2.0 environments are they more interesting?

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Originally Posted by bobbygunz

Sorry, but what do you actually want? A field of glow sticks and primary-colour landscapes like Guild Wars 2 (which looks like it belong on Nickelodeon or something)?

Only thing wrong with those screenshots is the graphical downgrade from our current version.

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You should try playing the game with depth of field off. It looks bad, and why this game was praised for it's graphics is beyond me. Character/gear/enemy detail was fantastic, but everything else is pretty bad. Shadows, shaders, draw distance, etc.

Hell, some weather conditions are really annoying because rain happens to fall through areas that are actually sheltered pretty well.

Things look really good with ambient occlusion though!

Wish I had a graphics card that didn't choke on a million dicks if I turned that on...

I agree though. Character models and gear is where most of the good graphics are found. Some HDR effects look really nice too, but sometimes it kicks in way too strong for partially reflective surfaces.

The roll-on textures as you walk forwards look really really bad too. What were they thinking?

Water effects look nice, though.

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Originally Posted by Azurymber

I doubt at the moment there are many new areas. Its probably just re-designs of the current areas. New areas will probably come with an expansion.

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Except the regions are going to be split into 5 differently themed biomes.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Things look really good with ambient occlusion though!

Wish I had a graphics card that didn't choke on a million dicks if I turned that on...

I agree though. Character models and gear is where most of the good graphics are found. Some HDR effects look really nice too, but sometimes it kicks in way too strong for partially reflective surfaces.

The roll-on textures as you walk forwards look really really bad too. What were they thinking?

Water effects look nice, though.

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Don't get me wrong I'm not disagreeing with you but that comment was about the graphics and not the visual design.

Let me crudely simplify it this way:

Current thanalan: canyons desert nothing surprising really, few rocks and cacti

future thanalan (?) and yes I'm just guessing based on one single screen which is admittedly pretty weak: canyons desert and few rocks with rotated cacti

My point (and damn is it hard to put this into words, I'm sorry!) is that I hope these screenshots are from the least visually interesting areas and that there is a lot of visual coolness happening all around them.

If anything I think SE has proven that they can do it. Also some of the concept art looks amazing in the road-map pdf.

im a bit concerned that the cacti all look exactly the same, im sure itll be varied later on tho

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Originally Posted by Xodus84

im a bit concerned that the cacti all look exactly the same, im sure itll be varied later on tho

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Recycling assets is going to happen in every game and I think that's only natural. Hell if I were asked to design 39 same looking chairs for a game I'd question the intents of that producer. However regarding that exact scene I think it looks about as compelling and unique as this: http://dustydavis.com/blogimages/spr...s_vergines.jpg

btw it's totally okay if you think these scenes do look interesting I'm just curious to know how you think these designs fare compared to the previous XIV or other FF games in general.

I never really had that much of a problem with the original designs. That being said I do think the new ones are quite the improvement. I think they chose to show off the ones that are the most similar to what we have now so we could make an accurate comparison. It should be noted, as one person did earlier and was ignored, that each area is going to be split up into multiple zones that will look different. What we're seeing is likely the zone that most closely mirrors the current Thanalan and Black Shroud.

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Originally Posted by Arcell

I never really had that much of a problem with the original designs. That being said I do think the new ones are quite the improvement. I think they chose to show off the ones that are the most similar to what we have now so we could make an accurate comparison. It should be noted, as one person did earlier and was ignored, that each area is going to be split up into multiple zones that will look different. What we're seeing is likely the zone that most closely mirrors the current Thanalan and Black Shroud.

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I never thought it that way but it makes sense and personally I hope you're right.

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Originally Posted by Seif

No these are from the SE's PR site not from someone's laptop =/

Also I'd like to point out that I'm not worried about the graphics at all. What I'm talking about here is the visual design.

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They were taken on Yoshida's laptop which is what he used to show off the short demos to interviewers. They said each area has a theme so it should be more interesting or at least just as interesting as a lot of XI's areas were compared to now at least.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

They were taken on Yoshida's laptop which is what he used to show off the short demos to interviewers. They said each area has a theme so it should be more interesting or at least just as interesting as a lot of XI's areas were compared to now at least.

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Why in the name of shiva would they post them onto a pr site of all things without taking better screens with an able PC? SE we love you and your marketing for XIII and XIII-2 was massive and lasted all year. What is your marketing team for XIV doing?