[Jan]

As Janichsan already mentioned in the Macworld lottery, Feral today dropped a nuclear bomb onto the Mac gaming landscape and announced Rome Total War as its next Feral Legends title:

http://dev.ludomac.c...al-War_2656.htm

For all you Strategy nerds out there: It doesn't get any better than this. Enjoy.

[Eric5h5]

If there was another company or two like Feral, there wouldn't be anywhere near as much to complain about as far as Mac gaming goes.

--Eric

[jackdawsson]

Too bloody right about Feral! Hell, one of the few reasons I'll get Windows is just to play these games on my Mac. Feral bringing Rome: TW + expansions to Mac (they might also do Medieval 2 later?) is absolutely fantastic news! I'll now certainly be waiting for the Mac version (regardless of whether I'll run Boot Camp for other things). For me this is easily the best Mac gaming news I've heard for a very long while. Kudos to Feral!

[teflon]

for those of you that cant read French, here it is in English

[dojoboy]

Fantastic! Feral scores again.

[jackdawsson]

Thanks for English link, teflon! Great to read that they're guessing maybe a release in the next 2 months or so. I expected (& wouldn't have minded) having to wait a bit longer than that, so AFAIC that's an extra bonus. Excellent!

[DaveyJJ]

Edwin already has my thanks after nearly causing me to have a heart attack.

Can I now tell everyone, please?

[Pegasus]

Nice.

[ltcommander.data]

It's great news that Feral continues to bring classic games to Mac and give them a second chance at life.

http://www.macgamer....tory.php?id=513

Quote

“The Total War series is one of the most-requested additions to Mac gaming” said Feral Interactive’s David Stephen. “It’s a game that is superbly suited to the platform and one that will be available to all Intel Mac owners including those with Macbooks.”

Minimum system requirements call for a 1.8GHz Intel Mac only, 512MB RAM, 128MB graphics card, DVD drive, 6 GB of hard disk space and Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later. The game does not support Intel GMA processors.

Maybe it's just these news sites misquoting things, but I've seen this on several Mac news sites and they are all internally contradictory. First they say it's targeted at all Intel Macs including MacBooks, then they say the GMA is not supported. It'd be nice to get clarification on what the requirements will actually be. And are Legends titles intended to run on PPC Macs? I guess the lack of PPC support is acceptable in exchange for the quick March launch.

Hopefully the Mac version will be able to support some of the many mods available out there and multiplayer will be Mac<>PC compatible. I'm guessing Alexander isn't included though?

[bobbob]

ltcommander.data, on January 8th 2009, 10:31 PM, said:

I'm guessing Alexander isn't included though?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Rob Chahin]

ltcommander.data, on January 9th 2009, 04:31 AM, said:

First they say it's targeted at all Intel Macs including MacBooks, then they say the GMA is not supported. It'd be nice to get clarification on what the requirements will actually be.

I'm guessing Alexander isn't included though?

I can say with some certainty that the GMA will be supported for Rome: Total War, and also that Alexander will not be included, though Barbarian Invasion will be. It looks like the specs quoted in the article above might be out of date, or even for the wrong game.

("Some certainty" means "The specs I'm looking at say so", not "This is an official Feral press release")

[alldaveallen]

Jan, on January 8th 2009, 06:15 AM, said:

For all you Strategy nerds out there: It doesn't get any better than this. Enjoy.

I'm not familiar with this game, and the screenshots I've been able to find, while certainly visually appealing, aren't exactly illuminating, so I'll ask: Is it a turn-based game or an RTS? It looks to my ignorant eye as if there are some elements of both to it.

[dojoboy]

Feral came out with an updated statement on system requirements:

Quote

Minimum system requirements call for a 1.8GHz Intel Mac only, 512MB RAM, 128MB graphics card, DVD drive, 3.5 GB of hard disk space and Mac OS X v10.4 or later. The game DOES support Intel GMA processors. (Intel Mac Minis and MacBooks).

[dojoboy]

alldaveallen, on January 9th 2009, 12:25 PM, said:

I'm not familiar with this game, and the screenshots I've been able to find, while certainly visually appealing, aren't exactly illuminating, so I'll ask: Is it a turn-based game or an RTS? It looks to my ignorant eye as if there are some elements of both to it.

Both. Battles are real-time.

[alldaveallen]

dojoboy, on January 9th 2009, 09:36 AM, said:

Both. Battles are real-time.

Thanks! After a little more research I see that the Strategic Management aspect is of the turn-based variety, a la "Risk" or "Hearts of Iron," and then once your troops are in battle, it's played out in real-time. So then here's my last question: Once the battles start, do you have real-time control over the troops, or is it more like "HOMM" where you watch it happen in real-time and just hope that statistics are on your side?

I ask because if you actually get to control your troops, it sounds like a perfect game to me. If not, then it'll still go on my wish list, but maybe not right at the top.

[Pegasus]

You get full control of your troops, plus if you need to take a breather and rethink your strategy you can pause the game mid-battle to change tactics and issue new commands. A feature that was sorely missing in the similarly-styled game Imperial Glory - you can pause the game there, but not issue any commands; kind of dumb.

[alldaveallen]

Pegasus, on January 9th 2009, 10:12 AM, said:

You get full control of your troops, plus if you need to take a breather and rethink your strategy you can pause the game mid-battle to change tactics and issue new commands. A feature that was sorely missing in the similarly-styled game Imperial Glory - you can pause the game there, but not issue any commands; kind of dumb.

Delightful! Sounds like a winner.

[Felix Saturnus]

I've played Rome Total War via Boot Camp, and it's one of the best games of all time.

There are two parts to the game: First is a turn based portion played out on a map of Europe. Here you move your armies around, manage your cities (build barracks, raise troops, etc.). Also you manage your generals (who are all members of an extended family and have various abilities and failings).

Second is a real time battle portion. When your armies on the strategic map run into an opposing army, at the end of the strategy turn the view switches to a real time battle. You can set up your initial deployment, then hit Start Battle and it's go time, baby. Some here have mentioned that you can pause this battle and issue commands. That's true, but I found I enjoyed the battles ten or a hundred times more if I allowed time to march on. This forced me more into what felt like more what a real general would have felt and thought. Also if you keep your battle plans simple, you can control a pretty big army without panicing. For 80% of my non-siege battles I line up my infantry in the middle with any archers behind, then split my cavalry on one or both flanks. Then start the battle, and when Mars, the god of war, sends me the impluse, I run my cavalry behind the opponent and rip them to shreds. Of course there is always something (forests, unexpected enemy reinforcements, collapse of the middle of the line, etc.) to add some spice to the occasion.

Highly recommended. RTW has received a great deal of acclaim on the Windows gaming side.

[morback]

Wow, I'm impressed.
This is the best strategy game I've ever played. Never liked the "important people" thing though.
The battles are phenomenal, especially sieges and ambushes, but never let the computer deal with the battles. Even highly outnumbered you can win where the computer will not.

[DaveyJJ]

morback, on January 10th 2009, 09:26 PM, said:

Wow, I'm impressed.
This is the best strategy game I've ever played. Never liked the "important people" thing though.
The battles are phenomenal, especially sieges and ambushes, but never let the computer deal with the battles. Even highly outnumbered you can win where the computer will not.

Yes you can. Proper tactics help. I've managed some interesting wins in battle, although very recently I lost a battle against Carthage that I should have won simply because I didn't adjust what I was doing. Oops. Senate wasn't happy with me. Thrashed them (Carthaginians, not the Senators) in a later encounter though.

I actually like the important people/family stuff. Adds an extra bit of management, but not too much, with a nice historic flavour to it. Without worrying that your brother is actually going to stab you to death in your mother's arms (i.e, Caracalla and Geta).