Excellent.
Which factions are you guys planning to play first? Me; Athens. My plan is to turtle for a bit under Macedonian protection, then unite first Greece proper and then all Greek-speaking peoples under Athenian rule.
Pontus is a day 1 free release, which is good. Apparently the Seleucids are coming in October, so the Ptolemies better not get too smug.
Probably going to start with Rome. But I’ll likely play two games in parallel. One with Rome, and one with Carthage.
This way, no matter what happens, I win 
In the original I always enjoyed starting as the Britons, uniting the isles, and then conquering from the sea. I’ll see if that’s still available.
I’m pre-loaded and ready to go when I get home from work on Tuesday.
Can NOT believe that they wouldn’t release on Labor day. Grrr.
Got the discs, but no dice from Steam. Pre-loading that bad boy with the CD key, though.
Some reviews are in:
The joystiq review appears to be from a console gamer. He keeps on harping on how strategy games aren’t for everyone, as though it was some sort of crime for this big budget game to NOT be yet another action button masher. He also thinks that simulated history is silly. Compares it to re-enactors using ketchup packets to appear as though they have been shot.
They gave it 3.5 stars: Video Game News & Reviews | Engadget
PC Games N didn’t constantly complain that this was a strategy game, imagine that. But they did have complaints: Their main concern seems to be that the political intrigue aspect isn’t really tied to major consequences, and so the decisions you have to make, aren’t as nail biting as they perhaps should be. They also mention plodding AI, and a feeling that the artificial limit on armies based on imperium can make the time between army bumps boring as the more entertaining battles and diplomatic maneuvers are short lived and sparse, specially in the middle of the campaign.
Ouch 7/10.
So AI issues, pathfinding issues, the lack of fun and interesting things to do on the campaign map other than wage war, issues that the series has always struggled with are, apparently, still there.
So far, RPS and PCGamesN reviewers both said that it’s still a great game, and they aren’t going to stop playing. But it sounds a bit disappointing. I was hoping the campaign would bring in a little bit more of the civi 5 vibe, making things aren’t related to combat a bit more engaging.
Some more reviews: Much higher numbers too 
Rock-Paper-Shotgun:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...l-war-rome-ii/
NowGamer: 9.5/10
GamesRadar+…_2_review.html
Gamesradar: 4.5/5
GamesVillage: 9.4/10
http://www.gamesvillage.it/review/58...ecensione.html
CVG: 9/10
http://www.computerandvideogames.com…-scale-review/
GameReactorUK: 9/10
PushStartUK: 9/10
http://www.push-start.co.uk/game-rev…-total-war-pc/
Electronic Theatre: 90/100
http://electronictheatre.co.uk/pc/pc...al-war-rome-ii
Vandal: 9/10
http://www.vandal.net/analisis/pc/to…-rome-ii/16311
Metro.co.uk: 9/10
http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/02/total-...ns-do-3946558/
Eurogamer.it: 9/10
http://www.eurogamer.it/articles/201...iew-recensione
GameStar: 89/100
Meristation: 88/100
http://www.meristation.com/pc/total-…-juego/1788264
PC Gamer: 85/100
EGM: 8.5/10
Reviews – All - EGM…-war-rome-ii/#
thesixthaxis: 8/10
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/09/...rome-2-review/
VideoGamer: 8/10
http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/ro...ar_review.html
Eurogamer.cz: 8/10
http://www.eurogamer.cz/articles/tot...rome-2-recenze
One Hit Pixel: B/A+
http://onehitpixel.com/review/total-war-rome-ii
Beefjack:
http://beefjack.com/reviews/total-wa…-ii-review-pc/
Digital Spy: 4/5
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/n...territory.html
IGN isn’t ready for a review yet, but they have a really cool video where they talk about the game and what they’ve played of it so far.
Nice video. Pity about the guys being horrible Total War players.
That guy has been posting gameplay videos.
Some fo the footage, specially when he goes into the cinematic camera mode, oh my god. Blows my mind. IT’s like being smack in the middle of some huge budget, sword and sandal, Ridley Scott extravaganza.
Epic.
This waiting to 8am tomorrow morning is killing me. Will have to console myself watching gameplay vids. Amazon (£5 cheaper than Steam, FYI) haven’t emailed me the code for the Greeks yet, hopefully will arrive tomorrow.
Roma victor!
Its out guys! Are you playing?
What do you think so far?
My only slight disappointment so far is that Nvidia doesn’t have an SLI profile ready for this baby, so I’ve got one GPU idling, while the other struggles to render the game at 1440p.
Even so, the game looks amazing!
Still haven’t gotten the Greek DLC code for preordering, poor show. I’m not the only one, looking around the internets.
Playing through the prologue campaign. It’s smooth as silk, load times far quicker than I expected (a fraction of the time of Shogun 2 into battles). Not quite got the city management bit down, the UI I’m finding a bit odd.
Battles are great, although I’ve been annoyed a few times so far that my troops have failed to disengage when I want them too - or they disengage for about 20 yards, then run back to get slaughtered. Has happened with my hastati, equites and general’s bodyguard (the stupid sod got killed as a result).
Missing the blood pack from Shogun 2, although appreciate that they kept slo-mo and added cinematic camera for the appropriate moments. Fighting animations don’t seen quite as fluid as Shogun 2, although that might just be me preferring katana-on-katana to the shield bashing.
Yep, I’m also having the same issue with troops diving back into combat after given an order to disengage, multiple even.
I still don’t know exactly how food works. The totals I get at the province screen don’t add up.
The faction screen is super confusing as well. I don’t know who these people are, or why I should care. And there doesn’t seem to be any real repercussions when it comes to deciding what to do with a political event.
I’ve got the Greek city states showing as playable in my game.
Decided to let Athens wait on Amazon getting their shit together, instead playing as the Iceni. Hail to the mother! Plenty of food, but my public order’s in the toilet and I can’t built anything as I don’t have the tech.
I figured I wouldn’t be bothered with faction squabbles with the Iceni, but someone still keeps trying to assassinate my generals. Might have to start a Stalin-esque great purge of my faction. Speaking of assassinations I’m having no luck; 80% chance of success - “Enemy wounded”. Bah!
Not having the disengaging problem this time round, although my army is missile heavy so not had much chance to test it out.
Pre-ordered off Steam?
The game defaulted to the highest graphics settings (which is as it should be - my rig is aging but I’ve kept it Frankensteined to something at least comparable to a decent gaming machine) but it chugs pretty badly when troops crash into one another.
I played the prologue campaign and it told me I lost Capua even though I didn’t see any fighting going on. Confusing. I’ll probably give it another go tomorrow night and probably skip the prologue altogether as I don’t need the game reminding me how to navigate on the tactical map.
I played the prologue and a bit of a campaign. So far, I’m impressed. Fighting in cities is actually interesting for a change. After Napoleon and Shogun 2, I’m having a little bit of trouble readjusting to ranged units being so inconsequential. The limited number of armies on the map really changes the strategic game in interesting ways, but I don’t like the loss of realism. Why can’t I tell three units of principes to pop out of the city and deal with the stack of bandits in the countryside? Why do I need to bring the whole army with me for that? I’m also conflicted about the way sea transport works. Certainly, being able to just walk my army into the water and sail away makes things easier on me as a player, but at one point, I had a bunch of Etruscans cornered deep in Roman territory, pinned between a mountain range and the sea, and the motherfuckers just pulled a fleet of triremes out of their ass and sail away.
Mostly nitpicks, though, even the army size thing - I’m spending a lot more time thinking about how I want to move my armies on the strategic map, and that’s a good thing, despite my other reservations.
BWAHAHA! You owe me a new keyboard 
So far I’m liking the game, though I have many of the same issues that Miller brought up. I’ve noticed that the AI seems to be a lot smarter at the tactical level (even at the strategic level) but I’m still only a few hours into my first campaign (I played through the prologue). I’m also having trouble re-adjusting to ranged units being so weak (at least for the Romans so far).
I hear people talking about the awesome general speeches… None of my generals have started a speech!
Bug, or is there an option somewhere I missed?