Dated? tell me... since when has blizzard made a game that was a graphics powerhouse? This is because they want to make sure a wide range of PC's can run the game. This has always been their philosophy for pretty much ever. That being said the game looks current gen, and I am more than happy with that since I know it will be an amazing experience.
I know what you mean about Blizzard not always being on the cutting edge. But this looks too dated even for them. What we've seen in D3 would be considered high quality roughly 3 years ago.
Sloppy? I did not see any art that looked "sloppy" it looks like they have an art direction that is cohesive and well thought out. However you may feel about the art and graphics does not make them "sloppy." It just makes the fact that you don't like the graphics your opinion.
I explained why it looks sloppy, and I don't see how you can't agree somewhat on it. Look at how so much of the environments lack any actual textures or even have decent skins.
Also I do not agree with your opinion of the games current art direction and therefore have formed my own opinion. My opinion is that I happen to enjoy the color, and the out door environments we saw in the game play trailer. I do think though that the game could use more contrast than what we have seen so far. However this might be due to the compression of the video and or the screen settings the game was captured on.
Again, I don't see much wrong with the artsyle, but alot of D3 has a watercolor look that simply doesn't work for it. The swarms of pale, decaying zombies don't match well with the pastel hillsides and forests.
By the way there were similar problems with the art direction when players first got their hands on SC2. People were saying it was too cartoonish and the colors too bright, and that it should look more grittier. It's like were getting the same reaction with the first eye candy from D3. So with that I'm pretty sure you guys will get something from Bliz, I mean from what I hear they really listened to what people had to say about SC2.
But who sent out a survey or collection of critiques when SC2 was announced?
I'll be honest, I'm disgusted with what Blizzard has done with SC2. It's not just the style- no, it's the gameplay even moreso. SC2 looks and plays INCREDIBLY similarly to the first one. Things like the general scaling are exactly the same too. So many of the new features it boasts have been done just as well, or even better in many other RTS games that are currently out or coming up. These are all huge problems because it's been 10 YEARS since SC1 came out. I don't think SC2 is gonna turn out as a bad game, but it'll be way below what a franchise 10 years without a sequel deserves.
One more thing. The fact that people seem to be demanding dramatic changes to the style this early on seems ridiculous to me. Why? because we really haven't seen anything yet except a damn gameplay trailer! Has anyone else looked at some of the concept art for the game? I bet we see more stuff like that soon from blizzard in game.
Like I said, it's damn distressing when what's supposed to be even just an initial build looks this sloppy. And the gameplay trailer was 20 minutes.
I really hope Blizzard listens this time. Starcraft 2 looks ridiculously cartoonish and heavily unchanged gameplay-wise from the first one despite it now being over a year since it was first announced.
I've played Diablo II for a long time from classic to LOD patch 1.11 and I like the new art direction. I found the color palette of Diablo and Diablo II to be one of the weaker points of the game. In fact, I know a friend who never played the Diablo series because of the "grainy-looking graphics."
For those of you who would prefer a darker, more gothic feel, then I suggest you read Keith Lee's response to this issue:
I stress the word "variety." As this is still the Diablo universe, there is bound to be hellish and/or dark and gothic environments not shown in the gameplay video. Having variety makes for a more interesting and less monotonous gaming experience. If that's still not dark enough, just turn down the gamma, brightness and turn off the blur filter. I know I've found Diablo II still a tad bit hard to see even with the gamma turned all the way up. From what I've seen from the gameplay video, I'm glad this will not be an issue again.
And for those of you saying the graphics look "WoWish," the only thing that this game resembles World of Warcraft is the interface. It has a much higher poly count, much more destructible environment, and much more sophisticated lighting than World of Warcraft. If anything, it looks a lot like Starcraft 2 since it's probably using the same proprietary graphics engine.
Yeah, I should have mentioned that too with us seeing only 2 environments- but the problems I see are evident in every facet of D3, that being the very dated and sloppy look of so much of the game.
I am confused about where you are going with this, you did read it right? it says correctly that the rainbow should not be there?
Diablo in its clouds of mist should have twisting spooky fog, not rainbows =/ Horror movies and even low budget things like"Supernatural" have managed to get the style down right, it baffles me why blizzard can't.
I did. It's supposed to be a parody. That pic is going at the most minute details of the in-game physics while knocking on how so many people are having meltdowns by seeing one rainbow, when its just trying to be realistic.
I guess Blizzard can take pointers from that pic though.
Really, like what laws of physics...? A rainbow is only visible when light is coming from behind your viewing position, the shadows are clearly NOT pointing away from you so therefore the rainbow should not only not be there because its Diablo, but also because its physically impossible for one to appear.
Your both completely right. If I was conducting secret rituals with the undead, deep within the bowels of a dungeon, I would make sure to plaster the place with pastel drapes and decorative lighting to ensure everyone knew what we were up to.
Yeah, it's secret. You'd want to be able to see around in your secret dungeon, wouldn't you?
I'm just registering for this I guess. I'd like to see my critiques get through.
Overall, I don't see much wrong with the art style- it does look rather cartoonish and overtly WOW-like in a number of areas, but there's not much to make a fuss over. So I'd just like to see it moderately "darker". The WOW look doesn't come so much from the sort of colors and lighting used, but the models in general.
And that's where my biggest complaints come in- the technical aspects. D3 honestly looks VERY dated in a number of areas. Outside of a stylistic perspective, the game looks like a moderately updated version of WOW. Many of the models are blocky, flat, and clay-like, without any actual texturization. These are among the worst offenders IMO:
The steps, walls, railings, the floors, so much in this image look incredibly soft and lifeless. There's no real textures on them to match the cracks, the signs of wear, the dirt, anything else- they just had skins slapped on them. And worst of all are the gargoyles- there's no depth or cohesion at all to the models. They look completely thrown-together.
The same problems hold true of the environment here, and there's another aspect to look at- the furniture. Again, there's no real textures at all. Even the skin resolutions look dated. Many of the objects look overtly blocky, especially the candles, and there's absolutely no shadows at all on most of the objects. Also note how the carpet looks completely unseperate from the floor, there's even clippings in the carpet skin in the upper left. That large crease also looks completely out of place.
The problems with the textures and depth of the models are most evident in the out door environments. Again, there's pretty much no real textures on the hills, the plains, the trees etc. It looks like the skins were just planted over some generic hill models with little else done. And the cartoonish factor really shows here too- the grass, the stones, the trees all have a water-color look to them- they remind of me the art-style of Tales of Vesperia for the 360:
It's honest to god one of the best looking games I've ever seen- but the environmental art style fits perfectly for this game. The textures fit perfectly as well. That's because Vesperia is out to look like an actual anime, but it's completely out of place in a game like D3.
The foliage, especially for the trees, looks very poor- I know there's few games out there that don't have much of a cardboard element to the foliage, but D3 doesn't really even look like it's trying here. The branches and leaves of the trees completely blend in with the surrounding environment due to the thrown-together watercolor look.
There's also some other technical issues I noticed- such as that one bloated demon, where every part of it's body completely dissapears when it explodes, and leaves a huge mass of lamprey-like creatures with a cardboard effect that quickly dissapear afterwards. Hell, it would be great if corpses in general in D3 didn't dissapear so quickly.
That's all I have to say. I know this isn't the final product at all for D3, but it really concerns me when so much of the game looks this dated for something made in 08. I see not much wrong with the gameplay, just hoping there's more than 5 classes.
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I know what you mean about Blizzard not always being on the cutting edge. But this looks too dated even for them. What we've seen in D3 would be considered high quality roughly 3 years ago.
I explained why it looks sloppy, and I don't see how you can't agree somewhat on it. Look at how so much of the environments lack any actual textures or even have decent skins.
Again, I don't see much wrong with the artsyle, but alot of D3 has a watercolor look that simply doesn't work for it. The swarms of pale, decaying zombies don't match well with the pastel hillsides and forests.
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But who sent out a survey or collection of critiques when SC2 was announced?
I'll be honest, I'm disgusted with what Blizzard has done with SC2. It's not just the style- no, it's the gameplay even moreso. SC2 looks and plays INCREDIBLY similarly to the first one. Things like the general scaling are exactly the same too. So many of the new features it boasts have been done just as well, or even better in many other RTS games that are currently out or coming up. These are all huge problems because it's been 10 YEARS since SC1 came out. I don't think SC2 is gonna turn out as a bad game, but it'll be way below what a franchise 10 years without a sequel deserves.
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Like I said, it's damn distressing when what's supposed to be even just an initial build looks this sloppy. And the gameplay trailer was 20 minutes.
I really hope Blizzard listens this time. Starcraft 2 looks ridiculously cartoonish and heavily unchanged gameplay-wise from the first one despite it now being over a year since it was first announced.
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Yeah, I should have mentioned that too with us seeing only 2 environments- but the problems I see are evident in every facet of D3, that being the very dated and sloppy look of so much of the game.
I did. It's supposed to be a parody. That pic is going at the most minute details of the in-game physics while knocking on how so many people are having meltdowns by seeing one rainbow, when its just trying to be realistic.
I guess Blizzard can take pointers from that pic though.
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Where's the indication that the rainbow would be common AT ALL throughout D3?
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What's so horrible about this?
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http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6461/1214700941414no7.jpg
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Yeah, it's secret. You'd want to be able to see around in your secret dungeon, wouldn't you?
Goddamn just give that a rest.
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Overall, I don't see much wrong with the art style- it does look rather cartoonish and overtly WOW-like in a number of areas, but there's not much to make a fuss over. So I'd just like to see it moderately "darker". The WOW look doesn't come so much from the sort of colors and lighting used, but the models in general.
And that's where my biggest complaints come in- the technical aspects. D3 honestly looks VERY dated in a number of areas. Outside of a stylistic perspective, the game looks like a moderately updated version of WOW. Many of the models are blocky, flat, and clay-like, without any actual texturization. These are among the worst offenders IMO:
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/346/93065920080630screen023ko5.jpg
The steps, walls, railings, the floors, so much in this image look incredibly soft and lifeless. There's no real textures on them to match the cracks, the signs of wear, the dirt, anything else- they just had skins slapped on them. And worst of all are the gargoyles- there's no depth or cohesion at all to the models. They look completely thrown-together.
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/179/930659_20080628_screen003.jpg
The same problems hold true of the environment here, and there's another aspect to look at- the furniture. Again, there's no real textures at all. Even the skin resolutions look dated. Many of the objects look overtly blocky, especially the candles, and there's absolutely no shadows at all on most of the objects. Also note how the carpet looks completely unseperate from the floor, there's even clippings in the carpet skin in the upper left. That large crease also looks completely out of place.
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/181/930659_20080630_screen013.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/181/930659_20080630_screen014.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/181/930659_20080630_screen025.jpg
The problems with the textures and depth of the models are most evident in the out door environments. Again, there's pretty much no real textures on the hills, the plains, the trees etc. It looks like the skins were just planted over some generic hill models with little else done. And the cartoonish factor really shows here too- the grass, the stones, the trees all have a water-color look to them- they remind of me the art-style of Tales of Vesperia for the 360:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/176/945075_20080625_screen006.jpg
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/176/945075_20080625_screen007.jpg
It's honest to god one of the best looking games I've ever seen- but the environmental art style fits perfectly for this game. The textures fit perfectly as well. That's because Vesperia is out to look like an actual anime, but it's completely out of place in a game like D3.
The foliage, especially for the trees, looks very poor- I know there's few games out there that don't have much of a cardboard element to the foliage, but D3 doesn't really even look like it's trying here. The branches and leaves of the trees completely blend in with the surrounding environment due to the thrown-together watercolor look.
There's also some other technical issues I noticed- such as that one bloated demon, where every part of it's body completely dissapears when it explodes, and leaves a huge mass of lamprey-like creatures with a cardboard effect that quickly dissapear afterwards. Hell, it would be great if corpses in general in D3 didn't dissapear so quickly.
That's all I have to say. I know this isn't the final product at all for D3, but it really concerns me when so much of the game looks this dated for something made in 08. I see not much wrong with the gameplay, just hoping there's more than 5 classes.