Dragon Age 2 - New Art Style and Interactive Map @ Game Informer

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Senior Artist Matt Goldman comments on the new art style in Game Informer and how spell effects won't carry over to cutscenes. He also talks about cinematic inspiration, what the new narrative means to artists and more.
On the updated look for Dragon Age II:
Before, I think Origins was kind of like Death Dealer meets The Hobbit. It was half really “raah, scary” and half really whimsical. We wanted to take it into more of a desolate feel and kind of strip it down to a hot-rod Samurai look. Not only visually, but in terms of the actual storytelling motifs that appear in those movies. The cautionary tale was really appropriate for DA2.
Click to expand...
On spell effects carrying over to cutscenes:
I personally argued against that a lot. There are various game reasons why [we did that]. It would be cumbersome to cast all of those spells again. But I think it really takes you out of the moment when you’re standing there, talking to a guy and he’s wrapped in glowing red plastic and there are flames shooting out of him and rocks falling on top of him. I absolutely agree that that needs to not happen.
Click to expand...
The interactive map for Thedas,which has 10 must see locations on it, can be found here.
More information.
 
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The new art style and direction is FAIL, FAIL and oh yea FAIL!!!

imo
 
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I gotta disagree.

First, i want change for this iteration. If I'm going to be stuck fighting truckloads of Darkspawn all over again, at least revamp them a little so it aint so samey. At first.

Secondly, I genuinely think the couple shots that I've seen so far look pretty cool. A little more artistic flair to it. Kinda looks Simon Bisley-ish in a way... I'm all for it
 
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I'm familiar with Simon Bisley's work, especially in Heavy Metal, I don't see a resemblance at all here. More like a plain, plastic blend of Thundar and He-Man. The armor is atrocious and the entire look/style is like a bad cartoon.

This is miles behind the powerful, realistic graphics we had in Origins.

That's my opinion of course…all I can say is I hate it and I think it's a serious departure from what I believe a "Sequel" should of been.
 
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Desolation and a more 'comic' (not meant in a bad way) art style scream something at me, and that's 'reduced graphical load'. If they want to increase the detail and/or size then to maintain the same performance without increasing hardware requirements then they have to go down this route.

I'm personally not a fan of desolate environments - give me Oblivion/Baldur's Gate any day - but if it means a gain somewhere else then I'm okay with one game in the series being like this I guess.
 
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It reminds me from afar a bit of the style of Divinity 2.
 
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I actually prefer if the 'buffs' carry on to the cutscenes. They are on the character after all. If they are visible, then they should show, regardless if it's in or out of battle (unless they're temporary buffs that is)
 
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lol, true Thrasher!

We havent seen enough of the thing yet, come on Bio - get that hype machine rolling full tilt already!
 
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