Fereldans aren't crude, they're practical. They're not incapable of curves. You don't have to be an artisan from Orlais to come up with pronounced structures and statues. Anyway, hopefully the following is just one place in the entire game and will not repeat.
Behold the mother spike:
I actually thought this was some sort of a graphical glitch the first half a second I saw it.
Freshly painted griffons?
Lego time:
Lego + Spikes?
Spike brothers?
It hurts my eyes, really. Makes me consider canceling my preorder and waiting to hear from others if DA:I is high on the spike-game, if so I might not even bother.
One of my biggest gripes with DA2 was its art style;if Inquisition borrows one of the worst parts of it, even after loads of fan feedback criticizing it, then eww.
One of my biggest gripes with DA2 was its art style;if Inquisition borrows one of the worst parts of it, even after loads of fan feedback criticizing it, then eww.
Thank goodness I'm not the only one who hated DA 2 art style. And it seems to have stumbled into DA:I now. I bet it's the same person who designed the stuff in DA 2 worked on that stuff in the screenshots. If they say that it belongs to a region and that it's supposed to look like that, it would be such a bad excuse for these sloppy designs.
I'm not gonna go so far as to call it sloppy. I've just never been a fan of that particular style, whatever you'd call it.
Problem is, I'm pretty sure there was a lot of people that stated they liked that style. I'm not sure the majority of the feedbacks here was against the Spiky features, and the forum isn't the only media where Bioware takes feedback.It hurts my eyes, really. Makes me consider canceling my preorder and waiting to hear from others if DA:I is high on the spike-game, if so I might not even bother.
One of my biggest gripes with DA2 was its art style;if Inquisition borrows one of the worst parts of it, even after loads of fan feedback criticizing it, then eww.
Guest_Terrian_*
Look at the screenshots in the previous page. The weapons being held by the statues, the claw like things jutting out from parts of the temple(?) and the Grey Wardens' base. There's also that damn lego like towers. It's as if the artists just can't think of creating stuff outside that look. "Hey give me a bunch of stone arrow heads and I'll make a weapon out of it" or "Hey, wanna build structures with just stone blocks?". Ugh...
Just read some posts from the previous pages, looks like I'm not the only one who noticed this crap. And I know the game will look better once it gets some polish, but the problem isn't just that. It's the "hexagon" art style mostly.
As I said, I do agree with the blocky part. The spikes however are limited only to the Western Approach area, which is littered with Ancient Tevinter structures, and I assume that the ancient Imperium was (and still is) fond of sinister looking architecture that symbolize violence and terror. The architecture in the rest of the areas is pretty normal looking, at least in my opinion.
What I'm worried about is the weapons, really. The series doesn't have a good track record with those.
Freshly painted griffons?
Lego time:
I thought the griffons are fashioned out of metal, but maybe I'm mistaken. Those... lego... things look like tiny ziggurats to me. Maybe like Angkor Wat.
Anyways, the only problem that I have with this is that it doesn't look like the ancient, abandoned fortress that Adamant is supposed to be. It looks like its construction was finished just yesterday.
Modifié par Terrian, 01 juin 2014 - 04:19 .
Only those big spikes have no equivalents in the architecture of our world. The others, I am sure, can all be found in buildings old and new across the world; the idea that using big blocks is somehow "programmer laziness" is simply ridiculous.
I second on the black spike from the wall. It looks plain awful.
Guest_Terrian_*
Anyways, folks have been speculating that Therinfal Redoubt is somewhere in the Tirashan Forest, but the architecture looks pretty Fereldan to me.
Ok, I can't believe I missed this, but in the summery of the article/codex entry on the site, it clearly says Therinfal Redoubt is an "old Fereldan fortress". I guess that settles it then.
Guest_Terrian_*
Only those big spikes have no equivalents in the architecture of our world.
I'm not terribly broken up over them myself. I like what we've seen of the game so far, including the environmental designs, enough that some spikes won't stop me from playing the game.
Anyways, you could sort of rationalize the upward ones. They're there to keep dragons or Archdemons from landing on top of the fortress and wreaking havoc. I don't know about the horizontal ones though.
So, spikes are the new thing to complain about.
Those big, bad spikes.
Gonna throw in some reposts mixed in with newbies
The Fade-
Therinfal Redoubt-
I'm not gonna go so far as to call it sloppy. I've just never been a fan of that particular style, whatever you'd call it.
Dissonant is what I call it. Unusual. Bizarre. It's like they get 80% right then they blow the last 20%. Still much better than DA2 though. Therinfal looks good.
Dissonant is what I call it. Unusual. Bizarre. It's like they get 80% right then they blow the last 20%. Still much better than DA2 though. Therinfal looks good.
I mean seriously, what the hell is with that statue in the first Therinfal image I just posted? MY HELMET CAN FIT IN MY WEAPON HURR
I mean seriously, what the hell is with that statue in the first Therinfal image I just posted? MY HELMET CAN FIT IN MY WEAPON HURR
You've got a real beef with sharp angles. Are you by chance Dr. Seuss reincarnated?
You've got a real beef with sharp angles. Are you by chance Dr. Seuss reincarnated?
Bad art design is a legit complaint. There are areas where the art team just goes off the rails, and they make really weird design decisions.
You've got a real beef with sharp angles. Are you by chance Dr. Seuss reincarnated?
If Dr. Seuss hated the way DA2 looked, I must be.
Anyways, you could sort of rationalize the upward ones. They're there to keep dragons or Archdemons from landing on top of the fortress and wreaking havoc. I don't know about the horizontal ones though.
I guess they could be to stop dragons or Archdemons (or trolls?) from running up to your walls and pounding on them.
I mean seriously, what the hell is with that statue in the first Therinfal image I just posted? MY HELMET CAN FIT IN MY WEAPON HURR
Without knowing what it is a statue of, it is hard to know why it looks the way it does.
Okay, I like the Fade a bit better now. One big complaint though: It doesn't look like the Fade as described or depicted earlier, but rather has a 'lo-cost, blocky Cthulhu wannabe*' vibe. R'lyeh and environs on a budget and with blocky housing and floaty islands, rather than the fancy madness-inducing non-Euclidean geometry and weird monumental architecture and all that...
The statue in the castle courtyard (if it's the courtyard) looks like some leftover DA2 asset. In terms of style it totally clashes with the pseudo-European medieval castle, as well as being fugly.
The windows of the castle (which otherwise looks mostly okay, certainly good enough for generic fantasy**) also look weird. The upper ones are rather large for a tower in what I think is supposed to be a functional fortress, but it's also plain glass, rather than paned windows. Because of this, they really look 'off', and very unauthentic (modern rather than fantastical / historical).
Oh, and the grass (and weeds?) growing in what looks like a dungeon / cellar is a bit , erm, unusual. Grass has a tendency not to grow in the shade, and all that...
P.S. Since I'm criticising here, let me say that I think that the visual design is important, but that as far as I am concerned not crucial to DA:I's quality or succes as a game. It'll stand or fall by its characters, combat and plot.
*Cheap tentacle-faced statue included.
** Good enough, but also very boring and uninspired-looking, to be honest. This is what I mean by 'competent but generic'. There must be hundreds (and once thousands) of castles in Europe that look or looked more interesting than this. Perhaps Ferelden is the boring semi-normal 'America with Swords' place, but surely a bit more flamboyance, imagination and / or ripping off real castles should have been possible?
The statue in the castle courtyard (if it's the courtyard) looks like some leftover DA2 asset. In terms of style it totally clashes with the pseudo-European medieval castle, as well as being fugly.
ding ding ding ding ding
Only those big spikes have no equivalents in the architecture of our world. The others, I am sure, can all be found in buildings old and new across the world; the idea that using big blocks is somehow "programmer laziness" is simply ridiculous.
Agreed.
The Mayans were so lazy, building their pyramids with nothing but big blocks. 
I'm sorry. I wasn't informed on the artists being Mayans. I always assumed that they were artists of the modern age with access to modern day tools, my bad.
*facepalm*
Cool Fade pics by the way. I'm liking the Fade more and more, with the exception of that light source. I hope they have a lore-wise explanation for that.
I'm sorry. I wasn't informed on the artists being Mayans. I thought they were artists of the modern age with access to modern day tools, my bad.
Irrelevant. They are creating these structures as if they were built by people without modern day tools.
Dragon Age doesn't follow our timeline and history, nor should it follow the same level of advancement we had in architecture. More imaginative constructs can be expected. Try to let go of the habit of applauding art which is either jarring or just mediocre.
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