Re: Gameplay Videos
Throb was based on Attila, so it was easy to implement the same animations. On the contrary, Three Kingdoms is closer to Warhammer, so adding new animations was probably deemed to costly. To be honest, animations always left me rather uninterested, while, in Rome II, were responsible for ruining the tactical aspect of the battles, so I'm not going to complain. Aesthetics are not a priority for me, in general, so the boring unit cards or the red/green banners do not worry me much. On the other hand, the duels look comically cheesy, so I sincerely hope that the historical mode is ready on launch (its prolonged absence seems very suspicious) and completely removes that aspect totally alien to Total War philosophy. In what concerns my impressions, I really liked the Guanxi system, whose feudal undertones I find much more realistic than the "undercover MI6 agent" spy mechanics. They are not perfect (Liu Bei accumulating "unity", in an obvious imitation of unique Warhammer resources, looked quite absurd), but they are a crucial step towards the right direction. Unfortunately, the post-Empire backwardness persists (limited building slots, disappearance of in-depth economy and distance-to-capital mechanic, downgrade of the trait system to RPG leveling etc.), while the unit size is unacceptably small. Meanwhile, with my average laptop, I'm perfectly capable of fighting Napoleonic battles with more than 4.000 soldiers on each side.
Originally Posted by
Anna_Gein
I do not remember so. I remember Legend of Total War was the only one who spoke about missing features. Which is why his review appeared everywhere.
There is no doubt that the relationship between Creative Assembly and amateur YOUTUBE reviewers is not equal. The latter are dependent on the former, in order to produce unique content that can attract more subscribers. Moreover, we should always remember that these videos are subject to censorship, because they firstly need to be approved by the company's marketing department, before they become available to the public. Legend was blacklisted, who was indeed the first to underline Throb's most glaring issues, mainly because the employee who gave him the green light hadn't actually checked his video. Personally, I am more frustrated with the embargo against Darren, to whom they initially promised to give access to demos, before they reneged on the deal, despite Darren returning a copy of Warhammer II he had accidentally received. I'm not claiming that the reviews are dishonest or absolutely misleading, but many of them are positively predisposed to the games they evaluate.