I'll be pre-ordering as soon as it's possible. I never expected to see another AoW game, but here we are. Great news. Here's some info they've released so far (what appears to be actual in-game footage shows up at about the 1:10 mark in the video, be sure to wait for it):
Some thoughts based on what they've said so far: I'm looking forward to seeing how the leader classes play out, and playing anything other than a wizard (for while at least) next time around. There were what, fifteen playable races in AoW: Shadow Magic? I wonder how many races they'll have in the base game for AoW3. I'm very happy to see their plans to offer tools for user created content, and a random map generator right off the bat. Had to wait till SM before the RMG was available last time. The very brief snippets of gameplay footage at the end of the announcement video look awwweeeesoooome. I really like how they've apparently managed to maintain the classic look of the game (love the damn mountains so much), while still bringing everything up to date with a 3d engine. Glorious.
Eurogamer has an article up about the game (link). Half the article is just the author speculating about who's funding the project, but there's also a dozen or so screenshots and some concept art at the bottom of the page (some of which can be seen on the official site too). The author is guessing that Epic Games is partnering up with Triumph for this project, but there's no official word yet.
I'm buying the hell out of this game. If it has LAN play, I'm forcing my boys to buy it, too, with their own hard-earned money. They owe me.
Yay! Really looking forward to it, as I absolutely loathe the Heroes of Might and Magic combat and the AoWs were the only noteworthy fantasy-TBSs not being a clone of that in the last decade and a half. My biggest hope: A combat system/strategy layer where a single military defeat is not the end of the world. By which I mean it doesn't all hinge on your stack of doom beating their stack of doom.
Yes, this announcement made me find my old AoW: Shadow Magic CD and install the game. Or would I be better off going for Eador instead? I'm in the mood for some turn-based action right now.
You can't go wrong with either, but I encourage you to try Eador if you've not already, it's awesome.
I'd install Eador first. AoW:SM is awesome and all, but speaking for myself I'd have to say that everything ends up too tiny on modern monitors (sprites, words, UI elements etc), unless you play at non-native resolutions (which introduce their own problems). I still play SM once in a while, but it's not an ideal experience at this point.
Tears of joy, or sadness? Hopefully it is going to have a full-fledged 4x mode, though that would take a lot more time to implement.
Bah, AoW: Shadow Magic still requires the disc to be in to play. That's way too much to ask of my lazy self. Eador it is! (Also the thing about resolution is a good point -- I remember things looking a mite tiny the last time I installed it a few years back.)
Demon, Age of Wonders 1 and Shadow Magic are exceptional games. Shadow Magic is still the closest we've come to a successor for Master of Magic. If you enjoy turn-based fantasy strategy games, you need to play these.
I do enjoy myself some TBS, and I do enjoy some Fantasy. How have they held up? I have also never played Master of Magic. The screenshots/trailers make this new AoW look something of a bastardization of Civilization and LotR BFME2.
OMFGIH GO PLAY MASTER OF MAGIC RIGHT NOW. http://www.gog.com/gamecard/master_of_magic Graphically it's damned dated, but it's still one of the pinnacles of the genre in terms of gameplay. I still return to MoM and AoW:SM regularly, graphics and all.
Warning: severe nostalgia glasses apply to anyone that still plays MoM. I never played MoM when it first came out, and I tried it out for a bit recently and I found it to be neat but not the masterpiece that people make it out to be. Still worth trying out to see if you like it, but don't let everyone who played it back in the 1700s oversell it and raise your expectations.
Brian Rubin, ladies and gentlemen. For whom rose-colored glasses are not necessary, because he has rose-colored corneas.
I played the AoW games last year for the first time and Shadow Magic holds up pretty well. MoM doesn't, maybe for you since you've played the game so much previously but no, I've tried and I'm not touching that UI with a stick.
I still go back to AoW1 even, its campaign was fantastic. And I prefer its graphics to those in AoW2/AoW:SM. Though the sequels do have the better mechanics. Anyway, someone travel to Autumn of this year and bring us back the game please. I NEED IT RIGHT NOW.
There did seem to be a thing with games of this genre where as the series went on the graphics got shitter.
Could this be explained by the transition from (often lovely) hand-drawn 2D to, uh, not-so-lovely early 3D? The first example to pop into my mind is Kohan -> Kohan 2, but I'm sure we could come up with many more (Heroes 3 -> later Heroes games, perhaps).
Promising! Somebody ask about the size of tactical maps...I don't feel like making a new account over there.
