Quote Originally Posted by TinCow View Post
I suppose I assumed that the Metacritic-focused-development bit discussed in the article was implemented after NTW but before TWS2, with implications then about how TWS2 was such a significant improvement. However, that really was an unfounded assumption.
I am not sure about that. NTW was quite a polished product, certainly in comparison to ETW. The battle AI was pretty good and the campaign AI gave me a good dance. It was also rather pared down in features and scope compared to the absurdly ambitious ETW. In many ways I think it shares some of the virtues of STW2. Now, if you are talking about the Metacritic focused developmend applying to ETW and earlier, I would agree it would be more questionable.

Strangely, I find I have clocked up vastly more hours on the ambitious but buggy ETW than the more restricted but polished NTW and STW2. ETW, like RTW and MTW2, just has that amazing scale and freedom. It has also been patched to be quite servicable now.