Bioware announces new game

[NiGHTMARE]

Unfortunately it's currently intended to be XBox 360 only, but it's looking pretty darned fantastic. You can read about it and see some early screenshots at various websites, including here. here, and here.

[Kulyok]

Yuck! It is 3D.

[Lord Ernie]

Aye, I read about this on NWVault. Bloody bastards they are, producing console-only games...

[Domi]

The chances of a new 2D game are slim to none, I think. I am sticking with waiting on Dragon Age myself

[NiGHTMARE]

Yuck! It is 3D. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

News flash: 2D games stopped selling enough copies for them to be commercially viable over half a decade ago . Why do you think IWD2 was such a flop in terms of number of sales?

 

Besides, in this case and many others the game looks far better than 2D could even dream of . There are even a few games where it's difficult to tell whether it uses 2D or 3D graphics, such as Seal of Evil (which apparently uses 2D backgrounds and 3D characters and creatures).

[Kulyok]

News flash: 2D games stopped selling enough copies for them to be commercially viable over half a decade ago . Why do you think IWD2 was such a flop in terms of number of sales?

 

Because of the lack of joinable NPCs? Because it was boring? Because of the setting? Because it was 3E, not 2E?

 

Besides, in this case and many others the game looks far better than 2D could even dream of

 

Last Warcraft does. This one doesn't seem to.

 

Problem is, 3D games(with rare exception) force the player to dive into the world entirely. But what if the player cannot swim? "Learn" is not the answer.

[Domi]

Problem is, 3D games(with rare exception) force the player to dive into the world entirely. But what if the player cannot swim? "Learn" is not the answer.

 

What do you mean, Kulyok?

 

My problems with 3D was that they are just plain ugly, though I admit my experience is limited to NWN and KOTOR1. People tried to post screenshots for me from the other games advocating their beauty, but the characters on all of them looked rather artificial. Plus I seen a few of the previews in the stores... Basically the more real they try to make people look, the more artificial they seem to appear. At least to me... In 2D you had imagination on your side...

[NiGHTMARE]

Last Warcraft does. This one doesn't seem to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sorry, but to me saying that 2D could look better than this game is the equivalent to saying a caveman's wall scrawl could look better than the Mona Lisa .

[Domi]

Let's hope you're right and 3D will look beautiful.

[Kulyok]

It's not only that 3D is ugly - and yes, I think they are. Having a fast laptop and a good video card does not help.

 

But also, in 2D you control the game. You sit in front of the computer, and look on your party from above. In 3D, it looks different. It is like the reality jumps at you. It is especially nasty with the "view from the eyes" - 1st person. In one of such games, I nearly freaked out when a monster jumped at me from over the corner. The connection player-player character is stronger, and I do not like it at the least.

[Domi]

I see what you are saying. In BG1 I felt more like reading a book, while in KOTOR and NWN (whenever I was not battling the RM), it was a tad disconcerting, especially when KOTOR brought conversational screen at you.

[NiGHTMARE]

I'm not sure why you think 3D automatically means either 1st person or close-view 3rd person; one of the joys of 3D is that in theory the action can be viewed from any angle and distance. I can imagine that in the future, more and more games are going to allow you to switch between 1st and 3rd person, and in the latter zoom in/out, spin around, angle up/down, etc as much as you like.

 

Check out the game I mention, Seal of Evil. It's an RPG with a similar viewpoint to the Infinity Engine games, and I spent a good couple of days thinking it was entirely 2D. However, it turned out the characters and creatures are actually 3D models.

[Nerik]

I don't know if this is a good example but Atari's Temple of Elemental Evil used an isometric map (the actual maps are stored as JPEGS), but with (AFAIK) 3D polygon-based models rather than the 2D animations used in IE games.

 

Charles

[Lord Ernie]

Heh, funny this. People actually advocating 2D graphics.

 

First of, Nick is right: if you want a game to sell these days, don't use a 2D engine, or you'll screw yourself over. There are virtually no exceptions to this.

 

Second, most 3D games these days look very, very good. Taking NWN or Kotor1 (decent looking games, to be sure, but not great) as an example of today's 3d technology, is like saying that BG2 is a new game. Better examples of what's possible, is stuff like Half-Life 2 (itself almost a year old already), Black and White 2, etc. As for RPG games, perhaps the upcoming Oblivion will prove my point (perhaps not, it's 1st person view).

 

Anyway, I hope they're going to port this one to the pc. A missed Bioware game is a missed Bioware game.

[NiGHTMARE]

Well, Morrowind did let you switch to a 3d person view, so there's a good chance Oblivion will let you do the same thing .