Blind Squirrel Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142744.html I haven't played Rome yet, (was waiting for it to be bundled with the x-pack) but this has me pretty pysched. Slated for a winter release right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 I'm super psyched for this, too. A coworker had the press release up on his screen yesterday and when I saw it my face lit up with a huge, uncontrollable smile for several minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted January 22, 2006 Report Share Posted January 22, 2006 Excellent! I know alot of people were worried when Sega bought up Creative Assembly. The thinking was that Sega would force them into being strictly console developers (I have no idea why that even became a thought to begin with!), and would move them away from thier strategy roots. A silly assumption, and I'll definitely give this a try when it's out. Rome: Total War was a good game that I didn't put alot of time into (I don't have it installed at the moment but this may be enough motivation to get me to reinstall it;). Hopefully they use a similiar graphics engine as Rome was gorgeous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blind Squirrel Posted January 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2006 I recently found out that they have released the "Gold Edition". Hopefully I'll be able to find it tommorrow when I go into town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted January 23, 2006 Report Share Posted January 23, 2006 OH DEAR LORD! *faints* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted April 8, 2006 Report Share Posted April 8, 2006 High time this thread was updated. Gamespot have two excellent Preview Q&A sessions about the game, along with a stupendous gallery of screenshots: Preview Q&A One GS: The early screenshots look pretty amazing, and we're seeing details that we didn't see in Rome, such as some variation in appearance so that units don't look like armies of clones. What other graphical improvements can we expect, and will this require any significant increase in computing power to appreciate the game? BS: Removing the clone armies that we've seen in previous Total War games and other real-time strategy titles was one of our priorities when it came to enhancing the engine. We're very proud of the results. Each troop model is now constructed from a variety of heads, bodies, and limbs. On top of this, there are also multiple variants for shields and weapons, too. The engine combines these elements to make each man far more individual and so that each unit of men looks, as well as behaves, like a realistic group of soldiers. Armor and weapon upgrades are also evident when you look on your units in battle. Overall, this enhanced individuality for the soldiers ramps up the realism and immersion of the huge battles to new levels. Elsewhere in the engine, we've made some major improvements when it comes to the rendering of settlements in the game. It wouldn't be Medieval without vast, monumental cities and castles, and we set out to do them justice by ensuring that we represent them in-game in a far more realistic manner than ever before. Cities and castles will be built around the environment, incorporating cliffs and slopes in their layout. This not only makes for a far more realistic representation of settlements, but also introduces new layers of strategy when it comes to siege situations. This new system also includes per-pixel lighting effects and localized damage, so what you hit is what you break. We've also made huge progress when it comes to combat animation. The thousands of motion-captured animations we've captured have allowed us to create some superb new action out on the battlefield. Sequenced attack combos will allow individual troops to string together devastating moves that can swathe through opponents. Attack failures and defensive moves have also been added so that a strike is deflected when blocked successfully by a defender. This makes the combat feel more solid, thanks to the direct cause-and-effect visual feedback. You'll see these moves being executed all over the battlefield, and as soldiers are struck down, you'll see those remaining continually scanning their surroundings for their next kill. These features combine to make the huge scale battles so much more realistic and immersive, whether you're zoomed in on the front line or scanning the battlefield from a distance. The textures in Medieval 2 are done to a much higher level. In general, the texture resolution and polygon count is at least double those of Rome. As for the impact this has on the minimum spec, the game will ship around two years after Rome, and as technology has progressed, the minimum spec will be higher. However, as with previous games, everything is scalable, so it'll be possible to scale down the most system-hungry effects. You certainly won't need a monster PC to run the game, and there are already games being released with higher min specs than we're targeting. Preview Q&A Two BS: The diplomacy system has been improved. We're going to give the player a lot more information about how the artificial intelligence feels both about them and about the offer on the table. However, at the same time the AI will take offence at insulting offers and will have a better memory of past dealings. You should be able to trust your allies, but only up to a point. BS: Clutter on the campaign map is a danger that we've been mindful of. As a result, we've designed the new agents in such a way that they do not require a high degree of micromanagement and high maintenance. Priests and merchants will carry out their preaching or trading without player intervention, and princesses will carry out the role of diplomats until they're married off. We've also placed limits on the number of agents of each type you're allowed, based on the tech tree buildings you've constructed. The limited number of agents in Rome was a bit of a reaction to their abundance in the first Medieval, but we probably cut back a bit too far and ended up with rather an empty map. Now you'll see more representatives of foreign powers walking through your lands. Screenshot Gallery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 New Video. Lead programmer Ken Turner provides a basic overview of the game: http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=662&s=l It continues to look wonderful. They seem to have made some excellent improvements in character animation during battles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 I'm almost afraid of how much sleep I'm going to lose to this game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Funnily enough, I installed the original just last night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Given that I've eventually admitted that Medieval 2 isn't going to run on my poor little machine, which old one should I buy? Rome looks a lot nicer, but I know more about the Medieval period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Well I've still got my copy of Medieval + The Viking Invasions pack somewhere if you're interested in it. I'm rather tempted by the Total War megaset floating around as it really is superb value, and I don't yet have either of the two Rome expansions, so if I bought that it would also mean my current copy of Rome would need a new home too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Well, the whole big box is ?40 in Tesco. And looks very shiny, and comes with the soundtrack on CD in there (if memory serves). So yeah, I'm half tempted by that as well. But that's several hundred hours of gaming I just don't have time for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 There's a new compilation coming out real soon containing Medieval+Expansion and Rome + Expansion... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Real soon in the US. It's out over here; ?40 gets you Shogun, Medieval, Rome, all expansions and a soundtrack CD that also includes some bits from Medieval 2. Sorry if you didn't catch that's what Daniel was referring to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Doh, no I didn't catch that at all. Great value I'd forgotten about Shogun. I've got Medieval & Rome gold packs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 It's a really nice, big, box too. It's just that you can get Rome and the first expansion for ?20, and that's enough to last me for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Comes with a soundtrack CD and book of artwork form the series yes. It is superb value (and it's the only way you can obtain a hard copy of the Alexander expansion for Rome as I believe it is download only) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted July 16, 2006 Report Share Posted July 16, 2006 Well hopefully my mate at Sega can get me a freebie That looks lovely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 That box isn't that big, but it's fricking heavy because of the book. I honestly strained my back carrying it home yesterday. Had other stuff in my bag, but my back was fine until I added Total War to the load Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 So the book is rather comprehensive is it? Off to Amazon I go then... I don’t suppose they left slots in the ‘eras’ box itself to house the discs for Medieval 2 once released did they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Haven't opened it yet, let me take a look this evening. I doubt it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 Friendly reminder: Medieval: Total War 2 is released in the US on the 14th of November (and in the UK on the 10th. Curse my buying expensive Lord of the Rings score box sets). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry the Clown Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 I’ve been trying out the demo (Gold version. Around 700mb). It runs nicely for me with custom settings. There’s some slowdown due to the vastness of characters on screen during the Otumba/Aztec battle, but Agincourt was super smooth and exceptionally detailed. I should be able to employ a bit more tweaking to my settings to improve things further. It's simply magnificent though. Everything I had hoped for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 I always found it was my CPU limiting the framerate during huge battles in Total War games. I wonder if this one makes good use of multiple cores... I enjoyed the demo, but I've never been into the battles much on their own. Seems like the same old thing (which is good, of course). I really wish they'd demo the campaign. I'm much more interested to see what the campaign interface is like and how that whole side of the game is different. I'm not buying it right away (too much console goodness this month) so I guess I'll have all kinds of impressions and reviews to go on by the time I'm thinking about picking it up, anyways... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 I enjoyed the demo, but I've never been into the battles much on their own. Seems like the same old thing (which is good, of course). I really wish they'd demo the campaign. I'm much more interested to see what the campaign interface is like and how that whole side of the game is different. It's the campaign I'm looking forward to. Heck, I'll switch it to sim the battles if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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