Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldcall
Actually the Total War games were relatively clean up to ETW. I thought both RTW and MTW were excellent even though for the few bugs.
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I was going to pass this by, but I can't.
Medieval 2: Total War was an utter disaster on the same scale as SH5 and ETW. It's the reason I didn't buy ETW. I was glad of that decision, too, when I read that they shipped ETW with an AI that lacked the ability to conduct seaborne attacks (i.e. play England and your home territory will never be invaded; the enemy will never be able to support its overseas possessions with navally transported reinforcements, etc.). Heck, M2 shipped with a shield bug that made shields actually work in reverse (they made soldiers MORE vulnerable) and a borked two-handed attack animation that made 2H units useless. IIRC, fighting downhill actually imposed a penalty rather than the intended bonus. And so much more...
The relevance to the SH series? This is the way things are in the industry. I see the same cycle for every reasonably complex game: a broken release out of the gate, months and months of waiting for a series of patches that finally make the game playable, and a war between those who are understandably upset and complain and those who are angry that people complain.
This cycle will continue for as long as gamers purchase titles they
know are subpar. Really, did any of us
not know SH5 was going to be a mess? For the record, I don't own or play it. I'm just following the issues as a fan of the series, as an interested game buyer, and as someone who wishes he
could play and enjoy SH5. Game publishers are companies. Companies care about profit. They maximize profit by maximizing sales and minimizing costs. One way they minimize costs is to hamstring development teams with a lack of resources. As long as the broken results sell, we will have to live with it.
If we were all sceptical and refused to buy a game on release after a series of releases (SH3, SH4, and SH5 at least) that established a track-record of failure, the publisher would have to adjust its policies. Until then, this will continue unchanged.