Thinking of getting a new Total War game. I currently own the Total War Collectors Edition, which includes Rome and Medieval 1. Is Medieval 2 any good? Empire does look very fun indeed though.

i own Medieval 2 on Steam, it's a fun game, though I personally prefer Rome.
I haven't bought Empire yet, because i've heard really bad things about its terrible AI. Plus, apparently there are some bugs that haven't been fixed.

Mediaval 2 is Medieval crossed with Rome. From the 1fps demo I had of Empire, it seemed markedly different and frankly I think it'd be worth getting just so you control your naval battles

Depends on what part of history you think you'd be the most interested in playing through.
Medieval:TW + the expansion Kingdoms (which you MUST get) though is by far the most content-rich of the games.

Sounds like patch 1.3
I remember it killing the ai's brain. Making it fight to the death never give up.
Wheres the fun in being evil if you can't make the good guys give up and then tax them to death after many years.
Dam you paladins for ruining my evil fun!
Not sure about the latest patch for empire. I stop playing it sometime after patch 1.3 was out.

Medieval 2 of course. The cold steel Total Wars are always better. Get the Medieval 2 exppack Kingdoms, they add alot to the game.
I've conquered the whole world in Empire. It's fun enough, however most of the time, it's a gunfest between one whole line of units or trying to encircle them and shooting them inside one circle. Then having the ultra uber OP units the Grenadiers nade spam and kill off the whole bulk of them, 400 men killed from 1 unit of Grenadiers for me. The nade spam is fun to watch though. I wonder if they nerfed Grenadiers in a patch already. The naval battles are nice to watch at first, but I eventually auto resolve most of them.
Guess I always prefer seeing archers firing a volley of flaming arrows at the enemy and Cavarly charging into the enemy instead of Musketmen firing at each other. I like the diversity in Medieval 2, tonnes of units, campaigns and gameplay too. Not to mention you get musketmen and cannons in Medieval 2 as well.

Just screw both and get Rome, I still think it's the best one, even thou sieges aren't so spectacular

Well as I said, I already own Rome and Medieval. I'm just looking for something new to try. I like the Industrial age, but I've heard Empire has its fair share of problems, while Medieval 2 seems to have a lot more content. OTOH, I am worried that Medieval 2 is going to be too samey compared to the first game.

I loved Rome's "Forever" song that plays in the credits.

Oh right, sorry, didn't read the OP properly it would seem.

I FORGIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

get empire...
Yeah. Med2 from what i heard is pretty great but it ain't that much different from Med1
Empire is.
Afterward you can get med2.

After Shogun 2 they better make Rome 2.
Medieval 2 with Kingdoms by far. Kingdoms is the most content filled expansion I have ever seen. And Empires costs like 20$ more with the expansion. I only played Empires demo and it ran so slow on my geforce 8600 gt , I have 4 gigs of ram and a dual core. So it's not very nice.
But I suppose it all depends on the setting, if you like rome style, get medieval. You want something different, get Empire. Empire certainly looks pretty.

Instabuy if they remake Rome 2.
Personally, I would go with Medieval. It has a greater amount of unit variety and the AI isn't broken.
Empire is good fun in its own right, but it doesn't shine like the other games in the series.

Med2 was bad when it was released. But now with Kingdoms and the patches, it's a good game. It's mainly the best TW as Med2+Kdoms have the best mods: Third Age, Call of Warhammer, Stainless Steel, Deus lo Vult, Invasio Barbarorum II, ...
Empire is not a Total War game, it's a Steam game.