A "Treatise" On Rome 2 - Part 2 (finale)

• published: 06 Sep 2014
• views: 3121

We return to the game exactly a year after release and exactly 10 months since either of us last played the game. An anniversary that we planned months in advance to see just how much, if at all, the game has been ..repaired to the standard demanded by the legacy of the series, that has been promised and sought after by the developers, and that has been arduously insisted upon by the self-respecting, dignified playerbase - at least those that persist (not many, not many at all). Cosmic streamed it on Twitch, live, before an impressively large audience. Thanks to those of you that showed up (except for the very occasional window-licking, mouth-breathing scumfuck). On the whole, you guys made it more entertaining for everyone, and less of an ordeal, for us. This definitely was not the sort of thing I planned for the ToR2 series back in December, but then, I never accounted for how disgusted I would end up feeling by February and March, before I could even pen a sequel; that disgust seems inevitable, with hindsight. How naively optimistic I was.. I imagined a 5-10 part series that systematically analysed all of the critical failures of the game, beginning with the AI in part 1, and then covering the melee combat in part 2 and aesthetics in part 3 etc. By March though, I just threw in the towel completely and forgot about the whole mess, it seemed like a complete waste of time. It seemed self-deprecating to even continue to care in any capacity at all. It wasn't until many months afterwards that CC and I considered returning to the game for a one off on the anniversary.. the 1 year anniversary of that calamitous, dreadful day.. The game didn't deserve it, and CA definitely don't; but you guys did. So here we are... here we are. We are largely insulated from the drama, and completely oblivious to the patch-spamming and the painfully gradual changes they introduced to the game. We return to the game afresh, to be hit by the full force of the sledgehammer that ought to be the night-and-day contrast that should be apparent as our outdated memory of that farcical "game" (which CC does well to freshen at the start of the stream) clashes with the apparently largely "finished" product that we paid for a year in advance. 10+ additional patches to make 15 in total.. FIFTEEN, and it seems like everyone, absolutely everyone, can agree that this is about as good as it is ever going to get. This is the last fucking chance this game gets to impress the hell out of us. ..and impress us it does, in traditional Rome 2 fashion. As this is obviously the last time either of us will be touching this game, and as these 3 hours were quite well spent (we actually "discovered" completely new ""bugs"" accidentally)... ughhhhhhhh. I feel we did a good job of critiquing the current state of the game. I don't think we were remotely unfair. We played the game and described exactly what was happening on-screen, and I think we did it quite well. It seemed appropriate afterwards that this event should serve as the improvised sequel to my previously abandoned series, and also as the nuclear fucking sarcophagus for my relationship/memory of Rome 2 and any other malignancies that the TW3/Warscape engine breeds. Damnatio memoriae. Here is the livestream featuring the entire perspective of CC. Some of the stuff that happens can only be truly appreciated if you see it as he did. He was the one actually streaming. I was just recording and accompanying him: http://www.twitch.tv/cosmiccontrarian/c/5073680 http://www.twitch.tv/cosmiccontrarian/c/5073681 Here is the survey. Results will be publically available after a large enough sample is gathered: http://kwiksurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=dacuet04yi9nunt406511&refer;=YoutubePromo ------------------------ Patreon (Support and interact with me) http://www.patreon.com/Volound Twitch (Livestreams) http://www.twitch.tv/Volound Facebook (Polls, announcements, Q & As) http://www.facebook.com/Volound Steam Group (Bulletins, in-game support e.g. Total War clans) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Volound Subscribe (for moar) http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c... Twitter (youtube's subscription service is shoddy and unreliable, use this if you subscribed) https://twitter.com/Volound