We live in a time where even a new Total War game gets a live-action trailer, complete with sexy bits (the ring-kissing is not a sexy bit), stabbings and sexy stabbings.
Because nothing says “command tens of thousands of men on the field of battle in a game of epic strategy” like seeing an old man cough up mushroom soup after being stabbed in his bed!
Seems to me like they're trying to capture the feel of "Rome" and Roman culture at that point in the Empire.
And they've done a pretty good job of it, too.
I think theres too many pointless articles after 5pm on Kotaku, but you don't hear me complaining...
No, there's a very good, strong, legitimate point to be made here- these sorts of backstabbing intrigues and palace coups had very little to do with the massed action of men and epic battles by their very nature. This is intrinsically diametrically opposite to the sorts of things this game is about: the action depicted here describes the manoeuvres by people who were unable to win prestige or position through battlefield conquests so this was their only option... Which in the context of an ad for a battlefield strategy game makes this quite an interesting little joke.
I'm guessing it's referring to the assassination/seduction type agents. In which case I hope this means they are bringing back those hilarious success/fail animated videos. I'm probably just being hopeful though.
Just bring back multiplayer bot bashing in custom games. No idea why they didn't allow that in shogun 2.
To me, the battlefield was the battlemap as you'd spend most of your time there and auto fight can help you skip those annoying battles you knew you'd win. Assassination agents were a huge part of every total war game i played as they'd take out high star generals long before they even got close to my armies. Political back stabbing could be a turning point if you executed them at the right time and rebel generals were always a big pain the in ass. I think maybe because of the popularity of the Game of Thrones TV series they might have made the decision to focus on the person to person interactions over the mass battles but to me I think this still captures the essence of the game or at least how I play it.
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I agree with the Live Action trailers, especially when they're not particularly well done. They just come off as cheap and nasty, with that really narrow field of view shot they use in documentaries to maximise the few extras they have. With great shows like Game of Thrones and Band of Brothers these days, these live action trailers have sub-TV production values. Would be better just to cut the expense and use it to hire artists and animators to produce a good CGI trailer.
I tend to dislike live action trailers as they generally tell you almost nothing about the game and at best manage to look cheesy.
Though they probably went with live action because it's still to early to release any actually information about the game. It's better then a count down clock to an announcement of the date of the teaser.
Both live action and dubstep need to take a break from gaming................forever actually wouldnt be bad in fact.
I reckon it works pretty well in this case. It's evocative and thematic and stays on point. I do agree that it doesn't really match what I know about the the total war series.