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[Game] Shogun 2: Total War

You'll essentially be playing through the same game six times. Then again I know people who have played and loved all the Total War games so that might be just fine for you.
I'd have to disagree there. There are some big differences in gameplay and design between Rome, Medieval 2, and Empire.

Rome and Medieval are must plays. Empire is OK -- rough around the edges and has too much content for its own good. But a solid game never the less that feels very different from the other Total Wars.

The main problem is having enough time to play them all. I bought RTW Gold for $2.50 on Steam a while back and probably spent 100+ hours playing THAT game alone!
 
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Hated the tutorial. It constantly kept interrupting the gameplay and often bugged if you thought two steps ahead and tried to play the game. Coudn't even finish it when trying to take the castle and just when I was getting into it all, the thing started blabbering about some building and paused the game again...ugh :mad:.


But this game rocks. They finally managed to make modern TW game that doesn't kill the computer. Empire I coudn't even play, the buildings ****ted the performance no matter what the settings were, Napoleon ran a little better on medium, but still a far cry from truly enjoyable experience. Now on Shogun 2 I can play it with highest settings(demo has no AA tho.) and didn't experience any slow downs unless I really zoomed in while 500-1000 soldiers were taking the beating.

I think this will be a 1st day buy for me.
 
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Hated the tutorial. It constantly kept interrupting the gameplay and often bugged if you thought two steps ahead and tried to play the game. Coudn't even finish it when trying to take the castle and just when I was getting into it all, the thing started blabbering about some building and paused the game again...ugh :mad:.

Is that not what all tutorials do?
 
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Is that not what all tutorials do?

Yeah :D.

Just didn't like how slow it all went. And how you coudn't just skip the explanations like you can do in so many other games in strategy genre.

Doesn't matter, only things I wanted to see were how is the ai this time around and how well it runs. Those were pretty impressive, so I'm sold.
 
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Do take note that tutorials are always scripted more or less, including the historical battle.
So what might seem impressive AI now might not be so impressive in the retail game. I remember playing the historical battle in the Napoleon demo and got a pretty hard fight out of it, it looked like very impressive AI.
And though they AI is much better than it was in Empire (actually forming lines lol), it was nowhere near that of the demo.
Same goes for this tutorial campaign, the AI is told what to do for your learning purposes, and actual AI might differ completely.

That said, i like the new little details. Archers with animated bowstrings! My mouth dropped as i watched them, totally didnt expect it.
Then after one melee fight i zoomed in on the ground to check the amount of bodies when i spotted movement: wounded soldiers! Unfortunately they didnt make any sound at all, but i can imagine a mod coming along changing that and adding pain screams. Very hopeful for that, as well as a blood mod :)

It also ran a lot better than i expected it to, though for safety i set all settings to low and some textures etc to medium.
Ground looked pretty horrid but the units still seemed to have more detail than those in Napoleon.
Explosions from the siegeworks were uglier than those in NTW though, the fire that came out of them looked like a video instead of actual 3d fire.
The muzzleflashes from the musketmen were weaker than in NTW as well.
I need a pc upgrade anyway, must have something to do with the low settings i was playing on :)

Anyways, im gonna pre-order the limited edition, even though imo its too expensive (80 bucks!) but comes with a statue of Takeda Shingen and ofcourse an artbook which sounds promising considering the quality of art in the demo, and ofcourse some added ingame bonusses like special armour for your online general etc.
 
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Hated the tutorial. It constantly kept interrupting the gameplay and often bugged if you thought two steps ahead and tried to play the game. Coudn't even finish it when trying to take the castle and just when I was getting into it all, the thing started blabbering about some building and paused the game again...ugh :mad:.

A mod has been released letting you play the demo campaign freely:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=428223
 
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I just don't see enough of a difference between this game and Empire. I looks like a few things have been improved but nothing that jumped out at me and made me want to get it right away. The AI seemed to react about the same as it did in Empire. I guess I will be waiting a little bit to see some reaction to how it plays and if any of the MP has finally been improved.
 
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The reviews will of course be spectacular as usual, because they didn't derive much from the "proven" formula but added more content and features.

What will make/break this game for me is the AI. They limited the battles in demo to tutorials/historical battles against scripted AI. Probably a move to conceal AI as much as possible while craving the player for more.

Otherwise, I'm really interested in Shogun 2.
 
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Just a quick question, has anyone actually been able to win the Historical battle, or is it just me that finds it bloody impossible?

I've played only once historical battle and couldn't win it (minor defeat). However I totally slaughtered enemies in all battles from campaign mode.

ps.
/me is waiting for retail version^^
 
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The historical battle is quite doable if you pull all your forces together quickly to the centre of the map, abandoning the left side and pulling the two stray katana units on the right side to the centre as well.
Make sure to put the archers in the woods behind a spear wall to catch the enemy cavalry charge, then try to pin the enemy infantry with that same spear wall.
Charging in the cavalry from the left and the katana infantry from the right flank should cause a chain route in time before the major allied army betrays you and moves down on your flank.

The forces coming down the left side of the map will be occupied for a bit by your ally general who refuses to move against the enemy (he will attack them regardless when the enemy gets close enough to pose a threat).

You can send some help to take away some of the pressure on the left flank, while you re-align your main army to face the traitor army coming from the right.
Once the left flank is secured, use the same flanking tactic on the traitor army and you should be able to roll them up as well, leaving some straggler units here or there, probably a general or so which shouldnt be too hard to take out from this point on.
And that should win you the battle :)

I have heard of a guy who managed to win this battle while his forces were still seperated, and there should be a video of it on youtube somewhere. However this is definitely the hardest way to do it, and pulling your army together quickly would be the easiest way to win.

EDIT:
Also waiting on my copy of Shogun 2 to arrive. It came in the mail today but nobody was at home to receive it.
Being a Special Edition unfortunately it is too big to push down the mailbox-slit! :(
 
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