Rome II Pictures & Videos Thread

[Jokern]

I'm assuming there's a mix of different units in the first screen. In the second screen it's more obvious, but they're all half naked and wearing the same pants.

Maybe I'm expecting too much - I dunno. I agree, they still look awesome. Sorry for being the buzzkill. There's always one in these screenshot threads, amirite?

Well, of course there will be similarties between soldiers in a unit, it's still a game. The soldiers on the image are small and the ones without shirts seem to stand out more. But I also see that the units are mostly spearmen, so you'd see more homogeneity when units mix. That they wear similar pants is because of a) CA uses colour schemes for factions and b) what else would they wear than trousers?

I believe Jack stated somewhere that these faces are just placeholders and there will be more variety in the finished game.

That is correct.

[Mr.Rocco]

Awesome pics. Half naked warriors equiped with chest hair are a delight.

[CDR Hurricane]

They're nice, but I still see clone armies.

They all look like humans to me too. Maybe if we threw in some multicolored ponies there would be more variety.

[The Roman Republic]

loving the battlefield atmosphere in the second image, just looks epic. I can clearly say and see a massive improvement from the shinny glimmer graphics of S2TW.

[The Glorious Moldovan]

@Will Gladiate For Food
If you mean strategy map, it's map from Rome: Total War

i think he meant the new strategic map ,but alas,no scans are allowed

[Shigawire]

Meh.... why the heck are their nose hairs the same? I want unique variation between nasal and armpit hairs!

[Ichon]

Nothing wrong with pointing out the duplicate faces- Jack did say there were more faces that should be included in final release version but with increased emphasis by CA on over the shoulder cam and all the 'expressions' from soldiers noticing duplicate faces repeating 3-4 times in a single line is not getting crazy on the level of talking about sandal laces.

[Sir Spaghetti]

The battles are looking better and better.

[Cyrus Da Great]

Dan is correct. The top pic has two seperate units. You can see more of the unarmored units in the background. Regardless, wonderful pics. LOVE the shield wall formation!

I Guess it is.
Cos, when you look at the second picture you ll realize it.

[Tim_Ward]

This has already been posted yesterday in the screenshots thread. Plz read forum before posting...

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12620172

Believe it or not, not everyone likes to read through the 2000 post+ mega-threads so beloved of the tw forum mods on the off chance there might be some new screenshots in them, especially when a good 50% of the posts are "nice" "cool" and "you got the sandals wrong". If the OP hadn't made the thread, I would not have seen them.

[Faris ad Din]

I have positive remarks here - it's kind of scary just how realistic and 'human' the faces appear in the first screenshot, like these are REAL humans one is fighting and killing. Makes me pause a second if I were to zoom in on combat, they don't appear to be blank-faced clones anymore even if their eyes look very similar.

Nothing wrong with pointing out the duplicate faces- Jack did say there were more faces that should be included in final release version but with increased emphasis by CA on over the shoulder cam and all the 'expressions' from soldiers noticing duplicate faces repeating 3-4 times in a single line is not getting crazy on the level of talking about sandal laces.

- which would probably fix that problem.

The stunning part in the second screenshot is the landscape. It looks like a much more realistic temperate woodland scene with tall brush and scrub and flowering plants, fallen trees, MUCH more variation than the clone trees and open spaces underneath that was the case in Rome original. I'd almost say it is worthy of the seriously varied, nuanced to the point of realistic woodland environments in Assassin's Creed 3. One thing I AM worried about is pathfinding which was an inveterate problem in Total War games, where fences and wheelbarrows and bowls of vegetables were the plague for Empire: Total War maneuvering where one guy would get stuck and stop the entire firing line. Maybe this is the time of Assassin's Creed: Total War complete with parkour-capable men and horses. Judging from the footage from the Battle of Carthage, however, it seems the movement has become much more fluid and sheet- or water-like at that - it's sending waves of humanity at one another like human battering rams. There's the footage of the Roman cohorts (quite large units, it appears this time) running through breaches over the collapsed rubble of walls easily, without slowing down - which is a good sign.

I will say - one feature I wanted to see, considering most of our early footage was from the Smokathon and Dark Yellow Sky of Gladiator (2000) that we saw in the final Siege of Carthage was for more sunlight and the broad bright lighting and colors we saw in the original Rome TW. It's easier on the eyes and much more visually pleasing and captivating. I am relieved to find out that that's not the case here, but I'm still dissatisfied with the lighting - I want more lighting. Maybe it's just the overjudicious use of shadows across the board and darker uniforms. Maybe I am more a fan of the brightness that is becoming of "shiny glimmer graphics of S2TW." Well, I'm not a fan of glimmer, but I don't want my eyes strained for lack of light. >.< It's all outdoors, anyway, and then we're talking about the Mediterranean - it's a bright region of the world!

It seems they are finished with and polished the landscaping and flora portion of the game if they haven't polished the actual armies, which is clear enough. I get the "clone" appearance in that there is not a whole lot of variation of helmets, shields, ears, and hands in the second screenshot. I think it makes more sense for more uniformity in equipment, armor, weapons and shields of the Romans if not their bodies and faces. What I DO find to be very interesting is the variation of armor(ing?) in the first screenshot - someone without any armor or helmet at all in what is most likely the same unit as men with some armor and helmets! Some different weapons too - axes and swords. Maybe, although Jack said that there won't be mixing of weapon types in one unit, the mixing of swords and axes isn't too big a deal tactics-wise as we Total War veteran players know, compared to combining swords/axes and spears in the same unit. Or maybe the first screenshot is gussied up for presentation purposes and it's not something we can expect to see in-game (that much variation in armor and weaponry, if not the graphics quality).

It appears to me that the poor Romans are being f'ed what with being flanked in the 'rear' or more likely their column on the forest trail being ambushed on both sides by masses of screaming and surprisingly well-armed Germans. Teutoburg this must be.

[Degearus]

i think he meant the new strategic map ,but alas,no scans are allowed

At scans has been map from RTW, I have seen them

[Jokern]

@ Faris ad Din

Jack said that they won't mix different kinds weapons within a unit. My guess that we're seeing two units in the first screenshot, normal axemen and noble warriors as they can afford armour. And it is indeed Teutoburg.

[Petroniu]

Man, nothing new this week, just those shields pics. CA is really good at making us waiting in bloody sweat! I guess it's left to Friday to reveal something new...

[Cor De Ferrum]

If CA's goal is to create gamers that are completely brain-dead with no-life and living in their basement for all eternity playing Rome 2 until they die, they may have succeeded.

[Sharpe]

If CA's goal is to create gamers that are completely brain-dead with no-life and living in their basement for all eternity playing Rome 2 until they die, they may have succeeded.

Speak for yourself - I will only be able to play Rome 2 once or twice a week when it comes out.

[Cyrus Da Great]

Man, nothing new this week, just those shields pics. CA is really good at making us waiting in bloody sweat! I guess it's left to Friday to reveal something new...

At least there is something to see.
But, hopefully something good comes up.

[The Dutch Devil]

Picture thread merged with the picture and preview sticky.

[Tim_Ward]

*sigh*

[Toho]

If CA's goal is to create gamers that are completely brain-dead with no-life and living in their basement for all eternity playing Rome 2 until they die, they may have succeeded.

is that somehow your life story that you seem to think is the norm?