I thought I was being a smart consumer by waiting until game developers produced a second patch (or a comprehensive first patch) before buying games but sadly, I’ve been outsmarted by devious game developers.

It shouldn’t be surprising to learn the latest game in Creative Assembly’s Total War series, Rome: Total War, is buggy. It shouldn’t even be surprising it’s buggy after two patches. What is surprising is the developers have no intention of producing another patch because the publisher refuses to pay for the QA required for it. The developers even go so far as to suggest that “non-constructive” requests by gamers for another patch might damage the Total War series.

But wait, it gets even more ludicrous.

There’s going to be an expansion produced for the game and it will apparently include fixes for the original game. So, instead of getting a free third patch, gamers will have to pay for the expansion to get fixes for the original game.

This does not sit well with me.

There’s a petition protesting CA’s various boneheaded moves with 1200-plus signatures thus far (including my own). It may not accomplish much but CA deserve some sort of PR black eye for indulging in this kind of customer-screwing.

(Link obtained from the Qt3 forums.)

I got Rome: Total War last week and thought I’d give my initial impressions of the game in an easy-to-digest Q&A format.

Title?
Rome: Total War.

Not to be confused with …?
Paris: Total Whore.

Box contents?
3 CD-ROMs, an adequate manual and a map with the Roman tech tree on the flip side.

Hard disk space required?
The game folder is about 2.3GB and savegames are pretty small. My early campaign savegames have taken up less than 2MB each.

Is it hard to get into?
It’s certainly a complex game but there’s a good tutorial campaign for those new to the Total War series and there are plenty of context-sensitive tips provided during the actual campaign itself.

Does it require a knowledge of classical Latin?
No, it turns out everyone in Rome speaks English — sometimes with a posh accent — although like some folks today, the ancients would occasionally spout a Latin phrase in a pretentious fashion.

Is it an improvement over Medieval: Total War?
Oh my, yes. It appears Creative Assembly have managed to address all my M:TW complaints. The endgame should be much easier to manage.

How’s the AI?
I’m still in the early phases of my campaign but I haven’t been impressed with the tactical AI at all. Unless vastly overmatched (or supremely incompetent), you should have no trouble beating the computer opponent. However, the AI is decent enough on the strategic level and will wear your forces down by attrition if you’re not particularly careful.

Worth it?
Yes. This is an epic game.