Two new Big && Awesome Videos

will200

Two new videos have been released within the Vanguard forums and on mirroring sites.

Beta Tester Vid(HUGE 450mb, res=1000x800):

http://www.kalyper.com/TesterVid3_1200x800.avi

Dev Walkthrough (by far the coolest yet):

http://www.fileplanet.com/169885/160000/fileinfo/Vanguard:-Saga-Of-Heroes---In-Depth-Walkthrough

I'll keep posting these as I see them if you'd all like.

scaramoosh

that dev walkthrough sounded like they were bored of their own game.

velebnicek

This has to be THE most un-enthusiastic dev commentary I have ever seen. They sound like like they were high or suffered from extreme sleep deprivation.

The char creation part did not impress. Chars don't look "real" enough to be impressive nor "cartoony" enough to be stylish. A lot of them kinda seemed to be out of proportions.
The boat, world, dungeon part was ok.
But they will have to work on fighting fluidness and animation A LOT. Watching it was almost as sleep inducing as listening to commentary.
Swing
*yawn*
Dodge
*this sword is really heavy, lets take a break*
Swing
*wake me up when it's my turn*
Wait, it's not turn-based combat?

Wizardry

I am very happy to see some actual video,because to tell the truth all the screenshots ive looked at don't look very impressive.I'll get back to this after i watch the videos.

Wizardry

Well i watched only the SOE one because i don't like the popups i got from the other.

After watching this ,it didnt give me any different impression than i got from screenshots.This game looks alot like what happened to dark and light.In saying this i mean it looks to have a ton of potential,but that game engine is horrible looking.If ever a game that looks like ultima online with a MU flavour needed an UNREAL engine this is it.

I would fire the team that worked on the texture useage for this game because it is a throwback to 8 bit garbage.I'm not sure why they got the game looking so BLAND,perhaps its exspansiveness won't allow it to handle better texture useage,without calling for high end computers.This coulda been easily fixed by having two different texture packages for the game ,one with hi res and one with low res.

I was happy to see the speed of the battle is more realistic and not this asian 500 swings a second craziness.

I still feel the ideals and concepts of this game are great,it's just that it will be very hard for me to buy a game that looks like im playing ultima online from 15 years ago.

I would say that just about everything is kinda neat about this game ,but its bland looks will hurt this game ALOT.Even the player meshes look very old school,i'd really like to know just how old this game engine is because it looks very old.There is that game where 90% of the players are dragons ,that also reminded me of the way this game looks.The two game engines look VERY similiar.

Serenikill

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Originally posted by Wizardry
Well i watched only the SOE one because i don't like the popups i got from the other. After watching this ,it didnt give me any different impression than i got from screenshots.This game looks alot like what happened to dark and light.In saying this i mean it looks to have a ton of potential,but that game engine is horrible looking.If ever a game that looks like ultima online with a MU flavour needed an UNREAL engine this is it. I would fire the team that worked on the texture useage for this game because it is a throwback to 8 bit garbage.I'm not sure why they got the game looking so BLAND,perhaps its exspansiveness won't allow it to handle better texture useage,without calling for high end computers.This coulda been easily fixed by having two different texture packages for the game ,one with hi res and one with low res. I was happy to see the speed of the battle is more realistic and not this asian 500 swings a second craziness. I still feel the ideals and concepts of this game are great,it's just that it will be very hard for me to buy a game that looks like im playing ultima online from 15 years ago. I would say that just about everything is kinda neat about this game ,but its bland looks will hurt this game ALOT.Even the player meshes look very old school,i'd really like to know just how old this game engine is because it looks very old.There is that game where 90% of the players are dragons ,that also reminded me of the way this game looks.The two game engines look VERY similiar.

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If you mean Horizons, lol, I can tell you the engines are not at all similar. I guess it is probably the art style you don't like, because the textures and stuff are just as highly detailed and well done as EQ2.

If you don't like traditional fantasy art, you won't like the style of this game.

irish97

I like the way you can see far, that's pretty good. The graphics look pretty poor. Comparing them to everquest 2 is fair, but that game is about 5 years old now I think. Maybe it's very content heavy tho and they have to keep the graphics low or something.

Gameloading

I have a question, The wolf like creatue, that was being played at the last part of the movie, during the group combat. what Class was he playing?

damkar

The developer did sound sleepy, but I didn't get the sense he didn't care about the game. He just seemed like he was woken up from a deep sleep to answer the same question for the 500th time. The graphics are nice but not exceptionally ground breaking. The game play looked like a mix of EQ, EQ2, DAOC, and some UO elements. I was worried about the game before, but I am more sold now. Good job Sigils and yeah animation needs help, but not on speed - on contact. Rapid fast fights like people are on speed isn't good for immersion, only for fast grinding. This is much better. What it lacks is realism - splatter some blood guys. Give some contact to the animation. Swinging a sword in air and slaying a dragon without touching it isn't realistic Shortcomings a side, it looked (from the video's) as a solid core gamer mmorpg that would appeal to EQ-Eq2 players. Attract WoW players? Erm - pass the pipe dude!

ItlanChode

I don't think he's bored of the game, I think he's just fucking boring. Like.. in every aspect of his life.

morbatail

Actually I was impressed with both screen shots and videos I have seen of Vanguard.  I am not into the Anime look that most of the games are taking to now (wow and warhammer).  I see a lot of potential for this game and being that there are still betas left to complete before release then graphics and animation will also improve before release.  I would like to see a bit more graphic work on the horses particularly the manes seem a bit stiff and blocky.  Overall character design is good with the ability to use sliders to set certain aspects of face, size and hieght.

As far as them sounding bored.  Well public speaking is hard enough to do.  What was the situation at the time had they been up all night working was it impromptu shoot.  Were they working from a script or just running over a few basics without releasing to much but trying to give just enough insight as to what is going to be available.

Solntse

First video's link is broken.

Cerion

That dev walk-through was darn interesting. The amount of ownership they are implementing in the game will be a huge draw.  The character customization seemed quite good.

I love the fact that you can own a ship and customize it, as well as own housing.  Seems like they took some of the best things from SWG and expanded on that. That's what I'd call great evolutionary game design.

Crixey

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Originally posted by ItlanChode
I don't think he's bored of the game, I think he's just fucking boring. Like.. in every aspect of his life.

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that was not nice. untill you know someone in real life is it very difficult to know what someone is like, let alone their life. i am sure you can be nice. after all, you never know what someones life is like untill you walk a mile or five in their shoes.

 

On another note though..  i like the videos a lot. It makes me want to play the game. seeing more and more come out, watching the world grow and flurish has been amazing.

yes he did sound very tired, and from what I have heard he gets a stack of interviews every day. it can get boring and repetitive repating the same thing so many times, even if just once a week. i know my mom gets real tired repeating herself to us all the time, even if it is just once a week. does not mean she is borring. actualy its the oppisit. but get her when she is tired and she has said the same thing many many times already.. well, she can get cranky. i dont think he sounded cranky at all.. just ... tired.

Amathe

I haven't seen such an exciting video since I watched "The History of Grain" in elementary school.

fiontar

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Originally posted by Serenikill

If you mean Horizons, lol, I can tell you the engines are not at all similar. I guess it is probably the art style you don't like, because the textures and stuff are just as highly detailed and well done as EQ2.

If you don't like traditional fantasy art, you won't like the style of this game.

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If you are trying to scare people away from this game, you are doing a good job. As detailed and well done as EQ2? The character models, textures, animations etc... in EQ2 are literally vomit inducing. It's a game I should have liked, but after three attempts, the last one with a very high end system/video card and much tweaking of settings, I had to give up on EQ2 because of the horrendous aesthetics!

I like traditional fantasy art just fine, I dabble in it myself, EQ2 looks more like Robot Chicken (stop motion with action figures) than anything else.

EQ2 was ruined by that damned rendering engine, horrible character modeling and completely untalented texture work.

If Vanguard looks and feels anything like EQ2, no matter how good the rest of the game is, it will be as limited in it's efforts at broad appeal as EQ2 has found itself.

I fully understand that the nature of an MMORPG is far more limiting on potential graphics quality than games with much more narrow focus. I'm not asking for graphics on par with the best RTS games of 2006, but they could at least be on par with the best RTS games of four or five years ago!

fiontar

Well, watched the dev walk through video. Hard to tell for sure on the graphics, because of video compression. I'm downloading the other one now.

Graphics do appear a little dated, but with a completely seemless world and such huge view distances for terrain, they had to compromise some where. It appears that graphics will at least be sufficient. The player models and animations seem marginally better than EQ2, I'll wait until I see the high res video to make more of a judgement, but they seem to be lacking the plastic feel I hate about EQ2.

The world design looks very good, interesting with plenty to explore. I like the way the dungeons are being done, the mounts, houses, ships etc... are all great features.

I agree with some others that the UI seems to be a direct rip off of WoW, or at least WoW with a player mod or two. I hate universal cooldowns on skills in WoW i.e. use an instant and trigger a 1 second cool down on all your other skills. I was not happy to see a similar mechanic here. I couldn't tell from the video if there is a command buffer or not. I hate when there is a cooldown like that and the game scolds you if you trigger the next skill a split second before the cooldown ends.

Combat seemed pretty uninspired. In spite of the skill chain like system the devs were talking about, just watching the fight was very ho-hum. That's a bit of a concern.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed and remain optimistic, but nothing mind blowing.

fiontar

I've now watched the Hi-res video. Sufficient graphics, but it does look a little dated. Better terrain design, but very similar look to SWG graphics, maybe even a smidgen below SWG. Not really up to par with expectations for this next generation of MMORPGs, but servicable if the game itself is fun and playable.

The character models are a lot like EQ2, but marginally better as far as the talent of the modelers. Hair looks a little too plastic. Animations seem a little better than EQ2.

I'm once again underwhelmed by combat. Pretty uninspired combat animations and particle effects, boring flow of battle visually.

The world, quests and game mechanics will have to be good to compensate for the unimpressive visual engine.

I guess my expectations have taken a hit, but it's still a game I will watch with interest.

BTW, considering what modern video cards can do, why are spell and proc effects in most MMORPGs so horrible?