This is taking the original Medieval Total war game and creating an entire new engine and improving on it. The battles look incredible with actual different fighting styles of the actual solders and they have multiple models so each solider isn’t a clone of the guy next to him. All of the movement is different when doing a task EX: firing missiles. The movies look impressive and I will defiantly buy this.

Also, they have brought back the cut scenes from Shogun: Total War. The movies show the success or failure of assassination attempts, infiltrations, and sabotages. Some of the failures are comical and bringing in the cinematics during the global campaign seems like it would break up the game experience from just staring at the global map.


Check out the videos
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/medieval2totalwar/media.html

8/5/2006 12:19:45 PM

uhhh

this game is called civ 4

8/5/2006 12:32:40 PM

rome total war kicked ass, so this will most likely kick ass also

8/5/2006 12:43:39 PM

Civ 4 aint got nothin on this hizzy

8/5/2006 4:30:32 PM

The only game I've ever had an attachment to was MTW I. SO THIS IS AWESOME AND WILL NO DOUBT WASTE MY LIFE, THANKS.

Rome TW was okay, but I was obsessed with MTW a couple years ago. I even had the Viking Expansion.

Also, dude, it's medieval.

[Edited on August 5, 2006 at 4:47 PM. Reason : .]

8/5/2006 4:39:34 PM

RTW had very few bad points.

1)Clone soldiers
2)City's wernt very detailed
3)Lack of cinematics

All of these points seem to have been fixed.

I dont know how the merchants, princesses, pope, and castle vs City aspects will play out but it cant be to bad.

Also the army creation is different. You can make multiple units per turn(maybe whole armies?). This would GREATLY increase the dynamics of assaulting a nation because they can form armies quicker instead of slloooooowly building up one.

On a side note. Did anyone ever use Diplomats very well. Only thing I ever managed to do was bribe shit when I had oodles of money, make allies, make them pay me off to stop attacking, and get trade rights. It seemed there should have been more usefulness to them other than these basics.

[Edited on August 5, 2006 at 6:18 PM. Reason : bnbn]

8/5/2006 6:17:39 PM

That's 2 gigs of ram there.

8/5/2006 9:48:07 PM

Not really. The Total war games can all play using a much larger number of soldiers than any other game. And really, Medieval 2 doesn't look THAT much different than RTW, and my computer with 756 MB RAM runs it well.

8/5/2006 10:49:48 PM

Well, it depends on how resource hungry one engine is to another. Might only really matter when you get into max settings

8/5/2006 11:48:59 PM

Yeah, MTW taxed the fuck out of my VAIO.

But I put up with it out of love.

8/6/2006 12:07:49 AM

thats why i love the total war series instead of the gay other real time games like age of empires, the sheer number of men in a battle is sweet

8/6/2006 12:09:21 AM

I only wish you could get into the huge fights you see in the opening videos. You can get your armies decently big with the huge setting, but never the huge carpets of men like in the actual battles or the videos.

In fact, now that I think about it, the medival battles of that age were smaller because they could never muster up the numbers that they used to in the big Roman battles. So the scale of the fights will actually be more realistic compared to historical fact. Though that wont be as fun

8/6/2006 9:33:15 AM

that is true, medieval armies were usually smaller than the ancient roman armies, and even though RTW never allowed for the truly massive numbers of actual history, i was still pretty cool

8/6/2006 12:11:58 PM

Quote :

"rome total war kicked ass, so this will most likely kick ass also"

8/6/2006 3:09:00 PM

sheeeeezzzzy!

retail now?

buy buy buy!!!

i will have the entire tw catalogue!

8/7/2006 9:26:06 AM

When will they make a modern one?

8/7/2006 10:35:04 AM

Modern would suck. These games work because fighting hand to hand and calvary charges and freakin catapults and weird units like axe throwers.

8/7/2006 12:21:20 PM

a napoleonic mod was tried dunno about it's success though...

8/7/2006 12:57:43 PM

Modern wouldn't suck, it would be sweet.

I'm tired of seeing all these Medieval games. I want Tanks, F22's and long range artillary.

8/7/2006 1:06:09 PM

Quote :

"artillary"

But those types of weapons require so much less skill than moving people around strategically on a battlefield, in my opinion.

8/7/2006 1:10:05 PM

Quote :

"Modern wouldn't suck, it would be sweet. I'm tired of seeing all these Medieval games. I want Tanks, F22's and long range artillary."

C&C

Quote :

"But those types of weapons require so much less skill than moving people around strategically on a battlefield"

I agree, artillery would so ruin any game with it's non tactical use, I usually shoot it at empty buildings and barren landscapes and end up winning games.

8/7/2006 1:29:13 PM

Actually they require infinitely more skill.

You see these battles are 90% placement, 10% zerg. Modern battles are 10% placement, 40% tactics, and the rest improvisation. Calling airstrikes on enemy positions, knowing where to place your tanks so their safe from anti-tank missle fire yet within LOS of opposing armor; the list goes on. I believe the "Close Combat" series is the best example of an RTS set with modern weaponry.

These Medievel are, in my opinion, copouts to what would be a challenging design but ultimately far more rewarding gameplay. Its the polar opposite of the situation which exists in FPS games: All modern, no medievel (which would obviously be more fun).

[Edited on August 7, 2006 at 1:36 PM. Reason : C&C is NOT a modern warfare RTS. Its an Arcade RTS.]

8/7/2006 1:36:20 PM

you'd have to make the battlefield area alot larger... introduce recon elements etc.

as it is you can see most of the feild of battle via l.o.s.....

i do admit it would make for an interesting game.... i'd prefer to have a mulitple person control, one overall commander, and 4 subcommanders each in charge of a handful of the assets, thus the commander can free up his time from fast clicking to seeing and guiding the battle and intel as it occured....

8/7/2006 1:59:35 PM

Yea the key would be in how air support and ranged support would be handled and the timers alotted per unit. Also of note would be how field units could respond by bunkering down or burrowing in as well as countermeasures (AA, Recon, Fighter Cover). Done properly though and it would be a armchair generals heaven.

8/7/2006 2:09:51 PM

You think medieval battles are just placement? Are you crazy?

8/7/2006 2:28:11 PM

They've always been about placement.

8/7/2006 2:35:47 PM

For those of you wanting a modern Medieval 2, see Supreme Commander. 'Nuff said.

8/7/2006 3:46:36 PM

Cannot wait for this game to come out, I loved both Rome and Medieval, and this is looking like it will be blending the awesome parts of both.

8/7/2006 4:07:40 PM

Supreme Commander is an arcade RTS.

If thats the case, I think I'll wait for CC3. I was never a fan of TA's "lets make a billion units but they're all pretty much the same" design philosophy.

8/7/2006 4:07:49 PM

Quote :

"You see these battles are 90% placement, 10% zerg. Modern battles are 10% placement, 40% tactics, and the rest improvisation."

There are more tactics in ancient warfare than you are giving them credit for. such as your opponent ripping you to pieces with archers, and you don't have as many, how do you kill his archers with your light cav without his spears or heavy cav stopping you? or knowing how to fight in the desert against a lightly armored islamic army (knights last like 5 min in the desert), or figuring out how to hold ground with an army of skirmishers against knights and pikemen.

Quote :

"knowing where to place your tanks so their safe from anti-tank missle fire yet within LOS of opposing armor;"

Tell me how that isn't considered "placement"? You have to determine the same things in TW; how to strike with your cavalry archers without being killed by longbowmen or arbalesters with greater range, where to deploy your slow moving pikes so that they won't be flanked by fast moving cavalry, etc.

I'm not saying a modern warfare game wouldn't be great, because it would be, but you are selling ancient combat short if you think it requires no tactics or improvisation.

Besides, the total war engine, with its massed unit groups and complex formations, wouldn't be suited for modern warfare, which is more of a "spread out and find cover" type of affair.

8/7/2006 4:46:52 PM

SS: If thats the case, you should check out DoW. When the new expansion comes out, there will be 7 truely unique races all with units thats are unlike others in corresponding armies.

8/7/2006 4:52:53 PM

^^ I think by 90% placement he means that Ancient Warfare was governed by the idea of fighting a pitch battle at the best possible location. Thus the majority of warfare during that period involved trying to outposition the oppositions army and forcing him to fight you were you wanted him to. So armies could be jockeying for position for weeks before the actual battle took place.

8/7/2006 5:01:57 PM

I havent had a chance to play RTW multiplayer much at all because of gay apartment internet, but, What I have found in my many hours playing the various races, its all about flanking.

You line up your infantry with theirs, and you win bu figuring out the fastest way to kill the wing units and sweep behind their lines. Doesnt matter if you have an inferior line of troops, if you have calvary to flank and can pull it off, game over.

Now, PvP I have no clue.

[Edited on August 7, 2006 at 5:08 PM. Reason : asd]

8/7/2006 5:07:51 PM

^^ exactly.

In modern warfare, it happens about 20x as fast so placement isn't as important as pushing an advantage.

Not selling ancient warfare short, but its a lot easier to model becuase there aren't as many factors involved.

8/7/2006 5:14:22 PM

Probably why there isnt a good one that models what you're talking about

8/7/2006 5:22:58 PM

that would be 90% of it....


anyone remember Myth? or Myth II soulblighter? and how the multiplayer worked? that's what i would like to see used across any era for a real time tactical/strategy game

8/8/2006 3:00:47 PM

see what i hated about command and conquer style real time games is the "base" aspect. you mine resources you build a base and you build infinite numbers of troops. then you throw them into battle without a strategic element. with the total war games, especially rome the strategic element makes it better. you build cities to gain wealth and territory and build armies...but you loose population in cities each time you build an army so you cant just sacrafice men without consequences...makes it more real

8/8/2006 5:35:04 PM

^hit the nail on the head.

With the battles, you dont have to worry about your cities. unless your in a seige battle, but thats not a big deal.

8/8/2006 9:06:28 PM

agreed, i dont like having to dick around with base management in the midst of combat manuvers

there is a medival mod for RTW that's actually pretty decent if you can get it running.... very historic map with far more 'territories' in it than the one they have for mtw II.... especially in the east

[Edited on August 9, 2006 at 9:35 AM. Reason : 3]

8/9/2006 9:34:07 AM

I like this picture because you can look at the farm development on the global map.

Here is an example of the new battle map details.

8/25/2006 9:39:20 PM

niiiice i cant wait


too many games too little time

work, sleep, women, normal maintenance, games

8/26/2006 12:00:08 AM

sweet no more 20' diameter trees!

This game is gonna be so hot, I hope they release a demo.

8/26/2006 1:47:33 AM

bttt

9/7/2006 7:48:13 PM

Russian faction preveiw

http://pc.ign.com/articles/731/731089p1.html

3 High Res Trailers with game info

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?fs=1&id=2767

Unit features

http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?page=/en/medieval2/gameinfo/units/index.html&nav=/en/medieval2/1/2/





[Edited on September 8, 2006 at 12:33 PM. Reason : other pics stopped working]

9/8/2006 12:24:09 PM

when is it supposed to come out again?

9/8/2006 8:09:19 PM

It's so pretty.

It's also the last possible addiction I could need this semester.

9/8/2006 8:13:30 PM

Diplomacy and Religion will be SIGNIFICANTLY improved.

Here is Part of religion dealing with the pope and crusades/jihads

Quote :

"In part one of my diary on religion in Medieval 2: Total War, I talked you through the basic mechanic of how religion worked within your regions. We also touched on the role of priests, which led us to the introduction of one of the most powerful figures in the game: the pope. In this second part, I'm going to begin by taking you through the options you have when playing as a Catholic faction to interact with the pope and the papal states, before I move on to look at the crusades and jihads. Medieval armies come to life like never before in Medieval 2. For the most part, so long as you do what the pope asks of you, he'll approve of your people and you should have no problems. Of course, that's very limited, and we wanted to ensure that the player can have lots of interaction with the pope and the papacy as a whole. In Rome: Total War, the senate wasn't really tangible. You could attack the armies of SPQR (the senate and people of Rome), but you couldn't actually have the members of the senate killed. This is something we wanted to change with Medieval 2 and the pope. The pope is the leader of the papal states, and as such can be targeted and killed, just like any other faction leader. He can even take to the field of battle, although a pope who wants to get involved in combat himself is very rare. Not only did we want the player to be able to attack the pope directly (which is an incredibly drastic measure in the campaign), we also wanted them to be able to spend time influencing the Catholic Church from within. The pope is not a constant. If you have a horrible relationship with the pope, things may improve remarkably after the next papal election. Catholicism is a religion with a very established system of hierarchy, and Medieval 2 covers this with several ranks of priest for Catholic factions. A Catholic priest can become a bishop if created in a major church such as a cathedral, something that is entirely within the player's power to build. However, the Catholic Church denotes its higher ranks itself, and during the course of the game, various priests will be promoted to the rank of cardinal, joining the Sacred College of Cardinals. There are 13 seats within the college, and these are only ever filled by rather pious priests. Once a priest becomes a cardinal, further emphasis on their personality becomes apparent in their traits. This is how you can glean what sort of pope they might make, should they ever be elected to the position. Sacking and pillaging cities is all part of the job of being a medieval general. The papal elections themselves are always between three candidates, called the preferati. These are usually the most pious of the cardinals, although priests who achieve certain things during their lives can become more eligible for the role of pope, so there is reason to be proactive with your priests. When the pope passes away and a papal election is called, factions that have a cardinal will be able to vote in the election. Since there are only ever three candidates, most Catholic factions won't have a cardinal from their lands as a preferati. For that reason, there's a huge opportunity for Catholic powers to haggle over their votes, and we ensured that the player can do this by allowing them to jump straight into a request for support in the election. Holy Wars There is more scope than simply asking for support, though. At any time you can look at the College of Cardinals and consider taking out a potential rival at the next election. You could also look for other factions with cardinals that don't have preferati and start buttering those people up so that they are more likely to support you in the election, as most people relish the prospect of a positive relationship with the future pope. The new graphics engine is undeniably beautiful and a huge improvement over that of the original Medieval. The reason that your relationship with the pope is so important is that he is the one person who can give the green light to other Catholic factions to attack you. If you upset the pope badly enough, he may excommunicate your faction, meaning that your people are no longer considered to be true followers of the faith. Excommunication has been designed as a personal issue between the pope and your faction leader. If either dies, there's a chance to make amends. However, it may only take a few turns for the rest of Christendom assaulting your people to make all the difference, so waiting for the pope to die isn't an effective safety plan. Aside from how the pope feels about you personally, he is generally concerned about how large a problem heresy becomes in your lands. To ensure the player had to deal with this, we set things up so that if they let heresy get out of control, the Catholic Church will start sending inquisitors into your realm in an effort to root out the problem. Inquisitors are not averse to looking for heresy in high places, and may actually put your generals and family members through a trial for heresy. Unless your characters appear to have a truly pious nature, chances are that they will be found guilty and put to death. So although you may not fear heresy itself, you'd be wise to fear what may happen should the church feel the need to deal with the matter personally. The last major aspect of the Medieval 2 religion design is the crusades and jihads, a very special kind of religious mission for Catholic and Islamic factions respectively. These are essentially conquest missions that multiple factions can join, both cooperating and competing on their mutual quest to claim a certain place in the name of their faith. The benefits for joining a crusade or a jihad are identical, but the way they come about is somewhat different. The pope may call crusades spontaneously, but they will more typically come about because one of the Catholic factions has requested one. This is yet another area where the relationship with the pope is important for a Catholic power. Islamic factions can call a jihad so long as they have an imam with sufficient piety. This is one of the few areas where we make the religions work differently. Once a crusade or jihad is called, armies of the same faith with a general or family member can join them. This will grant the army some amazing benefits, such as doubling the movement speed of the entire force, removing all upkeep costs, the ability to move through Catholic lands without it being an act of war, and allowing the recruitment of religious mercenaries who will not join your forces at any other time. The game is scheduled to be released later this year. These benefits are all a result of religious zeal; this is an age where many men were prepared to go well above and beyond for their faith. For that reason, the men in these armies are not prepared to follow a leader who isn't going to share their drive and conviction. Generals who don't make progress toward the crusade or jihad target will see their troops begin to desert. So, while joining a crusade or jihad offers great benefits, such as the chance to quickly fly across the map to secure a distant region and receive outstanding rewards, it's not something to undertake lightly. As you can see, religion plays a large role in Medieval 2, and although we've gone to great lengths to ensure that those who don't find it interesting don't have to get bogged down in something complex to avoid problems, we've gone to even greater lengths to ensure those of you who do want to work religion into your schemes have a means to do so. "

9/18/2006 1:20:39 PM

Diplomacy

Quote :

"Building a Better Medieval Diplomat By Dan Toose Game Designer, Creative Assembly Australia Hey, my name's Dan Toose, one of the designers focused on the campaign aspect of Medieval 2: Total War, including, among many things, overseeing our redesign of the diplomacy system. Thanks to the tireless efforts of programmer Scott Lowther to help make the designs a reality, we're able to share a bit about the thinking behind how we've revamped the Total War way of dealing with the other powers in the world. Rome: Total War's diplomacy system handled each diplomatic proposal in such a way as to "wrap up" a collection of offers and/or demands as a whole proposal. When you sent the artificial intelligence a proposal, you would get a response that would give you an indication as to what had happened and why. Despite the admirable work done to create the "packaged proposal" system, we came to the conclusion that there was still too much mystery in Total War diplomacy. Upon revising the system for Medieval 2, we felt that the key means to improve diplomacy was to do away with that "mystery" factor, or at least make things less mysterious than they were. After all, unless you can read minds, there's always a little mystery in negotiation. That prompted the question, "What is diplomacy?" Our answer was that the negotiation aspect of diplomacy is all about two things: trying to read what the other party wants and creating a proposal that takes that knowledge into account and helps you get what you want. The first step to reading the other party is to recognize its situation. To give you extra information about what the other party needs or wants, we looked at ways to go about offering that sort of knowledge without making the artificial intelligence an open book. To do this, we chose some key points to relate to you that describe the AI faction's place in the world, and they're sort of vague hints as to what may be a good or bad thing to include in a diplomatic proposal. These points include the AI faction's military and financial power, its reputation, its relationship with your faction, and anything that the AI is known to be actively seeking from you. After all, there is no point in asking a very poor faction for a lot of money, as that's something that it may not be able to comply with. If that same faction, however, had lots of military forces, perhaps it could be asked for assistance in a war. The new diplomacy system is geared toward making negotiations more realistic. There is one particular element of diplomacy we wanted to convey to you in a much more precise way, and that's the AI's reaction to what you have proposed. After all, when you're haggling with someone in real life, it is generally easy to tell if the outcome was a close call or not. We don't want you to feel like you were way off the mark if your offer is rejected. Conversely, we don't want you to make an incredibly insulting offer and think that it was a reasonable one. Our solution to this dilemma was to show the AI's "demeanor" after every proposal. It doesn't stop you from insulting the AI, or giving the AI way too generous an offer, but it does let you know when that has happened, which allows you to make a better proposal next time around. We always wanted the first proposal to require some smarts, and then you have to "feel" out the bumps in the counterproposals. Audible Diplomacy While common sense allowed most players to form intelligent proposals in Rome: Total War, the diplomacy system itself didn't tell you when you were making a good or bad offer. For example, you might ask for an alliance with another faction, but you may have no idea if that is deemed to be a good or bad offer by the game's terms. To take out some of the mystery, we devised a system that informs you if your proposal is generous, demanding, or balanced before you present it to the AI. This means that you will be aware if the offer you're making is extortionate or generous in the Medieval 2 world. This will prove extremely useful for players who desperately want to strengthen or worsen their relationship with another faction. Diplomacy might secure a needed alliance with a neighbor, or it may get you the money needed to keep your empire running. If you pay attention to the proposal balance and the other faction's current position, not only will you be armed with the information to make a balanced proposal, but you can try to make a proposal that is demanding while still being appealing to the other party. For example, let's say you're dealing with a faction that has lots of money and desperately needs military aid. You could create a proposal that offers military aid against that faction's enemy in exchange for a huge sum of money. The proposal itself may be rather demanding, but if the AI faction needs military aid more than money, it may be an offer that it can't refuse. So long as you take note of the proposal balance, the AI's situation, and its reaction via the demeanor display, you have everything you need to know to make an intelligent proposal and to intelligently make a better offer based on how the AI reacts. One final aspect of "pushing your luck" can be felt when you make several proposals in one sitting. The factions you deal with can alter their take on you depending on the nature of your proposals. If you keep making outrageous demands, you will annoy someone. What else matters? Exposing what the other faction is thinking is one thing, but to truly convey the nature of a reaction you really need to sample a human quality. We chose to use speech. That involved coming up with a system that can detect varying degrees of reaction and assigning appropriate voice acting to convey that reaction as desired. Best of all, the feedback is immediate. You'll know when just a few more florins will sweeten a deal enough or when you've been insulting. Aside from its use to the player, we really wanted this to be an area of the game where you can get a feel for the people you're dealing with. A large amount of dialogue was recorded, and we've significantly upped the number of accents included in the game compared to previous Total War games, so when you deal with the French diplomatically, you will hear a Frenchman delivering the dialogue. You'll be updated on your relationships with other factions throughout the course of the game. What else does diplomacy touch? Armed with the ability to measure how insulting or appreciated something was, AI factions can now have their view toward you altered in degrees. This means that your behavior in diplomacy will actually affect what you have to face in the campaign. We then applied the same philosophy of exposing a shift in stance from the actual act of diplomacy out into the whole faction relations system that tracks what every faction thinks of every other faction. When things break down between two factions or when relations improve, you are notified. "

9/18/2006 1:21:56 PM

they would try to waste my life by coming out with another one

9/18/2006 2:16:10 PM

its only coming out in Nov

only thing that can be bothered by the game will be finals

and they are no biggy

9/18/2006 3:08:55 PM