I don't know why would even be discussing the graphics, which I happen to agree are gorgeous, when there are so many much more legitimate things to take issue with (Here are just a few, not necessarily in order of importance):
1. Just plain sloppy dialog, grammar, and spelling. (get an Editor of some sort!)
2. Poor character customization. Can we get more than 4 hairstyles? (Also incomplete, per the Devs)
3. Wooden animations - across the board. Of course this is by design, ala the universal skeleton system. Let's at least try to get that universal animation set up to par, folks!
4. Buggy pop-up windows. Nothing like having that small box stretch out to fill your screen, then snap back to normal size only to be filled with what can only be described as multi-hued static. Usually you will eventually get your window... but on occasion they just disappear next. When the dialog windows come up empty... that's pretty special too (requires a relog to correct).
5. Gotta love the hard lock that can accompany the Exchange Vendors. I love having to reset my PC to free it up from a game, don't you?
6. Bugged and/or incomplete quests. There are several zones where some of the quests just aren't able to be completed.
7. Random shifting of character appearances that can sometimes be corrected by a save/load template in the character customization screen... and sometimes can't. But who really cares... given the weak customization that is available right now.
8. Inconsistent methodolgy. Some Quests use standard 'click the quest NPC' to advance. Some require you to click a conversation fragment to advance... and some require you to /say a particular word or phrase in the vicinity of the NPC to advance. Good luck with that last one, by the way, as your clues as to what to say are not always clear. The Diplomacy quests can suffer from this as well... requiring you to /hail an NPC to trigger the Parley instead of just being able to right click on them. This can be especialy fun in those instances where there are several NPCs standing around and you just don't know which one you need to talk to when because there is no clue (ala the Crystalline NPCs atop the peak near Tanvu).
9. Random tabbing out to Desktop... mixed in with the occasional crash to desktop and termination of the Vanguard executable.
10. How about discovering that for a day or more you cannot log into a particular chunk? It's great not to be able to log into any character in Tursh... especially when that is the character you have invested all of your time and effort into since launch.
Don't kid yourself. Vanguard is no where near whole, much less complete. It resembles an Alpha stage game... not a release.
* For the record, my machine is a 3ghz P4 with 1GB ram and an Nvidia 7600GT. It is certainly not top of the line, but it exceeds the minimum specs and approaches the recommended (I look forward to 2GB of ram soon). The game runs well in balanced, which is how I play - and these problems all turn up regularly.
Games will continue to be released as unfinished, uninspired, broken pieces of junk even in 2050 as long as there are blind fans that worship everything thrown at them!
This is unfortunately probably true. In my almost 10 years of playing MMO's, the only game out of dozens that was released in a pretty much bug free and mostly finished state was DAOC.
In VG, it was obvious that the final 2 beta cycles were too short, and in some games has been even worse. But some have also been a lot better.
Already been posted. I've never turned to gamespy for real reviews. Certainly anyone who churns out a review of a MMORPG after only two weeks is not to be taken seriously - True professionals like gamespot take a month or more to review MMORPGs.
Hey, Aeronis, looks like your true professionals couldn't wait a month with their review. You mad?
Wow, you people needs your head examined... I play VG, and guess what? This review is 100% dead on... All you twerps with your panties in a wad need to go for a walk... I am glad they mentioned the elistism factor, as it is apparent on these very boards... Face it, you Vanbois never get laid, you have no friends and VG is the center of your small and shallow little world... Don't take it out on us because the game was called out for what it is... And yes, this is SWG all over again...
Well, apparently SWG at this stage was the best game!
Already been posted. I've never turned to gamespy for real reviews. Certainly anyone who churns out a review of a MMORPG after only two weeks is not to be taken seriously - True professionals like gamespot take a month or more to review MMORPGs.
They're also full of shit with "uninspired graphics" - It's a stylistic choice to go for realistic high fantasy, and it looks awesome on highest settings.
Obviously that's someone who didn't spend time getting around to see what is really out there, nor do they recognize the beauty inherent in Vanguard's realistic environments.
It's totaly BS nonsense that Vanguard's graphics are "too realistic" - whichever side of the fence you're on. Realistic graphics can be very creative, inspired, and epic awe-inspiring. What does "uninspired" mean? It means not inspired by anything in particular. Realism can be VERY inspiring. Just takes a lot of skill and attention to detail.
e.g. Look at the rocks they've put everywhere, from the boulders scattered all over, to the mountains they use to make thier seamless world feel like zones - those aren't realistic rock textures at all. Sure, rocks are grey, and they're grey, but they look like big piles of melted plastic. I don't think thier artists ever really studied what real boulders and mountains look like. Because if they did look realistic, i.e. "inspired" by real rocks and mountains, I don't think anyone in thier right minds would be complaining.
Realism which, BTW, would not require higher poly counts, higher res textures, more bump-mapping, or better pixel shaders. Just artists that know what they're doing.
Vanguard has the potential to be a beautiful epic world. Unfortunately, one of the things they'd have to do to achieve that potential would be to retexture the entire freakin thing, and I just don't see that happening.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Comments
I don't know why would even be discussing the graphics, which I happen to agree are gorgeous, when there are so many much more legitimate things to take issue with (Here are just a few, not necessarily in order of importance):
1. Just plain sloppy dialog, grammar, and spelling. (get an Editor of some sort!)
2. Poor character customization. Can we get more than 4 hairstyles? (Also incomplete, per the Devs)
3. Wooden animations - across the board. Of course this is by design, ala the universal skeleton system. Let's at least try to get that universal animation set up to par, folks!
4. Buggy pop-up windows. Nothing like having that small box stretch out to fill your screen, then snap back to normal size only to be filled with what can only be described as multi-hued static. Usually you will eventually get your window... but on occasion they just disappear next. When the dialog windows come up empty... that's pretty special too (requires a relog to correct).
5. Gotta love the hard lock that can accompany the Exchange Vendors. I love having to reset my PC to free it up from a game, don't you?
6. Bugged and/or incomplete quests. There are several zones where some of the quests just aren't able to be completed.
7. Random shifting of character appearances that can sometimes be corrected by a save/load template in the character customization screen... and sometimes can't. But who really cares... given the weak customization that is available right now.
8. Inconsistent methodolgy. Some Quests use standard 'click the quest NPC' to advance. Some require you to click a conversation fragment to advance... and some require you to /say a particular word or phrase in the vicinity of the NPC to advance. Good luck with that last one, by the way, as your clues as to what to say are not always clear. The Diplomacy quests can suffer from this as well... requiring you to /hail an NPC to trigger the Parley instead of just being able to right click on them. This can be especialy fun in those instances where there are several NPCs standing around and you just don't know which one you need to talk to when because there is no clue (ala the Crystalline NPCs atop the peak near Tanvu).
9. Random tabbing out to Desktop... mixed in with the occasional crash to desktop and termination of the Vanguard executable.
10. How about discovering that for a day or more you cannot log into a particular chunk? It's great not to be able to log into any character in Tursh... especially when that is the character you have invested all of your time and effort into since launch.
Don't kid yourself. Vanguard is no where near whole, much less complete. It resembles an Alpha stage game... not a release.
* For the record, my machine is a 3ghz P4 with 1GB ram and an Nvidia 7600GT. It is certainly not top of the line, but it exceeds the minimum specs and approaches the recommended (I look forward to 2GB of ram soon). The game runs well in balanced, which is how I play - and these problems all turn up regularly.
This is unfortunately probably true. In my almost 10 years of playing MMO's, the only game out of dozens that was released in a pretty much bug free and mostly finished state was DAOC.
In VG, it was obvious that the final 2 beta cycles were too short, and in some games has been even worse. But some have also been a lot better.
Hey, Aeronis, looks like your true professionals couldn't wait a month with their review. You mad?
ROTFL
eqnext.wikia.com
thanks for reminding us
eqnext.wikia.com
It's totaly BS nonsense that Vanguard's graphics are "too realistic" - whichever side of the fence you're on. Realistic graphics can be very creative, inspired, and epic awe-inspiring. What does "uninspired" mean? It means not inspired by anything in particular. Realism can be VERY inspiring. Just takes a lot of skill and attention to detail.
e.g. Look at the rocks they've put everywhere, from the boulders scattered all over, to the mountains they use to make thier seamless world feel like zones - those aren't realistic rock textures at all. Sure, rocks are grey, and they're grey, but they look like big piles of melted plastic. I don't think thier artists ever really studied what real boulders and mountains look like. Because if they did look realistic, i.e. "inspired" by real rocks and mountains, I don't think anyone in thier right minds would be complaining.
Realism which, BTW, would not require higher poly counts, higher res textures, more bump-mapping, or better pixel shaders. Just artists that know what they're doing.
Vanguard has the potential to be a beautiful epic world. Unfortunately, one of the things they'd have to do to achieve that potential would be to retexture the entire freakin thing, and I just don't see that happening.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.