Guild wars graphics ftw. discuss=)

conte

today i installed that game, what can i tell, that game is super beautiful! Such awesome atmosphere, neat textures, characters are my fav. and there is no normal maps and other "nextgen" shit, except hdr. I have gf6600 and got 60-100 fps!
tell me what you guys think about it=)

Justin Meisse

Guild Ward? Are you talking about Guild Wars? I do believe that's using normal mapping. It's also two years old.

PfhorRunner

and the atmosphere is only beautiful for the first like 5 hours of the game, then everything goes to shit.

AstroZombie

There were no normal maps in the original Guild Wars. Not sure if they have implemented them in the expansions or not, but I kinda doubt it.

The game has some pretty nice looking environments and characters, IMO.

ebagg

I don't think that game uses normal mapping, if they do it must be extremely subtle. The game has great art, though I wish the environments would've been closer to the insanely epic environment concepts they've pimped. I also wish they would vary up the human characters' proportions. A warrior woman should be a lot more bulky than a mage woman, etc etc.

The game gets stupidly hard in parts, if you only want to solo then the AI for the bot party members is really bad. I prefer WoW simply because I don't have to watch my idiot AI party members aggro too many mobs at once, and watch damn near every enemy chase down my healer monk and slaughter her in seconds.

conte

thx Justin, fixed.
i guess they will use normal maps in Guild wars 2

FunkaDelicDass

They implemented normal maps in the latest expansion, Nightfall, but I think it's only for the environment terrain textures. You can see it on some of the rocky textures.

Panupat

Even if they make sense, I don't think we asians appreciate muscular or bulky girls. : /

vahl

yah I confirm they added normalmapping in nightfall, but only on rocks and stuff like that, looks awesome even without it though

steady

yeah the art is beautiful, there is a thread on conceptart.org with all the concept art. I wish there was a model/texture extractor program...

conte

steady, yeah, i am kinda searchin' it know.
if i'll find it i will tell here.

vahl

Nightfall concept dump
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83394&highlight=guld+wars

factions concept dump
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83394&highlight=guld+wars

Tulkamir

One of my favourite games visually forsure!

ebagg

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Even if they make sense, I don't think we asians appreciate muscular or bulky girls. : /

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What does being asian have to do with it?

ElysiumGX

The art is inspiring. IMO, the game has the best creature designs and armor sets. And overall, the game is the most pleasing on the eyes. Something the use of normal maps could ruin. A colorful style and simple lighting is all it takes to create a great looking game.

Emil Mujanovic

Guild Wars is the reason why I can't play WoW. There's actual linear driven story as well as random exploration and farming. I own WoW, played a maximum of 10 hours and never again.
The art is stunning, though some areas of Factions are quite ordinary.
As for the henchman, I think in an update a while ago you are able to order your henchmen to attack or fall back. Though I rarely go out with henchies so I'll have to check tonight to confirm that. But I remember my housemate making some big deal about it.
Guild Wars > World of Warcraft.

-caseyjones

vahl

I confirm, nightfall added heroes, which are customizable and manageable henchmen, you can give them orders (you can also "flag" regular henchmen) manage their behaviour, skills, etc, they keep improving that, I'm playing both on nightfall and prophecies and usually play solo, this feature added a lot and changed the way I play too.
and you can take your heroes in high level areas, give them elite skills, etc which you can't do with henchmen

Emil Mujanovic

That's the bitches! Haven't played Nightfall yet, still playing through Prophecies (yeah, I've owned since it was released yet I'm still yet to finish) and did some minor exploration through Factions.
Thanks Vahl.

-caseyjones

greenj2

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The game has great art, though I wish the environments would've been closer to the insanely epic environment concepts they've pimped.

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Totally agree there, I got the factions collector set with art book and thought exactly the same thing for the characters too. I mean it looks great as it stands, but the atmoshpere would have been insanely good if they'd leaned more towards the dark/oriental/gothic theme they had going in a lot of the concept art. Might have to reinstall it and have another crack at it now. Prolly play for an hour then never again, MMORPGs eat up too much time for my liking. But at least you don't pay way out the ass for GW like you do in WoW...

[Holy shit, just looked at the art dump on CA and I think I'll have to go out and grab a copy of Nightfall ASAP...]

Wells

Nightfall is a beautiful game.

They just keep getting better and better.

Played this since the beta. My mom is super addicted to it.

Ged

Ive got guild wars prophecies, I really enjoy the character styles and textures too. I really like the way its so consistent. I got to lvl 13 and stopped playing the game because the combat was boring. I want a game that lets me attack my enemys not just sit back and watch my character fight and choose little things from my skills while he does the fighting, its like Im some kind of powerful spectator. Thats the only flaw for me but considering most of the game is based around fighting its a big flaw.

vahl

the game really starts when you reach level20 and start using elaborated builds, most of hem are based on skill management which is not just clicking on stuff from time to time, but more timing attacks, spells, enchantements the most efficient way possible. and with heroes, you can do even more management, ordering them to use specific skills to help you, move them, etc, not really anything like boring, IMO

Ged

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more timing attacks, spells, enchantements the most efficient way possible. and with heroes, you can do even more management, ordering them to use specific skills to help you, move them, etc

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Still seems more like a combat management simulation than combat itself. I want to click on different parts of my enemy and my character attacks those parts or use key combos to do jump attacks or something or perhaps the enemys attack in a more real time manner and I would have to use skills of prediction and aim... you know what I mean!? really getting into the action with guild wars just doesnt seem possible. Still doesnt stop it looking freakin good but I think it was a missed opportunity or perhaps its just too hard to make a MMO with these kinds of features.

Wells

All the combat built around card-based combat... so if you think of it as a more interactive card-game it might sit better. Hence the 750 skills, but you can only take 8 with you at a time. Its more about set up and execution than real-time twitching/attacking. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, though.

Emil Mujanovic

[ QUOTE ]
the game really starts when you reach level20 and start using elaborated builds, most of hem are based on skill management which is not just clicking on stuff from time to time, but more timing attacks, spells, enchantements the most efficient way possible. and with heroes, you can do even more management, ordering them to use specific skills to help you, move them, etc, not really anything like boring, IMO

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Agreed!
I watch my housemate play sometimes when he farms in the Underworld. Just setting up his character for the correct build takes him some time and is based on who he's partying up with.
You really have to respect the amount of effort someone went into developing these builds, it's just insane.

-caseyjones