@@jaredkronk4614 The problem is that Total War AI ignore everything. Recruitment cap per turn, income, economy overall, public order, devastation, immigration and etc... In Rome Total War and Medieval Total War you can make a faction go bankrupt by blockading all their ports as an example. While at the same time introducing mechanics that makes harder for the player.
This is one of those indie vs. AAA subjects. The "industry" (AAA) has institutionalized the fakery of modern AI implementation. Most high-budget games are not as complex as people make them to be, in terms of choices for players or AI. If anything, budget might be inverse to complexity. A modern high-end desktop pc can beat hundreds of the best players in chess all at once. The only valid excuse for game studios is that they don't want to spend the resources on writing the code. Games with a very large simulation count are exceptions, but these are rarely AAA or even AA games. Something like Total War has 200-300 or so entities in the turn-based portion of a mortal empires game, and 80 entities in an AI vs. AI battle. What would be a significant performance hit is giving every soldier its own AI, but your PC can probably do it.* I'm sure writing game AI to function more like Machine Learning AI is nontrivial, but it seems like the games industry doesn't want to innovate anymore. At least the indies try, despite not having anywhere near the same resources to modernize their AI. *An AI like Deep Blue could outperform humans through brute force using 11.38 GFLOPS. Algorithms are far more intelligent or efficient today, and modern desktop CPUs are up to 100x that, with the newest i7 getting over 1 TFLOPS. GPUs are generally underutilized for game AI, while all the latest GPUs have dedicated AI cores. In traditional cores, The Nvidia 4090 can reach 82.6 TFLOPS. The much cheaper AMD RX 7600 ($250) scores 21.5 TFLOPS. While not totally equivalent, this $250 GPU is theoretically 2000x the Deep Blue supercomputer. If game AI has any significant impact on performance, it's written poorly, full stop.
@@Varadiionice attempt at flexing, while at the same time showing that you don't grasp actual programming or AI. Chess is simple as fuck compared to something like TW. It also doesn't help that CA is a management clusterfuck and the engine is a huge mess. But yeah, the main point is that a tactical battle is essentially orders of magnitude more complex than chess which would actually lead to a complete bottleneck if you approached it like chess. Instead you have to manually try to figure out ways to fake intelligence in a way that seems realistic to the player. That's why the AI in SD2 basically just has one major tactic: spam. They did add blind spot detection though which is one of those smart little tricks that makes the ai seem intelligent. But the devs had to figure out the algorithm for that and every single other behavior the ai has. That's really, really difficult to do, although ironically it is something generative AI can be very useful to help with. ChatGPT is very good at identifying all possible cases and edge cases of a function which helps avoiding unpredicted behavior
Attila was great change. The looming Hun invasion, the death that comes. Not the typical start small, go big. But trying to hold WRE together while everyone is bashing you. Its great...and also it is not 😅
@@MultiTsunamiX Yes I like the general feel of Attila, the sense of decay and survival ass opposed to empire building is refreshing. But the details of the game mechanics are just not enjoyable. Being punished for building and researching technologies is like wtf. And late-game is literally just slowly colonizing the wasteland after virtually everyone except the Sassanids and their vassals have been wiped out.
@@Regarded69 Dont research them lol. Its meant to be historically accurate. Rome fully adopts Christianity and who needs sanitization buildings when you can just build a church and tell people dying is gods will for them. I loved Atilla, it was the only TW game that actually challenged you. The rest play more like power fantasies. Build deathstack, conquer everything, no wrong answers. Even then with all the "player traps" people hate its still not that hard once you figure it out mechanically.
@@LegendofTotalWar I saw the comment and was like, oh no this is a salty critique. Got even more worried on what your comment would be when I saw your logo. You comment made me giggle, cheers bruv xD
Roman Seperatists took over Italy in my campaign until my ERE legions came to restore order. Rome lives on either way unless the Nordic barbarians take over.
That's what makes it my favorite game actually. Most total war games just become a grind of bland expansion pretty quickly. Attila actually has somewhat of a story arc throughout the campaign.
I get why Empire is here, but I can't stop loving the game, I am one of 3 people who love Sea Battles in Total War, I think it's a fantastic addition to Total War Series, that pushes the whole series forward, and it's really sad, they did not really expand or polish that side of the game.
@@alaskanassassin1757same, I really really love that mod. It expands the historical elements of the game in a great way and helps fix/enahsnce many of the mechanics that folks have earnest complaints about in the base game. I think ETW2 plays a bit “fast” for the number of turns per year, which is my major gripe with the mod.
@@MassEffectedX13 I’m just now getting into the mod and on turn 120 and I can agree with you for sure. The other thing I didnt like to much is all the units seem to be very inaccurate. They will stand 5 feet from each other and take a bit to kill the other unit. Maybe I’m wrong tho but seems a bit different then base game
For me Empire is the worst game for a couple of reasons, 1 is the new engine which was made for gun combat and impacted what I thought as the core of TW which for me was melee combat, 2 for the lack of detail on campaing, France was only Paris, very disappointed, no epic ward, 3 the era is not the most exciting in terms of diversity, 4 coming after M2TW which for me is a GOAT empire was such a step back and a huge let down and disappointment that made it feel worse as a game.
@@derigel7662 censorship has nothing to do with it. Legend said on many occasions he got tired of "goodbye fuckers" but only kept doing it cause people liked it.
@BurkinaFaso69 sure has nothing to do with the massive wave of censors the past year: cant curse or get demonitized, cant show loading guns demonitzed, cant say that disease that happned in the 2020s demonitized, cant say the 1940s germans demonitized, cant say that action of self deletion demonitized.......does youtube pay you to keep gaslighting people? Is embarrassing when soft people like you run damaged control for RUclips......really made this platform a WONDERFUL place
I agree with the joke in principle but since this game is part of a series that has multiple similar entries that are quite similar this is just a joke to me again.
Say genuine and obvious criticism before your critics say it + in a funny voice = win. "OOooh but how do you know the food tastes bad, you didn't even eat it!!" Hah, suck it haters, I just dislike how it looks so I don't even have to try it! It's bad!"
Agreed. It isn't really an if/or kind of thing. It is like saying should we have heads on a coin or tails - you have both, they complement each other. Very scripted feels robotic and sanitised, which leads to the listener doubting the honesty of the speaker. We see this with games journalist companies who then give 9/10 to bland and uninspired games, or leaders who fail to motivate an apathetic audience. Very off-the-cuff feels unorganised and difficult to summarise, which leads to the listener to feel a lot but unable to pin down the issue. We see this with populist figures, which ultimately come away looking incompetent and the followers as uneducated in the subject just giving in to emotions. If you mix the two correctly, though, you have the recipe for honest and intelligent argument, and followers who can spread that successfully to see change. Whether that is changing the direction of a games company or that of a nation. To do that, have a list of keypoints to talk about with subpoints under each to briefly remind of what exactly is the issue, why its an issue, what the alternatives could be, and how you see those playing out. Then speak about those off-the-cuff. Tangents are fine as they pop into mind, but try not to let them run away since they'll likely be less well-formed - can always be something you come back on another occasion.
@@Bubinni yes but elephants and pigs and dogs and chariots and phalanx and testudo and head hurlers or w/e of course it is. This is also why everyone plays warhammer instead. And it really sucked on launch. I played Shogun 2 and said 'this is incredible! Just do this but set in rome with elephants et al' and they had to somehow drop the home run by doing more work. Different flavours are nice, having to learn each convoluted tree was not, not when you got a 'slightly german half bearded axe gentleman with above average armour on his left side' and I have to figure out if I need that in my army. It has 33 morale? Fantastic! Or bad? Obviously they got their way around it by warhammer but the visual language is much better there naturally. Because they didn't know what a bogskin faggle was they show it really clearly now. I still don't know if 'very heavy spear infantry' is good against 'medium sword infantry' when they both appear to wear wool cloaks.
@@mandowarrior123 The "very heavy" "medium" "heavy" etc, is purely the mass of the unit. Which affects its impact on a charge, as well as its ability to take a charge from a larger unit like cav.
I understand your rating for all the games, except PHAROH. I boycotted it for a long time, but when they did Dynasties...and it was massively on sale, I bought it. It isn't great, but it is way more enjoyable than TROY , THRONES OF BRITTANIA. I also think it is a cardinal sin to review something you haven't played. It's like movie reviews on a movie they haven't watched. We are all allowed our opinions, but trashing something sight-unseen is hardly fair. Having said that I genuinely like (most) of your videos and salute you for creating them.
I love TW Attila. For me the biggest problem with Attila is the Hun survival mechanic and sometimes tacks would chase you through multiple factions to attack you.
I went back this month and played both Rome 2 and Attila and my god was Rome 2 the more pleasant experience. Played Getae and Massilia in Rome 2 and the Saxons for Attila. Attila has this huge problem with expanding. You cant get a settlement to "settle" down after conquest, your army has to stay put. Then if you want it to be useful or upgraded you have to spend tens of thousands of gold on converting and repairing a settlement, followed by 8-12 turns to complete this conversion. All the while enemy armies can raid or walk around you at leisure because your standing army moving will lead to a revolt. I get what they were going for with Roman buildings being super good and advanced and "barbarian" buildings being altogether shittier and needing balancing or making use of strong Roman buildings like aqueducts that are already present upon capture. However, it just makes me feel like Im being punished for the faction I chose. The progressing campaign and warnings about Attila is neat, the constant comparison to the Four Horsemen is cringe. Ive mentioned the campaign map a lot because the battles really dont feel all that different to Rome 2. Minus the rapid cavalry kills or casualties depending on charging into a good or bad unit in Rome 2, the physics feel much the same, but with clearer unit progression and threat level in Rome 2. Like in Attila if you're about to go up to a West Rome army and see Legio, Cohors and Exploratores, how do you tell which is the bigger threat? This is something easily resolved by using the artistic representation of units on unit cards... like in Rome 2. The only visual distinction you cant make between those three unit cards is that they have different coloured shields. In short, Rome 2 fun minus constant culture diff penalties and navy being awful, Attila rubbish but with neat campaign progression ideas
@@josephjackson9679Gotta disagree, Rome 2 is maybe the most mediocre TW in the series man, at least Attila had dope DLCs (Age of Charlemagne basically mini Medieval 3), new siege mechanics, and a new method of play that keeps it interesting to return to. Rome 2 is in the dustbin with its unmemorable campaigns and other TW games on the same engine that have unique mechanics/flavor like Attila and the Warhammer series. Low key I think the reason y’all hate on Attila is because its the ONLY game in the series more about empire maintenance than empire building, and I know how this fandom loves their cheese, and being able to take one shit stack to clear the entire map. And I understand lol, Im a Medieval 2 stan.
@@DeepStateMarxist Rome 2 had Empire management to be clear, you had food and public order, with culture being important. However, it didnt bother with the sanitation mechanic which was definitely a good choice. Attila made it so it was mandatory that you spent a slot in each settlement increasing sanitation, so you could get an industry building chain going or upgrade your main settlement. This was unfun and the AI didnt bother with it so you could inherit or annex a settlement with a massive negative from squalor and plagues, which as previously stated would take multiple turns of income to be able to convert and then a dozen turns for conversion to complete. I think I only have the Black Sea Colonies DLC for Rome 2 and Charlemagne for Attila. However, I was talking about base gameplay loop. Attila wastes your time and gets you stuck in negative feedback loops, Rome makes you pay attention to what you're building in that moment but doesnt have a sudden "gotcha, now your settlement sucks, have fun rebuilding"
I just don't like the campaign in Atilla. I want to like it, I love the setting and the battles but I don't like how settlement building works at all. Too many things like sanitation that are just an annoyance and settlements everywhere are getting razed. I get it's the point of the game that it's a period of decline, but it isn't fun to deal with.
As someone who legitimately loves Empire I totally agree with your criticisms, the game is probably one of the most problemed releases Total War has ever had. I think the biggest thing that really upsets me about it is how many ideas it had that are ALMOST good, they just needed to be fleshed out more but instead they never made a come back. I love the world theaters, the government and ministers and the trade economy, but none of them are fleshed out enough to be interesting and just sort of got dumped afterwards instead of trying to fix them.
I definitely understand all the hate Atilla gets, but it is my favourite game. I like that buildings have positives and negatives. Makes you choose what to build, not just spam all growth buildings early and maxout money. I've also never had really bad performance issues.
To me the best aspect of attila is the field battle and the siege. Its one of total war were sieging actually had strategic mechanic. They have something called "siege escalation". If you siege a city for more than few turns. You gonna see the impact in siege map. Some buildings got torn, fields burned and some siege equipment look burned, sone walls are close to crumbling. Its the only total war with this mechanic. Its actually supposed to be in rome 2. But never implemented in the final version.
I love Attila, but on the other hand whenever I replay it I nerf the Huns to oblivion because they're an interesting challenge the first couple times but after that they're just such a tedious and repetitive chore. I can't really argue with anyone who dislikes Attila when even I need to essentially remove the game's cornerstone mechanic in order to enjoy the game
A safegame breaking bug wipped out my legendary difficulty West Rome campaign over 100 turns in. Haven't played it since. Especially considering that it is a lot slower compared to other Total Wars.
Pharoh is actually reasonably fun these days. Total disaster launch of course but it's a bit of a palette cleanser with different mechanics like formations etc compared to WH3 for me. Not going to be a forever game but would rate above Brittania etc which are actively annoying.
I can’t stand the "units going through each other with no effort". If they fixed that I would sure as hell try it, but man do I have BAD memories of that from Troy, and when I saw they did the same exact thing again, I couldn’t play it, even though the campaign map, and mechanics look super cool
I'm pretty sure you had some key talking points for each game here as well, but it felt way more natural and Legend-like than the previous video. I definitely like more this video's format :)
Personally I think a Bronze Age total war, full on about Mycenian Greece, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, and all of the Near-East to Iran would be a dope game.
Both videos were good, but this one definitely felt better paced and more thought out. The other video was a bit to robotic. That doesn't mean you should try more scripted videos it just means you need more practice making it sound more like you. I guess the simplest way to say it is this video sounded less edited and at the end of the day that's what I believe you style is, raw off the cuff no edit.
Well, my memories of "Empire: Total War" are much fonder for various reasons. I actually only bought it after Napoleon because my PC at launch couldn't handle it, therefore I avoided the worst of the bugs. Also it had the most memorable generic general of all my Total War campaigns and I've played Total War since Rome 1. Also the only one who's name I recall even more than a decade later. Ernst Gemlin der Löwe von Rajasthan, commander of the 1. k.k. Kolonialarmee, (1st imperial-royal Colonial Army), in my 2nd Austria campaign in Empire, had conquered his way through Persia into northern India. There the army got stuck in a fort. Over the next 3 turns 5 full stack Mughal armies attacked the fort. During the last fight the walls of the fort had more holes than walls, the army was down to a third of its strength and still it manged to beat the fish Mughal full stack army and help was near. One more turn and the 1. k.u.k. Gardearmee (1st Imperial and Royal Guard Army) with 4 guard units and full of veterans would be there. But in the closing s3conds of the fight while waiting for the last Mughal unit to break suddenly I got the message that my general was dead. I had deliberately kept him out of this fight, but one of the fleeing Mughal units ran into his unit and he was one of two casualties the unit suffered. Basically in the same second the last Mughal unit broke. Ernst Gmelin the Lion of Rajasthan fell at the eleventh hour. Once more, in almost 20 years of playing Total War games Ernst Gmelin is the only generic general who'sname I remember and for him alone Empire holds a place much higher in my heart than it objectively deserves. It was like Nelson dying at Trafalgar, or admiral Yi dying in the last major battle of the Imjin War.
NON-Scripted just feels much more real, whether or not you cover everything super accurately like a scripted pointed video, you got across YOUR feelings in YOUR video which is what we watch your content for. I personally prefer the off the top of your head videos
For the record, I thought you did a really awesome job with the scripted video - not just the writing and performance, but the editing and video content as well. I think that some people were maybe put off by it being so different from how you usually sound.
"Sanitized" or scripted videos are fine, but I think you just need to work on your delivery a little bit and speak the kind of language that you usually use in your livestreams and other "raw" videos so that it doesn't feel so stilted, forced, or otherwise weirdly formal. At the end of the day, I'm happy either way because I enjoy your content and I watch it for your opinions and knowledge about game mechanics.
Agreed. The to the point nature of the scripted version was good, but the tone used was far too stiff. Which makes sense, because he just doesn't do it often enough
@@WK-gx2zs On the other hand, I feel that compared to the last video this already was a lot better. So with enough practice I'm sure soon these scripted video's will be no problem at all.
Regarding the script, I would adapt one of the advices you yourself give about building Warhamer armies. Instead of trying to eliminate all your weakpoints, it will usually bear stronger results to instead improve even further what you are already good at. I don't see much point in becoming much better in creating "sanitized" videos, when you are this good at "shooting from the hip". A bullet point list of what you want to say to support your "hip shooting" sounds clever though.
I do miss the editing from your previous scripted video. Having footage of the game, and not just trailers stuck together, was nice. Both of them are good content! I enjoyed both vids :)
I really like Empire, it is set in an interesting time period, technology really matters both early and late game, it has really nice sea battles and it has nice balance between building your country and battles (which I never had any problem with).
I think the editing of the last video was great! If you could combine that style of editing with this style of narration it would make for a really good video. Nevertheless I enjoyed both of them, you should do more tier lists!
I respect your opinions for the most part but I just think it's not casting yourself in a good light to say the worst game in the series is a game you haven't played. It may very well be the worst, but your opinion is based on (I assume) reviews, second hand footage etc. You can assume something is uninteresting, but you can't definitively say it's bad if you haven't actually played it. For the record, I have no opinions about the game. I don't own it.
My opinion is based on not enjoying any of the warhammer games overmuch cuz the AI doesn't play by most of the rules the player is bound by and CA acting like a bunch of entitled children during the pharoh backlash and mass banning people. I already ceased supporting them in any way after wh2 and the way they run their discord pharoh coming out and bombing and their DLC pricing for wh3 made that decision even easier. i don't need to play Pharoh to know its bad.
Empire certainly isnt for everyone. It even took me 3 tries to get hooked. But once I was its now one of my favourite TWs. 1. Economy. I actually liked the economics here which were very thematic for the era. Getting hold of the more valuable commodities, making sure you have as many trading partners as possible (which means you have to be careful diplomatically), as well as the strong interplay of military and econ, e.g. having trade fleets versus colonies, trying to corner the most profitable markets whilst concentrating your forces in a way to make your interests defensible. This was all much more interesting than MTW2 where you simply get mechants and hone in on the same valuable resources each time. 2. Military. The micro is much different to its predecessors and again refined for the specific era. You cant rely on a cavalry hammer and anvil as you did in medieval and your initial placement of troops is very important, as well as how you react to the battle's progress. It's a slower, less "action packed" affair which makes for a refreshing and distinctly 18th century flavour of the game. The poor battle Ai is a disappointment though, especially in the siege context where the ai is significantly worse than its predecessors. 3. Province detail. There is imo more uniqueness here than before. Developing a colonial settlement is different to a home territory (as is the process of capturing either). The new towns that grow can be specialised to a specific demand, e.g. do you need more trade, research, growth, wealth, etc. In the earlier titles I found settlements to end up all looking and developing the exact same way. My only wish would be that some large provinces be broken down a bit (france, spain, etc) and that there could be a way to develop small trade post settlements (like feitorias, or like the far east trading settlements of britain like Singapore); and also far east asia would have been cool (south china, japan). All in all, a lot of my appreciation comes from my love of the history of this era so I do agree that this game is not for everyone
I don't really see the logic behind putting Pharao as the worst game especially when Troy was 3rd. From my understanding the list isn't mostly based on the worst total war games as in them being "bad" games and "bad to play" (usually how I would consider worst) but based on interest in the game and want to play the game (which I think is fine reasonings but then the video should be renamed to least interesting total war games). I think if Legend had played Pharao it would have deserved a spot on this list, but I disagree putting it on the list just on principle because now it's all based on perception of the game and not actually the game itself (a way to get around this could have been to give Pharao an honorable mention). Troy being above Pharao is also weird due to Pharao being an iteration of Troy making Troy just the worse game. The only positives I can think of that Troy has over Pharao is Troy was free for a time and maybe some of the DLCs. I'm not that fond of either game so I haven't played them that much and there could be things in either game I have missed that could give Troy more positives to be fair. I also think based on this logic Warhammer 1 should have been on this list because why would you ever play 1 when you have 2 and 3. Other than that I mostly agree with the list especially Empire and Attila.
It seems to me people like to be vindictive against Pharoah for how CA were acting when it was first released. I agree with Legend that Troy was just boring, but Pharoah is so much better than Troy. It did so many things right, things that probably won't get carried over to the next game because it did so poorly
Also, with the dynasties update, Pharoh has more players than Rome Remastered and Total War Rome Collection. Going off interest, I would put Pharoh in front of Troy by player count. Everything Troy does, Pharoh does better. Factions, mechanics, map size. I don't see how it could be the worst. Granted, this is going from dynasties perspective and not just base game Phaoroh.
Troy is way better. Your allies are actually useful. The sea people invasions every few turns in Pharoah are so annoying. An expansion can be worse than the original.
I think Attila was cool. Yeah the Huns are annoying, the 0% replenishment is outright nightmarish and should have been toned down, but Attila is probably the best nu-total war title out there. In fact I think Rome II was worst, it took like four years after launch for it to be good and optimized, Attila was pretty good at launch
Yeah i tend to avoid the normal campaign for Atilla because of that, but the other campaigns are absolutely amazing and even with its flaws Atilla is still great
Personally I prefer the "raw dogged" version, less sanitized and all that. Though I will say, seeing actual stuff in the background, as with this and the last videos, in comparison with some kind of tierlist or just a still screen from the game is much better
4:50 Criticism first because it's the internet: The voicelines in Empire are actually a step up, a big one. Each faction is voiced in their own language and most of them are passable to good. In my book that's a step up from the English and accented-to-make-it-foreign English of previous games, and of a lot of TW games since. Your head of state and cabinet do actually matter quite a bit in Empire. Public order and income depend a lot on them and you do need to manage it. On top of that there's Clamour For Reform which forces you to consider pros and cons of each system: An absolute monarchy means you fire ministers at will untill you've the best ones, but public order suffers for it later on. It starts to slow you down, but are you willing to lose control over your government for it? Two skills levels in trade can earn you an extra army worth of upkeep, so that minister is important. A republic is cute and doesn't draw much Clamour, but the cabinet steps down every couple turns and can't replace them quick. In a republic the government is just a thing you mostly ignore since you've minimal influence over it anyway, and 7 turns later it changes. Also each government switch requires you creating a revolution that other factions can take advantage of. If I want Prussia as a constitutional monarchy I need two revolutions and that takes easily 10-25 turns. Is it worth doing? That said, your analysis is spot on and shows why it's one of your worst and my favourite: I tend to play casually. When I sit down for Total War, I don't want to sit at the edge of my seat and lose if my micro ever drops below 50 clicks per second. And I've seen enough of you to know that's basically what you live for, and if I was a betting shop I'd take odds on you having a 'micro per second' record framed on a wall in your home somewhere. 😉 That's not why I game in general. So a pretty dumb and often passive AI (which Empire definately has) accomodates my playstyle while it bores you. I love taking half an hour to crack a fortress open with minimal losses. The walls bug that CA never patched is far less infuriating as a result too, it's just something to consider. While I respect that for a lot of people that's a gamebreaking bug. That's the reason I also disliked Shogun II and Fall of the Samurai is kinda 'meh' for me: Battles so fast you really need to pay attention non-stop.
Empire: Total War while being ambitious wasn't a finished game, it should have needed more time in the oven. Besides, the AI on terrestrial battles was atrocious. It was still a good game for its time though.
5:12 Same Legend, I preordered Empire Total War and it was actually the very first Game that I put on Steam. I also remember how everyone back then freaked out online, because CA decided to put their Games now on Steam. Steam wasn't very popular back then and everyone hated to just create an account, to play Games from now on. Still I liked Empire Total War, it was buggy as hell and sea battles were kind of meh, but I still liked to play it especially with the Legendary DarthMod.
There are a lot of redeeming qualities in Troy and Pharoah. Like terrain features, resource types, graphics/art style, etc. I actually find the battles in Troy to be very fun, and Pharoah battles might actually be worse. Unfortunately there is just something lacking about both games that makes them underwhelming and not as addictive, but I did thoroughly enjoy one or two campaigns on each. Maybe its just the time period or lack of true improvements to the AI
The thing about scripted vs non is that you've gone so long without scripting that it feels off when you do it scripted. There's nothing wrong with it, and sure, with practice and polish it will get much better. So, for some topics, it might actually be better overall. But for a lot of what you put out, the scripted stuff just isn't the same.
Despite everything is failed at, I still love Empire for the shear immersion it provides. I actually love artillery and line infantry warfare as well as that particular time period. Some mods have made the flaws more bearable but I just wish CA would make a better version with a proper engine, so I know I'm never going to get that, which means Empire will always be that guilty pleasure to pass the time and wondering what could have been.
@@ShadowOfHistory-wn1xh this is because Warhammer Total War is still going strong, and because most streamers didn't even bother trying Dynasty. Also, who judge a game on the money it made? This is the reason why the industry is going to shit.
My favourite thing about Empire was the silly way it depicted colonialism, so you'd eventually end up with India sending massive armies to Europe because they had limitless resources and every faction is run by the same psycho chess robot.
I definitely disagree on one principle on number 1. With that said, I’m a hypocrite and haven’t played the game either, just to be clear. I think it’s a good thing that they try and see if they can apeal to some more niche aspects of history and such. The general problem with a lot of entertainment industries is that they try to appeal to as many people as possible, and fail to impress anyone. And then it feels wrong to judge a game as number 1 because “It’s for a narrow audience” Of course, I could have misunderstood your argument. With all that said, I think you are right that the game just stinks of a cashgrab - that’s what I think is wrong with the game. Loved the video! :)
Man I really love Attila, its mechanics, battles, setting, units... but I understand (and share) your complaints about it. I feel like had they bothered to bring some of Age of Charlemagne's improvements to the grand campaign it wouldn't be on this list but unfortunately CA gave up on it very quickly. Good video and I'm glad to see you're doing well.
The state of Empire on release was a slap in the face to their customers. It caused me not to buy another of their games until Warhammer, and I haven't bought TW:W3. It's entirely possible I won't buy another TW game, and I'm old enough to have played TW from its start. No competent corporation that gave a shit about their customers would EVER have released that premature clusterfuck. They outright lied in their marketing; while we know marketers essentially are paid liars, it was somewhat astonishing at just how blatant it was. I still remember Paradox trolling them over the fact their game about Empires and colonies couldn't load troops on ships, LOL, so Britain never needed to worry about being invaded at home. The worst part is I think it COULD have been one of the greatest had it been done correctly.
Yeah I feel your criticism of Empire is fair, which sucks because the early modern period is one of my favorite but like you said the game is missing a lot. If we got an Empire 2 with Medieval/Rome style progression of technology, armies, generals, and city building, it would be the greatest game ever. Imagine the whole world where Europe starts off with Pikes and early Muskets and Hoops, where Asia, the Americas, and India can all start off preparing for the arrival of Europeans later on, while Europe can grow and begin that process after the Italian Wars. There’s a ton of potential that it sadly never reached, still great with mods, but yeah hard to get sucked into like some of the other games.
(Posted after only watching up to 2:45) Legend, you reading from a script did sound weird but you also explained this is a rather clear and easy to understand way. Personally? I like the typical passion and way you record your videos but for the sake of something like this and clearly communicating everything you want I don’t think the script was too bad. Everyone has a sort of ‘news announcer’ voice they fall into until they ‘learn’ how to read their own scripts.
Don't read off a script. You sound like there is a gat to your head and there is no love in what your saying. This video is natural, I can feel your passion. I think just going off in 1 take for your videos is good. Hope this help.
I love Attila... But I can't disagree with what you said. Buildings feel bad. It's insane that someone on the gamedesign team gave a thumb up for something that you spend ressources that is actually detrimental to you. It's baffling.
My feedback regarding scripted vs unscripted: I prefer your cadence when you're unscripted, but I think you would benefit from a having some notes on hand for the games you intend to talk about, just so that you make sure you actually hit all the points, even if the way you get there is freeform.
I love when Legend starts talking about some minor issues with the game and then it escalates into full rant with swearing and giving names. Only people who are very passionate towards something can make it on a whim again and again.
I quite liked the scripted video (the editing was very nice and the script makes it so its nicely structured), although the non scripted videos are good as well. I think a combination would be the best solution(if manageable)
Troy is the epitome of this, I can't even afford to have two armies, i had to use cheat mods to make it playable. that "Administrative whatever" is a pain in the ass and the AI ignores it, they can easily afford two to three armies and the player is severely limited by having just one or two.
It was a very rogue way of reigning the player in and keeping the AI relevant and competitive. But it’s just so annoying when modern Total War needs you to have multiple armies on sieges
thrones wasn't even a bad game in itself, it got some interesting experimental mechanics which were not repeated later.... it was just so small in scope and variety... which killed it
Its such a shame Britannia gets shit on so much, I know what they did was lazy and they basically took the Atilla DLC English faction game, but I am from the UK enjoyed it and got a solid 90+ hours out of it for a lower price.
It’s obvious this video suits your usual style much more, and hearing your thoughts “shot from the hip” feels much more comfortable (probably because that’s what we are used to). That being said, I think the scripted versions of videos like this one could really be even better than the usual “rant style”. I think it takes a combination of your audience getting used to the different style and you refining said scripted style for it to really shine. The clean, factual and well crafted script has a lot of potential, and your vast knowledge of Total war comes across much more clearly in that style. That being said there is definitely a style of video better suited to scripted-Legend and if it is posted as such (a sort of mini-series like tier lists or disaster battles) I don’t think any of us would mind!
2 месяца назад+9
Empire isn't a good game, but at least it was ambitious af. They tried so many new things, and failed at most of them, but that still feels a lot more interesting than just going in bland and delivering blandness.
I disagree. I can respect ambition, but at the end of the day, the product you receive is not the dream someone has in their head, but the actual product, which is very bad in the case of Empire imo. Shogun 2 on the other hand really wasn't that innovative on any front even when it came out. But they've got a solid base for a Total War game and polished it well. Shogun 2 is superior because CA focused on improving what has already worked for them instead of making it new and shiny, but disfunctional.
the biggest mistake CA does, they try this ambitious or interesting stuff... the game flops because it didn't quite work out... then they drop the mechanic, instead of improving it/making it actually work. They also don't port their successful and praised features to other games... like wth? why? ... well, I know why, they have no/poor version control the engine was/is like a christmas tree now
@@angelrivera7546ngl I’ve always seen people say Attila is top tier, that it was what Rome should’ve been. It’s the main reason I got it besides the medieval mod
Honestly, a hybrid of the two styles of these videos would be really cool to see. I liked seeing the actual gameplay of the games to go along with your explanations for your choices and the pros and cons of each entry, especially compared to potentially just replaying the same trailer video due to their shorter playtimes versus your more detailed explanations. I'd be heartbroken if you stripped your personality out of these videos, so *GOD* please don't do that. Your personality's the big reason I've stuck around all these years, your skill being a close second. You did really well with this one, though. Appreciate you hearing the feedback offered from the first video.
Maybe a happy medium between "no passion" and "no focus" is writing down some key ideas you want to talk about. The process of organizing your thoughts and committing them to paper is an editorial act by itself. Infinite effort is going to produce the maximum output, but you're a real person in the real world with finite resources. Whatever you can do to organize your thoughts is going to be helpful, it's just a question of "is the juice worth the squeeze?" Like anything, people get better at the things they do. If you want to get better at writing, write. If you want to get better at script writing, write scripts. Does it hold your attention? Is the benefit worth the cost? Only you can answer that question. You've built an audience and want to do right by them, so use your best judgement. Checking in, from time to time, is good (like you're doing right now), but your videos already get significant engagement, you're a meme generator on the forums and the company that has cut you out of their development process still needs to recon with you and your influence... you're doing fine
I hope this is sarcasm. Attila and Empire shouldn’t be here, though I guess 5 and 4 makes them the mid-range since I do agree that Napoleon and Rome 2 are a few notch higher.
#1 well deserved. The fact they tried to sell this for full price should never get forgotten, nor forgiven. They did not reduce the price out of the good of their heart. They did not reduce the price to do their customers a favour. They did not reduce the price because it better represents the value of the product. They reduced it to appease the masses, because people were rightfully getting very angry over it. They did not see that coming. They thought gamers would just eat it up like always and still buy it, but when pre-order numbers were shit and the community's mood was even worse, this was just an attempt of them to cut losses. The poor sales would not have outweighed the goodwill lost. That's all there is to it. No reason to romanticise this topic and huff copium telling yourself "they changed, they did it for us". They did not.
Hi, Legend! Watched both videos, this one is more Legend) From my public speaking experience (product manager, so there are sales pitches, internal/external demos, webinars, conferences, the whole lot) - it's better not to script-script, but to have a general structure (in this case - games from 5 to 1) and some key points (overall experience, grand campaign, battles, economy, unique features, etc) for every game. That'll help with consistency and timing. Just don't write down everything you're gonna say and try to learn/read it - that kills the mood and your personality. It's OK to stumble or rephrase yourself during a presentation - you're just a human, albeit a Legend, and the progress you've already made on presentation skills and viewer engagement through these years is nothing but astonishing.
Yo Legend. I've been watching your channel for a few years now and I realize your desire to update, modernize, and alter your style of editing, recording, and overall video style to fit a brand new RUclips compared to when you launched this channel more than a decade ago. Regarding your request on which I prefer more, I honestly think that a "combined" or "hybridized" style of video would be good. You can incorporate elements of both styles of video. For example, you can write down, say, 5 topics you want to discuss for the video, then break each topic up into 3 bullet points, then for those 3 bullet points, no script needed. Say what you wanna say, then move on. I can't say I prefer one or the other style of video editing and writing, but I can say I enjoy your content and that I like how you give valuable information on these games which you enjoy. Keep going, you aussie, and stay Legendary.
I never understood why features from Medieval 1 were not continued in Med2. Dismounting knights before battle, giving titles to generals, crusades "stealing" armies, respawning factions. These were great things. Why not keep those and simply add more in the sequel?
@@adamjohnson3239 CA has consistently 'Dumbed Down' the gameplay as the games progressed. Just look at some of the features that DID make it into Rome and were not in Med 2, Then some of the ones in Med 2 that are no where to be seen. Just a long slow progression.
@@samrester6254 from the leaks we heard, they have no/poor version control, also working on different titles at the same time.... I think it's mostly tech/management issue leading to this inability to bring successful and interesting features to all titles
I’ll let people trash a lot of things about Thrones, but damn if there weren’t some times when it was just sooo comfy. I mean, Britannia itself is beautifully and lovingly depicted, the soundtrack is charming, and the battles, which are truly optimized for medium unit size, feel more like skirmishes than proper battles, and that’s just fine with me. The whole game really makes you feel like a local warlord instead of a continent spanning colossus. It’s a different vibe and I will always love it for that.
@@ascendedbro1828 Auto-resolve is the bane of Rome 2. It's just much too good and too tempting to AR every battle due to the casualties being evenly split among units. You end up only playing the campaign portion - the boring part of any TW game.
Yes, they are some of the best in the series. I might be in the minority but I liked the risk style movement of armies and units. It made having allied armies viable and didn’t give ludicrous examples of armies able to skirt around stacks because it was their turn and armies and navies taking years to traverse ground that should in reality take months at most. Also the first shogun and medieval had the best ending sequences of any game in the series.
Yes, they are some of the best in the series. I might be in the minority but I liked the risk style movement of armies and units. It made having allied armies viable and didn’t give ludicrous examples of armies able to skirt around stacks because it was their turn and armies and navies taking years to traverse ground that should in reality take months at most. Also the first shogun and medieval had the best ending sequences of any game in the series.
The scripted feel a bit off mostly because of the way you read it, you have so much passion in the voice when you are just telling your thoughts and it's completely gone when you are reading. BUT the editing was really good! I wish we could have pros from both worlds.
Hey Legend, love the new content man! I like the scripted videos but if youre worried about feeling robotic, you could always do a happy middle where you have a script outlined and you olay off of it. Have you ever considered doing scripted campaign videos or even tactic breakdowns? Ive learned a lot from you and ill always support you brother!
honestly imo i love attilas apocalypse style campaign if they added population mechanics for the migrations and plague and fixed the performance issues atilla would be a 10/10 total war
I completely agree with your opinion on Total War: Attila. I find the DLC campaign for Age of Charlemagne to be far superior to that of the base grand campaign. I had a bug where I spent a good chunk of the campaign waiting for the opportunity to kill Attila only for the mechanic to actually kill him to bug out, so I had to just wait until he naturally died so I could wipe out the Huns. Those types of mechanics should not be in a Total War game, it absolutely reduces the player's choice and control over their campaign. Love the battles, hate hate hate the campaign.
@@sanguinius9672 I got the Atilla has been wounded popup 8 times via battle and 4 times via using agent actions and he still would not die. Game definitely bugged out.
The biggest issue with Troy is the fact that people were half-expecting a Rome 1 tribute, especially because the devs were promoting an historically accurate, “truth behind the myth” approach - but that didn’t really come off very well. It’s better now, because you can choose a more grounded Bronze Age Total War game (albeit based on some totally made-up people) or you can play a game that’s more like “Warhammer-Lite” - I’ve never really been sure who Troy is for. I enjoyed my campaigns with Aeneas and Paris enough, sure, but I don’t miss the game at all Plus! As a classics teacher, I genuinely wanted more Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid stuff in the game! Like there’s some nice nods but they’re literally the written source material for the period AND the basis for the game - why not go all in? By the same token, I am genuinely astonished that Rome 2 isn’t on this list, the more time that goes on, the more I realise how much I dislike that game
Something I noticed with Total War: Pharoh was that while there were a good number of positive reviews. They were all below 60 hours. Every single one. One was 15 hours, another was 23, and finally the longest I ever saw was 57 hours. This was me looking a week ago at the steam page reviews for a solid hour. Thinking whether I should buy it or not. Now, Pharoh seems like a great game for its specific audience, but im not going to pay $40 to play a game for only 60 hours. I want a game with massive amounts of replayability so that I get my money's worth. Not a game where I enjoy it for 40 hours and then never pick it up again.
I don't care how easily moddable a game is. If mods cause your enjoyment of a game rather than enhance your existing enjoyment of said game, it's not a good game, or at the very least, not a good game for you.
Amazing video!!! As someone who made comments about the first video this is what I wanted thanks legend for listening to feedback! My favorite game being Rome 2 but I get now after watching you play you can accomplish some crazy stuff in the battles of warhammer than you can in historical games from CA.
1:12 I didn't see anyone else mention it but you had some audio issues in the last video. I don't know if it was all the way through and my ears got used to it or if it was just at the beginning but the audio was low and kind of tinny. This video is the normal audio I expect from you.
I didnt watch the top 5 best total war games video, but after this video I was curious about the scripting style you talked about and had a listen. The delivery sounded exactly like a continuation of the ad read you did at the beginning, just for Total War. Its interesting how (if?) you chose to do a natural take on the top 5 worst and did the scripted for top 5 best, is it because you felt that style fit that type of content better? I would much have rather heard a natural take on the top 5 (on both really, scripted feels off for you Legend)
Atilla actually purposely did the whole bad upgrade system because u were meant to not go for a stable approach due to the game's trying of reflecting the times it was based on. The end of the world, chaos and huns, attila wanted to capture that frenzy and thus made u play a campaign where u are meant to just survive and make by, rather than go technologically advanced and with great cities and supplies and armies.
glad you're trying out new trying out new types of videos. I noticed a lot of other long form narrative style total war videos do very well on other channels, so I was wondering if you would ever do some of those. It seemed to go pretty well in your blitz campaign video, and I feel like a video covering your no defeat campaign would be pretty cool if you still have any footage.
Good list. Content wise, I definitely prefer this style. The nice thing about the previous one was it had more structure. Maybe some lightweight notes for talking points is enough to get all the benefit of using a script.
Rggghh! Legend how dare you say this about my favourite game! You need to play it with this mod and this mod and this mod!
lmaoooo
Anytime I criticize Rome II I get this.
All the mods!
Well played sir
@@R3GARnator Too accurate. I like Rome II but playing with divide et impera is the only thing that keeps it fun for me.
I think what bothers me most about the series is how the AI can simply ignore important game mechanics like devastation and public order
Programing AI is hard but programing to ignore mechanics is easy.
@@jaredkronk4614 The problem is that Total War AI ignore everything. Recruitment cap per turn, income, economy overall, public order, devastation, immigration and etc... In Rome Total War and Medieval Total War you can make a faction go bankrupt by blockading all their ports as an example. While at the same time introducing mechanics that makes harder for the player.
This is one of those indie vs. AAA subjects. The "industry" (AAA) has institutionalized the fakery of modern AI implementation. Most high-budget games are not as complex as people make them to be, in terms of choices for players or AI. If anything, budget might be inverse to complexity.
A modern high-end desktop pc can beat hundreds of the best players in chess all at once. The only valid excuse for game studios is that they don't want to spend the resources on writing the code.
Games with a very large simulation count are exceptions, but these are rarely AAA or even AA games. Something like Total War has 200-300 or so entities in the turn-based portion of a mortal empires game, and 80 entities in an AI vs. AI battle. What would be a significant performance hit is giving every soldier its own AI, but your PC can probably do it.*
I'm sure writing game AI to function more like Machine Learning AI is nontrivial, but it seems like the games industry doesn't want to innovate anymore. At least the indies try, despite not having anywhere near the same resources to modernize their AI.
*An AI like Deep Blue could outperform humans through brute force using 11.38 GFLOPS. Algorithms are far more intelligent or efficient today, and modern desktop CPUs are up to 100x that, with the newest i7 getting over 1 TFLOPS. GPUs are generally underutilized for game AI, while all the latest GPUs have dedicated AI cores. In traditional cores, The Nvidia 4090 can reach 82.6 TFLOPS. The much cheaper AMD RX 7600 ($250) scores 21.5 TFLOPS. While not totally equivalent, this $250 GPU is theoretically 2000x the Deep Blue supercomputer. If game AI has any significant impact on performance, it's written poorly, full stop.
@@Varadiiothey can at least use prolog but i bet you none of the “ai” programmers would know what that is
@@Varadiionice attempt at flexing, while at the same time showing that you don't grasp actual programming or AI.
Chess is simple as fuck compared to something like TW.
It also doesn't help that CA is a management clusterfuck and the engine is a huge mess.
But yeah, the main point is that a tactical battle is essentially orders of magnitude more complex than chess which would actually lead to a complete bottleneck if you approached it like chess.
Instead you have to manually try to figure out ways to fake intelligence in a way that seems realistic to the player.
That's why the AI in SD2 basically just has one major tactic: spam. They did add blind spot detection though which is one of those smart little tricks that makes the ai seem intelligent.
But the devs had to figure out the algorithm for that and every single other behavior the ai has. That's really, really difficult to do, although ironically it is something generative AI can be very useful to help with.
ChatGPT is very good at identifying all possible cases and edge cases of a function which helps avoiding unpredicted behavior
Ah empire. Where the 13 colonies have like 10 provinces whereas the entire of france is 1 province.
Lol what? Why would they do that
The hardware I think cause of all the continents @@kyleshuler2929
@@kyleshuler2929rushed/lazy development it was a disaster
@@Weberkooks i mean, yeah. I'm all for dunking on the French but that's crazy
I can’t remember where I heard it, but I remember hearing somewhere France being one province was to represent Frances centralisation around Paris
You have made an enemy for life this day
Same and I haven't watched the video yet
"You're a very contentious people."
I know right? I can't believe WH3 would be Top 1 worst total war game. I played that so much, like wtf Legend?
@@MrBlueSleevesdamn dude you just made me skip to number one cause i couldn’t believe it
Straight off the bat, Atilla which is one of my favourites.
Attila? How dare you.
Go on then. Speak. But dont expected a good wine to ease your partched throat when you are done.🤨
😂
Attila was great change. The looming Hun invasion, the death that comes. Not the typical start small, go big. But trying to hold WRE together while everyone is bashing you. Its great...and also it is not 😅
@@MultiTsunamiX It also is a sequel to one of the greatest total war dlc campaigns, rome total war: barbarian invasion.
@@MultiTsunamiX Yes I like the general feel of Attila, the sense of decay and survival ass opposed to empire building is refreshing. But the details of the game mechanics are just not enjoyable. Being punished for building and researching technologies is like wtf. And late-game is literally just slowly colonizing the wasteland after virtually everyone except the Sassanids and their vassals have been wiped out.
@@Regarded69 Dont research them lol. Its meant to be historically accurate. Rome fully adopts Christianity and who needs sanitization buildings when you can just build a church and tell people dying is gods will for them.
I loved Atilla, it was the only TW game that actually challenged you. The rest play more like power fantasies. Build deathstack, conquer everything, no wrong answers. Even then with all the "player traps" people hate its still not that hard once you figure it out mechanically.
Poor Thrones of Britannia is gonna get it i just know.
Poor Greg Wallace
ikr. Not the best game by far but if it got something right, it's the campaign map and seiges
numba 2
@@LoremasterLiberaster i wish TWW3 had Britannia sieges... would be a different world i supose
Init
Just here to state that your personal taste in videogames is wrong.........again
I have been destroyed
@@LegendofTotalWar xD
@@LegendofTotalWar Staunch line of opinions
@@LegendofTotalWar"see ya fuckers"
@@LegendofTotalWar I saw the comment and was like, oh no this is a salty critique. Got even more worried on what your comment would be when I saw your logo. You comment made me giggle, cheers bruv xD
TW Attila is essentially just a survival game, you're Defending Rome until it finally dies
Rome never dies! It is eternal city ✔👍!!! I love Atilla so much!
Unless you play the Huns. Playing Attila is one of my favorite campaigns in TW
@@asgardplays7139 I mean, you aren't wrong. Rome is still there standing
Roman Seperatists took over Italy in my campaign until my ERE legions came to restore order. Rome lives on either way unless the Nordic barbarians take over.
That's what makes it my favorite game actually. Most total war games just become a grind of bland expansion pretty quickly. Attila actually has somewhat of a story arc throughout the campaign.
I get why Empire is here, but I can't stop loving the game, I am one of 3 people who love Sea Battles in Total War, I think it's a fantastic addition to Total War Series, that pushes the whole series forward, and it's really sad, they did not really expand or polish that side of the game.
I also love empire total war. I’m currently doing a campaign with the empire 2 total war mod and I’m loving it!
@@alaskanassassin1757same, I really really love that mod. It expands the historical elements of the game in a great way and helps fix/enahsnce many of the mechanics that folks have earnest complaints about in the base game.
I think ETW2 plays a bit “fast” for the number of turns per year, which is my major gripe with the mod.
@@MassEffectedX13 I’m just now getting into the mod and on turn 120 and I can agree with you for sure. The other thing I didnt like to much is all the units seem to be very inaccurate. They will stand 5 feet from each other and take a bit to kill the other unit. Maybe I’m wrong tho but seems a bit different then base game
For me Empire is the worst game for a couple of reasons, 1 is the new engine which was made for gun combat and impacted what I thought as the core of TW which for me was melee combat, 2 for the lack of detail on campaing, France was only Paris, very disappointed, no epic ward, 3 the era is not the most exciting in terms of diversity, 4 coming after M2TW which for me is a GOAT empire was such a step back and a huge let down and disappointment that made it feel worse as a game.
It's the redheaded step child
The journey from 'goodbye fuckers' to 'appreciate your feedback, friends' seems so wild XD
RUclips censorship hell of a thing
@@derigel7662 censorship has nothing to do with it. Legend said on many occasions he got tired of "goodbye fuckers" but only kept doing it cause people liked it.
@@ThePhillydon22 It's 'see you next time, fuckers.'
@@derigel7662that‘s not censorship, that‘s just growing up.
@BurkinaFaso69 sure has nothing to do with the massive wave of censors the past year: cant curse or get demonitized, cant show loading guns demonitzed, cant say that disease that happned in the 2020s demonitized, cant say the 1940s germans demonitized, cant say that action of self deletion demonitized.......does youtube pay you to keep gaslighting people? Is embarrassing when soft people like you run damaged control for RUclips......really made this platform a WONDERFUL place
Unscripted > scripted
The tone difference is dramatic
I like it semi-scripted: a scrip to follow so it doesn't end in a ramble, but not so scripted that it feels stiff.
I like the middle ground.
Waaa waaa
Just use bullet points without the sentences themselves written out.
wrong.
15:36 BUT LEGEND, you can't just judge something you've never played. You should at least give it a shot!
I agree with the joke in principle but since this game is part of a series that has multiple similar entries that are quite similar this is just a joke to me again.
Say genuine and obvious criticism before your critics say it + in a funny voice = win.
"OOooh but how do you know the food tastes bad, you didn't even eat it!!" Hah, suck it haters, I just dislike how it looks so I don't even have to try it! It's bad!"
@@Greatot He didn't say it's bad, he said he's personally not interested.
@@Greatot but he went into detail as to why he feels that way and why he wont play it
I read this in Legend's mocking the trolls voice
Unscripted is better than scripted. Just make sure to have key points you want to cover written down, and then go with the flow.
Agreed. It isn't really an if/or kind of thing. It is like saying should we have heads on a coin or tails - you have both, they complement each other.
Very scripted feels robotic and sanitised, which leads to the listener doubting the honesty of the speaker. We see this with games journalist companies who then give 9/10 to bland and uninspired games, or leaders who fail to motivate an apathetic audience.
Very off-the-cuff feels unorganised and difficult to summarise, which leads to the listener to feel a lot but unable to pin down the issue. We see this with populist figures, which ultimately come away looking incompetent and the followers as uneducated in the subject just giving in to emotions.
If you mix the two correctly, though, you have the recipe for honest and intelligent argument, and followers who can spread that successfully to see change. Whether that is changing the direction of a games company or that of a nation.
To do that, have a list of keypoints to talk about with subpoints under each to briefly remind of what exactly is the issue, why its an issue, what the alternatives could be, and how you see those playing out. Then speak about those off-the-cuff. Tangents are fine as they pop into mind, but try not to let them run away since they'll likely be less well-formed - can always be something you come back on another occasion.
Rome 2 probably sitting at #6
Me: "Yes! Rome 2 isnt on the list!"
jajajajja that so true 😂
It should be. Total war started to go downhill from Rome 2.
@@piotrzbigniew4801 IIRC, it's still the most actively played historical title to date.
@@Bubinni yes but elephants and pigs and dogs and chariots and phalanx and testudo and head hurlers or w/e of course it is. This is also why everyone plays warhammer instead. And it really sucked on launch. I played Shogun 2 and said 'this is incredible! Just do this but set in rome with elephants et al' and they had to somehow drop the home run by doing more work. Different flavours are nice, having to learn each convoluted tree was not, not when you got a 'slightly german half bearded axe gentleman with above average armour on his left side' and I have to figure out if I need that in my army. It has 33 morale? Fantastic! Or bad?
Obviously they got their way around it by warhammer but the visual language is much better there naturally. Because they didn't know what a bogskin faggle was they show it really clearly now.
I still don't know if 'very heavy spear infantry' is good against 'medium sword infantry' when they both appear to wear wool cloaks.
@@mandowarrior123 The "very heavy" "medium" "heavy" etc, is purely the mass of the unit. Which affects its impact on a charge, as well as its ability to take a charge from a larger unit like cav.
I understand your rating for all the games, except PHAROH. I boycotted it for a long time, but when they did Dynasties...and it was massively on sale, I bought it. It isn't great, but it is way more enjoyable than TROY , THRONES OF BRITTANIA.
I also think it is a cardinal sin to review something you haven't played. It's like movie reviews on a movie they haven't watched. We are all allowed our opinions, but trashing something sight-unseen is hardly fair.
Having said that I genuinely like (most) of your videos and salute you for creating them.
Agreed, Dynasties is fun
I love TW Attila. For me the biggest problem with Attila is the Hun survival mechanic and sometimes tacks would chase you through multiple factions to attack you.
Always preferred Attila over Rome II.
I went back this month and played both Rome 2 and Attila and my god was Rome 2 the more pleasant experience. Played Getae and Massilia in Rome 2 and the Saxons for Attila.
Attila has this huge problem with expanding. You cant get a settlement to "settle" down after conquest, your army has to stay put. Then if you want it to be useful or upgraded you have to spend tens of thousands of gold on converting and repairing a settlement, followed by 8-12 turns to complete this conversion. All the while enemy armies can raid or walk around you at leisure because your standing army moving will lead to a revolt. I get what they were going for with Roman buildings being super good and advanced and "barbarian" buildings being altogether shittier and needing balancing or making use of strong Roman buildings like aqueducts that are already present upon capture. However, it just makes me feel like Im being punished for the faction I chose. The progressing campaign and warnings about Attila is neat, the constant comparison to the Four Horsemen is cringe.
Ive mentioned the campaign map a lot because the battles really dont feel all that different to Rome 2. Minus the rapid cavalry kills or casualties depending on charging into a good or bad unit in Rome 2, the physics feel much the same, but with clearer unit progression and threat level in Rome 2. Like in Attila if you're about to go up to a West Rome army and see Legio, Cohors and Exploratores, how do you tell which is the bigger threat? This is something easily resolved by using the artistic representation of units on unit cards... like in Rome 2. The only visual distinction you cant make between those three unit cards is that they have different coloured shields.
In short, Rome 2 fun minus constant culture diff penalties and navy being awful, Attila rubbish but with neat campaign progression ideas
@@josephjackson9679Gotta disagree, Rome 2 is maybe the most mediocre TW in the series man, at least Attila had dope DLCs (Age of Charlemagne basically mini Medieval 3), new siege mechanics, and a new method of play that keeps it interesting to return to. Rome 2 is in the dustbin with its unmemorable campaigns and other TW games on the same engine that have unique mechanics/flavor like Attila and the Warhammer series.
Low key I think the reason y’all hate on Attila is because its the ONLY game in the series more about empire maintenance than empire building, and I know how this fandom loves their cheese, and being able to take one shit stack to clear the entire map. And I understand lol, Im a Medieval 2 stan.
@@DeepStateMarxist Rome 2 had Empire management to be clear, you had food and public order, with culture being important. However, it didnt bother with the sanitation mechanic which was definitely a good choice. Attila made it so it was mandatory that you spent a slot in each settlement increasing sanitation, so you could get an industry building chain going or upgrade your main settlement. This was unfun and the AI didnt bother with it so you could inherit or annex a settlement with a massive negative from squalor and plagues, which as previously stated would take multiple turns of income to be able to convert and then a dozen turns for conversion to complete.
I think I only have the Black Sea Colonies DLC for Rome 2 and Charlemagne for Attila. However, I was talking about base gameplay loop. Attila wastes your time and gets you stuck in negative feedback loops, Rome makes you pay attention to what you're building in that moment but doesnt have a sudden "gotcha, now your settlement sucks, have fun rebuilding"
I just don't like the campaign in Atilla. I want to like it, I love the setting and the battles but I don't like how settlement building works at all. Too many things like sanitation that are just an annoyance and settlements everywhere are getting razed. I get it's the point of the game that it's a period of decline, but it isn't fun to deal with.
As someone who legitimately loves Empire I totally agree with your criticisms, the game is probably one of the most problemed releases Total War has ever had. I think the biggest thing that really upsets me about it is how many ideas it had that are ALMOST good, they just needed to be fleshed out more but instead they never made a come back. I love the world theaters, the government and ministers and the trade economy, but none of them are fleshed out enough to be interesting and just sort of got dumped afterwards instead of trying to fix them.
I definitely understand all the hate Atilla gets, but it is my favourite game. I like that buildings have positives and negatives. Makes you choose what to build, not just spam all growth buildings early and maxout money. I've also never had really bad performance issues.
To me the best aspect of attila is the field battle and the siege. Its one of total war were sieging actually had strategic mechanic. They have something called "siege escalation". If you siege a city for more than few turns. You gonna see the impact in siege map. Some buildings got torn, fields burned and some siege equipment look burned, sone walls are close to crumbling. Its the only total war with this mechanic. Its actually supposed to be in rome 2. But never implemented in the final version.
I love Attila, but on the other hand whenever I replay it I nerf the Huns to oblivion because they're an interesting challenge the first couple times but after that they're just such a tedious and repetitive chore. I can't really argue with anyone who dislikes Attila when even I need to essentially remove the game's cornerstone mechanic in order to enjoy the game
A safegame breaking bug wipped out my legendary difficulty West Rome campaign over 100 turns in. Haven't played it since. Especially considering that it is a lot slower compared to other Total Wars.
Pharoh is actually reasonably fun these days. Total disaster launch of course but it's a bit of a palette cleanser with different mechanics like formations etc compared to WH3 for me. Not going to be a forever game but would rate above Brittania etc which are actively annoying.
Wh3 dwarves have testudo formations now
I can’t stand the "units going through each other with no effort".
If they fixed that I would sure as hell try it, but man do I have BAD memories of that from Troy, and when I saw they did the same exact thing again, I couldn’t play it, even though the campaign map, and mechanics look super cool
@@robinekhoodekful I've been playing it and have to say i haven't really noticed it?
@@robinekhoodekful they have definitely fixed that, I've been playing it a lot recently and the units clash in a really satisfying way
@@corsair831 Only issue is that melee devolves lines into moshpits, I keep seeing my pretty battle lines become jumbled messes and its agonizing.
I'm pretty sure you had some key talking points for each game here as well, but it felt way more natural and Legend-like than the previous video. I definitely like more this video's format :)
Total war atilla is the game I come back to the most
Me 2, variety of factions and different playstyles are just amazing
And I like it because it had one of the best overhaul mod, 1212 ad. Age of justinian, Age of vikings, ancient era mod, even lord of the rings mod.😊
@@aetius7139 exactly, it has a bunch of cool mods that change the campaign and the time period entirely
I cannot stop playing attila and I hate every minute of it.
Personally I think a Bronze Age total war, full on about Mycenian Greece, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, and all of the Near-East to Iran would be a dope game.
Already exists, pharoah dynasty total war
@@hipdrive We are missing iran, Aethiopia/Kush which is weird because Memnon is in the game, and east africa (Macrobian city states and Axum)
@@resentfuldragon kush is in pharoah from what i remember seeing, but i havent played
Both videos were good, but this one definitely felt better paced and more thought out. The other video was a bit to robotic. That doesn't mean you should try more scripted videos it just means you need more practice making it sound more like you.
I guess the simplest way to say it is this video sounded less edited and at the end of the day that's what I believe you style is, raw off the cuff no edit.
Well, my memories of "Empire: Total War" are much fonder for various reasons. I actually only bought it after Napoleon because my PC at launch couldn't handle it, therefore I avoided the worst of the bugs. Also it had the most memorable generic general of all my Total War campaigns and I've played Total War since Rome 1. Also the only one who's name I recall even more than a decade later. Ernst Gemlin der Löwe von Rajasthan, commander of the 1. k.k. Kolonialarmee, (1st imperial-royal Colonial Army), in my 2nd Austria campaign in Empire, had conquered his way through Persia into northern India. There the army got stuck in a fort. Over the next 3 turns 5 full stack Mughal armies attacked the fort. During the last fight the walls of the fort had more holes than walls, the army was down to a third of its strength and still it manged to beat the fish Mughal full stack army and help was near. One more turn and the 1. k.u.k. Gardearmee (1st Imperial and Royal Guard Army) with 4 guard units and full of veterans would be there. But in the closing s3conds of the fight while waiting for the last Mughal unit to break suddenly I got the message that my general was dead. I had deliberately kept him out of this fight, but one of the fleeing Mughal units ran into his unit and he was one of two casualties the unit suffered. Basically in the same second the last Mughal unit broke. Ernst Gmelin the Lion of Rajasthan fell at the eleventh hour.
Once more, in almost 20 years of playing Total War games Ernst Gmelin is the only generic general who'sname I remember and for him alone Empire holds a place much higher in my heart than it objectively deserves.
It was like Nelson dying at Trafalgar, or admiral Yi dying in the last major battle of the Imjin War.
Empire did play on XP, the last one to iirc.
Legend finally got his voice back from AI voice in the last video (TOP 5 best total war games)
NON-Scripted just feels much more real, whether or not you cover everything super accurately like a scripted pointed video, you got across YOUR feelings in YOUR video which is what we watch your content for. I personally prefer the off the top of your head videos
For the record, I thought you did a really awesome job with the scripted video - not just the writing and performance, but the editing and video content as well. I think that some people were maybe put off by it being so different from how you usually sound.
"Sanitized" or scripted videos are fine, but I think you just need to work on your delivery a little bit and speak the kind of language that you usually use in your livestreams and other "raw" videos so that it doesn't feel so stilted, forced, or otherwise weirdly formal. At the end of the day, I'm happy either way because I enjoy your content and I watch it for your opinions and knowledge about game mechanics.
Agreed. The to the point nature of the scripted version was good, but the tone used was far too stiff. Which makes sense, because he just doesn't do it often enough
@@WK-gx2zs On the other hand, I feel that compared to the last video this already was a lot better. So with enough practice I'm sure soon these scripted video's will be no problem at all.
Regarding the script, I would adapt one of the advices you yourself give about building Warhamer armies.
Instead of trying to eliminate all your weakpoints, it will usually bear stronger results to instead improve even further what you are already good at.
I don't see much point in becoming much better in creating "sanitized" videos, when you are this good at "shooting from the hip".
A bullet point list of what you want to say to support your "hip shooting" sounds clever though.
I do miss the editing from your previous scripted video. Having footage of the game, and not just trailers stuck together, was nice.
Both of them are good content! I enjoyed both vids :)
I really like Empire, it is set in an interesting time period, technology really matters both early and late game, it has really nice sea battles and it has nice balance between building your country and battles (which I never had any problem with).
I think the editing of the last video was great! If you could combine that style of editing with this style of narration it would make for a really good video. Nevertheless I enjoyed both of them, you should do more tier lists!
I respect your opinions for the most part but I just think it's not casting yourself in a good light to say the worst game in the series is a game you haven't played. It may very well be the worst, but your opinion is based on (I assume) reviews, second hand footage etc. You can assume something is uninteresting, but you can't definitively say it's bad if you haven't actually played it.
For the record, I have no opinions about the game. I don't own it.
Tbf, he did ground his opinion in the ‘it looked like Troy and I didn’t like Troy’ camp.
@@Nikelaos_Khristianos Not entirely true tho is it
My opinion is based on not enjoying any of the warhammer games overmuch cuz the AI doesn't play by most of the rules the player is bound by and CA acting like a bunch of entitled children during the pharoh backlash and mass banning people. I already ceased supporting them in any way after wh2 and the way they run their discord pharoh coming out and bombing and their DLC pricing for wh3 made that decision even easier. i don't need to play Pharoh to know its bad.
Empire certainly isnt for everyone. It even took me 3 tries to get hooked. But once I was its now one of my favourite TWs.
1. Economy. I actually liked the economics here which were very thematic for the era. Getting hold of the more valuable commodities, making sure you have as many trading partners as possible (which means you have to be careful diplomatically), as well as the strong interplay of military and econ, e.g. having trade fleets versus colonies, trying to corner the most profitable markets whilst concentrating your forces in a way to make your interests defensible. This was all much more interesting than MTW2 where you simply get mechants and hone in on the same valuable resources each time.
2. Military. The micro is much different to its predecessors and again refined for the specific era. You cant rely on a cavalry hammer and anvil as you did in medieval and your initial placement of troops is very important, as well as how you react to the battle's progress. It's a slower, less "action packed" affair which makes for a refreshing and distinctly 18th century flavour of the game. The poor battle Ai is a disappointment though, especially in the siege context where the ai is significantly worse than its predecessors.
3. Province detail. There is imo more uniqueness here than before. Developing a colonial settlement is different to a home territory (as is the process of capturing either). The new towns that grow can be specialised to a specific demand, e.g. do you need more trade, research, growth, wealth, etc. In the earlier titles I found settlements to end up all looking and developing the exact same way. My only wish would be that some large provinces be broken down a bit (france, spain, etc) and that there could be a way to develop small trade post settlements (like feitorias, or like the far east trading settlements of britain like Singapore); and also far east asia would have been cool (south china, japan).
All in all, a lot of my appreciation comes from my love of the history of this era so I do agree that this game is not for everyone
I love empire too , if you want enjoy from 17th century historical era please start that with empire 2 mod
I don't really see the logic behind putting Pharao as the worst game especially when Troy was 3rd. From my understanding the list isn't mostly based on the worst total war games as in them being "bad" games and "bad to play" (usually how I would consider worst) but based on interest in the game and want to play the game (which I think is fine reasonings but then the video should be renamed to least interesting total war games). I think if Legend had played Pharao it would have deserved a spot on this list, but I disagree putting it on the list just on principle because now it's all based on perception of the game and not actually the game itself (a way to get around this could have been to give Pharao an honorable mention). Troy being above Pharao is also weird due to Pharao being an iteration of Troy making Troy just the worse game. The only positives I can think of that Troy has over Pharao is Troy was free for a time and maybe some of the DLCs. I'm not that fond of either game so I haven't played them that much and there could be things in either game I have missed that could give Troy more positives to be fair. I also think based on this logic Warhammer 1 should have been on this list because why would you ever play 1 when you have 2 and 3. Other than that I mostly agree with the list especially Empire and Attila.
It seems to me people like to be vindictive against Pharoah for how CA were acting when it was first released. I agree with Legend that Troy was just boring, but Pharoah is so much better than Troy. It did so many things right, things that probably won't get carried over to the next game because it did so poorly
Also, with the dynasties update, Pharoh has more players than Rome Remastered and Total War Rome Collection. Going off interest, I would put Pharoh in front of Troy by player count. Everything Troy does, Pharoh does better. Factions, mechanics, map size. I don't see how it could be the worst. Granted, this is going from dynasties perspective and not just base game Phaoroh.
Troy is way better. Your allies are actually useful. The sea people invasions every few turns in Pharoah are so annoying. An expansion can be worse than the original.
@@grahalachl Yeah but its understandable, they did burn us bad with pharoah on release and dynasties doesn't get to wipe that away.
@@michaelh878 You know that you can turn the sea people off, right?
I think Attila was cool. Yeah the Huns are annoying, the 0% replenishment is outright nightmarish and should have been toned down, but Attila is probably the best nu-total war title out there. In fact I think Rome II was worst, it took like four years after launch for it to be good and optimized, Attila was pretty good at launch
That was always my biggest issue with Attila, they supported Rome2 so much, but Attila still runs like crap. Such a wasted opportunity
Yeah i tend to avoid the normal campaign for Atilla because of that, but the other campaigns are absolutely amazing and even with its flaws Atilla is still great
Atilla feels like Rome 2 DLC, sure far less baggy, but it is the same game only with no innovations and less idk... pleasing and beautiful
Personally I prefer the "raw dogged" version, less sanitized and all that. Though I will say, seeing actual stuff in the background, as with this and the last videos, in comparison with some kind of tierlist or just a still screen from the game is much better
4:50 Criticism first because it's the internet:
The voicelines in Empire are actually a step up, a big one. Each faction is voiced in their own language and most of them are passable to good. In my book that's a step up from the English and accented-to-make-it-foreign English of previous games, and of a lot of TW games since.
Your head of state and cabinet do actually matter quite a bit in Empire.
Public order and income depend a lot on them and you do need to manage it. On top of that there's Clamour For Reform which forces you to consider pros and cons of each system: An absolute monarchy means you fire ministers at will untill you've the best ones, but public order suffers for it later on.
It starts to slow you down, but are you willing to lose control over your government for it? Two skills levels in trade can earn you an extra army worth of upkeep, so that minister is important.
A republic is cute and doesn't draw much Clamour, but the cabinet steps down every couple turns and can't replace them quick. In a republic the government is just a thing you mostly ignore since you've minimal influence over it anyway, and 7 turns later it changes.
Also each government switch requires you creating a revolution that other factions can take advantage of. If I want Prussia as a constitutional monarchy I need two revolutions and that takes easily 10-25 turns. Is it worth doing?
That said, your analysis is spot on and shows why it's one of your worst and my favourite:
I tend to play casually. When I sit down for Total War, I don't want to sit at the edge of my seat and lose if my micro ever drops below 50 clicks per second. And I've seen enough of you to know that's basically what you live for, and if I was a betting shop I'd take odds on you having a 'micro per second' record framed on a wall in your home somewhere. 😉
That's not why I game in general. So a pretty dumb and often passive AI (which Empire definately has) accomodates my playstyle while it bores you. I love taking half an hour to crack a fortress open with minimal losses. The walls bug that CA never patched is far less infuriating as a result too, it's just something to consider. While I respect that for a lot of people that's a gamebreaking bug.
That's the reason I also disliked Shogun II and Fall of the Samurai is kinda 'meh' for me: Battles so fast you really need to pay attention non-stop.
Empire: Total War while being ambitious wasn't a finished game, it should have needed more time in the oven. Besides, the AI on terrestrial battles was atrocious. It was still a good game for its time though.
5:12 Same Legend, I preordered Empire Total War and it was actually the very first Game that I put on Steam. I also remember how everyone back then freaked out online, because CA decided to put their Games now on Steam. Steam wasn't very popular back then and everyone hated to just create an account, to play Games from now on. Still I liked Empire Total War, it was buggy as hell and sea battles were kind of meh, but I still liked to play it especially with the Legendary DarthMod.
My steam account as well started from Empire TW
I was betting that Rome II would be on the list.
Haha same here 😅 got suprised though
Right? After the other legend videos I've seen I was shocked it wasn't here. Saved by total war sagas🤣
I don't think he hates Rome II anymore. They have made enough changes to the game that it isn't bad.
@@Herodotus888especially with dei
Was neither on the best of list, nor the worst of list
Truly the most mid tw (no offense)
There are a lot of redeeming qualities in Troy and Pharoah. Like terrain features, resource types, graphics/art style, etc. I actually find the battles in Troy to be very fun, and Pharoah battles might actually be worse. Unfortunately there is just something lacking about both games that makes them underwhelming and not as addictive, but I did thoroughly enjoy one or two campaigns on each. Maybe its just the time period or lack of true improvements to the AI
Yeah they are both just overpriced.
The thing about scripted vs non is that you've gone so long without scripting that it feels off when you do it scripted. There's nothing wrong with it, and sure, with practice and polish it will get much better. So, for some topics, it might actually be better overall. But for a lot of what you put out, the scripted stuff just isn't the same.
Despite everything is failed at, I still love Empire for the shear immersion it provides. I actually love artillery and line infantry warfare as well as that particular time period. Some mods have made the flaws more bearable but I just wish CA would make a better version with a proper engine, so I know I'm never going to get that, which means Empire will always be that guilty pleasure to pass the time and wondering what could have been.
You can't judge something that you have not played, you should at least give it a shot!
No need to shoot it, it's already dead.
@@rodh1404 Definitely not. Now the game is awesome.
@@Wizard_of_Lightplayer numbers don’t agree with you, and revenue numbers either.
@@ShadowOfHistory-wn1xh this is because Warhammer Total War is still going strong, and because most streamers didn't even bother trying Dynasty.
Also, who judge a game on the money it made? This is the reason why the industry is going to shit.
@@ShadowOfHistory-wn1xh It's a quality game with a lot of passion put into it. They made the Dynasties update for FREE.
My favourite thing about Empire was the silly way it depicted colonialism, so you'd eventually end up with India sending massive armies to Europe because they had limitless resources and every faction is run by the same psycho chess robot.
I definitely disagree on one principle on number 1.
With that said, I’m a hypocrite and haven’t played the game either, just to be clear.
I think it’s a good thing that they try and see if they can apeal to some more niche aspects of history and such.
The general problem with a lot of entertainment industries is that they try to appeal to as many people as possible, and fail to impress anyone.
And then it feels wrong to judge a game as number 1 because “It’s for a narrow audience”
Of course, I could have misunderstood your argument.
With all that said, I think you are right that the game just stinks of a cashgrab - that’s what I think is wrong with the game.
Loved the video! :)
You just said that they made a game for everyone but it didnt appeal to anyone.....then say its for a niche audience....wtf??
Man I really love Attila, its mechanics, battles, setting, units... but I understand (and share) your complaints about it. I feel like had they bothered to bring some of Age of Charlemagne's improvements to the grand campaign it wouldn't be on this list but unfortunately CA gave up on it very quickly.
Good video and I'm glad to see you're doing well.
The state of Empire on release was a slap in the face to their customers. It caused me not to buy another of their games until Warhammer, and I haven't bought TW:W3. It's entirely possible I won't buy another TW game, and I'm old enough to have played TW from its start.
No competent corporation that gave a shit about their customers would EVER have released that premature clusterfuck. They outright lied in their marketing; while we know marketers essentially are paid liars, it was somewhat astonishing at just how blatant it was. I still remember Paradox trolling them over the fact their game about Empires and colonies couldn't load troops on ships, LOL, so Britain never needed to worry about being invaded at home.
The worst part is I think it COULD have been one of the greatest had it been done correctly.
Yeah I feel your criticism of Empire is fair, which sucks because the early modern period is one of my favorite but like you said the game is missing a lot. If we got an Empire 2 with Medieval/Rome style progression of technology, armies, generals, and city building, it would be the greatest game ever.
Imagine the whole world where Europe starts off with Pikes and early Muskets and Hoops, where Asia, the Americas, and India can all start off preparing for the arrival of Europeans later on, while Europe can grow and begin that process after the Italian Wars.
There’s a ton of potential that it sadly never reached, still great with mods, but yeah hard to get sucked into like some of the other games.
(Posted after only watching up to 2:45) Legend, you reading from a script did sound weird but you also explained this is a rather clear and easy to understand way.
Personally? I like the typical passion and way you record your videos but for the sake of something like this and clearly communicating everything you want I don’t think the script was too bad. Everyone has a sort of ‘news announcer’ voice they fall into until they ‘learn’ how to read their own scripts.
Don't read off a script. You sound like there is a gat to your head and there is no love in what your saying. This video is natural, I can feel your passion. I think just going off in 1 take for your videos is good. Hope this help.
I love Attila... But I can't disagree with what you said.
Buildings feel bad. It's insane that someone on the gamedesign team gave a thumb up for something that you spend ressources that is actually detrimental to you. It's baffling.
The religious buildings annoy me so much in attila. Such a miniscule bonus in public order, for huge upkeep. Such stupid design
My feedback regarding scripted vs unscripted:
I prefer your cadence when you're unscripted, but I think you would benefit from a having some notes on hand for the games you intend to talk about, just so that you make sure you actually hit all the points, even if the way you get there is freeform.
I love when Legend starts talking about some minor issues with the game and then it escalates into full rant with swearing and giving names. Only people who are very passionate towards something can make it on a whim again and again.
Keep the hip shooting brother it's way more entertaining your personality makes u a special personality on RUclips
I quite liked the scripted video (the editing was very nice and the script makes it so its nicely structured), although the non scripted videos are good as well. I think a combination would be the best solution(if manageable)
Troy is the epitome of this, I can't even afford to have two armies, i had to use cheat mods to make it playable. that "Administrative whatever" is a pain in the ass and the AI ignores it, they can easily afford two to three armies and the player is severely limited by having just one or two.
It was a very rogue way of reigning the player in and keeping the AI relevant and competitive. But it’s just so annoying when modern Total War needs you to have multiple armies on sieges
thrones for wasting a great historical time period on a bad game 😑😑😑
Init
I don't know about a great historical time period. Nobody cares about the british except the british.
@@phantomjoker5 thrones is a good game
thrones wasn't even a bad game in itself, it got some interesting experimental mechanics which were not repeated later.... it was just so small in scope and variety... which killed it
@@szmike like the base game of shogun 2 yet no one will ever dare criticize it
Couldn't tell you why, but every time I'm sick I reinstall Empire. That game is like electronic chicken soup to me.
Its such a shame Britannia gets shit on so much, I know what they did was lazy and they basically took the Atilla DLC English faction game, but I am from the UK enjoyed it and got a solid 90+ hours out of it for a lower price.
It’s obvious this video suits your usual style much more, and hearing your thoughts “shot from the hip” feels much more comfortable (probably because that’s what we are used to). That being said, I think the scripted versions of videos like this one could really be even better than the usual “rant style”. I think it takes a combination of your audience getting used to the different style and you refining said scripted style for it to really shine. The clean, factual and well crafted script has a lot of potential, and your vast knowledge of Total war comes across much more clearly in that style. That being said there is definitely a style of video better suited to scripted-Legend and if it is posted as such (a sort of mini-series like tier lists or disaster battles) I don’t think any of us would mind!
Empire isn't a good game, but at least it was ambitious af. They tried so many new things, and failed at most of them, but that still feels a lot more interesting than just going in bland and delivering blandness.
I disagree. I can respect ambition, but at the end of the day, the product you receive is not the dream someone has in their head, but the actual product, which is very bad in the case of Empire imo.
Shogun 2 on the other hand really wasn't that innovative on any front even when it came out. But they've got a solid base for a Total War game and polished it well. Shogun 2 is superior because CA focused on improving what has already worked for them instead of making it new and shiny, but disfunctional.
the biggest mistake CA does, they try this ambitious or interesting stuff... the game flops because it didn't quite work out... then they drop the mechanic, instead of improving it/making it actually work. They also don't port their successful and praised features to other games... like wth? why? ... well, I know why, they have no/poor version control the engine was/is like a christmas tree now
I play Rome Remastered every day. I wish they would remaster Medieval 2 or make Medieval 3. Return to their roots and what made them famous!
Attila is top tier, I’m sorry bro
Said no one ever, 😂😂😂
@@angelrivera7546 I just did
@@angelrivera7546ngl I’ve always seen people say Attila is top tier, that it was what Rome should’ve been. It’s the main reason I got it besides the medieval mod
Honestly, a hybrid of the two styles of these videos would be really cool to see. I liked seeing the actual gameplay of the games to go along with your explanations for your choices and the pros and cons of each entry, especially compared to potentially just replaying the same trailer video due to their shorter playtimes versus your more detailed explanations. I'd be heartbroken if you stripped your personality out of these videos, so *GOD* please don't do that. Your personality's the big reason I've stuck around all these years, your skill being a close second.
You did really well with this one, though. Appreciate you hearing the feedback offered from the first video.
Legend is only pretending to go back to unscripted videos. In actuality he managed to defeat his evil AI clone by cheesing it ^^
Maybe a happy medium between "no passion" and "no focus" is writing down some key ideas you want to talk about. The process of organizing your thoughts and committing them to paper is an editorial act by itself. Infinite effort is going to produce the maximum output, but you're a real person in the real world with finite resources. Whatever you can do to organize your thoughts is going to be helpful, it's just a question of "is the juice worth the squeeze?"
Like anything, people get better at the things they do. If you want to get better at writing, write. If you want to get better at script writing, write scripts. Does it hold your attention? Is the benefit worth the cost? Only you can answer that question. You've built an audience and want to do right by them, so use your best judgement. Checking in, from time to time, is good (like you're doing right now), but your videos already get significant engagement, you're a meme generator on the forums and the company that has cut you out of their development process still needs to recon with you and your influence... you're doing fine
Your opinions on total war are terrible, give me my heart now 😂
I hope this is sarcasm. Attila and Empire shouldn’t be here, though I guess 5 and 4 makes them the mid-range since I do agree that Napoleon and Rome 2 are a few notch higher.
#1 well deserved. The fact they tried to sell this for full price should never get forgotten, nor forgiven. They did not reduce the price out of the good of their heart. They did not reduce the price to do their customers a favour. They did not reduce the price because it better represents the value of the product. They reduced it to appease the masses, because people were rightfully getting very angry over it. They did not see that coming. They thought gamers would just eat it up like always and still buy it, but when pre-order numbers were shit and the community's mood was even worse, this was just an attempt of them to cut losses. The poor sales would not have outweighed the goodwill lost. That's all there is to it. No reason to romanticise this topic and huff copium telling yourself "they changed, they did it for us". They did not.
This 100%. Papa SEGA was very concerned that their reliable profit engine was failing hard.
Hi, Legend! Watched both videos, this one is more Legend)
From my public speaking experience (product manager, so there are sales pitches, internal/external demos, webinars, conferences, the whole lot) - it's better not to script-script, but to have a general structure (in this case - games from 5 to 1) and some key points (overall experience, grand campaign, battles, economy, unique features, etc) for every game. That'll help with consistency and timing. Just don't write down everything you're gonna say and try to learn/read it - that kills the mood and your personality. It's OK to stumble or rephrase yourself during a presentation - you're just a human, albeit a Legend, and the progress you've already made on presentation skills and viewer engagement through these years is nothing but astonishing.
Troy is the only total war game I found unplayable due to bad mechanics, even thrones of Britannia wasn't as bad.
Disliked it because of its timed exclusivity to CCP spyware disguised as a Game Launcher
Yo Legend. I've been watching your channel for a few years now and I realize your desire to update, modernize, and alter your style of editing, recording, and overall video style to fit a brand new RUclips compared to when you launched this channel more than a decade ago. Regarding your request on which I prefer more, I honestly think that a "combined" or "hybridized" style of video would be good. You can incorporate elements of both styles of video. For example, you can write down, say, 5 topics you want to discuss for the video, then break each topic up into 3 bullet points, then for those 3 bullet points, no script needed. Say what you wanna say, then move on. I can't say I prefer one or the other style of video editing and writing, but I can say I enjoy your content and that I like how you give valuable information on these games which you enjoy. Keep going, you aussie, and stay Legendary.
2:26 Bugs. So many bugs.
What a fool I was. I thought Attila would be amongst the best and here we are...
If the original Medieval is on here, there will be consequences...
Update: Medieval is NOT on the list, so me and Legend can still be friends.
I never understood why features from Medieval 1 were not continued in Med2. Dismounting knights before battle, giving titles to generals, crusades "stealing" armies, respawning factions. These were great things. Why not keep those and simply add more in the sequel?
@@adamjohnson3239 CA has consistently 'Dumbed Down' the gameplay as the games progressed.
Just look at some of the features that DID make it into Rome and were not in Med 2, Then some of the ones in Med 2 that are no where to be seen. Just a long slow progression.
@@samrester6254 from the leaks we heard, they have no/poor version control, also working on different titles at the same time.... I think it's mostly tech/management issue leading to this inability to bring successful and interesting features to all titles
Empire was great, it's super dated now but the battles were fun. Gunpowder was so good. Wish they did Empire 2.
I prefer your personality
I’ll let people trash a lot of things about Thrones, but damn if there weren’t some times when it was just sooo comfy. I mean, Britannia itself is beautifully and lovingly depicted, the soundtrack is charming, and the battles, which are truly optimized for medium unit size, feel more like skirmishes than proper battles, and that’s just fine with me. The whole game really makes you feel like a local warlord instead of a continent spanning colossus. It’s a different vibe and I will always love it for that.
1. Thrones
2. Troy
3. Pharoah
4. Three Kingdoms
5. Rome 2
Rome 2? ROME TWO!? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!1
@@ascendedbro1828 Auto-resolve is the bane of Rome 2. It's just much too good and too tempting to AR every battle due to the casualties being evenly split among units. You end up only playing the campaign portion - the boring part of any TW game.
Do you in earnest believe that Shogun 1 and Med 1 are better than all of the games on this list?
Yes at time were made.. rome 2 was worst trash ever... destroyed my faith
Yes, they are some of the best in the series. I might be in the minority but I liked the risk style movement of armies and units. It made having allied armies viable and didn’t give ludicrous examples of armies able to skirt around stacks because it was their turn and armies and navies taking years to traverse ground that should in reality take months at most. Also the first shogun and medieval had the best ending sequences of any game in the series.
Yes, they are some of the best in the series. I might be in the minority but I liked the risk style movement of armies and units. It made having allied armies viable and didn’t give ludicrous examples of armies able to skirt around stacks because it was their turn and armies and navies taking years to traverse ground that should in reality take months at most. Also the first shogun and medieval had the best ending sequences of any game in the series.
The scripted feel a bit off mostly because of the way you read it, you have so much passion in the voice when you are just telling your thoughts and it's completely gone when you are reading. BUT the editing was really good! I wish we could have pros from both worlds.
Attila is one of the best total wars. Too much nostalgia with the older total wars
Hey Legend, love the new content man! I like the scripted videos but if youre worried about feeling robotic, you could always do a happy middle where you have a script outlined and you olay off of it. Have you ever considered doing scripted campaign videos or even tactic breakdowns? Ive learned a lot from you and ill always support you brother!
At the beginning of the video you talked about "us". Do you have an editor or something?
honestly imo i love attilas apocalypse style campaign if they added population mechanics for the migrations and plague and fixed the performance issues atilla would be a 10/10 total war
I completely agree with your opinion on Total War: Attila. I find the DLC campaign for Age of Charlemagne to be far superior to that of the base grand campaign. I had a bug where I spent a good chunk of the campaign waiting for the opportunity to kill Attila only for the mechanic to actually kill him to bug out, so I had to just wait until he naturally died so I could wipe out the Huns. Those types of mechanics should not be in a Total War game, it absolutely reduces the player's choice and control over their campaign. Love the battles, hate hate hate the campaign.
It (maybe) was not a bug, if i remember correctly, you need to kill(wound) Atilla 2 time, before you can actually kill him.
@@sanguinius9672 I got the Atilla has been wounded popup 8 times via battle and 4 times via using agent actions and he still would not die. Game definitely bugged out.
A thing that always kills TotalWar games for me is when units just cannot navigate cities or fortresses.
Empire was especially bad for that.
The biggest issue with Troy is the fact that people were half-expecting a Rome 1 tribute, especially because the devs were promoting an historically accurate, “truth behind the myth” approach - but that didn’t really come off very well. It’s better now, because you can choose a more grounded Bronze Age Total War game (albeit based on some totally made-up people) or you can play a game that’s more like “Warhammer-Lite” - I’ve never really been sure who Troy is for. I enjoyed my campaigns with Aeneas and Paris enough, sure, but I don’t miss the game at all
Plus! As a classics teacher, I genuinely wanted more Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid stuff in the game! Like there’s some nice nods but they’re literally the written source material for the period AND the basis for the game - why not go all in? By the same token, I am genuinely astonished that Rome 2 isn’t on this list, the more time that goes on, the more I realise how much I dislike that game
Something I noticed with Total War: Pharoh was that while there were a good number of positive reviews. They were all below 60 hours. Every single one. One was 15 hours, another was 23, and finally the longest I ever saw was 57 hours. This was me looking a week ago at the steam page reviews for a solid hour. Thinking whether I should buy it or not. Now, Pharoh seems like a great game for its specific audience, but im not going to pay $40 to play a game for only 60 hours. I want a game with massive amounts of replayability so that I get my money's worth. Not a game where I enjoy it for 40 hours and then never pick it up again.
Hey legend I haven't watched your vids in a while, but the last one with the best total war games caught my attention again. Liked the editing as well
I don't care how easily moddable a game is. If mods cause your enjoyment of a game rather than enhance your existing enjoyment of said game, it's not a good game, or at the very least, not a good game for you.
Amazing video!!! As someone who made comments about the first video this is what I wanted thanks legend for listening to feedback! My favorite game being Rome 2 but I get now after watching you play you can accomplish some crazy stuff in the battles of warhammer than you can in historical games from CA.
1:12 I didn't see anyone else mention it but you had some audio issues in the last video. I don't know if it was all the way through and my ears got used to it or if it was just at the beginning but the audio was low and kind of tinny. This video is the normal audio I expect from you.
I didnt watch the top 5 best total war games video, but after this video I was curious about the scripting style you talked about and had a listen. The delivery sounded exactly like a continuation of the ad read you did at the beginning, just for Total War. Its interesting how (if?) you chose to do a natural take on the top 5 worst and did the scripted for top 5 best, is it because you felt that style fit that type of content better? I would much have rather heard a natural take on the top 5 (on both really, scripted feels off for you Legend)
Atilla actually purposely did the whole bad upgrade system because u were meant to not go for a stable approach due to the game's trying of reflecting the times it was based on. The end of the world, chaos and huns, attila wanted to capture that frenzy and thus made u play a campaign where u are meant to just survive and make by, rather than go technologically advanced and with great cities and supplies and armies.
glad you're trying out new trying out new types of videos. I noticed a lot of other long form narrative style total war videos do very well on other channels, so I was wondering if you would ever do some of those. It seemed to go pretty well in your blitz campaign video, and I feel like a video covering your no defeat campaign would be pretty cool if you still have any footage.
Good list. Content wise, I definitely prefer this style. The nice thing about the previous one was it had more structure. Maybe some lightweight notes for talking points is enough to get all the benefit of using a script.
"I don't like it, so it's the worst" is a pretty poor take. Would have been better to just leave it out alltogether or make it a special mention, imo.