Gladius - LucasArts Goes FF Tactics?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the GameSpy preview of LucasArts' Gladius, a PS2/GameCube/Xbox "epic tactical RPG that'll have you building an army of gladiators, one axe swing at a time." There's also a new Gladius preview at RPGamer giving a combat overview: ".. [it] takes place on a standard, tactical-RPG square grid, but the graphics do a good job of hiding it... combat is turn-based, but.. using certain attacks on a foe necessitates the use of several action/arcade elements, such as combo attacks strung together by timed button-presses." They also comment on the unexpected genre choice: "American-developed as it may be, Gladius is a tactical RPG that takes its cue from the old favorites, while at the same time trying to expand the genre." Might this title improve on LucasArts' recent efforts?

Comments

Look of Gladius?

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

"The look of Gladius, still some weeks from release, is impressive."

Is the writer at GameSpy making some type of veiled suggestion that, with only a few weeks to go before the release, the game shouldn't be at a near complete state? Of course the game should look good! If you're at the release date of a game and it doesn't look as good as most other games out at the time, you're in trouble. Now let me nit pick some more...

"The attention to detail is fantastic. Battles will unfold in dozens of different arenas and venues and all have a distinct look."

Now from this writing we can see that the reviewer was either not given a full copy of the game and therefore was only believing the marketing hype that said there would be dozens of different arenas, and that they all have a distinct look. If he did receive a complete copy, why the speculative nature to the writing? I don't get it. I realize that this is a preview article and other than screenshots, the writer probably only has some PR fluff sheet to work from but I'd rather they made it a bit more objective. Such as, "Lucasarts is promising dozens of different arenas and venues, each with distinct looks." These are probably small points but I think something worth considering for the simple fact that most video game publishers do nothing but praise games in their preview articles. This never presents an accurate picture of a game and thus I have to wait for a few weeks after the game comes out to read actual reviews on the Internet. All I'm looking for is some objectivity here!