Sorry, wall of text so I only read the first paragraph. What it generally sounds like to me is that you're suffering from withdrawal from a hype. And I know you weren't that hyped over the game to begin with. But even the littlest shred of hope can be hype in some way.
Now I happen to have the exact opposite effect. From every time I hear the features I get a little bit more excited. And a little bit more hype from it is restored into me. Though still the game looks a bit slow to me and I hope thats not the case in the future. I can only imagine they intentually gave the slowdown to show more off of the game before release. Kind of like a "Hey look at the fluid motion we've put into the game isn't it awesome."
Siehst du mich Erkennst du mich Ganz tief in meinem Herz ist noch ein Platz f?r dich Ich suche dich Ich sehne mich nach dem was ich geliebt hab doch ich find es nicht
I went to the convention to see the graphics first hand and they look pretty good(better than current Daoc) but they probably have them on highest setting and its nothing like the videos u see from Youtube.
I agree with most of the people here. this game is not planned to be released till Feb. 1 of 2008!!! Now if you want to start talking about videos of animation that should scare you....take a look at whats been posted of Age of Conan. what you find is either A) all CGI cinematics or VERY little. Almost none. now for a game that is due to be released in a couple of months, I would expect a bit more Actual game play footage and less CGI shit. Don't get me wrong CGI trailers are great...but that is what you give fans at the beginning to get there blood boiling in anticipation. Not something you release 2 months before game launch! So when the 2 month or so mark comes around for WH and they are still releasing shit animation videos (which I doubt will happen) THEN and only then should one bitch!
"The Death of one is a Tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic."
I remember in May of 2005 being on the LOTR website (then called Middle Earth Online) and seeing a release date of June 2005. There was not one picture up, one dev journal and the site was pretty bare-bones. Usually these are signs that the release date will be pushed back. Has any MMO ever met its original release date? To me it's just expected that release dates are never written in stone.
Just so we are all clear on this. At what point in a games development should we start thinking that, thats how the game will looks when its released. 1 month before, 2 months before? Maybe 3?
Just so we are all clear on this. At what point in a games development should we start thinking that, thats how the game will looks when its released. 1 month before, 2 months before? Maybe 3?
Open Beta. Anything before that can and often is changed. So until a game has its NDA lifted don't take anything you see for the final product. That should be common sense honestly.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Just so we are all clear on this. At what point in a games development should we start thinking that, thats how the game will looks when its released. 1 month before, 2 months before? Maybe 3?
As examples: LotRO had its Open Beta one month before release right? and before than there was about 60 days of closed beta, with mixed in stress testings - one on feb 24th 2007? 2months before launch.
2moons has been in closed beta since start of the year and just released open beta I think? Prior to a full release very soon.
I would say 1 Month from release is still the best indication.
Actually LotRO was in beta for about 10 months. I know because I was there for all of them. But it was a fairly small beta up until 3-4 months before launch, when they let a TUN of people, comparatively speaking, and then the open beta about a month before launch. Oh and yea, I'd like to see the proof that this game can handle 500 people on a battlefield as well. Especially considering how heavily Mythic is relying on instancing for their RvR. But that's not the topic of this thread, so I don't mind that I won't be getting an answer. Just like to add though, that a lighting engine can improve a games look. But anyone expecting a grand difference, and to suddenly put this game head and shoulders above it's competition, or even suddenly make it look 'not like WoW', these people are kidding themselves.
See, I can live with that. Personally, I think the graphics are fine if they match the beta screenshots that we've seen so far. They're not the most fantastically realistic or detailed things out tehre but, for God's sake, this is Warhammer. Anal attention to detail is fine for the people that go crazy painting their pewter models all day, but to me the fun is in..well...the fun! Warhammer is about huge battles, a quirky sense of humour, and all-out brawling. If they can deliver that, I don't care how much it looks like that other game (who stole Warhammer's look to begin with!)
If there is one thing I learned about MMORPG's it's that you should not judge them before playing them. I used to think that WoW sucked balls and I used to make fun of my friends for playing. Then they finally convinced me to play and I loved it... that is until I realized once more how shitty it was. (But that was only because it has zero PvP content other then BG's) So i suggest you do not base your entire opinion on what you have seen because the truth is Mythic obviously has not shown us the REAL beauty of Warhammer. Even those who were fortunate enough to recieve a beta key are sure to see drastic changes at release. Part of being hyped for a game is to be patient and have hopes that the game will deliver. I'm convinced that WAR will. Animations and graphics will be tweeked at the end. Besides, it's they gameplay that counts for me. I would be happy with the graphics they have right now, which btw are definitely better then WoW's.
Its important for MMO's to have scalability because if they dont they are essentially cutting out over two htirds of their market because they simply couldnt run the game. That being said it IS a beta and the lighting ISNT in the game. I expect it to look allot better by release.
To the OP - Come back in half a year and see what the final game is lke before passing all those judgements.
If you still don't like it then you can say why. And it will at least be based on a completed game, not one still in testing.
Mythic has stated REPEATEDLY that they know that they can't please everyone and they're not trying to do that. They're making a game that they want to make. Not everyone will want to play it. But Mythic is betting many will.
It may be possible that WAR devs have developed this game to not isolate people with lower performance pcs. Theres nothing more annoying than playing a game in low mode which looks like your not wearing your glasses because its all a blur lol. Some people cant afford to get the lastest quad core, and are still using p4's 32bit processors. Therefore, if you dont make super dupey graphic masterpieces you can target a much broadier audience to the game technology wise speaking. Plus it also means there severs gotta deal with less pologons less complexity, less latency in other words. try it before dismaying it, alot of people said wow's graphics were rubbish, but they look ok to me.
I totally agree with what you're saying, just had to make a correction about how you said a game's graphic quality has a burden on servers and latency: That isn't possible at all. The server handles the stuff that happens beneath the graphics, your position in the world, switching zones, using a skill, gaining experience, etc. This also means, lower framerates has nothing to do with the server, it has to do with your computer. But if the usage of skills, players and NPC's are moving around in a glitchy way, etc, that is the fault of either the server, or your internet connection.
Glad to have offered this tidbit of technological enlightenment.
I know this is pretty early footage but in my experience mmorpgs don't change "THAT" much in the last year of development to fix all the problems i have with these videos. I mean i've had high hopes for this game of a well animated DARK fantasy game that just looks really great. After Pauls videos explaining all the spells and stuff and making it seem so great you look at them and think "this is worse than a game that came out 4 years ago" lol.
They just look soooo lifeless and dull, the animations are sooo piss poor and the spell effects really aint much better. It all looks too simple and when you see melee all you get is the same boring slow swing over and over again. The spells are all really colourful and bright and it's like wheres the dark side of Warhammer in them? I really hope the floating caster and Giant animations are polished before release cause they're both soooo horrible. Wheres all the atmosphere and lighting effects? It just feels like you've created a generic basic map for CS and no artistic style or stmosphere coming through to the game at all.
The controlling also looks really akward and horrible which hopefully is something to fix cause in combat why would you just stand still and do attacks like that? It's what ruined DAOC for me and hopefully will be fixed with WAR because the combat just doesn't look any fun, it's at Vangaurd SOH standard atm. Combat should look fast and exciting like what SWG used to be like or what WOW looks like where your never standing still for too long and great effects and movement makes a difference. I just hope it controls more like SWG, EQ2 or WOW and nothing like the horrible DAOC.
Another point i'll make is why use the same engine DAOC used? It looks soooo dated and with games like Agency coming out using Unreal engine 3 and Age of Conan (though bad character models) even Single player games like Crysis, WAR is going to look like it's 7 years old. Bad graphics does several things for me and it means less character customization and everyone will look the same + less Role playing and bad textures etc etc.
Edit: + Auto facing is just bad and you should be able to look where ever you want in combat like WOW and not like EQ2.
Oh and the most annoying spell effect award goes to this Dwarf which seemed to have this spell on him ALL the time. It's like imagien that beam off light hiding your character being on him through his fights lol? Stupid if you ask me...
Example videos will never be the real deal, because from a screen, into a camera/fraps, there's a significant loss of detail, basically blurring takes place and the result on youtube increases that effect even more.
In other words, stop judging on the quality of graphics, unless you've had your nose 1 ft away from a screen with an official version of WAR. Even then it's still Beta and this is what Beta's are for. Making sure it'll be good when it releases.
Example videos will never be the real deal, because from a screen, into a camera/fraps, there's a significant loss of detail, basically blurring takes place and the result on youtube increases that effect even more.
In other words, stop judging on the quality of graphics, unless you've had your nose 1 ft away from a screen with an official version of WAR. Even then it's still Beta and this is what Beta's are for. Making sure it'll be good when it releases.
Correct. BUT it's the Sound which is annoying, and there are plenty of threads about the sound in Fansite Forums. And I kinda agree, all those spell effects (buffs and the like) going "Zooooooom" "Chwiouuuuuung" "Rooooaaaarrrr" "Blibliblibliblibli"... they get annoying quick in the Videos. I hope (and think) that those are just placeholder sounds, and the sounds definately got better the more recent the video is, but still there are some annoying spell effects IMO.
Example videos will never be the real deal, because from a screen, into a camera/fraps, there's a significant loss of detail, basically blurring takes place and the result on youtube increases that effect even more.
In other words, stop judging on the quality of graphics, unless you've had your nose 1 ft away from a screen with an official version of WAR. Even then it's still Beta and this is what Beta's are for. Making sure it'll be good when it releases.
Correct. BUT it's the Sound which is annoying, and there are plenty of threads about the sound in Fansite Forums. And I kinda agree, all those spell effects (buffs and the like) going "Zooooooom" "Chwiouuuuuung" "Rooooaaaarrrr" "Blibliblibliblibli"... they get annoying quick in the Videos. I hope (and think) that those are just placeholder sounds, and the sounds definately got better the more recent the video is, but still there are some annoying spell effects IMO.
Hmm, the sounds you hear are extremely loud, because they're playing in a hall filled with loud people. So what the camera catches, is probably only the highest and most annoying sounds in play. I could do the same with say..Super Smash Brothers and you'd get horrified by the sounds of the shooting, the smashing, you name it. That's my take on it anyhow.
I know this is pretty early footage but in my experience mmorpgs don't change "THAT" much in the last year of development to fix all the problems i have with these videos. I mean i've had high hopes for this game of a well animated DARK fantasy game that just looks really great. After Pauls videos explaining all the spells and stuff and making it seem so great you look at them and think "this is worse than a game that came out 4 years ago" lol.
They just look soooo lifeless and dull, the animations are sooo piss poor and the spell effects really aint much better. It all looks too simple and when you see melee all you get is the same boring slow swing over and over again. The spells are all really colourful and bright and it's like wheres the dark side of Warhammer in them? I really hope the floating caster and Giant animations are polished before release cause they're both soooo horrible. Wheres all the atmosphere and lighting effects? It just feels like you've created a generic basic map for CS and no artistic style or stmosphere coming through to the game at all.
The controlling also looks really akward and horrible which hopefully is something to fix cause in combat why would you just stand still and do attacks like that? It's what ruined DAOC for me and hopefully will be fixed with WAR because the combat just doesn't look any fun, it's at Vangaurd SOH standard atm. Combat should look fast and exciting like what SWG used to be like or what WOW looks like where your never standing still for too long and great effects and movement makes a difference. I just hope it controls more like SWG, EQ2 or WOW and nothing like the horrible DAOC.
Another point i'll make is why use the same engine DAOC used? It looks soooo dated and with games like Agency coming out using Unreal engine 3 and Age of Conan (though bad character models) even Single player games like Crysis, WAR is going to look like it's 7 years old. Bad graphics does several things for me and it means less character customization and everyone will look the same + less Role playing and bad textures etc etc.
Edit: + Auto facing is just bad and you should be able to look where ever you want in combat like WOW and not like EQ2.
Oh and the most annoying spell effect award goes to this Dwarf which seemed to have this spell on him ALL the time. It's like imagien that beam off light hiding your character being on him through his fights lol? Stupid if you ask me...
I care less about graphics than I do gameplay. I think LOTRO had great graphics, but I always play with the graphics turned all the way down to give me the best performance. I guess I'm just old school and still like MUDs.
I am sure that some of the animations will change befoe release. Also the fluff like weather is usually added near the end of beta. Once again, I don't care that it rains or snows or is foggy. It doesn't impact my enjoyment. MMOs always have worse graphics than stand alone games.
Comments
Sorry, wall of text so I only read the first paragraph. What it generally sounds like to me is that you're suffering from withdrawal from a hype. And I know you weren't that hyped over the game to begin with. But even the littlest shred of hope can be hype in some way.
Now I happen to have the exact opposite effect. From every time I hear the features I get a little bit more excited. And a little bit more hype from it is restored into me. Though still the game looks a bit slow to me and I hope thats not the case in the future. I can only imagine they intentually gave the slowdown to show more off of the game before release. Kind of like a "Hey look at the fluid motion we've put into the game isn't it awesome."
Siehst du mich
Erkennst du mich
Ganz tief in meinem Herz
ist noch ein Platz f?r dich
Ich suche dich
Ich sehne mich
nach dem was ich geliebt hab
doch ich find es nicht
I went to the convention to see the graphics first hand and they look pretty good(better than current Daoc) but they probably have them on highest setting and its nothing like the videos u see from Youtube.
LOTRO. They hadn't implemented their High Res Graphics in all of the beta screenshots and it look a million times better when they did.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Just curious, can you link to information saying that AoC can't handle 500ppl in the same area or an instance?
Any proof / confirmation yet on how many war toon's can appear in a battle yet?
I agree with most of the people here. this game is not planned to be released till Feb. 1 of 2008!!! Now if you want to start talking about videos of animation that should scare you....take a look at whats been posted of Age of Conan. what you find is either A) all CGI cinematics or
VERY little. Almost none. now for a game that is due to be released in a couple of months, I would expect a bit more Actual game play footage and less CGI shit. Don't get me wrong CGI trailers are great...but that is what you give fans at the beginning to get there blood boiling in anticipation. Not something you release 2 months before game launch! So when the 2 month or so mark comes around for WH and they are still releasing shit animation videos (which I doubt will happen) THEN and only then should one bitch!
"The Death of one is a Tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic."
I remember in May of 2005 being on the LOTR website (then called Middle Earth Online) and seeing a release date of June 2005. There was not one picture up, one dev journal and the site was pretty bare-bones. Usually these are signs that the release date will be pushed back. Has any MMO ever met its original release date? To me it's just expected that release dates are never written in stone.
Just so we are all clear on this. At what point in a games development should we start thinking that, thats how the game will looks when its released. 1 month before, 2 months before? Maybe 3?
Open Beta. Anything before that can and often is changed. So until a game has its NDA lifted don't take anything you see for the final product. That should be common sense honestly.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
2moons has been in closed beta since start of the year and just released open beta I think? Prior to a full release very soon.
I would say 1 Month from release is still the best indication.
See, I can live with that. Personally, I think the graphics are fine if they match the beta screenshots that we've seen so far. They're not the most fantastically realistic or detailed things out tehre but, for God's sake, this is Warhammer. Anal attention to detail is fine for the people that go crazy painting their pewter models all day, but to me the fun is in..well...the fun! Warhammer is about huge battles, a quirky sense of humour, and all-out brawling. If they can deliver that, I don't care how much it looks like that other game (who stole Warhammer's look to begin with!)
If there is one thing I learned about MMORPG's it's that you should not judge them before playing them. I used to think that WoW sucked balls and I used to make fun of my friends for playing. Then they finally convinced me to play and I loved it... that is until I realized once more how shitty it was. (But that was only because it has zero PvP content other then BG's) So i suggest you do not base your entire opinion on what you have seen because the truth is Mythic obviously has not shown us the REAL beauty of Warhammer. Even those who were fortunate enough to recieve a beta key are sure to see drastic changes at release. Part of being hyped for a game is to be patient and have hopes that the game will deliver. I'm convinced that WAR will. Animations and graphics will be tweeked at the end. Besides, it's they gameplay that counts for me. I would be happy with the graphics they have right now, which btw are definitely better then WoW's.
It may be possible that WAR devs have developed this game to not isolate people with lower performance pcs.
Theres nothing more annoying than playing a game in low mode which looks like your not wearing your glasses because its all a blur lol.
Some people cant afford to get the lastest quad core, and are still using p4's 32bit processors.
Therefore, if you dont make super dupey graphic masterpieces you can target a much broadier audience to the game technology wise speaking.
Plus it also means there severs gotta deal with less pologons less complexity, less latency in other words.
try it before dismaying it, alot of people said wow's graphics were rubbish, but they look ok to me.
Its important for MMO's to have scalability because if they dont they are essentially cutting out over two htirds of their market because they simply couldnt run the game. That being said it IS a beta and the lighting ISNT in the game. I expect it to look allot better by release.
Click to join an Australian destruction guild.
To the OP - Come back in half a year and see what the final game is lke before passing all those judgements.
If you still don't like it then you can say why. And it will at least be based on a completed game, not one still in testing.
Mythic has stated REPEATEDLY that they know that they can't please everyone and they're not trying to do that. They're making a game that they want to make. Not everyone will want to play it. But Mythic is betting many will.
See you in half a year.
Glad to have offered this tidbit of technological enlightenment.
Once you go go whack, you'll never go back.
What is this "whack", you say? Check out the links!
http://www.thenewmystics.com
http://www.joyrevolution.com
http://www.thenewecstatics.co.uk
Winner.
Wow thanks for those links. Yeah it really does look great, doesnt it? I just watched that whole video, and now im even more hyped.
Example videos will never be the real deal, because from a screen, into a camera/fraps, there's a significant loss of detail, basically blurring takes place and the result on youtube increases that effect even more.
In other words, stop judging on the quality of graphics, unless you've had your nose 1 ft away from a screen with an official version of WAR. Even then it's still Beta and this is what Beta's are for. Making sure it'll be good when it releases.
Correct. BUT it's the Sound which is annoying, and there are plenty of threads about the sound in Fansite Forums. And I kinda agree, all those spell effects (buffs and the like) going "Zooooooom" "Chwiouuuuuung" "Rooooaaaarrrr" "Blibliblibliblibli"... they get annoying quick in the Videos. I hope (and think) that those are just placeholder sounds, and the sounds definately got better the more recent the video is, but still there are some annoying spell effects IMO.
Correct. BUT it's the Sound which is annoying, and there are plenty of threads about the sound in Fansite Forums. And I kinda agree, all those spell effects (buffs and the like) going "Zooooooom" "Chwiouuuuuung" "Rooooaaaarrrr" "Blibliblibliblibli"... they get annoying quick in the Videos. I hope (and think) that those are just placeholder sounds, and the sounds definately got better the more recent the video is, but still there are some annoying spell effects IMO.
Hmm, the sounds you hear are extremely loud, because they're playing in a hall filled with loud people. So what the camera catches, is probably only the highest and most annoying sounds in play. I could do the same with say..Super Smash Brothers and you'd get horrified by the sounds of the shooting, the smashing, you name it. That's my take on it anyhow.
WAR is for the masses not Moostown..
I care less about graphics than I do gameplay. I think LOTRO had great graphics, but I always play with the graphics turned all the way down to give me the best performance. I guess I'm just old school and still like MUDs.
I am sure that some of the animations will change befoe release. Also the fluff like weather is usually added near the end of beta. Once again, I don't care that it rains or snows or is foggy. It doesn't impact my enjoyment. MMOs always have worse graphics than stand alone games.