I want to be excited, but I am now preparing for disappointment

[Yomamashouse]

If this had been announced shortly after Medieval 2 Kingdoms was released I would be completely stoked - I played the series right from Shogun 1 through to Kingdoms and loved it. The games weren't perfect, but it felt like there was a steady forwards motion in the introduction of new features and the fixing of defects. If the trend of improvement and advancement from Shogun 1 onwards had continued with a Warhammer Fantasy-focused game I would love it, but ever since ETW the series feels like it has lost all the charming elements that made the older games so great... all in exchange for the concept of streamlining (a weasel word that means shameless dumbing down of gameplay).

I say this not just as a total war fan, but a player of the Warhammer games on tabletop. Dawn of War has done a fairly faithful rendition of Warhammer 40K, but we haven't had an official Warhammer fantasy game (aside from the third-trimester abortion that was Warhammer: Mark of Chaos). The world of Warhammer Fantasy combined with the game mechanics of the older Total War games feels like a match made in heaven, but with the race to the bottom initiated with ETW and the catering to "casual" gamers who like "streamlining", I feel like this is going to be another bungled opportunity.

I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks and what everyone is expecting, given the current state of the Total War games.

[Phil125]

I totally agree with you. I played Shogun Total War from day one it was on the shelves at stores. The total war series has definitely "jumped the shark" since ETW.

Shogun 2 was ok Rome 2 was awful....

They took something that was no broke and tried to fix it and destroyed it.

[Vardeus]

I'm expecting awesomeness and that's what i will get. I've developed great tolerance for buggy games over the years (I played warhammer online for 5 years, TWW can't become half as unrealized potential as WAR was).

I will get emotional if it sucks. I will rage, be mad...but right now it's too early to begin dooming and glooming. We get plenty of those two after a game is released. For the time being i feel like i must give CA the benefit of the doubt and hope for a shogun 2 jewel. I'll end up playing the game and enjoying it no matter what, it's warhammer.

[NostalgiaFan]

If this had been announced shortly after Medieval 2 Kingdoms was released I would be completely stoked - I played the series right from Shogun 1 through to Kingdoms and loved it. The games weren't perfect, but it felt like there was a steady forwards motion in the introduction of new features and the fixing of defects. If the trend of improvement and advancement from Shogun 1 onwards had continued with a Warhammer Fantasy-focused game I would love it, but ever since ETW the series feels like it has lost all the charming elements that made the older games so great... all in exchange for the concept of streamlining (a weasel word that means shameless dumbing down of gameplay).

I say this not just as a total war fan, but a player of the Warhammer games on tabletop. Dawn of War has done a fairly faithful rendition of Warhammer 40K, but we haven't had an official Warhammer fantasy game (aside from the third-trimester abortion that was Warhammer: Mark of Chaos). The world of Warhammer Fantasy combined with the game mechanics of the older Total War games feels like a match made in heaven, but with the race to the bottom initiated with ETW and the catering to "casual" gamers who like "streamlining", I feel like this is going to be another bungled opportunity.

I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks and what everyone is expecting, given the current state of the Total War games.

Describes my feelings to a microscopic level. I simply have no hope that this will turn out good, nothing in it gives me any hope that it will overcome the faults of the current engine and quite frankly I just want to wait for the announcement of the next historical Total War game in a slight hope that CA might be smart enough to craft it on a new, more fitting engine for close combat(on a warring states China theme just for added goodness), but who am I kidding? Most likely the head honchos at the office are too blind to think of something like that and will continue to blindly shove out their current garbage on the same damn engine until they are broke. If it comes to that then I am done with Total War as long as they refuse to change for the better.

[geala]

Opinions differ. It's really hard to find me a reason to prefer M2TW over the later games. Especially the crappy old-style diplomacy, far worse than in every TW game from ETW onwards, would keep me away. And I still remember my constant annoyance because of the difficulty to place units during sieges. That the physics on the battlefield were maybe better in the old days is just not so important for me. Let's hope they will get it better than it's now in the next game (sometimes wishful thinking has it's merits ) .

[Kirila the Kitten]

Diplomacy was bad, with horrible AI but it was sort of immersive. Forced Diplomacy mod in all of them is great for hard RPers who won't abuse it.

[Clone1710]

Actually, I still think that Shogun 2 is the best TW game to date. Attila isn't bad, either. I'm quite happy waiting for Total War: Warhammer and can't wait to see the CE. (though I'm still thinking they should have named it Total Warhammer or Warhammer Total War, both sound better)

[PlacidDragon]

Generally speaking, any title is never going to live up to the hype (in this day and age).

Like you, i would have been over ecstatic in the past since Warhammer is something i love...but its CA...which means that they'll completely #¤%#% it up (even with GW breathing down their necks). I dont know if im even going to buy it at this point (didn't buy Attila, which is the first TW game i've skipped since..well... ever). I am expecting fantastic movies, and then the normal CA quality (which is generally bad) in the actual game.

I stayed clear of Mark of Chaos due to gigantic negative feedback, and i dont think i have played a Warhammer RTS since "Shadow of the Horned Rat" back in the day (40k not included obviously).

[waveman]

Personally, I'll wait and see - that's what I did for Attila. I watched some videos of Attila and thought it looked a lot better than Rome 2 so I bought it and I'm happy with it. Plus they'd already fixed some bugs at that point I think. So I'll just wait for let's plays and then make my decision

[Rijul.J.Ballal]

Attila and Shogun were amazing imo, CA may yet surprise us.

[Påsan]

I`m playing call of warhammer now. The mod for Med 2. Absolutely stellar mod by the way, I recommend it to everyone that are interested in warhammer.

Honestly I'm not too optimistic. If the new game is better than call of warhammer I'm going to be genuinely surprised.

[Sint]

I'm not exited until I see actual gamepay videos,and even then I won't belive any "its still Alpha"comments.And unless they actually do it with a new engine I won't bother with it.

[Yomamashouse]

Actually, I still think that Shogun 2 is the best TW game to date. Attila isn't bad, either. I'm quite happy waiting for Total War: Warhammer and can't wait to see the CE. (though I'm still thinking they should have named it Total Warhammer or Warhammer Total War, both sound better)

I did enjoy Shogun 2, but I think that the small scale of the game (limited to the factions in the Japanese archipelago) helped that. If the game had been on a much larger scale and had so many incredibly different factions the system might have broken down.

[petertel123]

the only thing about M2TW I like better than the warscape TWs is the modability, vanilla medieval 2 was pretty mediocre even compared to rome 2 and empire.
Map filled with "rebels", terrible diplomacy, no naval battles, pretty boring map etc.
warscape TW games are a mixed bag for me, empire and rome 2 were pretty bad, but Napoleon and atilla a pretty good and shogun 2 was a high point in the series for me
Stop idealising medieval 2, it was only good because of all the awesome mods that were available for it

[DavidtheDuke]

Stop idealising medieval 2, it was only good because of all the awesome mods that were available for it

Most people are thinking of the mods, and that's fine, because Medieval 2 is the most modded and readily moddable game in the series, which means tons of things are optimized/fixed which is either more difficult and/or impossible post MTW2. There's currently only one campaign map that has even been modded and that's Shogun 2's AFAIK, and only once.

[Saladin]

Most people are thinking of the mods, and that's fine, because Medieval 2 is the most modded and readily moddable game in the series, which means tons of things are optimized/fixed which is either more difficult and/or impossible post MTW2. There's currently only one campaign map that has even been modded and that's Shogun 2's AFAIK, and only once.

true enough. I can't remember the last time i played a fully vanilla m2tw campaign. maybe the kingdoms new world expansion.

[Musteline]

I completely disagree with what you said, napoleon total war and shogun II total war was on par if not better than older total wars considering their time frames, i haven't played attila yet, but the unusual up they do don't make it a rule( i would say the s up usually have to do with the scale of what they are trying to do more than they loosing their touch).

[DavidtheDuke]

I completely disagree with what you said, napoleon total war and shogun II total war was on par if not better than older total wars considering their time frames, i haven't played attila yet, but the unusual up they do don't make it a rule( i would say the s up usually have to do with the scale of what they are trying to do more than they loosing their touch).

And they are trying something more new now than ever before. That's why people are cynical. Empire was huge and very different, Rome 2 was ambitious too. And so is Warhammer. Warhammer is more ambitious than ever before. It looks to be more ambitious than any other TW ever. People are justified in being cynical and waiting for CA to prove themselves IMO.

true enough. I can't remember the last time i played a fully vanilla m2tw campaign. maybe the kingdoms new world expansion.

I remember buying that just for the mods because it was needed for compatibility lol

[craziii]

after attila, my faith has been mostly restored.

But I am kinda burned out from yearly releases.

But I can buy the games for 40$ or less. it isn't much for the amount of enjoyment I get out of it.

as long as pfm supports future TW games, I would 100% buy them since the price is pretty alright

[andymate]

I think what people don't realize is that the game engine is actually fine, but parts of it like the how units interact with one another needs to be made better. (Charge mass, combat etc) Going by my own experiences as a programmer i would say that it would be very time consuming to make it work properly. By the sounds of it they have had to rebuild the mass system to allow for beasts and creatures so maybe we will finally see some good changes.