Lol... Perfect example of blind fanboying. I love this game, have hardly anything bad to say about it, but if you're saying the graphics aren't better in 1.0 and cutscenes are "about the same"? Jesus Christ people like you make me laugh so much.
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Graphics were improved in some areas, such as lighting and overall area design. They were cut back in other areas, most notable is textures. I'd still take ARR over 1.0 though, the game still looks gorgeous and overall I consider the changes to be an improvement despite the few steps they have taken backwards in some areas.
I found the CS from the grand company missions (made from the new team) as good as the main story CS from the old team
As example a Grand Company mission CS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpnspR2qt4
Or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6GkS...tailpage#t=103
Textures were high, so i guess you could say graphics were higher, but everything was copy/pasted throughout the enitre zone, once you stepped out of Uldah, you'd of seen the terrain for the entire region without having to move, it was no different.
But what does it matter, no one could play, i mean look how poop it looked on "low settings"
http://i.imgur.com/f82CMTm.jpg
.......... compare that to 2.0 low settings.
More important than the graphics, for me, the voice acting in those 1.0 beginning cutscenes was miles better than the cringe-worthy stuff we have now. Plus, the dialogue seemed better in 1.0. Yda mistaking the player for a heavenly "psychopomp" and saying "Nana? Is that you?" Genius! xD Everything I can think of in 2.0 is bland and uninspired in comparison.
Hmm.. I'm not sure if the rest of 1.0's voice acting was as good as the stellar opening scenes, though. I'll have to go back and compare 1.0 Minfillia to 2.0 Minfillia.
Anyway, with the 2.0 acting being so bad, I'd rather have no voice acting at all. At least they allow me to switch to the Japanese audio so I don't have to have my soul murdered by 2.0's terrible English accents.
ARR has managed to do what several other MMOs have failed to do - combined decent, non-cartoony (not the "absolute best") graphics with a usable framerate. Don't get me wrong, WoW with the settings right can look amazing, but it's incredibly dated. SWTOR looks fancy, but Ultra/High settings in an open world (Alderaan, Hoth etc) will bring a high-end gaming PC to under 10fps.
Also: you can improve the graphics in this game slightly over what you can see normally - set up a profile on your video card that over-rides all the game settings. That's if your PC can handle it, al lot of people find that their "awesome" PC isn't really all that good when put to the test ;)
My pc now same as before ran 1.0 highest settings no problems. Now with 2.0 lag lag lag, mob glitches more lag, I tend to think its more the servers over crowded now than before. Seriously in 1.0 after everyone abandon ship we had it nice. Low numbers. I will admit mmos are cpu bound more than gpu bound and more people in a given area the more cpu action you have going on. Physics is cpu bound as well unless your NVidia GPU. I'm AMD.
played since beta 1.0... call me crazy but i want 1.23 back :( they way 1.0 evolved... sure it was a train wreck at release, but for those that stuck through it til the end, saw a game that was rewarding, and paced. now... the combat system feels so shallow... idk im still actively playing, but i can definitely say that when i got a piece of darklight i was able to rejoice (even if i banged my head against an rng to get it) as opposed to going, "yawn i ony need 10 more prae runs for x gearset" and graphical detail... i had a high end pc, so i could play high end pc games and even with maps being copy/pasted the lighting and textures were beautiful. and as much a i love the variety of the world now, i miss a huuuge open world, compare to a cramped everything everywhere one. /wishesfor1.23privateserver
I can sum up the comparisons with ease.
1.0
-Much much higher resolution textures, better graphically
-Many very large uninspired copy/paste environments making the amazing graphics go completely to waste outside of character and enemy models
-Again, very large environments, the zones were gigantic
-Somewhat lifeless world
-Partying via camp spots best way to level
-Outside dungeons, strongholds that actually seem like strongholds
-Clunky yet tolerable combat
2.0
-Downgraded graphics, textures, much better use of lighting
-Tiny maps but very inspired areas that look amazing artisticly and graphically with said lighting
-World feels far more alive than 1.0
-Quests & Fates a main sourse of EXP
-Cringe worth voice acting
-Clunky yet tolerable combat system
-Dungeons all instanced
In a nutshell, nothing but a bunch of trade offs that they should of done the first time to make an alright game.