Total War Rome II - Better with Kinect

[Ebenezer Grymm]

I don't understand the hate some people are showing for a possible (and very likely) console port. There's no reason this game shouldn't work on consoles, and really no reason why it shouldn't work EVEN BETTER on consoles. The optimization for the new generation of console hardware should lead to a great experience. But the control schemes on top of that should make it so much better. Comfy couch gaming. Think about how the new Kinect could integrate into this. Voice recognition. "TRIARII!" would select all your Triarii units. Point at the screen to show them where to go and say "CHARGE!" Point to the unit cards, which are nice and big to make pointing at them accurately easier, select the ones you want and say "Group". Now they're grouped. I know there's so many PC elitists here and I've been one of them for a long time, but I'm not blind to the advantages of consoles, especially this new batch coming. I firmly believe the Total War experience on Xbox One would be much better than it has ever been on PC.

[Mixxer5]

Problem isn't a fact (or possibility) that game is going to be released for xbox or ps. Problem is that currently UI seems too much like it was created specifically for these devices, while PC has been neglected. Seriously- if someone wishes to port Heroes of Might and Magic to gamecube- no problem, it's totally fine. But in this case we have game too "consolized" to be happy with eventual porting.

[Magnum_Opus]

http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/127/bd0...ous-f28644.jpg

[a tw player]

Well one key reason is that PCs are vastly superior to consoles, at the very least in terms of processing power etc. While the gap may not be too large right now, what about say 3 years down the line? The consoles won't have improved, while computers will be much more powerful in that short space of time. This inevitably shall hold back iterations of the series and lead to the series not advancing as fast as it could do/stagnating.Could the next gen consoles control a 20v20 battle with reasonable performance and good graphics? I'm not sure.Controls will be very difficult on a console. Adapting the series will lead to that typical phrase of "dumbing down" the game in order to accommodate. In a theoretical world, I would have no complaints if there was a separate TW:Console department that took away no resources from the PC team and did not alter the design pathway for that side at all. It's unlikely to happen though, and the PC series would inevitably be compromised.

[Snizel]

If Total War becomes a cross-platform game, it will be Total War no more. This iteration has already been dumbed down and a consolised Total War will be dumbed down and streamlined even further. I don't (and won't) own consoles so it would be the end of Total War for me.

I hope one day Paradox Interactive make a Total War type game. They would at least know what they're doing and they're their own publisher so they have full control over their games.

[baldrick13]

well it would give me an excuse to shout WARDOGS!!!!!!!!! (seriously the voice actor for that guy should get a medal).

[sgthunter]

I still don't get how people can play FPS games on consoles... and now you tell me they will try to play RTS games as well!!!!! I sure hope the OP is a classic troll xD

[Kinjo]

The total war series would not only be scaled down, but it would be dumbed down. The series needs to stay pure and uncorrupted from head console devs.

[Kenios]

Why not? The idea sounds quite interesting. The player can do a certain motion through Kinect to signal his cavalry to flank the enemy, or to bring the reserves up. Isn't that how field commanders in the ancient world relay their commands to units? At this point, I am reminded of how the famed strategist Zhuge Liang (about 200AD in China) was often portrayed with a feathered fan, which he would wave to signal commands to his army. As long as CA properly makes a UI that works in a console, Total War is certainly playable on the console. Many years back, many first person shooter players expressed skepticism that FPS would work well on the console. The common argument was that keyboard + mouse allows for much better control. However, developers today have proven FPS can indeed be very playable on the console.

[Ebenezer Grymm]

The Xbox One and PS4 can easily run Rome 2 at the highest graphical settings and probably better than most PCs right now because of the advantage of being able to optimize performance for those consoles rather than the infinite amount of possible PC configurations.

What I really don't understand here is why people think Total War has to be "dumbed down" for consoles. Any streamlining that took place in Rome 2 is because that's just how modernization works. Not everything has to become more complicated with each iteration. Again, there is a difference between streamlining and "dumbing down".

I'm also not sure why someone commented on FPS games. We're talking about Rome, not FPS games. Rome and the Total War series are PERFECT to show off Kinect. You literally wouldn't even need a controller. There is no twitch type gameplay in Total War, and never has been, that would require a controller. With Kinect you can simply use a combination of voice commands and simple gestures to easily control the game. "Pinch to zoom" style of camera control and placing your armies, what is essentially "touch" like it would be on a tablet to select (obviously with Kinect you don't have to touch your TV, just point). There's no downsides here at all. It would be an amazing experience.

Again, there's no physical controller even necessary for Total War. Think about that.

[sgthunter]

You do realize that the Kinect technology is ? You are going to rage so much when it doesn't do what you want... in fact I now don't mind this because I would get loads of entertainment from youtube watching people go mental.

[Ebenezer Grymm]

Also, I've been talking about the battles but think about the campaign map. Total War has always used pawns to represent your armies/agents. As if it were a sort of board game. You could easily select and move those accurately using Kinect and it would even make the campaign map a more visceral experience as you get the feeling of actually moving your pieces.

[GussieFinkNottle]

Consoles are lower spec than pacs are and always will be, and much simplified due to hand-held controllers. There is no way they are up to the complexity, dexterity, authenticity and clarity demanded by total war games, despite any 'streamlining' post M2TW

[Ebenezer Grymm]

Consoles are lower spec than pacs are and always will be, and much simplified due to hand-held controllers. There is no way they are up to the complexity, dexterity, authenticity and clarity demanded by total war games, despite any 'streamlining' post M2TW

What "dexterity"? We're talking about Total War here, not Starcraft.

As far as specs go, have you paid any attention at all to the specs of the Xbox One and PS4? They are more than capable of running R2TW on extreme settings.

Like I said originally I've been primarily a PC gamer all of my life, starting with Kings Quest games on my Tandy. But I'm not so close minded as to discount what technology and innovations like the Kinect can do and bring to a series like this. There are no downside to it, only positives.

[Anderssons91]

I don't understand the hate some people are showing for a possible (and very likely) console port. There's no reason this game shouldn't work on consoles, and really no reason why it shouldn't work EVEN BETTER on consoles. The optimization for the new generation of console hardware should lead to a great experience. But the control schemes on top of that should make it so much better. Comfy couch gaming. Think about how the new Kinect could integrate into this. Voice recognition. "TRIARII!" would select all your Triarii units. Point at the screen to show them where to go and say "CHARGE!" Point to the unit cards, which are nice and big to make pointing at them accurately easier, select the ones you want and say "Group". Now they're grouped. I know there's so many PC elitists here and I've been one of them for a long time, but I'm not blind to the advantages of consoles, especially this new batch coming. I firmly believe the Total War experience on Xbox One would be much better than it has ever been on PC.

I don't agree with you, kinect, in the way you explain it would just not fit. Just think of how many units you have to command and how exhausted you will be after yelling "Triarii number 37, attack spartan hoplite number 35" or similar surely 100s of times in bigger battles and then still, without yelling, point with your arm nonstop for 15 minutes and i promise you that the arm will feel like jelly.
No, i think its to much micromanagement in Total war games to make it comfortable playing with a Controller, or with "moves" and voice commands. Total war is a typical PC game which runs best on and is best played on PC.
But generally, i like when games are ported and optimized for multiplatforms.

[Shamshir]

Any sane console gamer would rather enjoy his game without having to chat with it. It would be awkward sitting there on your couch and talking to Kinect. I've always wondered about the practicality of this useless brick!

[kikokyle]

If you can get it to more people, the larger console > PC crowd because of the PC's cost, then why not. More people can enjoy the game that way.
However, they'd have to find a way to make all the controls work, and I'd see that very hard without a keyboard and mouse.

Edit: to add, I'd think you'd still select units and attack units and such with the stick on the controller, just like a mouse, rather than selecting them with your voice and pointing. But if you wanted to select multiple units, you could hold down Y or something OR you could then say "Select all" and then click a Triarii, which in turn would select all your Triarii. I would love this.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

"TRIARII!" would select all your Triarii units.

The inherent Problem with that is that most console players neither know what Triarii are nor know how to pronounce the word.

I'm sure they'll wait for ETW2 and just call everything 'shoot-thingie' before finally porting to consoles.

[Crazy Hermit]

Have you ever played any RTS games on a console? The controls just don't ever feel right. I'm certainly a fan of consoles, but if there is one genre of games I've never seen done right on a console it's an RTS.

[Gaius Marius Maximus]

no way! -_-