to handle my request”. I don’t play online and I’m fine with downloading the patches I want. I don’t think I should have to be connected to the internet or use any internet service to play my game. I bought the game, why can’t I play standalone. This should be an installation option.
Posted by RobC on December 18th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Comment # 80
What botters me is that the developers nowadays admit to have launched a broken game (”we were not happy”), and than being flabbergasted when people bash there game. I payed the full price, i bought all youre updates (DLC included). Because you need the money to develop, but be fair, the game is only now aproacing launch worthy. What irritates me more is the trend that by using platforms like steam we are starting to pay for all kinds of summier downloads. Whilethis are things that had to been in the basic game, but what really frustates me is that because of this commercieel potentieel you developers “block” the modders in there work. Please give the modders full acces to the game and wathever they need (i realy wouldnt know). Team up with them and create the best game on the market (modders like darthvader, kingkong exc).
The reason why i still invest is the truth in youre publishment that you are the producers of one off the greatest game series (i am a total addict of Rome and MedievalII especially with the modded versions). Maybe its fair to state that this game has become the victim of the great titles before it. The game is not dead yet (far from that) but i would suggest to invest in making a steamportal wich makes the mods easy accessible, and as a part of the deal the things that modders make that is what you can use in inprovements because you own the rights. Internet, Youtube, wikipedia are all great because of there community, make youre products great(er) as well and stay the best! Good luck.
Posted by Reinoldus on January 2nd, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Comment # 81
my main concern with empire total war and perhaps napoleon is the modding community in that sega produces a game but its never up to standard in the modding world i really enjoy empire but it lacks a lot of reality to the game weather you are making a game for the odd gamer or for the real time stratagist who knows his armys regiments uniforms and so forth it should be a game that is beyond bounderys of the casual gamer if for example we look at some of the mods out there and there are some extreemly good mods darth is one example the pleasure in playing a mod surpasses the original game ten times the uniforms the smoke the atmospher during a battle even the flags to me sega has half heartedly produced a game in which the modders have had a field day and produced a better game the the original one. if you are going to make a game like empire why is it that some people in the modding world can find all the bits and peices to make a good game brillian that sega cant do the same thing. example flags uniforms the smoke the stupid lines you see when a unit fires that you would never see in real life when i look for a game i look for realism.
Posted by kirk on January 9th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Comment # 82
I think Empire Total War is a big let down because, well when l bought it on the 5th March 2009, l was so happy that l was going too play it. I was happy to activate it though steam, but the game never started, which now l prefer the games the other ways like rome total war and medieval 2 total war. they were easy and didnt need the internet to start the game.
Well now l just hope the sega, and all the other people working on total war, hope the realease it again with the problems fixed like they did with with rome and medieval 2. I also think that Total War is realeasing Neoplean Total War abit to early, becuase l believe its gonna be plauge with problems like Empire did.
Posted by Jake on February 8th, 2010 at 4:05 am