Total War: Warhammer Delayed, Now Out May
One more month
Creative Assembly and Sega have announced a delay to Total War: Warhammer [official site]. It's not a very long delay - from April 28th to May 24th - and the reasoning behind the extra development time makes sense. Mike Simpson, Total War Creative Director, says the studio doesn't want to "rush" toward release:
“This could be the best Total War game we’ve ever made. We don’t want to rush it. It’s an enormous game and we also want to make absolutely sure reviewers have enough time to play it thoroughly before launch.”
Giving us reviewers time for a thorough analysis is hopefully a sign of confidence in the game's intricacies. It's not unheard of for strategy games to start well but to stumble as the end-game approaches, and Warhammer has the further complication of factions with wildly different goals and playstyles.
The game's enormity is as much due to the variations between those factions as it is to do with scale. We've seen campaign details for the dwarves and their Book of Grudges, the Empire and the Greenskins. Vampire Lords still to come.
While it didn't reach the glorious highs of Shogun 2, Total War: Attila was a solid recovery after the fumbling of what seemed like a sure thing with Rome II. Hopefully, this delay ensures there'll be no need for a Total War: Warhammer Karl Franz Edition down the line, fixing launch issues in the way that Rome II's Emperor edition did.
Creative Assembly have also released detailed minimum recommended and ultra specs, detailing not only what you'll need to reach each threshold but what kind of framerate you can expect.
PC Minimum Specifications:
[Expected around 15-25 FPS on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “Low”]
Operating System: Windows 7 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 3.0Ghz
RAM: 3GB*
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Radeon HD 5770 1024MB | NVIDIA GTS 450 1024MB | Intel HD4000 @720P
*PC integrated graphics chipsets require 4GB ram, e.g. Intel HD series
PC Recommended Specifications:
[Expected around 45-55 FPS on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “High”]
Operating System: Windows 7/8.1/10 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4570 3.20GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Radeon R9 270X 2048MB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2048MB @1080P
PC 60fps+ Specifications:
[Expected 60 FPS+ on campaign map and in a 1v1, 20 units vs 20 units battle, default graphics preset set to “Ultra”]
Operating System: Windows 7/8.1/10 64Bit
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K 4.0 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Drive: 35 GB
Video Card: (DirectX 11) AMD Fury X or Nvidia GTX 980 @1080P
I land somewhere between Recommended and 60fps+. A silver medal. Polished.