Announcement here. The only potential upside I'm seeing is that the project is being run by fans of Medieval II, and even then I can't verify that they're not the "I've always loved Medieval II but it's racist and sexist" type of "fans".
The last Total War game I played was Napoleon so it's been a long time since I've kept up with CA, but frankly they were doing a lot of anti-consumer shit even back in 09/10. Since then they've gone woke with Rome 2 (the bullshit surrounding female generals) and they've fucked over historical fans with the Warhammer series (I have no opinion on Warhammer itself, I'm just opposed to it being in a historical franchise). I'm skeptical that this will even be worth pirating.
They'll fuck up Medieval III by not actually making it, or if it comes out then not putting in much effort.
CA is basically the Total War: Warhammer company now. It's been 10 years and it's their only significantly profitable title. Everything else barely breaks even or loses money. Maybe 3K was profitable but probably not. Their non-TW projects also were disastrous.
I think the next decade of CA's focus is going to be doing the same. Total Warhammer 40k + DLCs. They need a new cash cow after 10 years of milking TW:W. So now they're pivoting, and no other projects matter including Medieval III. So if it comes out, it will have the B-team.
That said, Total War Warhammer is a fantastic game. Huge variety, big map, fun gameplay, totally on theme. Yeah there's some shit that gets exploitable after 1000 hours but that's just CA. I'd suggest picking it up on a sale and giving it a spin. I'm also on a hair trigger for Woke shit, and there's basically none of that. The sales model is kind of shitty, but it feels hard to blame them when it's the only reason the studio is still open.
My first thought reading this was that we decided to fight the rest of the Iran War with swords and crossbows.
Sorry, I don't have any post- 2010 video games.
shogun 2 was the last good one for me
Wasn't that the game that came right after Napoleon in 11/12? I never played it but I've heard good things about it. I'm guessing the series went to shit a couple years later but I didn't really keep up with it after Napoleon.
I could talk at length about this topic and i want to but i'm too lazy to type so here're a buncha facts i was thinking of when comparing total wars i've played.
Shogun 2 is the last good one because it's just on the brink of falling into the modern gaming development problems. Everything in the game is pretty much either great or good enough. Some systems are barebones but they're not that important to the overall game feel, strategic map is good because it's just the right size to finish the game before you get tired of it, tactical combat is fun because the ai is retarded in sieges and pretty rough in the open fields. The unit selection is probably the best in the entire series because you have just the right amount of fodder, go-to guys and end game units without it devolving into having a thousand units that all do the same thing like in the later titles. The dlcs are either okay or very good (fall of the samurai) and the visual and sound design are great too. Every other total war i've played afterward had some improvements but overall felt shallower when it came to combat or strategy. If you haven't played shogun 2 i highly recommend it.
CA even tried making naval combat in it. It's pretty bad and they dumped the idea in later titles lol