And you can travel to those far off mountains! That's one of the many things making this game great!
What it does is enhance the sense of wonder in the environment itself, and the desire to go explore it. That sense is there in most games, especially MMOs. But normally you have to kind of squint past the technical workarounds. They really set out to create a particular visual effect and I'm curious to see what the release version looks like.
Charr: Outta my way. Human: What's your problem? Charr: Your thin skin.
Good, now that you understood what I was meaning by graphic quality being only a matter of opinion, you can proceed spreading your pro-Tera propaganda on the appropriate Tera forums of this website
Originally posted by semantikron
Originally posted by drel...
And you can travel to those far off mountains! That's one of the many things making this game great!
What it does is enhance the sense of wonder in the environment itself, and the desire to go explore it. That sense is there in most games, especially MMOs. But normally you have to kind of squint past the technical workarounds. They really set out to create a particular visual effect and I'm curious to see what the release version looks like.
The way the world is designed and also of course the gameplay based on events and exploration lessen if not remove that feeling of being "on rails" all other theme park MMORPGs have (including Tera of course). When WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera hold your hand to the next quest hub full of NPCs with icons over their heads, GW2 makes you explore and enjoy the world "on the fly" as you find it. The "freedom" of old school games like AC1 is back with GW2. And the best is that the world opens up more and more as you progress, as content doesn't become obsolete thanks to level downscaling. When in WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera/etc... you are always restricted to areas of your level, and the "end game" world is restricted to a couple of max level areas, in GW2, the more you progress, the more content opens up to you, and at level 80, the whole world is your playground.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
When it comes top graphics you all are wrong. you can have the most technically advanced rendering and it can still not be the best graphics. grapmics are purely aesthetic and includes art style, slong with rendering. Best graphics has somehow becaome about poly count, and just the tech behind it and not about how good it accually looks to the player. a game can have great grapics without resorting to just the techical aspect but grapmics can also be called the best for their art style. I feel thats what GW2 does, it uses a tiny bit of tech, but alot more art. and honestly best graphics is something only the beholder can decide.
The western style of GW2 makes me sick. Some mobs are just plain silly/ugly too.
I take TERA's graphics anytime over that.
Remember... beauty is a matter of opinion, including for game graphics. So YES, Tera does have better graphics than GW2. Actually, I'd even take GW2's aged and cartoon style graphics over the western ugly WoW style.
Oh, and as always... this site also has Tera forums.
Like I said.
in terms of graphics quality, texture and stuff i would say Tera is better than GW2 (obvious not far better...) but than i saw the art style of characters and i just think they are ridiculous. LOL.
art style of GW2 for me is far better than any other MMORPG (WoW art style dont have anything to do with GW2 ...) and i believe the graphics quality will improve because as far i know all graphics options arent available or work on BW.
for now graphics on GW2 are great but i believe they can be even better, if not is more than fine for me. as i said the awesome art style of GW2 is like a "graphic boost"...
GW2's graphics are certainly NOT BAD. but no where near "> all". I will not make final judgement until GW2 is released after all we have only a clunky DX9 client, missing all the sweet shadow & light of DX10 / 11.
Currently player models are lacking, in mesh & polygon amount. - this will not change Textures are crispy and the "paint art" certainly is NOT an excuse for low texture quality.
Currently the water, light, and shadows are below any DX10/11 mmo.
Player Models: FFXIV has amazing character models (textures are ok). SE did go out on a limp and made every detial of an armor a 3d model, belt - 3d, leatherstraps, 3d. Add physics to it (a bag on a belt flaps while walking). If you put on boots it will bend and reshape the end of your hose to fit into the boots. FFXIV Characters are really clothed. That's why armor adds to visible weight, wide and high, and even Beach summer gear is plugged "over" the model. A Bow has a string attached to the middle, and the string is curreld in the end, it bends when shooting and has a real grip over the wood. Whoever was in charge of detail creation had a free run and geekout. (An artists dream!).
GW2 in comparsion has a lot of the usual body paint but sitll not as worse as games like LOTRO or WOW or RIFT.
Since this is unique to all mmos and even most singleplayer games, you really can't Measure FFXIV Character models to anything. It's to rare even crysis1 / WH / and Crysis2 use less polygons for models for details but have higher resolution textures. Besides it's one of the reasons it runs so bad on many systems. There is really no optimisation aviable for so much detail you need the raw brute force in GPU. I actually expect FFXIV v2.0 to have way less detail. FFXIv landscape is awful in comparsion. Size, quality, textures, polygons...everything. Even the visible streaming of texture quality is limited to like 30 meters. Everything outside is displayed in a really low texture mesh. (Like Playstation1)
Tera is difficult to meassure. It has textures and meshes ranging from high with bump mapping applied to Unreal1 without texture compression. Models are very good, armor isn't as bad but since that game has not much "armor" there is not much to "see". The few armors that actually do cover are mostly skin -tight.
But what tera lacks is of course DX10 and 11 shadows and light, HDR is not aviable just bloom sadly. The current game even took a few steps back by removing water animations and things like footprints in the wet sand. The overall package is decent.
I havent played it. But from the screenshots Id absolutely have to agree. Its amazing.
And that has nothing to do with why I'll be playing GW2. But yea, I have to give Tera props on that one. Im half tempted to play it just to see the visuals. But GW2 is pretty enough. And again the look of GW2 is very fine. But thats only a very small crumb of why I'll be playing it.
Personally I won't make a comparison between the games mentioned in this thread with GW2 before the final end product GW2 is installed in my computer and is tuned to its max settings. Most advocates of GW2 are currently basing GW2 only on aesthetics, leaving out several key factors out of the equation. For example:
Can you really compare an seamless world engine with a zoned engine? The zoned one will always have an advantage on graphics.
Can you compare a game that offers collision detection to one that doesn't or has limited?
Can you compare a game that runs only on DX9 when others have the ability to run to the superior DX11?
I have not played GW2 on my computer and even if I did, the engine is not optimised. Once it is, it will make more sense to make comparisons, well, as much as comparisons can be made.
Points are obviously added towards games that feature seamless worlds.
Points are added towards games that offer collision detection.
Points are added to games that offer modular design, ability to upgrade to DX11 and beyond.
Points are added on raw performance.
Points can be added on animation, how live the world feels etc (butterflies, birds, small animals, wind blowing etc.)
And so on ...
Which game is the best graphically is not black and white unfortunately, but it depends on the overall package, not just a subsection of their parts (like avatars, or foilage or other minor details other people mentioned).
Personally I won't make a comparison between the games mentioned in this thread with GW2 before the final end product GW2 is installed in my computer and is tuned to its max settings. Most advocates of GW2 are currently basing GW2 only on aesthetics, leaving out several key factors out of the equation. For example:
Can you really compare an seamless world engine with a zoned engine? The zoned one will always have an advantage on graphics.
Can you compare a game that offers collision detection to one that doesn't or has limited?
Can you compare a game that runs only on DX9 when others have the ability to run to the superior DX11?
I have not played GW2 on my computer and even if I did, the engine is not optimised. Once it is, it will make more sense to make comparisons, well, as much as comparisons can be made.
Points are obviously added towards games that feature seamless worlds.
Points are added towards games that offer collision detection.
Points are added to games that offer modular design, ability to upgrade to DX11 and beyond.
Points are added on raw performance.
Points can be added on animation, how live the world feels etc (butterflies, birds, small animals, wind blowing etc.)
And so on ...
Which game is the best graphically is not black and white unfortunately, but it depends on the overall package, not just a subsection of their parts (like avatars, or foilage or other minor details other people mentioned).
*facepalm* graphics ARE aesthetics and should be veiwed as such not by useing a point system
So under your logic a Call of Duty map and Planetside 2 should be measured under the same scale graphics wise? Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense.
Oh come on... comparing 7 year old game with 2012 gane. Seriously op? This is exactly what is called fanobyism. GW2 has awesome graphics but please at least try to be a little bit objective.
The way the world is designed and also of course the gameplay based on events and exploration lessen if not remove that feeling of being "on rails" all other theme park MMORPGs have (including Tera of course). When WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera hold your hand to the next quest hub full of NPCs with icons over their heads, GW2 makes you explore and enjoy the world "on the fly" as you find it. The "freedom" of old school games like AC1 is back with GW2. And the best is that the world opens up more and more as you progress, as content doesn't become obsolete thanks to level downscaling. When in WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera/etc... you are always restricted to areas of your level, and the "end game" world is restricted to a couple of max level areas, in GW2, the more you progress, the more content opens up to you, and at level 80, the whole world is your playground.
Well, I think my version of SWTOR didn't get your memo... or it's really badly broken and kept jumping off the rails because pretty much on every planet I went exploring and ended up in areas where, well, I'd say at that point in time (if at all) I probably wasn't supposed to be in. Which included e.g. on Alderaan the Trader's Circle where your average enemy had by far less HP than me but didn't take a scratch when I attacked them as they were all flagged as lvl40 compared to mine <30lvl.
Oh, and yeah, guess what, there are even areas that seem to be meant exclusively for one (in my case the other) faction as there wasn't any Rep vendor/med droid to be found despite exploring quite a huge area for about 4 hours. (In the end had to get myself killed as my bags were full with non-grey stuff and I didn't want to waste a quick travel.)
And before you sign off on that as a fluke, in the TSW beta I'm pretty sure I didn't follow the "rails" for a good part of my first 2 hours in Kingsmouth... or should I assume that we were supposed to find the Orochi Group post within the first hour?
Now, obviously you are saying that in GW2 everything is better as there's no area-level-lock.
Where quite frankly you are perfectly wrong!
Yes, I'm the kind of gamer who loves to go exploring - and usually is quite successful at it by avoiding too powerful beasts.
In GW2 I ended up both in the haunted zone close to the Black Citadel (you know where you can light the torches) as well as with the guy with his cow catapult.
Both the worms (that sometimes just broke out of the ground without warning) and the ghosts would one-strike kill me.
Maybe I just wasn't powerful enough being only level 11... can tell you that GW2 exploring is just no fun if it all just comes down to try to get to the next way point as quick as possible to avoid having to run thru power monster infested zones again just because some frigging power worm killed you!
Also had to perma-jump-run thru power-scorpion territory just because I wanted to get to a skill point quest place... which happened to be in an area the map flagged as lvl 16 - 25 so above my lvl11 "pay grade".
sort of a huge turnoff when the skillpoint quest involves nothing more than tossing some pest repelant at larva while the monsters surrounding the area would pretty much one-sting kill you...
So spare us the lies of scaling monster level to fit your level - there were no other players there but me! - your freedom to explore is probably more restricted in GW2 than in other game simply due to the number of monsters in the area.
And guess what: usually it's the norm for MMOs that the world opens up and more and more becomes available the further you progress (or the more you explore) so get of that high GW2 horse as it's really nothing but a shortlegged pony.
As to "end game" world just being restricted to a few areas... *laughs* that is pure and simple the choice the gamer makes!
In SWTOR on Tatooine the area with the czerka facility and Trapjaw spawn point is easily accessable to both Imp and Rep.
It is contested territory so you are on your own.
Now, people were crying about not enough open world PvP in SWTOR... well, guess what: if you guys had taken the idea of maybe going trooping in that area (as Reps) you could have saved a fair share of ppl (on Swiftsure) a lot of ganking (especially at the datacron jawa crawler in that area) and even better, with a bit of nice and fair presented challenge to the other side, a nice heads-on clash PvP (with potentially some NPC attacks as added sprinkling) could have been done...
alas, that is of course not how the rail system in SWTOR works, isn't it, so of course one could never come up with something like that *gasp*
one note also in regards to your "NPCs with icons over their heads" bit. Yeah, of course GW2 is much better... because there you get all the task information broadcast long before you even get anywhere close to the quest NPC - so you don't need to speak to him or her - and even better the mission just auto-completes once you have finished the task, so you don't even have to speak to the quest NPC to get your reward.
I'm just waiting for the next SciFi game that uses this GW2 inspired approach where you get all the quests to automatically uploaded into your HUD and get your reward obviously then also auto-transfered: the future of MMO is great without any contact to quest NPCs!
Oh come on... comparing 7 year old game with 2012 gane. Seriously op? This is exactly what is called fanobyism. GW2 has awesome graphics but please at least try to be a little bit objective.
This. Plus talking about graphics is not always relevant.
Especially with MMOs which are supposed to stand the test of time, and where a stylized look will last far longer than a "neat" purely graphics based look.
How about "environmental/visual art/design"? The WoW world is simply extremely well crafted. They definitely made the most of their very limited graphics engine. Indeed, the game is more than alright visually and the environment are very decent: when you play the game, you do not notice the graphics constantly (excellent visual art with limited graphics).
Admittedly, the GW2 team are really good at this too AND they also have better graphics.
Many games have better graphics than WoW but much worse art/design.
So under your logic a Call of Duty map and Planetside 2 should be measured under the same scale graphics wise? Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense.
no by my logic, if you think it looks good or better then a diffrent thing for any reason at all then its better to you. no measuring nessiary you seem to only want too look at the technical side but grapahics are not fully technical they are part art ehich can not be measured by anything except feeling
Oh come on... comparing 7 year old game with 2012 gane. Seriously op? This is exactly what is called fanobyism. GW2 has awesome graphics but please at least try to be a little bit objective.
I am afraid I have to agree with that.
GW2 should be compared to TOR, TSW and Tera, not games like Wow.
The graphics of GW2 is really nice but Teras is technically a little better.
Artwise on the other hand is my bet on GW2 among those games.
You can however compare art from GW2 and Wow, but I think in that case we should make a new thread for that where people post and compare concept art. Problem is that unlike stuff like texture quality art really is in the eye of the beholder.
Compare GW2's graphics to TERA, [mod edit] Or maybe AOC ( a 4 year old game) again owned. [mod edit]
Tera's are indeed equally nice, they've simply chosen a different art style from the direction GW2 went, making them two unique games where it's not a question of "which is better" but instead a question of "which I prefer". Personally, I prefer the more artistic, less brightly colored landscape of GW2 but I can also easily see the appeal of Tera's world, they did a great job with that.
The way the world is designed and also of course the gameplay based on events and exploration lessen if not remove that feeling of being "on rails" all other theme park MMORPGs have (including Tera of course). When WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera hold your hand to the next quest hub full of NPCs with icons over their heads, GW2 makes you explore and enjoy the world "on the fly" as you find it. The "freedom" of old school games like AC1 is back with GW2. And the best is that the world opens up more and more as you progress, as content doesn't become obsolete thanks to level downscaling. When in WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera/etc... you are always restricted to areas of your level, and the "end game" world is restricted to a couple of max level areas, in GW2, the more you progress, the more content opens up to you, and at level 80, the whole world is your playground.
So spare us the lies of scaling monster level to fit your level - there were no other players there but me! - your freedom to explore is probably more restricted in GW2 than in other game simply due to the number of monsters in the area.
Before calling people liars, learn to read and UNDERSTAND what they said. I will avoid you undeeded embarassment. I highlighted an important part to help you out.
First, I never said that at level 1, you could go everywhere and kill mobs. Reading comprehension problems on your side here.
What I said is that at level 50 in GW2, you can go back to a starter area, be downscaled to the appropriate level, do an event and still be challenged, and then be rewarded according to your real level. At level 50 in SW:TOR (or any other theme park MMO), if you go to noob area and do quests there, you get crap noob rewards and no xp at all, not to mention there's no challenge because you one hit mobs which have no chance in hell to hurt you. Thus the difference underlined in the highlighted parts of my post. In all other theme park MMOs, if you want to progress, you are limited to a few level appropriate areas. In GW2, the more you progress, the more the world opens up to you as usable content.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
no dx11. nuff said. this games behind the times. runs dx9 by default lol
dont get me wrong, i think the game is pretty when ur zoomed in on your toons. thats more that i like the art though. many games that are years older then gw2 look way better.
Hero Evermore Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982. Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
Oh come on... comparing 7 year old game with 2012 gane. Seriously op? This is exactly what is called fanobyism. GW2 has awesome graphics but please at least try to be a little bit objective.
This. Plus talking about graphics is not always relevant.
Especially with MMOs which are supposed to stand the test of time, and where a stylized look will last far longer than a "neat" purely graphics based look.
How about "environmental/visual art/design"? The WoW world is simply extremely well crafted. They definitely made the most of their very limited graphics engine. Indeed, the game is more than alright visually and the environment are very decent: when you play the game, you do not notice the graphics constantly (excellent visual art with limited graphics).
Admittedly, the GW2 team are really good at this too AND they also have better graphics.
Many games have better graphics than WoW but much worse art/design.
You hit the nail on the head. Having a high tech engine and a lot of polygons doesn't automatically make good graphics. That's why the Blizzard art team was and remains one of the best, if not the best of the industry.
Art direction is more important than the number of polygons and the quality of shaders, or the version of DirectX used. Without a good art team behind the technology, all those nice features go to waste.
Originally posted by deziwright
no dx11. nuff said. this games behind the times. runs dx9 by default lol
dont get me wrong, i think the game is pretty when ur zoomed in on your toons. thats more that i like the art though. many games that are years older then gw2 look way better.
Using DX11 doesn't automatically make better graphics. Proof being LOTRO. LOTRO uses DX11, yet many DX9 games look better and also have way better character animations than that game, including GW2. A game has to use DX11 for more than just a marketing argument to make its graphics better thanks to it.
Some people talked about the water in GW2... well, it's interesting how streams and waterfalls in GW2 using DX9 look MUCH better than streams and waterfalls in some DX11 using MMOs...
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
what he said. its all about art direction. some peeps hate teras art. but from a graphical/technological standing there isnt much better out there. BnS and a lot of up and commers though looking amazing!
Hero Evermore Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982. Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
Originally posted by TheDor I don't understand this discussion. People are saying that GW2 is worse because the engine is worse.
In what way? I'd like to see what metrics you're basing that on.
Same with those of you saying Tera is better.
What are you basing that on? Polygon count? Tris per model? What about number of players on screen at a time? Rendering distance?
You guys are claiming hard facts of X is better. Where's the info backing that up?
im base on my eyes only. at least is that way i judge graphics. textures quality, details on world , etc.
Are you comparing to the underwater graphics, the siege equipment near tower walls, or the huge immersive cities? Oh wait, you can't do that in Tera. Once Tera has more content to back up the game I will listen to there graphic raves. Right now it is just an XBox 360 game.
Edit: ravess
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
GW2 art style is nice and so is TERAs imo...but which graphics actually win in terms of quality, no one here can determine that but here, have some competition that challenges the title of this thread.
Comments
What it does is enhance the sense of wonder in the environment itself, and the desire to go explore it. That sense is there in most games, especially MMOs. But normally you have to kind of squint past the technical workarounds. They really set out to create a particular visual effect and I'm curious to see what the release version looks like.
Charr: Outta my way.
Human: What's your problem?
Charr: Your thin skin.
Good, now that you understood what I was meaning by graphic quality being only a matter of opinion, you can proceed spreading your pro-Tera propaganda on the appropriate Tera forums of this website
The way the world is designed and also of course the gameplay based on events and exploration lessen if not remove that feeling of being "on rails" all other theme park MMORPGs have (including Tera of course). When WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera hold your hand to the next quest hub full of NPCs with icons over their heads, GW2 makes you explore and enjoy the world "on the fly" as you find it. The "freedom" of old school games like AC1 is back with GW2. And the best is that the world opens up more and more as you progress, as content doesn't become obsolete thanks to level downscaling. When in WoW/LOTRO/SW:TOR/Tera/etc... you are always restricted to areas of your level, and the "end game" world is restricted to a couple of max level areas, in GW2, the more you progress, the more content opens up to you, and at level 80, the whole world is your playground.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
When it comes top graphics you all are wrong. you can have the most technically advanced rendering and it can still not be the best graphics. grapmics are purely aesthetic and includes art style, slong with rendering. Best graphics has somehow becaome about poly count, and just the tech behind it and not about how good it accually looks to the player. a game can have great grapics without resorting to just the techical aspect but grapmics can also be called the best for their art style. I feel thats what GW2 does, it uses a tiny bit of tech, but alot more art. and honestly best graphics is something only the beholder can decide.
in terms of graphics quality, texture and stuff i would say Tera is better than GW2 (obvious not far better...) but than i saw the art style of characters and i just think they are ridiculous. LOL.
art style of GW2 for me is far better than any other MMORPG (WoW art style dont have anything to do with GW2 ...) and i believe the graphics quality will improve because as far i know all graphics options arent available or work on BW.
for now graphics on GW2 are great but i believe they can be even better, if not is more than fine for me. as i said the awesome art style of GW2 is like a "graphic boost"...
Can someone put a link for a nice video of FF14 with aim on graphics... But a good video, I found only crapy ones so far .
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
-------------------------------
GW2's graphics are certainly NOT BAD. but no where near "> all".
I will not make final judgement until GW2 is released after all we have only a clunky DX9 client, missing all the sweet shadow & light of DX10 / 11.
Currently player models are lacking, in mesh & polygon amount. - this will not change
Textures are crispy and the "paint art" certainly is NOT an excuse for low texture quality.
Currently the water, light, and shadows are below any DX10/11 mmo.
Player Models:
FFXIV has amazing character models (textures are ok). SE did go out on a limp and made every detial of an armor a 3d model, belt - 3d, leatherstraps, 3d. Add physics to it (a bag on a belt flaps while walking). If you put on boots it will bend and reshape the end of your hose to fit into the boots. FFXIV Characters are really clothed. That's why armor adds to visible weight, wide and high, and even Beach summer gear is plugged "over" the model. A Bow has a string attached to the middle, and the string is curreld in the end, it bends when shooting and has a real grip over the wood. Whoever was in charge of detail creation had a free run and geekout. (An artists dream!).
GW2 in comparsion has a lot of the usual body paint but sitll not as worse as games like LOTRO or WOW or RIFT.
Since this is unique to all mmos and even most singleplayer games, you really can't Measure FFXIV Character models to anything. It's to rare even crysis1 / WH / and Crysis2 use less polygons for models for details but have higher resolution textures. Besides it's one of the reasons it runs so bad on many systems. There is really no optimisation aviable for so much detail you need the raw brute force in GPU. I actually expect FFXIV v2.0 to have way less detail.
FFXIv landscape is awful in comparsion. Size, quality, textures, polygons...everything. Even the visible streaming of texture quality is limited to like 30 meters. Everything outside is displayed in a really low texture mesh. (Like Playstation1)
Tera is difficult to meassure. It has textures and meshes ranging from high with bump mapping applied to Unreal1 without texture compression. Models are very good, armor isn't as bad but since that game has not much "armor" there is not much to "see". The few armors that actually do cover are mostly skin -tight.
But what tera lacks is of course DX10 and 11 shadows and light, HDR is not aviable just bloom sadly. The current game even took a few steps back by removing water animations and things like footprints in the wet sand. The overall package is decent.
I havent played it. But from the screenshots Id absolutely have to agree. Its amazing.
And that has nothing to do with why I'll be playing GW2. But yea, I have to give Tera props on that one. Im half tempted to play it just to see the visuals. But GW2 is pretty enough. And again the look of GW2 is very fine. But thats only a very small crumb of why I'll be playing it.
Personally I won't make a comparison between the games mentioned in this thread with GW2 before the final end product GW2 is installed in my computer and is tuned to its max settings. Most advocates of GW2 are currently basing GW2 only on aesthetics, leaving out several key factors out of the equation. For example:
*facepalm* graphics ARE aesthetics and should be veiwed as such not by useing a point system
So under your logic a Call of Duty map and Planetside 2 should be measured under the same scale graphics wise? Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense.
Oh come on... comparing 7 year old game with 2012 gane. Seriously op? This is exactly what is called fanobyism. GW2 has awesome graphics but please at least try to be a little bit objective.
Well, I think my version of SWTOR didn't get your memo... or it's really badly broken and kept jumping off the rails because pretty much on every planet I went exploring and ended up in areas where, well, I'd say at that point in time (if at all) I probably wasn't supposed to be in. Which included e.g. on Alderaan the Trader's Circle where your average enemy had by far less HP than me but didn't take a scratch when I attacked them as they were all flagged as lvl40 compared to mine <30lvl.
Oh, and yeah, guess what, there are even areas that seem to be meant exclusively for one (in my case the other) faction as there wasn't any Rep vendor/med droid to be found despite exploring quite a huge area for about 4 hours. (In the end had to get myself killed as my bags were full with non-grey stuff and I didn't want to waste a quick travel.)
And before you sign off on that as a fluke, in the TSW beta I'm pretty sure I didn't follow the "rails" for a good part of my first 2 hours in Kingsmouth... or should I assume that we were supposed to find the Orochi Group post within the first hour?
Now, obviously you are saying that in GW2 everything is better as there's no area-level-lock.
Where quite frankly you are perfectly wrong!
Yes, I'm the kind of gamer who loves to go exploring - and usually is quite successful at it by avoiding too powerful beasts.
In GW2 I ended up both in the haunted zone close to the Black Citadel (you know where you can light the torches) as well as with the guy with his cow catapult.
Both the worms (that sometimes just broke out of the ground without warning) and the ghosts would one-strike kill me.
Maybe I just wasn't powerful enough being only level 11... can tell you that GW2 exploring is just no fun if it all just comes down to try to get to the next way point as quick as possible to avoid having to run thru power monster infested zones again just because some frigging power worm killed you!
Also had to perma-jump-run thru power-scorpion territory just because I wanted to get to a skill point quest place... which happened to be in an area the map flagged as lvl 16 - 25 so above my lvl11 "pay grade".
sort of a huge turnoff when the skillpoint quest involves nothing more than tossing some pest repelant at larva while the monsters surrounding the area would pretty much one-sting kill you...
So spare us the lies of scaling monster level to fit your level - there were no other players there but me! - your freedom to explore is probably more restricted in GW2 than in other game simply due to the number of monsters in the area.
And guess what: usually it's the norm for MMOs that the world opens up and more and more becomes available the further you progress (or the more you explore) so get of that high GW2 horse as it's really nothing but a shortlegged pony.
As to "end game" world just being restricted to a few areas... *laughs* that is pure and simple the choice the gamer makes!
In SWTOR on Tatooine the area with the czerka facility and Trapjaw spawn point is easily accessable to both Imp and Rep.
It is contested territory so you are on your own.
Now, people were crying about not enough open world PvP in SWTOR... well, guess what: if you guys had taken the idea of maybe going trooping in that area (as Reps) you could have saved a fair share of ppl (on Swiftsure) a lot of ganking (especially at the datacron jawa crawler in that area) and even better, with a bit of nice and fair presented challenge to the other side, a nice heads-on clash PvP (with potentially some NPC attacks as added sprinkling) could have been done...
alas, that is of course not how the rail system in SWTOR works, isn't it, so of course one could never come up with something like that *gasp*
one note also in regards to your "NPCs with icons over their heads" bit. Yeah, of course GW2 is much better... because there you get all the task information broadcast long before you even get anywhere close to the quest NPC - so you don't need to speak to him or her - and even better the mission just auto-completes once you have finished the task, so you don't even have to speak to the quest NPC to get your reward.
I'm just waiting for the next SciFi game that uses this GW2 inspired approach where you get all the quests to automatically uploaded into your HUD and get your reward obviously then also auto-transfered: the future of MMO is great without any contact to quest NPCs!
This. Plus talking about graphics is not always relevant.
Especially with MMOs which are supposed to stand the test of time, and where a stylized look will last far longer than a "neat" purely graphics based look.
How about "environmental/visual art/design"? The WoW world is simply extremely well crafted. They definitely made the most of their very limited graphics engine. Indeed, the game is more than alright visually and the environment are very decent: when you play the game, you do not notice the graphics constantly (excellent visual art with limited graphics).
Admittedly, the GW2 team are really good at this too AND they also have better graphics.
Many games have better graphics than WoW but much worse art/design.
no by my logic, if you think it looks good or better then a diffrent thing for any reason at all then its better to you. no measuring nessiary you seem to only want too look at the technical side but grapahics are not fully technical they are part art ehich can not be measured by anything except feeling
Compare GW2's graphics to TERA [mod edit] Or maybe AOC ( a 4 year old game) again owned. [mod edit]l.
I am afraid I have to agree with that.
GW2 should be compared to TOR, TSW and Tera, not games like Wow.
The graphics of GW2 is really nice but Teras is technically a little better.
Artwise on the other hand is my bet on GW2 among those games.
You can however compare art from GW2 and Wow, but I think in that case we should make a new thread for that where people post and compare concept art. Problem is that unlike stuff like texture quality art really is in the eye of the beholder.
Tera's are indeed equally nice, they've simply chosen a different art style from the direction GW2 went, making them two unique games where it's not a question of "which is better" but instead a question of "which I prefer". Personally, I prefer the more artistic, less brightly colored landscape of GW2 but I can also easily see the appeal of Tera's world, they did a great job with that.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Before calling people liars, learn to read and UNDERSTAND what they said. I will avoid you undeeded embarassment. I highlighted an important part to help you out.
First, I never said that at level 1, you could go everywhere and kill mobs. Reading comprehension problems on your side here.
What I said is that at level 50 in GW2, you can go back to a starter area, be downscaled to the appropriate level, do an event and still be challenged, and then be rewarded according to your real level. At level 50 in SW:TOR (or any other theme park MMO), if you go to noob area and do quests there, you get crap noob rewards and no xp at all, not to mention there's no challenge because you one hit mobs which have no chance in hell to hurt you. Thus the difference underlined in the highlighted parts of my post. In all other theme park MMOs, if you want to progress, you are limited to a few level appropriate areas. In GW2, the more you progress, the more the world opens up to you as usable content.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
It seems many speak of "style" and not "polygon count"
To do a graphics comparasion, it is all about the polygon count in a 3d game.
To compare style is to compare Dali and Michalanglo, and comment that Dali is better because you dont like churches.
I don't know where people are coming up with the idea that GW2 characters aren't on par with Tera or any other MMORPG out at the moment.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
no dx11. nuff said. this games behind the times. runs dx9 by default lol
dont get me wrong, i think the game is pretty when ur zoomed in on your toons. thats more that i like the art though. many games that are years older then gw2 look way better.
Hero Evermore
Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982.
Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
You hit the nail on the head. Having a high tech engine and a lot of polygons doesn't automatically make good graphics. That's why the Blizzard art team was and remains one of the best, if not the best of the industry.
Art direction is more important than the number of polygons and the quality of shaders, or the version of DirectX used. Without a good art team behind the technology, all those nice features go to waste.
Using DX11 doesn't automatically make better graphics. Proof being LOTRO. LOTRO uses DX11, yet many DX9 games look better and also have way better character animations than that game, including GW2. A game has to use DX11 for more than just a marketing argument to make its graphics better thanks to it.
Some people talked about the water in GW2... well, it's interesting how streams and waterfalls in GW2 using DX9 look MUCH better than streams and waterfalls in some DX11 using MMOs...
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
^
what he said. its all about art direction. some peeps hate teras art. but from a graphical/technological standing there isnt much better out there. BnS and a lot of up and commers though looking amazing!
Hero Evermore
Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982.
Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.
Are you comparing to the underwater graphics, the siege equipment near tower walls, or the huge immersive cities? Oh wait, you can't do that in Tera. Once Tera has more content to back up the game I will listen to there graphic raves. Right now it is just an XBox 360 game.
Edit: ravess
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
GW2 art style is nice and so is TERAs imo...but which graphics actually win in terms of quality, no one here can determine that but here, have some competition that challenges the title of this thread.
Took all of these shots in game yesterday.