Welcome to Side Adventure!!! After a long absence we are back with new content and a new consistent upload schedule! We'll be uploading 2 videos every month which will alternate between "Deep Dives" (reviews, video essays and everything in between) and a Licensed Game Hell (we have fun playing games exclusively licensed from movies and TV shows).
Beforehand we've essentially be experimenting with content. Trying new things to see what works and what people react to. But now we feel like we've learned from our hits and misses and are ready to make a real stab at this channel. So thank you to those who have stayed with us so far and we look forward to welcoming many more viewers :)
Personally, i think Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai does what empire does better on the tactical level, but sadly without the grand scale. I’d really love to see a Victoria: Total War that goes from the early 18th century up through WW1 and is focused on technological progress, forcing the player to change tactics throughout the campaign as ranged warfare becomes more and more deadly and small scale maneuver-based tactics are replaced with attritional warfare. Basically, fighting the typical total war late game bloat by rendering old units increasingly obsolete. Your entire army needs to be restructured every time you acquire or encounter improved technology. At the beginning your lancers might be the terror of the battlefield, but by the end they are dying to machine gun fire. Your flintlock musket unit might be the best trained in the world, but it’s dying to conscripts with percussion cap rifles who can kill half the unit before they fire a shot. Your early game doomstack is totally irrelevant by the late game because all the fire drill in the world doesn’t matter when facing chlorine gas. That was what was so great about Fall of the Samurai. It’s true that half of the total war series is about drama. What is more dramatic than the French “Old Gaurd” unit you’ve been using as a garrison in a conquered land far away getting destroyed by rebels with modern pistols because you couldn’t maintain your sprawling empire?
The books are way better then any of the other media made for it tbh. I physically cannot get 20 minutes into the movie without having to stop cuz I’ll get a stroke from yelling at the screen for inaccuracy💀💀💀
We really need Empire 2. I just wish we could get full map, more provinces and, the most important part, Naval x Land battles. Naval Bombardment was really important in this era. It really should be represented.
Empire was my first Total War and my first real attempt at an RTS game back in 2013. I’ve played it and Medieval 2 for many hundreds of hours, and I can’t say which one is absolutely better, but I can say that when I think of those mid-2010 days, one of the sounds that pops up most often in my head was Empire’s menu theme. Such an undeservedly underrated gemstone. Rough around quite a few edges, but with brilliance few games can match.
There's something so epic feeling when you 1st see 1 of your infantry regiments fire a volley into the enemy line and you see those casualties drop then watch the reload with anticipation knowing a return volley is inbound. This game was also the 1st game in the line and volley style combat I ever played that had proper bayonet combat. Any other game I played before that the bayonets were purely decorative and nobody ever stabbed with it so this was so pleasing to see
Empire 2, Pike & Shot: Total war. STARTING Date, 1750, with a lot of interesting events and intrigue mechanics that actually affect the world stage.! 🎉
There was no HD remaster. It was just fixing it for modern systems and adding easier mod support. No remaster to my knowledge. Looks same it did 15 years ago. It's a great game longing for a sequel. Was hoping the publisher who bought the rights was working on the sequel but it's been years with no word. Remember playing this going on vacation on a laptop driving down I-95. Haha. The game: Nebulous Fleet Command on Steam is probably the closest successor game I've seen.
This is one of the best racers imho. I played it on the Gamecrube, but damn do I LOVE IT. I get the itch to play it here and there and I have to play it.
As someone who has never played a total war game or a RTS game in general and who wants to get into these types of games which one should I start with? I love medieval and feudal Japan style of armies. Imnjust looking to play something where i can see huge army's clash and feel like my time is well spent.
Honestly, I think the historical criticism doesn’t work. This is a very interesting era which is represented well. I’d say my biggest criticism would be fact that there are so few settlements for countries.
I remember 2 cases when my ETW gameplay became extremely economical: 1. My India invation as Prussia. India was united by Marathas by then and was really strong, stronger than anyone in Europe and even pushing in Persia, even up to Iraq. I have landed 2 full stacks which I really struggled to move further. But meanwhile my Kaiserliche Marine have destroyed he Indian fleet and started ravaging their ports non-stop. In several turns, Maratha was totally bankrupt. They even had a revolution at their capital which was suspended, but, as they were bunkrupt, the replanishment never came. After that, my armies just marched all through India like it was a parade -- no serious resistance was faced. So the glorious India fell despite having good western technologies, decent and big army and humongous territory -- they just couldn't protect their money. 2. My whole game as Netherlands, I had Austria as an ally and a trade partner. But as they lacked naval forces, thaeir ports have been raded many times -- and in those cases I started losing shitloads of money. So despite being absolutely uninterested in Central/Eastern Europe affairs (even shielded with long buffer state to avoid it), I had no choice but to get into those wars and protect the bloody austrian seaside. And when I was pissed off completely, I conquered the whole swedish clay and some lands in Baltics. Despite the situation being pretty anoying, it's also quite exciting and realistic: geting into war not just to paint the map on your color, but to protect your money.
Man this brought the feels back! Excellent work! I put thousands of hours into this series as a kid and my fav will always be the original N64 XG title (two was awful IMO, really let me down as a kid when I brought it home and popped in the cartridge, hadn't felt as burned since I did the same thing when I got Mario Bros 2 the day it came out!). XGRA seems to be really polarizing for people who play it. I personally really enjoy it but a lot of people hate it. I don't get that but to each their own and different strokes and all that. Anyway... Just letting you know I appreciate your take and upload!
As a fan of the series I loved this video, so informed and honest. I was thinking wich to get next Medieval 2 or Empire, now I'm gonna have to get both 😂
