Talk:Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 17:32, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

• Images
  • File:Warcraft-2-Tides-Of-Darkness-Pc.jpg really doesn't need to be any larger than 256px horizontal dimension. It might be better to find an image without the "game of the year" branding covering up a good chunk of it. The description page should be cleaned up (you've got unnecessary rationales) and the rationales made more detailed.
  • Really don't need File:Warcraftii-beyond-the-dark-portal-cover-art.jpg
  • File:WC2_Tides_UI_01.png could use with better rationale text.
• Layout and Style
  • This article is structure in a rather funky way that is, in a word, bad. Why is there a "Predecessor" subsection? Why is it so long? Why is it buried at the end of the article, when any relevant information should be with development and establishing context earlier? Why is there so much on sequels that should be in the main WarCraft (series) page? Why is the storyline after everything else in the article? Why does the gameplay begin with basics, then jump to game modes before elaborating on gameplay? The entire article really needs to be reorganized and recast.
  • The article doesn't have much on development; as I said earlier, some of the content for predecessor could work, but there needs to be more.
• Prose
  • There's lots of awkward or unnecessary phrasing. Beginning of gameplay: "Warcraft II is a real time strategy game (RTS),[1] in other words the contenders play at the same time and continuously, so that players have to move quickly." Bad, almost game-guide tone, how about just explaining what an RTS is instead of beating around the bush and giving us a really bad explanation before actually cutting to the chase.
  • Cut out all the "the"'s that serve no purpose throughout. "The builders can also construct Farms, each of which provides food for up to four units, and additional units cannot be produced until enough Farms are built.[11] Farms are also the toughest perimeter defense.[13] Humans and Orcs have sets of buildings with similar functions, but different names and graphics, for producing ground, naval, and air units.[1] All but the basic combat units require the assistance of other buildings, or must be produced at buildings that have prerequisite buildings, or both.[11][14] Many of the buildings can upgrade combat units.[8]"
  • "However in the late game"→What does this mean to non-gamers? Parts of the article need to be recast so they are more evident to those who haven't played RTS or other games. People shouldn't have to click away from a page to get the bare minimum gist of terms.
  • "Blizzard Entertainment's initial response to Command and Conquer was a design that combined modern and fantasy elements, such as fighter pilots ambushed by a fire-breathing dragon. However, they found that this did not work, and that there was plenty of content for a fantasy RTS.[19] Blizzard developed Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness ("WC II"), and released the MS-DOS version in 1995 and the Macintosh version in August 1996.[20]"→This is misleading, as it sounds like WarCraft II was developed immediately in response to C&C.
• References
  • This game came out in 1995, but there's not a single review (that I can see) from that time aside from the standard IGN, GameSpot, et al ones. Aside from the reviews, that's about it for contemporary sources, and it shows in the lack of development info.

I am putting the article on hold for crit. 1, 3, and 6 of WP:GA?. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 17:32, 7 May 2010 (UTC)