Coupled with the fact that you've already stated you won't be purchasing the game, it makes me wonder what you're doing here. There's a fine line between an "I Love This Game" circle jerk and an "I Hate This Game" circle jerk.
Keep reading... You arn't there just yet
Complaining that the XCOM grunts wear power armour, despite its presence in the original, is not as valid
It is about how I feel about the game and its aestetics and feel as well as how it compliments the story and structure. It is perfectly valid.
Criticism is excellent when it is constructive
Constructive Criticism is when you offer an alternative or possible way to fix something. Unconstructive criticism is when you do not offer anything.
I've given Constructive Criticism in this thread. Keep reading.
Neither was our ten page battle about whether the women looked okay or not
How the game uses gender with respect to aestetics and thus thematic effects on theme is important to a game.
Graekelin you are starting to sound like one of those people who actively goes out and tells people what they are and are not allowed to complain about, but in the end all you really are doing is trying to assert what you do and do not like about the game as those judgement. Hense why according to you I CAN complain about Squad size (because you have your own personal issues with it) and why I cannot complain about the aestetics (because you could care less).
While I am not a technical graphics critic and I could care less how advanced or simple graphics are... I am very much an artistic graphics critic in that I consider it important that a game conveys itself well through its graphics as well if I like what it is conveying.