The reason is that Empire was much worse, as was Medieval II. Those two combined to make me skip Shogun 2 for roughly a year. Although once I played it, I found I liked Shogun 2. It had a lot of improvements that I hope carry over to Rome 2, although its lack of unit variety and generally too-quick battles can definitely get left behind.

Ah yeah I skipped both napoleon total war and shogun 2. It felt as if to me as the graphics got better the worse the games got.  I may pick up shogun 2 if the price goes down.

I'm not sure if Shogun 2 is worth $50, but it was definitely worth the $20 I paid for it. You can probably find it for that price with little effort. Haven't played any of the DLC, so I can't say if they're worth it or not.

Amazon has Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai (Steam key - Standalone expansion thingy) for $7.49 right now if anyone is interested
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WD9H9Y?tag=deals4dowcom-20

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-06-total-war-rome-2-will-deliver-a-darker-vision-of-war

"It's all about a darker vision of war. We want the combat to feel more brutal, more visceral. And we want the form-combat to really get a sense of that Roman war machine, that unique fighting style of the Roman meat grinder legions." That's up close. On the larger scale there are "epic" cities with multiple capture points. There are also combined battles, so soldiers can jump out of boats to join the battles on land, and artilleries on ships can "tear down cities". They're not separate components. "Our aim," said Russell, "is for Rome 2 to deliver some of the most spectacular sights you've ever seen in a video game, and I really believe that we can deliver that - I'm not being hyperbolic there."

"The code on show was "super, super early" - "We're way, way, pre-alpha," said Russell.

There are a tonne of visual features and effects to add, and the final game will look "way better", not that you can see what we saw by reading this."

My bother's wet dream. I really enjoy Shogun 2, might try this one.

Rome 2 lead designer talks ancient warfare, modding, DLC, and the importance of working with the community

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/13/rome-2-lead-designer-talks-ancient-warfare-modding-dlc-and-the-importance-of-working-with-the-community/

"PC Gamer: So why return to Rome?

James Russell: Well, I think there are two reasons. Rome is the most popular era in terms of where the fans want us to return to. It’s the most asked-for sequel on the forums, from our community, and I’m really excited to be announcing Rome 2.

I think there’s something uniquely evocative about the Roman era, which is why is has such traction in the popular imagination. You see lots of Rome content on TV and so on. There’s something absolutely magical about the period, I think, from the ideals of the Roman Republic up to the immense power of the Roman Empire, which created the excesses of notorious Emperors like Caligula, and so on.

I mean, it was a time in history where individuals could really shape history. You’ve got all these legendary figures like Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and there’s something very unique about the Roman war machine and the look and feel of the legions. And of course the arena in which they were fighting – the whole ancient world with barbarians in the forests and exotic empires to the east. I think it’s just a very very special period and we can make a magical Total War title out of it."

"PC Gamer: Shogun was praised for tightening the Total War experience down to a few key strategic decisions and battles over a very focused landscape. How do you maintain that focus when you’re covering a huge period of history and a vast area of the world?

James Russell: I think the key there is to have a really tight design and there are certain features that we’re planning that will give us the best of both worlds. So, for instance, we want to have on the campaign map a huge space but actually reduce the amount of management detail that you’ve got to go into. So we’re going to have – instead of all regions being the same – we’re going to have provinces which are made up of a number of different regions.

What that means is you don’t have to manage loads and loads of regions, you manage a small number of regions relatively, but we still have that strategic depth where a province is made of up several regions which you can conquer. And what that means is that you can have the benefit of scale but you don’t have the management detail. That’s on the campaign map. On the battlefield really it’s about making sure that the units are controllable and we’re taking a whole bunch of measures to make sure that it’s epically visual but also straightforward to control."

"PC Gamer: So from what we saw, there’s obviously a very strong narrative and character element. Is that the direction you see Total War going in? From historical simulation to telling stories from history?

James Russell: I think what’s unique about Total War is that you make your own history. So we put you in this historical era, we immerse you in it, we put legendary characters from the era into the game, but the player makes their own history with those characters. But absolutely, that whole pillar, what we call the human face of Total War – we want to do that on the campaign map as well. We want to go down to that human scale and make more of characters, make more of stories and we’ve got various themes that we want to incorporate around betrayal … are you saving the Republic or trying to be Emperor? That kind of thing. But absolutely the core pillar of Total War is that you’re making your own history."

"PC Gamer: So when you’re talking about themes, are you talking about things like – for example – cults of personality, and the relative power of generals in Rome and how that affected the Empire? That kind of detail?

James Russell: I mean, yeah. Effectively we’ve got a massive list of things we want to fold into the game in some way, and we do this with all Total War titles, and we look for all sorts of different ways to fold in those themes and flavours. But what we really want to do with Rome 2 is really emphasise the kind of human level drama that was a real part of the Roman world where, as I said, individuals could shape history."

Sounds great! I still RTW several times a year.

Some new super wide screens

Looks purdy.

Too purdy for my little PC.