tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post3040768856317925107..comments2024-03-22T19:07:21.790+00:00Comments on The Wertzone: The Total War SeriesAdam Whiteheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-19191579960460567902010-06-17T09:11:00.930+00:002010-06-17T09:11:00.930+00:00Loved Shogun, Medieval 1 and Rome. Rome IMHO is, d...Loved Shogun, Medieval 1 and Rome. Rome IMHO is, despite its flaws, one of the best games ever produced. The later games in the series doesn’t have the same magic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-73926168101869888042010-02-05T07:08:51.158+00:002010-02-05T07:08:51.158+00:00"Conspiracy theorists on the various TOTAL WA..."<i>Conspiracy theorists on the various TOTAL WAR forums have suggested that the reason that the CA removed comprehensive moddability from the series with EMPIRE and NAPOLEON is because of the fact that the fans were producing work that was superior to their own, supposedly professional products.</i>"<br /><br />This is 100% correct. Indeed, the best CA game ever made, in my opinion, was the first <i>Medieval</i>, all of the games that are actually better are mods. After downloading and playing the first beta release of <i>Europa Barbarorum</i> for <i>Rome: Total War</i>, the historical accuracy, beautifully detailed units, and increased strategic depth, the original became absolutely boring and unplayable for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-3542936024317128432010-01-29T02:55:13.521+00:002010-01-29T02:55:13.521+00:00I played and loved Shogun: Total War 'cause pr...I played and loved Shogun: Total War 'cause prior to that me and my mates were (and occasionally still are) addicted to the board game Shogun (now known as Samurai Swords).<br /><br />Unfortunately since then my interest in gaming has waned dramatically tot he point I've only played two games in the last few years (Quake 4 and Titan Quest / Titan Quest: Immortal Throne). Maybe I should fire up the ol' Shogun again and listen to that lovely music while cutting down swathes of bowmen?Jebushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00985667608602099242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-26805112300055259262010-01-29T00:49:20.200+00:002010-01-29T00:49:20.200+00:00Conspiracy theorists on the various TOTAL WAR foru...Conspiracy theorists on the various TOTAL WAR forums have suggested that the reason that the CA removed comprehensive moddability from the series with EMPIRE and NAPOLEON is because of the fact that the fans were producing work that was superior to their own, supposedly professional products. Not just the mods, but also the fan-made patches which fixed a lot of the AI issues almost with ease, and far more quickly than the CA's official patches.<br /><br />Statistically, though, I suspect the number of people playing mods and using fan-patches is still only a small number of those buying the games, so if this was the reason for CA removing the moddability of the game, it probably wasn't entirely warranted.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-33126848371467527462010-01-28T15:11:20.174+00:002010-01-28T15:11:20.174+00:00The interesting thing is how the "definitive&...The interesting thing is how the "definitive" versions of the games have been fan-built. The "definitive" Rome was not R:TW, but Rome: Total Realism, which was bigger, better, more realistic and less buggy. Similarly, I think that Stainless Steel is a league ahead of vanilla Medieval II - when I and my friends talk about "Medieval", we actually mean Stainless Steel, because there's no going back.<br /><br />Medieval II will have quite some life to come, and not only because of the weakness of Empire - the fan community is just so strong that distinctive new games could be built for years to come. Broken Crescent is very different from Stainless Steel, and Third Age, for example.<br /><br />And then of course there's Dominion of the Sword, which really seems to be stretching what a mod can do.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />This leads to two thoughts. <br /><br />First, one way to have a massively popular game series is to make it moddable, because the modding community supports fan interest up until the next release comes out, rather than all those people drifting away. Modding and scenario-building were a big part of the success of CivII, for instance, and helped persuade people to buy the expansion packs and the later versions. Ironically, I think that by making later versions less easibly modifiable, the series has lost some of its vitality.<br /><br />The more important second thought: how long is it before we start seeing entirely fan-built games being produced? I do suspect that that's the way forward - particularly with MMORPGs, where the communal aspect is built-in, so there's a big base for 'improvements' that may be radical in extent. This, of course, would seriously challenge the subscription model of mmorpgs.<br /><br />I wouldn't be surprised if, in a few decades, "computer game companies" didn't actually make computer games, but only made particularly intricate bits of code for this and that, which were then incorporated into a range of games by the players themselves.<br /><br />[Third, crazy, idea: has anyone thought of a multiplayer Nomic-based game? That is, where changing the game was itself part of the game?]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-38942754447181189062010-01-28T13:52:30.161+00:002010-01-28T13:52:30.161+00:00Rome: Total War certainly did have one or two issu...Rome: Total War certainly did have one or two issues (the AI during sieges was woeful at times, and for some reason in many of my games the Scipii faction amassed a huge army outside their capital city and then did nothing at all with it), but flaws aside it was a brilliant strategy game, with huge depth. Great fun.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07763695390241432518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-83727243088194295992010-01-28T11:14:25.855+00:002010-01-28T11:14:25.855+00:00Empire: Total War does indeed require Steam to be ...Empire: Total War does indeed require Steam to be installed, but doesn't require you to be signed in to actually play the game, although if you're online when you fire up Empire, you will get signed in to Steam. If you pull out your network cable (for instance) Steam will just start in offline mode and the game will still run.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-51455838136295100612010-01-28T10:57:52.937+00:002010-01-28T10:57:52.937+00:00I liked Medieval 1 the most. The sieges were horri...I liked Medieval 1 the most. The sieges were horrible, best to be done by the AI, Rome and Medieval 2 did this definitely better.<br /><br />But tactical depth in the battles and the tutorials were really much much better than those in Rome or Medieval 2. In Medieval 1 you did not charge into a spearwall. At least no second time ever after you tried it... ;)<br /><br />The climax of the series was for me between Medieval 1 and Rome. A mix of both games would have been perfect, unfortunately Medieval 2 was not exactly that. The different starting eras of Medieval 1 had to be emulated by scenarios, a pity.<br /><br /><br />I see not so much appeal in Empire and Napoleon. My new rig might finally be able to handle Empire, but most of my friends who bought it were and still are royally pissed off!<br /><br />I did not even realize Napoleon was a new game of the series. What is it, Empire 2.0 + Waterloo scenario? :><br /><br />CA lost my respect. They are recycling their own game engine / system, one should imagine they polish it till it shines, and then you get something like "Empire"...Longaschttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14315739202508784897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-30257981128283775002010-01-28T05:34:21.135+00:002010-01-28T05:34:21.135+00:00Strangely enough I just bought Medieval 2 and it&#...Strangely enough I just bought Medieval 2 and it's expansion just two days ago (for ten Aussie dollars, yay!)And I'm really enjoying it, even though for some reason I can't play the tutorial or quick battles, also the real time battles are incredibly slow, so what you said about it not being very well optimised, certainly seems true.<br />But it's fun, and your rundown of all the games was very good.jamiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01671754452498055684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-2571561539720257352010-01-28T05:04:59.417+00:002010-01-28T05:04:59.417+00:00I do like them they are fun. get old quick but fun...I do like them they are fun. get old quick but fun...Jeff Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00667419764890599092noreply@blogger.com