Why do people feel that in order to praise one game,

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Demiath is the culprit. Again.
First he "demonizes" the poor guys at Gamebanshees by nefariously mentioning how their attitude strikes him as "odd" (their attitude: I totally like "oldskool" games but "oldskool" games have shitty gfx therefor I just can't stand them, duh!). Next thing he does is trashing and bashing ToEE like there is no tomorrow. And he did it with an evil voice. muhhahhahaa. Demiath, Demiath, how dare you to mention some details you didn't particularly like in ToEE? Don't you understand that poetic chalice doesn't like that? You really should behave yourself better.

[BlueSalamander]

Okay I understand. Just to clarify: if these comments are there in the praise page, it's not for malicious motives. It's just that ToEE is probably the closest game to KotC and so it's natural to have comparisons.
It's also my opinion that ToEE had an awkward radial interface and a poor pathfinding, and that the encounters are more varied in KotC. But ToEE had excellent graphics and a more detailed implementation of the rules, including all the base races and classes, more spells and more creatures.

As for full blown reviews, the LEVEL Romania gaming magazine will soon publish a three-page review of KotC

[MonkeyLancer]

That's pretty damn exciting.

I never found the radial that awkward personally, maybe I'm weird.

What I think would be cool which is probably completely off topic, is if a group of people like Co8 gave a renovation to Pool of Radiance:RoMD much like ToEE and got rid of bugs and made it playable!

edit: fixing syntax and grammar tsk tsk

[Darthcast]

I like radial menus in general, but I agree that the one in ToEE could have been better. There are to many "levels" in that menu, eg. when casting a spell. It would have been better if spells would have been handled with a small additional window like the one from NWN2. And options you have to turn on/off like non-lethal damage or combat expertise should also have been placed elsewhere...
But I think ToEE' GUI is good nonetheless - the journal (keys!), help system, items and character info are well thought out for instance.

[quasimodo]

I think it is especially painful to see a game which does not live up to its very high potential. ToEE had the best combat I had ever seen in a fantasy RPG. With this and the fact that it was a AAA game made by Troika I had high expectations. I was therefore let down by the rest of the game.

Similarly Fallout Tactics which should have combined the awesomeness of Fallout and Jagged Alliance 2 but didn't, earned my ire although objectively speaking it wasn't all that bad.

[BlueSalamander]

is if a group of people like Co8 gave a renovation to Pool of Radiance:RoMD much like ToEE and got rid of bugs and made it playable!

I would love that! I bought RoMD but couldn't get past the initial countryside map, it was that bad. Strangely enough, the tutorial was quite well done. ToEE also has a good tutorial.

I like radial menus in general, but I agree that the one in ToEE could have been better. There are to many "levels" in that menu, eg. when casting a spell.

Yeah and the radial level for spell level is so small. NWN2 allows you to drop your spells as icons on the bar at the bottom of the screen, that's miles ahead.

the journal (keys!)

There was a page for keys, but hardly any keys in the game The temple denizens must all be using lockpick sets to open their own chests.