Release date: 25 October 2011
Release date in Russia: 27 October 2011
Genre: Strategy (Real-time), 3D
developer: Firefly Studios
Publisher: 7sixty
Stronghold 3 is a real-time strategy game from Firefly Studios, released under the Stronghold brand. The game was released on October 25, 2011, and in Russia and the CIS on October 28. The game developer will continue to be Firefly Studios, and the publisher will remain 7Sixty. This game is the sixth in the Stronghold series of games. The game was a sequel to Stronghold, released in 2001, and Stronghold 2, released in 2005. This project is the first new product in the real-time strategy genre from Firefly Studios since the release of Stronghold Crusader Extreme in 2008 year.
Review: Playability (by Bartleby)
At the time, the first part of Stronghold surprised many with its unique combination of economic simulator and real-time strategy, and thereby captured a wide audience. Those pleasant impressions are still remembered by fans to this day, and they eagerly awaited the continuation of their favorite franchise. As in previous parts of the series, there are two types of campaign – military and economic. The story is told in the form of black and white comics that tell the story of dispossessed monarchs whose kingdom was stolen by an evil usurper. Although such a narrative is clearly not up to modern standards, it performs its function properly and creates at least some kind of atmosphere.
There are management problems from the very beginning. Navigating the map in combat is difficult even under the best circumstances (often the cursor will refuse to change to an attack icon, no matter how accurately the cursor is aimed at the enemy). Often trying to remove wounded soldiers from battle, they take a few steps away and turn back into the thick of the battle. Such shortcomings can ruin all the pleasure from almost any skirmish.
Management and strategy retain many of the elements that have been successfully used in the past, giving Stronghold 3 a déjà vu-like feel. The game tends to constantly change civic needs and moods, which distracts from the pure pleasure of building an amazing castle. It should also be noted that the playing space is too small, in which it is necessary to create conditions for a happy life for the population and somehow accommodate a multi-level defensive complex.
We invite you to evaluate part of the game walkthrough of Stronghold 3 in QHD resolution, where you can see for yourself the quality of this product:
Reviving or continuing any franchise is always difficult. This time, the developers made too many risky changes, and thereby lost the main features of the series’ attractiveness, or maybe vice versa – they changed too little to create a new gaming experience in Stronghold 3, it’s more like an add-on.
Review: Graphics (author Spec)
The game is based on the Trinigy Vision Engine, which was developed by Trinigy. As of 2010, the technology has been licensed for use in more than one hundred computer games of various genres. Several versions of the engine have been created; the latest is Vision Engine 8. The graphics engine supports normal mapping for textures, the radiosity lighting method, dynamic lighting and shading, effects created by the particle system, streaming location loading, image post-processing effects such as HDR and depth of field. The resulting image is displayed on the screen using OpenGL or DirectX 11 (DX9, DX10 and DX11 are supported).
The game engine will also feature a new weather system and advanced lighting. Unlike the engine, the game itself did not inherit its advantages. An example of this is the use of the already slightly “outdated” DirectX9, from which, by the way, it was possible to squeeze out somewhat more attractive graphics.
As you know, people are greeted by their clothes. For games, the role of clothing is played by graphics. Stronghold 1 from ten years ago, of course, cannot compete with younger competitors. Although, according to many fans, the beautifully drawn isomerism of the first part looked even better than the gloomy and buggy 3D graphics of the second. However, Stronghold 3 got rid of this drawback, so this particular game can rightfully be considered the best in terms of graphics.
Review: Resource-intensive game (author SVL)
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. Below is the configuration of our test systems.
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Test configuration |
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test stands |
Test bench No. 1 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 2 based on the Intel Socket 1366 platform Test bench No. 3 based on the AMD Soket AM2 platform Test bench No. 4 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 5 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 6 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 7 based on the Intel Socket 775 platform Test bench No. 8 based on the Intel Socket 1156 platform |
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Multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 Dell U3010 monitor product provided by the company AMD 3D Vision Kit product provided by the company Nvidia |
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Software configuration |
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Operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 SP1 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 285.62 AMD Catalyst 11.10 ver 3 |
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Monitoring program |
MSI Afterburner v2.2.0 beta 8 |
Less productive video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 450 and Radeon HD 4870 are tested on the basis of Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, depending on the resource intensity of the game, and more productive ones are based on more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.
Our video cards were tested at resolutions of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 with maximum graphics quality settings. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology is not currently supported by the game. AMD Eyefinity works without any problems, but the only problem is displaying the in-game inventory on more than one monitor, which is sometimes not very convenient. The efficiency of SLI is zero, but Cross Fire works without any problems this time.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080
A decent level of performance in the game at maximum graphics settings will be shown by the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce GTS 250. More or less comfortable performance will be provided by cards of the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce GTS 450 level. Based on the purchase of video cards specifically for this game, then today the most Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450 look preferable.
Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600
At maximum graphics quality settings at a resolution of 2560×1600, a Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 285 will show a sufficient level of performance in the game. More or less comfortable performance will be provided by cards of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460 level. As we can see, in this game the cards have a slight advantage AMD.
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing
All our video cards were tested at maximum quality settings on three FuLL HD monitors combined thanks to Eyefinity technology in a resolution of 5760×1200. As we described earlier, the inside of the game interface is not very convenient – everything is scattered across different monitors. We hope that the developers will work on this issue in terms of improving the interface.
Testing at maximum quality settings using AMD Eyefinity technology on three monitors at a resolution of 5760×1200 maximum quality
The minimum that is required for passable playability in Eyefinity mode at maximum is a video card of the Radeon HD 5850 level. For comfortable playability in this mode, a video card of the Radeon HD 6990 level or higher will be required.
CPU dependency testing
We tested processor dependence on 10 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1024×768 with maximum visual quality settings.
Testing at minimum quality settings 1024×768
As we can see, the game is not optimized for multi-streaming configurations and the best option is to use a powerful dual-core processor. The presence of a 3rd level cache and wide system bus bandwidth also play an important role.
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Stronghold 3 is a good successor to the series, almost completely repeating its predecessors. Although at the moment this game will seem a little strange. |
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The graphics in the game are quite nice, although they are somewhat inferior in picture quality even to the same Arkania, although both games have an identical engine. |
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The optimization of the game is quite good, and even computers two or three years old can handle the game at maximum settings. Although optimization for large families would obviously not hurt the game. |
We express our gratitude to all the manufacturing companies that were able to provide test equipment for our GPU tests and we hope that in the future their number will increase significantly!
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