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| Thread: Is artwork getting worse? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · NEXT» |
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evinin
Supreme Hero
Servant of Asha
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posted December 03, 2010 02:26 PM |
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Edited by evinin at 14:28, 03 Dec 2010.
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Poll Question:
The best artwork
Yesterday I played the first part of Heroes and I did it mostly because I wanted to play with the plush creatures such as unicorn, phoenix, griffin, hydra and dragon. When I was playing, I thought that even if the graphic is old, the creatures have really nice art. Then I compared some of them with the same creatures in the later games and some were really better looking in the first game. I would love to have some of the old designs back and not only from the first game but from the all early ones.
So the poll is obvioulsy about which game do you think has the best artwork. It's only about art and design, not about graphics. And the question is - is artwork getting worse?
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OmegaDestroyer
Hero of Order
Fox or Chicken?
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posted December 03, 2010 02:38 PM |
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I've always preferred a more cartoony look to the series and I believe H2 was the best for it. Heroes 5 was OK but it tried too hard to look like Warcraft (Diet Warhammer). I am pretty indiferent to 4's graphics. 3's look wasn't bad but it seemed to be overall less colorful compared to its predecessors.
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The giant has awakened
You drink my blood and drown
Wrath and raving I will not stop
You'll never take me down
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Jabanoss
Promising
Legendary Hero
Property of Nightterror™
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posted December 03, 2010 02:52 PM |
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Edited by Jabanoss at 14:53, 03 Dec 2010.
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Heroes III
simply because it has a really beautiful artwork-style that reminds of old fairy-tales with dragons, knights and monsters. If we talk about just artwork I suppose that both H5 and H6 are very good, but they have failed to preserve that fairy-tale style which I found so perfect for the Heroes-series. The artwork in H1&H2 is very similar to H3, but the ones in H3 is more of a improvement.
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"You turn me on Jaba"
- Meroe
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted December 03, 2010 03:00 PM |
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H3 by far. It wasn't as cartoony but yet it wasn't dark and scary. I loved the look of the Griffins, Archdevils and Thunderbirds etc.
H4 was the worst. I hate the graphics in that game.
H6 looks amazing and to me, it has a large chance of beating H3.
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Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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SwampLord
Supreme Hero
Lord of the Swamp
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posted December 03, 2010 03:13 PM |
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I thought the graphics of HIII were amazing; it was a pretty realistic art style that still managed to capture the sense of a fantasy universe perfectly.
HV's art style was far too Warcrafty for my tastes, certain creatures such as the Gargoyle, Peasant and Genie just looked absurd. I'm glad HVI is moving back towards a somewhat more "realistic" look; I am actually LOVING the art for HVI so far.
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They can take my swamp, they can take my town, but they will never take my FREEDOM!
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Orfinn
Supreme Hero
Werewolf Duke
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posted December 03, 2010 03:21 PM |
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Edited by Orfinn at 15:25, 03 Dec 2010.
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Artwork getting worse? Yes and no.
H1 had way to cartoonish look, H2 were MUCH better, H3 had a very dry grapich while bein kinda artistic and real.life looking regarding Hero pictures etc.
H4 were okay but felt to plastic and rubber like sometimes wihile otherwise having a kinda unique colorful look.
H5 had way to big contrast regarding colors, also to bright and were way to close other graphic looks in other games.
H6? Hmm, I really cant judge yet. But so far it seems to be one of the best, if not THE best looking HOMM game. Its darker, more mature but still got a hint of a cartoonish H2, relaistic like art as H3 and a touch of H5 on some areas IMO.
BTW, voted H2.
Why? It got an old graphic engine sure, but heck it got great artwork, vibrant colors without going over the top and charmful sounds and animations. Also the best musical score of any HOMM game, H4 and H5 going on a shared 2nd place and H3 and H1 on a shared 3rd place.
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LordGodric
Known Hero
The Griffin Rider
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posted December 03, 2010 04:07 PM |
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Quote:
Heroes III
simply because it has a really beautiful artwork-style that reminds of old fairy-tales with dragons, knights and monsters. /quote]
agreed.
I really liked the look of the heroes... in h4 they are totally weird - except by solymr, all the male campaign heores were very strange.
All the creatures had kinda of a realistic feeling, like all they really fitting to compose the uniqueness of the enroth universe.
like everything hat it place. the most beatifull town in the whole series was the rampart.
ih H5 it got too dark in some ways to my taste, and had some too ridiculous things (like gorgolye, peasant or imp, for example).
I think were getting the same thing in H6 some things are good - the design of inferno creature is excelent (and i'm not a inferno fan), but heaven (by far my favorite faction) got some very strange things... like the upgraded griffin armor, the double weilding sword angel or the shiny ethereal horse of the sun knights/templar/paladins/whatever!
and now every creature looks very powerful and epic.
I liked when, in H3, you looked at the pikeman and i knew he was just a poor man that barely knew how to use that polearm, and now the preatorian/sentinel looks so amazing! i guess i would bet he could beat the H3 chavalier!
H3 skelleton looked very weak. and the new skelleton is so snowing migthy that he can fight using two spears at the same time!
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Agent_00_BLeRD
Adventuring Hero
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posted December 03, 2010 04:24 PM |
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They never did a better phoenix than the one in Heroes 2...Its death animation was beyond superb...
I picked Heroes 3 but it was a close tie with Heroes 5. There are good and bad artworks in each of them. I really like the Castle lineup in H3 with good solid looking troops and some of the dungeon (Grim Raider, Minotaur) and preserve (Treants!!!, Druids) creatures from H5 look amazing.
Heroes 4 deserves a spot of its own. HORRIBLE ART. With a few rare exceptions, creatures looked like someone rushing to meet a deadline and throwing whatever their little 3 year old kid cooked up in art class. Seriously, devils with FORKS?!?! Malnourished cerberi? Crusaders who swing like a drunk swatting a fly? YUCK!!!
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vitorsly
Known Hero
Joker!
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posted December 03, 2010 04:28 PM |
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Edited by vitorsly at 16:29, 03 Dec 2010.
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I voted heroes 3 because it looks good and had a great color pallete for a realistic but fairy tale look tootlay balanced.
BTW: The skeleton has been working from a bone sword user to a massive double spear shhoter because he had 12 years to train since heroes 2!
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SwampLord
Supreme Hero
Lord of the Swamp
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posted December 03, 2010 05:34 PM |
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Quote:
They never did a better phoenix than the one in Heroes 2...Its death animation was beyond superb...
I picked Heroes 3 but it was a close tie with Heroes 5. There are good and bad artworks in each of them. I really like the Castle lineup in H3 with good solid looking troops and some of the dungeon (Grim Raider, Minotaur) and preserve (Treants!!!, Druids) creatures from H5 look amazing.
Heroes 4 deserves a spot of its own. HORRIBLE ART. With a few rare exceptions, creatures looked like someone rushing to meet a deadline and throwing whatever their little 3 year old kid cooked up in art class. Seriously, devils with FORKS?!?! Malnourished cerberi? Crusaders who swing like a drunk swatting a fly? YUCK!!!
I couldn't agree more; the Heroes II Phoenix was absolutely beautiful. One of the best creatures the series has ever produced, hands down. 
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They can take my swamp, they can take my town, but they will never take my FREEDOM!
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Ebonite
Adventuring Hero
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posted December 03, 2010 05:49 PM |
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I judge artwork bad if i get sick of looking at the creatures day after day. For both 3 and 5 (the only ones i played) i never got sick of them, therefore both are good.
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whiterider
Known Hero
death walks with me
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posted December 03, 2010 07:04 PM |
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Without H4 you wouldn't understand that you dont want heroes on the battlefield. Look at the WOG mod, heroes on field was on the players wishes and then you regret it. It was a needed experience. By the way I love H4 with its skill system and the creatures choise, sadly we will not see that in H6. It will be cool if you can choose 3 of 5 core or elite units for your castle but...
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evinin
Supreme Hero
Servant of Asha
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posted December 03, 2010 07:23 PM |
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Quote:
Without H4 you wouldn't understand that you dont want heroes on the battlefield. Look at the WOG mod, heroes on field was on the players wishes and then you regret it. It was a needed experience. By the way I love H4 with its skill system and the creatures choise, sadly we will not see that in H6. It will be cool if you can choose 3 of 5 core or elite units for your castle but...
We are nor discussing the game mechanics, only the art. 
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted December 03, 2010 07:50 PM |
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Anybody has that absurd picture of the Leprechaun art from Heroes 4, that always scared the hell out of me? (Weird anecdote of the days, if you Google "Heroes Might Magic Leprechaun Art" and looks in the image results, one of the pictures that turns up pretty close to the top is of ... Michael Jackson?  )
Anyway, I think Heroes 1 graphics style was fun in a cute way. Heroes 3 and 5 imo. (in spite of what people say) moved away from the cartoonish looks and thus does not exactly compare. It's hard to say which is better, Heroes 3 or 5, I think in some way Heroes 5 has a more distinctive style because it does not specifically aim towards realism in the same way that Heroes 3 does - it may make it extreme on some parts, but also less boring than Heroes 3. There are weeknesses and strengths to both of them.
As for Heroes 4 ... yugh. It was some sort of failed attempt to introduce 3D realism which resulted in all the creatures looking like cheap plastic figures.
Btw. are we only talking creature art style, or also town and other art style?
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What will happen now?
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evinin
Supreme Hero
Servant of Asha
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posted December 03, 2010 08:17 PM |
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The original idea was to talk only about creatures but it can also be about the general art.
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted December 03, 2010 09:25 PM |
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Edited by Zenofex at 21:28, 03 Dec 2010.
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1. HoMM III. The most mature and good-looking artowork so far. Let the images speek for themselves:
This one is especially cute  :
And my all time favourite:
2. HoMM I - cartoony in a nice, unpretentious way, everything just looks refreshing.
3. HoMM II - same as HoMM I, but (oddly) a little less detailed.
4. HoMM V and HoMM IV - I can not decide which is better (or actually which is worse). The HoMM V art style is so childish and anime-like that some models make want to turn off the monitor. Every time I see the unicorn of the Sylvan hero, I want the elves to exist in the real world. In 1945 Nagasaki. On the other hand, quite a lot of the HoMM IV creatures lacked character so much that they looked like toy soldiers most of the time.
MMH VI so far closely follows the trend of HoMM V, even though there is some improvement. Generally it's WAY behind HoMM I-III.
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Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
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posted December 03, 2010 09:33 PM |
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Heroes 2 of course.
I mean, come on, people it's Not even close.
I also liked H5's cartoonesque style, it translated well in 3D imo, and from what it's seen of H6's artwork - it's looks stunning. Simply stunning.
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Coincidence? I think not!!!!
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted December 03, 2010 09:48 PM |
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Problem is artwork does not necessarily translate well into in-game looks, just look at the Beholder above. Let's see how Heroes 6 creatures turn out in actual game.
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What will happen now?
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Valen-Teen
Famous Hero
UFOlolOgist
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posted December 03, 2010 10:44 PM |
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Oh... Again?
I prefer artwork of Heroes IV and Heroes V. Voted for second)))
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted December 03, 2010 10:47 PM |
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While I really enjoyed H2 style I prefer H3 more classic approach H4 wasn't very appealing and H5 was a bit hit or miss. H6 is looking pretty good so far, some designs may prove to be favourites of all the series.
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