The reason I chose EQ2 over WoW was because it didn't have cartoon graphics. What on earth were they thinking here? The characters don't even move properly and from what I saw in the combat the weapons don't actually hit anything except the ground??? What happened to detailed environments? Nicely crafted armour? Motion capture animation? This just looks like a cheap spin off of WoW not Norrath. I guess the PC suffers again due to the need to get titles on consoles. So far I'm really not impressed with this. Looks like its going to be Elder Scrolls online for my grown up fantasy MMO.
My fear is simple. If the combat is intensive, and the world can constantly attack you for being in it, where will one ever rp? Yeah ok niche market , but the rpers tend to stick around. If I am required to do nothing but voice I am out. If I cannot stand still anywhere because the environment runs a script to attack me .. I am out.
I could almost, almost, live with the disney princess human figures... but that Kerra is just not my cup of tea. I've been lamenting the cartoonifying of EQ2 graphics over the last few years so I guess this new cartoon look should not have come as a surprise.
I also do not like the character art. It reminds me of 'Beauty and the Beast'. I would prefer to see some texture to the skins, to me the character art looks like a step backward from eq2. The characters don't have any wear-and-tear look that would give them some history.
Dunno why people are being so hard on the graphics...honestly, stylization has it's own merits. Those that're HONESTLY gut-enchantingly disgusted at the cartoony-ness won't play. The game play looks nice so far, the systematic stuff needs to be seen to be believed, but one thing's for sure... You bet if, once tested, the stuff is believable...you'll have to LOCK ME IN A CELL to keep me from ransacking that farmer alongside those orcs!
I loved how the the zones looked. I also like how we'll be able to create and make a difference in the World of Narrath. The name of the game is something less than desired for I felt the name should of been "EverQuest-Narrath" or "Narrath World" or "World of Narrath" and could of added a "s" to world if there will be other planets we may be able to travel too" So far the looks of the races- the humans are great, the elves ears are really off base from any of elves from any previous Everquest's games and the eyes are bit to slanted. The Kerrans need a bit more done to them in my opinion for their face looks way to cartoony and the nose sticks out to far but maybe that is something we can change when creating out characters? IDK.
I feel like I don't have enough info to properly judge EQ Next just yet, but of course I still have my opinions based on what I just saw. The environments looked visually good to me, Feerrot being my favourite out of what was shown. Having nighttime actually be dark was neat to see. I really like the ability to actually damage and destroy the world around you, too. I mean, if you're a mage blasting out powerful spells, stuff is gonna get wrecked around you! So that has me intrigued as well as the ability to get to new areas via destruction (breaking open a hole in the ground, tunneling underground, etc). The only problem with the environments rebuilding themselves over time was brought up in level chat: players getting stuck in the environment around them! I hope there's a workaround for this because unlike people getting stuck in guild hall items, there may have to be GM help to get them out of whatever rock or tree they get stuck in. I'm still not sure what to make of the character designs. Even though I knew EQ Next was going to be a spin-off, I was picturing it to stay more realistic rather than stylistic. The human they showed didn't scare me off, but the Kerra had a real big "OMG it's WoW!" reaction from me and not in a good way. He was just so clunky and cartoonish even compared to the human woman. Even with the stylistic designs, both my husband and myself were hoping for Kerra that more resembled Ajani Goldmane and less Tony the Tiger. Waiting to hear more about combat. What still terrifies me is SOE will try and copy GW2 and other heavily action-oriented MMOs. My friends (including non-EQ playing friends who are really interested in EQ Next after today) ended up hating that style of combat, so SOE will lose out on them if they go that route and they'll lose out on me simply because I have physical limitations and can't play with those kinds of mechanics. I really want to know if they'll be putting a larger variety of races than what's just shown in the concept art. The poll on whether or not to put Ratonga in the game scares me a bit! Will the Iksar have to be voted on, too? Some of the "standard" fantasy races I expect (gnomes, halflings, etc) but what about the other races that have been standard for EQ as a whole? Will the spin-off part of EQ Next mean they're doing away with some EQ-specific races, as well? It would seem really, really bland to me if they stuck with only the typical fantasy races. Blah I wrote a lot more than I thought I would, ha. If nothing else I will buy Landmark since I'm both a Minecraft and Everquest fan and the two together is pretty cool for me.
I can not wait to hear more. I dislike the Kerran but do like the human female. The world itself is beautiful and I love some of the other things mentioned. Can they actually pull it off is the question.
There is a reason why Voxels went under and was not used in tons of games..needs tons of compute power, is complicated and insane to work with. seen it done before in other games but not this crazy. I am expecting they are using cloud compute servers for this or you will need a good PC or they have made some voodoo magic that makes voxels work on low end pcs. http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/voxel-based-graphics-on-intel-architectures I am expecting this is also another reason for the art style but who knows if the characters are made of voxels too. I am expecting things to be broken at launch. I would like to hear a really technical overview of what they are doing with the voxels exactly.
I have a theory about the cartoon PC graphics: Its easier and cheaper as they don't need to worry about textures. Creating armour will be easier and cheaper because they don't need to do any detail. Should be able to do armour dyes because it looks to be a step back from more advanced texture processing (ie all the last ten year's worth of advancements) Probably much easier to use with SOEmote. Cheaper to do than realistic models. SOE can no longer afford motion capture so the PC's movement is also cartoony to match the graphics. Weapons wont need detailed textures as judging by the videos its exaggerated weapon sizes and primary colours so they can just recolour the simple textures - again cheaper and easier. I think someone at SOE should play the Cinematic Mod 12 for Half Life 2 (you tube it) to see exactly what is possible nowadays with just one dude using his own spare time. Modding a 2004 release into something that looks awesome even standing next to a 2013 release. THAT is where we should be with EQ2 not this...
Armor actually look semi-detailed, from my perspective (Doubt they showed us anything majorly-creative, as that would spoil the fun). Also, Motion-Capture limits weapons and weapon functionality in some cases. I.E.: Rift Devs refusing to implement a hand-to-hand/martial arts soul, and Spear motions for two-handed weapons counting as slashing, causing them to motion similar to great axes. First judgments aren't always the best, anywho, best to either beta test or see if the game gets a free trial if you feel the need to form more of a judgement. @Athenia, I think they might have plans to "bring back" the other races, at some point. Froglok, Troll, Sarnak, and Iksar pose some interesting possiblities considering the Rally Call system, I.E. players splitting into factions supporting the frogloks or trolls, and waging a war to nearly destroy, but not fully extinct-ify, the other race. Halfings and Gnomes missing gives me concern somewhat, but considering the example of the Rally Calls was "Raising Halas" it seems like they have some ideas in store.
Its not really a final judgement - all this is pouring out of the biggest "WTF is this?" moment I've had in 30 years of gaming. I don't want to play a cartoon - I've done that already when machines were too weak to render anything more complex. I want to see BF4 style realism because we can now get there in 2013. That's why I got my machine and my three monitors. This to me isn't progress....I mean look at the "landscape" feature? It looked for all the world like Minecraft. Look at the deformable world - some trees "kind of" didn't obey the laws of physics and flibbled about as a big polygon with some colours came through it - then smashed a castle (conveniently covered by smoke) into a lego castle. Then we get a fight where there's lots of sparkly stuff happening but the main dude fighting just hits the ground with his hammer all the time between constantly falling over...this to me is super Mario 3D. Then we get a close up of Princess Ariel and Mufasa from the Lion King who is using fisher price plastic armour? I've perfected the quadruple facepalm by using both hands and my feet..because this deserves it. God I hope there are some *major* changes to the look and feel before release...
I have more of a problem of what they did to the new killer instinct that is my biggest "WTF of gaming moment I can remember. it got similar treatment. This is not as offensive as that.
Yeah, that's much more "WTF" enducing than this honestly. As for my opinion, I like it, it's a style choice, that doesn't look too bad with humanoid models. I admit that the Kerra doesn't look that great, but that's because...honestly, how much can you do with a humanoid cat? We've already seen some nice cloth/hair physics, great environments, and some interesting encounters, and enough to get me hyped for a while.
I am going to add Spyro to that list too....I used to love spyro on ps1...the legend series less so he looked strange then but is was alright. I played until that skylander crap turned him into a ugly purple demon from hell that is when I stopped. I can always look back to this and killer instinct when ever they mess with a game series I like as an example of how bad things can get and everything else starts to look less bad next to it... and the new blocky ninja turtles also suck.
Maybe Sony just cant cope with the development costs of the houses that produce games like BF4 that they know will sell millions of copies so realism costs just too much money nowadays so we have this and an attempt at innovating in different ways. But to me whatever the reasons - this as it stands now isn't Everquest. I'm hoping something can be pulled out of the fire given its still pretty early but considering beta tests are happening I doubt we'll see much changes. I just thought - what is Queen Antonia going to look like? I shudder to think...
