Ever played HW2, think again

Well, have you looked at HW2's lately? I was playing it last night and while it's ships are technologically inferior to sins, with lower-res textures and no bump-maps, they're artistically superior in overall design. Their real-time self-shadows are subtle but nice as well, something I wasn't able to run on my 9800pro at the game's release. Overall, even today - I'd say HW2 is the better looking game.

No one needs to point out how subjective that opinion is, - but there you go, I think Sins' technology is more competent than HW2, it's an ambitious game and is running smoothly while rendering and tracking more than HW2 ever did.

But it doesn't have much visual flair, especially by comparison - even the 2-D art is awkward looking. The ship design ranges from adequate to uninspired, with a few standout designs bucking the trend and upstaging the others. In general ships look more shiny and toy-like than HW2's. Battles still look epic but the style isn't as appealing to me as Relic's odd combo of bright splashes of color across grungy panel.

The sky-boxes are really pretty though.

Just out of curiosity, are you running detail levels on Highest and not High? Cuz there's a pretty big difference between the two.

Personally, I find the ship designs to be great, from both and asthetic and technical standpoint. Not to mention I can have hundreds of ships on screen blasting each other without my system even having a hiccup.

I'm not sure actually. I'll have to check when I get home.


Having different models with varying poly counts would be a fine solution. Only one set of models would actually be loaded, determined by the detail settings you choose. Shadows and some dynamic lighting effects would make the battles even more amazing to watch

I'd have to agree,
I bought this game based on the G4 review and feel that it may have really been a 3 out of 5 stars (not 4 out of 5 they gave it). Ship design is just one of the items that is way to basic for an epic space game. I feel the game has lots of room for improvement maybe rushed to the store too soon?

I feel that the mods to this game will be really interesting.

I too was very disappointed with the ship designs. Most of the TEC capital ships and the heavy cruiser are very clunky and cartoonish. The Kol Battleship is actually okay, but when I see the others, I always think "ugh, I've got to look at that for the next 2 mins. of battle?" HW2 is a great example of excellent ship design; they actually enjoyable to look at, and they look like warships instead of garbage scows. And, yes, pleasing ship design is very important to a game like sins; this is not a minor point.

Great art design does not require high polycount and hi-res textures.

I have this feeling that Ironclad didn't hire a concept artist (is there a dev that can confirm/deny this?), and they subcontracted it out. It's understandable as they are just a small, indie company still and would have to keep the payroll expenses down.

People keep praising Relic's art design- well, kids, that's what you get from big game companies. Relic/EA/Blizzard/Valve. They all have VERY talented Art Directors and Designers.

I was a little dissapointed with the ships designs only becacuse the expectations were high, but, I found that the ship design is pretty good by itself. Comparing it with mayor companies, of course, maybe... just maybe they will be a little inferior. "Maybe" because there were so many games that failed miserably in ship designs. Anyone tried out O.R.B.? now that's what I call a bad design.

For some reason, I love when space ships take their base from navy ships. That's what i liked so mucho from HW2, anyone who paid some attention to the Hiigaran fleet could tell that their designs were based on real navy ships, wich makes perfect sense. From that POV, let me tell you, that IMHO, Sova Carrier is the best looking ship in the game.

Well said. Actually, I think if anybody has problems with the ship designs - particularly those of the Vasari and the TEC - then they also mustn`t like the starships from Babylon 5, the Descent: Freespace series, or the Marine cruiser Sulaco from ALIENS. The design aesthetics are the same.

To each his own.

Yeah but I don't find any of the ships definitively ugly even....they're all...plastic looking. An example of inspired ugliness would be maybe the Earth ships from Nexus, with their centrifugal mid-sections and Apollo-esque nacelle nozzles.

Better art direction and slightly better technical graphics would make this game perfect for me. Right now it lacks some style & atmosphere, making the setting less believable.

Yeah Relic simply had/has extremely extremely extremely talented concept artists.

Not all good modelers/texturers are good with concepts.

Ironclad is a small company.

Yeah HW2's are way better artistically, so are some more games, but sins is more fun and more addicting to me.(Though HW2 had better combat mechanics)