Big World of Warcraft Feature - Lots of purdy pictures
 

http://www.gamedaily.com/mmoguide/article.asp?aID=385

A special focus was put on taking pictures that had genuine aesthetic quality, instead of just showing off the landscape. In the same sense that you could take pictures of real life locations, but some will turn out much more beautiful than others. All HUD stuff was turned off in an effort to sorta enhance the illusion of these shots being "photos" taken of the environment, rather than screencaps.

I really, really like the peice, anyway. It'd be pretty horrible if I didn't considering the disporportionate amount of time that was spent on it.

Much has already been shown of that snowy area (although I do feel there's lots of new material in there), so if you'd rather see something you might not have seen before, check out part 1 as well:

http://www.gamedaily.com/mmoguide/article.asp?aID=357

Anyway, to keep things interesting, for those of you who are, AND aren't in the beta, what's your hype level like for the final retail product?

Damn this game. I really thought I kicked the MMO habit but this one seems like it's gonna drag me right back in. I've always loved the production of Blizzard games, top notch art and pleasing gameplay. This one will be the death of me. Oh well, better warn the wife!

I've played the beta a lot, and I can honestly say that there's only two problems with WoW so far.

1. The graphics. Yes, they are very good, but they're not good enough. When the game goes retail later this year, the graphics will be subpar to other MMORPGs. Do the character models look detailed and smooth? Yes, but they're not the best. Are the environments good-looking? Yes, but they're simply not the best. This game does NOT cater to the people with $450 videocards. People who own those videocards want the game to look like $450 and it simply doesn't. I can barely tell a difference between my GeForce 4 TI4200 and my GeForce 6800 GT. The game looks good, but not good enough. Cranking up the resolution, anti-aliasing, and effects don't affect the overall look of the game like it should. This game is definitely designed to work on crappy computers with crappy videocards...and it will.

2. The game is ENTIRELY quest-driven. Every single enemy you kill in the game is for a quest. So, anyone wanna go out and hunt? Wait...I can't, sorry, <B>I haven't got that quest yet</B>. It's very annoying when you're out hunting and you can't fight with others because you haven't got the quest yet. Fighting monsters that drop quests items when you haven't got the quest yet is a waste of time (the monsters won't drop what you need unless you've accepted the quest). Hey, let's go kill that huge bear! Wait...I don't wanna kill it unless I have the quest yet. I hate to say it, but the game needs more places to just level up and form a monster-slaughtering party without as much focus on if you've accepted the damn quest for the enemies. Are most of the quests fun and do they add diversity to the game? Yeah, but it gets old really fast when all you do is go around looking for the quests in the area before you can kill anything. Sometimes I just wanna go out and kick some ass, but ya can't do that in WoW without wasting your time wondering if you have the quest for it.

The graphics I can get by. This game looks amazing, even if other games have much better graphics out there. WoW has many, many plusses, but the game gets old really fast because of the aformentioned quest problem. Even worse, when you start another character, you do the same damned quests over again on that character. Killing 200 monsters to get the 10 items you need is ok, but doing it twice on two characters makes the quest system annoying as fuck. I personally think Blizzard should tone down the quests...hell, maybe even put in 30% as many quests as there is now. I hate the feeling of fighting in WoW knowing that the monster I'm killing has a quest behind it that I can't find.

-Lasereth

I'd like to see pics WITH all the HUD. The clear screens look nice, but that isn't what I'd be seeing if I were to play this game. I was dissappointed in WoW's Gameplay Movies for this same reason. Yeah, it shows the cool graphics, but it doesn't give me an accurate idea of what gameplay is really like.

where's the purty pictures??? but i don't want to click the link... I already clicked the link... /corniness

http://media.gigex.com/ss/2475/screens/2475_49.jpg

http://media.gigex.com/ss/2475/screens/2475_01.jpg

http://media.gigex.com/ss/2475/screens/2475_48.jpg

please feel free to add more.. they go from 01 to I dunno...

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...light=warcraft

For screenshots with the HUD.

Oldie but goodie.

I just want to know if im understanding you correctly. Your saysing you can't just go out and hunt to level up? Or you can go hunt, but not big game? I think i got what you are saying, but not 100%. If you can't just go hunt willy nilly it seems a little to forced IMO.

Ohh and a question i just thought of. How do they handle "looting" in this game. Is it first one to loot wins. Or does everyone get a share? How do they handle looted items?

Sorry if I was a little complicated!

You can hunt anything and at anytime, it's just that hunting monsters in the game is useless unless you have the quest for them. Do they give exp? Yep! Do they drop loot? Yeah. Are you getting the quest item you need from them? NOPE!! Like I said before, hunting monsters that you don't have the quest for is literally useless. When you finish a quest, you get massive amounts of EXP points. Fighting monsters that don't go towards a quest you have is just a waste of time...and I wish it wasn't.

-Lasereth

I have a level 41 mage, and the game is getting exponentially stale. It's probably my fault (since I don't like starting new characters, or are too lazy) but I'm not very interested in the game anymore. I play it about once a week now. they really need to pull the plug on the "thousands of quests" thing.

Cool, screen shots look great, time to start playing again!!

I got all the other warcraft games(2 and on) so I'm getting this for sure!

Cynthetiq, it's not polite to steal a site's bandwidth like that. My paycheck comes from adviews on those pages, so it'd be much better if people just clicked through gamedaily's tabs rather than posting the images directly in here.

As for WoW being quest-driven, it's only as quest driven as you make it. You're making it sound like quests are required. It's very possible and not even unreasonable to be able to get to max level without ever completing a quest. It's just simply not as much fun ;) You're going to be out killing those mobs ANYWAY to level up, so the quests just give you a reason to do it, within the storyline.

Got'cha Thanks.

Quests give an incredible amount of experience points. Fighting monsters would take FOREVER to get to the max level...the only way to level up at any reasonable pace is to do the quests. Some quests give enough experience to beat out killing 500+ monsters. Casual gamers would NEVER be able to level up without doing the quests. The only way quests wouldn't be needed is to make the exp gained from killing regular monsters way way higher.

-Lasereth

Lasereth just so you know, this was put into the game 7 days before your post and this is directly from the patch notes:

Sharing Quests
You can now share your quests with your entire party. In order to utilize this option, you need to open your quest log, select a quest, and press the "Share Quest" button. All members of your party will now be presented with the quest like you were the quest giver NPC.

Some restrictions:

You can only share with party members

Party members must be nearby when you share

Party members must meet the pre-requisites of the quest itself. For example, if you are on step 2 of a quest and your friend is still on step 1, you could not give him a "short-cut" to step 2.

Quests generated from items cannot be shared.

I suggest tagging your images as they are added to your online gallery, and/or blocking direct linking of your image folders.

I periodically update a collection of my WoW (pvp server) screenshots here: http://www.seretogis.org/files/linkables/wowss/

That's awesome! I'm sure it'll relieve some of the quest issues. There are still a few major issues that bother me about it...but this is definitely a head in the right direction if ya ask me!

-Lasereth

Lasereth. We must not be playing the same game. i have no problem getting levels from just grinding. get a group together and go in to an instance. much faster xp then any quest.

heres some of my pics


http://www.doomednet.net/gallery/alb...dead.sized.jpg

http://www.doomednet.net/gallery/alb...2243.sized.jpg

http://www.doomednet.net/gallery/alb...3304.sized.jpg

http://www.doomednet.net/gallery/alb...haos.sized.jpg

http://www.doomednet.net/gallery/alb.../uc3.sized.jpg

We don't tag out images b/c we feel it detracts from the overall impact the screens have, especially in the case of the WoW images. I do agree about not allowing hotlinking however. It certainly should be implemented.

Lasareth, as I said, the same mobs are gonna be killed to level up even if you don't accrpt the quests, right? So what's wrong with getting the bonus EXP that comes with completing them? You mentioned it limiting what you can and can't do, b/c you don't want to go somewhere to kill things that you'll do again in a quest later. You still CAN, though. Like I said in my other post, the game is only as quest driven as you make it. The EXP boost is cool, but it's not as large as you're making it sound.

I've just completed quests that took an hour that gave me 5000 exp for instance. Most enemies at the level I completed the quest at give approximately 50 exp each if I'm in a group. I can kill 100 enemies in a group (which can take a long time at later levels...the fuckin enemies are really powerful later on) or I can do a quest that takes an hour. Of course, you can kill enemies all ya want...it's simply that quests do give a huge exp bonus. Fighting without doing quests is possible, but you're losing a huge exp bonus if you do. Maybe I just hate fighting monsters when I know I can be doing a quest AND fighting monsters.

I guess my feelings are more towards what I said above. The regular enemies do give exp, and if you kill a lot of them in a group it does pay off...but I'd rather get quest exp and monster exp rather than just monster exp. The additions to the quest system are probably gonna help the game out a ton though...I'm glad Blizzard made that adjustment. Maybe when the game goes retail I'll be more interested in fighting regular monsters since we'll be able to keep our characters then. :)

One thing is for sure...the game is above average. It's much, much better than the average MMORPG. It's actually one of the best. I'm simply saying that I feel that if a few adjustments were made to the game, it would be <B>the best</B>. I want it to be the best...with controls this damn good and a style this polished, it doesn't have much more to go to be the greatest.

-Lasereth

When you say the graphics will be subpar to other MMORPGS,what exactly are you comparing them to Lasereth?

Im not saying its perfect (yet). Quests still need alot of work imo. Mainly collection quests. they should drop for the whole group. It sucks when you're in a group and need 30 boar tusks with a drop rate of 30%. Then when it does drop only one of you gets it. But other then a few minor tweaks here and there its a pretty damn good game.

How do they handle clothing, armor and weapons in the game? Can players make anything? Or is it bought from NPCs and looted off enemys? And does your character change at all while you progress in the game? Like posture, color, any other type of apearnce change, or does he stay the same through out the game? Sorry if these questions are on a FAQ, just thought it would be eaiser to ask here :o.

I'm simply comparing it to games that are coming out in the future (shortly after). It seems like Blizzard's game engine is for this generation...and games usually want to have a next-gen engine so the graphics don't get outdated soon. Don't get me wrong, this game has really good graphics, but they could be better. I'm mainly talking about effects, resolution, and driver improvements...they're almost absent! Cranking up the settings and resolution in games like Battlefield or Doom 3, etc. make the game look way better. Doing it in WoW doesn't. :(

-Lasereth

Wow, very impressive all around.

Lota good reading in this thread. THanks for all the insight for us non-beta testers.
I do gota say that while the screens are nice they don't really blow me away. I don't really mind the "cartoony/warcraft" look to everything but it does somehow prevent any picture from really looking amazing to me.

That's bsically how I feel. Why is the grass on the ground one big picture instead of actual strands of grass (like BF Vietnam)? That could easily be implemented. Why are the textures muddy if you get close to the walls at 1600x1200 with 16x antialiasing with all settings on high with a GeForce 6800 Ultra? Why aren't the buildings more detailed (and my detailed, I don't mean colorful or vibrant...there's plenty of that)?

I think the cartoony-look to the game detracts from the wow-factor that the game should have considerably.

-Lasereth

i like that the game plays silky smooth. fps are way more important then looks to me. I love pvp and its not fun dying because your pc couldnt render whats going on fast enough.