Previews from WorthPlaying and Bovine

[silhouette]

OK, what can we learn from these new previews.
WorthPlaying preview : mostly things we knew, but good screenshots
the Bovine Conspiracy preview : In my opinion not great writing and rather fanboyish, but some nice info

• from the WorthPlaying screenshots, we can see Awakening and Load Pretender God on the new god creation menu window
• the Design Dominion window has nice new details showing the effects of your selection
• on the first screenshot in the second set, does it show that you can see the battle orders script as you create it? If so, thank you, nice to avoid the "I forget, did I cast Body Etherial or Resist Magic already in this script? Drat, *cancel*, *start over*, ..."
• the Bovine suggests you can get used to Kim Chi (I'm not convinced)
• the main menu has "Game Tools" (leading probably to Create a New God, the Map Editor, and I guess the new Random Map tool ?)
• the screenshot with Physical Forms shows some really nice detail in the new pretender graphics
• you can get a T'ien Ch'i leader named "Fu-xing"? Beavis will love it.
• Derrick at Bovine says "Also nice is that you now have the option to create multiple pretenders for each race, instead of getting limited to one per race." Yay, yay, yay.
• also from Derrick, some fort info we wanted "you no longer get to choose your fortress. ... the specific type is now limited to the map and territory you build it in." And the nation according to info elsewhere.
• the Awakening screenshot shows the options and design points, but not the times. Anyone want to take a guess? Dormant = 1 year for 150 points and Imprisoned = 2 years for 300 points?
• "it'll actually tell you what bonuses you get with various magic and dominion levels" -- does that refer to bless effects, or pretender/prophet dominion effects or both?
• Warrior of the Five Elements look nifty
• no new diplomatic or alliance options? :-(

Some of the new graphics we have seen from before seem very 2-dimensional to me. I think my impression is probably from the shading and shadows, since the level of detail seems good. For example, the angelic figure leading the Arco hoplites in the "pillar of fire" screenshot, the chilled giant Ermorian? attacking in the midst of the Jotunheim giants in the "burning" screenshot on WorthPlaying, and the ape archers in the "bandar" shot. Lack of contrast in the color/intensity maybe?

Also, has nobody asked why all the new menu windows have 2 little images of Gandalf in the top corners ? Well ?

Sill