Rome II: Total War in August issue of PC PowerPlay

[NiGHTS]

This is the last page of Australian PC gaming magazine PC PowerPlay (july 2012)

[tarpmortar]

It should be debuting before this at Rezzed which is the new PC and indie games convention in the UK.

[MadeManG74]

My only real fear for this is DLC. There was some disgusting DLC schemes in Shogun 2 and FOTS (pre-order factions, DLC factions instead of unlockable factions was terrible). To be fair there was one fantastic DLC as well (Rise of the Samurai was a full expansion pretty much, with a fair price).

I do also worry a bit that they might do the 'small scale' thing like Shogun 2 and make it just the Italian peninsula or something, but I really think it's going to be a huge Europe map again, which I cannot wait for.

Rome had the best unit variety and was one of, if not my favorite setting for a Total War game. It would be great to be able to have some big variety in cultures and armies, not to mention battlefields after Shogun 2. Great game (best Total War yet in terms of features etc) but the battlefields were all the same and every faction was nigh-on identical.

[Pao]

Oh boy, Rome was my favorite in the series by far. Though I wonder what they will bring to the formula with this one... Will they use a new engine or stick with Warscape?

@Mang: I reeaally doubt they will just focus on the Italian peninsula, the backlash will be very terrifying, haha. 

[MadeManG74]

^I agree it's almost certainly not going to happen, but could you imagine if they made it like Shogun 2 in terms of scale? Rome 2: Italian Peninsula only, all factions are roman families with Identical units. You can play as 3 and the rest are Pre-order exclusives! 

I can't wait to get some details though. What features do you want to see carry over/change?

I would like to see the skill trees return, but at the same time I think you should only be able to choose certain skills depending on your actions. It doesn't make sense in Shogun that you can spend the general's entire career defending a castle and still choose attack-based skills.

I also think the food supply system from Shogun 2 Vanilla should be kept,that was a new layer of resource management added to the game and put a lot more emphasis on farms.

Finally, you should be able to retrain troops again! It sucked not being able to retrain your veterans to get the upgraded accuracy/armour in certain provinces

[Pao]

Yeah, I thought your Generals getting traits based on their deeds/situations gave them much more personality...

There is one thing I've wanted in the series for some time now, even though its just cosmetic... It is the ability to customize your troops, or create entirely new legions by choosing their equipment and training... Shogun 2's multiplayer offered color customization, but I'd like CA to take it a step further.

[MadeManG74]

I didn't play Napoleon but I think that game featured the ability to customise or at least name your elite units (when they hit a certain level of experience). I can't remember if Empire offered this as well, but it's definitely a feature that would be cool.
I'm not sure if it would fit Roman armies, but it would probably fit really well for Barbarians like Gauls or Germanic tribes for example!

[Sharky]

Awesome, awesome news!

Apart from my dream of a Fantasy: Total War this is what I've been waiting for!

[CrazyT]

I've just recently started playing the total series as well. I purchased the whole series during the christmas sales but the game required alot of patience to master so I stopped since I didnt have the time but now everytime I play it's hours and hours of enjoyment I have. Playing Rome total war right now and it is really such an excellent rts game and surprisingly the strategic and managing aspect on the maps are just as fun as the battles. I never understood why this franchise is so big but now I do

Great news man

[Pao]

Total War: ROME II officially announced, for late 2013!!! Hooray!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKglskMfyWA[/youtube]






Here are some details:

• SEGA and Creative Assembly have lifted the lid on Rome II: Total War, showing an impressive 15 minute demo revolving around Roman efforts to reduce Carthage to rubble. The headline new features are a redesigned graphics engine, a greater sense of scale and a stylish new cinematic unit camera.
• During the presentation, Creative Assembly walked us through plenty of details about what Rome II intends to offer when it's released in late 2013, and lead designer James Russell spoke about the game's intentions.
• Shogun 2 was set in narrow geographical areas, with limited sets of units - a comparatively small scale to what's being intended with Rome II. It was designed with a focus on game systems, such as engine polishing and improvements to unit pathing.
• With that in place, Rome II is going big - it's bigger than Rome 1 in geographical scale.
• The game's key design vision is in taking players from a macro to micro scale, such as jumping from a campaign map to a single unit.
• Despite that focus, Rome II is still attempting to make its macro scale bigger - we're guessing the senate will play a large part of that, but Creative Assembly won't say just yet.
• As you rise through the ranks, your success will attract less-than-favourable responses from some of your friends. You will almost definitely get betrayed. There's "more human-level drama on the campaign map" in Rome II.
• The bigger campaign map has "hundreds" of regions to move your units around, but the game buckets them into provinces to make management easier. The idea is to have you thinking about armies and legions rather than fiddling around with individual units.
• Ultimately, the game will allow you to decide whether to favour the republic or become Rome's dictator.
• The game's cameras have been redesigned. You can now lock the camera to single units. In this mode it functions like a sort of documentary cam, shaking while the unit walks – it's "a soldier's eye view" according to Creative Assembly.
• The demonstration takes place with a scenario set during the Third Punic War, which took place during 149BC to 146BC. The scenario here is the Siege of Carthage.
• Rome II: Total War features a new graphics engine, which features particle and deferred lighting.
• The game can now combine naval and land battles into the same conflict, including naval invasions: in this demo a Roman ship lands on the coast of Carthage.
• Naval units now have more than one ship per unit.
• Though expected, we see catapults and ballistae being put to good use.
• The demo has a big focus on Roman siege towers, and the snap-to unit camera takes the view of the game inside the siege tower itself.
• Conflicts take place over much bigger environments - much of Carthage has been recreated in the demo. To accommodate this extra scale, the game now features a top-down tactical map.
• There are multiple ways to capture cities. Walls can be reduced to rubble after they've sustained enough damage, for instance. It's designed to create cat-and-mouse gameplay: "You're not just sitting in the plaza once the walls are breached trying to defend that one area"
• There's a real oomph when units engage, with walls of shields colliding.
• The new graphics engine can show some impressive fidelity for a game of this scale. We can clearly see that Cathage's walls have graffiti.
• Buildings crumble in the background as Carthage deploys its war elephants and the demo ends.
• The unit camera has been designed so the game feels like it's "almost Saving Private Ryan at the beaches".
• Each unit has its own facial animations, and leaders bark out a stream of orders throughout. each confrontation.
• Units react to things, such as their colleagues being slaughtered - the idea is that these aren't idenikit clone armies anymore.

http://www.videogamer.com/pc/rome_ii_total_war/news/rome_ii_total_war_everything_we_know_detailed.html

I can't tell if the first screenshot is art or screenshot...
If its real time ......... 

[MadeManG74]

Unreal.

[Pao]

Screenshot confirmed as in-game


Also, some scans: