First DA2 Screens from Game Informer

[piydek]

When that sword's broadness and gay japanese hair and that ultra neat metrosexual/borderline gay beard meet, i get very suspicious about the art direction they have in mind for this game. Yes, Alistair had gay hair as well, but at least it was western gay hair.

 

[Rhalle]

All the artists working on the Dragon Age series suck, I want to kick them in the balls.

The only people at Bioware who aren't inept are the ME2 team's art designers, and perhaps the ME2 writers.

BW has the technical staff of a bargain bin company; seriously, they are an embarassment. If it's a graphical feature that they didn't learn to do a decade ago, they simply won't add it to the game and claim it's not possible to do.

 

[Radisshu]

And what's with the shitty angular armour?

 

[Konjad]

LOOK GUYZ IT'S GRAPHIC ISN PURRRRRFECT IT HAS NOT ENOUGH AA UND ARMOR IS NOT LIEK IN REAL MEDIEVAL WAS LOLOLOLOL DRAGON AGE 2 IS SUCH AN AWESOME GAME I WILL WHINE ABOUT IT AND THEN PLAY IT SINCE RELEASE DATE SCREW INDIE DEVS THEY DUNT HAEV GUT GRAPHIC FFS

BIOWARE PARTY TIME!!!!

 

[CrimHead]

Why would you put serrations on a sword?

Faggot.

 

[Angthoron]

Wow, that sword couldn't look more shitty and gay if it was forged in some giant gay ass caverns.

 

[circ]

BioWare, undisputed masters of lifeless shitty faces since Dragon Age: Origins.

 

[StrangeCase]

It's not just that the graphics are bad. Mostly they're just bad screenshots and bad art direction.

That second one, the leaping action shot, is horrendous. The overly harsh lighting, unbalanced contrast, and empty background make the whole thing seem stiff and unnatural. The pastel sky clashes with the washed-out red of the ground. The flatness of the detail makes it look cartoony and artificial. The characters' poses lack continuity- it looks like all five characters (the ogre, the leaping guy, the dead guy near the bottom, and the two orcs) were Photshopped in one at a time from separate screenshots and hastily arranged. Very sloppy overall.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Wow, that sword couldn't look more shitty and gay if it was forged in some giant gay ass caverns.

I don't think swordsmiths care about how kewl it looks

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

Wow, that sword couldn't look more shitty and gay if it was forged in some giant gay ass caverns.

I don't think swordsmiths care about how kewl it looks

Sure they do, why else would they put some red strange flying ribbons on it?
Some people just got a different definition of "kewl"

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Once I read an explanation that these chinese swords have these things to absorb and keep the blood from reaching the hilt and making it slippery, since they don't use crossguards*. Dunno if that was the intention on the above sword, though.

*not sure if that's the correct name in english, its this thing that protects your hand

 

[Angthoron]

Wow, that sword couldn't look more shitty and gay if it was forged in some giant gay ass caverns.

I don't think swordsmiths care about how kewl it looks

I'm not sure what real-world culture was using that ribboned sword, if any, and even if that thing would have been something that actually existed, it would be purely ceremonial/standard-bearer type thing. It just is a waste of metal as a smith's work.

I mean, look at the most common types of swords used - they're very plain and usually decorated by means of etching or some hilt/pommel decoration. Why? Well, why is a gun looking like it does instead of having a serrated barrel and spikes and horns on the hilt? I mean, that's so much kewler, right?

So yeah, a swordsmith doesn't care how the sword is meant to look. His sword is meant to kill. That's what swords are for. The faggotry with ribbons is just as ridiculous as gunblades. Which is exactly why the posted picture is retarded. It also looks a bit like shoddy craftsmanship from that level of zoom, but I'm no expert so I'll leave it at that.

 

[Angthoron]

Once I read an explanation that these chinese swords have these things to absorb and keep the blood from reaching the hilt and making it slippery, since they don't use crossguards*. Dunno if that was the intention on the above sword, though.

*not sure if that's the correct name in english, its this thing that protects your hand

That's a European sword though - and in general the pommel is used as a hand guard, to protect the hand and the fingers from being cut off or hit. At least for European swords that tends to be the case. Japanese sword hilts could work that way though, but again, I'm far from an expert in swords and even less of one in Japanese crafts.

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

But wouldn't the blood just flow over the crossquard? Don't see why a simple string of metal should stop the blood. If it was a plane protecting the whole grip then yeah it works, but like that?

 

[hiver]

That sword isnt big enough. If swords arent at least ten meters long i wont by buying this gaem!

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Why bother releasing early screenshots when you know it's going to stir up cries of 'OMG SH1T'? Just wait until you have something presentable, then throw them out there.

The public will bitch either way.

 

[Shannow]

Hilts are wrapped in leather strips for grip. Cross pieces are there to prevent engaged blades to slide down your blade and cut your fingers. They are also used as levers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3DhjFUO ... gJyLJ3--04
The sword in the picture looks like a late-medieval/renaissance era duelling piece, much closer to a rapier than a longsword. Duelling means more for show, lighter and no need to worry about the hilt becomming slippery since you'll have won/lost by then. A soldier's sword would look plainer and have a leather wrapped hilt.


But I never got the bitching about large pauldrons or serrated swords. It's fantasy, in video games. If one doesn't like it because of taste, fine, but not liking it because it's not realistic? Like elves, dwarves, orcs and fireballs? Wat?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Why bother releasing early screenshots when you know it's going to stir up cries of 'OMG SH1T'? Just wait until you have something presentable, then throw them out there.

The public will bitch either way.

Codex != Public. I bet other places are all ZOMG AWESOME.

 

[Achilles]

What bothers me though is the art design, since it looks like they went away from "gritty but realistic medieval" to "I can't discribe it but it looks shite".

Well, judging from the artwork and the purple overtones, it seems that art direction for DA is going a bit emo.

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

What bothers me though is the art design, since it looks like they went away from "gritty but realistic medieval" to "I can't discribe it but it looks shite".

Well, judging from the artwork and the purple overtones, it seems that art direction for DA is going a bit emo.

That's what I meant. Some weird combination of Emo, JRPG, Cartoon and western ideas how persia would look like.

But well. Jack in ME2 was evidence enough that Bio was going down the Emo route.
Maybe we get a cool trailer like the "new shit" one.

CRAAAAAWLING IN MYYY SKIIIIIIIIIIN! THESE WOUUUUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

(Now I did it myself... brb listening to Linkin Park)

 

[Angthoron]

But I never got the bitching about large pauldrons or serrated swords. It's fantasy, in video games. If one doesn't like it because of taste, fine, but not liking it because it's not realistic? Like elves, dwarves, orcs and fireballs? Wat?

Well, to me it's the lack of internal logic. You have a society that frequently wages wars and uses swords, bows and fireballs for it, right?

So how's it make sense when bows and fireballs are very much to the point, the bows are very much unadorned and looking, well, like something that could maybe even be used, and fireballs that fly from point A to point B rather than at random until finally hitting the target, but then...

...Then you have Fantasy swords that are the very essence of the penis-related complex embodied in a tangible symbol. Not only that, it also displays a latent desire for body augs, what with serrated tips along the blade proper.

Gigantic pauldrons are just the obvious desire for a huge pair of hairy balls to have the augmented mega-peno-sword smacked between of.


Yeah, and they're not an efficient weapon, either, the Fantasy swords, I mean.

 

[CrimHead]

Wow, that sword couldn't look more shitty and gay if it was forged in some giant gay ass caverns.

It's a chinese ghost broadsword. And Clockwork Knight was correct, the ribbons serve three purposes A. distraction, B. to soak up blood (they're made of horse hair), and to act as ornamentation.

Also: lots of chinese weapons have those ribbons.

Kwan dao, for example, where they serve a similar function.

 

[Angthoron]

How much were those actually used in combat though? Seriously curious about that, both things look bloody unwieldy to me, though the halberd-like makes sense.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Why bother releasing early screenshots when you know it's going to stir up cries of 'OMG SH1T'? Just wait until you have something presentable, then throw them out there.

The public will bitch either way.

Codex != Public. I bet other places are all ZOMG AWESOME.

Maybe I just have a bit too much faith in other people. Anyone should be able to see those look like the graphics of a game they ported over from the original Xbox, given some AA and cleaner texture work. There's no way to look at this and not say 'oh, early build'.

 

[CrimHead]

How much were those actually used in combat though? Seriously curious about that, both things look bloody unwieldy to me, though the halberd-like makes sense.

They were used to dismount cavalry, so its not like a person using it needs to be extremely mobile to be efficient with it. I've lifted one before and they're not too heavy.

Anyway that has nothing to do with this discussion. The point is that if you look hard enough you can find tons of real life serrated weapons.

It's just a stupid thing to bitch about. Torment has all kinds of weird, impractical things in it. Like the Godsmen armor. Why do they need spikes like that on their shoulder pads? BECAUSE IT LOOKS COOL

 

[Angthoron]

How much were those actually used in combat though? Seriously curious about that, both things look bloody unwieldy to me, though the halberd-like makes sense.

They were used to dismount cavalry, so its not like a person using it needs to be extremely mobile to be efficient with it. I've lifted one before and they're not too heavy.

Anyway that has nothing to do with this discussion. The point is that if you look hard enough you can find tons of real life serrated weapons.

Ah, as anti-cavalry I can definitely see that work, thanks for clarifying.

And yeah, that's true, there are many serrated weapons, it's just that Fantasy game designers (World of Warcraft, I'm looking at you!) just look at weapons in catalogues, go "Oh, that looks cool" and implement it in the game without actually thinking for a moment whether it's actually logical to use it in a man-on-man fight.

But yeah, it's an off-topic, although the on-topic is frankly less inspiring than talking about weapons in Fantasy.