Help me pick just one for a contest at one of the fan sites:

1. Up that hill--are you nutz?


2, Duking it out


3. Parry and thrust


4. A quick one to the rib cage


5. Face off


6. On the move


7. Touché'


8. Kilroy was here


9. You got your peanut butter in my chocolate


10. Come and get it, you odoriferous son of a Gallic goat.


Cheers


PS. So far, I'm leaning toward number 5 or 10

Number 5 definitely, numbers 3 and 7 also look a bit 'competitiony'

6

How do you turn the filter in game down? It always seems like there is a tint or filter when I play.

There is a gamma correction slider in the game, but I have never fooled with it. However, most--if not all, of these shots were lightened up when I edited them.

Besides cropping, most have been brightened using Windows Office picture manager. If it then looks too washed out, I also adjust the contrast . The contest allows for cropping and minor lighting/contrast corrections.

I don't notice the filtered look so much in game, but more so when I'm looking at screen shots

Here is number 6 before it was corrected. I cropped it for a wide screen look, but it still looked too dark or filtered.



Cheers

Great, game tried a campaign as Arverni and ended up in a massive battle with all the Gallic clan around me I couldn't hold more than three provinces on very hard...

Having read most of the Total War forums, I will continue playing Roma Surrectum 2.6 until Rome II has been ironed, patched and modded to make it playable ... Graphics alone don't make a good game.

I really wouldn't take the moaning on the forums as a 100% realistic view of the game the AI has being improved the game for me at least.

Here's an analysis of most of the vocal members at the Total War forums--especially right after the release of any TW game. It's presently pretty much a cesspool of trolls and contrarian juvenile minded misfits and will be for many weeks.



Yes, the game was released with many issues. There are balance, stability, and A.I. issues that have to be corrected--many already have with the first few patches. Luckily, I've had no stability or technical issue, so they game has been quite playable in spite of its flaws. Of course I'm a bit of a graphics whore, but then why else would I be posting to the graphics brothel section of SimHQ

These are issues that were most likely caused by Sega forcing a release date that CA knew was too soon, but had no choice but to do as they were directed by their SEGA overlords.

Is this an acceptable excuse? Of course not. CA has been a shining star for SEGA, and one can only hope that
SEGA does not ruin the franchise in their shortsighted quest for immediate revenues.

Other than those factors, the developers introduced some new gameplay mechanics and features that some fans can't seem to accept. People tend to dislike change--regardless of whether it is good or bad. However---mark my words--many of these same rabid and vocal dickwads will be lamenting how bad the next TW release is compared to how good Rome 2 was.

That's simply the nature of the beast.

Cheers

I don't know Forward Observer...I think some of the criticism is justified. The funny thing is...the game was running decent for me before any patches...after the patches Iv'e been screwed. I'm only talking about performance here...I haven't even gotten to AI yet since battle performance is horrendous. If you look at my specs, I have plenty of horsepower to run this...and I can run Shogun 2 on max buttery smooth. In Rome 2, I can set everything to low and as soon as I inch up the unit detail setting to high or higher...the FPS crawls when the armies merge and action starts happening.


Very disappointed so far...I was really looking forward to this since Rome 1 was my all time fave in the TW series.

I never said the criticism wasn't justified. In fact, just the opposite. I also mentioned that I have been lucky in that I have not had any stability/technical issues. This has been the case for me since launch and through the patches. Of course the next patch might do me in too--who knows?

I also understand though, that it's not uncommon for a patch to break a previously working game--it just happens. I've obviously been lucky, and I hope your issue eventually get fixed.

My point is that every release of a TW game has been like this to sometimes a lesser and sometimes a greater degree. However, this may be the first time that professional critics are calling SEGA/CA to task for it.

If one looks at Metacritic, since the first Rome, no TW game has ever gotten a negative review with the odd exception of one such review of Napoleon. Even Empire, which IMHO was released in far worse shape than Rome 2, did not get a single negative review. Each of these games had over 50 reviews listed.

Conversely, out of 55 "critic" reviews so far, Rome 2 has gotten 5 (5 or lower) negative and 7 mixed reviews (6 or 7) Once again, only Napoleon ever got a negative review.

This has dropped Rome 2's average score to 7.9 while user scores are at an all time low of 3.8. Of course if one reads many of the negative user reviews they realize that they gave a 0 because they simply couldn't get the game to run. It still reflects a problem that might have been avoided if the developers had been able to delay the release.

SEGA and CA's have indicated in several interviews how important the scores at Metacritic are to them, so maybe this time they will get the message. Then again maybe not--it's too soon to tell.

Cheers

I didn't mean to derail my own thread, but anyway thanks for the suggestions.

The deadline for first week of the contest is tomorrow, so I went ahead and used number 5. There will be another entry for each of the next 3 weeks, so I might do this again. Thanks all

The Guild or http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forum.php is one of the lesser visited Total War fan sites, and as such it is a much calmer and ultimately a more intelligent place to visit--even in the weeks following a release. The Total War site draws more transient visitors for the same reason that people flock to see a car crash or a train wreck. I visit it for the same reason.

However, if you are a member of the "org", go to the Rome 2 forum and vote for your favorite screenshot. They would appreciate the traffic.

Cheers

Apologies for adding to the derailment


I actually like #1 because it shows more "scope" as opposed to the close up shots. Nice shots all around though!

Force10,

No problem. You simply spoke your mind, and if anybody should apologize, it needs be me for pontificating like I tend to do sometimes.

Cheers

I like number one as well

Though I do like the one titled 'you got your peanut butter in my chocolate'

Sorry for disturbing the thread...
Nothing specially against Rome 2, it's just as usual every TW game has only taken its real dimension once it's been modded. What would be Rome I without RTR 7, Roma Surrectum or Europa Barbarorum? What would Medieval 2 be without Stainless Steel, Deo lo Vult, Broken Crescent or Third Age ? Or Empire, Napoleon or Shogun 2 without Darthmods ?
I've bought and played each of them ( and I still play all of them )but not on release date.