Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO E3 2009 Trailer

[Covenant]

The secret to good graphics is good texture artists, polygon conservation efforts, and controlling how busy your environments are.

Really, that's about it. Look at Morrowind and Oblivion faces that were redone by people who gave a shit--they'll look gorgeous, have a quarter of the polygons, and fit right in. But then again, who am I joking, it's easier to do shit.

What I think they should do--honest to god--is to go with the Clone Wars style aesthetic they had in the TV series. It was balls-awful bad, but at least it was consistent and it's a Star-Wars owned style at the moment. Keep that aesthetic, focus on the flash and good texture-art instead of the polygons, and I think you'd get some great character generation options (you could even have height/weight sliders with characters so basic in design).

And then you keep the colors vibrant and crazy, like the RotS CG scenes and all that. The current designs are flat because they're faux-realistic while also not 'popping' out at all. You lack color, you lack a real sense of variety... I think you appeal to the fact that people aren't going to give a shit about it looking like realistic Star Wars environments so long as it's full of crazy animals to pump full of blasters, and you let people be Jedi, and you make things blow up real good.

Honestly, they're trying too hard with this look. Nice? Sure. Too nice. Too long to produce. Give us easy-to-build art assets, nice and bright, with a bend towards customization. Oh well.

Maybe the gameplay will be good, but if it's like the Kotor games then the combat will be abysmal. That game's strength was in the dialogue, not the battle, and MMO =! Chatty RPG.

[Death from the Sea]

Looks interesting.

Also just a nitpick but it is simply Star Wars: The Old Republic, not KOTOR.

[irishmick79]

Why didn't the Sith just bomb the temple?

What better way to demonstrate the weakness of your opponent than by walking in and storming their stronghold? A lot of the Old Republic-era Sith seem to have a penchant for dick-waving and displaying their own strength and prowness.