If I could be level-headed for just a min...
The combat-zoom is probably the graphics he's having issue with, and with all due honor to those who point out his childishness and general lack of respect, those graphics are not better than HW1, HW2, etc. They're decent (although the analogy of bathtub bumper boats is a good one), they're not anything to get excited about.
It would be sweet, like way, way sweet, to see an excellent game such as GC2 have at the tactical level the accumen of an HW1, or even (and I'm just gripping the edge of my chair to hear the flames on this one) that of MoO3's tactical combat (and yes, there are so many bugs with it that it makes it DOA, but the actual attempt was there, and with all of the patches & user mods it does actually work in the end, to some significant effect).
GC2 is a very, very good TBS. One of my fav's at this point. And that's no small achievement. But when I play TW: Rise of Rome, for example, I see a strategy game that not as good as GC2 but still, pretty darn good, and a tactical level that blows the doors off of GC2. Not that this should be what GC2 is necessarily about - each developer / design has their own vision to explore. But as one not so humble player of strategy games of every ilk, that is the vision I pine for.
Funny that these sorts of stupid posts get so much of our collective 'attention'.
