Well, I have the new Demo can say that it is VERY good. I don't know if its great yet, as I'm not sure if the changes that were made are necessarily bad, or just different and I'm not used to them yet. I can say that the game plays a lot faster (not something I usually like in simulations) but it may just be more realistic that way.
The graphics are a true victory of coding, also. I don't have a serious machine. It has a 2.4 Pentium, 512 of Ram and a 256 ATI card. I first tried the game on the medium setting for everything. It looked pretty good but a little messy due to there being no anti-aliasing . The game ran perfectly. So next I cranked up EVERYTHING to the top spot, and guess what? It still runs without a hitch and is positively stunning. Considering the level of detail on each individual unit and the fact that there are literally THOUSANDS of them on the screen at any time, this is a borderline miracle of design.
There is one thing I can say with definity: War Elepants RULE. Seeing them tear into the lines of the enemy and seeing them fly into the air is something to behold. The part that both angered me and amazed me was that when my elephant riders were killed, the elephants didn't just flee backwards and start killing my own troops and then eventually gather themselves... THEY RAN AMOK... there literally is a little icon over your unit that TELLS you they've run amok. That basically means that they are going to run around and kill ANYTHING THEY SEE. Soo damn cool.
Professor S 
Rome: Total War Impressions
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