At E3 2008, we got to see a quick live game demo on Empire: Total War at Sega's meeting room that focused on the major new feature in this edition of the franchise: high sails naval warfare. If the game concentrated just on this it would still be a game we would look forward to. The fact that it will have both naval and land battles (more on land missions later) has us really excited.
In our demo we got to see the highly detailed ship models in the game and they are perhaps the best looking historical ship visuals that we have ever seen. You can almost see the knots in the wood that make the ships and the holes in the sails. The crew of the vessel are standing on the decks in incredible detail and even below decks you can see gunners manning the cannons. The developer has spared no expense in getting down to the nitty gritty in making the ships real places rather than just units in a game.
In the live demo we got to see an engadgetment between Spanish and US naval forces. Scouts are sent from the main Spanish fleet to find out the extent of the US fleet. When battles begin it's always better to hold back one or two of your best ships and let the smaller vessels fight it out before you bring in the big guns.
In addition to just firing cannons broadside at enemy ships you can also board ships. We saw an example of this when one ship flew out ropes to a enemy and litterally pulled it right in (the 18th century version of a tractor beam) so the ship's compliment can start raiding parties. Fire is a big threat to ships as they can quickly spread to a ship's ammo dump and set off an explosion that will pretty much vaporize a vessel.
There were also some slightly more advanced qeapons and ships in the game. One that was shown was a steam vessel that had a long range rocket gun; basically a not-too-accurate but deadly rocket launcher placed at the head of a ship that can do some massive damage if it hits its target. Oh, and if you are wondering about pirates we were told that they are still figuring out how they will be put into the game but they did say that players will be able to distrupt and take over shipping trade routes.
There were no live land battles in our E3 2008 demo (they are saving it for next month's German Games Convention) but the Creative Assembly reps did tell us that they are planning for as many as 10,000 units on screen at one time. These huge battles will have things like individual musket balls firing on the battlefield so you can just imagine how that will look in the game. There will also be bonuses for things like getting your armies to train in formation.
Empire: Total War's move into the 18th century seems like a natural one for the franchise and the sea battles along have us wanting to make our pre-order for the game right now. We will have more info on this title before it's released to stores in early 2009.
In the live demo we got to see an engadgetment between Spanish and US naval forces. Scouts are sent from the main Spanish fleet to find out the extent of the US fleet. When battles begin it's always better to hold back one or two of your best ships and let the smaller vessels fight it out before you bring in the big guns.
In addition to just firing cannons broadside at enemy ships you can also board ships. We saw an example of this when one ship flew out ropes to a enemy and litterally pulled it right in (the 18th century version of a tractor beam) so the ship's compliment can start raiding parties. Fire is a big threat to ships as they can quickly spread to a ship's ammo dump and set off an explosion that will pretty much vaporize a vessel.
There were also some slightly more advanced qeapons and ships in the game. One that was shown was a steam vessel that had a long range rocket gun; basically a not-too-accurate but deadly rocket launcher placed at the head of a ship that can do some massive damage if it hits its target. Oh, and if you are wondering about pirates we were told that they are still figuring out how they will be put into the game but they did say that players will be able to distrupt and take over shipping trade routes.
There were no live land battles in our E3 2008 demo (they are saving it for next month's German Games Convention) but the Creative Assembly reps did tell us that they are planning for as many as 10,000 units on screen at one time. These huge battles will have things like individual musket balls firing on the battlefield so you can just imagine how that will look in the game. There will also be bonuses for things like getting your armies to train in formation.
Empire: Total War's move into the 18th century seems like a natural one for the franchise and the sea battles along have us wanting to make our pre-order for the game right now. We will have more info on this title before it's released to stores in early 2009.
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