Does anyone else think that Civ IV looks too Cartoony?

[ComradeDavo]

I'm liking the look of Civ4 at the moment

Reserve final judgement till the game actually comes out of course though.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I don't mind the cartoony look, as long as the gameplay doesn't get childish. The game looks good imo, but I'm no graphicswhore either so most new games look nice to me.
I'll check the reviews if the game is good but otherwise these graphics won't influence my decision either way. I still need a new PC to play the game though.

This being said, it would be nice to see a Civilisation in an altogether more realistic setting, but I don't see that happening given the direction they're are going with the franchise.

 

[warpstorm]

Also note, most of these graphics are still placeholders. I don't think they'll be finishing the graphics until the very end (which is what most game companies do because the graphics are the easiest things to change).

True, but by now some of the screenshots will be showing finished or very nearly so artwork. The final artwork should be coming out of the pipeline by now if they have a hope of making a November release. I suspect that the final art will look a lot like what we've seen so far, in style.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

That might be true, Warpstorm, but looking at the graphics from the latest preview, I can't help but feel that they are from a few months ago-and simply given out to highlight certain elements of the Religion component of the game-they just seem so much more....amateur than stuff we have seen mere weeks ago.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[josephstalin]

I don't care for "cartoonish" look of the game, if gameplay is going to be not left out. I think, that simply Fireaxis tries to get new customers buy civ.

 

[kryszcztov]

My only real wish is to have a fresh game with awesome gameplay, and which works OK from the start, ie. no need to wait for a patch like with C3C.

As for the graphics, while still not convinced that they're good, and while being aware that some are still placeholders, I'm OK with them. Example : the leaderheads, they're better than in Civ3. Take Ceasar ; in Civ3 he's a stupid cartoony character, light-years from what he really was ; in Civ4 he looks a LOT better, so that's fine with me.

 

[eaglefox]

i don't mind graphics if the game is intelligently designed. there is this strategy game that came out in 1995 - Imperialism. It was based in Europe. That game was very well designed for the time. Not from any big and famous developer team or something like that. It was had its share of flaws, but it was still a beautiful game. not great looking graphics, perhaps worse than even civ 2. but the game itself was good. the thing atleast with me is, if I like the game I automatically start liking the graphics, and if i don't wanna play a game, no amount of graphics can convince me.

 

[troytheface]

Civ 3 is cartoony as hell. Stiff little figures brightly colored. Civ4's look is much more appealing- some of these figure heads on civ3 are (i would dare say) ugly cartoony - whereas from what i have seen civ4's look much more appealing. The water in the screen shots is really nice- not to mention the vast improvement in terrrain. I remember the same post being thrown out a few months ago and i am not quite sure what i am missing....(Civ3 is not photographic, not impressionistic (optical realism) - what i get out of this perception is that u like the cartoony look of Civ3 better than the cartoony look of Civ4.

 

[evil_linus]

The thing that bothers me is that ther're are quite few units and terrain enhancements on the sreenshots we'we seen. And it still feels like the map are over-filled with stuff.. What will it look like when you actually have LOTS of units?

 

[ThePersian]

I think they are fallowing the rome total war game. The new settings look at lot like it. And civ has always been cartoony, and to the person that said they look ugly, well almost all of the leaders in history did look...well.
I like the background of the game alot, and the leaderheads are fne with me.

I am still not sure about the units, but this game is behond anything i could ask for atm, all i can hope is for the great game play.

 

[troytheface]

you know- ur right- it does look similiar to Rome Total War's terrrain - to bad they did not tap into RTW's battle graphics- they are the best i have seen
(although it also has the worst balance ever)

 

[admiral-bell]

i dont think look matters. people probably complained about civ2 and 3

 

[farting bob]

Well im betting pretty soon after release we'll start to see the customisation forum ooze greatness, making the game even better!
And the screenshot of the city, it may look a bit cartoonish, but that amount of zoom would never be used normally except to watch cool battles up close. Zoom out and it'll look less cartoonish i bet.

 

[warpstorm]

i dont think look matters. people probably complained about civ2 and 3

They sure did.

 

[troytheface]

now that i look at it (terrrain types) both civ 4 and Rome total war's terrain have somewhat of a kinship with warpstorm's modded terrrain- maybe they ripped u off ....or was that the direction that graphic modeling was taking- ie more of a molding as oppossed to a construct of segments....
(the one flaw of any of these games but mostly in the shoot them up genre is u can see the terrrain segments as u move about)

 

[Leprechaune]

Well isn't there just two sides to every coin...

Complaint #1 - They're sacrificing gameplay for graphic upgrades!

Complaint #2 - They need a billion pollies in their models!

Y'know?... Just let them make this happy middle ground and PLAY the freakin game!

You complain about the carving of the pieces on your chessboard too?

 

[Carver]

I have no complaints about the leaders; they are sort of cartoony but not in a way that takes away from the seriousness of conquering the world - I want them to seem like they have personalities. The close in views on the terrain graphics don't exactly thrill me but the farther out views (Civ3 style) are great.

 

[henry k c]

AM I WATCHING NIKELODEON??? Geez I know civ 4 is animated. I liked the civ 3 leadeheads better. The civ 4 ones look too fake. I wonder why faraxis did that especially since few 5-10 year olds play civ.

 

[Meleager]

Well isn't there just two sides to every coin...

Complaint #1 - They're sacrificing gameplay for graphic upgrades!

Complaint #2 - They need a billion pollies in their models!

Y'know?... Just let them make this happy middle ground and PLAY the freakin game!

You complain about the carving of the pieces on your chessboard too?

1. No Proof. All discussed in another thread
2. So does every other game. Your point?

 

[remconius]

To be honest, I dont mind new looks.
I just hope the game's foundations are there and improved (I believe they will be).
And I hope the graphics are not blocking the overview of the game (they were designed to improve overview, but I am not so sure. Guess we need to get used to it. Especially with the big units (seebelow))