Be sure to check out the official wiki for more info
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_Rome_II
previews
http://www.pcgamesn.com/totalwar/total-war-rome-2-preview-every-question-answered
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-02-total-war-rome-2-preview-turning-it-up-to-xi
http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/total-war-rome-2-preview-every-detail-about-the-new-engine-naval-combat-multiplayer-and-mods/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/02/total-war-rome-2-preview/
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/7/2/3131535/total-war-rome-2-announcement
Choice quotes
"At present the release date is set for a tentative "second half of 2013". That might be toward the end of summer, or it could even be toward the end of the year. Rome 2 won't be built in a day."
" Total War: Rome 2 runs on a new engine that supports the largest and most detailed battles in the series’ history, to the extent of supporting full, in-engine cutscenes. In place of a traditional general’s speech, then, the siege of Carthage began with an actual conversation between Scipio and his men, before zooming out to take in the sight of the Roman fleet approaching the heavily-defended shoreline."
"Ships and armies can now take part in the same battles when the situation demands it. As troop-carrying biremes crashed into the shore, Roman boats armed with catapults kept their distance and provided covering fire for the dismounting troops, who formed into ranks before charging up the beach towards the walls. I later asked if this ‘rolling start’ meant that the deployment phase was a thing of the past, but that’s not the case – instead, CA are looking to be more flexible about how battles can begin, based on various circumstances. Beach landings are a confirmed feature, according to lead battle designer Jamie Ferguson, and there’s room for other non-traditional openings as well."
"Rome 2 comes with an ever greater focus on AI from Creative Assembly. Firstly, they’ve added more AI staff, including designers, so they can work on helping the AI to understand the battlefield and city environments. "
"The map will also be scattered with invisible, branching storyline triggers which demand consequence-laden choices and dilemmas beyond the merely military regardless of which nation/state/tribe/faction you play as. It’s not quite procedural, but you won’t run into the same story ‘Easter eggs’ every time and they’re not locked to specifically Roman history and lore."
"Looking back at those moments of battle, there’s an impressive new lighting engine, resplendent with particles and gorgeous reflections off the burnished metal of the Legionnaires’ armour. New features have been layered onto Total War’s venerable tech. There are new shaders for everything from the metal to the soldiers’ skin, the sky and terrain have both been improved, and the whole game has moved to an HDR model. The team are happy to say that they’ve moving from realistic towards cinematic.
It all looks fantastic, but Russell is quick to point out that “while we obviously want it to take advantage of the best systems that are out there and will be out there in a year’s time, we also want it to work on lower end systems. Our objective is to not change the minimum spec [from Shogun 2]. People play strategy games on laptops more, and so we need to keep the game viable on lower end machines while working on higher end PCs.”"
@TheVoxelman on twitter
