Rome II

[RooksBailey]

I also did not like the atmosphere of ETW or NTW when compared to earlier games or Shogun 2. Like Meng said it was hard to put my finger on why.

Same for me.  I think it is due to the lack of romance.  Even though I loved the idea of getting to play a TW game during the American revolution, the entire 18th Century experience is just not as historically romantic as the middle ages, or the ancient world. 

Preloading and Unlock info has been released:

Creative Assembly today announced the Activation Time for ROME II on its release day next week as a single worldwide unlock time of zero hours US Pacific Time on the 3rd Sept, equivalent of 00:00 PDT / 03:00 EDT / 08:00 BST / 09:00 CET / 17:00 AEST.

From that point game activation will be live and Total War: ROME II will be playable.

Digital customers can begin preloading via Steam from 10:00 PDT / 18:00 BST today (28th Aug) in order to be as ready as possible to begin their conquest of the ancient world on launch day, with only the day one content patch including Pontus, an additional playable faction, needing to be downloaded once the game is live.

Please note that ROME II will be region-locked in some territories, if you are buying a copy from overseas please check with your retailer if you will be able to activate it your home country. Further details on the regions this effects are here: http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_ROME_II:_Regional_Restrictions

Total War: ROME II Launches next week on the 3rd September.

[MengJiao]

I also did not like the atmosphere of ETW or NTW when compared to earlier games or Shogun 2. Like Meng said it was hard to put my finger on why.

Same for me.  I think it is due to the lack of romance.  Even though I loved the idea of getting to play a TW game during the American revolution, the entire 18th Century experience is just not as historically romantic as the middle ages, or the ancient world. 

  Which is vaguely paradoxical since in the real 18th Century the whole idea of "historically romantic" was all the rage.  So I agree, the set the game in some version of the 18th century that proved to be strangely devoid of any flavor.  The would have done better to have focused on some region such as the low countries or the balkans or the levant in some subperiod and then expanded.    For example, they could have started with the situation of the 9-years war in about 1688.  Technologically the pike would disappear pretty fast and Frigates would evolve by 1720.  Finance would evolve to the point that the first financial bubble would happen in 1720 as well.  Grenades and platoon-firing would have enlivened the infantry.  Cavalry would remain more or less inept, but that's life.   

[Gusington]

Received my key as well. Will try to DL when I get home.

[Sir Slash]

Not working for me as yet at 4pm EST. >:(

[Nefaro]

Got my activation keys from Green Man. Says the download will be available Aug. 28 at 00:01 UTC. Can't download yet. Has anybody else got their keys and what does UTC stand for? ???

Here's the pre-load info GGG send with mine:

You can activate it on Steam right now and begin to pre-load from 18:00 BST / 10:00 PDT tonight ready for the launch on 03/09/13!

That's another 8 hours from this moment, before preload starts. 

[Nefaro]

  Which is vaguely paradoxical since in the real 18th Century the whole idea of "historically romantic" was all the rage.  So I agree, the set the game in some version of the 18th century that proved to be strangely devoid of any flavor.  The would have done better to have focused on some region such as the low countries or the balkans or the levant in some subperiod and then expanded.    For example, they could have started with the situation of the 9-years war in about 1688.  Technologically the pike would disappear pretty fast and Frigates would evolve by 1720.  Finance would evolve to the point that the first financial bubble would happen in 1720 as well.  Grenades and platoon-firing would have enlivened the infantry.  Cavalry would remain more or less inept, but that's life.   

Actually, a good starting period for the original ETW being on a smaller scale would've been The War Of Spanish Succession, which happened at the very turn of the 18th century.  It included some of the large european nations at the time. 

But my problem with ETW wasn't the scale.  It was the shortcomings of the AI that hurt it most. 

[Yskonyn]

Preloading here with 17 MB / sec ! XD

[Gusington]

Preloading now at a blistering 6.9MB/sec.

[Nefaro]

Sweet F'ing Foocheese.  I can't even browse Steam Workshop mods for TW Shogun 2 right now.  It outright refused to download the 'extra years' mod after I d/l'd it anew on the laptop last night.  >:(

Everyone was sitting at home, waiting for the Rome II preload I take it?  ???

[Gusington]

Pre-loading insanity!

[mikeck]

Help. I bought it, clicked on "install game" and....nothing. Did that twice with no results. I logout out and shut down steam. When I restart, Rome 2 does not show up I'm my library. When I go to the store and bring up Rome 2 it says I already bought it. How do I get to it to click "install again"??

[Gusington]

You bought it directly from Steam?

[mikeck]

Yes

[mikeck]

When I go to settings, I can see it under account info and is the top game so I purchased the license, it just doesn't show in my library for me to install. I thought I was supposed to be able to install it today?

[Nefaro]

When I go to settings, I can see it under account info and is the top game so I purchased the license, it just doesn't show in my library for me to install. I thought I was supposed to be able to install it today?

Does it not show up under "Library" after you restarted?