[swoboda]

I buy the game every year to support its continuing improvement, because that requires money.
I play em all out in one of my annual leagues so I have a large sample size of 3D anims. Overall I would have to agree with the critique of 3D animation in this thread. In fact I could add a couple of frustrations of my own.

But I still see the 3D anims as a major step up from the OOTP pre 3D anims era. I get a better feeling of "at the ballpark" in spite of the shortcomings. The combo of good ballpark graphics, background ballpark sound rumbling along and the 3D anims even in their current flawed state provide a markedly improved immersion experience for watching games as you play them, as compared with a few yrs ago.

For next year I would certainly be happier with 100% focus on improving current OOTP as is, with zero new features, than I will be with marginal improvement and a bunch of new features.