You know how the first review will go...
Ward
Member Posts: 1,305
I will bet all of you some huge amount of cash that somebody hilarious will make a review of BG:EE and say "Ooooooooo the graphics are sooooo very outdated for 2012."
That happened with another game that came out a few years ago. The company re-released an old game with new content and a lot of the reviews were about the outdated graphics. Of course the difference between that game and this, is they re-released it as a money-grab and this is a genuine project.
But you get my point. A couple really intuitive people will notice the age of the graphics and claw their eyes out because it doesn't look like Diablo III (I haven't even played that).
That'll be people who have not seen it before I bet, rather than people who have. If somebody assumes this is a new release and rates the graphics according that would be silly.
That happened with another game that came out a few years ago. The company re-released an old game with new content and a lot of the reviews were about the outdated graphics. Of course the difference between that game and this, is they re-released it as a money-grab and this is a genuine project.
But you get my point. A couple really intuitive people will notice the age of the graphics and claw their eyes out because it doesn't look like Diablo III (I haven't even played that).
That'll be people who have not seen it before I bet, rather than people who have. If somebody assumes this is a new release and rates the graphics according that would be silly.
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Comments
I just find it interesting that so many people look at Baldur's Gate and blanch at the graphics, yet when you look at all these hand-drawn environments, I find them much more beautiful than a lot of cartoonish animations that are considered high-end graphics today.
I guess those real fancy graphics expose all the flaws. If you render an enviroment so close to ours, you'll recognise what doesn't fit (aka cartoony, or just scary). It's called the uncanny valley or something.
But all those hand drawn landscapes in Baldur's Gate, IWD and PST are epic. I actually thought Neverwinter Night's drawback was how every second graphic was the same. Good for making your own games, but tilesets limit artistic value.
Yeah, Neverwinter was nice in that it provided an art medium that is reusable, but having isometric hand-drawns just really blows me away, even if it's just moving paper dolls on a pretty picture.
The reason they're so rough is because monsters have a very limited number of animations, meaning they can be very nice. Characters have the potential to be in hundreds of different armours and weapons, I guess the sprites have to be less fine tuned to make up for it.. That's my thought anyway.
I am interested in seeing what graphical improvements will be made to the game though. Sure, we already know that the new areas will probably end up looking better since they won't have the resolution limitation of the older areas, but I also want to see what will be done in the old areas and how the new UI will look. Will they keep the classic appearance of the UI? WIll the resolution of the character sprites be improved? Will they provide new spell animations/effects?
Though when I think about the iPad version I just go "Holy crap! Look at all that great content that they'll be getting for 10 bucks!". There are probably better looking games on the iPad, but probably not with the same amount of great content as BGEE.
I'm very worried the new areas won't fit. Sure they'll appear fresh, but also there's potential they won't fit at all. I just hope they get the right 'feeling' out of it.
People have been talking about changing old stuff to match new stuff, but it should be the other way around. The old stuff all is fine, voicesets, areas, portraits. Spruce them up a bit, however, keep them as is.
A game where years and millions are spent to bring it to the public and sells for 60 dollars should look good for 2012. Since many games that come out today are cookie cutter copies anyway, there is no guarantee that the story or the gameplay will be good. So the graphics better damn well be.
If BG:EE were to post for 60 dollars, I would not buy it. I mean, I thought the price set on Dragon Age:Origins was ridiculous considering it looked like a game from 2006 but was released at the end of 2009.
If that sounds harsh, I apologize. Call it a consumer/modder complex.
It's funny that you mentioned Diablo 3. I'm playing it and if anything it proves the aforementioned point... That top down isometric graphics are still viable and even desired. D3's graphics are not top of the line, but the environments are very good....lighting etc. More than once i've come around a pillar wondering how great it would be if this was BG instead of a hack and slash (but I love hack and slashes too which is why i'm playing D3).
I don't know the level of BGEE's resolution/graphics tweaks, but regardless, D3 is important in the sense that it shows that the graphical style is not undesirable in today's market. BGEE is even more imprtant in that it will only underscore that in my mind for RPG's...I hope.
I was actually playing D3 and thinking to myself how great it would be to experience BG in such a visual style. Top down, but smoother with the tactical play etc.
It's important to cast that light against what seems to be the notion that such a style is dead and buried. I still hope that BGEE will be an additonal body blow to game publishers that rattles them out of their pre conceived notions.
In that sense, the work being done here is frankly invaluable to the PC game world.
Just my thoughts.
From an area look standpoint, I'm not worried, Russ worked on BG1 and BG2 and he's doing very well with matching the look / feel.
-Trent
I think of it in Kevin Vanorde's (sp?) voice from Gamespot, "BGEE is a fresh look at a great game. Taking the player back to the same joy that they had when first playing BG with new and exciting quests and areas that make him/her feel like they're meeting an old friend again whose stories, while new, are just as fun as their older ones." If the new content is lacking, they'll focus on how the graphics look, and how the new content feels like it was just thrown in there for the promise of new content.
At least, that's how I assume it'll go down.
The exception to this is if the site depends on ad revenue from publishers, which is why so many terrible to mediocre games get good reviews (hi, EA!).
I wouldn't make getting good reviews any kind of a priority.
''Playing a game for the graphics is like watching a porn for the story''
But that will be somebody fresh who has never seen the game before. I think most of the people who know what it is will be very warm towards this release. But to pull in those new fans who are used to artistically and emotionally deprived, soulless graphics, that will be hard.
I guess this is a niche game at the end of the day. I have no doubts BG:EE will sell well, but it won't turn heads and convince big epic industry giants to change their ways.
Or will it?
ahh BG Forums, it's good to be back.
You surely knew that BGEE satisfies a niche market.
I would be more worried about the core fans. You can satisfy them only with new content, and that takes a lot of effort with this engine.
However, if they criticise the fact that the graphics are not changed or changed much, do you believe that it would be uncalled for?
They will review something, they can't review the same Baldur's Gate, of course they are going to mention the graphics being dated, and i assure you it won't be new gamers only that comment on it. Unless, you don't read other forums much.
Remember the countdown clock and when the page went down because so many people wanted to know what it's all about? I think it wouldn't be such a problem. Reviewers must show some interest too. I think you should particularly stick to the YouTube reviewers like Angry Joe, because they're getting more and more popular with their video reviews and they cannot be ignored.
BG1+2 is the game I bought 3 times. Once on CD, then DVD release and then English version on gog. I'll buy it now too and I'll advertise it to my friends, because BG is hell of a game, a shiny gem across mediocre products and the best of its kind. It deserves to be bought
Any reviewer who concetrates on the graphics in a game like this is not worth listening to anyway in my opinion. Yes, compared to newer games they may be dated but it's more or less irrelevant when you consider the depth of the game.
BG:EE is the same game with a few (mostly already existing) mods on it and a bit of content at this point, from what's been told. The fans will support any attempt at work on our favourite games but IMO it's very optimistic to hope to appeal to anyone outside of the fanbase. Frankly, just ignoring any of the content and entirely reworking the graphics from scratch would probably have attracted more attention and praise because the game is fundamentally awesome and reviewers could say "a gem lost in time has returned to enchant a new generation" or some other poetic crap like that.
Not that it really matters. BG:EE will sell fine no matter how good or a bad job you do with it. But the project seems extremely unambitious so you can't really expect reviewers to go crazy for it, right?
What does all the huge super cool graphic at modern titles have to offer anyway? does it make the storylines deeper? the character interaction better? No, Tons of High Res Graphics take away the place for long and well written content
My few euros to that Thematic