Shogun Total War 2 (demo)

[SanadaUjiosan]

Is out on steam!

Spent several hours last night downloading it, played a little bit at 4 in the morning before going to bed.

Really excited. I've never been able to fully enjoy a Total War game, I'm really hoping the setting helps that. I've been waiting a long, long time for a game like this.

In other news, my computer can only run it on the lowest graphics. My doods seriously look like they came out of a N64. It's amusing.

Other's thoughts?

[Otherside]

I am looking forward to it.

Own every totalwar game ever made.

Not a fan of napoleon/empire TW as the military period didn't interest me.

Hopefully they improve the combat system/AI and make it easier for modders to mod the game. TW games usually plagued with stupid hard coded limits.

As a rule Vanilla TW's tend to suck and you need to wait a while to people mod them to the standard they should be at.

[Teutooni]

+1

I fear my studies will go downhill fast from 15. march onwards

[Gota]

I absolutely Hate the way strategic maps worked past shogun and medieval 1.
I want it to be like a board map not like its civilization...Its imo overcomplex and visually annoying.

nonetheless, I have to see this one so ima get the demo.

[Gota]

By the way!!!!
The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqsYzBrP-M

[SanadaUjiosan]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/54176 ... 9D506092C/

My N64 doods.

Ugly to be sure, but works for me. I ruined my game in the tutorial (leader died and i failed to take a castle) so clearly my fail at Total War is still present. Really hoping when I settle into the actual game I can get a little better.

Can't wait to play as the Uesugi.

[Teutooni]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/54176 ... 9D506092C/

My N64 doods.

Ugly to be sure, but works for me. I ruined my game in the tutorial (leader died and i failed to take a castle) so clearly my fail at Total War is still present. Really hoping when I settle into the actual game I can get a little better.

Can't wait to play as the Uesugi.

Heh, had the same problem. LOD distance was insane, I had to zoom in real close to see the animations and then the models looked really crappy. Updated drivers and fiddled around the settings a little and got it to look decent. I guess the high res assets are not in the demo.

Based on the demo, I observed much improved pathfinding/group behaviour compared to rome/medieval 2. Cavalry shredded archers in seconds and ran down the fleeing in 10 seconds. In medieval 2 you sometimes had to wait minutes for them to catch one man running right in front of them because for whatever reason the AI slowed down or ran in a random direction. Cavalry also responded really quick to change in direction or formation without losing much charge momentum, as it should be with skilled troops.

[Machete234]

Not a fan of napoleon/empire TW as the military period didn't interest me.

Me neither I liked Rome best.
I hope shogun2 runs on crappy dual cores at least a little so I can check it out.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Not a demo anymore, but Shogun Total War 2 is out and I have it!

It's good stuff. It runs well (and butt ugly) on my computer and it's actually fun. High five Creative Assembly. Biggest thing I have to say:

- Sieges are actually fun, both defending and attacking. The ease of putting men on the ramparts, tiered castles to take/defend, and the addition of control points makes it actually enjoyable and cool to play sieges. I've defended against large forces with much fewer man, it's pretty cool.

I just finished losing a few day long Uesugi campaign. I was doing pretty well, but then the Takeda took Kyoto, so I decided it was now or never and waged war on the Takeda, however, doing so made all of Japan turn on me, and the Date from the north took a lot of my territories and effectively crippled me. I managed to hold onto a large force of samurai in central Japan, and managed to defend myself and kill a lot of important generals who attacked me, but finally riots in my cities forced me to pack up all of my military and make a bee-line for Kyoto. A large Takeda force intercepted me, and a really epic and miserable battle resulted in me losing for good and the game crashing, haha.

Fun stuff (I'm excited.)

Going to start a Shimazu campaign tomorrow. Anticipating it to be better.

[Machete234]

Is there a skidrow release allready?

[DavetheBrave]

Bought this game, and having a blast on the cooperative campaign with a friend. Seems like they've really streamlined a lot of features.

[SanadaUjiosan]

I haven't played a TW campaign this much since Rome, and I hated my Rome campaign What I'm trying to say is that I don't have much to compare it to. It does seem rather simple, but still has a pretty good amount of lee-way in what you can do.

The Shimazu campaign is deceptively very difficult. They describe it as an "Easy" initial challenge, but that's bull. The Shimazu are an infantry-specialty clan, and they plop them on a small island with a no-name clan that seems to only make archers, which is allied with an even stronger clan. It took two epic battles (one so epic that it rewarded me with a little statue on the overmap to commemorate the battle) for me to take a castle, and then I was promptly ousted and crushed.

Guess I'll try the Chosokabe next... not as excited about that.

[Teutooni]

I found shimazu quite easy so far (playing on hard though, there's v.hard and legendary). Katana samurai you get at start are awesome at capturing and defending castles and there's lots of trade resources on the tiny islands nearby which generate ridiculous income. I'm a bit weary of expanding too fast and angering the clans, though, since 50% of my income now depends on trade relations.

Takeda, however, was a damn nightmare. For decent cavalry you need a few buildings and the start position is not great either. I guess I'll give them another go once I'm done with shimazu. I guess if one manages to snatch the kanto area from hojo, takeda would have a really good chance to win.

[Machete234]

Downloading it right now, hope it's good and doesnt need 5h to install.

I hope its harder on the cpu than on the gfx card

[SanadaUjiosan]

I must just be doing something wrong. I have a long, painful history of maximum suck in Total War games.

The Shimazu Katana Samurai are indeed badass.

I realized today that Creative Assembly uses the terms Yari and Katana, but not Yumi for bow. I find that odd. But it's not like everything else is accurate in this game.

[Machete234]

Ok Im playing the tutorial now and even that is awesome, I might have to play all night.

[Teutooni]

I managed a decent start with Takeda - the trick was to make the right choices for allies. Hojo and Uesugi declared war on me (along with some of their minor allies), but two of my allies also joined the war, and actually helped! We managed to completely crush Hojo in a few turns with me and my ally both fielding 1500+ men vs Hojo's 2000-3000. I have never seen an ally actually help like that in any total war game before - as soon as the war started, they marched their units to my aid. <3

As a side note, Takeda katana cavalry are damn awesome. I'd never have thought possible to defeat 2000 ashigaru + 500 samurai with just 6 katana cavalry units (60 men each) and 5 ashigaru units (total ~1000 men) on an open field. Even on foot, the Takeda cavalry fight considerably better than shimazu katana samurai.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Even on foot, the Takeda cavalry fight considerably better than shimazu katana samurai.

Oh my, that sounds frightening.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

how does this compare to the other total war games?

I liked medieval 1 the best, rome was OK, medieval 2 & empire @ war I didnt like so much.

[Gota]

I liked shogun and medieval 1 best but i still preferred shogun cause it had a more wholesome strategic map.