This is purely opinion, but it seems like a fair assesment of a sorely missing feature from the new Vanguard game. This "new" game from Sigil and Sony Online Entertainment does not allow for full screen anti-aliasing. I don't know about you, but this feature has been in video cards long enough that I don't see why it was missed in this otherwize great game. Nothing to me is more distracting and removes me from the game than to see pixel poping and shimmering of objects due to artifacts caused by shifting pixels in a 3D environment. I just want to know why they did this.
Here's my thought. One BIG supporter of Vanguard is nVidia. We all know that nVidia cards don't do the new HDR lighting and FSAA well, or in most cases, not even at all in games. Since nVidia is trying to "look good" here I bet they asked Sigil to not allow FSAA in this game so they wouldn't look bad. HDR is nice, but I can do without that any day. FSAA is much much more important in a game that is attempting an immersion of the player. Would you want to watch a class A movie on the big screen if you saw pixel popping in the CG? What would Lord of the Rings look like? GAHDS!
nVidia is a great company and makes some great cards, I own a few and like them. But, since they are paying out the nose these days for game content it seems to me they are getting to powerfull in the say of how these games work, rather than working on their own technology to make any game, no matter how programmed, look better.
Again, this is just speculation, and I hope it's not true. But, if it even holds a slight bit of reality, oh my, where's the industry going??
OK, this has been stewing for months now. And since WoW: Burning Crusade is now on shelves, it should be known that I, and many other WoW fans are starting to get ticked. We originally paid $50 for 2 full continents of detail and exploration just ready to be played. Now we shell out another $40 for only a tiny little island? GIVE ME A BREAK!
Originally Blizzard promised "frequent and subsequent updates" to WoW. After playing for 1 full year, I finally quit in disgust that no real new content was ever added to the game. In fact many believe, as I, that content was removed as they kept tweeking down the raid abilities and shortening the guild's abilities.
When I learned that Blizzard was finally going to put out an expansion, I figured they had put a lot of work into it. They definately had enough time. I truely expected a full additional continent to be added. Instead we get a tiny little island I'm ticked. WoW is by and far the best MMORPG to date. Vanguard has potention, but doesn't look to have near the attention to detail that WoW has. In detail I mean every little item and every little quest and every little placement of all little and large things, people, places, mobs, and general stuff. WoW is amazing how well thought out it originally was.
I posted a question to this thought on Blizzard's forum. They responded quickly by deleting my post. They are getting to big for their own shoes. If they can't take the heat, then they won't be getting any more of my money.
