Medieval II Demo!

[z00b]

Don't know who else has been eagerly awaiting this one, but I'm a HUGE lover of the entire Total War series. I haven't even done very much multiplayer in any of them, but have had constant campaigns going over the years in each one until the next came out. These are right there with the various Civ games in that regard for me.

And this demo is freaking AMAZING. Just got it the other night and have been playing through the battles in different ways. EVERY SINGLE aspect of the tactical-level game has been improved in some way, and is easier to control and get feedback from. I love it. And the engine is overhauled significantly from Rome.

Anyone else liking this?

[Hall]

I am excited about this title, although the computer I have right now can't run it well. I have it pre-ordered and should have my new computer finished by the time I get it. Here's a list of the games I bought/pre-ordered but i can't even play yet.

Scarface
Battlefield 2142
Medieval II

That's it that I have already payed for but I am anticipating some others.

I really liked Rome: Total War and this just seems to be 10x better from the videos and stuff I saw on it. I really like Civilization, I have been playing that since Civ 2 and this is close to Civ but still holds some great differences that dignify the game. All in all I think and hope I love it.

[z00b]

Absolutely. However, I consider the Civ series and the Total War series to fill two different roles. Especially Civ 4 is on a totally different strategic level than anything but Galactic Civilizations 2. Most of this has to do with the random map generation and wide gameplay options.

I definitely have to be in a different mood to play one or the other.

Battlefield 2142 runs pretty well on my current system (a little worse than BF2), but I am also building a new system for Medieval II and the rest of the current gen. I'm not maxing out my refresh rate anymore (75hz, 1680x1050), and that's always my goal. The new system will easily max that out for some time when fully overclocked and tweaked out. But for now just the playability of Medieval II is great. I can run the Cortez battle against the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan but it's pretty slow at times. I don't even remember what the unit count is on the Aztec side in the demo, but it is HUGE and amazingly well-rendered with the terrain around the city.

The Total War series has provided me with most of my "Wow!!!" gaming moments over the years, and this looks to be no exception (the Elder Scrolls series being another, as well as Battlfield and anything that id made in the 1990s, amongst others).

[Timmay]

Meh, I wasn't really impressed. I found it hard to tell which group of guys were on my team and which weren't. I also had trouble getting my units to attack the enemy units. Some just stood there. I could hear them yell "ATTACK!!" but they just stood there. Weird.