Not really no, see for example: trees, old mountains, etc in antiquated zones. The new updates to recent expansion assets don’t really help with this, as the more graphic newer zones only serve to make the old zones seem blobbish and poorly traced by comparison.
It’s rather immersion breaking for what is basically a sandbox MMORPG. Going from say Drustvar to Ashenvale or Elwynn, it’s almost vertigo inducing.
I think the cartoony graphics have a certain charm to them and hold up well.
The people at Blizzard have done amazing things with what they can squeeze out of the graphics engine in Warcraft.
My only critique is some of the old environments in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor need a few updates especially the tree canopy but all in all I’m happy with the way Warcraft looks.
WoW has a very clear art style. things have a stylization to them that’s been the same since 2002.
Shadowlands was the largest departure from that style we ever took. Which is one, of many many problems with that expansion.
No joke, 99% of the people who are begging Blizzard to make the graphics for this game super high-end wouldn’t be even remotely capable of running this game if the graphics requirements shot up drastically as a result of that.
I’ve never heard anyone bash the graphics. It seems like their often praised. The art team has been on point every expansion.
It’s really just the EK and Kalimdor that look bad.
Many games have individual elements that are higher resolution and more realistic than WoW, but they don’t blend well with each other. When I try playing other MMOs I’m keenly aware that that it’s a bunch of different elements put together, whereas WoW looks like an organic world, if in cartoon form. The open world in FFXIV sometimed feels like one of those clunky CGI/3D movies from 10 years ago.
O prefer the toons not looking life like. Not a fan of that at all
My best friend refuses to play wow and says it’s got ps2 graphics.
It’s really annoying because the game is beautiful.
Old places like Ratchet, not so much…
I think he says this crap because he says he played it in 2004 (which I don’t believe) and he didn’t like it.
This is so true.
I’m of the opinion the biggest reason WoW seen such a massive drop in subs over some expansions was from upgrading their graphics to be more demanding on the players PC.
As a kid I had a trash laptop for Cata, that I had to last me till Legion. I got a real PC again at the start of BFA for a good price, could use a new graphics card but not in my price range atm. In Cata everything was great, MoP made things a bit worse but fine overall. Come WoD I had to lower my rendering to like 40% so I could raid without too many issues, in Legion all I had a good time doing was old BG’s as they never got a graphics overhaul and everything was fine. So lucky I managed to get some of the tower weapons, sadly a few just did not work out with my laptops performance.
I know I’m not alone with that. If WoW had upgraded their graphics too much I think there would be far less people playing than there are today as it simply cuts more people out that simply can’t run the game.
It’s a tale as old as time, conflating graphics with art direction.
The former is the technical half… stuff like normal normal maps, shading techniques, lighting, etc. The latter is the actual style.
Games that go hard on the technical bits with fancy shadows, raytracing, etc chasing a photorealistic look will always be doomed to look dated just a few years down the road, because the ceiling on what’s technically practical is always rising and what was once cutting edge will become old hat in no time.
So it’s important that games have competent art direction regardless of what technical niceties they’ve been equipped with, because without good art direction you’re left with nothing but an unremarkable tech demo. People don’t remember games like Spyro and Windwaker for their technical prowess, but for how they looked and felt.
I don’t get mad that blades of grass don’t look realistic. What is annoying is when you get snagged or stuck on something that in real life would always give way. Like a weed, a blade of grass, or a pine needle.
In any case, it seems that increasingly there are forum posts that simply act as filler - not intended to bring about meaningful discussion, but rather to make it look like people are still using the forums.
There are a lot of comparisons that can be made. A majority of the more recent Final Fantasy games have much better graphics by comparison than WoW does. Cyberpunk even though it didn’t do too well has better graphics. Witcher 3 has better graphics.
So there is a mix up of games there, all that have better graphics by comparison in current day time. Not sure how you are unaware of this unless you’ve not played, or have never seen them.
Not when they’re put together. As I said above, you can have better resolution elements but if they don’t blend together well it takes away from the quality of the final product.
Not when they are put together? What are you talking about?
As separate elements (a figure, a plant, a rock, ground textures, etc) they look good, but they don’t blend together in a way that looks natural.
Yeah, and our world is bigger!
The main reason I was drawn to wow is cause it’s not dark and drab and trying too hard to look realistic like some other MMOs. It may not have perfect graphics but it’s pretty and nice and it makes the zones more memorable I reckon, not just endless random drab forests.
Are you saying that people have bad takes fueled by a lack of insight on the INTERNET of all things?
I’m shocked! Shocked! I tell you.
Well, not that shocked.
That’s more a matter of opinion really. Technically it’s all a matter of opinion in the end.