GW2 easily has the best looking game , included player, npc, building models and enviroment. Terra's looks very shiny and pretty, but i find its building texturing to be far inferior to gw2; also its art style is a tad to clean. But AOC while having great graphics has awful art the game doesn't even look that appealing art wise. I do liek that aoc is not super clean but its also too dirty, nothign really looks good. I feel while Gw2 art has a simpler feelign to itit also balances clean and dirty well and besides that has soem giant structures and bosses (although terra has some large one GW2 has some massive ones like the frost giant in daoc and larger). Why i hope Gw2s graphics stay low key and have optiosn to make them even more low key is simple, it has 1v1v1 server open world pvp. Now i know that if you want tpo pull this off you have to have 200+ people on a screen, day one, with little to no lag and then hopefully work that up to 300-400.
When you think of GW2's appearnce and realize this game has been made for massive numbers of player character on one screen at a time that is what is impressive. (You could mention other games but you know they don't do it so well, and other have taken 3-5 years to handle those numbers, save daoc and a very few others). Now i can tell you i have seen 60+ on gw2 with little to no lag, can it handle more??? Your guess is good as mine but i hope so.
Edit - let me add Terras animations and mobs movement and animatiosn are crazy good. And re-edit terra has the edge in the graphics department. The style is a tad to clean for me but dam is it nice.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
Most MMO launches are crap. Picking on Conan for it seems bias. AOC imho is a really good game and I play it now. I have never had a problem running the game ever. I built my system for about $600. Yeah WOW doesnt have high end graphics but again the game is 6 years old. Alot of people did think it looked good 6 years ago. I respect your opinion that graphics are a minimal part of the whole to YOU. I place no part of the whole above the other to be honest. Good graphics in the 21st century is not too much to ask.
I'm just saying that adding a fancy graphics requirement to a game reduces the number of people who can play, instead of increasing it. (When it comes to MMORPGs where graphics isn't a big deal.... Quite the opposite is usually true of FPS games.) I respect your opinion though, regarding how it's a package-deal, and all the components are equally important to you.
The graphics were good for their time though people forget that
That's the funny part. People didn't change, did they? Did those games all of the sudden become garbage? If not, why don't people play them now? Is having an imagination now too much to ask? Is that why people can't play Zelda now or King's Quest / Quest for Glory anymore? Yet they still read books... or do they? I dunno.
Older games (and movies) required more creativity from the viewer/player. Now, for some reason, we expect the developers to substitute for our lack of creativity (or willingness to be creative) and do all the imagination for us. That's fine sometimes, I enjoyed Avatar too. But when it comes to limited budgets, usually "fancy graphics" suck up a HUGE amount of that budget... so much so that many people are skeptical of good-looking games because it implies they cut corners somewhere.
I'm not suggesting graphics be reduced in modern games or anything... but simply: MMORPGs are the genre that are the LEAST dependent on graphics to be successful. Their budgets should reflect this. If you buy an FPS, you are buying fancy graphics, when you buy an MMORPG you are buying a story and progression and gameplay. If someone comes looking for an MMORPG and has graphics as their primary deciding factor, then that implies they don't care so much about the other things. Which leads me to believe they're not really looking for an MMORPG as much as they are looking for some easily displosable toss-away entertainment for a few bucks.
Don't forget games like Continent of the North and Vindictus....
Games focus on different things and targets different audiences. If you want to reach a 10 million large player base, you better not have insane polygon counts, or you it will cause problems for people (VG and AoC have/had these problems). I'd say it's either AoC or one of the niche action MMOs that have the technically most superior grapchics.
Though, as posters before me have mentioned, all the new games look stunning so far (Rift,Gw2, Swtor, Tera) and I'm not sure the graphics have to much better than that at the moment. Just keep in mind, these games will put as much effort into creating a scalable engine that can work on really low end machines, while still being able to be cranked up to produce beautiful graphics as they are catering to the beast comps.
Don't buy into the lie that cartoonish visuals are any less demanding than realistic ones. You can make a game that aims for realism without pushing it to Crysis levels of resource hogging with cutting edge technology.
To use SWToR as an example, Bioware intentionally went with the current visual style to attract a young audience, and not because they wanted the game to run across all systems easily. Particle effects and shaders, not art style, impacts performance.
This game has amazing graphics, but I'm a bit divided (when it comes to choosing the ones I perceive to be the best) between GW2 and Project E:ST. I haven't seen any reference to E:ST here (but I didn't read every post eheh) so if someone hasn't heard about it you can check it out here
I think if anything game companies need to realize that just because a game looks fantastic doesn't make it a good game, gameplay/smoothness > graphics.
ps. if you're playing an mmo for graphics you're a fucking idiot.
I love when people seem to think that giving half a damn about graphics means it's priority #1 for you, and can't seem to understand that 'graphics are important' does not equal 'graphics are the game.'
Congratulations on perfecting strawman argumentation.
Originally posted by Snippet60
Lastly, technology is always improving, but the leaps and bounds it is improving by is more like baby steps now and will continue to get smaller and smaller. Technology's advancement is slowing down and we pay the same basic amount for less improvement.
Cool! It's like you're from the Mirror Universe.
Technological advancement is not only still accelerating, but still accelerating the rate of its acceleration, as prices drop accordingly. This exponential growth hasn't slowed one bit, quite literally. Just as it did not slow during any former war or depression.
Computer technology is, and has always been, about accelerating returns, not diminishing. This is practically guaranteed by the way that improving computer technology improves the rate at which we improve that very technology. It's a positive feedback loop.
Games, specifically, are falling behind into a sublinear progression, fitting what you're describing. The developers are using 'stylization' and economic excuses encouraged by the new audience of minimalist gamers created by Apple and Facebook, but Moore's Law doesn't appear to care. The technology available to game developers continues to progress without their love, and they'll be forced to make up, eventually, when the gap becomes too vast to be defended anymore.
Favorites: EQ, EVE | Playing: None. Mostly VR and strategy | Anticipating: CU, Pantheon
I agree that GW2 has some amazing looking graphics from what we've seen. Although even if it doesn't have the best graphics, it still has the best art-style out of any MMO I've ever played or seen.
QFT, because it's all that matters.
Look at FF XIV which has top notch graphics technically but is an uninspired snoozefest when it comes to artdirection. Polygons and Shaders mean shit, if the artdepartment doesn't know what to do with it. On the other hand: I have yet to see an MMO-Landscape that comes even close to the Jade Sea or Kaineng City when it comes to artistic quality and Guild Wars is from the stone-age technically.
No, it's not the most graphically impressive. However, that being said, it IS graphically impressive. In my opinion TERA holds that title for the time being. Not very interested in playing TERA (whereas I am very interested in GW2), but the avatar details and scenics are top quality.
Now, I do think GW2 holds the title for best artistic style by a large margin.
No, it's not the most graphically impressive. However, that being said, it IS graphically impressive. In my opinion TERA holds that title for the time being. Not very interested in playing TERA (whereas I am very interested in GW2), but the avatar details and scenics are top quality.
Thats a matter of taste, i guess. The one bend forward/upskirt female animation turned me off to a degree that i don't plan on playing TERA anymore. It's that ridiculous: no class, no style, just cheapness. Which is a shame because the animations are top notch technically.
But the older i get the more picky i get when it comes to artdirection.
I agree that GW2 has some amazing looking graphics from what we've seen. Although even if it doesn't have the best graphics, it still has the best art-style out of any MMO I've ever played or seen.
QFT, because it's all that matters.
Look at FF XIV which has top notch graphics technically but is an uninspired snoozefest when it comes to artdirection. Polygons and Shaders mean shit, if the artdepartment doesn't know what to do with it. On the other hand: I have yet to see an MMO-Landscape that comes even close to the Jade Sea or Kaineng City when it comes to artistic quality and Guild Wars is from the stone-age technically.
I completely agree with this. GW2 looks absolutely stunning from the art style point of view, mainly because they've taken it to treating the environments as characters on their own, as this guy points out during that now famous video.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
No, it's not the most graphically impressive. However, that being said, it IS graphically impressive. In my opinion TERA holds that title for the time being. Not very interested in playing TERA (whereas I am very interested in GW2), but the avatar details and scenics are top quality.
Thats a matter of taste, i guess. The one bend forward/upskirt female animation turned me off to a degree that i don't plan on playing TERA anymore. It's that ridiculous: no class, no style, just cheapness. Which is a shame because the animations are top notch technically.
But the older i get the more picky i get when it comes to artdirection.
I wouldn't say it's a matter of taste. What is a matter of taste is the art style behind it which I'm not very fond of. But you definitely can't compete with UE3.
I agree that GW2 has some amazing looking graphics from what we've seen. Although even if it doesn't have the best graphics, it still has the best art-style out of any MMO I've ever played or seen.
QFT, because it's all that matters.
Look at FF XIV which has top notch graphics technically but is an uninspired snoozefest when it comes to artdirection. Polygons and Shaders mean shit, if the artdepartment doesn't know what to do with it. On the other hand: I have yet to see an MMO-Landscape that comes even close to the Jade Sea or Kaineng City when it comes to artistic quality and Guild Wars is from the stone-age technically.
I think it more impressive what they did with the Echolved forest. It could be a little depressing, but there was this sort of silent beauty about the place, the giant stone trees, the green ferns adding contrast to the gray stone and ground combined with the oppressive atmosphere. Not to deny the Jade Sea its credit though, its just easier to make something look nice when you have frozen waves and a clear sky. The colors are simply more appealing.
And of course, you have everybody's favorite, Pre-searing Ascalon. I don't think I've seen that much attention put into an area, let alone the tutorial area, of a game in a very long time.
No, it's not the most graphically impressive. However, that being said, it IS graphically impressive. In my opinion TERA holds that title for the time being. Not very interested in playing TERA (whereas I am very interested in GW2), but the avatar details and scenics are top quality.
Thats a matter of taste, i guess. The one bend forward/upskirt female animation turned me off to a degree that i don't plan on playing TERA anymore. It's that ridiculous: no class, no style, just cheapness. Which is a shame because the animations are top notch technically.
But the older i get the more picky i get when it comes to artdirection.
I wouldn't say it's a matter of taste. What is a matter of taste is the art style behind it which I'm not very fond of. But you definitely can't compete with UE3.
Cry engine 2 would like a word with you... Anyway Lol just lol just because a game uses the UE3 doesn't mean it's automatically graphically impressive. The engine is merely a tool it's the developer that determines how good it looks. It's like giving a painter the best and biggest vareity of paints and brushes, if he's crap his work will be crap regardless of how good his tools are.
I don't think GW2 will be heavier on the machine than a game like TOR, both of them go with different artstyles (although they're both kind of stylized), but as far as polygons and all that goes, they're quite similar from what I've seen.
A game like FFXIV or TERA will probably be way heavier on the hardware.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Blade and souls graphics are significantly better than any other mmo i've seen. It will probably have murderous system requirements though.
Honestly I was blown away by TERA. I watched the blade and soul videos and they were on par with guild wars 2. All very nice but it's clear what game is going to force gamers to upgrade. As for my ow. Preference I find the artstyle of rift to be the most satisfying even if it's not the best looking graphically.
GW2 definately is the most impressive MMO graphics i've seen to date with their painterly style. Blade & soul doesn't appeal to me though, i'm not into that kind of game play style and graphics. Good for the hormone bursting teen crowd, i'm sure this will be a boon to the PC keyboard industry due to sticky key syndrom.
Both Blade & Soul and Tera do have better graphics. However, I prefer the art style from what I've seen out of GW2 than those two games.
GW2 still looks fantastic! Also one has to worry if B&S and TERA will fall into that Korean grinder category if they do it wouldn't matter if they used photo realistic graphics I wouldn't touch them with someone elses ten foot pole.
Comments
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GW2 easily has the best looking game , included player, npc, building models and enviroment. Terra's looks very shiny and pretty, but i find its building texturing to be far inferior to gw2; also its art style is a tad to clean. But AOC while having great graphics has awful art the game doesn't even look that appealing art wise. I do liek that aoc is not super clean but its also too dirty, nothign really looks good. I feel while Gw2 art has a simpler feelign to itit also balances clean and dirty well and besides that has soem giant structures and bosses (although terra has some large one GW2 has some massive ones like the frost giant in daoc and larger). Why i hope Gw2s graphics stay low key and have optiosn to make them even more low key is simple, it has 1v1v1 server open world pvp. Now i know that if you want tpo pull this off you have to have 200+ people on a screen, day one, with little to no lag and then hopefully work that up to 300-400.
When you think of GW2's appearnce and realize this game has been made for massive numbers of player character on one screen at a time that is what is impressive. (You could mention other games but you know they don't do it so well, and other have taken 3-5 years to handle those numbers, save daoc and a very few others). Now i can tell you i have seen 60+ on gw2 with little to no lag, can it handle more??? Your guess is good as mine but i hope so.
Edit - let me add Terras animations and mobs movement and animatiosn are crazy good. And re-edit terra has the edge in the graphics department. The style is a tad to clean for me but dam is it nice.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
I love the art stylings of GW2, and I think they're doing a very good job of looking great with what should relatively low requirements.
Still, I think one of my favorite MMOs just for appearance would have to be Blade & Soul.
You have to admire them (or not) for so faithfully replicating Hyung-Tae Kim's unique artstyle that they appear to even have cameltoe.
Most MMO launches are crap. Picking on Conan for it seems bias. AOC imho is a really good game and I play it now. I have never had a problem running the game ever. I built my system for about $600. Yeah WOW doesnt have high end graphics but again the game is 6 years old. Alot of people did think it looked good 6 years ago. I respect your opinion that graphics are a minimal part of the whole to YOU. I place no part of the whole above the other to be honest. Good graphics in the 21st century is not too much to ask.
I'm just saying that adding a fancy graphics requirement to a game reduces the number of people who can play, instead of increasing it. (When it comes to MMORPGs where graphics isn't a big deal.... Quite the opposite is usually true of FPS games.) I respect your opinion though, regarding how it's a package-deal, and all the components are equally important to you.
The graphics were good for their time though people forget that
That's the funny part. People didn't change, did they? Did those games all of the sudden become garbage? If not, why don't people play them now? Is having an imagination now too much to ask? Is that why people can't play Zelda now or King's Quest / Quest for Glory anymore? Yet they still read books... or do they? I dunno.
Older games (and movies) required more creativity from the viewer/player. Now, for some reason, we expect the developers to substitute for our lack of creativity (or willingness to be creative) and do all the imagination for us. That's fine sometimes, I enjoyed Avatar too. But when it comes to limited budgets, usually "fancy graphics" suck up a HUGE amount of that budget... so much so that many people are skeptical of good-looking games because it implies they cut corners somewhere.
I'm not suggesting graphics be reduced in modern games or anything... but simply: MMORPGs are the genre that are the LEAST dependent on graphics to be successful. Their budgets should reflect this. If you buy an FPS, you are buying fancy graphics, when you buy an MMORPG you are buying a story and progression and gameplay. If someone comes looking for an MMORPG and has graphics as their primary deciding factor, then that implies they don't care so much about the other things. Which leads me to believe they're not really looking for an MMORPG as much as they are looking for some easily displosable toss-away entertainment for a few bucks.
Just my 2 cents.
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Don't forget games like Continent of the North and Vindictus....
Games focus on different things and targets different audiences. If you want to reach a 10 million large player base, you better not have insane polygon counts, or you it will cause problems for people (VG and AoC have/had these problems). I'd say it's either AoC or one of the niche action MMOs that have the technically most superior grapchics.
Though, as posters before me have mentioned, all the new games look stunning so far (Rift,Gw2, Swtor, Tera) and I'm not sure the graphics have to much better than that at the moment. Just keep in mind, these games will put as much effort into creating a scalable engine that can work on really low end machines, while still being able to be cranked up to produce beautiful graphics as they are catering to the beast comps.
Well...Diablo 3 looks pretty impressive too.
Don't buy into the lie that cartoonish visuals are any less demanding than realistic ones. You can make a game that aims for realism without pushing it to Crysis levels of resource hogging with cutting edge technology.
To use SWToR as an example, Bioware intentionally went with the current visual style to attract a young audience, and not because they wanted the game to run across all systems easily. Particle effects and shaders, not art style, impacts performance.
This game has amazing graphics, but I'm a bit divided (when it comes to choosing the ones I perceive to be the best) between GW2 and Project E:ST. I haven't seen any reference to E:ST here (but I didn't read every post eheh) so if someone hasn't heard about it you can check it out here
Playing:
RIFT, EU Blightweald Server
Waiting to see:
ToR, TERA, GW2
I love when people seem to think that giving half a damn about graphics means it's priority #1 for you, and can't seem to understand that 'graphics are important' does not equal 'graphics are the game.'
Congratulations on perfecting strawman argumentation.
Cool! It's like you're from the Mirror Universe.
Technological advancement is not only still accelerating, but still accelerating the rate of its acceleration, as prices drop accordingly. This exponential growth hasn't slowed one bit, quite literally. Just as it did not slow during any former war or depression.
Computer technology is, and has always been, about accelerating returns, not diminishing. This is practically guaranteed by the way that improving computer technology improves the rate at which we improve that very technology. It's a positive feedback loop.
Games, specifically, are falling behind into a sublinear progression, fitting what you're describing. The developers are using 'stylization' and economic excuses encouraged by the new audience of minimalist gamers created by Apple and Facebook, but Moore's Law doesn't appear to care. The technology available to game developers continues to progress without their love, and they'll be forced to make up, eventually, when the gap becomes too vast to be defended anymore.
QFT, because it's all that matters.
Look at FF XIV which has top notch graphics technically but is an uninspired snoozefest when it comes to artdirection. Polygons and Shaders mean shit, if the artdepartment doesn't know what to do with it. On the other hand: I have yet to see an MMO-Landscape that comes even close to the Jade Sea or Kaineng City when it comes to artistic quality and Guild Wars is from the stone-age technically.
No, it's not the most graphically impressive. However, that being said, it IS graphically impressive. In my opinion TERA holds that title for the time being. Not very interested in playing TERA (whereas I am very interested in GW2), but the avatar details and scenics are top quality.
Now, I do think GW2 holds the title for best artistic style by a large margin.
-tal
I completely agree with this. GW2 looks absolutely stunning from the art style point of view, mainly because they've taken it to treating the environments as characters on their own, as this guy points out during that now famous video.
I wouldn't say it's a matter of taste. What is a matter of taste is the art style behind it which I'm not very fond of. But you definitely can't compete with UE3.
I think it more impressive what they did with the Echolved forest. It could be a little depressing, but there was this sort of silent beauty about the place, the giant stone trees, the green ferns adding contrast to the gray stone and ground combined with the oppressive atmosphere. Not to deny the Jade Sea its credit though, its just easier to make something look nice when you have frozen waves and a clear sky. The colors are simply more appealing.
And of course, you have everybody's favorite, Pre-searing Ascalon. I don't think I've seen that much attention put into an area, let alone the tutorial area, of a game in a very long time.
Disagreement Heirarchy
Cry engine 2 would like a word with you... Anyway Lol just lol just because a game uses the UE3 doesn't mean it's automatically graphically impressive. The engine is merely a tool it's the developer that determines how good it looks. It's like giving a painter the best and biggest vareity of paints and brushes, if he's crap his work will be crap regardless of how good his tools are.
I don't think GW2 will be heavier on the machine than a game like TOR, both of them go with different artstyles (although they're both kind of stylized), but as far as polygons and all that goes, they're quite similar from what I've seen.
A game like FFXIV or TERA will probably be way heavier on the hardware.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Blade and souls graphics are significantly better than any other mmo i've seen. It will probably have murderous system requirements though.
Honestly I was blown away by TERA. I watched the blade and soul videos and they were on par with guild wars 2. All very nice but it's clear what game is going to force gamers to upgrade. As for my ow. Preference I find the artstyle of rift to be the most satisfying even if it's not the best looking graphically.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Both Blade & Soul and Tera do have better graphics. However, I prefer the art style from what I've seen out of GW2 than those two games.
GW2 definately is the most impressive MMO graphics i've seen to date with their painterly style. Blade & soul doesn't appeal to me though, i'm not into that kind of game play style and graphics. Good for the hormone bursting teen crowd, i'm sure this will be a boon to the PC keyboard industry due to sticky key syndrom.
Archlinux ftw
GW2 still looks fantastic! Also one has to worry if B&S and TERA will fall into that Korean grinder category if they do it wouldn't matter if they used photo realistic graphics I wouldn't touch them with someone elses ten foot pole.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Technicly probably not but visualy maybe, GW imo still looks fantastic for its age
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