ecco l'articolo uscito oggi (ovvero ieri) su gamespot
link
per i meno anglofoni parla del demo di Empire che chi è andato all'E3 ha potuto ammarirare. La demo consiste in una battaglia navale fra inglesi e americani. niente di nuovo per quanto riguarda le informazioni ma ci sono cose che dovrebbero fare felici che aveva qualche dubbio sulle battaglie navali
ecco ciò che c'è scritto
Creative Assembly are certainly no strangers to the strategy genre and to date have been responsible for the popular Shogun, Rome, Medieval, and Medieval 2: Total War games. While the team has already tackled feudal Japan and historical Roman settings this is their first foray into an eighteenth century, and between the advent of sail and gunpowder, it already has the makings of some exciting gameplay elements as the arms race kicks off.
While we didn't get a chance to go hands-on with the fleets and control the action, our demo consisted of a naval battle between British and American forces complete with a smattering of the game's 40 types of ships. We were shown the British forces bobbling gently in the ocean in what we have to say is some of the prettiest looking water we've ever set eyes on. Even out away from the shore waves rolled and knocked up against the hulls of the ships producing realistic looking swell in the process. Though tactically you'll probably want to be a little removed from the action to survey the battlefield, even in its work-in-progress state this title is looking impressive on the PC. You're really going to want to zoom in to appreciate every minute detail such as inspecting both the upper and lower decks of your ships, watching cannons fire, and the rich colours of your Admiral's outfit.
Once the gameplay was underway our guide sent our smallest and fastest ships to intercept the enemy's frontline using one of the four preset attack patterns. Clicking a unit indicates its cannon range as well as its firing direction, and tells you which way the wind is blowing. Negotiating an aggressive line, we staggered and positioned our ships between oncoming enemy units before unleashing a barrage of cannon fire. Since you're able to fire from both sides of the ship, you'll need to avoid friendly-fire while attempting to scuttle or maim your adversaries by destroying their masts. Once you've achieved this the unit is effectively dead in the water and you can finish them off at your leisure. It wasn't all smooth sailing up front of our pack, and once we had taken some ground, stemmed the flow of reinforcements, and lost a couple of our own in battle we brought in some bigger, heavier artillery. Like previous titles in the series Empire: Total War includes a proximity-sensitive morale system which increases the performance of those at your command. Our boost came from our Admiral who resided on our largest and most powerful ship. While it may seem like a great idea to charge in guns blazing, the risk of losing your sails to enemy mast-shot should be a big enough deterrent to keep you from doing so. That said, when the action does get up close and personal, what naval warfare experience would be complete without the ability to incapacitate, then go in for the kill by boarding and even claiming your opponent's ship? This feature is being included in the title, and once you've captured an enemy ship, pilfered units become permanent fixtures of your fleet.
Once you have disabled them and pulled the two vehicles together with ropes the game has a unique AI system which will automatically assign each AI player a mate of the other faction. By doing this battlefields (both in the land and sea portions of the game) will be populated by throngs of duelling men all baying for one specific character's blood. They'll even go as far as to pick them out of the pack and go exclusively after them. Our ship caught fire and we had to bail out before any real fisticuffs broke out on deck, but it's apparently quite the sight. Weather will also play a major role in the performance of your squad in Empire: Total War with rain and mud not only hampering your land speed, but also your musket accuracy.
The development team at Creative Assembly has been hard at work making sure this their fifth game in the series is as realistic as possible. Each cannonball's trajectory is being independently mapped once fired, meaning that rather than offer a simple decal swap for generic damage, each cannonball will smash up only the place it will hit on impact. Likewise each boat has been run through a rigorous physics calculation meaning damage below the waterline of your ship will cause you to gradually sink. Once you do start to take on water your crew will abandon ship, and while not in the current build, we were assured the dev team are hard at work on adding sharks to finish off any survivors.
Empire: Total War is already shaping up to be a visually impressive and comprehensive strategy title, and with an anticipated early 2009 shipping date on the PC, there's still plenty of time to polish it further.