By John Walker on July 12th, 2008 at 3:05 am.
I quite passionately believe that the game should be named as above. I’m assuming CA have read that and are redesigning the packaging accordingly. Point being, there’s a cinematic trailer for it (read: no in-game footage), suggesting quite strongly that you’ll be able to end ship battles by a planet-sized giant crushing them all with a map.
12/07/2008 at 03:38 Will Tomas says:
I’m looking forward to this much more than any other PC exclusive game coming out this year. Should be immense.
12/07/2008 at 04:04 James T says:
Au contraire — quite literally, it is an image depicting some boats!
12/07/2008 at 05:25 PleasingFungus says:
James T: But most certainly not a pipe.
(The trailer was… cinematic. Looking forward to the game – Medieval II was not as good as it could have been but I still think that this could be cool.)
12/07/2008 at 05:40 DSX says:
Totally nice CGI trailer. Rome and Medieval II were pretty good games, I’m betting this will satisfy that big battle-pushing-units around itch nicely.
12/07/2008 at 06:48 RichPowers says:
Phew, and I thought experiencing the adventures of John Paul Jones would forever involve me wearing a tricorne hat while sitting in a cardboard box with “Bon Homme Richard” scrawled on the side, screaming “I have not yet begun to fight!” as I fire a broadside on the neighbor’s cat.
Between this and Red Alert 3, naval combat is making quite the comeback in the RTS realm.
12/07/2008 at 07:06 Son of Slam says:
Every single one of these games, I think “This looks great! I can’t wait to play it” and then later on, playing it, I find myself thinking. “Hmmm, with all this, why am I not having any _fun_?” and quit.
I watch this trailer and think “This looks great! I can’t wait to play it!”
please, Please, PLEASE let my hopes trump experience, just this once!
12/07/2008 at 07:15 Al3xand3r says:
If you didn’t like the previous Total War games then chances are this won’t do much for you either… It is a sequel after all, you can expect the same type of gameplay with the different setting affecting the available units and such as always.
12/07/2008 at 07:27 Taximan says:
First scene is probably not at all inspired by a certain excellent Peter Weir film. Also the shot of the old aristocrat standing on the balcony above Jacobin masses with torches is very reminiscent a similar shot in Brotherhood of the Wolf, (yes, the film where the camera flies over Monica Bellucci’s naked torso and her breasts fade into snow-covered mountains, though not that shot in particular.)
Still, nice. But why is a first-rate ship of the line sailing alone, (against another lone first-rater), and why is she doing so with all her gunports open in such inclement weather, unless, err… already, definitely in pursuit.
Really looking forward to this, too bad they didn’t include the 30 year’s war era though. Would have loved to take some Spanish tercios across the Netherlands against William of Orange. But that’s just me, having recently read all of the translated Arturo Perez-Reverte’s Captain Alatristé novels back to back.
12/07/2008 at 07:27 Mister Yuck says:
I am looking forward to naval combat, however, I always find historical RTS games weird as hell. Empires seems to be going for the ultra-accurate re-creation of historical conflicts, but somehow ignores the fact that none of the commanders of historical armies were observing the battlefield from invisible blimps and issuing their orders by instantaneous psychic messages.
12/07/2008 at 07:30 Lord_Mordja says:
Unrelated heads up, there are some videos for Dragon Age, Fallout 3 and Dawn of War II up on gametrailers.
All less than a minute long.
Er nice vid, etc., etc.
12/07/2008 at 07:34 Serious J says:
@ Mister Yuck
That’s why TW games have a “General” camera option that restricts your view to that of your General.
12/07/2008 at 08:36 Ragnar says:
This reminds me that I still want a game based on the Hornblower novels. That would be awesome. But this looks to be rather nice too.
12/07/2008 at 09:45 Tunips says:
I wasn’t so fond of the Total War series – LArgely due to my uncanny ability to lose battles even with the greatest of advantages.
However, I was rather fond of Imperial Glory, and I’m madly in love with Cossacks 2.
Having brightly coloured men line up and shoot each other can make up for a great many gameplay sins.
12/07/2008 at 09:58 Mark-P says:
Lovely CGI! I’m guessing that’ll be the intro.
I hope they focus on getting some good AI and challenging difficulty on the higher levels, because for all it’s beauty I felt really let down by Medievel 2 in that repsect.
12/07/2008 at 11:04 K says:
The AI in the Total War games seemed to get progressively worse as the graphics got better. I shall await patches before purchasing this time.
12/07/2008 at 11:26 rob says:
The CGI in Medieval II had this almost Thief-like quality to it but this has lost a lot of that style by trying to look more realistic. Honestly from what we’ve seen so far Operation Flashpoint 2 and Empire Total War are the same game just set a few years apart.
12/07/2008 at 12:10 Lucky says:
It’s not often that a cinematic trailer gets me this psyched.
12/07/2008 at 12:48 Chris Evans says:
While it is the combat that draws some people into the Total War games, for me they are all about the world map >:D
12/07/2008 at 15:56 Hermes says:
I just fired up Shogun, so I am looking forward to this. A shame my Macbook Pro will most likely be unable to handle this in boot camp.
12/07/2008 at 17:15 Shznit says:
@ Hermes
Install Windows?
I can’t wait for this game, Rome:TW might be the greatest strategy game of all time and I can’t even count the number of hours I spent playing it. And I almost exclusively play FPS, action, and RPG.
12/07/2008 at 18:37 Binho says:
I’m looking forward to this with mixed feelings. I love the Total War series, but with the switch to 3D I find they have been going more for the “WOW, COOL” factor than good old ‘realism’.
I’m hoping they actually add wind into the naval combat, and that they make it so sailing in a line of battle, and getting the wind gauge, etc. are good tactics. If they go Hollywood style and just make battles a bunch of ships mashing into each other like Pirates of the Carribean 3, this will be the first Total War game I won’t buy.
13/07/2008 at 00:20 internisus says:
Wow–a CG trailer that I really like!
13/07/2008 at 04:51 Serious J says:
@ Binho
TW has been 3D since Rome TW.
They have already stated that wind will play a large part in the naval battles.
14/07/2008 at 16:32 Doug says:
I’m going to roll this game’s box up and put it in my ass. I LOVE THE TOTAL WAR SERIES!!!!!!
14/07/2008 at 17:09 Pus Filled Sac says:
K is correct. If they can equal the gameplay of Shogun and the original Medieval, I’ll play Empire. If it’s a flaccid effort like Rome and Medieval 2, I’ll give it a miss. Rome was an absolute travesty to this series.