Medieval II: Total War - Gold Edition (PC DVD)
£19.04
best strategy game every produced - I do not think any words will do justice for this game, so I will keep this very short and to the point:-Good things: everything really, graphics are superb, the strategy itself, the battles are just the best thing i have ever seen on a pc screen, extremely addictive game, i spent almost 9 hours on it when I first installed it, and the only thing that kept me from going on was having to go to work. Very enjoyable to play, and unlike other strategy games where you spend lots of time gathering resources then you lose in 10 seconds, this is something a lot more thought provoking, and needs some real skills. Bad points: you need a very good PC to play this game, and a large amount of Rams, the more the better. - Caused my PC to crash and freeze a couple of times (running on 1 Gig Ram)This is by far the best, most enjoyable and addictive game in the market so far, and much better than the previous editions, cannot wait to get the new one coming soon. Get it now, but be warned, this will take your life away.
A Great Game - I found this game to be the best in it s genre. It allows players to be one of many factions from the Grasslands of the English empire to the desserts of the Turkish. The battles immerse you in a almost life like battle field were the many different units (such as elephants) engage in combat. One of the best PC games out.A must buy.
Make sure your computer is able to play this game - I was unable to play this game because after one an a half hours of installing the game it told me that my computer could not play the game because it did not have a 1.1 pixel shader. I have found that there are suprisingly few computers which have this and to get it you will have to buy a graphics card which has this. Before you buy this game make sure that your computer has a graphics card with 1.1 pixel shader
Excellent, despite a few minor flaws. - Anyone familiar with the Total War series will have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Medieval II and its expansion pack. There are two levels of gameplay, the strategic map on which cities and castles are built, and the tactical map on which battles are fought. With a couple of minor adjustments, the gameplay here is virtually identical to the previous instalment, Rome, the primary differences being the greater variety of units, buildings, and options available. The graphics are also greatly improved, and the look of the maps and the armies is fantastic. You pay the price for this in hardware requirements, though, and even the best home gaming PCs will struggle to cope with battles slightly larger than the norm. The interface and gameplay is in some ways little changed since the first outing of the Total War series, and has now been polished to the point there is little to criticise. If anything, the weakness of Medieval II is that it tries to do too much. Some of the features it has added to the strategic map in particular- extra characters like merchants and priests- add little to the fun of the game and are much of the time simply pointless and frustrating distractions from the main gameplay. The strategic gameplay is solid, and challenging, but after a few plays it can become a bit predictable. There is a noteworthy bug in the strategic calendar, where characters age at six months per turn, but the calendar advances at two years per turn. This also leads to some ludicrous situations such as it taking sixteen years to cross the Atlantic... but these are details, and in any case this is all a sideshow. The true strength of the game is on the tactical battlefield.Frustratingly, though, the game has not fixed some of the more annoying elements of its predecessor. Units from the eastern end of the map are still overpowered, the non-player horde armies are still virtually impossible to defeat, and a single unit of horse archers can still waste hours of your life as you fruitlessly chase them around a battlefield trying to finish them off (there s still no super-fast-forward button as there was in Shogun and Medieval I). Again, though, these are small details in an otherwise excellent battle game. The AI is possibly a little on the predictable and passive side, but is still challenging enough for all but the most experienced players... and then there s always the multiplayer.(Players of Shogun will also welcome the return of short, entertaining videos illustrating the success or failure of assassination attempts.)The game is slightly schizophrenic when it comes to historical accuracy, on the one hand it still paints in the broadest of brush-strokes when it comes to the strategic map (controversially leaving Aragon out entirely), which will doubtless irritate any scholars of the period. However, when it comes to unit names and designations, it is entirely authentic, to the point where, to some English-speaking readers, the names of some units will be all but unintelligible. It is difficult to fault the game too heavily in this regard, though, and the variety of units available is amazing.The expansion pack, Kingdoms, fixes some minor bugs from the original, but, more significantly, introduces four new grand campaigns to play through, as well as new multiplayer factions. Of these campaigns (the Third and later Crusades, the British Isles c.1250, the Baltic Crusade, and the Spanish conquest of America) the only one to introduce anything really new is the American campaign, with its wide variety of native factions and units. All of the campaigns are fun to play, though, and their focus allows them to include historical details overlooked in the main campaign.Overall, the game is excellent. Anyone who is already a fan of the Total War series will love it, and anyone who has not previously played it would do well to give it a try. My criticisms above are nitpicks and do not seriously detract from the experience, although veteran players might be slightly disappointed that some of the details have not been fixed since Rome. The strategic gameplay is comparable with franchises like Civilisation, and the tactical, unit-based gameplay is still by far the best of any game on the market. The graphics are breathtaking, and the interface is completely intuitive for all the important elements of gameplay (and there is good in-game help for those who need it). Five stars are well-deserved.
Addictive - Having owned and thoroughly enjoyed the first Medieval Total War my expectations were quite high for this edition. Some reviews had also made me a little worried about the progression in game play and concept, but this was all dispelled upon my first play. Rather than armies simply being moved from region to region, mountains and lakes have to be negotiated as armies shape their way through the terrain. These paths can also be used as important strategic strongholds, or ambush locations for other unsuspecting passing armies. The first edition lacked terrain on the main campaign map and this is perhaps the biggest change when first playing the game.The main beauty of Total War II is how detailed both parts of the game are. For those who have not played the game, the game is broadly divided into two sections - firstly a map style campaign, similar to Civilization or the board game Risk and secondly individual battle scenarios. The game can therefore be played as both a strategy game and/or a battle one. Battles can be resolved automatically or commanded personally depending on how long or short you want the game to be.In terms of playing time, the game does require a large amount of attention if you want to succeed as a ruler. Turns cannot simply be skipped in order to save money or for a building to be finished, as otherwise other `factions will leave you in their wake. With experience and patience a huge European Empire can be under your grasp, but just when you think you have the game cracked, new and more powerful factions appear from the east, natural disasters strike cities, the plague sweeps through Europe and then America is discovered. Unlike many strategy games that become tedious and repetitive over time, these events help keep the game interesting.The expansion pack features four mini-versions of the main game. Each is as detailed as the main game, but concentrates on specific areas such as Britain and the Middle East. These are equalling rewarding to play and I found the Crusades Campaign (which I still have yet to complete) perhaps even more compelling and addictive than the main game.Overall Medieval Total War II is an absolute masterpiece of a game and coupled with the expansion pack it becomes the only game you will want to play for a long time.