Anyone play the game yet? I left it downloading this morning 
Any first impressions you want to share?
looking sad, nose pressed against the glass
Hey guys…you can lie to me and tell me it’s not good so I don’t miss out on stuff…k?
Heh. Goddammit.
According to the guy I talked to at GameStop last night it will be available to the general public (i.e. folks who didn’t pre-order) today at 11:30. He says they have 5 copies ‘open’ at his store and will get more in as needed.
I got a call last night from my own GameStop store back home and my copy is waiting for me, whenever I managed to get home.
Anyone who has it let the rest of us know what you think, ehe?
-XT
I’m installing it now. All I have to say is…15 GB? Damn. That’s half the HD space I have left. I’m going to have to do some spring cleaning.
Here is GameSpy’s review…5 stars!
-XT
Well just lost the battle of Bunker Hill. Guess I couldn’t do any better than real life. Does anyone know if you can win it? It was pretty darn close up until the end and all my units seemed to break at once.
I actually got the customer to buy the game today at lunch and we loaded it up on his laptop. It looks pretty good so far. He was playing through the Revolutionary War campaign and it seemed to flow pretty good. One thing I noticed is that the turns seem faster than MTW2 or Rome, though this might be because it’s a campaign and there are only a couple of factions. One annoying thing I noticed was that it seems pretty difficult to drag your combat lines for some reason…the computer kept trying to reorient the troops into all kinds of odd positions. Other than that the game seems pretty cool. Can’t wait until this weekend when I can get my own copy and put it on my PC at home. Going to try and borrow the customers laptop tomorrow night since he just leaves it in his office anyway.
-XT
Yes, you can win it. If you do it gives you a bit of an initial boost in the campaign. Basically set your deployed artillery to grape shot and move up the other battery to the edge of the hill. Deploy your infantry to cover the approaches by drawing them into line. I also would suggest a quick cavalry raid in the center where there was an exposed Brit artillery battery that you can pick off without too many losses. Then you just hold out. Occupy the barn on the right flank and that and a militia unit can hold up that flank, freeing up troops for other parts of your line. About the only trouble I had (besides the sort of wonky laptop my customer put this thing on) was the Brit cavalry, which managed to wipe out one of my artillery batteries and wreak a bit of havoc in my lines before I wiped em out. The other thing I missed was that one of my batteries was a howitzer, so I could use it in indirect fire mode to lob shells at the Brits.
That was about as far as I got in the campaign today though. Like I said, going to see if the customer will loan me the laptop for tomorrow night.
-XT
I am enjoying this game, although I am positive I will be blown away if I can update my computer, shame I have no clue how to do that.
Is it just me or does it seem like the campaign AI is more retarded than usual? You would assume that Bavaria, with its nearly bankrupt economy and weak military, would think twice before they declared war on me. Oh yeah, I am Prussia, whose economy is stupendous and military is terrifying.
A mixed blessing is being able to garrison buildings. My only issue with such is the garrisonable buildings are too far apart, so they are unable to support eachother. Oh, and clearing out a city is a bitch.
I’m playing through the US campaign, but yes…it seems the AI is not as bright as I remember from past games. The Brits are letting me concentrate my army and sending their own in piece meal to get trounced. They have over whelming numbers in both troops and ship and yet they are fighting me on my own terms. If they give me 20 more turns to consolidate upstate New York and Phili I think the game will be over with them in a very non-historic sort of way. Hell, my local fleet is nearly as big as their fleet is since, again, they keep sending their fleet out in penny packets for me to gobble up.
Also, the tactical AI seems to have some glitches as well. It fights well enough, but occasionally it seems a unit just gets ‘stuck’ on the map. In a couple of fights the computers general just sat there until I wiped out the rest of his army and then send infantry to surround and blast him into surrender.
Since I’m just sitting here watching the server rebuild I’ve played through maybe 3 hours of the game so far. Other than the above I’ve found the game to be pretty good. One thing though…my customers laptop seems to lock up during the tactical battles sometimes. I’m not sure if this is the laptop or something in the game. It’s fairly annoying when it happens as it requires a full reboot.
-XT
Saw this in my local Game, had a look at the back of the box - how big an issue is the steam activation? I’ve never had a game that requires internet activation and I’m a bit wary of it, just sounds like another form of DRM to me.
Also: is it worth getting the ‘special forces’ edition, with extra units?
FUCK THIS!
I purchased it at a local gaming store. I dropped $75 to get the special addition and now I cannot play it because Steam is too busy to register me.
I am angry. This is fucking stupid.
Sega doesn’t have phone tech support.
I’m sitting here with a Steam account. The game says I need to register to play. I click on the register button on Steam and reenter the product code, it says I don’t need to reenter the product code just log on to my account. I do that. And I’m sitting here with just a Steam account.
I can’t even log on to Steam tech support because it doesn’t recognize the account I just made, and Steam also doesn’t offer phone support.
I’m too tired to start a Pit thread.
Please. someone. help. me.
Steam is a requirement for store-bought copies? News to me (no I didn’t read the thread).
DRM is your friend, protecting you from nasty pirates.
Who will crack it within hours anyway!
@ Discipline - on the back of the copy I saw there was a clear notice that you needed internet connection and to register a Steam account.
I didn’t see the Steam problem at all. The customer bought the game, loaded it and was playing it in less than half an hour. Is the problem creating your Steam account (he already had one from Fallout I think) or attaching to the Steam server?? When I bought Dawn of War II it seemed to run fine. I can’t imagine that Total War Empire would be more popular than DoWII was.
-XT
I don’t know. I do know I pay money for a product that isn’t working and doesn’t have anyone in place to help me.
My computer now has a shortcut on the desktop with the Steam logo that’s titled Empire Total War. It told me it’s now downloading, I’ve been watching the task manager and after a spike of activity for a few minutes now has nothing…and no game.