I've been playing ETW since it's release, and I have played every Total War game since Shogun(of which I would love to see a remake). Here are my thoughts on ETW.
First off, I'd like to address the bugs. While it is alot better now, there are still some major bugs. Many people, myself included, were experiencing graphical glitches and CTD issues. The CTD issues were extremely game breaking as they would often occur during the AI turn on the Grand Campaign, and would always CTD on that specific turn number, no matter how far back you went in your save files. The CTD issues seem to have largely been resolved, and I have finally been able to finish a couple of campaigns. Though some issues still exist, just recently I had a campaign rendered unplayable after 163 turns, this time though it doesn't CTD, rather the AI turn never ends. Nothing is happening but I can't control any of my units or end the turn. These kinds of game breaking issues can be quite frustrating.
That said, the naval battles are a nice addition to the series. Combine that with the gunpowder units, and you forced to change up your strategies from what you are used to in previous Total War games where melee was predominant. The campaign map is quite large with 3 main theatres(Europe, India and N. America) and various trade theatres. Overall, I think that most of the review sites are scoring this game way too high. I would honestly only recomend this game if you are a fan of the series, there are some cool additions, but the game still has some issues and it is missing some of the things I liked about previous Total War games, like the family tree, or dealing with the Papacy(M2TW) or the Senate(RTW), and missions, oh how I miss missions.
I still play it quite a bit, but occasionally I get frustrated and break out Rome: Total War, which is still my favourite to date.
Oh and I'm also a little bit annoyed that they want us to pay $3.50 for a few units in a DLC, something which should honestly be a free update to the folks that bought their game. They won't be getting my $3.50.