15 Years of Total War & Rezzed

[Khamsin]

Warhammer is the worst decision of CA. It will kill the game spirit.

[Junaidi83 de Bodemloze]

Ah thanks god i work on CAI departement, probably dont realy care much real human change into skeletion warrior, that cool, hope they can apply flying unit also

[Black_Nebula]

If CA can pull off Warhammer as well as the Russian M2 mod then I'll be looking forward to it. I know some of the Warhammer universe, but that mod was so cool and fun if they can come close to that, I'll be excited.

[SPARTAN VI]

Purple backdrop, demonic growl, I'm guessing that was some form of chaos spawn at the end there. Possibly of the Slaanesh variety.

[Mangerman]

15 years already. It has been a great ride since I started playing Shogun as a 9-year old.

And now Warhammer, I am ready.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

but please stick to history i just can't imagine playing a total war game where i have to face an army of lizards or rats.

My sentiments exactly

[englisharcher89]

Purple backdrop, demonic growl, I'm guessing that was some form of chaos spawn at the end there. Possibly of the Slaanesh variety.

My bet goes for Tzeentch and this guy, the blue/purple fire of change

[LestaT]

So when will you announce Warhammer ?

[Col. Tartleton]

Ever heard of Medieval 2? It has two settlement types, lots of building slots, proper formation-based warfare, a decent unit mass and collision system, secondary weapon stats, climate influencing stamina, no DLC whoring, excellent modding capabilities, Jeff can Dyck's music, working sieges without gate hacking or exploding towers, battlefield maps that reflect your position on the campaign map etc.

By the time the "DLC whoring" is done Vanilla Attila it will be far better than Vanilla Medieval 2.

Some people don't mind paying like two dollars per faction.

According to CA, improving the campaign map is impossible -> no total conversions, no historically accurate maps. Great starting conditions for modding.

So worse case scenario we keep playing Medieval 2. I remain optimistic.

It's not like they made the game harder to mod on purpose to protect their profits. It's just hard to mod and they don't feel like dedicating infinite resources to making it easier.

[Ravagers Prey]

By the time the "DLC whoring" is done Vanilla Attila it will be far better than Vanilla Medieval 2.

Some people don't mind paying like two dollars per faction.



So worse case scenario we keep playing Medieval 2. I remain optimistic.

It's not like they made the game harder to mod on purpose to protect their profits. It's just hard to mod and they don't feel like dedicating infinite resources to making it easier.

By the time CA is done whoring dlc for Attila it will be no where near as good as a modded medieval 2(which is completely free by the way), because if you call $8 for three factions with copy/paste units or shtty mini campaigns good dlc then you must just love wasting money, who needs new content when you can just pay for the regurgitated scraps from CA. Also you're right CA did not make the game hard to mod, they just don't give a Fk about modding.

[Huberto]

Good grief, is this Warhammer? Do you realize how ridiculous this looks? Surely you are jesting.

p.s. welcome to the forums!

[englisharcher89]

Good grief, is this Warhammer? Do you realize how ridiculous this looks? Surely you are jesting.

p.s. welcome to the forums!

-_-

[craziii]

TW warhammer confirmed!!!

[DeValiere]

The video game business is a grimly competitive, ruthless and extremely profitable environment to work within - and to last 15 years is a great achievement, so congratulations to CA for that. I've been along for the ride since Shogun Total War came out, and indeed I credit it for being one of the reasons I chased the gaming rabbit down the hole and never really bothered to come back out.

It's easy to criticise CA for their performance since Empire TW, and I myself was greatly disappointed by Rome II and the way DLC is now being handled, but here's the thing. Whether we like it or not, CA is a business at the end of the day, with a corporate master that is all about the bottom line. There are inevitable consequences to that. I've never been a fan of slash and burn business - I spent twenty years in a job where building relationships and nurturing them through good service and product was a key to success. I therefore look at some of what CA does now and see the drive for profitability at the expense of quality (and indeed, reputation) and understand why it is being done, but that does not mean I agree with such practice. Experience tells me however that you also can't solely operate your business based on what your customers demand - there are times when as much as you'd like to cater to every whim, you simply can't afford to. For me, business is about balancing a need for sustainable profit with the supply of good service and products to your customers.

So, does CA meet that model? It certainly used to, that's for sure. I still play M2TW and S2TW a LOT - why? Because they are damn good games, M2TW especially - it just has the feel of a game that was made by people that really cared about their product and worked hard to make sure they delivered the best they could to an ever growing customer base. But once you sell your soul to the devil (or SEGA in this case, little difference) the game changes - literally and figuratively. I have no doubt that most - if not all - of the CA employees genuinely care about what they do and want to make great games, but it's not always up to them - they march to the beat of some very demanding drums these days. Thus, we see the duality of pre-Beta games being sold to fans, and the relentless flow of DLC content. The demands on CA from their owners will always outweigh the desires of their customers and common sense of their employees . Always. That's just the way it is.

Is that as it should be? Well, yes - it's not up for debate. You own a company, you get to run it anyway way you like. However, should SEGA care more about the long-term harm being done to the Total War brand by some of it's demands on CA? Of course it should, but they won't as long as the money rolls on in. Reality sucks, doesn't it?

As for the future, and the darling Warscape engine in all it's shapes and guises... Well, we all know its limitations, and well know the oft heard lament of modders wanting more freedom to create their own visions of what TW should or could be. Others have mentioned why that isn’t going to happen as long as warscape is around and there are valid commercial reasons for that. I know all too well the dire temptation that exists for a business to squeeze every last drop out of software they've spent money (and/or time) on - even if it isn't what's really needed or isn't supporting key operating requirements of that business. We may not see the back of the warscape engine for a while yet I fear.

As regards what's on the horizon for CA, well... there's no worse a mistake for a business to make than to sit on its hands and ignore what's happening in the wider world. CA is wisely IMO trying to diversify its product range and what it can offer to gamers and that isn't a bad thing - it simply can't be. They may make the odd clanger along the way, but diversifying their product line in response to current gaming trends makes sense. I cannot imagine they’ll abandon their core business if they have any say in it.

Warhammer? In defiance of this post's wordiness, I shall simply say: Meh.

In closing, will just say that I intend to be a life-long TW fan and am in no way a CA apologist (rather, a realist) and even if CA never releases another historic TW game again I’ll always be a fan - it’s why I joined this forum - and surely why we all joined this forum. We may not always agree on what is good and bad about a TW game, or which one is best, but hey... thanks CA for giving us this great series and (in my case) several thousand hours of fun (with just a pinch of frustration along the way).

Huzzah!

[Inprogress]

Someone make a petition pls let's stick to the rich history in this series

[Werewolfviking]

Jurassic Total War

[ToonTotalWar]

Davaliere - well said and all true. CA have followed the likes of TATW and they can see the opportunity to fulfil a market of gamers who wish to play the fantasy crap that is out there. Since SEGA now own the rights to warhammer this was going to be the natural way to go for there next game with all the rumours that were out there.

I wonder how games workshop here in UK will be affected by this as I wonder if the table top gamer will just switch to the PC game for there entertainment?

[FromHellBG]

I can not wait for Total War:Warhammer this is my dream game.

[Alexios Komnenos]

The video game business is a grimly competitive, ruthless and extremely profitable environment to work within -

In the grim darkness of game developers there is only business (and Warhammer).

I still play M2TW and S2TW a LOT - why? Because they are damn good games, M2TW especially - it just has the feel of a game that was made by people that really cared about their product and worked hard to make sure they delivered the best they could to an ever growing customer base.

M2 was rock solid in many accounts, but it still felt like the game had too big a scope, too ambitious a premise. Take a look at Vanilla models and you'll see their textures don't match their normalmaps (their shadows) sometimes. This shows a certain rush to finish the product and ship it out. However, M2 had the best battle system I've ever seen in a game. Charges felt like charges, battles and fights were epic, the game of stats and counter stats, abilities, and especially the very diverse strategies you needed to fight different factions... And sieges worked well. Not like in Attila, where towers are made of Legos and gates are made of toothpickers.

[Huberto]

The problem is that the newer stuff seems uninspired and a simple attempt to cash in on gaming trends. Of course this is a business above all, but from our perspective this can make sense and we can find what is on offer to be unappealing and dreary all in one breath. Now we have TW free to play, massive multiplayer online, arena combat and soon to be released, dlc addled, fantasy crap on PC. None of this is the least bit interesting.

Meanwhile, tbh fundamentally the overall experience of core historical games remains unchanged. There are a lot more people working on the games and we see its fruits in features like fire, land-naval combined operations, in the way units and cities appear...but has gameplay really changed much? Are we still that entertained by fast clicking on twenty units chasing each other around a battle map? Are deeper campaigns and battles simply too risky for CA to try in even one title?