of course it's part of the graphical style of the game -- realistic shadows and movement add realism. what are you calling goofy?
Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...
Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.
Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...
Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.
Love the artwork, love the graphics. I dont REALLY care about graphics but this game is going to turn me into a graphics hoar! No more cartoonish style art!
I will be crafting and using the 2h axe. It looks amazing.
Unfortunately because of the width of the used graphic, I cannot read the text in full. Next time better use a graphic not wider than the "thread-window".
Next time learn to use the scroll slider.
You should practice what you preace there bro , considering you where so quick to jump on him you didnt scroll down yourself and see that he replied to a post about it before you came along and decided to be an A_ _
of course it's part of the graphical style of the game -- realistic shadows and movement add realism. what are you calling goofy?
Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...
Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.
Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...
Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.
What am I calling goofy? Are you serious?
I agree with others here, you don't seem to know what art direction and style are; you simply don't like Darkfall's graphics, we get it. Darkfall's lore and art are closer to Tolkien than most MMOs, in the sense that Darkfall is trying to immerse you into a world that could really exist, unlike recent MMOs which have been tending more and more toward a purely fantastic and stylised form.
The signature weapons come from different races, they are supposed to look nothing alike.
- the halberd looks sinister and evil, like the Alfar
- the hammer looks compact and powerful, like the dwarves
- the bow looks bright and magical, like the elves
- the claws look violent and feral, like the mahirrim
- the sword looks regal and distinguished, it suits the humans
- the axe looks crude and shamanistic, like the orcs
I agree with others here, you don't seem to know what art direction and style are; you simply don't like Darkfall's graphics, we get it. Darkfall's lore and art are closer to Tolkien than most MMOs, in the sense that Darkfall is trying to immerse you into a world that could really exist, unlike recent MMOs which have been tending more and more toward a purely fantastic and stylised form. Dont play with words to defend the game Javac, you are the one that doesnt understand artstyle and all the time you use arguments about technical graphics to defent it, you and the ones that are defending the game just avoided all my arguments related to art, because you just have no knowledge about it. Tolkien was the first one to illustrate his tales, then Pauline Baynes was his favorite illustrator, check his art, it has absolute nothing to do with Darkfall artstyle and is the closest you can get of a visual interpretation of Tolkien´s work, as he was the one that choose Pauline. Of course you have some different interpretations of Tolkien´s work, from Erik Fraser to Bakshi, but your argument that Darkfall is the closest game related to Tolkien´s art is just B.S. Beside that, Lord of the Rings is high fantasy, Darkfall try to hold the moral concept of low fantasy, it seems you dont know that. The signature weapons come from different races, they are supposed to look nothing alike. - the halberd looks sinister and evil, like the Alfar It looks like a toy, a toy version of the real one and probably has grape flavor. - the hammer looks compact and powerful, like the dwarves The hammer is totally "WoW like", cartoony... - the bow looks bright and magical, like the elves This one try to hold a "tolkien like" visual ... Understand the lack of art direction? It doesnt matter if they are weapons of different cultures, you can find the same cultural distinction in weapons droped and crafted in many games like GW, AOC, Warhammer and they still belong to the same universe.
Beside that, Lord of the Rings is high fantasy, Darkfall try to hold the moral concept of low fantasy, it seems you dont know that.
OK you appear to be brain-damaged as well as have poor taste in art.
Note that YOU'RE the only one here who is complaining about the art, we all love it.
Hold your offenses
Can you give me one argument about the Low/High Fantasy detail you quoted? Do you know the difference?
About Tolkien related art you just didnt know nothing about, right? As I thought... and how can you judge my opinions about art if you are not even able to see the difference between shaders and artstyle?
Im the only one, right? And all the other people that said about Darkfall´s lack of consistency on artstyle and wow like weapons are just invisible to you?
The art is beautiful, it have that nice old european touch. And since when does orcs have good taste in designing weapons??
Old european touch like a Pre-Raphaelite touch? Or even older like a Hieronymus Bosch touch?
Well, I disagree, it is much more like the modern RPG hero illustration touch but a bit messed up...
The ultra cartoony weapons mentioned doesnt seems to be from Orcs...
...
Still, why care for the art style in a MMO? There are so many to choose from. Everyone can find whatever they want. If you dont like Hennings art, then i hope you will find something else.
The art is beautiful, it have that nice old european touch. And since when does orcs have good taste in designing weapons??
Old european touch like a Pre-Raphaelite touch? Or even older like a Hieronymus Bosch touch?
Well, I disagree, it is much more like the modern RPG hero illustration touch but a bit messed up...
The ultra cartoony weapons mentioned doesnt seems to be from Orcs...
you are basing your entire thesis on 1 NPC and a montage of the signature weapons, which isn't even an in-game screenshot. not to mention you are interpreting the art based on your preconceieved notions of the orks are like, not interpreting the orks on how their art shows them to be. it's a beginner's mistake.
javac, calm down. The opinion is subjective and atleast he ebalorate to make it discussable.
______________________________ The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess. And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic' and send them to the Special Olympus.
it sums up quite well what real gamers think of video game "art".
I am not an artist but I know very well that the place to find art is not in a video game, all video game art is trash compared to real art.
Over my 25 years of gaming experience I have noticed that it is an unwavering truth that almost all games with allegedly amazing graphics have terrible gameplay. All these games are now long forgotten and the only one's going down in history are the one's with good gameplay.
I'm not defending Darkfalls art or saying that it must be a good game because it doesn't have the most up to date graphics or a consistent art style (although I actually think they are quite good).
What I am saying is that if you want to play a good game it is not worth paying so much attention to it.
The "dark" world of WAR lol unique weaponry and very stylish origin art never seen before.
DarkFall on the other hand has "uninspired" art and style.
this absolutely no cartoonish compared to Darkfall.
Another sample of the "dark art" of WAR
And no judgement on graphic quality or something just the realistic and dark art of WAR, DarkFall obvious lack according to the master of taste.
WAR looks also more realistic not only to WoW but also to DarkFall just look at this realistic scene.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
The "dark" world of WAR lol unique weaponry and very stylish origin art never seen before. DarkFall on the other hand has "uninspired" art and style.
this absolutely no cartoonish compared to Darkfall. Another sample of the "dark art" of WAR And no judgement on graphic quality or something just the realistic and dark art of WAR, DarkFall obvious lack according to the master of taste. WAR looks also more realistic not only to WoW but also to DarkFall just look at this realistic scene.
Aye hehe.
This is a good example of Cartoonish graphic and the artstyle is just ridicolous compared to Darkfalls. Just look at the poorly designed weapons and the very uninspiring enviroments.
The one that cant see the difference btw these screenshots and the Darkfall one's need some new glasses.
Umbral, I would think 99% of people do not care what the art style is like. What they care about is whether things look at least vaguely like what they are supposed to be representing. From my observations a lot of DF fans are of an age where they can still remember graphics like this or worse: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ultima4.gif Obviously we expect a bit more in 2008. I suggest you watch the first minute of this: www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/203-Braid it sums up quite well what real gamers think of video game "art". I am not an artist but I know very well that the place to find art is not in a video game, all video game art is trash compared to real art. Over my 25 years of gaming experience I have noticed that it is an unwavering truth that almost all games with allegedly amazing graphics have terrible gameplay. All these games are now long forgotten and the only one's going down in history are the one's with good gameplay. I'm not defending Darkfalls art or saying that it must be a good game because it doesn't have the most up to date graphics or a consistent art style (although I actually think they are quite good). What I am saying is that if you want to play a good game it is not worth paying so much attention to it.
Blodpis
Yes, if you want real romantic, expressionist or just meaningful art, a game is not the place to looking for.
But even among games it is possible to find expressive and solid artstyle, from caricate to realistic, I will give you some examples.
Gears of War, Bioshock, The Witcher, Warhammer online, Guild Wars, Age of Conan, Aion, Soul Reaver...
See, all those games go from caricature to realistic style but all of them have a solid art wich results in a interesting "universe".
No, art style is not the most important feature inside a game, but till now we cant talk about Darkfall gameplay as no one had played it, we can only talk about what we see.
People like Aragon and Javac dont understand that this is not a matter of, do you like realistic or caricature like graphics, this is a matter of solid art style that translate in a "beliveable" game world.
Darkfall is by no means realistic ( check the weapons, the black knight, the human with ultra shinning armor ), so I cant understand why people are bashing Warhammer art style.
The main issue is, Darkfall is trying to has everything, from cartoony npcs and weapons to pseudo realistic grass, it is trying to have it all from WoW to RYL to AOC, and that is resulting in a complete messed up style without originality, where some people think it is cartoony and some think it is realistic. Check the weapons, they go from a "life like" weapon to a cartoony silly hammer in a second.
A MMO can improve and Darkfall can improve in this aspect aswell, so, why not talk about it?
Again, this is not a question of shaders, realistic or not realistic, solid art style doesnt mean realist or caricate, it is just a definition for a style that matches from NPCS, to landscapes, including weapons, races etc.
Sorry to say, but Warhammer online has a much more solid art style and Age of Conan, Gears of War, XIII and Bioshock also have a much more solid art style than Darkfall, it doesnt matter if it is realistic or if it is a caricature.
The community should always ask for more to help a beta MMO to improve, this kind of defensive "the game is perfect" posture never helps...
a poorly supported argument is still a poorly supported argument no matter how many words you throw at it.
True, but you're aggressive with your respons. You just end up banned if you retaliate to much. 'Been there, done that'
______________________________ The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess. And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic' and send them to the Special Olympus.
Gears of War, Bioshock, The Witcher, Warhammer online, Guild Wars, Age of Conan, Aion, Soul Reaver... See, all those games go from caricature to realistic style but all of them have a solid art wich results in a interesting "universe".
This is why you fail -- you are subjectively defining 'solid art', and then excluding Darkfall from that list while pointing to game renders, concept art and weapon montages instead of actual game screenshots and footage. It's a poor argument.
Show us some DF in-game screenshots you think show a mix of styles. Not counting black knights because they do not look cartoony.
I don't think it's fair to call the knight 'cartoony', it looks consistent with the world it's in, yet foreign enough to indicate to the viewer that it is 'special', eg: the creation of an evil necromancer, and wearing armour made from a semi-unique metal from a remote part of the world.
Comments
Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...
Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.
Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...
Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.
What am I calling goofy? Are you serious?
...
Im gonna get the bow cause archers are almost like snipers
Love the artwork, love the graphics. I dont REALLY care about graphics but this game is going to turn me into a graphics hoar! No more cartoonish style art!
I will be crafting and using the 2h axe. It looks amazing.
Next time learn to use the scroll slider.
You should practice what you preace there bro , considering you where so quick to jump on him you didnt scroll down yourself and see that he replied to a post about it before you came along and decided to be an A_ _
Javac, it seems you are not able to understand the difference between graphics and art style...
Age of Conan, Bioshock, Mafia are games with realistic Art Style, Darkfall is not realistic, it is stylized, but in a bad way for all the inconsistencies.
Check the black knight, the hammer, the halberd, it is not a realistic/fantasy style, dynamic shadows and the bad animations wont change that...
Keep in mind, lack of realism is not a bad thing, lack of art direction is.
What am I calling goofy? Are you serious?
I agree with others here, you don't seem to know what art direction and style are; you simply don't like Darkfall's graphics, we get it. Darkfall's lore and art are closer to Tolkien than most MMOs, in the sense that Darkfall is trying to immerse you into a world that could really exist, unlike recent MMOs which have been tending more and more toward a purely fantastic and stylised form.
The signature weapons come from different races, they are supposed to look nothing alike.
- the halberd looks sinister and evil, like the Alfar
- the hammer looks compact and powerful, like the dwarves
- the bow looks bright and magical, like the elves
- the claws look violent and feral, like the mahirrim
- the sword looks regal and distinguished, it suits the humans
- the axe looks crude and shamanistic, like the orcs
Definetely Ilshard, I just love halberds.
OK you appear to be brain-damaged as well as have poor taste in art.
Note that YOU'RE the only one here who is complaining about the art, we all love it.
Hold your offenses
Can you give me one argument about the Low/High Fantasy detail you quoted? Do you know the difference?
About Tolkien related art you just didnt know nothing about, right? As I thought... and how can you judge my opinions about art if you are not even able to see the difference between shaders and artstyle?
Im the only one, right? And all the other people that said about Darkfall´s lack of consistency on artstyle and wow like weapons are just invisible to you?
..
Ok, you edited, so, can you tell me what World is that?
I would love a darker, cruel and decadent MMO...
...
The art is beautiful, it have that nice old european touch. And since when does orcs have good taste in designing weapons??
Old european touch like a Pre-Raphaelite touch? Or even older like a Hieronymus Bosch touch?
Well, I disagree, it is much more like the modern RPG hero illustration touch but a bit messed up...
The ultra cartoony weapons mentioned doesnt seems to be from Orcs...
...
Old european touch like a Pre-Raphaelite touch? Or even older like a Hieronymus Bosch touch?
Well, I disagree, it is much more like the modern RPG hero illustration touch but a bit messed up...
The ultra cartoony weapons mentioned doesnt seems to be from Orcs...
...
Still, why care for the art style in a MMO? There are so many to choose from. Everyone can find whatever they want. If you dont like Hennings art, then i hope you will find something else.
I hope to find Darkfall.
Old european touch like a Pre-Raphaelite touch? Or even older like a Hieronymus Bosch touch?
Well, I disagree, it is much more like the modern RPG hero illustration touch but a bit messed up...
The ultra cartoony weapons mentioned doesnt seems to be from Orcs...
you are basing your entire thesis on 1 NPC and a montage of the signature weapons, which isn't even an in-game screenshot. not to mention you are interpreting the art based on your preconceieved notions of the orks are like, not interpreting the orks on how their art shows them to be. it's a beginner's mistake.
javac, calm down. The opinion is subjective and atleast he ebalorate to make it discussable.
______________________________
The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess.
And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic'
and send them to the Special Olympus.
a poorly supported argument is still a poorly supported argument no matter how many words you throw at it.
Umbral, I would think 99% of people do not care what the art style is like.
What they care about is whether things look at least vaguely like what they are supposed to be representing.
From my observations a lot of DF fans are of an age where they can still remember graphics like this or worse:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ultima4.gif
Obviously we expect a bit more in 2008.
I suggest you watch the first minute of this: www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/203-Braid
it sums up quite well what real gamers think of video game "art".
I am not an artist but I know very well that the place to find art is not in a video game, all video game art is trash compared to real art.
Over my 25 years of gaming experience I have noticed that it is an unwavering truth that almost all games with allegedly amazing graphics have terrible gameplay. All these games are now long forgotten and the only one's going down in history are the one's with good gameplay.
I'm not defending Darkfalls art or saying that it must be a good game because it doesn't have the most up to date graphics or a consistent art style (although I actually think they are quite good).
What I am saying is that if you want to play a good game it is not worth paying so much attention to it.
The "dark" world of WAR lol unique weaponry and very stylish origin art never seen before.
DarkFall on the other hand has "uninspired" art and style.
this absolutely no cartoonish compared to Darkfall.
Another sample of the "dark art" of WAR
And no judgement on graphic quality or something just the realistic and dark art of WAR, DarkFall obvious lack according to the master of taste.
WAR looks also more realistic not only to WoW but also to DarkFall just look at this realistic scene.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Aye hehe.
This is a good example of Cartoonish graphic and the artstyle is just ridicolous compared to Darkfalls. Just look at the poorly designed weapons and the very uninspiring enviroments.
The one that cant see the difference btw these screenshots and the Darkfall one's need some new glasses.
Have a nice one
Blodpis
Yes, if you want real romantic, expressionist or just meaningful art, a game is not the place to looking for.
But even among games it is possible to find expressive and solid artstyle, from caricate to realistic, I will give you some examples.
Gears of War, Bioshock, The Witcher, Warhammer online, Guild Wars, Age of Conan, Aion, Soul Reaver...
See, all those games go from caricature to realistic style but all of them have a solid art wich results in a interesting "universe".
No, art style is not the most important feature inside a game, but till now we cant talk about Darkfall gameplay as no one had played it, we can only talk about what we see.
People like Aragon and Javac dont understand that this is not a matter of, do you like realistic or caricature like graphics, this is a matter of solid art style that translate in a "beliveable" game world.
Darkfall is by no means realistic ( check the weapons, the black knight, the human with ultra shinning armor ), so I cant understand why people are bashing Warhammer art style.
The main issue is, Darkfall is trying to has everything, from cartoony npcs and weapons to pseudo realistic grass, it is trying to have it all from WoW to RYL to AOC, and that is resulting in a complete messed up style without originality, where some people think it is cartoony and some think it is realistic. Check the weapons, they go from a "life like" weapon to a cartoony silly hammer in a second.
A MMO can improve and Darkfall can improve in this aspect aswell, so, why not talk about it?
Again, this is not a question of shaders, realistic or not realistic, solid art style doesnt mean realist or caricate, it is just a definition for a style that matches from NPCS, to landscapes, including weapons, races etc.
Sorry to say, but Warhammer online has a much more solid art style and Age of Conan, Gears of War, XIII and Bioshock also have a much more solid art style than Darkfall, it doesnt matter if it is realistic or if it is a caricature.
The community should always ask for more to help a beta MMO to improve, this kind of defensive "the game is perfect" posture never helps...
...
True, but you're aggressive with your respons. You just end up banned if you retaliate to much. 'Been there, done that'
______________________________
The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess.
And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic'
and send them to the Special Olympus.
This is why you fail -- you are subjectively defining 'solid art', and then excluding Darkfall from that list while pointing to game renders, concept art and weapon montages instead of actual game screenshots and footage. It's a poor argument.
Show us some DF in-game screenshots you think show a mix of styles. Not counting black knights because they do not look cartoony.
I don't think it's fair to call the knight 'cartoony', it looks consistent with the world it's in, yet foreign enough to indicate to the viewer that it is 'special', eg: the creation of an evil necromancer, and wearing armour made from a semi-unique metal from a remote part of the world.
Im getting a lightsabre!!!
Oops I mean lightsword. :P