The (Old) Official ETW Criticism Thread

[Weehamish]

True the game is rushed and a really dissapointing!

But your GF plays games with you lol? Tomboy?? or ? My GF HATES! games and hasnt even got a decent pc to play new games :\

[Gonzo89]

Within about a week all the factions will be unlocked by someone modding the config files, so why is it even as issue?

They've already explained why they've left factions out - it would take to long to implement.

[Weehamish]

Within about a week all the factions will be unlocked by someone modding the config files, so why is it even as issue?

They've already explained why they've left factions out - it would take to long to implement.

No the reason is because they all LOOK THE SAME so why bother?

[Brikker]

They've already explained why they've left factions out - it would take to long to implement.

Must be the same reason they made most of the units exact copies of each other. God forbid they put TIME into their game that we pay money to play.

I agree with pretty much every negative thing said about this game. It's horribly disappointing that they released such a clearly unfinished product.

[random_samurai]

Must be the same reason they made most of the units exact copies of each other. God forbid they put TIME into their game that we pay money to play.

I agree with pretty much every negative thing said about this game. It's horribly disappointing that they released such a clearly unfinished product.

It's also the reason they made the one of the playable factions neon yellow. My eyes bleed every time i see the Spanish.

[Sander Cohen]

I think its gonna take at least 2-3 patches to make it enjoyable. Right now I wanna play it but I know its just gonna crash within an hour...

[shedaevil totalwhore]

Quite frankly some of the moaning about the game is ridiculous.

Yes it somewhat marred by technical issues, without a doubt, but there's a fantastic game underneath.

As far as I can gather people's gripe about the lack of unit variety is actually a gripe with the historical accuracy of the game, there simply wasn't the same amount of variety as in other time periods covered by TW. I'm really not sure what people expected. Flying Elephants?!

As the guys at CA have conceded, people are going to unlock all the other factions to be able to play anyway, so there's no real need for them to concentrate on making them all playable.

The gripe about the amount of turns doesn't hold any water as there is so much to do in each turn that it's still going to take a long time to finish.

As I said before the genuine disappointment is the lack of technical polish. The loading times are pretty awful and the one possible reason I won't be playing this game as much as I otherwise would have been over the next few months. There are graphical and AI issues, although the AI was never going to be perfect and it's certainly better than any other TW game.

Overall, I think people need to stop being so negative. The potential is there for the game to be honed and polished to perfection and if it wasn't for teething problems it would be an absolute classic

[Sander Cohen]

Quite frankly some of the moaning about the game is ridiculous.

Yes it somewhat marred by technical issues, without a doubt, but there's a fantastic game underneath.

As far as I can gather people's gripe about the lack of unit variety is actually a gripe with the historical accuracy of the game, there simply wasn't the same amount of variety as in other time periods covered by TW. I'm really not sure what people expected. Flying Elephants?!

As the guys at CA have conceded, people are going to unlock all the other factions to be able to play anyway, so there's no real need for them to concentrate on making them all playable.

The gripe about the amount of turns doesn't hold any water as there is so much to do in each turn that it's still going to take a long time to finish.

As I said before the genuine disappointment is the lack of technical polish. The loading times are pretty awful and the one possible reason I won't be playing this game as much as I otherwise would have been over the next few months. There are graphical and AI issues, although the AI was never going to be perfect and it's certainly better than any other TW game.

Overall, I think people need to stop being so negative. The potential is there for the game to be honed and polished to perfection and if it wasn't for teething problems it would be an absolute classic

I agree. Its going to take some time to get the problems/technical bugs sorted out, but until then its kind of disappointing. Dont get me wrong, I love this game and its really enjoyable when you're not experiencing serious bugs, but for the time being all the people who have problems with the game (crashing, freezing, other bugs) are just gonna have to suck it up and wait for some patches.

[centurie]

[quote=shedaevil totalwhore;4607192]Quite frankly some of the moaning about the game is ridiculous.


The gripe about the amount of turns doesn't hold any water as there is so much to do in each turn that it's still going to take a long time to finish.


i played for 6 hours straight today and i only done 40 moves..............my forces were all over the map...i had so much to think about it was unreal..wars going off everywhere ,me having to decide which country to side with as both were allies with me but went to war with eachother....one minute i have a nice plan going then the next its all changed...i love this game and like i said 6 hours and 40 moves ,so 200 moves is more than enough,any more and the game would take too long.plus having only 200 moves you have to decide what route to take regarding research because you can't research everything,this in itself makes the decisions you make far more tacticle,the game will be ruined if mods make the game longer because being able to research everything and take over the whole world would be boring.

this game is all about decisions and what path you take,not to take it all.

[paollo1]

Quite frankly some of the moaning about the game is ridiculous.

Yes it somewhat marred by technical issues, without a doubt, but there's a fantastic game underneath.

As far as I can gather people's gripe about the lack of unit variety is actually a gripe with the historical accuracy of the game, there simply wasn't the same amount of variety as in other time periods covered by TW. I'm really not sure what people expected. Flying Elephants?!

As the guys at CA have conceded, people are going to unlock all the other factions to be able to play anyway, so there's no real need for them to concentrate on making them all playable.

The gripe about the amount of turns doesn't hold any water as there is so much to do in each turn that it's still going to take a long time to finish.

As I said before the genuine disappointment is the lack of technical polish. The loading times are pretty awful and the one possible reason I won't be playing this game as much as I otherwise would have been over the next few months. There are graphical and AI issues, although the AI was never going to be perfect and it's certainly better than any other TW game.

Overall, I think people need to stop being so negative. The potential is there for the game to be honed and polished to perfection and if it wasn't for teething problems it would be an absolute classic

I guess my question to you would be. Why are you even on this thread if your completely satisfied with the game? This is the rant thread. Did you stop by to just give people that are having problems with the game a rough time? And dont start that the potential is there crap.People who are having problems with the game should be pissed off. If you went out and bought a new car and it stalled out every 15 minutes you would be madder than hell, And if some one told you to stop moaning about it you would be even more angry. If you dont have issues with the game stay off this thread and quit antagonizing paople who are.

Actually, the reason *I* bought the game so early was CA's previous reputation as a professional game company which had consistently turned out first-class, top of the line products. That reputation is now gone or badly tarnished in the eyes of many; I'd be willing to bet that the ETW release debacle will cost them money in the long term.

As for the claim that ETW's AI is better than anything, well I just find that so utterly at odds with reality that I'm really at a loss for a response.

Really! wait till he gets to 1774 or 75 and gets the continuous ctd and cant finish his campaign. Then he'll be singing a different tune. And all this bs about you cant test every system is bull to. i have asus p5k mb,core 2 duo 2.66 mhz, 3 gb mushkin ddr2 800 mhz,optarc dual layer 48 x ,dvd radeon hd 3870 video card windows xp home sp3,all lataet drivers. This is a very common, very stable set up. I have had no issues with any games except etw. I had 1 freeze issues with grand ages rome. you people hear that 1. I have not been able to play through any campaign without multiple ctds. the farthest i got was with england and i made it to 1774, then the game kept ctd and i could not finish the campaign. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. This is a huge issue and is not excusable period. The ai is completely inept. my units ant the ai quite often are standing 20 paces away from each other and simply will not fire, even when u try to attack manually. Eventually i switch to melee and just charge them. Again aaaaaaaaaaaargh. This game is broken from the get go , the patches have not helped 1 bit. And i dont beleive for 1 second they did not realize this. As i stated above, my system is a very common, very stable system system with good performance and im sure they tested this game on systems just like mine and had the same issues i did. The we couldnt have known argument does not fly. Numerous people with very common systems that are set up just for gaming are having the same ctd issues. Ive been to numerous sites and people are having these same problems. Constant ctds,ai and user armies that just stand there getting wiped out is all over the internet. This game does not work properly for many people. It is broken, not peoples rigs for the most part. And to say this game is better than the first games is foolish also. I have played all the total war games except shogun and have had none of these issues. If you cant play it, its no good.

Posts like this are embarrassing to read. Anyone would think you spent £500,000 on a house with no roof. It's a game with a few rough edges, not a life time investment that could cause you to go bankrupt. The fact is the game IS playable for many people, and a few annoyances and broken features in gameplay isn't enough to warrant such a ridiculous rant (which is exactly what you wrote)

did you hear him. he cant get more than halfway through a campaign , Paying a dollar for a game that does not work is a rip off, let alone 50, 60 bucks. If your ok with throwing away cash for nothing great. But dont give people crap for being mad about it. Fifty bucks for something that does'nt work should piss people off. This its just a game crap is stupid and one of the reasons why software developers do this stuff. If i came to someones place and basically stole 50 bucks from them they should be madder than hell and kick my ass, not say its just 50 dollars, no big deal. Its that no big deal attitude that allows every company, not just game developers to constantly take advantage of peoples good nature and rip everyone off. Thats half the problem with the whole world economy. We constantly except what crap they dish out and thats why it wont ever stop. Too many people saying no big deal, when we should be saying this is junk, give us are god D!@# money back. I payed good money for something that dont work. I am and should be mad, i got ripped off and im tired of it. I certainly wont purchase another game from ca for at least 6 months after its released and actually works. I wont get fooled again, and i will never stand for not getting what i payed for and then sit there like a little girl and say its no big deal.

Odd, the bugs you speak of are ones I never have. My game functions almost perfectly. I have ctded two times during the 24+ hours I have played the game. In my opinion, this is one of the best total war games of all. Perhaps you should post this in the bs rants section? I think too many people these days just think that they should be respected and pandered to because they choose to be P.O.ed by anything that doesn't fit their total expectations. Insulting and whining is just gonna make us laugh at you pal. go ahead and have an apoplexy over the game, but don't forget, you and the few others who didn't like it can just put your copies on ebay. I know plenty of people who would love to by them and give them a loving home.

I now have a great cause to advocate: Adopt an abused copy of E:tw and give a good loving home!

you cant sell the game on ebay, steam wont let you transfer the activation code. And people are more pissed over the ctds than anything.They payed 50 to 70 dollars for a game that doe's not work . of course their pissed off. If its working so flawlessy for you , why are you in the rants thread? To antagonize people who cant get the game to work? What a The game crashes and has numerous known bugs and issues, its not their imagination. If people dont have a good experience they are going to be pissed, thats normal. For someone to come to this thread and mock and rub salt in the wounds of people who are having problems is not. just because people arent having the same good luck as you does not mean their stupid whiners . be thankful its working for you and quit critizizing people who did get ripped off.

[Zin3dineZidane10]

yall need to stop whining, because it is the same 10 people who are complaining about the game, which is a minority. the game is pretty good and i dont think yall know how the mass of people think, this game has gotten the best ratings out of every TW game, yall are just being close-minded that's all i gotta say peace

[Cadmium77]

I'm a long time TW fan, since STW and when I saw they were "building an entirely new engine" and that it still just had the same 20 max units per side for this kind of warfare I said "that's it no more".

I've had it with CA and their game. Evidently they saw that they had a cash cow and the original creativity and striking uniqueness of STW has been lost ot the corporate pursuit of mass market profits.

This game needed something like 150 units per side in battle mode. It needed a seriously improved and more authentic strategy map with a more realistic mode of moving armies around and keeping them in supply. All that has been ignored and the old system has been kept.

You're going to get some pretty pictures out of ETW and you'd better enjoy them because that's all you're going to get. Forget any recreation of real strategy and tactics.

Pass me the flaming pigs and screaming miniskirt babes with the Phrygian caps please. CA has screwed the pooch again.

Sad.

[The_Dude]

This game needed something like 150 units per side in battle mode.

yeah, and the people that buy the game would need a Cray to run it ...

It needed a seriously improved and more authentic strategy map with a more realistic mode of moving armies around and keeping them in supply. All that has been ignored and the old system has been kept.

authentic ? its a game ffs, its supposed to be enjoyable. when i fire it up it dont wanna sit there for 2h, micromanaging supply lines just so i can besiege one town ...

[Juggernaut]

I'm a long time TW fan, since STW and when I saw they were "building an entirely new engine" and that it still just had the same 20 max units per side for this kind of warfare I said "that's it no more".

I've had it with CA and their game. Evidently they saw that they had a cash cow and the original creativity and striking uniqueness of STW has been lost ot the corporate pursuit of mass market profits.

This game needed something like 150 units per side in battle mode. It needed a seriously improved and more authentic strategy map with a more realistic mode of moving armies around and keeping them in supply. All that has been ignored and the old system has been kept.

You're going to get some pretty pictures out of ETW and you'd better enjoy them because that's all you're going to get. Forget any recreation of real strategy and tactics.

Why is it evident that "they saw that they had a cash cow" and "original creativity and striking uniqueness of STW has been lost ot the corporate pursuit of mass market profits" is lost merely because the game didn't go to a direction you wished? You are making a giant leap of logic here. And 150 units? WTF? Do you seriously theres a PC in this world that can run that?

Pass me the flaming pigs and screaming miniskirt babes with the Phrygian caps please. CA has screwed the pooch again.

Sorry to ruin your parade, but I don't think there are any fantasy units this time.

You know, I'm also a TW player from the time of Shogun, and I'm greatly enjoying ETW. Does that make me somehow less intelligent than you? Do I become a blind fanboi?

[Emperor Tom]

ETW was a TOTAL letdown. I like STW better! And play RTW and M2 more than anything else. Yet today I decided to throw on STW and go all old school! I am actually enjoying myself! Even though the battles arent that fun, certain aspects of the game are refreshing. I wish the other TW games had the option of the diplomats coming to your chambers to negoiate! What fun it is for a change! Hope to see a Shogun II and then Rome II! Seeing as RTW is still very fun, Shogun needs to be modernized!

[Humble Warrior]

ETW was a TOTAL letdown. I like STW better! And play RTW and M2 more than anything else. Yet today I decided to throw on STW and go all old school! I am actually enjoying myself! Even though the battles arent that fun, certain aspects of the game are refreshing.

Oh yes STW is still a great game and worked fine right out of the box!

Just wait until you really annoy a leader of another faction and see how your diplomat enters your thrown room head first (if you don`t know what I mean, you soon will!). We don`t have stuff like that any more...

I just wish my Geicha was more entertaining...

Great stuff. Good ol` days.

[Sardonicus]

I'm thinking about packing blank disks into boxes with pretty pictures on them and selling them for $129.99
each.
Then when people gripe about it I'll tell them I'm working on it.

[l33tl4m3r]

I'm thinking about packing blank disks into boxes with pretty pictures on them and selling them for $129.99
each.
Then when people gripe about it I'll tell them I'm working on it.

And you'd be completely in the right in selling that box with pictures on it and blank disks in it if people wanted to buy it.

[Humble Warrior]

I'm thinking about packing blank disks into boxes with pretty pictures on them and selling them for $129.99
each.
Then when people gripe about it I'll tell them I'm working on it.

Actually, it wouldn`t be that hard to do. the practise of SEGA and CA with Empires is making it a possibility.

Process:

Make pretty Box with 2 pretty CDs of nothing except a few photoshopped pictures. Advertise madlly with computerised digital images of whatever you want (especially made just for `actual game footage` advetising`). Have a pretend website with `Devs` blogging on how close they`re getting to the best game in existence and get everyone wet for the release. Do more paper advertsing. Pay off any review site if possible to score higher than 80% `what it will be like when done` reviews, DON`T get reviews from anyone who might actually tell the truth, and you`re sound. Have con partners to pay people to go on EVERY online forum to derail every negative post and praise the game continuously no matter what. If possible, be so illogical and bloody minded that honest forumites will get themselves banned out of the frutration of talking to them.

When the world erupts, run away with the cash. Don`t worry though as they`ll be still people around who`ll insist the game in its present condition is great.

Would work every time. Suckers are born every minute, no second.

It`s actually been done in other scams. I`m surprised it`s not been so competely done on computer games yet. There are rich pickings here. Rich indeed.

[damnmap]

I am tempted to just give up this feels as shoddy as the PC version of GTA4. The game is just unplayable and people who compare it's problems to other TW games have no clue whatsoever... has anyoe fixed the campaign map lag?