By Kieron Gillen on December 9th, 2009 at 5:07 pm.
The man they call SAeN brought this to our attention. We bring it to yours. Sign up for the Empire: Total War beta is now open. Options apparently include playing the entire campaign with another player, co-operating and backstabbing at will and fighting the real-time battles against the AI, or have your friend take the place of the AI. Oh – and a AI faction nations improved too. Though we’ve heard that one before. [Visit Bobsy's lonely thread of love to find yourself a multiplayer partner, should you need one - Jim]
09/12/2009 at 17:17 Bobsy says:
Pffft. I tweeted you folks about this ages ago.
Anyway, I’ve got a thread open in the forum in my eternal and hopelessly optimistic struggle to find a fellow fellow to start a campaign with. It’s a terribly lonely place at the moment, but a good place to hook up with your fellow despots.
09/12/2009 at 17:43 Alec Meer says:
We’ve said it a bunch of times, but to restate: we really don’t use the RPS twitter that much. Always mail us if you need us.
09/12/2009 at 17:45 Jim Rossignol says:
Or use the RPS searchlight-signal thing. That is also acceptable.
09/12/2009 at 18:31 Bobsy says:
The goddamn Batman broke my searchlight.
09/12/2009 at 18:12 Jockie says:
Any idea how it’s going to work when one player is in battle and the other isn’t yet? Will be be allowed to continue fannying about on the campaign map for instance, or forced to spectate? Or maybe we could even do some sneaky reinforcing of one side or the other mid-battle.
09/12/2009 at 18:30 Bobsy says:
I’d sorta assumed it worked on a play-by-email system where you can take your turns in peace while the other player eats a sandwich or kisses girls or whatever.
09/12/2009 at 18:29 SAeN says:
you can either spectate or choose to allow players to play a the opposing AI
09/12/2009 at 19:31 -Spooky- says:
Indeed. Playing few rounds with a friend yesterday with Player AI Command. Nice feature and very helpful to try strategy n stuff. Not your troops :D
09/12/2009 at 19:09 Out Reach says:
Me and a friend had a game. Lasted about 7 turns. Had some fun playing as each others enemies and making them lose on purpose (we aimed to conquer the entire world and then fight each other) However then the game crashed :(
However if they iron out the bugs it’s going to be awesome :)
09/12/2009 at 19:31 -Spooky- says:
Save is a nice option.. *bg*
09/12/2009 at 19:28 Choca says:
I have to make some time to try this.
09/12/2009 at 20:03 JB says:
I was disappointed to find that when myself and my friend tried to fight a battle against Spain while we were allied, we could only automanage it. So it looks like we can fight against each other, but not alongside each other?
09/12/2009 at 20:18 dtgreen says:
Is it wrong to dream of an MTW3 with multi-player campaign support? *dreams*
09/12/2009 at 20:29 Jockie says:
That’s pretty much my dream too, I’d take Rome as well though.
09/12/2009 at 20:50 Heliocentric says:
Much like I’ve given up on Relic producing the little spaceship game of my dreams i’ve given up on CA producing the angry little men game of my dreams.
They are too stuck on monitisation, not just the dlc and encryption but the half arsed support. This multiplayer might be great, but to be fair sots is a very “total war:space” like game, and it supported campaign multiplayer out of the box years ago.
Rome needs a sequel and if they do that or the next total war game without tacking on mod killing encryption, and full multiplayer campaign out of the box CA can get day one purchases off me.
As it is, my hype for empire is long gone and no mods can ever bump it back up, smooth sega, smooth.
09/12/2009 at 22:10 Nimic says:
I remember Shogun: Total War was supposed to have a multiplayer campaign. Where you could join either side on an on-going battle, etc.
It’s time they made Shogun: Total War 2.
10/12/2009 at 12:31 Sceptrum says:
Why make a Shogun 2 that would get a few double-digit percentage less in sales compared to Medieval 3 or Rome 2?
And I’d love a Shogun 2 as well, but with the direction CA has taken we’d see five flavours of battlefield ninjas and maybe a Tom Cruise too.
09/12/2009 at 22:30 Real Horrorshow says:
It’s freaking awesome. Everyone buy ETW immediately.
09/12/2009 at 22:35 Vinraith says:
“Everyone buy ETW immediately.”
No, really, don’t.
09/12/2009 at 22:39 TCM says:
Buy it if you want it, don’t if you don’t, but don’t complain on the internet or tell others what to do.
09/12/2009 at 22:43 Heliocentric says:
@TCM you do realise thats what you are doing?
09/12/2009 at 22:45 TCM says:
Shhhhh, I was hoping nobody would notice.
09/12/2009 at 22:46 Vinraith says:
TCM is entirely correct, of course. I’d merely suggest that, before buying, make sure you know what you’re getting.
10/12/2009 at 13:41 Kerome says:
A game? I mean please, after 5 patches the thing is pretty stable… apart from the MP Beta of course, that’s expected to crash, since the word Beta is a bit of a giveaway.