I agree with a few here as well. I don't love them, but I don't hate them. I had hoped for a more "beautiful" game, one that just makes you marvel in the landscapes and the sheer mass of it (which, they do , but we talk character models here).. I don't like they "clone wars" us'ed with it but I take it like this. I never , NEVER liked WoW's toon characters, but after awhile, it grew on me. I had fun with them..(this ofcourse faded cause the game got boring as hell to me). So , how they look to me isnt as important as how much FUN they'll be.. I just can't wait to see it all for myself,.
Yes, the models and textures are lacking, but you've got to accept that this game is targeted at the biggest possible audience, i.e. ment to run fluid even on five year old desktop hardware and $600 notebooks.
It's something the better developers do understand, whereas the not so intelligent ones go full graphics and details and cut off half their possible customers.
I think that SWTOR-graphics are quiet OK for the target-audience if you look at all the others released during the last year. Single player games is another story tho, as the're more shortlived anyways.
This.
Considering all the millons put into development its in their best interest to reach the largest sub base possible and "cartoony" or "bland" graphics will help.
This is something eye candy whores either refuse to believe or can't understand.
I love how some people rag on TOR's character models, which i think look great for an mmorpg. Want to see horrible models, glance over to AA and look how pathetic they look compared to the game world. Hell, their even using the cryengine 3 engine which should have models looking like crysis and let's remember, that game is about to release.
At least you can see how TOR's models have improved year by year in the development cycle. AA models must have been stick figures in the beginning if they look like they do now, being so close to release.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Here is where the subjectivity of art is shown the most clearly. The OP and several others feel the character models are "aweful", while some are indifferent, and the majority are happy with them or better. Me persoanlly, I think they look very good although I will admit to not liking most armors for SIs and JCs being dresses. Most games that I have seen recently look much worse and it is so easy for an ultra-realistic looking character model to just be off in some disturbing way that I am glad they didn't go that route, even discounting the problems it would cause with playability.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
I think the problem is that at first glance they look plastic, flat, and dated, lacking either the realism of modern games, or the artistic flare of GW2, I have the same problem with the characters in TSW, only they are more generic. If the stylisation was more obvious like Clones Wars, it would be more effective at hiding its polygon nature. I feel that in 2 years time people will look at Archage, GW2, and other mmos with strong or realistic styles and see SWTOR as toy-like or childish in comparison, I've certainly heard that already from the first reactions of casual no-fans.
It doesnt look "timeless" at least in mid or long shots, as it just reminds people of earlier games, with less sophisticated textures, shading and lighting. cartoony is fine, i loved the WoW designs, and that of the Clone Wars series, but the goal of game designers should now be to choose designs that are further removed from previous aesthetic limitations, not one that remind us of them.
Though many have warmed to it recently, a significant percentage still have doubts, I can’t think of any other upcoming mmo where this is still a controversy. The fact that the look has been criticised many, many times before is a sign that they should have tried another style, it certainly doesn’t look like this is the most expensive mmo ever made.
It seems to be another example of how the franchise is being turned into a glorified toy commercial, cutting of as much of the adult fans as possible. We all know that the major NPCs will be turning up in mint condition boxes on ebay in 20 years.
Ever wonder why WoW keeps it's cartoony graphics? Runs and works on more machines. Why is ToR doing cartoony graphics? Same reason. It's not a matter of like vs. dislike for the consumers. It's a matter of a smart business move and money maker, why make a game with Crysis graphics when the most you will draw in is the 15-20% range when you can make a cartoony looking game that can draw in a 80-95% range.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
I have never cared for the cartoon art style and that really hasn't changed even if the models have improved. I'm convinced to this day that they choose the cartoon art style to bring attention to the Clone Wars series. The fact that they recently admitted that they never even considered any other style just makes me believe that all the more. In short I'm convinced it was something Lucas Arts wanted from the beginning and had more to do with marketing their other properties than anything else. It won't change the fact that I'll play the game and hopefully enjoy it a great deal, but it certainly wasn't my preference. On the bright side it probably really will help older machines run the game, tho I just don't believe that's the real reason they choose the art style from the beginning without even considering other possibilities.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Once again i guess the proof is in the pudding. TOR's style while not exactly realistic, are absolutly nice and in no way are the same as the Clone Wars. Honestly, though, i don't think the Clone wars style is bad either though. Just a few shots to put things in perspective. TOR's, Clone Wars and even some GW2 random shots.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Once again i guess the proof is in the pudding. TOR's style while not exactly realistic, are absolutly nice and in no way are the same as the Clone Wars. Honestly, though, i don't think the Clone wars style is bad either though. Just a few shots to put things in perspective. TOR's, Clone Wars and even some GW2 random shots.
The armors look good, I love the troopers armor, his weapon i don't much care for, looks like a toy, but all clothing that is not armor like looks just flat out weird, it's like spandex, look at the jedi on the 2nd row, middle and right, they look like abnormal hulks, the left one is pretty good, except he literally looks like he's wearing underwear outside his spandex pants...
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Once again i guess the proof is in the pudding. TOR's style while not exactly realistic, are absolutly nice and in no way are the same as the Clone Wars. Honestly, though, i don't think the Clone wars style is bad either though. Just a few shots to put things in perspective. TOR's, Clone Wars and even some GW2 random shots.
The armors look good, I love the troopers armor, his weapon i don't much care for, looks like a toy, but all clothing that is not armor like looks just flat out weird, it's like spandex, look at the jedi on the 2nd row, middle and right, they look like abnormal hulks, the left one is pretty good, except he literally looks like he's wearing underwear outside his spandex pants...
You have to remember, this is not in the time period of the movies. Jedi and sith were more soilders of war and not the monk types that were portrayed in the time of Vader and Obi wan. They wore alot of different type of armors and since this is a game after all i do believe that Bioware wanted to have a type of armor progression that shows your toon at a low level and the progress up from there.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
Once again i guess the proof is in the pudding. TOR's style while not exactly realistic, are absolutly nice and in no way are the same as the Clone Wars. Honestly, though, i don't think the Clone wars style is bad either though. Just a few shots to put things in perspective. TOR's, Clone Wars and even some GW2 random shots.
i prefer tor's design over all of the others, it just looks better, more depth and better quality. im a fan, and these screenshots are why, i have no idea what most of you guys are on about to be honest, probably just whining for the sake of it again...
Sith Warriors are meant to look imposing. I do admit the cloth can look a bit off but I think the overall work they've done on character models and textures is very good.
Also keep in mind that it would be normal for low level wears to look not so great to make later gear look more epic. :P I also would much rather look like a super hero in spandex than a clown in all the colors of the rainbow like in wow's early level gear. :P
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I think it's just unrealistic that Bioware would have went the way of having characters look like The Force Unleashed. Yea, that game is gritty and very realistic, but how many people would have the machines to run that. It was a smart move to present a style for TOR that will allow those with high end machines to reap the full benifits and those with lessor machines be able to run the game with nice graphics.
Yeah the character models have been somewhat of a contention with people in the past, mostly though it was the animation of the characters themselves.
Me? I like all kinds of different art styles from super realistic to child like cartoonish to gritty dark and dreary. The one thing i don't like is all my games being of the same type. I don't like all gritty dark and dreary, i don't like all super realistic, i don't like all of them child like cartoonish.
The biggest problem i've had with the MMO genre as a whole is we either get these.
Nothing wrong with them mind you. It's an artstyle. It's just one i feel is somewhat overused in this genre.
Most of the others we don't get so often sometimes you'll run into realistic graphics but to me you run into these other two types far too often for my liking. maybe they are easy to render, maybe they allow for good looking graphics when your in a world of 1K other people. I certainly don't know. I only had like a couple of months of art school which is not enough to tell why they use one art style over another.
While i might not fall head over heals for the character models in ToR I do like them, to me they give a I don't know a different feel and appeal to them. I don't feel like i'm really playing a cartoon character but i don't feel like i'm playing a super realistic character. So it's different to me which is a good thing to me.
There is another reason they may be avoiding the super realistic graphic that may have nothing to do with limitations or lasting appeal. in at least a good chunk of the game you, your friends, your companions and the npc will be doing emotions, talking and walking around. If any of these strikes you as odd ala the uncanny valley. It will annoy you for the entirety of the game. Which is okay when your playing for 30 mins or so with a singeplayer game like i did with infamous 1. That had super realistic (mind you for the time) but when cole started talking it looked like he was a dummy (thats the doll not the intellegence level) where his mouth would move down in a straight line, at any moment i was expecting to see slits on either side of his mouth. I love the game but that always made me scratch my head and in effect pulled me out of it abit. Fortuantly that was never very long before you were in the action again, but again i only played it for about 30 or 40 hours each play through (from start to finish, yes i'm that slow it comes from wandering around a lot) but when you play a game for months or years on end where you are coming face to face with characters on a regular basis. I'd prefer a art style that doesn't make my characters facial expressions look odd. I want to connect to my character, not analys their specific facial features.
Now granted if they can manage getting great facial features, make the characters look realistic (not in the sense of polygon count but that the character looks and response as a person of that race should, and not just look weird) then i say go for it. Have a blast and so will I. However if you feel you can't achieve this then i'd prefer in an MMO you didn't try. It's more of the length of time you'll be seeing these models up close that makes the decision of trying to overcome that uncanny valley something you really want to think about before you try, especially when nearly every game on the market has tried to overcome this and has failed to various degrees. Myself i think ME came pretty close but that may be because i didn't overanalyse it. It would be cool to have a game of that graphics level in an MMO. But thats just me.
As for wether it's good or bad. Dunno now it's been about a year since i've last got my hands on it, and theres only so much you can tell about like or dislike from a picture. I'll give a more up to date feeling on it when i get another hands on at PaX Prime.
As for the models themselves? While the running animations may be not the best i've ever seen around they look well enough to satisfy me and i've certianly played worsed and had fun.
The clothing is good as well. I didn't care for the spikey shoulderpads for some of the jedi the sith it's fine i expect this from an evil guy, but not the jedi but who knows there may be a reason for that, like only a dark jedi can wear those. I doubt it but i simply don't know.
I love the attack animations, i played EQ, then EQ2 and all those and my character never moved around that much and actually was syncronized with the other person. Some asian games do have you move around quite a bit but it's disconnected with the character, where as here it seems in tune.
As for the faces? yeah some of them seem a little bit off. Really hard to make a reaslistic looking face. I think they accomplished it well enough though, and now they are adding facial expressions (frowning, blinking of the eyes) and wrinkles and spots to some of the characters which is really helping.
I also like the eyes. Don't ask me why. It just seems like i'm looking into round eyeballs rather then flat ones i've seen most of the time, and they seem to be following the characters which is cool.
Overall on the character models i'd give them about a
7 out of 10. a few things i dont care for but overall rather well done, at least for now. Still some time to go before we get to see the final product.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
i like the character models, they are decent. But i think all the hype for swtor is because of star wars and not for a new mmo... but its just an opinion
i like the character models, they are decent. But i think all the hype for swtor is because of star wars and not for a new mmo... but its just an opinion
I think you are correct in that statement but i don't think thats the entire reason by itself.
The reason i think people are following this game is a few reasons.
Yes star wars is one of the reasons. It certainly does get people looking at it at the start.
Another thing is people see Bioware and get immediately interested. Bioware is a pretty big company and when they do a fully fledged MMO it does get people interested to see their take on it.
Then you have the people who absolutely adore the Kotor games and see this as a sequel of it, thus they are interested in seeing how it turns out.
Granted if this was just an MMO made by Bioware it might do well (hype wise) but the fact of it being star wars and a sequel to a game people loved helps it even more.
I will grant you though, most don't go in it expecting a new type of MMO just one with Bioware type gameplay that they can play with others.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
I'm not a fan either, It's not too big of a deal, but it jsut bugs me a lot. And I know I will get distracted by it whenver I play it. Like others have mentioned, its just the proportions of the characters, their facial features and their bodies, looks weird. Cartoonish stuff doesn't usually bother me, like wow's cartoonish stuff did not really bother me, but just the way the characters look , it just seems to overdo it with player characters themselves. The world and the npcs look fine. But thats just me.
If the gameplay is good, I won't even care...but if it's mediocre then I'll consider it a negative.
Also, it seems to be a problem with the male models, the female models don't look bad besides for their oddly small heads on some of the female npcs.
I think they look amazing. I really like the style they are doing, I'm glad they didn't go too too realistic, I just hope there are alot of options to customize your characters. Look really similar to most MMO's IMO. Better than Gw2 models in my opinion, but thats my, and others opinion. Not that Gw2 models look bad, but I think they look better than any other game out there.
The scaling is fairly good, they dont have to overly big or small heads , ofc its a little overdone whit the body's but thats so in every mmo, never seen realistic creatures scales.
the reason it all looks off scale is deu to most of the armor. lots of shots have wide cloth/armor that makes the head seem smaller , add a helmet to it and its seems to become ok. tho im no fan of the armor in SW:ToR is all a little to bulky for me.
but eh its not a super hero skinsuit that can deflect lasers type of game, its starwars and starwars always had these bulky type of designs since they could not do better when making the first movies back in the days.
I'm not a fan either, It's not too big of a deal, but it jsut bugs me a lot. And I know I will get distracted by it whenver I play it. Like others have mentioned, its just the proportions of the characters, their facial features and their bodies, looks weird. Cartoonish stuff doesn't usually bother me, like wow's cartoonish stuff did not really bother me, but just the way the characters look , it just seems to overdo it with player characters themselves. The world and the npcs look fine. But thats just me.
If the gameplay is good, I won't even care...but if it's mediocre then I'll consider it a negative.
Also, it seems to be a problem with the male models, the female models don't look bad besides for their oddly small heads on some of the female npcs.
They wanted to try too hard.
Would they have tuned it down it would have been great, but at this point seeing the results you either laugh or cry .
Just because I can, I would like to point out that 20 years ago, we used our imagination to create RPG worlds in text based games known as MuDs. In fact, I was playing a game called Gemstone 3 back in the early 90's when you paid for internet by the hour.
Graphics are a bonus, not a necessity...
Well in that case there was a time when movies didnt' have sound and people took in the story by what the actors were doing as well as snippets of dialogue printed at the bottom the screen. Many movies were made this way.
sound in movies is a bonus not a necessity.
Perhaps you are looking over your silent movie collection and agreeing with me?
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Comments
I agree with a few here as well. I don't love them, but I don't hate them. I had hoped for a more "beautiful" game, one that just makes you marvel in the landscapes and the sheer mass of it (which, they do , but we talk character models here).. I don't like they "clone wars" us'ed with it but I take it like this. I never , NEVER liked WoW's toon characters, but after awhile, it grew on me. I had fun with them..(this ofcourse faded cause the game got boring as hell to me). So , how they look to me isnt as important as how much FUN they'll be.. I just can't wait to see it all for myself,.
This.
Considering all the millons put into development its in their best interest to reach the largest sub base possible and "cartoony" or "bland" graphics will help.
This is something eye candy whores either refuse to believe or can't understand.
I love how some people rag on TOR's character models, which i think look great for an mmorpg. Want to see horrible models, glance over to AA and look how pathetic they look compared to the game world. Hell, their even using the cryengine 3 engine which should have models looking like crysis and let's remember, that game is about to release.
At least you can see how TOR's models have improved year by year in the development cycle. AA models must have been stick figures in the beginning if they look like they do now, being so close to release.
i see 0 problem with them.
Cinematic trailers make me really hyped up, but when i see the cartoony style in SWtOR... it makes me sad sad just sad.
This style of art does not live the legacy of Star Wars and it is awfull move from Bio Ware. Georg Lucases brilliant choise of having old and gritty world, the great "Used Future" concept gets flushed down the toilet with this Clone Wars kids animation style.
If they went this way becauce they hope to catch more children subscribers.... sigh.
they chose it because its a timeless art style.
Here is where the subjectivity of art is shown the most clearly. The OP and several others feel the character models are "aweful", while some are indifferent, and the majority are happy with them or better. Me persoanlly, I think they look very good although I will admit to not liking most armors for SIs and JCs being dresses. Most games that I have seen recently look much worse and it is so easy for an ultra-realistic looking character model to just be off in some disturbing way that I am glad they didn't go that route, even discounting the problems it would cause with playability.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
I think the problem is that at first glance they look plastic, flat, and dated, lacking either the realism of modern games, or the artistic flare of GW2, I have the same problem with the characters in TSW, only they are more generic. If the stylisation was more obvious like Clones Wars, it would be more effective at hiding its polygon nature. I feel that in 2 years time people will look at Archage, GW2, and other mmos with strong or realistic styles and see SWTOR as toy-like or childish in comparison, I've certainly heard that already from the first reactions of casual no-fans.
It doesnt look "timeless" at least in mid or long shots, as it just reminds people of earlier games, with less sophisticated textures, shading and lighting. cartoony is fine, i loved the WoW designs, and that of the Clone Wars series, but the goal of game designers should now be to choose designs that are further removed from previous aesthetic limitations, not one that remind us of them.
Though many have warmed to it recently, a significant percentage still have doubts, I can’t think of any other upcoming mmo where this is still a controversy. The fact that the look has been criticised many, many times before is a sign that they should have tried another style, it certainly doesn’t look like this is the most expensive mmo ever made.
It seems to be another example of how the franchise is being turned into a glorified toy commercial, cutting of as much of the adult fans as possible. We all know that the major NPCs will be turning up in mint condition boxes on ebay in 20 years.
Ever wonder why WoW keeps it's cartoony graphics? Runs and works on more machines. Why is ToR doing cartoony graphics? Same reason. It's not a matter of like vs. dislike for the consumers. It's a matter of a smart business move and money maker, why make a game with Crysis graphics when the most you will draw in is the 15-20% range when you can make a cartoony looking game that can draw in a 80-95% range.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
I have never cared for the cartoon art style and that really hasn't changed even if the models have improved. I'm convinced to this day that they choose the cartoon art style to bring attention to the Clone Wars series. The fact that they recently admitted that they never even considered any other style just makes me believe that all the more. In short I'm convinced it was something Lucas Arts wanted from the beginning and had more to do with marketing their other properties than anything else. It won't change the fact that I'll play the game and hopefully enjoy it a great deal, but it certainly wasn't my preference. On the bright side it probably really will help older machines run the game, tho I just don't believe that's the real reason they choose the art style from the beginning without even considering other possibilities.
Once again i guess the proof is in the pudding. TOR's style while not exactly realistic, are absolutly nice and in no way are the same as the Clone Wars. Honestly, though, i don't think the Clone wars style is bad either though. Just a few shots to put things in perspective. TOR's, Clone Wars and even some GW2 random shots.
The armors look good, I love the troopers armor, his weapon i don't much care for, looks like a toy, but all clothing that is not armor like looks just flat out weird, it's like spandex, look at the jedi on the 2nd row, middle and right, they look like abnormal hulks, the left one is pretty good, except he literally looks like he's wearing underwear outside his spandex pants...
You have to remember, this is not in the time period of the movies. Jedi and sith were more soilders of war and not the monk types that were portrayed in the time of Vader and Obi wan. They wore alot of different type of armors and since this is a game after all i do believe that Bioware wanted to have a type of armor progression that shows your toon at a low level and the progress up from there.
At least you`ll be able to run it on your commodor 64!
i prefer tor's design over all of the others, it just looks better, more depth and better quality. im a fan, and these screenshots are why, i have no idea what most of you guys are on about to be honest, probably just whining for the sake of it again...
Sith Warriors are meant to look imposing. I do admit the cloth can look a bit off but I think the overall work they've done on character models and textures is very good.
Also keep in mind that it would be normal for low level wears to look not so great to make later gear look more epic. :P I also would much rather look like a super hero in spandex than a clown in all the colors of the rainbow like in wow's early level gear. :P
Novendar, Officer of Risen
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I think it's just unrealistic that Bioware would have went the way of having characters look like The Force Unleashed. Yea, that game is gritty and very realistic, but how many people would have the machines to run that. It was a smart move to present a style for TOR that will allow those with high end machines to reap the full benifits and those with lessor machines be able to run the game with nice graphics.
Yeah the character models have been somewhat of a contention with people in the past, mostly though it was the animation of the characters themselves.
Me? I like all kinds of different art styles from super realistic to child like cartoonish to gritty dark and dreary. The one thing i don't like is all my games being of the same type. I don't like all gritty dark and dreary, i don't like all super realistic, i don't like all of them child like cartoonish.
The biggest problem i've had with the MMO genre as a whole is we either get these.
Anime
http://www.mmobomb.com/review/flyff-fly-for-fun
Or these nearly all the time
Asian
http://everyjoe.com/play/set-sights-on-asia-western-mmo-devs-told/
Nothing wrong with them mind you. It's an artstyle. It's just one i feel is somewhat overused in this genre.
Most of the others we don't get so often sometimes you'll run into realistic graphics but to me you run into these other two types far too often for my liking. maybe they are easy to render, maybe they allow for good looking graphics when your in a world of 1K other people. I certainly don't know. I only had like a couple of months of art school which is not enough to tell why they use one art style over another.
While i might not fall head over heals for the character models in ToR I do like them, to me they give a I don't know a different feel and appeal to them. I don't feel like i'm really playing a cartoon character but i don't feel like i'm playing a super realistic character. So it's different to me which is a good thing to me.
There is another reason they may be avoiding the super realistic graphic that may have nothing to do with limitations or lasting appeal. in at least a good chunk of the game you, your friends, your companions and the npc will be doing emotions, talking and walking around. If any of these strikes you as odd ala the uncanny valley. It will annoy you for the entirety of the game. Which is okay when your playing for 30 mins or so with a singeplayer game like i did with infamous 1. That had super realistic (mind you for the time) but when cole started talking it looked like he was a dummy (thats the doll not the intellegence level) where his mouth would move down in a straight line, at any moment i was expecting to see slits on either side of his mouth. I love the game but that always made me scratch my head and in effect pulled me out of it abit. Fortuantly that was never very long before you were in the action again, but again i only played it for about 30 or 40 hours each play through (from start to finish, yes i'm that slow it comes from wandering around a lot) but when you play a game for months or years on end where you are coming face to face with characters on a regular basis. I'd prefer a art style that doesn't make my characters facial expressions look odd. I want to connect to my character, not analys their specific facial features.
Now granted if they can manage getting great facial features, make the characters look realistic (not in the sense of polygon count but that the character looks and response as a person of that race should, and not just look weird) then i say go for it. Have a blast and so will I. However if you feel you can't achieve this then i'd prefer in an MMO you didn't try. It's more of the length of time you'll be seeing these models up close that makes the decision of trying to overcome that uncanny valley something you really want to think about before you try, especially when nearly every game on the market has tried to overcome this and has failed to various degrees. Myself i think ME came pretty close but that may be because i didn't overanalyse it. It would be cool to have a game of that graphics level in an MMO. But thats just me.
As for wether it's good or bad. Dunno now it's been about a year since i've last got my hands on it, and theres only so much you can tell about like or dislike from a picture. I'll give a more up to date feeling on it when i get another hands on at PaX Prime.
As for the models themselves? While the running animations may be not the best i've ever seen around they look well enough to satisfy me and i've certianly played worsed and had fun.
The clothing is good as well. I didn't care for the spikey shoulderpads for some of the jedi the sith it's fine i expect this from an evil guy, but not the jedi but who knows there may be a reason for that, like only a dark jedi can wear those. I doubt it but i simply don't know.
I love the attack animations, i played EQ, then EQ2 and all those and my character never moved around that much and actually was syncronized with the other person. Some asian games do have you move around quite a bit but it's disconnected with the character, where as here it seems in tune.
As for the faces? yeah some of them seem a little bit off. Really hard to make a reaslistic looking face. I think they accomplished it well enough though, and now they are adding facial expressions (frowning, blinking of the eyes) and wrinkles and spots to some of the characters which is really helping.
I also like the eyes. Don't ask me why. It just seems like i'm looking into round eyeballs rather then flat ones i've seen most of the time, and they seem to be following the characters which is cool.
Overall on the character models i'd give them about a
7 out of 10. a few things i dont care for but overall rather well done, at least for now. Still some time to go before we get to see the final product.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
i like the character models, they are decent. But i think all the hype for swtor is because of star wars and not for a new mmo... but its just an opinion
I think you are correct in that statement but i don't think thats the entire reason by itself.
The reason i think people are following this game is a few reasons.
Yes star wars is one of the reasons. It certainly does get people looking at it at the start.
Another thing is people see Bioware and get immediately interested. Bioware is a pretty big company and when they do a fully fledged MMO it does get people interested to see their take on it.
Then you have the people who absolutely adore the Kotor games and see this as a sequel of it, thus they are interested in seeing how it turns out.
Granted if this was just an MMO made by Bioware it might do well (hype wise) but the fact of it being star wars and a sequel to a game people loved helps it even more.
I will grant you though, most don't go in it expecting a new type of MMO just one with Bioware type gameplay that they can play with others.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
I'm not a fan either, It's not too big of a deal, but it jsut bugs me a lot. And I know I will get distracted by it whenver I play it. Like others have mentioned, its just the proportions of the characters, their facial features and their bodies, looks weird. Cartoonish stuff doesn't usually bother me, like wow's cartoonish stuff did not really bother me, but just the way the characters look , it just seems to overdo it with player characters themselves. The world and the npcs look fine. But thats just me.
If the gameplay is good, I won't even care...but if it's mediocre then I'll consider it a negative.
Also, it seems to be a problem with the male models, the female models don't look bad besides for their oddly small heads on some of the female npcs.
I think they look amazing. I really like the style they are doing, I'm glad they didn't go too too realistic, I just hope there are alot of options to customize your characters. Look really similar to most MMO's IMO. Better than Gw2 models in my opinion, but thats my, and others opinion. Not that Gw2 models look bad, but I think they look better than any other game out there.
Excluding FFXIV.
(-_-)
The scaling is fairly good, they dont have to overly big or small heads , ofc its a little overdone whit the body's but thats so in every mmo, never seen realistic creatures scales.
the reason it all looks off scale is deu to most of the armor. lots of shots have wide cloth/armor that makes the head seem smaller , add a helmet to it and its seems to become ok. tho im no fan of the armor in SW:ToR is all a little to bulky for me.
but eh its not a super hero skinsuit that can deflect lasers type of game, its starwars and starwars always had these bulky type of designs since they could not do better when making the first movies back in the days.
They wanted to try too hard.
Would they have tuned it down it would have been great, but at this point seeing the results you either laugh or cry .
Well in that case there was a time when movies didnt' have sound and people took in the story by what the actors were doing as well as snippets of dialogue printed at the bottom the screen. Many movies were made this way.
sound in movies is a bonus not a necessity.
Perhaps you are looking over your silent movie collection and agreeing with me?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo