Slow Learners: Disciples III

A few kindly readers have mailed me about this strategy-RPG, having noted my mildly terrifying obsession with King's Bounty earlier this year. I've never dabbled with the Disciples games before, but certainly this Russian fantasy hybrid appeals to my unrepentantly nerdier instincts.

Unlike KB's cheerfully low-fi Warcraftian look, this seems pretty hung up on spectacle. KB was really a 2D sheep in 3D wolf's clothing, but this one's definitely making a virtue of that third dimension, and then slathering it with moody gloom. What this trailer seems to lack is the charm and cheer that made KB such a rare delight, but it's entirely possibly the six shiny minutes of footage beneath the cut are solely trying to dazzle us with pixel power, and the brainier best is yet to come.

The music's a bit much, but it looks agreeably fiddly and epic. Hopefully it has character as well as complexity. It's enough to make me want to dig up Disciples II, anyway. God knows there're enough 2008 games I've yet to play, but I definitely want something KB-esque to lose myself in over Chrimbo.

More details here. Thanks to João and Nelson for the tips.