The graphics in many instance just look bad. The desert maps are just empty looking and devoid of character. The units on desert maps are extremely bad at standing out from the background. Tanks covered in dirt are just bland. The whole desert enviroment just makes for very drab and boring battles. It just looks horrendous.
I want to elaborate on "New Relic's" never-ending mediocrity and why is this happening.
First, the question is this;
Will AoE + CoH mediocrity be enough to save "New Relic"?
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Many studios, died making fewer mistakes than Relic/Sega.
By spreading focus + talent between AoE4, DoW3, and CoH IP, Relic excels at nothing.
Sega is partly responsible for this as they were not ready to invest in CoH3 developments after the CoH2 life cycle.
This can be confirmed using LinkedIn sources; so many CoH2 talent/leads either left or joined the AoE4 team.
Along with this fact;
According to LinkedIn, the turnover rate in the games is around 15.5 percent, higher than any other tech sector
For comparison (former Relic IP) to help demonstrate "New Relic" ongoing talent bleed;
Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak (low budget RTS from BBI)
These desert maps from BBI studio look aesthetically better than CoH3. Since a large portion of CoH3 marketing is focused on desert maps, mediocrity is not good enough.
Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak is made by Blackbird Interactive and run by Relic vets such as the CEO.
At release, BBI was only 50 devs and on a small RTS budget. Most of their budget went into single-player content. But for a Relic indie RTS its quality was good compared to the money invested.
"New Relic" studio leadership also took a big gamble by growing the studio too quickly.
By attracting new investments, it's easy to spend more money and hire more devs.
But it's not easy to do layoffs because Sega/Relic leaders made catastrophic mistakes.
With the CoH2 release, Relic was only 110 devs and growing a brand new team for DoW3.
Now with CoH3, the studio has over 300 devs and too many mouths to feed.
In its current state, this studio is financially doomed to fail.
Old Relic and old Blizzard mindset were focused on excellence. Relic had this mindset up to CoH1 at least. In comparison to Blizzard Starcraft IP, old Relic was on a tight RTS budget with games such as Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2.
With THQ/Relic, they took a big budget gamble with CoH1 and won.
My advice from a fan perspective?
At the very least make Relic work to get your money. Don't blindly buy CoH3 at full price and expect that money will go into making great games. That's not how consumers get better value for their money.
As a consumer, our wallet is our only real voting power within these big corporations.
Keep bailing out the losers that make bad investments/decisions and this cycle will continue.
Many corporations have died because they grew too quickly.
These are economic realities Relic can’t escape from.
For recent proof of this, former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey who openly admits to this financial suicide;
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey apologises to employees amidst layoffs;
https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/twitter-founder-jack-dorsey-apologises-to-employees-amidst-layoffs-122110501395_1.html
I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation:-Quote Jack Dorsey
I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that," he tweeted.