Can CA recover from Rome 2 ?

[Little Legionaire]

I'm an optimistic guy. So normally I'd think that the game will be patched and it will end up realising its potential.

But sadly, I find myself agreeing with Humble Warrior. They'll get it playable and then 1 or 2 more patches to gloss over the worst of the broken gameplay. And that will be it, because, yep, the game, stuffed and gutted as it is, sold and is selling. So I doubt "lessons will be learned" - or at least, a lesson other than "we can fool enough people to make a profit off *."

That's a quite possibility and what i afraid most. Patching the game and making it stable just only for "playing" but leaving it in a dull state. Rome I was not that different from Rome II.

Good platform but mediocre game until EB and Rome Surrectom show up and their development took years. I've never finished even a single campaign with vanilla Rome but managed to complete two long campaign with EB.

So, its not a pleasant thing to say but i think Humble points the out the situation quite accurate. CA, will focus on fixes, some AI revival and performance but probably we won't ever see a major gameplar alterations, UI revamp and etc.

I hope time tells us another story to us and CA pushes their limits even further to make that game greater but WHO knows?

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

The only Total War games I ever got at release were Napoleon and Shogun 2 in that order. Both worked fine for me, in fact Napoleon Total War was the first Total war game I ever played and I loved it, then I played Medieval 2 and Rome and liked those as well and about a month later I got Empire and liked that one slightly less. Shogun 2 just blew me away when I got it, it was way more challenging than Napoleon and really fun to play. But with what I have heard and witnessed with Empire and Rome 2 then I will never pre-order or purchase at release.

Instead if the next game is any good then I will get it on a steam sale or something, actually I was super excited for Rome 2 but now I think I will never buy it. It just doesn't have that feeling anymore, in Shogun 2 and Napoleon it felt like I had a special relationship with all of my generals cause they could last an entire game but in Empire, Medieval 2 and Rome where you are constantly losing generals I actually felt a special relationship with my mighty empire, Rome 2 though doesn't really seem that way what with generals always dying and campaign strategy being practically non-existent then how can I feel proud of my generals or my empire? If there is Empire 2 (1800s) then I will get that probably but for now I will refrain from purchasing any new total war games (except Fall of the Samurai, cause I am totally getting that).

[UselessPoster]

To me the game is not a let down but its still a disgrace to the franchise in my eyes plenty of people have mentioned why even the meme thread nails it better!.

Their reputation will get even worse if they charge for DLC before fixing the game entirely.

Mark my words, if CA charge for DLC while the game is not fixed that could be the cake on the icing for them many will not buy the next game now they lost the trust of people its hard to win them back especially PC GAMERS.

[Bento]

...

Mark my words, if CA charge for DLC while the game is not fixed that could be the cake on the icing for them many will not buy the next game now they lost the trust of people its hard to win them back especially PC GAMERS.

Many of US will not buy the next game if they do that .. but ... do you think they care about the people who's trust they've lost ?

I think not, they aimed for and scored big with the "casual gamer crowd", who, it seems are happy with a paltry version of a TW game. Every time I see another thread at the official forums praising how good the game is, my mind just boggles again. So I don't think they give a monkey's about their old "hardcore" fanbase.

[mutad1]

Of course they don't.It has been made this way on purpose.Many people loves this game, there's no explanation for this, but they do.I don't care about patches, because I haven't been experiencing any big issues with main game to run on my PC.And I haven't heard anything about changing or adding features and that is exactly what I would love to hear.I'm not kidding myself, like this is gonna happen.They have reached a new customer kind of person, so they're probably happy.I allways thought this was a game for special group of gamers.Well sadly, I was wrong.Next time, if there be any next time, I'll be more careful about what to spend money on.For me it's over, I can't stand more than 10 min of gameplay.So i agree, the're aimimg for bugs to be fixed, not to satisfied core gamers.

[Tyso3]

2 Factors really hit home for me about CA on this subject.

1. I bought Shogun Total war (the original game) a few weeks after it came out (saw it at a schoolmates house, looked awesome!). I was new, shiny, the graphics were amazing (lol 1 animation for the whole unit!), and the size was massive. Since that day total war games had their faults but the fault never toppled the positives. Medieval then came out, amazing improvement. Followed by Rome (my favorite game of all time, due to fact i was a big roman buff when i was a kid). After this, Medieval 2, which just took Total war games to a new level, huge and massive amounts of units and potential. Empire, which ive seen some people whine about but really encompassed for me Total war, a game spanning 3 continents rather then 1, it was amazing. Napoleon i found was the first dissapointment, while it added more in depth gameplay, it took away what made total war games so unique, Scale.
Followed onto Shogun 2, which while being graphically superior, was another micro sized meltdown. Less units, smaller map, but with more abilities.

Rome 2 Was the salvation i sought, being such a fan of rome 1, i pre ordered the game for what was actually a massive price tag. I got the game (minus the preorder dlc, which somehow didnt turn up with the game). And was hit to massive problems. Graphics, Gameplay and balance. Battles that lasted an hour on old games lasted 2 mins. While the campaign map was huge, and added the scale, the battles were made for my 5 year old nephew.


CA gave us an alpha and released it. They have one of the biggest modding communities of any game in the world, with over 10 years of modding experiance in some cases on total war games. They had a massive following and ignored these people, releasing a game that would only appeal to new customer who had never played a total war game before.
If they had any humanity left they would of accepted their faults, instead they fobbed us off with false promises and 'oh woopsy daisy, game worked fine when we tested it' statements.


2. Since release, some dedicated modders like radious and others have done in days (litrally days) what CA could not do in years. Using only basic coding they allowed the game to become more and more playable, However these 'patches' that come out fail to fix any of these problems, infact they seem to actually be counter productive to the modders who are trying to help, as they rewrite strings that have been modded already.

In its current state were looking at a game that will need at least 15/20 more patches, and at least 2 1GB> Patches in order to restore it to the depth and/or scale of previous titles.

This will NOT happen.


CA may have not had a choice in re guards to the release date, but they do have a bloody responsability. Espeially as the game shown in alpha is a completly different product to the 'final' game. The words 'false advertising' have floated around, and someone somewhere will probably sue, and rightfully so.


I have no faith in CA, i have every faith in our modding and TWC community to work together for the greater good. If any CA guys bother to read this, please take note and give credit to those who have made your utterly broken game playable, without being paid a single cent for it.

[stackero]

2 Factors really hit home for me about CA on this subject.

1. I bought Shogun Total war (the original game) a few weeks after it came out (saw it at a schoolmates house, looked awesome!). I was new, shiny, the graphics were amazing (lol 1 animation for the whole unit!), and the size was massive. Since that day total war games had their faults but the fault never toppled the positives. Medieval then came out, amazing improvement. Followed by Rome (my favorite game of all time, due to fact i was a big roman buff when i was a kid). After this, Medieval 2, which just took Total war games to a new level, huge and massive amounts of units and potential. Empire, which ive seen some people whine about but really encompassed for me Total war, a game spanning 3 continents rather then 1, it was amazing. Napoleon i found was the first dissapointment, while it added more in depth gameplay, it took away what made total war games so unique, Scale.
Followed onto Shogun 2, which while being graphically superior, was another micro sized meltdown. Less units, smaller map, but with more abilities.

Rome 2 Was the salvation i sought, being such a fan of rome 1, i pre ordered the game for what was actually a massive price tag. I got the game (minus the preorder dlc, which somehow didnt turn up with the game). And was hit to massive problems. Graphics, Gameplay and balance. Battles that lasted an hour on old games lasted 2 mins. While the campaign map was huge, and added the scale, the battles were made for my 5 year old nephew.


CA gave us an alpha and released it. They have one of the biggest modding communities of any game in the world, with over 10 years of modding experiance in some cases on total war games. They had a massive following and ignored these people, releasing a game that would only appeal to new customer who had never played a total war game before.
If they had any humanity left they would of accepted their faults, instead they fobbed us off with false promises and 'oh woopsy daisy, game worked fine when we tested it' statements.


2. Since release, some dedicated modders like radious and others have done in days (litrally days) what CA could not do in years. Using only basic coding they allowed the game to become more and more playable, However these 'patches' that come out fail to fix any of these problems, infact they seem to actually be counter productive to the modders who are trying to help, as they rewrite strings that have been modded already.

In its current state were looking at a game that will need at least 15/20 more patches, and at least 2 1GB> Patches in order to restore it to the depth and/or scale of previous titles.

This will NOT happen.


CA may have not had a choice in re guards to the release date, but they do have a bloody responsability. Espeially as the game shown in alpha is a completly different product to the 'final' game. The words 'false advertising' have floated around, and someone somewhere will probably sue, and rightfully so.


I have no faith in CA, i have every faith in our modding and TWC community to work together for the greater good. If any CA guys bother to read this, please take note and give credit to those who have made your utterly broken game playable, without being paid a single cent for it.

Knocked that one right out of the ball park. REP +1 coming your way when replenished .

[bthizle1]

2 Factors really hit home for me about CA on this subject.

1. I bought Shogun Total war (the original game) a few weeks after it came out (saw it at a schoolmates house, looked awesome!). I was new, shiny, the graphics were amazing (lol 1 animation for the whole unit!), and the size was massive. Since that day total war games had their faults but the fault never toppled the positives. Medieval then came out, amazing improvement. Followed by Rome (my favorite game of all time, due to fact i was a big roman buff when i was a kid). After this, Medieval 2, which just took Total war games to a new level, huge and massive amounts of units and potential. Empire, which ive seen some people whine about but really encompassed for me Total war, a game spanning 3 continents rather then 1, it was amazing. Napoleon i found was the first dissapointment, while it added more in depth gameplay, it took away what made total war games so unique, Scale.
Followed onto Shogun 2, which while being graphically superior, was another micro sized meltdown. Less units, smaller map, but with more abilities.

Rome 2 Was the salvation i sought, being such a fan of rome 1, i pre ordered the game for what was actually a massive price tag. I got the game (minus the preorder dlc, which somehow didnt turn up with the game). And was hit to massive problems. Graphics, Gameplay and balance. Battles that lasted an hour on old games lasted 2 mins. While the campaign map was huge, and added the scale, the battles were made for my 5 year old nephew.


CA gave us an alpha and released it. They have one of the biggest modding communities of any game in the world, with over 10 years of modding experiance in some cases on total war games. They had a massive following and ignored these people, releasing a game that would only appeal to new customer who had never played a total war game before.
If they had any humanity left they would of accepted their faults, instead they fobbed us off with false promises and 'oh woopsy daisy, game worked fine when we tested it' statements.


2. Since release, some dedicated modders like radious and others have done in days (litrally days) what CA could not do in years. Using only basic coding they allowed the game to become more and more playable, However these 'patches' that come out fail to fix any of these problems, infact they seem to actually be counter productive to the modders who are trying to help, as they rewrite strings that have been modded already.

In its current state were looking at a game that will need at least 15/20 more patches, and at least 2 1GB> Patches in order to restore it to the depth and/or scale of previous titles.

This will NOT happen.


CA may have not had a choice in re guards to the release date, but they do have a bloody responsability. Espeially as the game shown in alpha is a completly different product to the 'final' game. The words 'false advertising' have floated around, and someone somewhere will probably sue, and rightfully so.


I have no faith in CA, i have every faith in our modding and TWC community to work together for the greater good. If any CA guys bother to read this, please take note and give credit to those who have made your utterly broken game playable, without being paid a single cent for it.

Amen......I hope they read some comments of their "loyal" fans ie. those of us who have stuck with them since the days of the original shogun only to be tossed aside with all of our requests and advice. Then only to be saved by the wonderful modding community time and time again.

EDIT:
After reading the post above this one, that's just it ....I think if anything CA/SEGA realizes now more than ever is that if they actually do gear their games more towards the average gamer these days and not their fans for many years past they can and will most likely make more money.

Thank the gods I discovered paradox games some time back, only downside and probably reason I still play Total War games is that they don't have the wonderful battles that TW has....if they did I'd see no reason to play these broken games and now rather childish games at all, except for perhaps heavily modded of course.

[kronpas]

It depends how much devotion they are going to show to the fan, but I'm sure the series is done for many veterans. I, for one, will no longer pre-order any game from CA. They failed as a business where they could only deliver an unfinished product unlike anything advertised, they failed as a gaming studio where they lied blatantly to their fans not only once, but twice - first Empire and now this.

[Sharpe]

The thing is, Rome 2 will probably end up being their best selling game...

But that said, the backlash from Rome 2 will hopefully be a kick up the bracken and the next game will have a be a more earnest effort rather than a massive cash in, not to say Rome 2 is without merit -it's a very fun game - it's just lacking that je ne sais quoi.

[mutad1]

I don't think so, just check STEAM Charts,They're not going that well.A lot of preorders from core base of gamers, and that wouldn't happened if there was a demo..........Those sales can not be counted as a succes, people just believed them and got cheated.At least I do feel that way.

[PointOfViewGun]

A lot of preorders from core base of gamers

You base this on?

[mutad1]

On what I can read here and on the other hand, who will preorder a game he has know nothing about?Especially if there wasn't a demo to try it out.That is what I usually do, before buying any game.Sound reasonable?

[PointOfViewGun]

On what I can read here and on the other hand, who will preorder a game he has know nothing about?Especially if there wasn't a demo to try it out.That is what I usually do, before buying any game.Sound reasonable?

I just don't think there is any meaningful data to support that statement.

[Anna_Gein]

Yes as long as SEGA is willing to throw cash into the franchise.

The thing is, Rome 2 will probably end up being their best selling game...

But that said, the backlash from Rome 2 will hopefully be a kick up the bracken and the next game will have a be a more earnest effort rather than a massive cash in, not to say Rome 2 is without merit -it's a very fun game - it's just lacking that je ne sais quoi.

Hehe you are right.

I think that this "je ne sais quoi" lacking come from how unbalanced and badly implemented every aspects and features are. The game is still a TW game, a concept we all love here. But that's pretty much the only good the game has imo. God features were taken out while the new feature, good on the paper, don't live up their expectations. And then there is all the details that scream unfinished game.

I expect a joyful lottery for the next TW game. With what we know from a certain article, there is little chance to see CA completely rethinking both the franchise and how the studio works (which appears to be the major reason of R2 failure). But maybe they are going to be luckier with their future recruitment.

[zlamaj]

I genuinely hope they don't. If they do, next TW game will have a G rating

[Chirurgeon]

I don't get the fuss. The game gets better with every patch. I am having a blast

[1cmanny1]

I don't get the fuss. The game gets better with every patch. I am having a blast

The problem is they stabbed their loyal fan base in the backs. They knew the game had issues, but released it anyway. Would it have been so hard to say, "This game isn't finished yet, so we are releasing an early access beta. This will allow us to give you the game early, so we can get your feedback while we finish it off". That would have made us happier, and in the end help their ever important review scores.

[Jmonstra]

I think what I love most about this endless debate is that one one side you have the people who are having a lot of problems with the game and assume that they're in the majority, while on the other hand you have the people who are happy to assume that for every unhappy fan there are legions of anonymous people who absolutely love the game and so the people complaining are merely an exception to a rule they have no means of proving (or disproving, because there isn't any evidence being given either way.)

Unsupported opinion vs unsupported opinion and both parties are absolutely certain that they're in the right.

[uwotm8]

I'm just not preordering and waiting for gameplay footage of the A.i. this time around.