Empire: Total War

I would have give this 5 based on just the demo but since buying the game I have spent 7 hours trying to install it off the disks due the rubbish Steam program which you have to install to install game- I love the total war series but sega have made amess of it all now and i wont buy annother sega game again if it uses steam..im off to try to get it to install for the 50th time as now it says steam servers are to busy to let me install game of the disks i have in front of me - crazy move sega.

This game is fantastic but theres just something missing, after the year 1799 the game ends and you have to start again,

The units are also good but the concept gets boring after a while all your basically doing is taking over a capital city then taking over another one meanwhile your other citys are constantly having riots and fights.

Its a great game to pass the time but not one im likely to remember in a few years time.

First off; really great game. Good mix of political and militaristic conflicts and diplomacy/politics has a slightly larger part to play with a goverment system and revolutions.

HOWEVER: you will need one hell of a computer to run this. i have pretty much the requirements on my laptop running vista and i still find that after playing it for half an hour i have to stop because i have the graphics on LOW, like really low (you can imagine how low, i mean, SHOGUN is a bit nicer in some ways low) and the slight frame rate is annoying as hell.

you may want to run your pc/laptop past a few game checkers (.yougamers.com .sytemrequirementslab.com) and check your at least half way up the scale for yougamers. Im just before the first notch if thats an indication.

I wasnt too sure whether to buy this game or not because it's certainly different from previous total war games.
I bought it 2 days ago now and i have finally gotten use to the controls, gameplay etc.
The new style of warfare means that some players like myself was will be a little thrown off when old tactics dont work the ability to shoot at long distances means you must be very smart in how you engage the enemy which can be quite challenging.
Naval combat is a new feature, its very hard especially as you are controlling when you ships fire which means you are constantly missing the opportunity to shoot the enemy as you are already busy orderin another ship to fire.
The graphics are very good, everything is very clear and looks more realistic.
The fighting between soldiers in hand to hand combat is very good as you can watch the dueling happening close up.
Controls are relatively the same.
From the campaign map, i found that it was quite hard running settlements as the menu's now longer popped up on the right hand side like in rome total war but you do get used to if after a few hours.
To summaire this is a very good game which is enjoyable to play as soon as you get used to all the new changes.

I have had this since release & the game still will not work. Every other game I have runs sweet, I have a superb gaming rig, but this software is faulty. It just crashes time after time, you will never get a decent game in. I would avoid at all costs, even patch 1.4 is useless. I have finally managed to get a refund from SEGA, although they are calling it a goodwill gesture. Don't touch this game, look at the Total War support forums to prove my point. Awful.