How much has Empire Total War improved since launch?

[IllegalPaladin]

I have a giftcard that I recently recieved as a gift and I was thinking about using it to help pay for Empire: Total War. The thing is that I know that the games in that series usually need a few patches after they release.

Thus, I was wondering if anybody plays Empire: Total War and how it performs now compared to when it launched. Has it improved? Does it still have a ton of issues? Any other details you can think of about the game?