RTW: Was it the Height of CA's Success?

[HunterKYA]

While the Creative Assembly (CA) has produced successors to RTW, it appears that none of them, game or expansion, has been quite good enough to trump their renowned predecessor.

In today's world of games, those that have mods invariably last longer than those that don't, because each mod gives that game a unique point of view and in turn, helps to rejuvenate interest. For instance, take a game like Half-Life 2, great in its own right but by the continual production of mods, it has kept millions of players fixated on the game, over 5 years after its initial release. The same goes for Rome, which was released around the same time, and still has plenty of large-scale mods being produced, including EB, RTR VII, and RS 2, helping to keep us players loyal and anxious for what the future holds.

Where I'm getting at is this, it feels that CA has begun to skimp on what made its original games (Shogun, Medieval, and Rome) great and have opted to produce games for commercial success, probably being influenced by its partnership with Sega, losing many of its most loyal Total War series fanbase. Their recent productions, such as Medieval 2 (while a good game, it didn't have the same appeal as Rome), Empire (by far, the buggiest product CA has ever released, might as well called it CTD:TW), and Napoleon (which most critics have called just a revamped Empire). This can also be seen with the number of mods being produced for each game, with fewer large-scale mods in production from Medieval 2 onward. I'll admit that CA has contributed to fewer mods by not releasing mod tools, leaving gamers to figure it out on their own. And moving to Steam hasn't helped their situation any... regardless, CA can't use that as an excuse because games like Half-Life 2 and the Left 4 Dead series, along with their mods, have thrived on Steam for years with few issues.

This is just one person's opinion, though some may feel the same way.

Should CA get its act together and go back to producing games like Shogun, Medieval, and Rome, that built their company's reputation, or has it sunk too far into the depths of success and profitability to be saved from inevitable obscurity with its shrinking fanbase?

Please, let's keep the discussion civilized.

[hannibalcaesar]

Activision helped make Rome and that is why it was good.

[Darth_Revan]

Activision helped make Rome and that is why it was good.

I agree, and I think that RTW was the height of CA's success, i personally find RTW fun to replay over and over and the countless mods as well it may not be as graphically enhanced at etw or others but it gets the job done when it has to

[geyserik]

There is no doubt rome is great,but N.T.W. is avery good game i hope they make rome 2 that would be awesome.

[HunterKYA]

The reason I asked the question was, after I got ETW last summer, I had it on my computer for roughly two weeks before I un-installed it because of frequent and unexplained CTDs. Sadly, it was the only game in the Total War series that I'd regretted purchasing, and I've been a fan since MTW. With lack of fine polishing and the abundance of glitches that caused random CTDs in ETW began to make me question the Creative Assembly's ability to produce the excellent strategy games that put the company on the map. Until CA can make a game that is relatively glitch free, or has glitches and bugs that can either be worked around or fixed, I won't spend my money on another one of their games.

[leseras]

I agree that RTW was the pinnacle of their success. I find it more fun to replay RTW then M2TW even though I have owned RTW for a longer time. M2TW just doesn't seem that addictive and I would have gotten sick of it if not for some mods like stainless steel and the expansion pack kingdoms, which is far more interesting then the original campaign. However lets look at this in a different way. Rome was big and powerful but it fell in the end. Perhaps the same goes for CA, that its losing talented producers like Rome lost talented leaders.

[HunterKYA]

One has to scratch their heads at how quickly CA tumbled in the last few years, considering they recruited some talented modders from TWC to work for them, like Lusted, who created Terrae Expugnandae. Sad... sad indeed.

[Valiant The Brave]

This just like Age of Empires 2, that commuinity is still living for over 10 year but the diffrence is: That game is low-tech(you need 4-8 mb graphic card)and have a scenario editor/creator.

[Saint_jimmyz]

But what makes RTW so much better than its successors? Aside from bugs. From CAs point of view, what have they done differently with its successors that makes RTW so much better? I agree that RTW is much more fun to play, but as I havent put anywhere near the hours into the others as I have Rome Im not really sure why that is.

[|Sith| Max]

Activision helped make Rome and that is why it was good.

+rep

I agree, and I think that RTW was the height of CA's success, i personally find RTW fun to replay over and over and the countless mods as well it may not be as graphically enhanced at etw or others but it gets the job done when it has to

well compared to MTW2:
1. Cavalry will actually make attempts to attack properly
2. units ordered to move wont take 5 seconds to rotate into the appropriate facing to move
3. Chariots
4. Gunpowder weaponry in a total war game is ed up.

There is no doubt rome is great,but N.T.W. is avery good game i hope they make rome 2 that would be awesome.

minus rep.

One has to scratch their heads at how quickly CA tumbled in the last few years, considering they recruited some talented modders from TWC to work for them, like Lusted, who created Terrae Expugnandae. Sad... sad indeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7VAhzPcZ-s EG: Blame the noobs.

But what makes RTW so much better than its successors? Aside from bugs. From CAs point of view, what have they done differently with its successors that makes RTW so much better? I agree that RTW is much more fun to play, but as I havent put anywhere near the hours into the others as I have Rome Im not really sure why that is.

for me its the smoothness and quick action of the MP gameplay.
Nothing like a good rush or a skirmish, or a nice 3v3...

[General Nuisance esq]

YES
It's been downhill ever since, M2TW wasn't too bad but downhill a little, ETW was awful and NTW is just a smaller ETW but with less bugs but still very dull

[Warhammster]

No Medieval Total War of 2002 was the peak of the Total War series. Great units, the best tech trees, perfect AI and the best strategy map I've seen in any game, I will never forgive CA for abandoning the paperback mao and moving on to 3D.

[Dodge]

RTW had/has an amazing game engine for battles, but with all the bugs, lack of historical accuracy and fantasy units, without mods I consider it quite poor.

[|Sith| Max]

that may be true, warhammster, but if you want both 3d maps and good gameplay then RTW is the peak. It fully depends on one's personal preferences.
RTW's campaign was absolute , but i only judge games on their MP and i base it on gameplay, connection and replayability. rome scores high on both gameplay and replayability but does get negative points for connection problems. it still gets the highest rating compared to the other games. aforementioned personal preferences.

[Warhammster]

that may be true, warhammster, but if you want both 3d maps and good gameplay then RTW is the peak. It fully depends on one's personal preferences.
RTW's campaign was absolute , but i only judge games on their MP and i base it on gameplay, connection and replayability. rome scores high on both gameplay and replayability but does get negative points for connection problems. it still gets the highest rating compared to the other games. aforementioned personal preferences.

Yes from a pure MP persective RTW is the best becuase of sheer functionality, the instabilty of RTW MP is solely becuase of Gamespy it works lagglessly on direct IP etc.

What was so great about MTW though, was that you didn't have to go online to have a great time with it.

[leseras]

I find RTW still kinda fun even if i don't go online though. I mean with all the mods I think the replay value is very high. I actually play it more then M2TW!

[HunterKYA]

RTW, despite its inaccuracies, seems to have had more lasting appeal than any game in the Total War series.

[MC Squared]

yeah, i agree that RTW was the best in the total war series.... and BI wasn't bad either.

[CDMan477]

I would say Rome was the height of the TW series in terms of popularity, at least as far as the current perception stands on this site. Success as measured by CA and more importantly Sega is usually measured in pounds. I believe that would make Empire CA's biggest success.

[magpie]

I would say Rome was the height of the TW series in terms of popularity, at least as far as the current perception stands on this site. Success as measured by CA and more importantly Sega is usually measured in pounds. I believe that would make Empire CA's biggest success.

True! But if we take inflation into account, RTW 2004 price compared to ETW 2009 maybe in pure money terms value, RTW made more for the company, and is still selling and being played.