Rome II

[RooksBailey]

Wow.  Rome 2 is looking really fantastic.

I have to admit it does.  I wasn't interested in it at all - ETW left a bad taste in my mouth, and Shogun 2 was of no interest to me.  But this does look like a compelling new entry in the TW series.  Plus, the mention of "years worth of free and paid DLC" (as a press release recently said) makes this sound like a very special entry to the TW series. 

Today, there is a new article from CA on the new Tactical View, something that was long overdue IMO:

Total War ROME II: Tactical View

ROME II’s battles feature an entirely new feature called the Tactical View. This enables players to pull the camera seamlessly to a satellite view, in which the entire sweep of the battlefield can be taken in at a glance, and movement orders can be given where required.

[Nefaro]

Wow.  Rome 2 is looking really fantastic.

I have to admit it does.  I wasn't interested in it at all - ETW left a bad taste in my mouth, and Shogun 2 was of no interest to me.  But this does look like a compelling new entry in the TW series.  Plus, the mention of "years worth of free and paid DLC" (as a press release recently said) makes this sound like a very special entry to the TW series. 

Today, there is a new article from CA on the new Tactical View, something that was long overdue IMO:

Total War ROME II: Tactical View

ROME II's battles feature an entirely new feature called the Tactical View. This enables players to pull the camera seamlessly to a satellite view, in which the entire sweep of the battlefield can be taken in at a glance, and movement orders can be given where required.

Tactical View?  Excellent.

I've been trying my best to avoid all the previews and hype, otherwise I'll be gnawing fingernails during the wait.

[Gusington]

One week until release!

[Bison]

Is it a pre-release download?

[Gusington]

Don't know, but I hope so.

[Bison]

Me too.  Otherwise it'll be a slow download on release day as Steam gets overwhelmed, but I guess it doesn't matter since I don't expect to have the time to play until the following weekend anyway.

[Martok]

I, on the other hand, have three days off starting the 3rd.  ;D 

[Gusington]

I would expect it to be available for preorders the night before for downloading since the game will ne huge and take up a gigantic memory footprint.

[tgb]

Any word on a demo?

[LongBlade]

Any word on a demo?

Do we really need one? It's Total War. I cannot imagine any need to elaborate further :)

[tgb]

Any word on a demo?

Do we really need one? It's Total War. I cannot imagine any need to elaborate further :)

Is that going to tell me how it performs on my system?

[Nefaro]

I would expect it to be available for preorders the night before for downloading since the game will ne huge and take up a gigantic memory footprint.

I think TW Shogun 2 and it's DLC takes up about 35GB of hard drive space.   :o

If everyone's trying to download the new one from Steam, at the same time, it'll be running at snail speed.

[Gusington]

Definitely. That's why I think they will allow DLs the night before. It makes no sense to not do that.

[RooksBailey]

Is it a pre-release download?

I recall CA saying there would be a pre-release download because of the large installation footprint.  However, no further details have been released on that.  I expect we should hear something soon.  I can't imagine them not doing a pre-release install seeing how well the game is selling and the size of the download.  If they wait until launch day, Steam's servers are going to melt down!   ;D

They also announced that there is going to be a special Steam launcher coming with R2TW, one that will allow you to launch any of your TW games from the same screen, and even jump right into your saved game without having to sit through all the normal launch movies, etc.  CA is really going all out with this title!

[LongBlade]

Any word on a demo?

Do we really need one? It's Total War. I cannot imagine any need to elaborate further :)

Is that going to tell me how it performs on my system?

Yeah, that may be tougher to figure out. According to the product page on Steam:

Minimum
OS: XP/ Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor
Memory:2GB RAM
Graphics:512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3, vertex texture fetch support).
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:35 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - 1024x768

Recommended:
OS:Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater)
Memory:4GB RAM
Graphics:1024 MB DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.
DirectX®:11
Hard Drive:35 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - 1920x1080