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Game News Obsidian's next game is Tyranny, an isometric RPG set in a fantasy world where evil won

Roguey

Codex Staff
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Sawyerite
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There's never been an Obsidian game with great art direction, not even Pillars. The talent just isn't there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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Excidium II

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There's never been an Obsidian game with great art direction, not even Pillars. The talent just isn't there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
At least they made damn good use of the enviroment being all pre-rendered. It might not look too distinct but it looks damn good.
 
Unwanted
Joined
Feb 27, 2016
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Can confirm that the art direction in Pillars is easily superior than the art direction in Baldur's Gate series. I'm not sure if I prefer Pillars or Icewind Dale, though. But the rest of similar titles is far behind.
 

mike73

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May 2, 2010
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Great Falls
fuckin use cryengine or u4 we don't give a fuck if you have to scrap 4 years of you missing your families to do it
 

Thonius

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Sep 18, 2014
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Pro-Tip Corporation.
Google Brom Dark Sun.

Such beautiful artwork. I wish we could get more stuff like this these days.
Going from what I see in modern illustrations, new artists aren't allowed to have distinct style anymore. They all seem to have to follow strict guidelines not only on what to paint but how to do it too.
Thats because they are schooled by losers who have not developed their own style and end up in some art scool.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
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36,679
Eh lightning is super important you know. Its what make a good looking scene.

Dragon Age II had a superior lighting engine compared to Origins but it looked worse because they didn't have time to set it up properly, so there's something to this.

Same deal with kotor 1 and 2. 2's reused levels looked worse because of the inferior lighting (once again, no time).
 

Mustawd

Guest
People lack the understanding that games are a visual and auditory medium. If you're not pursuing excellence in those two areas, to the best your abilities, then you are ignoring one of the fundamental parts of a "VIDEO game."

No great film director is going to shoot on shit quality film, with poor sets, editing etc. with the excuse that "my story makes up for it," and a great painter is not going to use sub-par canvases or low grade paint. The excuse that "I play older games so I don't care about graphics" is retarded, those older games were trying to give you the best graphics possible for their respective era and means.


It's not an excuse. I'm sure for graphic whores these screenshots are a big deal. They simply aren't for me. I was serious when I say I am totally ok with X-Com type fidelity. I'm ok with FF7.I am ok with NWN 1 mods and textures. I'm a wargamer. I'm ok with a green felt cloth to represent grass and some stacked textbooks underneath to represent hills. I'm ok with square card cjtouts with a bit of art to represent units. I'm here for the gameplay. Grafix are a nice bonus.

For a lot of us growing up with fucking Mario 1 on the NES we can appreciate great graphics but we just don't get hung up on it.

I was playing Titan Quest last month and thought to myself "man that water in that swamp looks legit good". But it probably sucks by today's standards. *shrug*

Art direction, however, IS the most important aspect IMO. Otherwise it can just come off as generic garbage (e.g. Titan Quest and its "brown everywhere!" theme.)
 

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