Okay so how are these for sexy 3D?



http://i.imgur.com/Cbj89pW.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



http://i.imgur.com/N3sgxYi.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



http://i.imgur.com/CxPaD2r.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



http://i.imgur.com/MFY9Vxr.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



http://i.imgur.com/GIW6sSi.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



Those are a just a handful of the characters I have in Aion. They have a pretty impressive shader for the skin tones in my opinion. Best one I've seen anyway.

Aion is good, but I actually like the way Tera online looks.

Aside from doll faces and plastic hair, they're not the worst 3D models out there.

Those have still the problem of plastic hair and all-identical-perfect-faces which is totally unrealistic. But here are some very good examples IMHO, is 3d but is a sort of "painted 3d" so it's more art than a simple 3d anatomic models:

BULLETSTORM has some of the nicest ones I've seen (also nicest art in general I've seen in a game)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mr9UV3xGM_U/TbKLi-5ohfI/AAAAAAAAB6E/_qKR9k2p_vE/s1600/Bulletstorm-Grayson-Ishi-Trishka.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

http://heyitsthatdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/bulletstorm-grayson.jpg" style="max-width:100%">



THE WITCHER 2 is also good:

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/106/6/5/witcher_2___triss_by_complistic29-d4wewc6.png" style="max-width:100%">

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2443/philippa.png" style="max-width:100%">



Resident Evil 5:

http://www.wallpaperwell.com/thumbnails/detail/20121129/resident%20evil%205%201920x1200%20wallpaper_www.wallpaperhi.com_32.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

http://biasedvideogamerblog.wdfiles.com/local--files/blog:resident-evil-5-racist-alternative-story/Resident-Evil-5-Sheva-and-Kirk.png" style="max-width:100%">

Age of Conan had very good looking 3D models for a MMORPG, sadly my old screenshots of that were in low resolutions and not so good looking.

I rather have this one any time:

http://i61.tinypic.com/2qiv7l0.png" style="max-width:100%">



Best vampire all time. Well, actually Rayne is a half vampire. So no, i don't agree about the vampire comparison.

Also, Skyrim ain't the best comparison material. As for vampires in The Elder Scrolls i like those of Morrowind more. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines also has better ones.

Kain from the Legacy of Kain series is the top Vampire in my books, however Rayne is a close second.

i kinda think the same - Loren is so much more sexy...

I generally find 2D ages better than 3D. However 3D has improved a lot over the years, and some games that have low-polygon models can made up for it with style and good animation.

A lot depends on what you do and what you try... Loren with 3D-graphics would be plain silly. However, in other games 3D is the way to go.



3D can be really great, but it needs to be in some way realistic. You won't get away with a lot. The "comics" style (eastern or western), or a lot other attempts do just not work. Also, the eye expects some realistic movement from 3D which it does not from 2D.



However, it does not need a lot of poly counts. What it needs are good artists: There has never been a game like Morrowind where I felt cold and wet in a thunderstorm, or where the blown sand felt threatening. And this holds up, when I replayed Morrowind last year I felt like this again. I do not know why noone did reproduce this despite more than a decade of better HW and SW, but there you go.



With 2D you have a lot more leeway: The viewer expects a lot more symbolized depiction, and is prepared to fill the picture with imagination. So a good artist may add her/his style to the pics, or wild elements which make sense despite they do not - because the viewer adds his imagination. Which gives the resulting game flavor.

Well, the cell shaded style that the both Borderlands games use ain't bad. Borderlands looks nice in my opinion. It doesn't hurt or so. But what really counts in the first place is the gameplay. And Borderlands does have quite a good gameplay.

Yeah, i agree with Morrowind. When i began with the elder scrolls my first game was Oblivion. Later i got into Morrowind and liked it more. Bethesda probably never gonna produce such a game again. Skyrim is also a letdown. Morrowind has that unique feel. Whenever i walk into the West Gash or the blight storms in Molag Amur or even through the cantons of Vivec and not to mention the ice storms at Solstheim it does have a certain feeling. You're really soaked into it. Combined then with the pleasant sounds done by Jeremy Soule (like the road most travelled or nerevar rising) it makes the game immersive. I always return to Vvardenfell after a while. Currently playing it again, now busy with the telvanni stronghold tel uvirith.

From a purely visual side, by now there seems to be possible quite a lot. See this article in RPS: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/08/black-desert-character-creator/#more-200055 (which does not necessarily say much...)



How much this translates into actual benefit for the game... well, we could try. But as in my Morrowind example, it is not the raw graphics power which evokes feelings and makes the game memorable; rather it is what you do with your technology. It takes real artists to get from here to there...



PS: Considering all the possibilities, still I believe most characters created will be near-clones of a few patterns (after popular movies or so).