PC Gamer puts Rome 2 on game of the year list.

[Riekopo]

PCGamer lost all credibility to me a long time ago. They are almost as bad as IGN.

[pajomife]

Even the credibility have a price.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Even a Total war is still GOTY every year. It is just so much superior when it comes to this RTS/Turn based formula nothing comes close.

[Anna_Gein]

Even a Total war is still GOTY every year. It is just so much superior when it comes to this RTS/Turn based formula nothing comes close.

A broken game is a broken game. End of the story.

I still see the formula of campaign map/battle map as the holy graal of strategy game but it is not enough to ensure such reward for every CA game. Open your eyes : the total war formula have been created 13 years ago. It is not revolutionary anymore.

You should indeed learn your priorities and realize that as a customer and a gamer the last thing you should do is to support a AAA grade studio when it release a broken game.

[Arbitrary Crusader]

A broken game is a broken game. End of the story.

Except it NOT a broken game, it's playable. End of story.

[iWarsaw]

Except it NOT a broken game, it's playable. End of story.

A car with broken brakes still drives.

[Arbitrary Crusader]

A car with broken brakes still drives.

Correct.

[Anna_Gein]

Except it NOT a broken game, it's playable. End of story.

Please don't play on words. The game may be not broken anymore in technical aspect but all of its gameplay is either badly balanced, not working at all or a downgrade compared to previous titles. As a whole the game is an horrible mass with few mechanic working together.

For example CA choose to not represent hoplon shields with their distinctive grip to avoid clipping issues without raising the development cost. It is an understandable choice. But at the same time, they created animations which, combined with the unit-spacing stats they set cause clipping everywhere once melee fight begin. Talking about the animations, they spent a lot of money in motion-capture only to set the battle speed so high that it is impossible to enjoy the animations. They even made facial animations just to not include any anti-aliasing at release. That's what I call epic an epic fail.

the patching and support it has gotten since then is remarkable not to mention the good will moves made by CA.

It would be nice if they correct their error with the galatian spears unit defined as cavalry unit and so running with the speed of cavalry unit. It would not take 2 minutes to do but it has yet to be accomplished.

[Arbitrary Crusader]

Please don't play on words.

Hard, considering your post said, "A broken game is a broken game"

The game may be not broken anymore in technical aspect but all of its gameplay is either badly balanced, not working at all or a downgrade compared to previous titles. As a whole the game is an horrible mass with few mechanic working together.

So, playable then?

[pajomife]

Except it NOT a broken game, it's playable. End of story.

I paid 54.99€ for a" playable " game? Fantastic.

[alhoon]

The game sold well. Why shouldn't it be on the list?

[Sharpe]

The game sold well. Why shouldn't it be on the list?

Because certain members of the Rome 2 forum think so lol

[omzdog]

Enter rant

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Reviewers are notorious for their 2 faced approach to the gaming industry.
The only reason why a reviewer has a job is because its his intellectual duty to separate himself from monetary influence.

If he can't overcome the temptations of worldly gain, he's useless as a man.

Specifically those 70's weightloss band machines sold very well.
Fortunately for the market (corporate management understands this concept)
financial performance means nothing in terms of a real evaluation of value.

Reviewers understand that perfectly and its become clear ever since manipulation of mass opinion has become a technique approaching perfection.

You need only witness pre-alpha screenshots to understand how outright lying to consumers can garnish short-term profits.


All of this is to be expected from mega-international conglomerates such as EA.
But for that culture to be pervasive in CA is a surprise to anyone who calls themselves a TW fan.

Why shouldn't it be on the list?
Because its popularity was gained by false advertising.
Nobody likes people who sell out to dishonest methods.
Unfortunately the fraud was only exposed after release day.

[omzdog]

Take a look at the comments on youtube about the reviewers.
Our opinion is quite wide spread.

[Omnipotent-Q]

PC Gamer hasn't been itself for a number of years now. I don't personally rate it anywhere near as high as in the past. Kotaku and Rock, Paper Shotgun are better these days IMO - the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer...they're just corporate, web hits, adverts, corporate, web hits, adverts, brown envelopes.

I don't hate Rome II as much as a lot of people, and arguably I'm some sort of Total War fanboy (being an admin on a TW site after all). But even I don't think that Rome II should be nominated for Game of the Year. It was released unfinished. I think it's a lot better now but that doesn't change it being released as an unfinished game. I don't know who made the decision to release Rome II with the glaring bugs it had on release - probably Sega. But it's inexcusable with any game. It's not the only questionable title on the PC Gamers list though. I think Battlefield 4 is log. Tomb Raider - was ok but we've seen it all before numerous times. Dota 2 although officially released this year has been in public beta since 2011 - it's a strong title, but it's only listed this year because of PC Gamer giving Valve a little brown nosing. I stepped in some dog mess yesterday and I commented on lifting my shoe up that "it looks a bit like Spelunky". But they've got to get their well known Indie games in there so they at least look like they still know or care about PC gaming these days. The Stanley Parable and Papers, Please - the excellent standout Indie titles of this year by far.

If I'm honest Europa Universalis IV deserves to be on the list more than Rome II. I think even CA knew with the massive support forum and functions they put on for release day there were some issues with Rome II on release. Knowing that they should have shown a bit of pride, done a Valve Time and delayed release.

A Game of the Year should be just as much game of the year when it is released initially, as several months later.

[Dynamo11]

The prologue was definitely a game of the year contender, oh what's that PC Gamer you didn't play the rest of the dull broken game?

PC Gamer hasn't been itself for a number of years now. I don't personally rate it anywhere near as high as in the past. Kotaku and Rock, Paper Shotgun are better these days IMO - the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer...they're just corporate, web hits, adverts, corporate, web hits, adverts, brown envelopes.

Kotaku does it's fair share of alarmist articles to get hits, it's the Daily Telegraph of video games journalism

[DarrenTotalWar]

Wow this was a bad year for PC gaming. BF4 and Xcom would probably get my votes.

[prithupaul]

Wow this was a bad year for PC gaming. BF4 and Xcom would probably get my votes.

It looks bad .. because they ignored quite a few great games in that list, like Metro Last Light, Assassins Creed Black Flag, EUIV, CIV 5 Brave New World, Brothers Tale of Two Sons. Well at least they kept out COD also, lol.

[pyj99]

It's amazing all the hate that a small number of vocal people keep launching at the game - It really makes this once interesting forum quite the garbage pit

Of course Total war Rome II should be on any (PC) Game of the year list !

It is a huge undertaking, with 100's of hours of enjoyable gameplay , lot of replayability with many new factions offered as DLC and an excellent expansion on a key topic of interest "De bello gallicum"

Launch has been buggy as hell (no crossfire support fof AMD 6850 for instance) but support has been great since then and since patch 7 it is totally at the same state where RTW and M2TW were at the end of their patching times

So I hope it goes top of the list

[Captain W. Handberg]

Rome II was fun, but certainly not deserving a spot on top 10 games of the Year.
Personally I really enjoyed Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag.