Medieval Total War is out!!!!!

[Cookie Monster]

Did anyone pick this one up yet? If so how is it? Well what do you think..........

[DrSpike]

It's not out in the UK..........I am looking forward to this one.

[Leonidas]

It went GOLD, but it may take a couple of days before it hits the store shelves. . .

Hmmmm. . .

Crusaders, Knights, big castle walls, and grovelling infidels. . .

[Kyle]

Came via Fed Ex this morning. Despite some short falls in the strategic game (lack of diplomatic options; which Crusader Kings should have in spades), it's quite engaging. I've spent hours on it today.

Amazingly enough, things have been peaceful.

[DrSpike]

Any jammy b*stards that have the game stop playing you gaming addicted layabouts and do something useful.............like posting some tidbits about the game .........especially the sort of stuff that didn't make
(p)reviews.

Anyone tried MP?

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by Kyle
Came via Fed Ex this morning. Despite some short falls in the strategic game (lack of diplomatic options; which Crusader Kings should have in spades), it's quite engaging. I've spent hours on it today.

Amazingly enough, things have been peaceful.

You lucky guy you!


Are the diplomatic options similar to Shogun Total Wars' diplo options?

[Kyle]

I never played Shogun, so I can't comment. I look at that part of the game in two ways, diplomacy and other actions. Diplomacy is limited to asking for alliances, cease-fires, and royal marriages. The other things include assasinations, spying, using religious units (Bishops, Alims, etc) to change the worship levels, setting up trade routes, etc.


The strategy portion is fun so far, but diplomacy as we usually think about it, is weak.

[Rogan Josh]

I looks a lot more strategic than Shogun was, which is a good thing imho.

[Grumbold]

Hopefully the game is better balanced than Shogun was. There was little point in doing more than pumping out basic units until you owned most of the world. Then you could sit back and upgrade everything or just continue swamping the opposition.

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by Grumbold
Hopefully the game is better balanced than Shogun was. There was little point in doing more than pumping out basic units until you owned most of the world. Then you could sit back and upgrade everything or just continue swamping the opposition.

Agreed

However I'm optimistic that due too the sheer size of Medieval it will be more complex than Shogun was. Hopefully your "swamping" tactics won't work in Medieval. We shall see. I plan on picking up this game this weekend.

Grumbold, is Medieval available in the UK (Scotland) yet?

[Urban Ranger]

Warrior monks rule!

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Warrior monks rule!

Amen to that.

And to the guy asking about the UK the release date I have is 30/8, meaning all of us in the UK have 1 week of temptation before the game gets released.

[Cookie Monster]

To my counterparts in the UK, this is one good game. It's worth the wait.

Haven't really had a chance to play too much but I will give you my quick take on the game.................

[DrSpike]

Go on then! We're on tenterhooks..........

[Cookie Monster]

Sorry didn't have the time earlier to elaborate.

Well here's my quick take on MTW with more to come as I play and digest this game some more.

The game has a footprint of 1.7GB so make sure you have plenty of room on your hard drive. Make sure that your virtual memory settings are optimized as this will make gameplay smoother. I tested this game on a PIV 1.6GHz system running Windows XP. There were no problems during install and the game has not crashed. I spent a total of 2.5 hours playing the game so far. I selected a new singleplayer campaign set in the early period. The difficulty setting was set to normal and the Turkish Empire was my choice in factions.

Let me start with diplomacy; The system appears to be similiar if not identical to Shogun Total War's engine. You build "emissaries" and move them on top of rival kings. You are then presented with one option - do you wish to form an alliance? They reply in the next turn. Haven't rengaged in any diplo actions with factions that have agreed to alliances so don't know what the advanced negotiations are.

Warfare is similiar to STW except with different units. The strategic map while bigger than STWs' is pretty much the same game mechanics.

Again as I play more I shall give more info.