Shogun 2

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Just found out that this game was released. Why wasn't I told? Not that I will run out and buy it immediately after the massive let down that was Empire I am still curious. For the first time in a long while I have too many games to play and not enough time. Still want to give New Vegas a playthrough, Dragon Age 2 and now Shogun 2. Not to mention that I am still enjoying myself a bit of SC2 and WoW. Think I need to quit working.

Anyone given Shogun 2 a try? I would be more interested in a good Total War game than a good Dragon Age. From what I have read online it looks good but so did Empire and reading between the lines there seems to be some of the Empire problems in Shogun of which one major was immense loading times.

 

Dragon Age 2 is absolute dog poo, don't bother mate. New Vegas, DO bother, absolute amazing game. Shogun I'll be trying out soon.

 

I look forward to get the new Shogun. I have really fond memories of the first one. Lots of fun and a great game. Hope the second part lives up to it too.

 

Wow, I didn't realize that Shogun was out already either! I'm a huge Total War fan, and even enjoyed Empire and Napoleon even though they were pretty big diversions from swords and shields. Naval combat was an awesome addition... and now we will get that in Shogun. I'm completely wrapped up with DA2 at the moment, not to mention having a baby in a few weeks, so it may be a while before I get to Shogun.

With regards to DA2... I advise you not to necessarily listen to those who say it's "dog poo" (Barmy) or those who say it's excellent (me). Download the demo and form your own opinion before you decide to potentially write off something that you may love. My 2 coppers.

 

So, has anyone tried it yet?

 

Yeah, it's quality.

 

Haven't tried it, but the reviews look really strong. Will have to pick it up eventually.

 

I played alot of part 1 and the expansion. Kick-butt game! Without dropping carzy spoilers, Is the game in line with part one or were there drastic changes to the army builds and troop types? I pretty much liked part 1 as is, though a few things I would of tweaked.

 

From what I understand CA stayed pretty true to the original, even the time period is exactly the same. Except this time around you get current graphics, naval battles and a whole bunch of other great stuff - much of which has been developed in more recent Total War titles.

I don't believe their are really any major revolutions here. This is a game that builds on what has come before, which implies that it's a safe purchase if you're a fan of series.

 

I broke down and picked up the limited edition. I'm not sure when I'll actually play, but I figured I should get the limited edition before it ran out. Same price as standard, but with a bunch of extra goodies, including an additional playable faction. I know I will play this game, so why not.

 

I've played a bit as Chosokabe and completed some of the Tutorials. Very good game so far -- a contender for the best in the series, I'd say. Chosokabe is a good starting faction, since once you take over Shikoku you control a nice island that can only be attacked via naval invasion (i.e. there are no land bridges that connect to it). Chosokabe also has deadly archers. They sort of seem like the "England/GB" of previous Total War games.

Some quick impressions:
• It's nice to be back to swords, spears and bows. It feels like a traditional Total War game again.
• The setting in ancient Japan is infinitely interesting, and I'm enjoying learning a bit about the time period while I'm at it (mostly through external research).
• The game looks absolutely fantastic, both on the strategic and combat maps.


A lot of what has been great about recent Total War games has been adapted to fit Shogun 2.
• Each region is made up of a capital (castle town) and several smaller towns, as with Empire/Napoleon, and many regions have specialties (e.g. strong timber, excellent horses, ninja clans, etc) that give them strategic value.
• Naval battle is back, but is a totally different experience from what it was in Empire, in a good way, and certainly, a setting appropriate way.
• Technology research is back, but is now called “Mastery of the Arts”, and focus on Bushido (the way of the warrior) and the Way of Chi, which essentially provides economic benefits.
• Land and sea trade routes are back in, and there are opportunities to trade with foreign lands, like China and Korea, for exotic goods. These are represented by trade nodes. This sort of trade has been significantly toned down from Empire, but it is still there and adds a nice touch.

Some improvements upon recent games:
• The interface has been revamped, and once you get used to it, truly provides all key information you need like no other TW game ever has before.
• Each region can be fully managed from the castle town interface, so it's much easier to see what is being constructed in your empire and what buildings are ready for upgrades.
• Each ship in naval combat has a more defined role. Small bow ships are fast and maneuverable, firing arrows and even flaming arrows from afar. But if a larger ship gets in range, they are vulnerable to boarding attacks. That said, you will probably always want a few bow ships in your fleet due to their ranged attacking power... so smaller ships don't become obsolete as they did in Empire once Ships of the Line became common.
• The modified experience system allows you to customize your generals and agents as they become more skilled. If you want a general who is heavily focused on leading cavalry, you can build him that way.

This is a quick overview based on just a few hours of game play. I feel pretty confident saying that if you are a Total War fan, you will want this game in your collection.

 

Are there absolutely huge terriotories like in Empire? Did not enjoy being able to take out France in one battle and having all of France as one region.

 

Just for reference, but which games would you count as the best of the series?

From the sounds I've been hearing, it sounds like the left the crap from Empire and to a lesser degree Napoleon behind them and return to the good old formula. I'd definitely consider getting it if it wasn't for the Steam DRM. As it is, I'll just play the older TW games a bit more.

 

I never played the original Shogun or the original Medieval. Of the rest that I have played, my favorite is without a doubt Medieval 2. Between the vanilla game, the expansion campaigns and a good number of amazing fan made mods this game just doesn't stop. I'm very much looking forward to the latest version of the Third Age: Total War mod by King Kong.

This will be the first time that custom settlements will be in the mod, thanks to the work of some brilliant modders who have been trying to crack this code for years. The mod will have a fully detailed Minas Tirith, the Black Gate, Minas Morgul, Moria, Isengard, Carn Dum, Helm's Deep and others (including a generic Elven settlement).

This game for me has been true magic. The time period is just so awesome for this sort of game.

But compared to Shogun 2, the game feels rather cumbersome and unrefined in a lot of ways.

One beef with Shogun 2 is that it doesn't currently support anti-aliasing, so as good as it looks, it should look a lot better. I understand that Creative Assembly is working on a patch to include AA support. The option is there in the game, but it's grayed out.

I used to hate Steam also. Now I would say that I tolerate it (rather than hate it outright).

---------- Added 4 hours, 21 minutes and 32 seconds later... ----------

Here's a reason not to like Steam, which I just tested with my son this morning. He logs in on one PC to play Empire Total War. I go upstairs and try to launch Total War Shogun 2 from a different computer.

Only one PC can be logged into Steam under my account at a time, so effectively, I can't let me son play Empire, or Napoleon, or I guess ANY Steam based game while I'm playing another one.

On the other hand, the workaround to this is to have one person set Steam to run offline. I tested that and we were both able to launch our games.

 

I can't see why "only one person can be logged on at a time" is a valid criticism of Steam.

 

Because I should be able to play both Shogun 2 and Empire -- two completely separate games that I own -- in my household at the same time, without having to find ways to circumvent the login process.

Not allowing 2 instances of the same game to run I can understand, since I only own one copy of the game.

Now that I think about it, I suppose that I could technically use the same workaround I describe above to run two copies of the same game simultaneously.

 

I've only really played Medieval 2. I have Rome too, but it has a bug where I can't click on the icon to end a turn without it returning to Windows. But I like M2 a lot - I still play it from time to time and still have some factions I want to try for it and the Kingdoms expansion.

I don't hate Steam, I just refuse to have to go online when I only play single player. Why bother the paying customer with DRM? It's not stopping pirating of the game anyway.

 

BTW, speaking of steam, is there a way to change where it installs games? I put it on my C: drive, but most of my space is on my D: partition, and I don't have space to install Shogun 2.

 

I just installed Steam on the drive that had more space. Glad I did, my Steam folder is well over 200gb at this point.

 

I reinstalled it, and messed up some of the installs so now I'm reinstalling. Man, Shogun 2 takes a while to download .