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But way, way cooler than the previous games. The cloud system gently circling the globe is subtle and pleasing, and in the RTS element, the old functional graphics have been vastly improved, to the point where a physics engine determines how exploded lumps of btiildinq will interact with the terrain. The graphics have undergone a change too, joining ns in the modern day. You'll have to discover and use it to be any good, of course, but it's designed to feel like a discovery rather than a tutorial mission chore. Much of the complexity of the previous games is there, but it's not forced down your throat.
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From these panels, you can access the deep underground vaults of options and settings. There's vital information at the top and a handful of buttons at the bottom, each opening up a modular set of menus. The overview map, from which the turn-based element of the game is conducted, is much like Google Earth. "The tendency is for the interface to grow and grow, but we wanted to make the screen a lot cleaner with EE3," admits Klaisner. So what have they done to improve the third Empire Earth?
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For every respectful doff to the strategy, there'd be a whimper alxxit information overload and micromanagement They were rewarding (james, but the reward was locked in a combination safe. For every compliment about the gameplay balance, there'd be a lament about the dated and samey graphics.
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While developing EE3, Mad Doc are bearing in mind the fact that previous acclaim has always been qualified and reserved. The first game (the only Empire Earth th.it wasn't developed by Mad Doc) divided human into 15 epochs, from scrap-happy cavemen to futuristic mech combat, and featured huge conflicts and fivepronged resource management that kept your attention split between pretty much everywhere. Everyone also agrees that they're not for part-timers or the tactically faint-hearted. The Empire Earth games, everyone agrees, are solid, epic strategy. They might be working on a game so ambitious in scope as to be daunting, but this is their fourth Empire-based release and they seem pretty confident. That's the overwhelming impression you get from meeting Mad Doc's lead designer Matthew Nordhaus and producer Maximilien X Klaisner.
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