Amazing...

[Scream]

Simply amazing what can be done with CHOCOLATE SYRUP!!!

(Skip to 2:55 if you cant be asked sitting through it even though its AMAZING)

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

He should be hired by Blizzard.

[Scream]

^^&^^ isn't that the truth ^^&^^

[Hoogie]

He should be hired by Blizzard.

Not questioning how amazing this is but what does Blizzard has to do with it..?

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Because they, as a company, have no doubt the best concept artists in the world

[Soviet]

Because they, as a company, have no doubt the best concept artists in the world

Yeah, it's a pity their actual graphics designers suck ass.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Yes, the WoW graphics suck.

But take a look at SC2 or Diablo 3 (upcoming). Or even better, take a look at some sick ass cutscenes



mmm, yummy, Blizzard never fails.

[Soviet]

SC2 and Diablo 3 graphics look nice compared to WoW, but compared to other games out there they look mediocre at best. And yes, their cutscenes are always incredible, but that's CGI, not the game.

All of their models have a noticeably cartoony style that I don't like. Unlike TF2 where it feels purposeful, with Blizzard games it just feels like sloppy modeling and bad proportion with incredibly low poly counts. Additionally, they have some of the worst texturing I've ever seen, their normal texture resolutions are painful to look at. Along with that, all their animations seem repetitive and sloppy. Their entire approach to visual design in their games is years behind the current standard.

That being said, Blizzard is my second favorite game producing company and they are the absolute masters of gameplay design.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

They pretty much only make RTS games.

If Blizzard had a FPS it would've had some sick looking graphics.

There simply aren't really any RTS games which blow your mind away (Apart of C&C3, that's insane). RA3 which came after C&C3 didn't even have better graphics then that.

[Soviet]

Company of Heroes, RUSE, and Empire: Total War come to mind.

[Drofder2004]

Remember, WoW has a massive subscriber base, you can almost guarantee a large proportion are playing on laptops and your basic home pc... WoW can run on a 32mb Graphics card... The engine was original built in 2004 (or before, depending on how you view the production), very little has been added to graphically improve the game since.

Also, there are many options which almost all players have turned off, which improve FPS, these improve the texture quality/LOD, the viewing distance, the foliage density, the sky detail, and shit loads more. Couple all of this with a huge amount of FX, data displays, UIs, HUD, etc, FPS can drop quickly and so most people play on loewer graphics...

And, also remember its a game of fantasy... fantasy games are close to always bold colours, often cartoon style. Just google image search "JRPG" or "Fatnasy" and you will realise that WoW graphics are still setting a standard.

---

And just to clarify:
Is CGI not considered "graphical art"?

[Soviet]

On all highest WoW still looks like shit. I'm not debating that it is an old game, or that it was built for a wide range of users, but Half Life 2 (also released in 2004) looks 10 times better and is also intended to run on lower end computers. I have never played a fantasy RPG besides WoW that had those type of graphics. The Witcher, Dungeon Siege 1 & 2, Guild Wars + expansions, Lord of the Rings Online, and all of the Elder Scrolls just to list a few.

And yes, CGI is still artistic, but it isn't graphic design for the actual game, it's bullshit made on the side for their marketing and commercials to make the game look awesome. Furthermore, I don't care if WoW is setting a standard for graphics, that standard is complete and utter shit. I should not be able to see the individual pixels of a tree's texture. Every single time I look at a tree. On highest graphics. On a game released 6 months after Far Cry.

[Drofder2004]

In my opinion, this is just a classic case of Graphics = gameplay.

I don't set my standards on games based on graphics, the more developers fight to have the better graphics, the worse gameplay is becoming.

[[SoE]_Zaitsev]

Blizzard set the terms on graphics really low because then the people with bad computers don't get messed up. With Cataclysm they are updating models and surroundings etc but still, it doesn't look impressive. Although if you just fly over to some zones in Northrend (Latest expansion) you'll see that they did make an incredible looking world. Also, kind of funny, they upgraded water effects etc, but if you compare it to Oblivion the water in Oblivion is still better But like Drofder said, WoW isn't about the best graphics like Crysis.

And indeed, CoH looks really great too. I don't know Ruse and I can't comment on Empire Total War.

[BatterY]

In my opinion, this is just a classic case of Graphics = gameplay.

I don't set my standards on games based on graphics, the more developers fight to have the better graphics, the worse gameplay is becoming.

But in the early days, Ion Storm created a masterpiece with fairly low graphics, but with gameplay of the century. I bet it still beats most new games in everything except graphics.

On-topic:

Wow, looks nice! I've seen couple of times people doing this with sand few years ago