Word. Much love for this post... and obviously much love (and gratitude) to all the WAU faithful who kept this ball rolling... I think at th… moreis point it would be safe to say that S2 likely wouldn't be happening without the overwhelming demand (and persistence) from all you beautiful mundies who never let up. I love each and every one of you, and can't wait to start working on delivering more of what y'all have been demanding for 3 years!
-The Sheriff
I do the same just because I prefer to wait for one long period of time and then be able to play the whole story, than having a small taste of the game and waiting three months for another bit...THAT is torture
With the first 1 or 2 games it was pretty hard (I must admit). But then as I played more and more games, I basically got used to waiting (a… morend stronger willpower), so I'm pretty much free from the "Waiting Syndrome" (and as I've said to Jacol above, there will be other games like Batman season 2 which full season will be released before Wolf (also possibly TWD final season), plus other games that will keep me busy.
I won't go into discussing plot because everyone has different opinions of it, but in terms of graphics, it is pretty much agreed by most pe… moreople that some of the choices that they made were not very good (or horrible, depending on who you talk to).
There are several instances of this, but one particular example that I always notice is how Kenny and Jane look downright weird/ugly compared to their looks in previous seasons (and that's one of primary concerns for many for Wolf, that Bigby and Snow gettting ANF's Kenny and Jane treatment).
Frankly (no offense to any TWD fans but), I'm a bit relieved next season is the final for TWD. I didn't feel it when I was finishing TWD season 2, but I definitely did feel burnt out on the whole TWD series as I was finishing ANF.
The choices I'm referring to are the choices that the devs made for ANF (such as graphics, etc), not the choices that we as players make in the game (I probably should have stated it more clearer in my original post saying "choices that the devs made were not very good").
Anyway, I think I've had enough fill of TWD series (pretty much burnt out on it) - but it sure is gonna be emotional to play that last season.
I played A New Frontier at last and I actually really enjoyed it
A lot of the choices were 'difficult' but I wouldn't say there were "horrible" choices to make...
Ugh, hard to disagree. Those Kenny / Jane models are still what makes me worried for TWAU2, even tho I will admit that Batman S2 does a great job art-wise and it might be the first TTG game I actually enjoy since TFTB.
But yeah, ANF was a mess when it came to the artstyle and writing in my opinion too. It just felt like devs weren't sure what they wanted to achieve with this game. And those butchered models gave me nightmares... if I wanted a ride to hell, I'd boot up DOOM.
The choices I'm referring to are the choices that the devs made for ANF (such as graphics, etc), not the choices that we as players make in … morethe game (I probably should have stated it more clearer in my original post saying "choices that the devs made were not very good").
Anyway, I think I've had enough fill of TWD series (pretty much burnt out on it) - but it sure is gonna be emotional to play that last season.
The choices I'm referring to are the choices that the devs made for ANF (such as graphics, etc), not the choices that we as players make in … morethe game (I probably should have stated it more clearer in my original post saying "choices that the devs made were not very good").
Anyway, I think I've had enough fill of TWD series (pretty much burnt out on it) - but it sure is gonna be emotional to play that last season.
Ugh, hard to disagree. Those Kenny / Jane models are still what makes me worried for TWAU2, even tho I will admit that Batman S2 does a grea… moret job art-wise and it might be the first TTG game I actually enjoy since TFTB.
But yeah, ANF was a mess when it came to the artstyle and writing in my opinion too. It just felt like devs weren't sure what they wanted to achieve with this game. And those butchered models gave me nightmares... if I wanted a ride to hell, I'd boot up DOOM.
Well, of course everyone has different preferences and you're entitled to your opinion (so you don't need to feel bad for liking the graphics in ANF, because I'm sure there are people who do as well).
I just thought the graphics looked horrendous especially in terms of Kenny and Jane, and regarding others, while some characters/environments looked alright/passable (it looked more polished than the GoT game, but I guess that's no surprise since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine), some others didn't look that impressive or actually looked messy (I' just can't remember which specific parts, due to it being a really long time since I last played the game [Kenny and Jane are kinda exception, because their models were visually stamped in my mind....sighs with facepalm], and I really don't want to get into playing the game again for the sole sake of finding out what is wrong with it, lol)
What me and Jacol agree on is that the best graphics to use for TWAU season 2 is the "comic-booky" graphic style they used in the first Wolf game, not the portrait water-paint style they seem to be adapting for pretty much every telltale game since GoT (for me, their current graphics style doesn't inspire much confidence due to it being hit and miss a lot of times, but then again, I haven't yet played Batman season 2 [which Jacol says is good in terms of graphics] so it may be a better question asked to Jacol).
Here's hope against hope - that they use their original TWAU graphics.
... Is it bad that I thought the graphics were gorgeous? Sorry but I loved the graphics in this game, made the characters more human to me.
… more
And yeah, TWD S4 is gonna be a roller coaster of emotions.
As is TWAU S2 when we start begging TellTale for S3 haha
Batman S2 has a bit more "comic-booky" feeling than past few TTG games in my opinion, which gives me a bit of faith in TWAU S2. My problem with TWD3/ANF was that I felt like the art team wasn't sure what they wanted to do. Like half the team wanted to make a comic book game and half the team wanted to make graphics more realistic, resulting in a blotchy mess of half-realistic comic-book wannabe style that was just weird.
Now, in terms of what I think 99% of us want from TWAU S2 is LITERALLYwhat TTG did with The Walking Dead Collection. I really really REALLY really really hope that this approach will be adopted for TWAU2 aka raise the polycount of the old models, port them over and improve the texture scale a little but keep the comic book style and graphics. Don't remake everything from scratch, especially character models. If they are going to mess up my Snigby I swear to god I'm gonna go berserk...
Well, of course everyone has different preferences and you're entitled to your opinion (so you don't need to feel bad for liking the graphic… mores in ANF, because I'm sure there are people who do as well).
I just thought the graphics looked horrendous especially in terms of Kenny and Jane, and regarding others, while some characters/environments looked alright/passable (it looked more polished than the GoT game, but I guess that's no surprise since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine), some others didn't look that impressive or actually looked messy (I' just can't remember which specific parts, due to it being a really long time since I last played the game [Kenny and Jane are kinda exception, because their models were visually stamped in my mind....sighs with facepalm], and I really don't want to get into playing the game again for the sole sake of finding out what is wrong with it, lol)
What me and Jacol agree … [view original content]
Well, of course everyone has different preferences and you're entitled to your opinion (so you don't need to feel bad for liking the graphic… mores in ANF, because I'm sure there are people who do as well).
I just thought the graphics looked horrendous especially in terms of Kenny and Jane, and regarding others, while some characters/environments looked alright/passable (it looked more polished than the GoT game, but I guess that's no surprise since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine), some others didn't look that impressive or actually looked messy (I' just can't remember which specific parts, due to it being a really long time since I last played the game [Kenny and Jane are kinda exception, because their models were visually stamped in my mind....sighs with facepalm], and I really don't want to get into playing the game again for the sole sake of finding out what is wrong with it, lol)
What me and Jacol agree … [view original content]
Yeah, I know about the oil-painting approach. GoT is also the first (if I remember correctly) in the Telltale games to adapt the 3D modelling/realistic look of characters and environments in contrast to the cell shading used to simulate comics (i.e. all TWD games before ANF, and TWAU).
Since GoT, all Telltale games seem to be gravitating more towards this 3D modelling/real look style of graphics - and abandoning their previous comics style cell shading that was popular during early TWD and TWAU days.
I'm no graphics whore (since I always put story first), but even so, GoT's graphics had a lot of problems (which I won't go into depth here, since that will involve quite a bit of writing) - all I'm saying is ANF looked more polished than GoT when Telltale first adapted this 3D modelling/real look approach.
"since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine"
I thought that game was going for an intentional 'oil-pastel-painting' look???
It's an important point tho that both me and @Blind Sniper brought up before in the other topics. TTG have completely removed the cell shading shader and replaced it with real time cascaded shadow mapping (aka real time lighting) which of course makes things a lot more realistic and stuff, but I can't stress enough on how CRUCIAL cell shading was in TWAU specifically. The foundation of this game's artstyle is cell shading, and I am very worried that TTG will just do the same thing as they did with all their new game and don't bother with bringing back the cell shading at all. Both CSM lighting and cell shading can exist at the same time, and given that Telltale's designer would sacrifice a day or two to create a test map in the engine and dedicate a day to experiment with different shader values to nail down the perfect artstyle recreation on the new engine, I think it is quite possible to make TWAU S2 atmosphere even better than S1 with the combination of old cell shaders and new lighting tech. But is it gonna happen? Probably no.
Yeah, I know about the oil-painting approach. GoT is also the first (if I remember correctly) in the Telltale games to adapt the 3D modelli… moreng/realistic look of characters and environments in contrast to the cell shading used to simulate comics (i.e. all TWD games before ANF, and TWAU).
Since GoT, all Telltale games seem to be gravitating more towards this 3D modelling/real look style of graphics - and abandoning their previous comics style cell shading that was popular during early TWD and TWAU days.
I'm no graphics whore (since I always put story first), but even so, GoT's graphics had a lot of problems (which I won't go into depth here, since that will involve quite a bit of writing) - all I'm saying is ANF looked more polished than GoT when Telltale first adapted this 3D modelling/real look approach.
It's an important point tho that both me and @Blind Sniper brought up before in the other topics. TTG have completely removed the cell shad… moreing shader and replaced it with real time cascaded shadow mapping (aka real time lighting) which of course makes things a lot more realistic and stuff, but I can't stress enough on how CRUCIAL cell shading was in TWAU specifically. The foundation of this game's artstyle is cell shading, and I am very worried that TTG will just do the same thing as they did with all their new game and don't bother with bringing back the cell shading at all. Both CSM lighting and cell shading can exist at the same time, and given that Telltale's designer would sacrifice a day or two to create a test map in the engine and dedicate a day to experiment with different shader values to nail down the perfect artstyle recreation on the new engine, I think it is quite possible to make TWAU S2 atmosphere even better than S1 with the… [view original content]
(I don't know quite where I fit in this topic, but I'm giving my 2 cents anyway)
I would hope that they stick to cell shading. It's a very style centric IP. It should look hand drawn in my opinion. I feel that holds a lot of the charm.
My sentiments exactly. Though I think if the devs really want to use the combination of both CSM lighting and cell shading, I'd rather they experiment it on another game rather than directly applying it to Wolf first (or is Batman season 2, an example of this?).
If the combination works, then perhaps they can apply it to Wolf (though even if that's the case, I'd remain skeptical until I see a trailer). If it doesn't, well they should just use the cell shading shader and forget about trying both (or they'd risk it looking messy - and if that happens to TWAU season 2 it would be an absolute nightmare for me).
The situation kinda reminds me of the Fables comics. During the main series' very long run, several artists have drawn for each different arc - and my favorite style always has been Mark Buckingham; with others, some were good, some were passable, and there were others which made the characters look ugly. I think that's the kinda similar situation here (with TTG's TWAU season 1 cell shading being the "Buckingham style"). Only difference is, with the comics, we weren't given any choice whatsoever. But here, I hope the devs listen and and keep the same style (against the overwhelming trend of CSM lighting). Chances are slim, but I guess one can only hope.
It's an important point tho that both me and @Blind Sniper brought up before in the other topics. TTG have completely removed the cell shad… moreing shader and replaced it with real time cascaded shadow mapping (aka real time lighting) which of course makes things a lot more realistic and stuff, but I can't stress enough on how CRUCIAL cell shading was in TWAU specifically. The foundation of this game's artstyle is cell shading, and I am very worried that TTG will just do the same thing as they did with all their new game and don't bother with bringing back the cell shading at all. Both CSM lighting and cell shading can exist at the same time, and given that Telltale's designer would sacrifice a day or two to create a test map in the engine and dedicate a day to experiment with different shader values to nail down the perfect artstyle recreation on the new engine, I think it is quite possible to make TWAU S2 atmosphere even better than S1 with the… [view original content]
I 100% agree with you and @Blind Sniper , real time lighting should never replace cell shading in this game. Honestly if I had to choose I would be totally fine if they sticked with the old engine completely. I never had any issues with TWAU aside from a few rare glitches such as "blank choice" bug (and even that is pretty uncommon, I can say that as I spent 375+ hours in this game). Hell, I wouldn't even care if they left the old models as they were, I liked the low poly, low res texture style as it gave it much more of a "handdrawn comic-book" kind of feel.
TWAU is pretty much perfect, and you don't need to fix something that ain't broke... hear me Telltale?
I just hope that they won't leave out the cell shading because if it is not going to be featured in the new season then it's going to be strike #1
My sentiments exactly. Though I think if the devs really want to use the combination of both CSM lighting and cell shading, I'd rather they… more experiment it on another game rather than directly applying it to Wolf first (or is Batman season 2, an example of this?).
If the combination works, then perhaps they can apply it to Wolf (though even if that's the case, I'd remain skeptical until I see a trailer). If it doesn't, well they should just use the cell shading shader and forget about trying both (or they'd risk it looking messy - and if that happens to TWAU season 2 it would be an absolute nightmare for me).
The situation kinda reminds me of the Fables comics. During the main series' very long run, several artists have drawn for each different arc - and my favorite style always has been Mark Buckingham; with others, some were good, some were passable, and there were others which made the characters look ugly. I think that's the kinda… [view original content]
Oh I remember the graphical problems GOT had buddy, don't even get me started...
I guess I just don't mind 'updating' the graphics from a comic-book style to a more modern/realistic one. Again like you, I'm here for the story, the visuals are just a bonus.
Yeah, I know about the oil-painting approach. GoT is also the first (if I remember correctly) in the Telltale games to adapt the 3D modelli… moreng/realistic look of characters and environments in contrast to the cell shading used to simulate comics (i.e. all TWD games before ANF, and TWAU).
Since GoT, all Telltale games seem to be gravitating more towards this 3D modelling/real look style of graphics - and abandoning their previous comics style cell shading that was popular during early TWD and TWAU days.
I'm no graphics whore (since I always put story first), but even so, GoT's graphics had a lot of problems (which I won't go into depth here, since that will involve quite a bit of writing) - all I'm saying is ANF looked more polished than GoT when Telltale first adapted this 3D modelling/real look approach.
Perhaps I wouldn't be so pessimistic if pretty much all of the CSM lighting applied games hadn't been disappointments in terms of how they look - to me, they all bordered somewhere from bad/terrible to so-so/okay (varying depending on scenes/characters etc). Of course, that's not to say Cell shading should be the go-to method to all Telltale games, but in terms of Wolf especially, with the noir environment of the game itself, and the way I feel it is strongly rooted with Fables comics (kinda reminiscent of Mark Buckingham's style, if you ask me) Cell shading's comic style just gels really well and plays along nicely with the game's strengths.
Story is always #1 priority for me in terms of any game, but that's not to say graphics are of less importance. Even if the story is great, if graphics end up looking mediocre/messy, it sometimes breaks my immersion of the game to the point where it feels like story is compensating for lack in graphics (while this isn't a game breaker, it is a big disappointment when it would be possible to be great in both). And I have a feeling that would especially be the case for TWAU season 2, since Wolf is the title that I have the biggest emotional investment in, out of all Telltale games that I've played.
So yeah, I feel strongly about Wolf remaining in Cell shading territory (to be honest, I don't think it needs to be updated - I like the old-school look that season 1 gives off).
But that's just my preference. It all won't matter if Telltale decides to "follow the tide" and decide to use CSM lighting like all of their recent games. But with CSM's current track record, it really doesn't give me a vote of confidence, sadly.
Oh I remember the graphical problems GOT had buddy, don't even get me started...
I guess I just don't mind 'updating' the graphics from a… more comic-book style to a more modern/realistic one. Again like you, I'm here for the story, the visuals are just a bonus.
Are we taking turns on taking words from each other's mouths now?
Seriously tho, I am one of those rare people who are usually going to say that graphics are the least important part of the game, story and gameplay is what makes it. BUT in this instance I have to admit, the cell-shaded handdrawn comic-book in 80's noir artstyle is what makes the atmosphere, and atmosphere in this game is absolutely crucial. I doubt that TWAU would get as much as half of the praise it got if it was made on CryEngine 3 with hyper realistic graphics. We need that living comic book artstyle or the game is going to have hard time living up to the original from the very start.
Perhaps I wouldn't be so pessimistic if pretty much all of the CSM lighting applied games hadn't been disappointments in terms of how they l… moreook - to me, they all bordered somewhere from bad/terrible to so-so/okay (varying depending on scenes/characters etc). Of course, that's not to say Cell shading should be the go-to method to all Telltale games, but in terms of Wolf especially, with the noir environment of the game itself, and the way I feel it is strongly rooted with Fables comics (kinda reminiscent of Mark Buckingham's style, if you ask me) Cell shading's comic style just gels really well and plays along nicely with the game's strengths.
Story is always #1 priority for me in terms of any game, but that's not to say graphics are of less importance. Even if the story is great, if graphics end up looking mediocre/messy, it sometimes breaks my immersion of the game to the point where it feels like story is compensating for lack in graph… [view original content]
Sad fact is though - even if Telltale stands their ground (regarding this matter) and uses Cell shading approach, there's bound to be people complaining saying "Graphics look old, it should be updated!" which may pressure them into CSM lighting (and then we'll be having this discussion once again....sighs)
It is really sad to see that this great style being so underappreciated.
Like you've said, I love that living comic book world feeling. It really helps breathe life into Fabletown (environment such as the Business Office, Trip Trap Bar etc...., and characters, not just Bigby and Snow, but also all supporting and minor characters as well like Faith, Nerissa, Colin, Bufkin, Bluebeard, Jack, Woody, Holly, Gren etc....), and helps with the immersion when I'm playing as either "the big bad wolf" (where I always take the most violent approach, kill all villains and make them suffer), or "the redeemed wolf" (where my Bigby is the nice guy), or "Bigby Wolf: Antihero" (middle-ground between the other two, where my Bigby dispenses justice but in a lawful way, but sometimes may kill really irredeemable villains who deserve it)
Are we taking turns on taking words from each other's mouths now?
Seriously tho, I am one of those rare people who are usually going to … moresay that graphics are the least important part of the game, story and gameplay is what makes it. BUT in this instance I have to admit, the cell-shaded handdrawn comic-book in 80's noir artstyle is what makes the atmosphere, and atmosphere in this game is absolutely crucial. I doubt that TWAU would get as much as half of the praise it got if it was made on CryEngine 3 with hyper realistic graphics. We need that living comic book artstyle or the game is going to have hard time living up to the original from the very start.
Comments
Will you marry me, Adam?
It's been a long day,
Without you my friend,
and I'll tell you all about it when I see you again.
When I see you again.
(sees game teaser)
AWWWWW YEAAAH WE WAITED AND WE GONNA SEE IT AGAIN!
Good to be back with the fans of one of the best TTG games.
raises glass to the originals
I do the same just because I prefer to wait for one long period of time and then be able to play the whole story, than having a small taste of the game and waiting three months for another bit...THAT is torture
I played A New Frontier at last and I actually really enjoyed it
A lot of the choices were 'difficult' but I wouldn't say there were "horrible" choices to make...
The choices I'm referring to are the choices that the devs made for ANF (such as graphics, etc), not the choices that we as players make in the game (I probably should have stated it more clearer in my original post saying "choices that the devs made were not very good").
Anyway, I think I've had enough fill of TWD series (pretty much burnt out on it) - but it sure is gonna be emotional to play that last season.
Ugh, hard to disagree. Those Kenny / Jane models are still what makes me worried for TWAU2, even tho I will admit that Batman S2 does a great job art-wise and it might be the first TTG game I actually enjoy since TFTB.
But yeah, ANF was a mess when it came to the artstyle and writing in my opinion too. It just felt like devs weren't sure what they wanted to achieve with this game. And those butchered models gave me nightmares... if I wanted a ride to hell, I'd boot up DOOM.
... Is it bad that I thought the graphics were gorgeous? Sorry but I loved the graphics in this game, made the characters more human to me.
And yeah, TWD S4 is gonna be a roller coaster of emotions.
As is TWAU S2 when we start begging TellTale for S3 haha
I agree when you say that Kenny and Jane were butchered beyond recognition, but were the other characters really that badly designed?
ANF could be called a 'spin-off' to the main TWD series TellTale has going on
Well, of course everyone has different preferences and you're entitled to your opinion (so you don't need to feel bad for liking the graphics in ANF, because I'm sure there are people who do as well).
I just thought the graphics looked horrendous especially in terms of Kenny and Jane, and regarding others, while some characters/environments looked alright/passable (it looked more polished than the GoT game, but I guess that's no surprise since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine), some others didn't look that impressive or actually looked messy (I' just can't remember which specific parts, due to it being a really long time since I last played the game [Kenny and Jane are kinda exception, because their models were visually stamped in my mind....sighs with facepalm], and I really don't want to get into playing the game again for the sole sake of finding out what is wrong with it, lol)
What me and Jacol agree on is that the best graphics to use for TWAU season 2 is the "comic-booky" graphic style they used in the first Wolf game, not the portrait water-paint style they seem to be adapting for pretty much every telltale game since GoT (for me, their current graphics style doesn't inspire much confidence due to it being hit and miss a lot of times, but then again, I haven't yet played Batman season 2 [which Jacol says is good in terms of graphics] so it may be a better question asked to Jacol).
Here's hope against hope - that they use their original TWAU graphics.
Batman S2 has a bit more "comic-booky" feeling than past few TTG games in my opinion, which gives me a bit of faith in TWAU S2. My problem with TWD3/ANF was that I felt like the art team wasn't sure what they wanted to do. Like half the team wanted to make a comic book game and half the team wanted to make graphics more realistic, resulting in a blotchy mess of half-realistic comic-book wannabe style that was just weird.
Now, in terms of what I think 99% of us want from TWAU S2 is LITERALLY what TTG did with The Walking Dead Collection. I really really REALLY really really hope that this approach will be adopted for TWAU2 aka raise the polycount of the old models, port them over and improve the texture scale a little but keep the comic book style and graphics. Don't remake everything from scratch, especially character models. If they are going to mess up my Snigby I swear to god I'm gonna go berserk...
"since GoT is the first game for them to adapt this new graphics engine"
I thought that game was going for an intentional 'oil-pastel-painting' look???
Yeah, I know about the oil-painting approach. GoT is also the first (if I remember correctly) in the Telltale games to adapt the 3D modelling/realistic look of characters and environments in contrast to the cell shading used to simulate comics (i.e. all TWD games before ANF, and TWAU).
Since GoT, all Telltale games seem to be gravitating more towards this 3D modelling/real look style of graphics - and abandoning their previous comics style cell shading that was popular during early TWD and TWAU days.
I'm no graphics whore (since I always put story first), but even so, GoT's graphics had a lot of problems (which I won't go into depth here, since that will involve quite a bit of writing) - all I'm saying is ANF looked more polished than GoT when Telltale first adapted this 3D modelling/real look approach.
It's an important point tho that both me and @Blind Sniper brought up before in the other topics. TTG have completely removed the cell shading shader and replaced it with real time cascaded shadow mapping (aka real time lighting) which of course makes things a lot more realistic and stuff, but I can't stress enough on how CRUCIAL cell shading was in TWAU specifically. The foundation of this game's artstyle is cell shading, and I am very worried that TTG will just do the same thing as they did with all their new game and don't bother with bringing back the cell shading at all. Both CSM lighting and cell shading can exist at the same time, and given that Telltale's designer would sacrifice a day or two to create a test map in the engine and dedicate a day to experiment with different shader values to nail down the perfect artstyle recreation on the new engine, I think it is quite possible to make TWAU S2 atmosphere even better than S1 with the combination of old cell shaders and new lighting tech. But is it gonna happen? Probably no.
I could see them still sticking with cell shading for Season 2 of Wolf, but I'm hoping they don't try to mix in real time shadowing too.
(I don't know quite where I fit in this topic, but I'm giving my 2 cents anyway)
I would hope that they stick to cell shading. It's a very style centric IP. It should look hand drawn in my opinion. I feel that holds a lot of the charm.
My sentiments exactly. Though I think if the devs really want to use the combination of both CSM lighting and cell shading, I'd rather they experiment it on another game rather than directly applying it to Wolf first (or is Batman season 2, an example of this?).
If the combination works, then perhaps they can apply it to Wolf (though even if that's the case, I'd remain skeptical until I see a trailer). If it doesn't, well they should just use the cell shading shader and forget about trying both (or they'd risk it looking messy - and if that happens to TWAU season 2 it would be an absolute nightmare for me).
The situation kinda reminds me of the Fables comics. During the main series' very long run, several artists have drawn for each different arc - and my favorite style always has been Mark Buckingham; with others, some were good, some were passable, and there were others which made the characters look ugly. I think that's the kinda similar situation here (with TTG's TWAU season 1 cell shading being the "Buckingham style"). Only difference is, with the comics, we weren't given any choice whatsoever. But here, I hope the devs listen and and keep the same style (against the overwhelming trend of CSM lighting). Chances are slim, but I guess one can only hope.
I 100% agree with you and @Blind Sniper , real time lighting should never replace cell shading in this game. Honestly if I had to choose I would be totally fine if they sticked with the old engine completely. I never had any issues with TWAU aside from a few rare glitches such as "blank choice" bug (and even that is pretty uncommon, I can say that as I spent 375+ hours in this game). Hell, I wouldn't even care if they left the old models as they were, I liked the low poly, low res texture style as it gave it much more of a "handdrawn comic-book" kind of feel.
TWAU is pretty much perfect, and you don't need to fix something that ain't broke... hear me Telltale?
I just hope that they won't leave out the cell shading because if it is not going to be featured in the new season then it's going to be strike #1
Oh I remember the graphical problems GOT had buddy, don't even get me started...
I guess I just don't mind 'updating' the graphics from a comic-book style to a more modern/realistic one. Again like you, I'm here for the story, the visuals are just a bonus.
Perhaps I wouldn't be so pessimistic if pretty much all of the CSM lighting applied games hadn't been disappointments in terms of how they look - to me, they all bordered somewhere from bad/terrible to so-so/okay (varying depending on scenes/characters etc). Of course, that's not to say Cell shading should be the go-to method to all Telltale games, but in terms of Wolf especially, with the noir environment of the game itself, and the way I feel it is strongly rooted with Fables comics (kinda reminiscent of Mark Buckingham's style, if you ask me) Cell shading's comic style just gels really well and plays along nicely with the game's strengths.
Story is always #1 priority for me in terms of any game, but that's not to say graphics are of less importance. Even if the story is great, if graphics end up looking mediocre/messy, it sometimes breaks my immersion of the game to the point where it feels like story is compensating for lack in graphics (while this isn't a game breaker, it is a big disappointment when it would be possible to be great in both). And I have a feeling that would especially be the case for TWAU season 2, since Wolf is the title that I have the biggest emotional investment in, out of all Telltale games that I've played.
So yeah, I feel strongly about Wolf remaining in Cell shading territory (to be honest, I don't think it needs to be updated - I like the old-school look that season 1 gives off).
But that's just my preference. It all won't matter if Telltale decides to "follow the tide" and decide to use CSM lighting like all of their recent games. But with CSM's current track record, it really doesn't give me a vote of confidence, sadly.
Are we taking turns on taking words from each other's mouths now?
Seriously tho, I am one of those rare people who are usually going to say that graphics are the least important part of the game, story and gameplay is what makes it. BUT in this instance I have to admit, the cell-shaded handdrawn comic-book in 80's noir artstyle is what makes the atmosphere, and atmosphere in this game is absolutely crucial. I doubt that TWAU would get as much as half of the praise it got if it was made on CryEngine 3 with hyper realistic graphics. We need that living comic book artstyle or the game is going to have hard time living up to the original from the very start.
Haha, Just being honest.
Sad fact is though - even if Telltale stands their ground (regarding this matter) and uses Cell shading approach, there's bound to be people complaining saying "Graphics look old, it should be updated!" which may pressure them into CSM lighting (and then we'll be having this discussion once again....sighs)
It is really sad to see that this great style being so underappreciated.
Like you've said, I love that living comic book world feeling. It really helps breathe life into Fabletown (environment such as the Business Office, Trip Trap Bar etc...., and characters, not just Bigby and Snow, but also all supporting and minor characters as well like Faith, Nerissa, Colin, Bufkin, Bluebeard, Jack, Woody, Holly, Gren etc....), and helps with the immersion when I'm playing as either "the big bad wolf" (where I always take the most violent approach, kill all villains and make them suffer), or "the redeemed wolf" (where my Bigby is the nice guy), or "Bigby Wolf: Antihero" (middle-ground between the other two, where my Bigby dispenses justice but in a lawful way, but sometimes may kill really irredeemable villains who deserve it)
Glad we finally get season 2
Simply put.
