Worst-looking next-gen title: The Shadow of Aten!

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Yikes! Look at this!

the-shadow-of-aten-20051012111050867.jpg


This is the next generation of video games?? What a horrible misnomer!! The 360 is capable of so much more! One can only hope the presentation at E3 this year significantly ups EVERYTHING for this title! What a fugly mess....
 
That's for the 360? What the shit. :p

That game could run on an N64 ffs. And I'm barely even exxagerating.
 
Not all developers can make something insane. Im not interested in this game but i wouldnt judge it by its looks. I agree a certain standard should be kept but i guess some companys just cant keep up.
 
As I see it this is all the 360 deserves.
 
Raziel-Jcd said:
Not all developers can make something insane. Im not interested in this game but i wouldnt judge it by its looks. I agree a certain standard should be kept but i guess some companys just cant keep up.

Comon, there's an outer glow around the minimap. And I even think that's the default outer glow color in photoshop.
 
Am I the only one that doesn't care? If you don't like it... don't buy it.

I feel bad for the game developers who try to put out a good game, who may not have the ability to make the most popping visually appealing experience. And then people make fun of it.

Maybe i'm to empathetic for my own good.
 
Probably :P

I dunno, I expect to be dazzled, at least, give me some friggin variation. Any developer that thinks this kind of artwork qualifies for their game is either a) not confident enough to produce anything worth playing or b) just lazy, or thinks they can skim by on "good gameplay", in which case, the gameplay probably sucks.
 
Pesmerga said:
Probably :P

I dunno, I expect to be dazzled, at least, give me some friggin variation. Any developer that thinks this kind of artwork qualifies for their game is either a) not confident enough to produce anything worth playing or b) just lazy, or thinks they can skim by on "good gameplay", in which case, the gameplay probably sucks.

Some of the best games, have the worst graphics.

Operation flashpoint was one of them.

Combat Mission games is a series of them.
 
chu said:
As I see it this is all the 360 deserves.
I actually chuckled at this statement, on how much I agree. :cheese:
Raziaar said:
Some of the best games, have the worst graphics.
Good point. Like GTA: San Andreas' character models.
 
Raziaar said:
Some of the best games, have the worst graphics.

Operation flashpoint was one of them.

Combat Mission games is a series of them.

They didn't nessecarily have bad graphics, they had fitting graphics. I don't expect to see a soldier's mustache in an RTS game, but that screenshot is simply a poor excuse of color management. Too many reds and oranges in a game that looks like it focuses around stealth, and not fantasy with dragons. Honestly I'm not commenting on the game's engine itself, the character model looks fine, but obviously it's lacking serious art direction, which could be argued is a function of poor gameplay.

Edit - Looks like a 13 year old drawing a UI for an rpg.
 
This is the problem: with Microsoft not officially supporting the original xbox anymore (for all intents and purposes), developers are almost forced to produce content for the 360, even if it is content much better suited for current-gen consoles. Development costs are assuredly higher for the 360, but devs are left with almost no choice if they want to get any sort of exposure for their game.

This is actually what I appreciate about Sony in that even amongst all of the hype of the PS3, it is quite obvious that the PS2 is getting some really amazing attention in the form of God of War 2, Okami, and Rogue Galaxy (just to name a few).

For Microsoft, the original xbox is like an old version of Windows which will still work, just don't expect any further development for it and get ready for the end of support for it as well.
 
You guys seriously have no idea how hard it is to make something to even appear on a console.

Try making a cube appear on a PS2 Dev Kit and then come back and talk to me. Its not at all easy.
 
We aren't game developers, we're consumers... that's like saying we're not allowed to complain about faulty engines in commercial airplanes because we don't know how the fuk they work.
 
Yet you seem to ignore the large amount of work that goes into making a game.

This isn't being made by a large studio who have the resources to make something with the latest graphics. Its a fairly unknown studio.

Whatever happened to playing the damn game before formulating an opinion. Just because the game doesn't look absolutely awesome doesn't mean that this develoment studio may come up with something different to the norm.

Problem is, people ignore the gameplay and go for the graphics. Which mean the truly awesome games, the ones that are something different and unique get trampled underneath the rush of people going for the latest, most graphically intense game.

Cut the damn developer some slack for christs sake. Wait and see what happens, don't take it all at face value.

-EDIT- And it can't be on an N64, the dude has individually modeled fingers :P
 
It's a freakin screenshot, how am I supposed to judge the gameplay? If the game is any good, it'll get attention, and that's a fact, jack.


Besides, I prefer to buy games magazines tell me to get.
 
We are not judging the whole game but merely its looks.
And since this is a single player game, a nice art direction matters a lot in creating a compelling atmospthere.
 
Comon, look at that screenshot again. Who the **** stacks boxes like that?
 
so i'm the only one who thinks it looks pretty nice?
 
Venmoch said:
Yet you seem to ignore the large amount of work that goes into making a game.

This isn't being made by a large studio who have the resources to make something with the latest graphics. Its a fairly unknown studio.
It doesn't take a large studio to make good graphics, all it takes is talent.

http://www.projectoffset.com

They had 2 or 3 staff at one point.
 
CrazyHarij said:
so i'm the only one who thinks it looks pretty nice?

Nope. I rather like the art style. It has a fairly realistic look to it. (Plus, it reminds me of all the art for Cthluthu, which can only be a good thing!)

Oh and as far as I know Project Offset has been round for a while. (2 Years from looking at the news section.)

Aten has probably likely only been round for a few months. Skill is a major part, but time is also a very, very large factor.
 
CrazyHarij said:
so i'm the only one who thinks it looks pretty nice?
Atleast it will play nice and smooth.

and Venmoch, we aren't saying it's stupid because of bad graphics (well I'm not) but rather that, why isn't it on a simpler system because it has simpler graphics.
 
This game does not look next-gen at all, judging by what we see.
 
That particular scene would probably look much better in motion. Although it may not look incredible or even next-gen, gameplay is what makes a game great imo so whatever.
 
Yay, let's all judge games by their graphics \o/
 
ríomhaire said:
Yay, let's all judge games by their graphics \o/
vegeta897 said:
... we aren't saying it's stupid because of bad graphics (well I'm not) but rather that, why isn't it on a simpler system because it has simpler graphics.
Read.
 
Pesmerga said:
We aren't game developers, we're consumers... that's like saying we're not allowed to complain about faulty engines in commercial airplanes because we don't know how the fuk they work.

truth right there, thats also why there are reviews for the game. The graphics are shit you cant really defend the developer either...
 
It's on the 360 to make money because that way they can up the price.

I don't really care if a game has gay graphics as long as it's 3D and everythings the correct colour.

Maybe this game has really good physics or AI instead to make up for it's gay useage of the consoles hardware.
 
theSteven said:
It's on the 360 to make money because that way they can up the price.

I don't really care if a game has gay graphics as long as it's 3D and everythings the correct colour.

Maybe this game has really good physics or AI instead to make up for it's gay useage of the consoles hardware.

You really think it even has physics?
 
theSteven said:
It's on the 360 to make money because that way they can up the price.

I don't really care if a game has gay graphics as long as it's 3D and everythings the correct colour.

Maybe this game has really good physics or AI instead to make up for it's gay useage of the consoles hardware.

OR THE GAMEPLAY COULD BE SHIT, STOP GIVING IT THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.d awdh awud
 
You guys realize that this game is probably a total piece of shit right? That the gameplay is likely just as bad as the graphics? These kinds of below average low budget full price games are released almost weekly, this is just one of the first next-gen ones.

Sure, graphics don't make a game, and if you look at the sales charts most people don't really care. The GTA series for example sells incredibly well and has very average graphics. The original Sims was always a pretty plain looking game. Civilization as well. Operation Flashpoint was also a decently big seller I believe.

However, those games have style and art direction. This just looks lazy.
 
My only question is why in the world call it a next-gen game when it looks like it is barely a current gen title? Why spend the extra money developing for a next-gen system when you can barely showcase its power? Granted, we haven't seen any gameplay, but if this is the best the art and design departments can do, then I think its pretty safe to say that the rest of it will be sub-par as well.

Microsoft is providing a severe lack of support for the original xbox and that is the only reason I can think of for making this a 360 title. We all know, graphics don't make a good game, but by calling a game "next-gen," you are implying a level of detail unmatched by the current generation. This is just plain bad....
 
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