Shogun 2: Total War Wont Be Released Until AI Is Perfect

In an interview by Gameplanet, Craig Laylock, Community Manager for Creative Assembly says his boss, Mike Simpson, wants the AI in Shogun 2 to be perfect before releasing the game. He was in fact being mindful of the negative feedback he got from Empire: Total War. You can read what Mike Simpson thinks about Empire: Total War at release here. He got a lot of flak for writing that months after Empire: Total War was released. Anyway, the quote from the interview after the jump...

GP: Battle AI has been a thorn in the side of the Total War series since its inception. What improvements can players familiar with the series expect?

Craig: Mike Simpson, our creative director, has basically said 'this game is not going out the door until the AI is perfect'. AI really has been a bit of an issue for us in the past. But even Napoleon was better than Empire. I mean, one of our goals for Napoleon was to fix the issues we had in Empire, and I think to an extent we did that really well. But in terms of Shogun 2 we're not going to release it until it's perfect. There's the line-of-sight stuff we're introducing - basically, if any of our designers are playing the game and see something stupid, it's like everyone stops. Everyone gets around the PC to have a look at it, and see what can we do to fix it. We want to get it so there's nothing stupid happening in the game. We don't want to see stupid AI. It is a big thorn in our side, and it's something we've really had to work on. We're pretty confident about Shogun 2.

It's good to be confident. Not over confident, which was the overall feeling I got from Empire: Total War. While it's nice to see the studio head confirm his commitment to making a quality game, I'm not sure how much leeway he has in this. Considering the fact that Creative Assembly are owned by SEGA, I'm not sure what SEGA will think about delaying the game. Hey, their shareholders want a hit before the end of the fiscal year so their portfolio looks healthy. If you remember, even Empire was delayed three times and those certainly didn't help much. You can read the entire interview here.

In case you missed the battle report they released that featured gameplay of this one battle: