Well - I played the game for another couple of hours and i'm beginning to see the charm. I upgraded my podieum and thats addressed a lot of the problems, haven't bought any hunters yet but was pleasantly suprised to see them as an option as it means that there's gonna be a lot more variety and i'm used to the controls although it still baffles me beyond belief as to why they haven't added IR pointing for the targeting and then they could have beefed up the difficulty of the fights.

still i can see it's gonna be a good game if I stick with it for a little longer - dont know about game of the year though as i've completed overkill so many times and I jusat love that game and tiger woods this year looks very good also.

I've now played it for 15 hours, and most of the problems the OP has may happen early in the game, but are kinda fixed by the way the game evolves... you just have to be patient...

Which means: you have to select your best "soldiers" in what's called in french "La Garde Royale" (King's Elite Team?), and then, everyting runs smoothly, no need to worry about finding a specific character... make your selection each morning with a goal and a strategy in mind (do i need butchers? archers? etc), and then, no problem...

The saving process may be a little bit frustrating, i have to agree, but you may go back to the castle with a two buttons hit... and there are also some shortcuts made available later thanks to the canon, so everything's fast enough once you're further away in the game...

So sorry, dont want to be harsh, but just like the eurogamer reviewer, you tend to blame the game for all the things you didn't get, and your own poor skills with the game...

Once you're used to all the game mechanics, the strategy is to use each day to its fullest, and save at the end of the day once you've done your best... if you die in a mission or lose too many soldiers, well... try again! And boss battles do have a "continue?" till you win, so, no problem at all here...

The controls are awesome, everything runs smoothly, and it's all about strategy and planning... if you have no sense of strategy and no skills for planning, please, don't blame the game for it...

I admit it seems I jumped the gun a little with some of the points I listed but i'm sorry in my opinion the controls aren't awesome when pikmin new play showed how these games can be controlled as the IR pointing is perfect and so fast that for me it would have been a no brainer.

Controlling the camera angle and targeting at the same time in a boss battle is very clunky and could have been way better - still looks like it's going to be a good game though and i'm admitting i may have been wrong with my first impressions as the depth looks like it'll win through for me and make me put up with the controls and camera angles.

Once again, there's an issue here: "special formations" are available later in the game...

Just use the "escape formation" (all soldiers in a row), and then, no stairs problem... i agree with you, as i had the exact same thing, and was kinda frustrated with that... but once you get the option, buy it as fast as you can, and forget about the frustration...  :))

so now you say it is a good game but by writing the opener, you have turned away plenty of people from buying this game.

Well done.

Time to put a disclaimer in the opener...

It's a great game. Charming and addictive, but kinda really shallow. Like Animal Crossing, you'll either play it for hundreds of hours or be over it within 20 minutes.

The controls are fine apart from the targeting. IR would have been so much better.

True, some IR pointing would have been a good thing... i still have to try Pikmin 2 (i'll buy it next month), and i hope it will be excellent with such controls... but it's good the two games are way different, too...

The targeting, well... it's not perfect, i have to agree... but once again, with patience and strategy, this is not a problem, at all... unless you want to use your soldiers for some melee and hack'n'slash: then you're in for big troubles, that's for sure...  :))

But trust me: you get more and more options as the game evolves, so once you have all of these, 90% of the controls problems you may have just disappear... be patient, and you'll be rewarded... and will have a very good time with the game... or at least i hope so, based on my own experience...  :)

done... and I didn't say it's a good game, I said I can see it will be a good game and as i've already played 5 hours then it was a slow started for me as i'm still not sold on it, I can see the potential thats all as more options are opening up and it may not be as linear as i first suspected.

Still clunkly control wise though (so far).

*lowers sniper rifle...For Now...*

Thanks you very much. I just bought it and it works perfectly.

With the  "evade ennemy" , the problem of pathfinding is totally solved. They follow you without problems. So far, the main problem in the game has been solved after 4 hours of play.

The game seems really deep. Not only the world is big, but there are a lot to do. I have already unlocked a lot of quest to do in my own kingdom. So much I can"t decide what to do in first. Without to mention the others kingdoms ^_^