Aion

Developer: NCSoft

Estmated Release Q4 2009

alot of information here you can skim over, I have added two videos on bottom that sum up a lot.

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I have been a long time fan of the Total War series and on March 4th Creative Assembly launches its newest installment Empire Total War. Past games have focused on Mongols, and Samurai, Medieval clans, and the mighty Roman empire.

This time around Total War has moved on to colonial times and for the first time in the series they have included 3D real time navel combat.  In the past all navel combat was handled with a dice throw.  Now however you are in direct control of the individual ships in your fleet.  There are multiple types of cannon ammunition, including chain shot for wrecking havoc on your enemy masts and sails.  You have the ability to fire at will or my favorite the ability to  launch a full on broadside barrage.  After which if you are able to disable  without sinking your enemy’s ship you have the option of bringing your ship along side and trying to fight your way on board and claim your target for your own later in the campaign.

I was able to get my hands on a copy of the demo the other night through Steam.  Although in the past I have had some issues with patches and the Steam integration I am considering forgoing those past aggravations.  While I am still a little nervous about it Creative Assembly seem to be paying more attention to Steam users.  The integration is already showing through on the demo so I know that the game is at the very least using parts of the api to pull things like user images and hopefully achievements and score boards at release.

I was able to run the demo with the setting all on ultra and the AA at x2.  Load times getting into the game took a little long in my opinion.  Hopefully this gets worked out in release or soon after.  Once in, I was thoroughly pleased with the overall smoothness and game play.  On land the grass sways with the wind and the smoke from musket fire billows with each volley.  Once at sea it gets even better I had a hard time paying attention to the tutorial for the first couple minutes.  Watching the setting sun shimmer across the bow waves was absolutely breath taking.  The waves, sails and ships have all been modeled with accuracy and beauty.  Empire Total War seems on track to deliver another round of great turn based and RTS stratgey gaming for 2009.

I am really excited for this game, Its predecessor Operation Flashpoint was ahead of its time in many ways.

Cassie is starting to give me a run for my money, I’m gonna have to buckle down and step up my A game.