What graphics?

jeatac

I just started the free to play. I am a level 8 Warrior. I have always wanted to try GW2 thanks to F2P I get the chance now. I came from WOW/EQ2/Rift/FFXIV and I am let down. I may have had my expectations set to high. I realize the game is "older" in comparison to FFXIV but I am finding the Graphics as absolutely horrible. It looks like the Simpsons with swords. I am really enjoying the gameplay and the living world but the graphics are just so bad then what I got used to. Are the 2 newest expansions graphics any better? Have AN ever upgraded the graphics engine since release?

ShaddyDaddy

Bad troll is bad.

jeatac

Seriously not trolling here. Perhaps I don't have graphics setting correct. 

Gdemami

jeatac said:

Seriously not trolling here. Perhaps I don't have graphics setting correct. 

I think you mistake graphics for aesthetics...

ConstantineMerus

Gdemami said:

jeatac said:

Seriously not trolling here. Perhaps I don't have graphics setting correct. 

I think you mistake graphics for aesthetics...

Aesthetics are mistaken for many a thing, even by professionals. You can rarely find a correct form of aesthetic criticism. Reviewers and common folks usually borrow from other aspects to talk about aesthetics, and they're wrong most of the time. Imagine scoring anything based on aesthetics and not your personal preferences. You have to train your mind for a very long to be able to do that right. 

Gdemami

ConstantineMerus said:
Imagine scoring anything based on aesthetics and not your personal preferences. 

Aesthetics - art, beauty, etc.,  is all subjective.

Sovrath

jeatac said:

Seriously not trolling here. Perhaps I don't have graphics setting correct. 

Could be your card the "graphics" are very good.

As for aesthetics? There are certain things I really don't like such as the Asura or the plant people (can't remember their name) but they are done very well. The whole "painterly thing" is very inspired. Still I can see that not being for everyone. You should probably post a screen shot so people can see what you are referring to.

Excession

Sovrath said:

jeatac said:

Seriously not trolling here. Perhaps I don't have graphics setting correct. 

Could be your card the "graphics" are very good.

As for aesthetics? There are certain things I really don't like such as the Asura or the plant people (can't remember their name) but they are done very well. The whole "painterly thing" is very inspired. Still I can see that not being for everyone. You should probably post a screen shot so people can see what you are referring to.

Sylvari.

I do not like the look of them either.

Wizardry

The graphics are cheap low end,don't let anyone who doesn't know what they are looking at tell you different.
That might change over time but the OP did mention he was level 8 in the noob areas of which look very low end graphics.MOST games have really bad ground textures so this is nothing new here,the rest is hit n miss.

I still remember people spewing nonsense about Wow graphics being good yet the tree bark didn't even look like bark,rock textures looked awful,it was a terrible looking game.So i am used to people talking like fanbois instead of honestly.

Art is a term Arena.net used several times as an excuse.First when asked about the cheap looking video cutscenes to which they claimed was to rather show off their great artists to which i lol hard.First of all i would bet EVERY studio would back up their artists,yet the big names will put in that added effort to do some 3D video work and besides videos to not remove artistic value,we are watching games through a PC not in real life.PC screens are drawing FAKE pictures,so NO Artistic is a BS excuse.

If we were talking a real life board game or game played on some mat with beautiful live artistic figurines,then we can talk about artistic but not through tft's and on/off switches for lighting.
I should add that the first time i stepped foot in game i was also expecting much better,after all Arena.net did a lot of bragging.

Mikeha

One of the reasons I cant play it anymore. 

I wont say they are horrible but they have become dated. 

Dakeru

jeatac said:

 I came from WOW/EQ2

Hard to believe you are not trolling if you put those games as reference and complain about gw2 grafics.

Loke666

Final fantasy XIV is actually older (it got re-released) but at the first release many people couldn't run it since you needed a state of the art computer at the time (and it was buggy like no tomoorow, one of the reasonns they re-released it).

For me GW2 look fine on my desktop but dated on my old laptop, you really need to max out the settings for it to look good. PoF do look a lot better then original game, particularly Elona riverland and Vabbi. A lot of that is due to the art though.

But GW2 is more cartonnish then FF XIV (nowhere near Wow but still cartoonish) and some people like that, others don't. The game is 5 years old but few other games look better in my opinion at least, MMOs tend to look a bit dated even at release.

But try to max out as much as you can, running it at medium sucks.

ConstantineMerus

Gdemami said:

ConstantineMerus said:
Imagine scoring anything based on aesthetics and not your personal preferences. 

Aesthetics - art, beauty, etc.,  is all subjective.

Yeah let's just ignore centuries of debates from Plato to Hume and Kant then to all major contemporary critics with the first thing that comes to our mind. 

Sovrath

Wizardry said:

The graphics are cheap low end,don't let anyone who doesn't know what they are looking at tell you different.

All one has to do is look at screen shots to see that they hold up against similar games. Sure, they are made to run on as many machines as possible but they do quite a lot with what they did.

Which then begs the question

@OP: did you not see screens of the game before you bought it?

Also Wizardry, "World of Warcraft" art design is stylized so Bark is not going to look like real bark.

laxie

Some of the screenshots I took the past few weeks.

I think slightly "cartoony" games like Everquest2 or GuildWars2 age better than going for a more realistic look. The textures in GW2 are lower resolution, which does not look cutting edge anymore. The lighting and color correction still looks great in my opinion, so the different zones look unique and atmospheric.

The models are less detailed to say Black Desert.

I wouldn't call the game ugly personally. I think it goes for its own cartoony style and does pretty well at it. It won't deliver breathtaking, cutting-edge visuals - but given the arcade-like nature of the gameplay, that's not what I play it for.

Jakdstripper

it's no black desert that's for sure. 

if graphics is all you want try Black desert or Elder Scrolls Online. 

some-clueless-guy

Maybe, if graphics' quality is so important, this is the wrong genre to look for it?

Am I the only who doesn't give a rat's ass about graphics quality in an MMO? Fast-forward two weeks and you stop even noticing the details, the FPS-drops though stick around until you quit...

Octagon7711

Reminds me of SWG and SWTOR which I had no problems with in terms of graphics.

jpedrote52

I can understand the OP, i also don't find GW2 graphics that great (most likely because I don't like the art style they use, and the buildings and structures look bland to me, the landscapes a fine though) it's not an ugly game by any means, but I definitely prefer WoW for cartonny and BDO for realistic types of graphics and art styles.

FlyByKnight

Every once in a while there is a topic on MMORPG that reminds me of how divided people are.

People like to be polite and call it "difference of opinion" or "difference in taste". It's definitely not that. There's fact vs fiction, informed vs uninformed, blindness vs vision. This is not an aesthetic conversation. OP said the graphics are terrible ("Simpsons with swords"). Either this person is visually impaired, mentally challenged or trolling.

I played GW2 and while I am critical of many of its features I don't understand how the f#$% anyone with any sense could say the game has bad graphics. They can say "I hate the art style", "I prefer photo-realism" but NOT "the graphics are terrible", oh and then invoke World Of Warcraft. I think of that movie The Crazies. Either way, nice attempt on the troll or I'm sorry about your condition.

pantaro

I've never liked the art style but that's just personal preference and that is very different than graphics buddy lol

sgel

I think GW2 graphics are awesome.
The art direction is probably the best I've seen in an mmo imo.
PoF areas are absolutely stellar.

jeatac

@FlyByKnight " 

"Every once in a while there is a topic on MMORPG that reminds me of how divided people are.

People like to be polite and call it "difference of opinion" or "difference in taste". It's definitely not that. There's fact vs fiction, informed vs uninformed, blindness vs vision. This is not an aesthetic conversation. OP said the graphics are terrible ("Simpsons with swords"). Either this person is visually impaired, mentally challenged or trolling.

I played GW2 and while I am critical of many of its features I don't understand how the f#$% anyone with any sense could say the game has bad graphics. They can say "I hate the art style", "I prefer photo-realism" but NOT "the graphics are terrible", oh and then invoke World Of Warcraft. I think of that movie The Crazies. Either way, nice attempt on the troll or I'm sorry about your condition."

I apologize Fanboi, I assure you I am not putting down GW2. I enjoy playing the game very much. I am not comparing the graphics to WOW or EQ2 or RIFT. I have not played them in a long time and their graphics are bad! I recently stopped playing FFXIV out of boredom and thought I would give GW2 a try since it is "Free to Play". FFXIV I have to admit has impressive graphics though. I just thought GW2 would be a bit more realistic looking is all.

P.S I am not visually impaired, mentally challenged or trolling I assure you. Just stating an opinion or an observance.

BalianWolfie

Seriously, anyone who praise FF14 should have their reality checked. I tried FF14 like five times, in spread times i.e. release, re-release, later, then later, later again, and every single time I'm just questioning myself, aside from the "FF" title, anything else worth a cent from me about FF14? Really, none.

Closed world, terrible class designs (yes I've played at max level the mechanics are so statics and no interaction at all), 2010 graphics (which find it so funny people keep claiming FF14 has good aesthetics etc.), really bad social hub and the main storyline is rather a burden than telling a "story".

I'm not a fanboy to any games currently but I'm 100% sure the fanboys for FF14 are very closed group gamers who buys into Japanese glorification and refuse to step out their comfort zone to adventure into MMORPG genre as a whole.



Seriously, comparing graphics from FF14 to GW2? I've had it with internet today.

lahnmir

BalianWolfie said:

Seriously, anyone who praise FF14 should have their reality checked. I tried FF14 like five times, in spread times i.e. release, re-release, later, then later, later again, and every single time I'm just questioning myself, aside from the "FF" title, anything else worth a cent from me about FF14? Really, none.

Closed world, terrible class designs (yes I've played at max level the mechanics are so statics and no interaction at all), 2010 graphics (which find it so funny people keep claiming FF14 has good aesthetics etc.), really bad social hub and the main storyline is rather a burden than telling a "story".

I'm not a fanboy to any games currently but I'm 100% sure the fanboys for FF14 are very closed group gamers who buys into Japanese glorification and refuse to step out their comfort zone to adventure into MMORPG genre as a whole.



Seriously, comparing graphics from FF14 to GW2? I've had it with internet today.

Interesting. I think FF14s aesthetics are a perfect marriage between east and west, combined with stunning and coherent design making it one of the prettiest MMOs out there. ESO and BDO might have prettier worlds, FF14 runs circles around their characters, NPCs and enemies.

GW2 looks really solid imho, nothing spectaculer   but a unique and fun art style that isn't too taxing on lower end machines.

Opinions are fun, don't let them get to you. The other people are just as wrong as you are, lighten up.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir 

someforumguy

It is weird. I love all the concept art for GW2. I also like a lot of the screenshots from the game. But when playing it , I noticed that it sometimes annoyed me.
I don't like the painterly style UI, for some reason it makes it look messy to me.  And the combat effects are annoying to me (which is done very stylish but very annoying to look at during combat). Although the animations made up for it.

So I guess for a game I play, I prefer a style that is clear and crisp looking.

Again I think GW2 looks awesome and has a very cohesive art style that fits the game. It just gets in the way when I try to play it if that makes any sense?