Tyrashon

Pretty pictures do not a good game make. See: Asheron's Call 2 please (or their newest attempt, Middle Earth online - talk about sad).

These pictures only show me that

1) I'll need a high end machine to run all the high poly-count models
2) They've put a lot of stock in their artists
3) Please see #1

No thanks. I'll stick with DAoC. They have great art which doesn't require me to shell out my hard earned cash for upgrades, AND they constantly listen to their players. That makes me happy.

Tyrashon

Kudane

then why are you on at site that only Features EQ interface and discussion... this is seen as "trolling" and we do not encourage or condon that here.. if you have something valuable to add of course we would like to hear it.

soooo please be advise that we watch for "trolls" closely..

have a great day and happy gamming!

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Tyrashon

Ok, I can see where you would see that this is trolling. However.

1) I have 2 very active EQ accounts (why else would I be here and downloading skins?).

2) You asked people for their opinions. I gave you my opinion. Am I wrong because I'm not all 'giddy and excited' over some lousy screenshots? THEY ARE JUST SCREENSHOTS! If anyone remembers correctly, Asheron's Call 2 was super pretty too, and look what happened there. I think people just shouldn't get their hopes up, because likely, Verant will just kill your enthusiasm fast.

And I *did* have something valuable to add, my opinion. I'm allowed to like other games too.

If this site is a fanboy only site, I'll make my way to the nearest exit ASAP.

Kudane

Tyra,

I did not say post "your opinion" but I did say discuss.. sooo your mostly right..

I did not slam any other games or say you were not allowed to like other games, I wish I had the time for 2 EQ accounts and a DAOC account... thats awesome.

There is no Varent, SOE bought them 2 years ago, please keep up..

and AS YOUR FIRST POST it comes across as trolling. Which I was just warning about..

Soooo if you see this as me asking for only fans to post, well I am sorry it was not my intention. I just don't want this to be a discussion about what game is better.

and you had 3 things to point out.. one of them twice, that is very antagonizing... if you had actually pointed out 3 different things.. again, less looking like trolling.

have a good day, and please enjoy the site.

Tyrashon

Thanks for pointing that out. It's too bad that 85% of the player base still says "Verant" this and "Verant" that. People rarely seperate the two (Sony Online and Verant), even though they really should. However, you don't need to treat me like a child.

Let me 'discuss' the screenshots (again) then.

From those screenshots, this is what I get:

1) New art with high poly counts will require more 'high end' machines with insane specs (well, insane for now, but maybe more 'moderate' as the months plod on - however I think not). As is stands, I currently run a 1.2gig 512RAM GeForce Ti400 128MB and a cable modem with Windows ME. I still get bad lag, and that's with low poly models. I'll be very interested in seeing what the final specs for Eq2 are (saves for Alienware).

2) Dynamic shadowing is pretty interesting (see the kerran necro shot for what I'm talking about). But it will, of course, take up more memory to load etc...However, will make darker environments with less light (or mostly candle light which seems to be a prominent theme) have more 'ambience'.

3) Fire attack from Nagafen: Looks good. Particle effects and environmental changes seem to be right on target for him. However, Nagafen is one of their highest poly count models. Will be interesting to see what 25 people, a dragon and spell effects will do in that area.

4) The exploding moon of Luclin and the corresponding particle trainls in the sky are AMAZING. But I was under the impression that the moon totally exploded, raining down bits onto Norrath, thusly destroying most of what there was? Shouldn't there be just like 'part' of the moon in the sky? Something reminiscent of 'The Time Machine' where Earth's moon explodes and as the movie progresses, you see just parts of it in the sky.

All in all, I'm not that impressed with the screenshots. I also watched the E3 video. Still not that impressed. I also got the low down from all my friends who went to E3 (we're all professional game devs) and watched the demo and got the information. They said it was 'eh'.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Pretty pictures do not a good game make. I'm definately going to wait for the reviews to see whether or not I should spend time on EQ2.

Tyrashon

Jessper

I wish I was cool like the other 85% of the gamers(rofl I hear 90% of %s are made up on ths spot you know......) and called SoE Verant still, but then again what do children know?

BTW im horrifyed by the SS's as they show that I might need to upgrade my comptuer I meancommon! I have never had to upgrade my computer before because games have never upgraded their graphics engine's before and stuff...

anyways, back to the topic...

I think they look awsome(the screen shots) and I really want to take the game out for a spin if you know what I mean. Plus I want to have a house of my own ******! I will at LEAST try the game out, hoping to get into beta =)

Kudane

Very well said Tyra... it shows both thought, and good use of grammer to get your point across very well.

thank you for that input, its good to see that the value of a game is not sold only on it's look

BTW not sure who you friends were, because SOE had an invite only to their booth and there were never more than 4 or 5 people at the EQ2 demo.. but it gave me chills watching it..

good luck sir.. and thank you again for your input.

caprikid21

whoa!! i heard EQ2 graphics were good but thats ****en crazy

haijak

may people are looking the screen caps and wondering what kind of Computer one will need to run this game reasonably decently.

All i keep thinking since i started playing EQ 4 years ago is that the 3D engine for the game is and allways has been poor.

with my AMD 2100+ and Radeon 9700 i get better frame rates in UT 2003 than in everquest and UT has many times the number of pollygons and supreamly better textures.

now im not saying it will be lickley but if they made some realy serious headway into streamlining the 3D engine the screen shots would not require the greatest $5k computer.

Dolby

Well EQ's engine was made by Verant. EQ2's engine will be SoE. EQ2 is really being made by all different people & co.

Raynsmajic

OH MY GOD!!!! /faints will drool dribbling out of his mouth.
hehe, sorry Kudane, didn't mean to mess the place up again. But you were right, those pics are superb. Although, in ragards to your saying , I do agree. However, I am more amazed by the pic of Freeport and that moon. That freaked me out. was wierd to see sommat like that. And Lord Naggy is simply beautiful. I love dragons very much and that is exactly how I envision them. All I can say is /applaud SoE. They have finally gotten something BIG right. /chuckle. Finally, I just wanted to say, while most of you prolly don't care (/wink), I stopped saying Verant the instant i found out they were bought by SoE. But, wooooeeeee. I'm simply astounded.

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Dolby

If you really look close on the naggy picture you will notice the brick walls distorted becuase of the heat ripples from the fire. That really must look awesome animated.

Aerasin

Very nice pics! Heh, its funny to see the naysayers already poking their heads out of the crowd. To each his own, I guess! I for one have high hopes for EQ2.

Oh and about the whole Verant thing, well this quote of Brad McQuaid's (from alt.games.everquest) might clear up some confusion:

"EverQuest began as a project in March of 1996 when Steve Clover and I were hired by John Smedley, then Director of Development, at Sony Interactive Studios America (which is a division or some such of Sony Computer Entertainment America). Over time, the EQ team grew to over 30 people involved with the project. Some time later (the exact date escapes me) SISA changed their branding name to 989 Studios (and 989 Sports). Then, in January of 1999, the PC/online portion of 989 Studios (meaning the entire EQ team as well as everyone else working on PC stuff) spun off into their own company called Verant Interactive, Inc. We then finished up EQ and released it in March 1999. Sony still owns EQ, but we work on it and maintain it."

When I first found out about EQ it was under SISA, so naturally I've always called them Sony.

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Aeroslin

You pointed out what I was thinking, I'll elaborate:

The EQ engine is quite antiquated. The functions that have been built into most of the newer brands (last 2 years) of video cards, such as pixel shading, cannot be utilized in the existing EQ engine. Games like Unreal: Arisen, properly utilize the power of the new video cards which allows for super high poly's, shadows, bump mapping, etc. With EQ, even the best video card is still limited by RAM and CPU speed because the engine is such a HOG of those resources in order to process the huge texture packs for each zone.

If you can walk into pok while someone shout's MGB AEGO or KEI and you can look at the 100 or so people that gather there and not lag so bad that you get disconnected...chances are that EQ2 will run as smooth as UT2003 with all the graphics maxed out.

My guess is that if you have a GeForce 3 Ti or better you will be just fine.

Just my 2 pennies