General Animation: What are your thoughts?

[Klefth]

I think I read from the beta forums, that the animations are intentionally left this way for a faster movement response...

Even though they didn't affect movement in the slightest. They were purely cosmetic. Besides, it's not only the character animations that rook a massive hit; animations during cutscenes (well, cutscenes in general, really) completely lack the quality of 1.0's as well.

I think these current animations do not even compare at all to what we had. They feel completely weightless and cheap.

As it should be. Gradual speedups/slowdowns are directly counterproductive when you're trying to move in a precise fashion, which a lot of these fights demand. I know that the way things are now don't look as pretty, but the gameplay benefits in terms of responsiveness are worth it, IMO.

There were no gradual speedups/slowdowns at all, just variations of the running animations, but the movement speed always remained the same.