By Jim Rossignol on September 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm.
UPDATE: Trailer posted south of here.
Sega send word that they will be releasing a new mini-expansion for Empire: Total War, which should allow you to forge an entertaining alternative history for the US, to be delivered on Steam. It’s a North American campaign that will feature some new native North American playable factions. Sega tell us that a new “Campaign Map expands the Empire: Total War experience, with 5 brand new American Indian factions, new units and technologies.” And that means Shaman and Scout agents to fill out the NPC ranks, and support for multiplayer with these armies. Warpath will cost £5.99/ €6.99 and be out some time in October. There’s also a new patch for the game tomorrow, 1.4, which “fixes some minor issues” and delivers two new historical battles: the Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Fontenoy.
21/09/2009 at 17:27 Vinraith says:
Considering how absurd the whole “ranks of native Americans marching towards you” elements of the original North American campaign are, and for that matter considering there already IS a special North American campaign in the base game, I’m surprised they didn’t make an expansion focusing on a different location.
That said, until they unlock the game files for modding they’re not going to see another penny out of me, I feel taken as it is.
21/09/2009 at 19:25 dartt says:
I might be wrong but I think they changed the way native Americans group, I believe they move around in a loose mob now.
21/09/2009 at 21:17 TCM says:
Yeah, IIRC, Native Americans, rangers, and some US units move in a loose mob, or at the very least, not in rigid ranks.
21/09/2009 at 22:34 Vinraith says:
I haven’t played in a couple of months, I guess a patch must have addressed that. I’m glad to hear it.
21/09/2009 at 23:22 Lintman says:
Is it still locked from modding? Really? E:TW’s been sitting unplayed in my Steam account while I wait for them to open up the modding (or at least maybe bring the console back). I hadn’t checked on it for a while and had assumed they MUST have made it available by now. Damn.
21/09/2009 at 17:30 Fumarole says:
Here’s one I’ll be playing no doubt, especially since the price seems to be quite low.
21/09/2009 at 17:37 Clovis says:
Ugh, why did they pick one of the uglier aspects of the whole “Empire” era? I’d rather play a campaign where the two sides are actually on equal footing. The US has moved on from the days when “Cowboys vs Indians” was a perfectly acceptable topic for a kid’s tv show. I don’t particularly want to relive the “manifest destiny” of my country.
21/09/2009 at 17:39 Clovis says:
Argh, no edit function. I can’t look up details at work. This Native on Native violence then? And maybe you get to try to have the natives win? If so, I guess that’s better…
21/09/2009 at 17:38 Magnus says:
I’m actually a bit gutted that this is only available using Steam. I really don’t like it as a method of DRM, and don’t care to use any of those parts you could term the service.
I guess I better go look at the previous games in the series… does anyone have any recommendations?
21/09/2009 at 17:48 jalf says:
The first Medieval: TW is still my fave
21/09/2009 at 17:50 Vinraith says:
Rome: TW is probably the best of the series, and has some of the best mods (Europa Barborum is particularly impressive). Medieval 2: TW is also quite good, and mods like Stainless Steel go a long way towards covering any remnant flaws.
You’re well advised to stay away from Empire, unfortunately.
21/09/2009 at 19:49 klumhru says:
M2:TW/StainlessSteel and R:TW/TotalRealism are the best in my opinion. I recommend avoiding the vanilla gameplay. Barborourorumimumarmm is nice as well, but I keep coming back to TR.
I had high hopes for empire as they hired total realism’s AI coder to do the strat AI, but fail. Locked data files is damn near criminal as the mods are what is keeping Rome and M2 alive still.
21/09/2009 at 20:32 Vinraith says:
Rome Total Realism is quite good as well, yes. Did they ever finish version 7? That thing had real potential.
21/09/2009 at 21:00 Magnus says:
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll be getting both M2:TW and R:TW in the future, and checking out those mods.
22/09/2009 at 10:54 klumhru says:
Sadly, 6.5 will probably be the last version, as the coder mentioned was the driving force of the mod, and as stated left for work with CA doing Empire’s AI code.
21/09/2009 at 17:38 Heliocentric says:
Locked files.
No coop campaign.
Broken promises.
No dice.
21/09/2009 at 17:41 Vinraith says:
I’d totally forgotten the co-op campaign issue.
Does anyone know just exactly who is responsible for this debacle? Is it Sega, CA, or both?
21/09/2009 at 17:52 jalf says:
Make of this what you will, but a forum post from 24. august:
21/09/2009 at 17:55 Vinraith says:
Interesting, thanks for that jalf. I’m not sure whether I believe them or not, but it’s good that the issue is still being discussed.
Is the same true of the locked files problem? I fear they’ve decided that’s a good idea, whereas it’s the death of the series as far as I’m concerned. I buy TW games for the engine and then play the mods, the vanilla game is almost never all that interesting IMO.
21/09/2009 at 17:39 Some Guy says:
i’m not buying this till we get the online multiplayer campain that was supost to be patched in after one month.
21/09/2009 at 17:49 jalf says:
Looks like fun. And at a pretty reasonable price. I’m hooked. Yay.
21/09/2009 at 18:09 Sartoris says:
Fooled me once, they ain’t gonna do it again. From now on I’m going to get myself a “less than legal” taste of each future CA product.
21/09/2009 at 19:08 Heliocentric says:
They generally produce demo’s. Please don’t allude to piracy just because you aren’t being given content, its scummy. They owe you nothing but if you decide so, nor do they deserve your money.
21/09/2009 at 19:54 Wooly says:
I see words, but all I’m hearing is a pirate’s whiny fanwanking.
21/09/2009 at 20:03 Dominic White says:
It’s the new catch-all excuse, isn’t it? ‘Studio X has done something to personally upset me, so I am entirely justified in taking anything they produce in the future for free’.
Empire is one of those games you just can’t talk about on the internet. Glowing reviews, tons of sales, pretty much everyone I’ve talked to who doesn’t frequent gaming forums likes it.. But the moment you get to the greater internet, it’s the worst thing since sliced Hitler.
21/09/2009 at 20:12 damien says:
“the greater internet” is a terrifying place.
thar be sea-monsters…
21/09/2009 at 21:04 Magnus says:
“The worst thing since sliced hitler” nearly made me spit my tea all over my monitor!
21/09/2009 at 18:13 cyrenic says:
On the PC, it’s not DLC, it’s a “micro” or “mini” expansion.
21/09/2009 at 18:21 UncleSmoothie says:
On Steam it’s labelled “DLC”.
21/09/2009 at 18:22 Mighty Florist says:
I cannot fathom a single (consumer-friendly) reason why this is available for preorder purchase.
21/09/2009 at 18:48 Darthy says:
So they don’t have to remind you to buy it later? :P
I’m a little torn on this one. On the one hand, new content at a reasonable price. On the other, the native americans were very badly done in Empire, and bugged to the point of uselessness for the first couple of patches.
What about the broken siege element of the game? Are CA going to release a ‘micro expansion’ to sort that?
21/09/2009 at 19:15 Meat Circus says:
OH HAI 1600 pixel wide front page.
Are you still here? Surely you’ve a bus to catch or something?
21/09/2009 at 19:17 autogunner says:
just started replaying rome, now thats a game. I love the total war series, but feel the overall quality has been dropping since rome. I can t put my finger on why though.
21/09/2009 at 19:25 Archonsod says:
Empire is my favourite TW so far. But then I always found Medieval tedious. Rome did better in terms of the strategic map, but the tactical battles were lacking.
21/09/2009 at 19:53 klumhru says:
This smacks of Sega/CA milking the franchise for what it’s worth. I think it’s possible releasing the MP campaign and opening the data files might actually garner them more cash in direct sales than this will.
I’m pretty sure I and my wife would invest in a second copy to be able to play together if they did that…
21/09/2009 at 19:55 klumhru says:
Direct sales as opposed to releasing previously canceled features in piecemeal DLCrap.
21/09/2009 at 20:03 damien says:
the lack of modding tools / opened files, napoleon’s announcement earlier and now this all just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
i bought empire as a pre-order and i’ve had a rather sour taste in my mouth about it and CA ever since.
i think i’m taking this series of events as a sign i should leave the future of the TW franchise alone for awhile and go back to my epic games of deus lo vult in M2:TW instead.
21/09/2009 at 20:15 Heliocentric says:
The lesson? Pre-orders based on anything other than a demo are a bad idea. I mean, sure if you “pre order” at a store so they have a copy but you still hold out for a demo/review, thats fine but to me day one buying is stupid.
21/09/2009 at 20:26 Vinraith says:
It’s an awfully sad lesson, but it’s true. Ironically, I pre-ordered Empire because I wanted to support CA after having found and greatly enjoyed Rome and Medieval 2 at far less than full price. Those games were so good, I actively wanted to help them continue making games of that sort.
Of course the really aggravating part in some sense is that it’s not like Empire is a bad game. What’s there is quite good, they’re even (slowly) fixing the bugs, but obviously the promised co-op mode has yet to manifest and (most importantly IMO) the file’s being locked away means I’ll never get anything close to the kind of fun out of this TW that I have from those in the past. “Most moddable TW yet” my ass.
22/09/2009 at 00:36 damien says:
to be clear, my disappointment with empire had nothing to do with the fact that i pre-ordered it. i’d followed it’s development and have been playing the total war series since shogun. i was an excellent example of a fan of the series who was immune to reviews or general internet buzz. (even if, in empire’s case, waiting for reviews wouldn’t have been very helpful in terms of learning about the game’s modding failures.)
i think vinraith’s take on what a pre-order is *supposed* to mean is more in line with mine. if i like a developer’s work, i’m always more than happy to part with my money for it.
developers have the ball in their court with regards to how they handle their own track records.
21/09/2009 at 20:28 Suman1083 says:
Everyone from the comments seems to be down on the whole expansion. What gives? I think potentially it could be a great addition to an already solid game. Count me in.
21/09/2009 at 21:16 Heliocentric says:
CA blocked mods so they could sell them to us. This is the very reason I’m unwilling to buy Empire, with locked files it will never be as good as Rome, for example. The expansion is something people could have bested with free mods, so why would i buy it?
21/09/2009 at 20:29 Railick says:
It is the most moddable TW Yet! Most moddable by CA :P
21/09/2009 at 20:30 Vinraith says:
So THAT’s what they meant. It all makes sense now!
21/09/2009 at 20:33 Jimbo says:
Has the computer AI figured out how to put an army on a ship yet?
My first Empire campaign got all corrupted saves about 100 turns in and my second campaign developed a bug where selecting my largest fleet would instantly crash the game. There are totally legitimate reasons why some people hated Empire.
I was hoping for an expansion like Kingdoms, with multiple smaller campaigns (I was hoping for a Caribbean campaign). I find grand TW campaigns always lose their appeal in the back half because you are just steamrolling everybody at that stage and the AI is generally too stupid to team up against you.
21/09/2009 at 20:56 Fumarole says:
Yes, the AI does invasions now. Not as much as it probably should, but it does them.
22/09/2009 at 01:37 Oak says:
Absolutely. The Grand Campaign became less interesting and more shallow as time went on and my power grew. The more incredible the story of my empire became, the more I felt like I was going through the motions, conquering nations for the hell of it. No game that begins so immersive and thrilling should end with a yawn and a shrug.
I’d love a Kingdoms-style expansion (just think of the possibilities) and would prefer to spend more at once to get more at once, rather than be nickel-and-dimed with DLC. Perhaps I’m just afraid of change (pun!). Anyway, let’s look at the bright side: if this is here, a Napoleonic expansion can’t be far behi-
Oh, right.
21/09/2009 at 20:34 Railick says:
I just realized something. Since we can post comments in the forum now, and we can edit forum posts, we can now EDIT COMMENST! If we go to the forum to do it! HAPPY DAY
21/09/2009 at 20:40 Knight Of Cydonia says:
Napoleon:TW = the biggest, most over-priced mod since 1066 for Mount and Blade.
Picked up M2:TW for a fiver a couple of months ago, enjoyed it massively, still playing it now. Got given E:TW for my 18th birthday, ended up playing it for the parents for half an hour, until it crashed, then hid it away and only bought it out when they asked why I wasn’t playing it.
21/09/2009 at 21:08 Mr Lizard says:
I bought Empire this week from Asda for £10 and I’m well enjoying it. Another fine game from Creative Assembly, sez I.
21/09/2009 at 21:16 TCM says:
Finally.
Empire’s pretty good, though I tend to find Medieval more satisfying in battle. This mini-expansion adds more playable nations, which is always a plus.
Shame about modding for Empire, though. Ugh.
21/09/2009 at 21:23 Railick says:
That is still kind of strange. How DID native American’s fight? I only have old western movies to go on but in those they always moved around in hoards of men on hose back or snuck around in loose lines of soldiers with bows and arrows or rifles. Are there any really accurate documents that give a factual account on how native Americans really fought?
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that a group of people that have been fighting with each other on and off for ever would attack in a loose unorganized mob of soliders :P
21/09/2009 at 21:24 Walsh says:
Empire is my favorite so far. I never messed with mods much but then again the previous total wars had some absurd, unrealistic units (packs of wild dogs what?) so they needed the mods.
1.4 is more than a minor update, it includes their big naval rebalance:
21/09/2009 at 21:26 Walsh says:
Lets try that again
21/09/2009 at 21:34 We Fly Spitfires says:
We get to wipe out Native Americas? Awesome.
21/09/2009 at 21:42 StalinsGhost says:
Sounds great, already preordered.
21/09/2009 at 22:08 Legionary says:
Re locked files, anyone else suspect that the reason they were locked is that CA *knew* they’d be doing Napoleon as their expansion (and expansion it is – not a new game!), and that CA also knew that if they left E:TW open to the modders the very first mod released would be a Napoleon mod?
I would not be surprised at all to see the game files unlocked after the release of Napoleon. And yes, it’s scummy behaviour from Creative Assembly in my view, and I’m very sad about that. They won my goodwill with Rome and Medieval II, but trying to wring money out of customers is unethical.
They very deliberately stopped the game before the Napoleonic era because they wanted to release it seperately. There’s an argument to be made that they did this not for extra cash but because they wanted a more narrative and focussed campaign during that period. I’m not going to endorse that argument though on the basis of the pre-order debacle: price gouging is indicative of a company that’s lost respect for its customers.
I’ll buy Napoleon provided they unlock the game so it can be modded properly. Otherwise I won’t be buying it because I don’t want to support those tactics and I’m not anticipating anything different to what I can get from the gameplay in E:TW. Even if they do unlock the game files, though, they’ve done tremendous damage to their reputation amongst gamers and I personally now look on them as I do on EA or Activision.
21/09/2009 at 22:18 Fumarole says:
All this ire from a suspicion?
22/09/2009 at 00:40 Vinraith says:
“I would not be surprised at all to see the game files unlocked after the release of Napoleon.”
If that’s the way it turns out, the lesson CA will have taught me is “wait for the unlock, then buy at discount.” Of course, if they never unlock them, the lesson will be “never buy another CA game.” Either way, this nonsense will cost them money. It’s up to them how much.
22/09/2009 at 05:02 Legionary says:
@Fumarole: no, obviously not. I vehemently dislike them locking the game files for modders; there’s no reason I’d accept for it being done. I suspect it was done to prevent Napoleon being modded so they could release their expansion, but even if that’s wrong there’s not another rationale that would be anything other than highly objectionable. Even if it was unavoidable due to a game breaking bug (and I’m as certain as one can be that it wasn’t done for that reason) then they should’ve addressed it by other means. The Total War games are all about the ability to modify them. Arbitrarily encrypting the files to reduce the ability of people to do this is a bad move.
On an unrelated note, it’s so neat when you can skip the entire point a person is making and just make snide comments about the person instead.
22/09/2009 at 15:37 jalf says:
Really? Last I checked, it sold pretty damn well, hitting #1 on Steam for quite a while. Pretty impressive for such a relative niche game.
Perhaps it’s time for a little reality check then. Somehow, I don’t think your $50 are going to determine whether or not this “nonsense” costs them money.
17/10/2009 at 22:59 Vinraith says:
I’m one of the people that put it up to number 1 and bought it on release, you seem to have misunderstood my point. Lots of those people (myself included) feel burned by our subsequent treatment. I bought Empire because of how good the previous TW titles were, I’ll hesitate the buy any CA product in the future because of how poor Empire is, and I’m certain I’m not alone in that.
21/09/2009 at 22:17 Serenegoose says:
I loved the TW games, I’ve played all of the core titles (I’ve never, for example, played mongol invasion, barbarians, or alexander) but I think that by far and away Empire is my favourite. More for successive interface improvements more than anything else though – I like the way it’s layed out, and the previous TW games feel more and more limiting the more I play Empire. I went back to Rome recently, and just couldn’t get on with it anymore, it felt so shallow compared, and the mods never clicked with me. (they always seemed focused on making everything cost a fortune to train and for buildings to take 38 turns to build and cost 30,000x as much. If someone was to make Rome on the empire engine, that, truly, would be a day to rejoice. Think of the naval combat. :P
21/09/2009 at 22:26 Sartoris says:
Yeah, it would be amazing. A guy on ship A would fire an arrow and ship B would explode. That’s the true Empire way: make history resemble a Rambo movie.
21/09/2009 at 22:26 Railick says:
That would be pretty cool.
I still have M:TW 2 installed and play quick battles all the time. I just don't like the setting of Empires (If they made one that was about the American Civil War I'd probably buy that but I don't see how anything can beat Gettysburg from Frixas)
21/09/2009 at 22:40 Alistair says:
Just stop it crashing and I’ll be happy if the AI never so much as doggy-paddles :(
21/09/2009 at 23:31 Derf says:
With Empire, the Total War brand took a dive.
22/09/2009 at 11:27 jalf says:
Funny how people say this about every TW game when it is released…
22/09/2009 at 00:26 Anonymous says:
I think it’s great that CA has set out to diversify the factions. The Native Americans were pretty neglected and mostly act as a giant blob to annoy your colonies and train your colonial dragoons on.
I look forward to this expansion, but I can’t help but wonder why they were kept so abysmal in the first place. The same with the other unit pack which adds units which probably should have been available from the get go.
Also, is CA going to fix the clone army yet? They did a brilliant job with M2:TW where there was a great diversity in faces and headgear, E:TW has a distinct lack of it. Every unit has the same face save for commander riker, who seems to be the officer for every regiment. Can’t they add a variety of hair types? Not just brunettes in the armies?
I understand unit diversity is hard to pull off with standardized equipment, but c’mon, mothers aren’t standardized breeding factories yet.
22/09/2009 at 02:51 Walsh says:
I think it might be your settings. If I recall one of the options controlled how diverse the units are because it directly impacts memory usage.
22/09/2009 at 01:09 jimba says:
So theres nothing to learn/no enjoyment to be had about exploring the darker parts of human history?
I suppose theres been no great movies about the holocaust then.
Maybe all games should just be about fighting hordes of zombies/mindless super soldiers so you don’t have to feel bad about all the killing.
After all, who wants complexity and moral ambiguity in the computer games?
22/09/2009 at 01:30 malkav11 says:
Clearly what they should have done with Empire: Total War is base it on the Orson Scott Card book. ;)
22/09/2009 at 18:32 Poindexter says:
@Malkav11
RE: Orson Scott Card’s Empire
I was sadly disappointed by that book. I love Card’s work (own the entier Ender series), but that book just did not live up to any of my expectations of him. I was really pissed when he killed that one character (not going to spoil it). That was the only interesting character in my opinion. Oh well. On to the next…
22/09/2009 at 03:36 Scundoo says:
Besides making the front page absurdly wide, they also trick Adblock, since they are hosting the lame resident evil adverts themselves.
Not cool, RPS.
22/09/2009 at 03:38 Scundoo says:
I meant this as a reply to a previous post about. Some meatcircus guy.
22/09/2009 at 03:38 Scundoo says:
I meant this as a reply to a previous post above. Some meatcircus guy.
22/09/2009 at 04:32 Vinraith says:
Take it here: http://rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum/topic.php?id=60
Keep it out of the game discussions.
22/09/2009 at 04:12 Mad Doc MacRae says:
Med 1 was the first in the TW series I played and the best as far as I know. Rome tried my patience. I thought M2 was better than Rome but not as good as the first. Didn’t buy Empire.
I used to love CA. :(
22/09/2009 at 04:30 Vinraith says:
Shogun was the first.
22/09/2009 at 05:03 malkav11 says:
The first in the series, yes. The first Total War game he played, no. Nor was it the first of the two Medieval Total War games, which is what he is referring to, respectively.
22/09/2009 at 05:33 Vinraith says:
Somehow or another I misread that, nevermind me. :)
22/09/2009 at 07:12 TariqOne says:
My friend and I waited eagerly and bought this day one to play cooperative campaigns.
Still waiting.
22/09/2009 at 09:19 TC says:
Will pass on this, the native American fighting parts of the campaign are for me the most tedious which I usually try to get around by rushing their cities with a big army and auto resolving any battles.
At the moment I am playing with Darthmod and the massive units and battlefield smoke make the battles pretty awesome.
22/09/2009 at 09:37 J says:
Alright internet I’m sick of hearing these things about Empire:
-no modding support, who gives a fuck. mods are fun for a bit but not the only reason to buy a game, I’m looking at you lintman, you twat.
-”its not as good as Rome” you mean it isn’t Rome 2. tossers.
-”it runs slowly”, yep its resource heavy, buy so was crysis. its a good reason to upgrade.
-”its buggy” have you played it recently, yes it was a fucking mess at launch for some. but they patched and upgraded, that there is customer support.
nnrrrrggghhh rant over
22/09/2009 at 10:43 Heliocentric says:
I “give a fuck” about mods, and mods are the reason rome and mtw2 are better, CA’s post release support is very limited for the most part when it comes to functionality.
As for performance and bugs, i have no idea, i didn’t buy it.
22/09/2009 at 11:14 klumhru says:
- I’ve played M/M2/Rome about 5-10 times more with mods than without, so yeah, I care. Even Empire I’ve played more with mods than without, limited though they (necessarily) are. I usually finish a campaign on vanilla in each game, but not always (I’m looking at you M2:TW), and then never touch it again. I buy the games for the engine, as in the past it has been a vehicle for some truly superb works.
-It ran, and still runs, slowly on a 3.3duo/4gig/9800GTX.
-It was, and remains, buggy, and there is no excuse for this for a AAA title over 6 months after release.
Never mind the lack of MP campaign.
22/09/2009 at 12:47 Subject 706 says:
I agree with you on all counts except the first one, J. Modding is a huge part of the TW games. Always has been. Whether CA or SEGA is to blame it is a dick move, which can hurt them in the long term, considering that modding has increased the longevity of both Rome and Medieval greatly.
Plus, it is a really stupid way to fritter away much community goodwill. Lots of people give a fuck y’see.
22/09/2009 at 14:00 Legionary says:
Shortly after posting this message, J was let go from his position as Public Relations Officer for Creative Assembly.
22/09/2009 at 22:22 Lintman says:
@J: Did I say “modding was the only reason to buy a game”? No. I said I’m waiting for the mods to be unlocked to play Empire. You don’t like mods, suit yourself. I do. I spent about 20x as much time in R:TW playing with my own personal mods as I did playing the vanilla game. I expected to do the same with Empire, so it hardly seemed worth getting into the game only to have to wait anyway. Jeez, get over yourself buddy. I think you have a little too much self esteem tied up in this game.
22/09/2009 at 10:09 Myros says:
From my reading of the release hype this expansion adds nothing to the original campaign but just adds a new ‘mini-campaign’ to the game. Always a non-selling point for me.
Plus the whole got burned buying a buggy game with many missing features thing ;p
22/09/2009 at 12:52 tigershuffle says:
Does seem a bit of a strange location (though not to U.S. buyers) to use for Empire.
Im really not sure how accurately they can portray ‘Native American’ battles. AFIK even the Battle of Little Big Horn was 6-700 US Cav (with divided forces) vs 1-2000 ‘hostiles’
balancing this period seems almost impossible.
The whole ethos of Indian warfare seems to have been on personal glory and raiding parties.
Something like Mount & Blade seems better representation of that style of warfare.
Id have preferred Zulu Wars atlhgough that post-dates the time period
ho-hum……..CA =Empire =cash cow
22/09/2009 at 15:18 TC says:
I wonder if this is CA pandering to the US market?
Surely the period ETW covers has some more interesting conflicts to cover, the Great North War, War of the Spanish Succession and of couse Frederick the Great.
Lets be honest if we are after good battles in this period Europe is where its happening.
22/09/2009 at 16:18 Nalano says:
This whole “E:TW = Cash Cow” – I’m looking at you, tigershuffle (and others) – thing really does rub me the wrong way.
If a game is niche or esoteric, people avoid it because they’re worried the company will die and thus be unable to support it. If a game is successful, people avoid it because the company is a “sellout” that is just screwing the poor consumer of his hard-earned dollar. Well, y’know what? I ordered three whole cases of Brooklyn summer ale and despite advertising to the contrary, I didn’t get laid once as a direct result of opening a bottle! They lied to me, and because of that I demand free Brooklyn lagers for life. (hey, Sartorisl!)
Those damnable money-hungry gaming companies always looking to nickel and dime me with this or that add-on pack or expansion or sequel or downloadable content or bonus campaign or card game or tv miniseries or made-for-tv movie or tie-in license or action figurine or wall scroll or whatever. How dare they try to make a profit? Don’t they understand their role in my world is to provide a service? To become a public utility for the benefit of the people, like my water or road paving or police protection? Gaming is a god-given right and without mod tools everything this company has ever done is absolutely null and void, worthy only of scorn and derision!
You people seem to have forgotten that we’re in the middle of a recession, this is a niche entertainment industry, and short-term profits are important in order to secure loans for long-term projects. Seriously, folks. Take a step back.
23/09/2009 at 12:32 tigershuffle says:
Nalano…
I understand that CA are profit motivated. It just seems a poor decision (imho) to use this ‘theatre’.
It maybe is just too niche for my european sensibilities
The very fact there is a recession points to the fact that its unlikely that they will shift many units for something that wouldve been modded by the community if they were allowed to or the fact.. People are a bit more choosy over what they pay out for.
Ill hang on to my money for the mo’ thanks…..but will almost certainly buy TW:Napoleon? when its released…..
…. but for now too many good games too little cash available.
22/09/2009 at 18:45 Guy says:
I’m tempted to quote Seth Godin here: it doesn’t matter if the customer is wrong, it matters that they’re angry. Releasing an expansion- fine. Shafting the community because you’re worried their mods (which have historically been one of the highlights of previous TW games) will compete with your expansion- not fine. Above all its just bad marketing because it makes everyone feel like CA are jerks.
The Amerindian historical debate whilst valid (Amerindians primarily skirmished) is rendered slightly absurd by the fact that TW is in no way a historically accurate representation of combat in any of its periods. It sure is fun but as M2:TW’s Braveheart-esque Highlanders told us- it ain’t history. That said, its certainly true that this feels like an appeal to American gamers. The Americas were historically a sideshow theatre, any serious update should really focus on Europe.
I’m less pissed about exterminating Amerindians (hell, everytime you play a WW2 game with Soviets or Poles you’re talking about Slav Untermenshen who will be murdered in their millions) than I am about the bullshit mysticism. Big-Crock-Of-Bullshit ask palefaces why they still make braves sound like fucking hippies…
22/09/2009 at 20:28 psyk says:
“Promises” for what is going to be in games have been getting broken for along time im surprised you lot are still taking it personally seeing as most of you seem to be long time gamers.
22/09/2009 at 20:30 psyk says:
Also why is this “wp-comments-post.php” trying to open when i post a message (using firefox)
17/10/2009 at 22:55 Tinker says:
It may have sold so well because of the reputation CA had garnered with their previous releases. A reputation that is obviously tarnished to some degree or another at this point.
22/10/2009 at 17:16 Anonymous says:
The day I take any kind of interest in CA and TW and SEGA again is the day I see any sincere Effort being made to make good on their promise of a multiplayer campaign in Empire. Until then, they’ll be just what a friend and fellow developer, who went there for a job interview, once said about them: “a bit” too business oriented for me.
Wanting money for hard work (thats what developing games really comes down to) = your perfect right
Lying to customers = unforgiveable breach of trust which is essential in this business
22/10/2009 at 18:31 Dante says:
Woah, woah, I'm late to the party on this one and very confused. Can someone please explain to me in calm words why everyone hates CA all of a sudden?
22/10/2009 at 18:38 Serenegoose says:
Essentially, because ETW was released very buggily (playing britain when the AI was physically incapable of launching a naval invasion was a joke, for example), and with the promise of multiplayer campaign, which they've yet to deliver on.
22/10/2009 at 18:52 Dante says:
Huh, well I don't recall any major bugs (though I was playing India, so the naval thing wasn't a problem) at the time, although I do remember co-op campaigns being mentioned.
22/10/2009 at 18:54 Serenegoose says:
it was definitely buggy, though post 1.3 the majority of the game breaking bugs have been fixed, and in my opinion, besides the fort battles which are truly rubbish, the 1.4-1.5 patch has really fixed most of the 'broken' elements and made the game hugely more enjoyable. I get everyones disappointment with the release, I just don't share it, I guess.