Game News NWN2 screens extravaganza

[Dgaider]

The thing to keep in mind, perhaps, is that Gothic III is a single-player game only and thus has to only worry about the graphic processing power of the computer running it. NWN2 is built to work with its online multiplayer component, and thus has to sacrifice some of its graphic fidelity to take that into account.

Even so, I'd say the leap forward is pretty significant (no more flat, terraced terrain). If I were a modder I'd see things in those screenshots to get excited about.

 

[Twinfalls]

Gothic 3 will no doubt look great.

BUT: those G3 screenies look like renders. And what the hell do people want, anyway? Look at the NWN2 forest. What more do you want? From there on, it's only gameplay that's going to make any freaking difference.

 

[Shagnak]

For what it's worth, I found the Shadows of Undrentide/Hordes of the Underdark saga to be pretty fucking good in terms of writing, action, and branching storyline/replayability. Hopefully we'll see an OC that's closer to SoU/HOTU than the original NWN one.

Yeah, agreed. They were a heap better than the OC.

I think SOU suffered a bit towards the end, though, but the early bits worked quite well even without a combat-centric character. HOTU was very combat-centric, but the writing and so on was pretty consistent throughout I thought.

Hopefully the developers of NWN2 can use those as the minimum benchmark. There's no reason why an NWN-style game has to have a shit OC. But not having played KOTOR2, I have no opinion on whether Obsidian can pull it off or not.

 

[Shevek]

Those screens look a helluvalot better than I would have expected. The rolling hills and what not are what really get me. I am still trying to wrap my head around how exactly thats supposed to work with a tileset.

 

[Ryuken]

That new Electron graphics engine stuff doesn't look bad at all idd, especially for horrid scans like that.

 

[kris]

But not having played KOTOR2, I have no opinion on whether Obsidian can pull it off or not.

Oh, but I wouldn't say one game is a good measure of this. Just like you said the OC for NWN was not that good compared to the expansions.

Even so, I'd say the leap forward is pretty significant (no more flat, terraced terrain). If I were a modder I'd see things in those screenshots to get excited about.

Sure, the "roof" in the world was a bit low in NWN Having most trees cut mad me/us lose quite a bit of immersement. Otherwise I could not get muh conclusive proof of what is possible trough the screenshots. Hiding monsters maybe? Possible to use facial expressions in modding?

 

[jiujitsu]

Looks like the Witcher devs did a better job with the Aurora engine than Obsidian. I don't know. It's hard to tell just from those shitty screens. I don't like the textures, though.

 

[Twinfalls]

What? Textures are the last thing in the world you can appraise from scans. And so fucking what about textures? Roqua is right, this place really is full of Graphics Crack Whores.

 

[Mandake]

BUT: those G3 screenies look like renders

It's true, as the graphics engine of G3 is far from being finished, many pictures we've seen from G3 are pre-rendered. They give a good idea of what is to be expected but it's not the final look (source: Gamestar pre-view 10/2005).

 

[yarpen]

Looks like the Witcher devs did a better job with the Aurora engine than Obsidian. I don't know. It's hard to tell just from those shitty screens. I don't like the textures, though.

Thanks for the kind words, but as Dave said - it's not exactly fair to compare multi-player game with single-player one when it comes to graphics. We have one less component to worry about. Anyway, screens dont look bad at all even on those blurry scans.

 

[Sarvis]

I'm kind of looking forward to NWN2. NWN was a good outlet for indie stories and adventures and worked because you didn't need any funds or resources that what was provided with the game to make your own stuff. Sure, 99% of it was shit, but so's 99% of any media.

People made some good stuff, both thanks to and in spite of the Aurora engine. I'm looking forward to a similar community rising for the second game.

Yeah, exactly.

 

[jiujitsu]

What? Textures are the last thing in the world you can appraise from scans. And so fucking what about textures? Roqua is right, this place really is full of Graphics Crack Whores.

Not liking shitty textures makes me a graphics crack whore? I'm sorry if I've somehow taken a shot at your obvious reason for living, but be reasonable.

I didn't say the game is going to suck. I only commented on the only thing that can be commented on at this point. The graphics. The textures just aren't very detailed, but it's mostly that the color shades are crap. My opinion.

That whole "multiplayer game graphics have to be worse" stuff is bull. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike: Source, Dystopia, etc. Great all around graphics and they run fine. I'm not saying it has to look as good, but beefing it up a little wouldn't hurt.

When it comes down to it, if the game is good, I won't care about the graphics. That's just a cool perk. So, even if it's the best game I've ever played, and even though I don't care about the graphics, I'll STILL say "textures could have been better. A lot better."

 

[Twinfalls]

Eh. Must have skipped my heroin that afternoon. Textures of all things surely the least criticisable aspect on crappy scans, was all. Whatever. I keenly await your Texture Report when the game is released.

 

[bryce777]

Yeah,since your graphics are all done on the local machine the only thing I can take into account is them meaning that the game will have more dev time spent on the multiplayer part...which also should not matter a ton since the engine is supposedly built already.

The graphics still look good. Not groundbreaking maybe but who really cares?

 

[Avé]

someone post working link

 

[Naked_Lunch]

PCGamer took it down. You're too late, fagort.

 

[Avé]

PCGamer took it down. You're too late, fagort.

WOW, WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED FROM MY "someone post working link" THAT THE LINK WAS DOWN?

I AM SHOCKED AT YOUR AMAZING DISPLAY OF INTUITIVE LOGIC.

Yeah.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

I meant that they sent the internet police to scour the dark alleys of the Web and destroy all illegimate content related to the exclusive.

 

[Feargus Urquhart]

Comment on the Screens...

Take this for what it's worth, but more than half of the screens in the article were not supposed to have been sent to PC Gamer. There were from a milestone we delivered in early August and were taken from levels that were not really ready to be shown.

We'll be getting some more screens out soon that should give you all a better feeling for what the game is going to look like.

 

[Shagnak]

Sweet.
How about an exclusive preview :wink:

 

[Eclecticist]

NWN2's graphics were never going to be top notch.

I've been out of the scene for a bit, but if I recall correctly, isn't the new NWN2 engine a heavily modified mutant of the Aurora?

And it's based on tilesets. That alone sets it up for pwn4ge from unique worlds like that of Gothic/Oblivion type games.

 

[Twinfalls]

You must be kidding. Morrowind was the most blatantly lego-blocked-together-with-a-CS 3D game I've played, and Oblivion uses a modified version of the same CS.

 

[Shagnak]

You must be kidding. Morrowind was the most blatantly lego-blocked-together-with-a-CS 3D game I've played, and Oblivion uses a modified version of the same CS.

I think I know what you're meaning to say, but the analogy with Lego doesn't quite work.
Unless that Lego is Supa Magical Lego (tm) with pieces that can be arbitrarily any height, and can attach themselves to other pieces at any point. Using the TES construction thingy to pull points on the landscape up to any height is a far cry from stacking regular shapes on top of each other to approximate the same thing.

I had a play with it an age ago, just to construct my own house and stick it on a hill, and came away with the impression that using a tileset to conveniently snap things together would have been much less "fiddly".
However, doing things like creating an island by drawing up points of the landscape so that they were above sea level, and creating a mountain on that island, would be much harder and more laborious to do with the NWN tileset (at least to the scale you can do it in MW).

...but this is just my impression from limited playing around, and confirmed by a friend who has done a little more.
Perhaps someone who has done a lot more modding (Balor?) could enlighten me/us further.

 

[jiujitsu]

Re: Comment on the Screens...

Take this for what it's worth, but more than half of the screens in the article were not supposed to have been sent to PC Gamer. There were from a milestone we delivered in early August and were taken from levels that were not really ready to be shown.

We'll be getting some more screens out soon that should give you all a better feeling for what the game is going to look like.

Feargie!! I'm sorry I said anything bad. Can we still be friends?

Isn't that just sad...

 

[Twinfalls]

@Shagnak

Fair enough, but the suggestion that Oblivion will neccessarily feel much less 'pre-fabbed' than NWN 2 doesn't really hold up if Morrowind is anything to go by.

From the screenshots, NWN2's landscape elevations look more convincing and less 'marbles under a blanket' than Morrowind's.