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Medieval II: Total War - Gold Edition (PC DVD)
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5/5 |
Two steps forward, two steps back...
(September 16, 2008) |
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This compliation brings together Medieval total war 2 and the expansion 'Kingdoms'. It includes a thorough guide for each and if my experience is anything to go by then it loads and plays without flaws or fuss. This is very similar in looks and feel to Rome total war but this later incarnation is more sophisticated and complex.
Rome is fantastic, quite possibly the best pc game of this genre so far which means Medi 2 (this game) has its work cut out if it is going to impress. And impress it does. On a 1650*1080 screen the units look absolutely amazing with layers and layers of detail. When units come together to fight on the battle field the little choreographed sequences look realistic and are thoroughly involving.
Cities and castles too look really amazing with all the walls and towers you could ever wish for. This detail translates equally well on to the campaign map where you now have the ability to zoom in and out of the action according to taste (Rome had a fixed camera viewpoint).
When cannons fire (over an increased distance) the earth shakes and caste walls are torn down...charge!!!
So is it a great game and is this version value for money. The answers are yes and yes. I have been playing the Mayans in south america and my jaguar warriors have been making short work of the pompous technological spanish...who needs guns, not us!!! The expansions in Kingdoms appear to be well thought out and add some diversity to what was already an amazing game.
However i have some criticicms that will not go away. For one, units now have the ability to ignore your orders as they please, so i now have to run around the battlefield like an old hen re-issueing ordrs to charge or engage. Tis is tiresome and detracts from the fun. it makes battles quite a bit more labour intensive without any increase in fun. At times when defending of engaging a settlement units get confused and start running around like headless chicken, the odd unit seemingly doing anything but obey the orders you just issued. They get stuck, confused and then just as likely mullered.
My biggest criticism concerns the campaign map where the movement of units has been lets say s-l-o-w-e-d- down. Click on a merchant and click where you want him to go. Then go off and make a cup of tea. With fresh tea in hand, as you are sitting back down your merchant is just coming to a halt. So you get frustrated click on the space bar and everything zooms around the map. This is silly, poor and needless. In Rome you have about 550 turns to complete the main campaign, in Medi 2 you now have just 225 so you really have to get your skates on. No summer and winter turns as in Rome (and that worked so well) in stead each turn covers about two years. Sixhundred turns at 2 per year would have been much better and it seems that the slow speed of characters moving around the map serves no other purpose than to hide how short the main campaign is and how few battle will be fought.
In conclusion this is an excellent game but my concerns are that the things that worked so well in Rome and were far from broke have been changed here for no gain. The game looks fantastic but it is alot less fun and as i have gone back to Rome i guess i have to say that for me Rome is the better game.
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5/5 |
best strategy game every produced
(August 02, 2008) |
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I do not think any words will do justice for this game, so I will keep this very short and to the point:
-Good things: everything really, graphics are superb, the strategy itself, the battles are just the best thing i have ever seen on a pc screen, extremely addictive game, i spent almost 9 hours on it when I first installed it, and the only thing that kept me from going on was having to go to work. Very enjoyable to play, and unlike other strategy games where you spend lots of time gathering resources then you lose in 10 seconds, this is something a lot more thought provoking, and needs some real skills.
Bad points: you need a very good PC to play this game, and a large amount of Rams, the more the better.
- Caused my PC to crash and freeze a couple of times (running on 1 Gig Ram)
This is by far the best, most enjoyable and addictive game in the market so far, and much better than the previous editions, cannot wait to get the new one coming soon. Get it now, but be warned, this will take your life away. |
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5/5 |
A Great Game
(August 01, 2008) |
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I found this game to be the best in it's genre. It allows players to be one of many factions from the Grasslands of the English empire to the desserts of the Turkish. The battles immerse you in a almost life like battle field were the many different units (such as elephants) engage in combat.
One of the best PC games out.
A must buy. |
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1/5 |
Make sure your computer is able to play this game
(July 03, 2008) |
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I was unable to play this game because after one an a half hours of installing the game it told me that my computer could not play the game because it did not have a 1.1 pixel shader. I have found that there are suprisingly few computers which have this and to get it you will have to buy a graphics card which has this. Before you buy this game make sure that your computer has a graphics card with 1.1 pixel shader |
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5/5 |
Excellent, despite a few minor flaws.
(June 30, 2008) |
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Anyone familiar with the Total War series will have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Medieval II and its expansion pack. There are two "levels" of gameplay; the strategic map on which cities and castles are built, and the tactical map on which battles are fought. With a couple of minor adjustments, the gameplay here is virtually identical to the previous instalment, Rome, the primary differences being the greater variety of units, buildings, and options available. The graphics are also greatly improved, and the look of the maps and the armies is fantastic. You pay the price for this in hardware requirements, though, and even the best home gaming PCs will struggle to cope with battles slightly larger than the norm.
The interface and gameplay is in some ways little changed since the first outing of the Total War series, and has now been polished to the point there is little to criticise. If anything, the weakness of Medieval II is that it tries to do too much. Some of the features it has added to the strategic map in particular- extra characters like merchants and priests- add little to the fun of the game and are much of the time simply pointless and frustrating distractions from the main gameplay. The strategic gameplay is solid, and challenging, but after a few plays it can become a bit predictable. There is a noteworthy bug in the strategic calendar, where characters age at six months per turn, but the calendar advances at two years per turn. This also leads to some ludicrous situations such as it taking sixteen years to cross the Atlantic... but these are details, and in any case this is all a sideshow. The true strength of the game is on the tactical battlefield.
Frustratingly, though, the game has not fixed some of the more annoying elements of its predecessor. Units from the eastern end of the map are still overpowered; the non-player horde armies are still virtually impossible to defeat, and a single unit of horse archers can still waste hours of your life as you fruitlessly chase them around a battlefield trying to finish them off (there's still no "super-fast-forward" button as there was in Shogun and Medieval I). Again, though, these are small details in an otherwise excellent battle game. The AI is possibly a little on the predictable and passive side, but is still challenging enough for all but the most experienced players... and then there's always the multiplayer.
(Players of Shogun will also welcome the return of short, entertaining videos illustrating the success or failure of assassination attempts.)
The game is slightly schizophrenic when it comes to historical accuracy; on the one hand it still paints in the broadest of brush-strokes when it comes to the strategic map (controversially leaving Aragon out entirely), which will doubtless irritate any scholars of the period. However, when it comes to unit names and designations, it is entirely authentic, to the point where, to some English-speaking readers, the names of some units will be all but unintelligible. It is difficult to fault the game too heavily in this regard, though, and the variety of units available is amazing.
The expansion pack, Kingdoms, fixes some minor bugs from the original, but, more significantly, introduces four new grand campaigns to play through, as well as new multiplayer factions. Of these campaigns (the Third and later Crusades, the British Isles c.1250, the Baltic Crusade, and the Spanish conquest of America) the only one to introduce anything really new is the American campaign, with its wide variety of native factions and units. All of the campaigns are fun to play, though, and their focus allows them to include historical details overlooked in the main campaign.
Overall, the game is excellent. Anyone who is already a fan of the Total War series will love it, and anyone who has not previously played it would do well to give it a try. My criticisms above are nitpicks and do not seriously detract from the experience, although veteran players might be slightly disappointed that some of the details have not been fixed since Rome. The strategic gameplay is comparable with franchises like Civilisation, and the tactical, unit-based gameplay is still by far the best of any game on the market. The graphics are breathtaking, and the interface is completely intuitive for all the important elements of gameplay (and there is good in-game help for those who need it). Five stars are well-deserved. |
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