Hard rock is better than country music. Everybody that likes country is wrong, and should get cancer of the ass. That is all.
Regardless of whether or not you like WoW’s art style, it is very well-defined and consistent throughout. From what I’ve seen of EQII, (which isn’t a whole lot, admittedly) it seems, like others have said, sterile. That’s the best word I can think of to describe it. Not necessarily hideous, but just sort of stiff and not right. Say what you will of WoW’s graphics, but the world that has been created is anything but lifeless. And I like the giant shoulders. But I’m a huge Metroid fan so maybe that has some sort of influence.
Definitely a case of different strokes. I love the EQII art. Always have (except, I’ll admit, for the plastic-y look some of the textures have, particular world/terrain stuff when it’s hit by the lighting engine). But the cities I think are superb, and the zones in general give me more “oh, wow” moments than any other game I’ve played.
Including WoW, which I also think has a fantastic look, albeit one that is not generally my style. I prefer, Qeynos, for instance, to Stormwind, in the “classic fantasy city” contest, but Stormwind is pretty damn fine.
I also agree that the better your system, the better EQ2 looks, and while that’s true to a limited extent in WoW, you can run WoW enjoyable on a lot less of a rig than you can run EQ2. That’s not a point in Sony’s favor, either. But with a lot of RAM. a good video card, and a decent CPU EQ2 can look very very good IMO. I run it at 1600 x 1200 with most of the bells and whistles on (sans shadows, which I generally don’t use in any game), and I truly love it.
The characters have all sorts of little things to like, like the spell casting and emote animations, the puffs of breath when you are in a cold zone, things like that, that make up for some admittedly awkward animation transitions. The combat animations I think are quite good–this is a game that looks rather nice in motion, more so than when static. It isn’t as fluid as WoW in many cases, I’ll admit, but then again, WoW has a very stylized look that bugs me in many places–human males look horrid, for example.
There’s a lot of dead space in other MMOs I’ve played. WoW, on the other hand, looks like it’s been hand-carved, square foot by square foot. There’s something neat to look at or some monster to fight virtually every step of the way. (And if you prefer to avoid mobs, you can just stay on the main roads. Notice how aggro mobs never traverse the main roads?) This looks like it was achieved partly by condensing zones below the sizes we’re used to dealing with. Everything is relatively tightly packed. Is it cartoonish? Well, whatever word you use to describe it, that was the art style established by Warcraft III. Hence, “World” of Warcraft.
Except in worm’s case, where as long as the musicians are hitting the notes they intended, you’re not even allowed to dislike one or the other yourself, much less let someone else have an opinion.
Bullshit.
I’ve gotten my ass handed to me so many times heading to Booty Bay, or from Menethil Harbor, I have it attached by velcro for easy removing.
Not quite.
It’s closer to assuming that the musicians who play Country music aren’t technically adept because every song you hear a snippet of while flipping past CMT to Spike TV sounds the same. Same as in “for lack of a better word, sterile.”
Meanwhile the Country listeners know better, but attempts to provide an explanation do not stop the potshots from the Hard Rock crowd.
In another land, a self-proclaimed prophet … let’s call him Tice, is waging a holy war of words against the Hard Rock crowd. Tice isn’t claiming to be a prophet of Country. Sadly, hatred of Tice spills across the border and Hard Rock people, agitated by Tice, renew their “well I read it someplace and I’ve only heard little bits and pieces so it’s true” attacks on Country.
The ass cancer thing … I don’t know what to do with that. Perhaps he was just tired of the whole situation. It’s asking alot to wish for 5 million cases of ass cancer.
Bad systems? you could run it with everything on high on an uber system and it would look like poser and bryce. they are harsh but accurate.
Yeah, that’s bullshit. Mobs don’t come onto the main road, but they do path near them and if it’s easy for your aggro radius to overlap theirs from the main road, especially if you’re in a zone that’s at the higher end of your level range. Try taking your Level 18 toon on the road to Darkshire from Redridge for example, and see how far you get before something attacks you.
Oh yeah and they are giving the game away for free but you gotta spend 70 bucks for all the expansions and the “packs”.
I think EQ2 is “artistic” enough. Just looking at the character creation option, you can make much more unqiue looking toons than WoW. It’s not CoH but it’s better than WoW.
I think a lot of the complaints can be boiled down to the skin textures. I don’t like the plastic look either.
WoW is like “Lord of the Rings” and EQ2 is closer to “A Song of Ice and Fire”. WoW leaves a lot to the imagination whereas EQ2 is trying to be gritty and realistic. Which is better? I just prefer the latter because it’s more immersive than trying to believe I’m a cartoon character.
EQ2 is gorgeous enough (usually geographic features & lighting) at certain points. The whole Poser thing…well, here’s the rub. Every game is starting to look like Poser figures. Sims 2 people look like Poser figures. The people in Riddick look like Poser figure. Doom people – Poser figures (with skinhead haircuts). The F.E.A.R. peeps - yep more Poser figures.
This is probably because the makers of these games are getting figures the same way Poser does – from hi-res scans of the human form (then, for the games, downsizing using normal et.al. maps) and then applying roughly the same luminosity & rendering tech on them.
I am a complete believer in the Uncanny Valley. To get figures that are unique & artistic & stuff, you go less realistic. You raytrace laser scans of some model & apply 4096x4096 color, texture, bump, etc. maps – you get Poser figures every time, even if you’re not using Poser.
Speaking of art direction, why isn’t anyone working on a TRON mmorpg?
- Alan
Well, if you’re too low of a level for the zone, that will happen :)
The art failure goes way beyond just skinning, texturing and the models.
For example, the griphhon flights have no sound/animation synch and seem to almost be nothing more then a static model with flapping wings stapled on, with a looping sound track of what a griphhon flying might sound like.
In WoW on the other hand, the motion is very fluid, the flapping sound is synchronized, the whole body moves, not just the wings. It is vastly better then in EQ, and its not just a matter of art style.
Its things like that which make you feel they totally cheaped out on the art side. Like they did the minimal effort needed. Another example is when monsters run to you in EQ2. Sure they move thier legs, but they skate along the terrain and ‘fly’ to you while performing some movement animation. In WoW when you aggro a tiger and it starts bounding for you, it looks right, the legs move at a certain speed relative to the ground covered for each stroke. In EQ2, no such synchronization is done.
While there are some very pretty things in EQ2, and maybe even while you like the style of EQ2 better then WoW, you should still be able to appriciate the artisitc execlence in WoW. EQ2 just seems so amaturish with many many flaws, most of them very small, in the artwork. It comes off as careless and rushed.
The kind of thing that guy talks about is annoying to me. I feel like most MMOs do it though, overpromise and then intentionally deliver incomplete, untested stuff. I know WoW has.
I love the art in WoW, for the most part. I really hate the direction they are going with armor though. Its way over the top. The people doing their shoulders and helms must have some kind of disorder.
I did not like the EQ2 art. It did look sterile to me.
olaf
The animation was the first thing I noticed when I switched from EQ2 to WoW. EQ2 had more polygons, but its artists didn’t even try to do a good job on the animations. WoW’s, in contrast, are stunning.
You’re getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic.
The shoulders at this point are pretty much to my liking, is there a switch to turn them off like helmets and cloaks though? Then you guys could stop your bellyaching.
I think they need a couple helmets that are taller and more pointy, maybe a man in the moon mask type thing. Halos would be cool. Big Yoshimitsu battle flags on the back are something I want to see more of. Offhand items need to have their graphics done.