Age of Wonders 3

I like the look of the units a lot more than the dreadnaught's.

not so excited about the steampunk additions.   I don't remember steampunk in shadow magic.

You don't remember steam tanks, pistols, flame/frost throwers, canons, air galleys, drills, muskets (in AoW1)...?

It's also a part of the lore now since the "Commonwealth" is going through an industrial revolution.

The art style has gone a bit cheesy cartoon compared to the older games.

Thankfully nowhere near as bad as Nival's King's Bountys.

havent been as hyped for a game in a long, long time. graphics look great to me, far better than Elementals (no offense, still a great game).

honestly the only thing i ve read about this game i didnt like was that they re thinking about brining halflings back in expansion DLC. i d rather have them not waste time and effort on such a boring race and (re)introduce something interesting instead (lizardmen for example, but there s a lot more races i d rather see than tiny humans with hair on their feet - heck actually i d rather see another human faction with a different regional background than halflings.... )

otherwise everything sounds amazing and i m praying each day for steam early access because its far too long until the planned release in 3-4 months =/

I am very sceptical about new sequels to old games in general. 

I was excited by Fallout 3, Elemental as new Master of Magic, about Battle for Kronos (Battle Isle new adaptation), Disciples 3, Master of Orion 3, Desperados 2, X-COM, etc, etc.

Most of them were disasters. The vision and style of the original teams can seldom be replicated, and imitation often yields poorer results than coming with something new. 

Main thing I think about is that superstacks will be encouraged due to units earning XP. I would have preferred if only heroes could. And that the Wizard gains XP when heroes can't get it.

I am interested, though a little concerned about it...

I mean prior Age of Wonders games were all about being a powerful wizard and leading your chosen people to victory against other wizards.
I'm not sure if the change in focus will turn out good or terrible.