Were Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, and other early 3D RPGs considered to have good graphics?

[Neanderthal]

I wunt crap on module an toolkit at all, powerful, accessible an home to much better content than Bioware ever created for their game.

 

[hexer]

The concept art for Torn was awesome.

Only tears remain

 

[YES!]

NWN and DS are not early 3d games. 3d games were around in the earlyish 90s. And I don't remember people being all giddy about the graphics of NWN they were with DS. I remember everyone making a big deal about shadows. DS 2 is actually much, much better than DS1 with a non-child like chardev system. That is probably why it isn't as popular.

 

[YES!]

This was a cancelled game that I was very much looking forward to

 

[Turok]

Finally, a better screenshot. Yeah, for the time those were pretty good 3D graphics. Games have come a long way since then.

When Neverwinter Nights came out i remember that most people won't play it because the video card requirements, those where good 3d graphics for his time, i personally remember have bad times playing it because it run too slow, my poor 3d video card dont have the power to run it smooth.

 

[pippin]

Yes, NWN was one of the first games that were truly demanding and borderline unplayable for my computer back in the day too.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

When did Gothic come out? 2001

NWN: 2002.

Gothic looks much better. I recall being pretty unimpressed with NWN's graphics when it came out. Blocky, ugly items, characters, environments, enemies, etc. It also ran like shit on my PC.

 

[Ezeekiel]

The only part of NWN I remember looking good and actually being impressed with, is the way they graphically animated the characters parrying each other's attacks in combat - with cool sounds and sparks flying.

Parrying/deflecting and ducking/sidestepping attacks yeah.

One of my first impressions of Dragon Age was: What the fuck, they just stand in front of each other and spool through their attack animations with like no reaction (maybe there were reactions to critical hits or something like that? idr). It was a really obvious step down compared to NWN though, really took away from the fights (and then I realized how shit the combat there was in general). BG2 (dunno about BG1) also had feints that your chars would make in-between real attacks though I imagine most people didn't really notice.

NWN and DAO both had some good parts but to me they each respectively heralded a new era of biowarean decline. NWN was just plain puzzling after MDK/BG2 (never played mdk2)

 

[Ezeekiel]

I found NWN to be a big step back from BG2 and such. Not only due to clunky early 3D, but especially because the art direction simply sucked.
About the only thing it did a bit better was effects (magic, lighting, etc), but that wasn't enough to salvage it in terms of graphics.

I guess a game like Dungeon Siege might have been received better because it didn't have to compare to a better looking 2D predecessor. Also at least the level of detail of the vegetation (for the time) and seamless world were technically impressive.

Dungeon Siege really lacked atmosphere compared to Diablo though :D
Come to think of it, I don't remember people talking much about DS for long. It was hyped up so much by the gaming press, folks played it, done and mostly forgotten at least in my neck of the woods.

NWN really was a massive step down compared to the previous CRPG greats, in almost every way. Such a tedious game with it's 4 districts, 4 map directions/locations, 4 everything, lack of a good artstyle, story, anything and everything...
I had most of my fun with it by just making modules/items etc myself.

 

[Maggot]

When did Gothic come out? 2001

NWN: 2002.

Gothic looks much better. I recall being pretty unimpressed with NWN's graphics when it came out. Blocky, ugly items, characters, environments, enemies, etc. It also ran like shit on my PC.

Gothic had a 25fps cap so it always felt like it it was running slowly. Great art style though.

 

[Gord]

Dungeon Siege really lacked atmosphere compared to Diablo though :D
Come to think of it, I don't remember people talking much about DS for long. It was hyped up so much by the gaming press, folks played it, done and mostly forgotten at least in my neck of the woods.

I only commented on the graphics aspect of DS. Gameplay-wise I consider it one of the most boring games I ever played.
I couldn't understand why it uniformly received so much praise from the press.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Dungeon Siege really lacked atmosphere compared to Diablo though :D
Come to think of it, I don't remember people talking much about DS for long. It was hyped up so much by the gaming press, folks played it, done and mostly forgotten at least in my neck of the woods.

I only commented on the graphics aspect of DS. Gameplay-wise I consider it one of the most boring games I ever played.
I couldn't understand why it uniformly received so much praise from the press.

The devs gave good (proto?)Doritos I guess... Or maybe boring, simple and easy was the only thing those "hello fellow players" gamejournos could enjoy given their limitations.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Gothic had a 25fps cap

... Seriously?

 

[Keldryn]

NWN and DS are not early 3d games. 3d games were around in the earlyish 90s. And I don't remember people being all giddy about the graphics of NWN they were with DS. I remember everyone making a big deal about shadows. DS 2 is actually much, much better than DS1 with a non-child like chardev system. That is probably why it isn't as popular.

They were relatively early games in the mainstream era of 3D accelerated hardware. I bought a Diamond Monster 3D (Voodoo Graphics chipset) in mid-1997, and at that time 3D acceleration wasn't quite mainstream yet. It took another couple of years before we saw high-performing, all-in-one (2D & 3D) cards at reasonable prices with the Riva TNT 2, the Voodoo 3, and the Geforce 256. The period of time from 1996 through about 1999 was a transitional period from software-rasterized 3D to hardware accelerated 3D. I've seen the Geforce 256 (1999) hailed as the beginning of the modern age of 3D graphics.

 

[Lhynn]

Nwn wasnt resource intensive at all on low settings, shadows and water effects killed the performance tho, even the computers from 5 years ago struggled at the highest setting, for no reason.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

When did Gothic come out? 2001

NWN: 2002.

Gothic looks much better. I recall being pretty unimpressed with NWN's graphics when it came out. Blocky, ugly items, characters, environments, enemies, etc. It also ran like shit on my PC.

Gothic had a 25fps cap so it always felt like it it was running slowly. Great art style though.

Huh, that explains a lot. Still, didn't Gothic have actual lip syncing, as opposed to NWN's little bobbing blockheads?

Also, Final Fantasy X came out in 2001, and it looked shit-tons better than NWN.

 

[Lilura]

Epic coop NWN battle:

 

[Iznaliu]

Also, Final Fantasy X came out in 2001, and it looked shit-tons better than NWN.

This is because JRPG devs care about spiky hair, not difficulty spikes.

 

[FeelTheRads]

NWN was just plain puzzling after MDK/BG2 (never played mdk2)

MDK1 was not made by Bioware.

I couldn't understand why it uniformly received so much praise from the press.

Same reason the graphics of NWN did. It is a mystery.

Or because the same thing happens today too: when you write about a popular game you must praise anything and everything about it.

 

[Xzar]

I disliked how NWN looked back in the day and vastly preferred Infinity Engine. However, I thought that this is temporary and Infinity-like games will continue to evolve. In a few years I was dismayed that NWN style is all we would be seeing in near future and my attitude to actual NWN worsened. But I remember I liked its second expansion Hordes of Underdark much more than popular Mask of Betrayer. Also, NWN OC together with Dark Souls hold my personal record of overdoing first location and abandoning game after it. In both cases I finished first location about 20 times, yet while I finished NWN OC twice, I never got farther than 2nd boss in DS.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The blocky nwn models were real freaky. Rest of it was tolerable.

 

[nikolokolus]

The prospect of being able to make you own PnP style modules and share them with people, or join a persistent world game that enforced hardcore death and role-playing was the biggest selling point of NWN for me. In fact, some of my most vivid gaming memories come from those games -- when the stakes are losing dozens or hundreds of hours character progression just because of a scripted random encounter, or some unlucky rolls it really sticks with you.

As for the graphics, yeah they sucked and they were already a dated on release and the OC was straight balls, but none of that shit mattered to me because of the other stuff.

 

[Iznaliu]

As for the graphics, yeah they sucked and they were already a dated on release and the OC was straight balls, but none of that shit mattered to me because of the other stuff.

Why do you care about something being 'dated on release'?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why do you care about something being 'dated on release'?

Same damn reason we quote join dates around here.

 

[Jacob]

usually video game fans are smug about taste in gameplay

only in rpgcodex, we get smug-ish comment about graphics like "easily entertained by pretty shiny lights"