How did this game manage to......

[Achilleslastand]

Rack up best strategy game from game informer, best of E3, pc gamer, IGN as well as over 20 E3 2013 awards and nominations? Were these entities paid off in some way? advertisments? swag? Were they shown a different version that what was released?

[Humble Warrior]

Rack up best strategy game from game informer, best of E3, pc gamer, IGN as well as over 20 E3 2013 awards and nominations? Were these entities paid off in some way? advertisments? swag? Were they shown a different version that what was released?

Buttering up. Threats to never allow any more previews. Disallowing any independent pre-relase reviews, and Reviewers getting different versions of the game. And who knows... if they get free buffets and gifts, then that could be constituted as bribes... those official reviewers, they know what was done and took part in it. CA\SEGA knew exactly what they were doing, and did it.

They knew what the consumer would get, but they wanted that money from pre-orders first. After that, what did they care?

[pajomife]

Some must be joking, others are paid for it.

Sometimes wonder if the gaming industry is not an organized fraud, a cartel which move millions of euros that are distributed by everyone.

[Radzeer]

I think Rome 2 nicely highlights how broken the system is:

- Many reviewers do not have more than a few hours to play the game, so they won't get to gameplay problems.
- They can get all kinds of goodies if they "comply" with good reviews, for instance early/free access to stuff.
- Journalists are almost always buttered up as Humble said, how many of us would trash a game after a nice PR/promo party with free food etc.? The game industry is no different from the movie industry in this respect. (Remember the scene of the party thrown to critics/journalists in Argo...)
- Reviewers know that they have to find at least something to criticize to avoid giving out 100% scores (which would discredit them completely), usually this is some minor, recurring issue, and not a gameplay problem. This means that if you take a look at the reviews, those are usually one unit below the maximum (4.5/5, 90/100 etc.). Nobody ever gives out scores too different from this fake average.
- Game reviewers surely know the industry and could see how the game will be reviewed by others as they can communicate in advance. I'm not saying that they are fixing the scores, it's just the basic human behavior that if everybody else gives out ~90% scores, what would justify me doing differently? Those who do are independent reviewers (no employment risk).

Surely there are other reasons. Bottom line: never ever trust reviews, especially those from "professional" magazines. Trust only your own experience with a demo.

[Holger Danske]

Surely there are other reasons. Bottom line: never ever trust reviews, especially those from "professional" magazines. Trust only your own experience with a demo.

Sadly this is where Pre-order and DLC enters with full fanfare. They know that they can get enough people to buy their products purely out of hype. There is no fundemental reason to invest time on a demo because that would mean giving back control to the consumer, and why would they do that when they now can freely and fully manipulate with the masses?

In the wake of Rome II I suspect that CA will ask SEGA for 40% more marketting funds and we'll see even more delusional self-promoting BS. Because it apperently sells better than making the game itself.

Too bad most posters here will properly forget all of this once the local CA politruks announce the next title and we'll see the majority of this community get hit by full-blown amnesia.

[familyguy1]

You mean all the "awards" from E3? I thought it was well known by now that those amount to nothing and are just put there for the hype...

[pajomife]

I wonder if CA guys will post here a link for any award pool...lol.

[karamazovmm]

its pretty simple:

1) the reviewers are not doing a good job. there might be several reasons for this, including time to actually review the game, since the piece needs to be delivered at a specified date, which in all that isnt actually a problem, given that everyone that works knows that you actually have a deadline.

2) the prizes lost their meaning

3) the disconnection between, developers, consumers, reviewers and the suits is getting larger. The simple thing is to cut off the consumer and developer relation, while strengthening the reviewer developer one, however that doesnt work given that reviewers arent doing their job thus a larger discrepancy appears with the consumer and developer. So in the end unless you try to establish a healthier relationship consumer -> developer, developer -> consumer things arent going to change.

the suits are the suits, they are in for the money like everyone else except the consumer.so they are going to establish deadlines and performance quotas. there is absolutely nothing wrong with that

But I really and truthfully doubt that a good relationship between developers and consumers shall appear. there was a good piece about GTA V that a guy explored in one paragraph the state of affairs between the ones who buy the game and the ones who make the game, and sincerely I agree with every single word in there. Its a pathetic excuse for a relationship, extremely aggressive bordering hatred, with blown out of proportion reactions. tell me if a healthy relationship between 2 people that are in that kind of relationship is possible. for me it isnt.

[cevap]

Why do you think 8 equals an average score and 6 means really bad? Its because reviewers on "professional" sites give higher scores to encourage game companies to advertise on their sites. Gamespot fired an employee after giving a game a too negative review for god sakes.
Its why people look to youtube for first impressions, lets plays and reviews from people like Angry Joe, those people dont have anything to do with the ads on youtube, their main source of income arent devs and publishers.

Also about the reviews themselves: These sites compete who will release the review first so as soon as embargo breaks (usually at the time of release) their reviews get uploaded to the web. They play the review copies which are still some sort of late beta and they overlook the bugs and flaws because the review copy comes with an email that says "This is not the release version which will be updated on day one so this and that will be improved etc.".
Look at how many scores had to be decreased a week after SimCity launched for example. Companies know this, its the reason they are able to make games that cater to reviewers.

All in all I just want to advise you guys to look for people on Youtube or other services like it for honest reviews or impressions, pick a couple of people, check if their stile of gaming is close to yours, chech what they prefer what they hate, know their bias and decide from that imput if a game is worth your while rather than "Metacritic reviewers".

[SinerAthin]

I would also like to remind you guys that the Strategy genre with PCs is currently VERY shallow.

We have extremely few strategy games compared to what we have of FPS games.

And of the few strategy games that have been released so far this year, Rome II, even with its flaws; is among the biggest, most ambitious etc

[craziii]

yea, and console got strategy games with a tons of depth! oh wait, they don't even have a strategy genre, daaaamn, buuuurrrrn.

edit: forgot to add that strategy games like starcraft 2 scratches a completely different itch than TW games.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

Is there really any doubt?

[mentecato]

[Ataegina]

another thread......... yes CA is owned by Horsham mafia..... they kidnap press elements and threaten them if they got get a virtual award .gif on their website!!!! now seriously on past years every game wins an award of some type. those awards are just meaningless and no need to conspiracy to award it...... how many games appears on E3,PAX and all show some award? so gaming industry is MAFIA? threats and whatever....... chill down!!! thing is in RTS (TW sub-genre) how many big games you've? to who you'll award the awards? xD conspiracy #undone, basicaly they win awards because they dont have competition at all......simple!

Too bad most posters here will properly forget all of this once the local CA politruks announce the next title and we'll see the majority of this community get hit by full-blown amnesia.

true. like 2 years ago we had the same thing, everyone hated shogun 2, everyone found something to hate and complain and the whole threats and insults, crying, whinning, trolling, swearing they will never play the game anymore, "TW is dead"....... 2 years later............. "shogun 2 was the best game, it was ing great and i will be playing shogun 2 instead of rome 2". so CA needs to release Total War: Medieval 3, so this people brains reset and they will automaticaly love rome 2 and hate medieval 3 xD

[Radzeer]

another thread......... yes CA is owned by Horsham mafia..... they kidnap press elements and threaten them if they got get a virtual award .gif on their website!!!! now seriously on past years every game wins an award of some type. those awards are just meaningless and no need to conspiracy to award it...... how many games appears on E3,PAX and all show some award? so gaming industry is MAFIA? threats and whatever....... chill down!!! thing is in RTS (TW sub-genre) how many big games you've? to who you'll award the awards? xD conspiracy #undone, basicaly they win awards because they dont have competition at all......simple!



true. like 2 years ago we had the same thing, everyone hated shogun 2, everyone found something to hate and complain and the whole threats and insults, crying, whinning, trolling, swearing they will never play the game anymore, "TW is dead"....... 2 years later............. "shogun 2 was the best game, it was ing great and i will be playing shogun 2 instead of rome 2". so CA needs to release Total War: Medieval 3, so this people brains reset and they will automaticaly love rome 2 and hate medieval 3 xD

No, it's not a mafia. It's just regular business. Compared to 15 years ago, this is the direction where the gaming industry is moving - in fact it's not just the gaming industry, but the whole corporate culture. Sadly, this is because a large portion of the customers moved to the same direction (i.e. sheep). I don't think CA would be any worse than the industry average.

About Shogun2: yes, every title has this cycle of love-hate, and nostalgia (or the mods) makes old bugfests such as MTW2 brilliant. But Shogun2 was not hyped as much as Rome 2. I wonder if the marketing bs makes this a different case. Many people have grown to like Shogun2 after the initial problems or reservations. Rome 2 needs a lot of (gameplay) change to be suitable for that brain-resetting love I think.

[leemyster]

another thread......... yes CA is owned by Horsham mafia..... they kidnap press elements and threaten them if they got get a virtual award .gif on their website!!!! now seriously on past years every game wins an award of some type. those awards are just meaningless and no need to conspiracy to award it...... how many games appears on E3,PAX and all show some award? so gaming industry is MAFIA? threats and whatever....... chill down!!! thing is in RTS (TW sub-genre) how many big games you've? to who you'll award the awards? xD conspiracy #undone, basicaly they win awards because they dont have competition at all......simple!



true. like 2 years ago we had the same thing, everyone hated shogun 2, everyone found something to hate and complain and the whole threats and insults, crying, whinning, trolling, swearing they will never play the game anymore, "TW is dead"....... 2 years later............. "shogun 2 was the best game, it was ing great and i will be playing shogun 2 instead of rome 2". so CA needs to release Total War: Medieval 3, so this people brains reset and they will automaticaly love rome 2 and hate medieval 3 xD

And the first of many CA defenders enter and the nitpicking starts...

many games appears on E3,PAX and all show some award? so gaming industry is MAFIA? threats and whatever....... chill down!!!

Paraphrase: So what if the CA/SEGA corrupts gaming media outlets which does the consumer over. Not an issue!

What is it some people who insinuate those who complain about games as being young children "crying", "whinning". Yep, like real mature, reasoned people attack anyone who does not adhere to what they want people to say. There's is little difference between bieliebers (bieber fans) and CA defenders these days...

[tungri_centurio]

No way i buy any new sega/CA games anymore.before i see a critical review of a player on you tube. Damn industry is rotten.
I think all that dont like the game shoud not play for at least 6 mounths and see what happens than,CA always Stated that its checked the behaviour of players on steam.so they shoud notice that they cant sell us such crap.

[GnaReffotsirk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54s_jyjMUxY

Around 18:00 mark +/-

[GnaReffotsirk]

True. In most cases, there's simply no choice but to eat the meal you've been offered. But hey, it doesn't mean you'd want the same thing happening by dinner time.

[DoogansQuest]

True. In most cases, there's simply no choice but to eat the meal you've been offered. But hey, it doesn't mean you'd want the same thing happening by dinner time.

You don't have to eat this though. You have to voluntarily give your money out for it. They can't force you to buy it. Their advertising "tricks" don't jump into people's brains and force them to make decisions beyond their control. Everyone has the capacity to wait until a game is released, let others take the hit up front, and make an informed decision after.

People will still be buying this game in droves despite all of the negative feedback on the forums, and Youtube rants (sure to come). If someone wants it, they can buy it. If they enjoy it, that's on them. If it's selling well, and getting enough positive feedback, there's very little incentive for CA to change anything about it. I also highly doubt that the game developers played this and said, "This is a piece of crap. Exactly what we wanted... Release it!"

Having developers too in tune with die hards isn't always a good thing, because die hards are often in the slim minority. War strategy and history buffs are the minority among the minority. It's about appealing to a broad audience.

What I'd love to see is the Roma Surrectum or RTR teams take a crack at modding RTW2, but I doubt that's going to happen.