http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1OHV628oGiU

Looks so good. Cant believe its actually lighter game than Shogun2, atleast so they say.

Dude, you don't how long I've been waiting for Rome 2 to be made and with that awesome yet short gameplay footage, I want it even more! Hope the Bomb crew will mention something about this game as its released considering their utter ignorance towards the Total War franchise (except For the Snide).

Oh dear.

I have 2-300 hours logged in Shogun 2 on Steam, and I'm not ashamed by it. I am looking forward to ROME II. I can confirm that.

I am so excited for this game oh my fucking god.

the stuff they talk about regarding legions sounds soo awesome.

the only other game that I can remember doing anything similar is the first battle for middle earth where units could be named and gain experience and so on, but it was kinda pointless because units died constantly anyway. According to what they say, that will not be the case here. the legion is an army, and therefore difficult to kill off entirely.

from rockpapershotgun interview with the lead dev

"We want the player to be thinking like a Roman military leader. A Roman emperor was not thinking about, do I move that unit of archers together with that unit of cavalry and make a two stack and then send them between those two cities, the Roman emperor’s thinking about where the Tenth Legion is, and thinking about the fact that they want to reinforce it with the Eighth Legion. We want the player to be thinking more about their legions rather than a random collection of units.

So I think that makes the gameplay deeper and more interesting and also it reduces the micro-management. So the aim there is to have fewer and more significant battles, and we’re doing a number of different things to encourage that and make that work. For instance we’re really trying to create a strong concept of a legion. A legion will have its own legacy, its own gameplay effects and character – so for instance if you’ve lost a great battle or done something very specific with a legion it might get a trait with a particular game effect that reflects how you’ve used it. And that outlives its General, so it’s not just about the effects of the General."

@damnable_fiend: Sweet

I don't know about you guys, but the reason I rarely finish an entire campaign in a Total War game, and especially the reason I didn't finish Alexander, is that the ai forces you into hundreds of battles. which is obviously not ideal, in that it's not very fun, and not historically accurate. it reduces the significance of each individual battle.

if these new mechanics and improvements work the way they seem to want them to, it could be the end of that. and that would be awesome.

I like long campaigns with plenty of individual battles. If you just create a custom game and battle it out it lacks the context and strategical importance of a win. I don't care whether my campaign is historically correct or not.

@Funkydupe said:

I like long campaigns with plenty of individual battles. If you just create a custom game and battle it out it lacks the context and strategical importance of a win. I don't care whether my campaign is historically correct or not.

you don't find yourself going "ho hum, yet another battle against an identical giant doomstack *yawn*"?

edit: I'm not talking about custom games, btw. I don't like those either. I just think it would be great if, in the campaign, the ai (and you, the player) had fewer, but bigger, armies, and couldn't replace them so quickly, thereby making each individual victory (or loss) feel more important.

@damnable_fiend: Who plays Total War games not liking the battles? I can't say I've found their armies identical. In any case as I'm sure you know, a key to Shogun 2 is knowing how to handle the diplomacy system. Keeping those stacks of enemies away from your core territories just enough until you're capable of producing enough troops of your own to take down strategic cities which causes the enemy AI ( go for the jugular style ) not to afford the upkeep costs to maintain many of those stacks you're talking about.

@Funkydupe I do like the battles! but not when I'm playing basically the same one over and over and over again.

The diplomacy system is alright, and, as you say, it is definitely possible to hurt the ai's ability to reinforce its armies, but, especially on the higher difficulty levels, at a certain point all the ai factions are gunning for you at the same time, and, even if you are capable of winning through, it just gets tedious.

@Funkydupe anyways, I think we're at an impasse here. let me just say that I respect yr opinion and the civil way in which you stated it, even if my own is different :]

God damn.

@MocBucket62: I know it's typical to to give Snide credit for acknowledging the Total War games, which is generally better than anyone else at the company, but that guy has no clue. I can't say I've been all that impressed with his approach to any strategy game Vinny is the only man at GB capable of getting into TW, I would say.

Fortunately, I will buy almost any TW product with only the most minimal research, so GB doesn't need to cover it, except to stroke my ego for having played a great game.

I am so ready for this. RTW is what got me into the franchise in the first place, so I'm elated that it's getting reimagined like this!

This is a shorter version of what they showed at the developer session at Eurogamer Expo. Footage is from the historical battle of Carthage, looked really impressive and sounded like they were expecting to make a lot of graphical improvements before release.

One thing that I thought was cool was they said that they were hoping to have the same min specs as Shogun 2 while still allowing crazy visuals for those with the rigs to handle it. Wish it was coming out sooner, loved Rome 1, but sounded like it would be middle of 2013 before they were ready.

Edit: Also said that, unlike Rome 1, you would not have to defeat a non Roman faction to make them playable All factions will be unlocked from the start.

Don't get me wrong, that looked awesome... But is it really gameplay? Most of it was like a cutscene, even if it is in engine.

@KoolAid: They showed this at Eurogamer, there was a guy 'playing' the game but apart from a couple of seconds, no UI was displayed. I think the battle was between the AI with the dev controlling a spectator camera for cinematic effect. They said there was going to be a lot of graphical improvement before release.

I can't wait for MMXIII. That year is gonna have some awesome-ass games

One of the more interesting parts for this is going to be multiplayer. I think they have something really cool in store for us.

Here's a thread for you fans out there: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=548136

@ Veektarius

Thanx, thats a good read, i'm glad i've still got to try out Napoleon & Medieval II, they should keep me busy till ROME II :)

I too saw the full "gameplay" demo of this at the developer session at the Eurogamer Expo. It looks absolutely stunning but there was no interaction from the dev who was demoing the game, aside from switching cameras (he also zoomed out from the battlefield to an overhead 2D mao which was neat), which I thought was kinda lame but my guess is a lot of stuff is still under construction and couldn't be shown in the state they were in.