Better API's than DX.
Open GL. Don't know enough about GX2 tho. It's just for Wii U tho so maybe not even bring that up. Open GL tho. I think more developers prefer it. Esp Valve.

Used to be a HUGE landslide in favour of ogl over d3d. Now its pretty much just the ones whove been around long enough, and have the capability of writing their own effects libraries.

MS has done a frightingly effective job of 'killing the next generation'. Most every college you go to has free MS products for students to use, and thus lesson plans revolve around ms products. You would be hard pressed to find many schools that go in depth with ogl and writing your own libraries... They just teach you to use what daddy ms has provided them.

MS solved the problem of too many ambitious youth working together and making breakthroughs and then adding them to the open graphics lobrary faster than ms could keep up... By making the majority of the youth of the next generation stupid, lazy, complacant, and expectant.

It was... A catastrophic victory.

Van Damme is my man! Great design that stands out in a sea of cliche anime cherub faces. Hope the character creator lets me make something similar to his design instead of variations of derp face smoosh cheeks shown as the default pc all the time.

Wasnt Vandamme og xenoblades ol Squarestaches japanese name?

Apologies for not using your quote function, i'll be sure to use it when applicable in future.  However I don't think your abrupt repsonse was required on this occassion, given my comment was polite.  To answer your question who is cupoftea, please click back one page, as far as I could make out he had not been discredited and his claims were vast so again please click back one page and read his post.

 

 

 

Thanks for your polite and constructive reply, I will edit my post as you request.  I do think it is worth replying regardless of the age of the post or that the user may have left, as people like myself who are new to your forum may read this topic and could be misled by that users claims.

 

Well, dont worry, if you decide to keep reading Im sure you will see they were debunked. 

 

and again.... And again.... and again, and again, and again, and again and....

Taka said this is the game he has wanted to always make but was never allowed to. So it definitly is channeling some SAGA plus Gears and Blade. It's like a Mega Mix of Xeno. Got the best talent he could from Anime and Games to do music two different designers for mech. Well known fantasy artists for other things. This is a super group game. It has some Star Ocean in it and some Phantasy Star. This is like a wonderful gumbo. Sometimes life dream games don't work out. Sometimes they do. I hope this is one that does. I believe it will.

 

Definitely feeling that too.

 

Hes kept trying to do this project ever since Xenogears ended up a half finished game instead of a six part epic. He couldnt LEGALLY make a sequel to a square game with namco bandai, so xenosaga was born...

 

This appears to finally be the very first episode of Xenogears, (Gears was part 5 irrc) its heavily reminescent of the intro to Xenogears which takes place milennia before gears.

 

Ah, seems they added a lot more than a few comparison shots led me to believe.

The LOD is definitely impressive in this game, I think the main thing putting me off is the art style. The characters don't seem to fit the style of the world and the other life forms in the world, the character designs on their own I'm not a fan of but especially in the world they're put in they don't seem to fit.

Thanks for the informative post.

Those faces man... I wonder if they are channeling xenosaga on purpose? Either way, putting pre-pubescent child cheeks and mouths on adult characters to make them reminescent of religious art work was always creepy.... Which makes the saga merchandise SUPER creepy...

Fortunately Well be looking at the backs 90% of the game.

Interesting how you point out they dont fit in with the world, they arent supposed to. Unfortunate cherub faces aside, Takahashi is actually going out of his way to highlight the Xenobic juxtaposition of things from different worlds colliding.

Just like how the player race/party crash landed on this planet from a different world and doesnt belong, Takahashi has assigned different art designers for the character and technology designs of each individual alien race.... A very interesting and off the beaten path choice I am very intrigued by.

After all, the suffix of the title, Xeno means 'strange' 'foreign' 'alien' combined with 'stranger/guest'. It describes someone or something who doesnt belong where they are.

In watching it again, the closer shot of the characters looks a lot better than the E3 trailer for sure. The other improvements are there but they're minor.

 

I'm not blind, I'm just not impressed. You seem a little too worked up over this.

 

You dont have to be impressed to see that the game has seen nothing but improvements each time its been shown. Its really not that subtle, unless you have no eye whatsoever for these kinds of things.

 

And Im not even talking subtle things like improved textures, shaders, models, lighting, layering etc.

 

Like, entire mountain ranges have been added.

 

 

Although I think the rumours of downgrades coinciding exactly with the unveiling of the continuation of the Xenosaga style character design (Hideous cherub faces) isnt exactly a coincidence. 

 

I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of peoples reactions to not liking the face designs influenced how they then perceived the rest of the world. Faces look unappealing, -> everything else now looks less appealing Classic Halo effect, a pretty common cognitive phenomenon, that is very hard for most people to recognize and overcome (Training for businesses to identify and overcome Halo effects is a multi billion dollar industry).

 

The face designs had a the same effect when they were used in Xenosaga, although its chilled over time, these hideously deformed cherub face designs are a visual slap to the face for a lot of people (Myself included), who do not care for this design style in the slightest, not then, not now, even though I am a huge fan of Xenogears character design, which was done by the same artist, but in a different style. Although thats not the only reason why I dont much care for Saga. Its just one of many reasons.

 

 

Blargh.

After looking at a new Xenoblade Chronicles X trailer, Monolith Soft have taken JRPG into a whole new level.  A new world of exploration, exotic destinations, and (of course) using a mobile suit doll in action.  Hope to see more of the gameplay on screen and using the interactive map on the Game Pad.

It feels like this is (And OG Xenoblade was) what we would have gotten if snes/genesis rpg's had evolved to the next level, instead of Squeenix going down the amusement park ride style design path, (Compare the design and playability of exploring a town, or dungeon, from Xenogears, to the pre rendered and thus on rails towns or dungeons of ff7, two games that came out at the same time, at a pivotal point in game design history, guess which path squeenix took...) and western studios turning to ubirainbow sand box design and brainwashing marketing.

Its like weve finally started moving forward again after devolving in every category except graphics and cinematography for 20 years.

Putting those proprietary Maestro fog/smoke extensinos to good use. Looks SOOOO much better than n64 fog.

Sounds cool, but I'm probably gonna buy Monster Hunter 4 and wait on Evolve, I'm done buying games blindly. Unless the beta persuades me otherwise

You know, When I just got a free demo for Mh4, and that Demo has more content than a game with 134 bucks worth of pre planned DLC, you know you are looking at some AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA unicorn tongue.

Oh man. The power glove. I remember using a hacked powerglove with rend386 and shutter glasses.

THe power glove games all sucked horribly. But, it wasnt the power gloves fault, it was actually a pretty amazing peice of equipment, the nes just couldnt utilize it. Didnt have anywhere near the power. THe power glove needed a 3d virtual environment. The thing was pretty dang accurate. Still have the book that detailed how the power glove worked, down to the equations it used, The Virtual Reality Construction Kit. Then came Vr386, by far the fast rendering engine in all of existance, and it was specifically built for VR!!! Were talking over a whoping 20,000 Polygons per second!!!

Thing was very, very accurate, even by todays standards. It kind of kicks the crap out of move, wiimotes, and kinect in some areas. It was literally like having a virtual hand in 3d space, down to individual fingers being tracked (provided you didnt damage the conductive ink when hacking your glove...). Accurate to a physical resolution of about 1/4th an inch at a distance of 5 ft, 30 times a second iirc.

Dude... I dont know. What kind of games are you looking for?

I was super hyped at the software end of the direct. Still am.<br /><br />But yeah, NoA appears to do everything in its power to put a damper on it with its hardware shenanigans.<br /><br />I dont think I have a shot in Niffelhiem of getting one of those custom 3ds's, I really wanted that mohun one, and I am not going through a scalper.<br /><br />I REALLY dont like XL's, the 3ds screen is a low enough resolution already without blowing each pixel up to be 4x bigger. I was super excited about some awesome looking face plates, that clearly we wont be getting since its for normal new 3ds... Not to mention its just not pocket portable at that size, and I dont like the more rounded edge design, feels like there is less of a flat surface to get my support/holding fingers some grip....<br /><br />The power adaptor thing is bad, but it doesnt affect me as I alrady have 2 adaptors I can use with 3ds's. Nintendo should really go for a usb charging solution.<br /><br />Yeah, can definately sat noa has me a little miffed as well.<br />

Charge Blade is taking some time to get used to, but I'm loving it.  Will add it to my weapon guides within 24 hours.
 
Anyone else feel like Gore roars almost as much as Gigginox.  I swear he just runs the clock doing that half the time.
 
 
I included a list of weapon changes in the OP if you are interested.  Unless you want to figure it all out yourself.  In which case, carry on.
 
Yeah, being able to upswing out of a roll is so awesome.  SA was already the king of tailcutting, but now it's the God.  Even if you upswing people, now they can do aerial attacks out of it!  My favorite long combo is: Roll, upswing, fury swipes, fury finisher, morph to sword, side swing, double swing, Element Discharge.  Hard part is finding an opening long enough to do it.

Wait, are you telling me We can attack out of being sent flying by inconsiderate noobs now? Glory be!

Yeah, I quickly realized the potential of that combo, the moment I saw doing the discharge finisher from the two sword slash removed the wind up lag, and I figured out you could go from frenzy finish into sword mode slash.

Only ran it straight once or twice, but thats the glory of the axe, its so damn versatile. At any point in your combo, you can literally switch it up, or cut it short, dodge, and get right back to it like nothing happened.

Get some evade buffs going, and you can literally spend damn near entire hunts dancing under the feet of the beasties, shredding their bellies, dodging their attacks, and resuming combos without skipping a beat.

I was a little dissapointed... AND relieved to see the charge blade was nowhere near as versatile as the switch axe in that regaurd.

Because man, if that thing could link between moves and modes as fluidly as the switch axe... I would drop the SA, and just stick with the Charge blade. Still, its satisfying as all hell.

I found it has a few mode chains, and basic infinite combos, but for the most part its an attacks in order based weapon. Feels like an in between Long sword and Switch Axe in versatility. But WAAAYYYY more fun than the Long Sword.

Knocked the stuffing out of Gore Margala I did. Beastie was all frenzy virus raging, Horns sprouted purple mist flowin, charge spamming. Climbed up a short cliff, turned around and released a charged overhead hay maker, just in time to catch his big ugly mug charging up over the wall. Smashed his face in smashed his horns off, smashed his rage out, smashed the frenzy out, sent him reeling head over tail back on down. Was going to follow him and mount to add insult to injury of course, but I guess his head then exploded from the slime element, so he was dead before I hit him.

Fricking glorious.

Oh man. Mah Axe! It just keeps getting better! The POOWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

What ive noticed so far:

A new double slash move has been added to sword mode, really ramping up the delivery speed of sword strikes, and adding more tempo/rythm options for increased liklihood of proactively making sure you can use your dodge.

They've added a rolling axe rising swing to complement the rolling sword upswing, which means you can go straight into fury swipes... But now, not only can you actually reliably stop, or finish with an overhead like they added in 3u... But pushing the sword button does the gnarliest Whirland swing finish!

On the other hand, they also now added a bunch of guaranteed new ways for the noble S. Axe to undoubtedly send mates flying....

Best trailer since the reveal, imo.

I know its the trailer most Xenoblade fans have been waiting for.

It was this exact trailer style that set us on fire for the original:



Complete with the cliff jump. Thats when most of us realized Xenoblade through away the design rulebook that had shackled game design for so long.

It wasnt a cutscene, it wasnt a sequence, it wasnt a scripted event, it wasnt just a partof the level that was done the same way every time.

You could simply go wherever you wanted, when you wanted, no invisible barriers, no fake backgrounds that you couldnt actually go to or interact with, and if you wanted to, you could jump off a damn cliff, into the ocean, and swim to a tiny island, no cuts, no fakesies, no switches, no loadiing, none of the strings that were so common with open world games faking there scale attached.

xbone and ps4 games still dont do this. All the power in the world, and they are still bound by ps2 era design tropes and shortcuts.

My huntings become so intensefied they wired me to an Ivory Lagiacrus by my nipples, And I Shorted him out.



And thats why there are no Lagi's in 4.

But seriously, 70 freaking monsters? Wowzers. Its now, more than ever, I appreciate the increasing rarity that is a complete product, made with pride.

I should also add me and my friend have a theory and have had since E3. This game could possibly be both a sequel and prequel.
 
If you have played Xenoblade check the tag for maybe a mind bending twist on XCX.
If not do not click the tag.

Spoiler

Ok so a lot of the landscape is similar to Xenoblade. there are places you can match up eith Eryth Sea and Bionis Leg and such.

Shulk at least someone who looks like shulk teased in the initial trailer in 2013. Now that could be a troll in a create a character and make your own Shulk and really feel it. Could be someone related to him. That is not what parked our theory tho. The nippon did. Now it could be XB series moogle. That said if you thknk of the ending to Xenoblade he returned the universe to one with no gods. You saw in the ending both titans had crashed and became large land masses. How do we know he didn't create a normal universe again with planets? Maybe earth was returned to normal and they are now elsewhere. This planet very similar to earth. A bit out there bu who knows. So in XCX is many years perhaps centurties after XB. Humans arrive in Neo LA. Years later Kluas is born when humans colonized this planet. Well he does his experiment and Xenoblade world is born. Meaning the birth and death cycle never really ended,never really could. Just on a bigger scale than imagined before. Hell Alvis would be using Klaus and Shulk as pawns in a endless cycle and paradox.

Shulk wished for a world with no gods but that doe snot mean the cycle will end. Man creates god so the cycle can go on as Alvis needed Shulk to create a new cycle.

Oooh, I have some non link to og xenoblade speculation on that giant ring. It would be cool if it was actually a massive jump gate for space ship sized transports or something.

Ooh, man it would be awesome if we got something like the yggdrasil from gears in xenoblade X. A huge flying mobile base you can dock up all your mechs at for refueling, and then Set out on missions from. After all, without something like that, you eventually could only get so far away from your base before running out of doll fuel! But with a mobile base of operations, you could land anywhere big enough, and set out to explore from there!!!

Well since you already have it on dolphin version, wait for a wiiU digital version. There is no risk of anything getting lost from the res drop, or draw distance. The 3DS version mostly just exposes the game to a larger audience. I wouldn't consider it unless they make extensive additions. Im also someone who doesn't care about 3D =/. Between the physical and eventual digital, There is little point to the physical unless you want it as part of a collection. The eventual digital version gives the money to nintendo and monolithsoft. The time delay for a digital version shouldn't mean much. So it comes down to collection or giving the makers of the game deserved money.

 
Oh I am very much getting physical for collecting.
 
The wii u version, if it ever comes out... Lets face it folks, this is nintendo we are talking about. Its like your uncle (You know which one) on a drunken bender. Hes equal parts completely awesome, and confusing, and sometimes dissapointing.... So the wii u Eshop version may never happen. And even if it did, It doesnt re-render in a higher resolution, so it would be just like playing my OG wii copy of xenoblade on my wii u visually, whilst in dolphin I have it rendered natively in HD, with AA, and the improved texture/hud package. Not much of a reason for me to get the wii u version, especially if there isnt a physical product.
 
Also, I do want to play it in 3d, and have a portable epic I can take with me... All the places... I guess I dont really have to go to myself anymore.... huh. I am just very well aware of the trade offs, which I am more than happy to deal with. 

I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't make a new cover for it :/

 
Im hoping the 3ds box is also reversable.

So Nintendo uploaded the trailer in 60 fps.. does that mean anything?

 

 

 

 

And 1080p.

 

I dont think it means anything. The logo animation splash appears to be 60fps, but the gameplay footage itself looks like a very consistant 30 to me. Im also prety certain the game will be in 720p.

 

Otherwise, I think it means Nintendo and Monolith soft sacrificed puppies. SOOOOOOO many puppies. Mountains of adorable puppies.

Yeah... I don't get why Xenoblade loves eb games so much... first the rarity of xenoblade, then the Shulk amiibo being one of the rarest ever...

 

I was expecting them to make the graphics of the game a bit better... damn on the new 3DS XL it's gonna look even worse than on a smaller 3DS...

 

If only we could get the smaller 3DS but nooo! Nintendo doesn't want us to have it because....... reasons...

 

Yeah, the loss of ppi and the even chunkier display because of the jumbo sized pixels are why I never wanted to touch a XL.

 

I am pretty bummed about not getting a normal sized 3ds in NA. But I guess ill get over it... 

Id say get it however you want it most. Its going to be hard to get on wii, and it could be pricey, anywhere from full retail price into the hundreds, depending on availability (Gamestop) in your area, or if you are forced to get it online through ebay.

 

The 3ds version will have some extra features (Like a model veiwer), will be portable, 3d of course, and it will be easier to find, however, at 240p, the loss of resolution will cut out a lot of visual details, despite the games being asset identical, for every 2 pixels on the wii game, you only get 1  displayed for the 3ds game.

 

Visual Example of what a lower resolution screen does to identical objects:

Of course, actual pixels cant be subdivided like that (Thos would be the biggest breakthrough in screen technology EVER) and of course, with my rotten luck they dont show what it should really look like, so Ill have to use another example to give you a visual idea of how this works visually.

 

 

Its not technically directly related, so ignore the words. Basically, whatever (pixelated) image you look at, pretend the one you are looking at is a circle on wii at 480p, and the one directly above it, is what you would get with the same circle on 3ds because of the smaller resolution screen.

 

 

 

 

This means the further into the distance you look, the more visual information is lost because of the lower resolution screen, for some  this may be an issue, however, being the original game was only 480p during a time when every other game was 720-1080, the games visuals rely on the strength of its scene composition and art direction, and not clean image quality and tons of tiny details. 

 

It might be because I have already done playthroughs in HD on dolphin (It does look very nice with clean hd IQ), but I am far more excited to see how the game pops in 3d, especially since I long ago was blown away by the 3d screens of xenoblade someone made for the 3ds browser. Ive been wishing for an impossible xenoblade in 3d ever since, and now its practically upon us XD

This is how it worked in an earlier skylanders game. Hopefully its the same in this one

I'm like 90% sure Wii mode and these games are upscaled

 

Yes, but i dont think upscaling is what he means. Pretty sure he means rendering the game natively at 1080p, as opposed to at 480p, and then upscaling the 480p image to 1080p.

Graphics need a lot of polishing but it looks sweet for what they showed us. 

 

The graphics are exceptionally polished. The worst thing I saw was some Zfighting on the flora in a couple spots.

 

This level of graphical fidelity is the overhead cost of having scale this massive on the wii u.

 

Its the same on any other system. The bigger your world, the lower the fidelity. This is why ffXV doesnt have the same level of graphical fidelity as PT.