Let's not beat around the bush here. Total War: Rome 2 looks fantastic at this point. Be it the world map, the cities, the real-time combat or this recently revealed footage of the naval combat - embedded above for your leisure.

It seems they've gotten it a lot better this time now too. Empire's naval combat was too complex and slow, and though Shogun 2 simplified it, it was still slow and just felt boring most of the time. It all really came down to either who had the biggest ships, or who was the best at exploiting the AI. Creative Assembly seem to understand this, as they have promised that Rome 2's ship to ship combat will be much more fast paced, and have more options than in Shogun 2 - without making it overly complicated.

"Naval battles work much more like land battles than ever before. Smaller, faster-moving ships are capable of outflanking larger, slower ships, in a manner similar to the cavalry/infantry dynamic."

That sounds good to me! And if you watch the video for yourself, you'll likely agree. It looks epic, in every sense of the word.