Well, nowadays you could easily create a game in 3D and let it look like a beautifully painted picture (with all the advantages of 3d, like real-time lighting, dynamic camera positioning etc.). For example: with today's hardware you could easily create a 3d-real-time-image of the MI2 front cover at a decent framerate (and with "today's hardware" I mean a gaming capable pc for not more than 800 US-Dollar maximum - http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3563&p=4 / http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3563&p=5).
But then all the people with their computers ante Christum natum would complain about the oh-so-high system requirements.
You can't make everybody happy. I - unfortunately - am one who isn't happy.
I think they should aim for and go for a clone wars type look, I believe they may have been inspired in that direction. Sam and Max season two made advances in graphics as well as A Vamprye Story part 2. People, don't forget that this company TellTAle is proud, and bold, but also a dog eats dog company just starting its career . Show some mercy, respect, understanding . To get where they have as a company shows how truly special they are. They are from the ground up, and now working with Lucas Arts . Show some damn respect, and understanding you monkeys ! Politely state your complaints after playing the game, and they will know where to improve , being a jerk now doesn't help anything but for TellTale sleep loss .
Hi latin pal, and welcome to the forums!
The fact that 3D is preferred to 2D, which is a painful thing to me, is not only due to the fact that market requires it. It's cheaper.
Grazie Guybrush and thank's to all of course.
Yes you're right, i agree with you that, today, it's cheaper to build games using 3D engines (even too much cheaper and quicker).
ps. i really like your avatar too
@doodo: i show them respect buying their game as i already did. They show respect to their customers building good stuff that doesn't need to have a famous name to be sold.
I'm happy that there still are SWHouses like this one and for sure i will wait to play and finish the 5th episode before taking a definitive position regarding this game.
Well, nowadays you could easily create a game in 3D and let it look like a beautifully painted picture (with all the advantages of 3d, like real-time lighting, dynamic camera positioning etc.). For example: with today's hardware you could easily create a 3d-real-time-image of the MI2 front cover at a decent framerate (and with "today's hardware" I mean a gaming capable pc for not more than 800 US-Dollar maximum - http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3563&p=4 / http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3563&p=5).
But then all the people with their computers ante Christum natum would complain about the oh-so-high system requirements.
You can't make everybody happy. I - unfortunately - am one who isn't happy.
If you go for the bare minimum to get a gaming rig running the current game generation you probably will end up with 400 dollars if at all (given you have a valid windows license)
with way less dollars for upgrading (for the next 5-6 years it probably will be one switch of the graphics card)
But yes the complaints would be there, even worse than with the controls!
But the main issue is that most laptops have the slow as molasses Intel chipsets as standard graphics chipsets and laptop computers are predominant nowadays in the PC gaming market.
I personally think that Intel did more to kill of PC gaming than the entire
console propaganda machine was able to do (since Microsoft joined the console club). Selling crappy chipsets which are not able to run decent games in millions definitely kills the entire 3d gaming market as we know it on the PC. Have in mind most people are casual gamers who dont know the difference between Intel/NVidia/ATI and they try a handful of games, they wont run and give up entirely on PC gaming and buy a console instead!
What Telltale are doing excites me so much more than even the upcoming Monkey Island remake, and I shall reveal why...
It looks like their thought processes in regards to the art direction was as follows:
"Monkey Island 1 & 2 were great!"
"Yeah!"
"...not so fond of the creepy, lanky blond-turban kid in CMI, though."
"No, not so much, that was supposed to be Guybrush?"
"Shall we use that? Why not, eh? Yeaahhno."
"Let's look at Monkey Island 1 & 2 and do our own version of what Guybrush would look like, were he updated to a modern, cartoony 3D engine!"
"Yes!"
And am I ever glad of that, because to me, the character has the feel of Guybrush, and part of that is in the appearance.
Now I've seen points about him looking youngish and a bit bland, but... isn't that Guybrush? Maybe not CMI Guybrush, but Gilbert Guybrush.
In MI 1 he looked about in his late teens, in MI 2 he was just old enough to grow a beard (which he was proud of). In MI 1 he was accused of looking like a flooring inspector, in MI 2 he wore a rather colourful jacket but it still didn't do much for him. Take that and put it into 3D and you have pretty much what Telltale come up with, it's not the CMI Guybrush and... I'm sorry, but thank goodness for that. <.<
And... curly clouds!
To me, this looks like the continuation I wanted CMI to be, and you have a huge burden resting on your shoulders now Telltale because you've decided to continue with a more MI 2 kind of feel as opposed to a CMI feel. But if you can pull it off... well, you'll have a huge fan here.
I'm already pleased by the trailer, the sea-hag and frosty carbonated maker lines are very true to the feel of Gilbert's Guybrush, and that's the kind of humour I want to see, rather than the direction CMI went in, wherein the humour was funny but it had no flair (well, okay, none beyond the singing pirate scene, I'll give it that).
Also: "Hot monkey vengeance!"
Yes, I'm quite looking forward to this, and as such, I've preordered!
The ship in the background looks downright horrible, the lighting is plain, the colors are washed out, character models look like plastic toys. Sorry Telltale, look at other adventure games on the market, you'll notice the difference.
Even MI4 looked better, at least the backgrounds were nicely rendered.
HUGE disappointment.
I have to agree.
When I first saw the trailer, the first thing that came to my mind was - "YUCK!!"
The graphics looks like it was ment to be played on an IPHONE rather than on a pc. I regret to say but even MI4 looks better, and it was designed like 10 years ago.
Nevertheless i pre-ordered the game. After all, we are talking about MI game
I just want to say that TTG's Guybrush looks like Conan O'Brien :-). Not that that's necessarily a bad thing...
Actually I'm just happy there's a new MI game. However if I had my choice, I would have preferred the Guybrush from MI 2. I remember being a little disappointed with the cartoonish direction from CMI, and it got worse with EMI. EMI's Guybrush looked like Erkel, and he was rendered like that Dire Straights video from the 80's. TTG's Guybrush is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately the backgrounds/sets/environments aren't.
I really hope the finished game will look better than the screen shots they've released. Although humor is a big part of the MI games, one thing people keep forgetting is that a lot of the charm of SoMI & MI2 came from the quaint and beautiful settings. When it comes to escapism, don't you want to play in a world that you wish you could actually jump into? I mean, the graphics from the first 3 games looked like candy to me -- just so vivid and compelling. Even to this day when I'm visiting some quaint foresty Maratime town (like certain areas in Eastern Canada -- Nova Scotia comes to mind), I compare it with areas from MI 1&2.
So far the screenshots I've seen from TMI do not have that "romanticism" or allure, or "pop". They look rather sparse and bland, and way too over-the-top cartoony. Realistically in order to make it economically viable to produce adventure games in this economic climate, no company can spend the $$ or time to do graphics like they did in the olden days. Too bad... in any case, this doesn't mean that there will *never* be another MI game with great environments (wait for MI 5!), and in the mean time I'm just glad to be able to enter that world again -- even if it is slightly overly simple and cartoonish.
I think it's serviceable. Some of it looks real good even, and Telltale has always been good at animations, which is important. It's probably a bit too clean for it's low polygon count self. Some filtering effects or something might go a long way in making everything looking more vibrant and less edgy.
I've recently played the demo of this new Simon The Sorcerer game, and while the humor fell totally flat to me, some of the character art and models look real good. Granted, the devs were given the benefit of unlimited disc space and thus texture size and all, but just applying the right lighting or a cel shading effect for instance can work wonders on even rather edgy cartoony models: See this rabbit for instance. Simon himself doesn't look all bad either.
edit: There's a GTA San Andreas mod out there that shows pretty well how simple filters can affect the visuals of a game. Never mind the added car reflections for now, but this isn't GTA IV, this is indeed 2004's GTA San Andreas which originally looks like this. All that is needed is a file that weighs in at less than 100kb (yes, kilobytes, not megabytes) to make the game look like that, by the way...
Wallace&Gromit looks pretty ace, while we're at it. Good job!
One thing that looks very odd is how pale some of the characters are (glassblower, nose guy and Nipperkin look almost silverish) on a tropical island, and how dark Winslow is (without having a black voice)?
I can't say I'm impressed by the graphics, especially the jungle looks... bad. But I guess it's the best they can do given the requierment to scale things down for the Wii.
I think the looks for the game are well balanced for the audience they're aiming at.
And that's the people who Buy Sam and Max nowadays... Not us game-veterans... But the new kids on the block!
It really wouldn't sell as much if it would look like a cartoon (like in the MOST BEAUTIFUL Mi: Curse), and it wouldn't even exist outside the utmost fanbase as the 3-pixel-man in 256 colours like the old days...
They have to go with the flow of things, and that is going 3D.
It started with Mi4, which is an abomination in polygon counts, but boasted beautiful backgrounds.
It works with sam and max, so why wouldn't it work with monkey island?
It'll never be like the old days, we have to accept that, and it isn't THAT ugly, is it?
OK, there are more beautiful games, I really like how S&M looks like, and feels. but somehow this game breaths Monkey island.
It will probably grow on us... so i'll be prepared to give it the much deserved chance, and just look past the polygon counts....
Accept for the French advesary... he doesn't work at all.... SISSY!:p
I think the looks for the game are well balanced for the audience they're aiming at.
And that's the people who Buy Sam and Max nowadays... Not us game-veterans... But the new kids on the block!
It really wouldn't sell as much if it would look like a cartoon (like in the MOST BEAUTIFUL Mi: Curse), and it wouldn't even exist outside the utmost fanbase as the 3-pixel-man in 256 colours like the old days...
They have to go with the flow of things, and that is going 3D.
It started with Mi4, which is an abomination in polygon counts, but boasted beautiful backgrounds.
It works with sam and max, so why wouldn't it work with monkey island?
It'll never be like the old days, we have to accept that, and it isn't THAT ugly, is it?
OK, there are more beautiful games, I really like how S&M looks like, and feels. but somehow this game breaths Monkey island.
It will probably grow on us... so i'll be prepared to give it the much deserved chance, and just look past the polygon counts....
Accept for the French advesary... he doesn't work at all.... SISSY!:p
Good point...
I actually like the looks of TOMI, but there is one minor thing that bugs me about this game engine... I have 3D games that are FAR more complicated in graphics that actually run far better (as in perfect) than this one...
This game needs an update to DX9 (or better DX10 or DX11) since it still uses DX8.1
The thread paradox: If you search for an existing thread about the subject you wanna discuss it's "thread archaeology" but if you don't you get flamed for it!
I like the visual style. For Guybrush in particular, I think it's a nice blend of ALL previous designs. He's blonde, like SMI, CMI, and EMI (MI:2 is the odd one out here). He's lanky like CMI, and EMI. He's got facial hair like MI:2. He's got a coat like the one he had in MI:2.
I like the style. It's not super fancy. But it's pleasing, and it works.
Good point...
I actually like the looks of TOMI, but there is one minor thing that bugs me about this game engine... I have 3D games that are FAR more complicated in graphics that actually run far better (as in perfect) than this one...
This game needs an update to DX9 (or better DX10 or DX11) since it still uses DX8.1
Maybe DX9 but not 10 or 11. Some of us still use WinXP and intend to for a while at least until Windows 7 comes out.
I think the characters don't look piratey enough. The characters in the first episode looked and acted more like the reformed pirates in MI4 than stranded pirates. Everyone's too friendly/goofy looking and there isn't enough grit.
I'm getting used to Guybrush's new look.
I think it's always weird when the characters are restyled. I remember for instance when Link's look was shown before the windwaker came out, I thought it must have been a joke, it looked to ugly to me. Then it grew on me.
I really like the way the voodoo lady looks, I find Guybrush a bit weird due to the marks under his eyes (get some sleep, man) but overall I think the main characters are ok.
I was more annoyed by how in the first episode there seemed to be only 2 templates for other characters, the short ones and the tall ones. I mixed characters thinking they were one another, I hope it's less of an issue later.
I also need to get used to the voiced as I've only played the other games in French. Guybrush's voice is pretty much the same as in French, but Lechuck sounds very weird to me. I like Elaine's voice although I have a hard time understanding what she's saying due to her accent (yay for subtitles!)
The voodoo Lady's voice is also pretty much the same as in French.
So, voice-wise, smooth transition for me apart for Lechuck (I prefer his French voice).
And yes, I realise the English voices are the original ones, but that doesn't mean I'm used to them :P
I think the characters don't look piratey enough. The characters in the first episode looked and acted more like the reformed pirates in MI4 than stranded pirates. Everyone's too friendly/goofy looking and there isn't enough grit.
Agreed. Hopefully that's just because Flotsam was a sleepy sort of place. Hopefully this will change as the season goes on. I hope that the character design and personalities get as far away as possible from EMI, because some of the design choices in that were awful. So far, ToMI hasn't reached CoMI levels of awesome, but it's also a massive improvement over EMI.
Comments
That's the best possible look, I think
The one in my avatar, I mean!
But then all the people with their computers ante Christum natum would complain about the oh-so-high system requirements.
You can't make everybody happy. I - unfortunately - am one who isn't happy.
Grazie Guybrush and thank's to all of course.
Yes you're right, i agree with you that, today, it's cheaper to build games using 3D engines (even too much cheaper and quicker).
ps. i really like your avatar too
@doodo: i show them respect buying their game as i already did. They show respect to their customers building good stuff that doesn't need to have a famous name to be sold.
I'm happy that there still are SWHouses like this one and for sure i will wait to play and finish the 5th episode before taking a definitive position regarding this game.
If you go for the bare minimum to get a gaming rig running the current game generation you probably will end up with 400 dollars if at all (given you have a valid windows license)
with way less dollars for upgrading (for the next 5-6 years it probably will be one switch of the graphics card)
But yes the complaints would be there, even worse than with the controls!
But the main issue is that most laptops have the slow as molasses Intel chipsets as standard graphics chipsets and laptop computers are predominant nowadays in the PC gaming market.
I personally think that Intel did more to kill of PC gaming than the entire
console propaganda machine was able to do (since Microsoft joined the console club). Selling crappy chipsets which are not able to run decent games in millions definitely kills the entire 3d gaming market as we know it on the PC. Have in mind most people are casual gamers who dont know the difference between Intel/NVidia/ATI and they try a handful of games, they wont run and give up entirely on PC gaming and buy a console instead!
It looks like their thought processes in regards to the art direction was as follows:
"Monkey Island 1 & 2 were great!"
"Yeah!"
"...not so fond of the creepy, lanky blond-turban kid in CMI, though."
"No, not so much, that was supposed to be Guybrush?"
"Shall we use that? Why not, eh? Yeaahhno."
"Let's look at Monkey Island 1 & 2 and do our own version of what Guybrush would look like, were he updated to a modern, cartoony 3D engine!"
"Yes!"
And am I ever glad of that, because to me, the character has the feel of Guybrush, and part of that is in the appearance.
Now I've seen points about him looking youngish and a bit bland, but... isn't that Guybrush? Maybe not CMI Guybrush, but Gilbert Guybrush.
In MI 1 he looked about in his late teens, in MI 2 he was just old enough to grow a beard (which he was proud of). In MI 1 he was accused of looking like a flooring inspector, in MI 2 he wore a rather colourful jacket but it still didn't do much for him. Take that and put it into 3D and you have pretty much what Telltale come up with, it's not the CMI Guybrush and... I'm sorry, but thank goodness for that. <.<
And... curly clouds!
To me, this looks like the continuation I wanted CMI to be, and you have a huge burden resting on your shoulders now Telltale because you've decided to continue with a more MI 2 kind of feel as opposed to a CMI feel. But if you can pull it off... well, you'll have a huge fan here.
I'm already pleased by the trailer, the sea-hag and frosty carbonated maker lines are very true to the feel of Gilbert's Guybrush, and that's the kind of humour I want to see, rather than the direction CMI went in, wherein the humour was funny but it had no flair (well, okay, none beyond the singing pirate scene, I'll give it that).
Also: "Hot monkey vengeance!"
Yes, I'm quite looking forward to this, and as such, I've preordered!
I think you really should realize that PC gaming is done on all kinds of PCs.
np: Sin Fang Bous - Lies (Clangour)
I have to agree.
When I first saw the trailer, the first thing that came to my mind was - "YUCK!!"
The graphics looks like it was ment to be played on an IPHONE rather than on a pc. I regret to say but even MI4 looks better, and it was designed like 10 years ago.
Nevertheless i pre-ordered the game. After all, we are talking about MI game
3D engine: yes.
cartoony: yes.
modern: no.
Actually I'm just happy there's a new MI game. However if I had my choice, I would have preferred the Guybrush from MI 2. I remember being a little disappointed with the cartoonish direction from CMI, and it got worse with EMI. EMI's Guybrush looked like Erkel, and he was rendered like that Dire Straights video from the 80's. TTG's Guybrush is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately the backgrounds/sets/environments aren't.
I really hope the finished game will look better than the screen shots they've released. Although humor is a big part of the MI games, one thing people keep forgetting is that a lot of the charm of SoMI & MI2 came from the quaint and beautiful settings. When it comes to escapism, don't you want to play in a world that you wish you could actually jump into? I mean, the graphics from the first 3 games looked like candy to me -- just so vivid and compelling. Even to this day when I'm visiting some quaint foresty Maratime town (like certain areas in Eastern Canada -- Nova Scotia comes to mind), I compare it with areas from MI 1&2.
So far the screenshots I've seen from TMI do not have that "romanticism" or allure, or "pop". They look rather sparse and bland, and way too over-the-top cartoony. Realistically in order to make it economically viable to produce adventure games in this economic climate, no company can spend the $$ or time to do graphics like they did in the olden days. Too bad... in any case, this doesn't mean that there will *never* be another MI game with great environments (wait for MI 5!), and in the mean time I'm just glad to be able to enter that world again -- even if it is slightly overly simple and cartoonish.
I've recently played the demo of this new Simon The Sorcerer game, and while the humor fell totally flat to me, some of the character art and models look real good. Granted, the devs were given the benefit of unlimited disc space and thus texture size and all, but just applying the right lighting or a cel shading effect for instance can work wonders on even rather edgy cartoony models: See this rabbit for instance. Simon himself doesn't look all bad either.
edit: There's a GTA San Andreas mod out there that shows pretty well how simple filters can affect the visuals of a game. Never mind the added car reflections for now, but this isn't GTA IV, this is indeed 2004's GTA San Andreas which originally looks like this. All that is needed is a file that weighs in at less than 100kb (yes, kilobytes, not megabytes) to make the game look like that, by the way...
Wallace&Gromit looks pretty ace, while we're at it. Good job!
I can't say I'm impressed by the graphics, especially the jungle looks... bad. But I guess it's the best they can do given the requierment to scale things down for the Wii.
And that's the people who Buy Sam and Max nowadays... Not us game-veterans... But the new kids on the block!
It really wouldn't sell as much if it would look like a cartoon (like in the MOST BEAUTIFUL Mi: Curse), and it wouldn't even exist outside the utmost fanbase as the 3-pixel-man in 256 colours like the old days...
They have to go with the flow of things, and that is going 3D.
It started with Mi4, which is an abomination in polygon counts, but boasted beautiful backgrounds.
It works with sam and max, so why wouldn't it work with monkey island?
It'll never be like the old days, we have to accept that, and it isn't THAT ugly, is it?
OK, there are more beautiful games, I really like how S&M looks like, and feels. but somehow this game breaths Monkey island.
It will probably grow on us... so i'll be prepared to give it the much deserved chance, and just look past the polygon counts....
Accept for the French advesary... he doesn't work at all.... SISSY!:p
I actually like the looks of TOMI, but there is one minor thing that bugs me about this game engine... I have 3D games that are FAR more complicated in graphics that actually run far better (as in perfect) than this one...
This game needs an update to DX9 (or better DX10 or DX11) since it still uses DX8.1
The thread paradox: If you search for an existing thread about the subject you wanna discuss it's "thread archaeology" but if you don't you get flamed for it!
I like the style. It's not super fancy. But it's pleasing, and it works.
Love TMI so far.
Maybe DX9 but not 10 or 11. Some of us still use WinXP and intend to for a while at least until Windows 7 comes out.
As long as you don't need DX10 to play it. DX10 is unavailable for WinXP.
I think it's always weird when the characters are restyled. I remember for instance when Link's look was shown before the windwaker came out, I thought it must have been a joke, it looked to ugly to me. Then it grew on me.
I really like the way the voodoo lady looks, I find Guybrush a bit weird due to the marks under his eyes (get some sleep, man) but overall I think the main characters are ok.
I was more annoyed by how in the first episode there seemed to be only 2 templates for other characters, the short ones and the tall ones. I mixed characters thinking they were one another, I hope it's less of an issue later.
I also need to get used to the voiced as I've only played the other games in French. Guybrush's voice is pretty much the same as in French, but Lechuck sounds very weird to me. I like Elaine's voice although I have a hard time understanding what she's saying due to her accent (yay for subtitles!)
The voodoo Lady's voice is also pretty much the same as in French.
So, voice-wise, smooth transition for me apart for Lechuck (I prefer his French voice).
And yes, I realise the English voices are the original ones, but that doesn't mean I'm used to them :P
Agreed. Hopefully that's just because Flotsam was a sleepy sort of place. Hopefully this will change as the season goes on. I hope that the character design and personalities get as far away as possible from EMI, because some of the design choices in that were awful. So far, ToMI hasn't reached CoMI levels of awesome, but it's also a massive improvement over EMI.