ELEX - New Screenshots

HiddenX

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Farflame spotted some new ELEX screenshots at WoE:

Together with the new prologue trailer some new screenshots of ELEX have been released as well. While some show comepletely new scenes, others seem to belong to known screenshots. On the screenshots you can see landscapes and combat against monsters and mechs, among other things.
More information.
 
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Is it just me, or do these screen shots look considerably better than what we've seen previously? I was getting a bit worried, but this looks to be shaping up nicely. It'll still be rough around the edges, as every PB title, but it could still be very good.
 
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Is it just me, or do these screen shots look considerably better than what we've seen previously? I was getting a bit worried, but this looks to be shaping up nicely. It'll still be rough around the edges, as every PB title, but it could still be very good.

They do look a little better, but it is mainly smoke and mirrors, many of the in game screens hide a fair bit of the backgrounds, but if you look, you can see they are below average.
 
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On my phone everything looks below average.
 
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The screenshot looks like they were taken with ENB or Reshade set up.

They probably just added features to the lightning/rendering engine.
 
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Wow thats pretty amazing actually. Really cool that pbs are adding more graphical details. The game actually looks darn intresting now. Less cartoony which is quite nice. Those pics have more realistic vibe. The extra development time really shows here. Massive increase in graphical quality.
 
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I can't help but be turned off by all the mech in this game. If it was all Stalker/post-apocalyptic, then then I would be a lot more excited. It is starting to look visually really nice, however.
 
I'm only concerned about humor. PB always hits me in all the correct spots except that one. Their games cry for more humor, but they never add enough of it.
 
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I'm concerned about the drawing distance for items and creatures on consoles, because most probably I will be playing this on a PS4, and PC users will just tinker with some options file...
 
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You saying PC version won't have max drawing distance by default?
 
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You saying PC version won't have max drawing distance by default?

My memory is a bit hazy, but I'm pretty sure that in all previous PB games since Gothic 3 I discovered that you could improve on drawing distances even in comparison to the 'max' levels you could choose in the game menu by editing the option files. I'm 100% sure this was the case with G3, less sure about the Risens.
 
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By the way there is now an Elex hands-on three hour preview by famous (unfortunately :biggrin: ) German YouTuber Gronkh who played the game for three hours with Björn Pankratz. He also got exclusive dibs on Risen 3 back in the day. Here is part 1 which is 40 minutes long:

 
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The graphics were always the least concern to me (minus the crappy animations). I'm sure that the world will be beautiful and fun to explore just for the sights.
Risen 2 and 3 also had very nice visuals, great looking islands and fun exploration. That is the least anyone should worry about.

I'm much more concerned about story, writing, lore, quests, consistency, plausibility, coherence, the combat system, balancing, technical issues etc. because those are the areas where -IMHO- they have really taken a huge dive after the first Risen (which was already weaker in the second half of the game in the story/writing/quest department than the Gothics).

I don't know, I think the combat system in Risen 3 was better and more varied than anything they've done before. The factions had a lot of meaningful differences in terms of powers and playstyles.

The balance could use some work, though, because it was too easy too soon - even on the hardest difficulty level. Same has been true for other PB games, though Gothic 2 and Risen were better in that way.

I like PB writing - but I don't remember ever having been impressed with any of the stories. It's mostly been "decent" and nothing more, so I'm not sure what PB games you're talking about that were much better than R2-3 - but I guess that comes down to personal preference.

Also, quests were fine in both R2 and R3? I don't remember them being bad, anyway.

Also, in technical terms, Risen 3 is above and beyond their other games so far. It was very smooth and very polished compared to all other PB games.

So, I can't really agree with you here.

The only concern I have is that ELEX will be too large for them to handle, and that they've grown a bit too complacent with their design style. I love PB games - and I don't think they're getting worse, really. It's more a matter of the games being too similar in terms of core paradigm.

ELEX has the potential to break that curse, though, but I don't really think so. More likely, it will be pretty much like all their other games - and our appreciation will come down to how much we love their core designs.
 
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By the way there is now an Elex hands-on three hour preview by famous (unfortunately :biggrin: ) German YouTuber Gronkh who played the game for three hours with Björn Pankratz. He also got exclusive dibs on Risen 3 back in the day. Here is part 1 which is 40 minutes long:

I'm not quite sure what to think after watching that. I love the variety in the environment, but it still looks like a Beta in some aspects. I saw foliage clipping through solid objects several times, and the combat doesn't look very fluid at all.

I think the worst thing to me though is the UI. My god that's ugly. :)
 
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I like PB writing - but I don't remember ever having been impressed with any of the stories. It's mostly been "decent" and nothing more, so I'm not sure what PB games you're talking about that were much better than R2-3 - but I guess that comes down to personal preference.

To me, Gothic 1 is -by far- unmatched. I like it when in addition to exploring the world, you also have to explore and uncover the story like an onion layer by layer.
Gothic 1 did a really good job at at that IMHO. It was not clear at all from the start that there would be a way out of the prison or that this would be a goal in the game.
You had your hands full with much more mundane goals in the early game and only as you explored and progressed further, did it become apparent that there might in fact be a way to bring down the barrier.

Gothic 2 was initially a pretty huge disappointment to me because Xardas tells you literally 30 seconds into the game that you need to find the Eye of Innos and kill all the dragons.
I found that pretty underwhelming to find out about the end goals right from the start but as you said it might be a matter of taste.
Some people may prefer when they have clear goals to work towards from the beginning. Me, I'm more of an explorer and I prefer to slowly learn about the world, its inhabitants and uncover the intermediate and ultimate goals piece by piece.

Also, quests were fine in both R2 and R3? I don't remember them being bad, anyway.

I thought they were very mediocre on a whole. Honestly, I can not remember a single really memorable quest from both games.
The simple quests in R2 and R3 were a far cry from the quests e.g. in G2 Gold where you had Khorinis as this small bustling microcosm and where many quests had multiple solutions, actual choices & consequences or were intertwined even across chapters (it made sense to revisit many NPCs throughout the course of the game).

The quests in R2 and R3 were usually one shot affairs due to the island design. You basically finished an island, chalked it off and went on to finish the next one. The quests mostly had one solution, practically no consequences at all and there was effectively no relations between the NPCs, let alone between islands.

Of course, the simpler quests are easier for PB to manage, write, develop, keep polished and bug-free etc., but as a player, I would have liked to see them expand on their strengths (G2 Gold and the tight network of quests across Khorinis) instead of making bigger games with less complexity.

I'm not quite sure what to think after watching that. I love the variety in the environment, but it still looks like a Beta in some aspects. I saw foliage clipping through solid objects several times, and the combat doesn't look very fluid at all.

I think the worst thing to me though is the UI. My god that's ugly. :)

Yes, definitely. Well, there is still time until September and I'm sure they are doing this LP this early to collect as much feedback as possible to make some last minute adjustments where needed (and feasible).

However, just as with Bethesda and Creation, I believe the time has more than come to put this old horse of an engine to rest. It is beginning to overstay its welcome and, except for subpar animations, is still suffering from the same old issues as always (e.g. the vertical gameplay here where the monsters are trying to come up the stairs and failing hard).
 
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Dunno when forcing PC gamers into slavery to mushroom centered interfaces started, but sooner or later it'll change. Wallets will vote.

So far I'm thumbing down each and every game that does it on Steam. Ironically, I did that to first Neptunia port and almost weekly I'm receiving e-mail from somewhere it's on sale so I should buy that game and it's sequels… I stepped on the first turd, paying for the rest is not gonna happen!
 
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To me, Gothic 1 is -by far- unmatched. I like it when in addition to exploring the world, you also have to explore and uncover the story like an onion layer by layer.
Gothic 1 did a really good job at at that IMHO. It was not clear at all from the start that there would be a way out of the prison or that this would be a goal in the game.
You had your hands full with much more mundane goals in the early game and only as you explored and progressed further, did it become apparent that there might in fact be a way to bring down the barrier.

I'd tend to agree with you here. Gothic was quite good in terms of story and the overall discovery process.

That said, I don't remember the writing being anything special. It was more the plot regarding the prison colony and "the sleeper" (or whatever it was) that was cool.

I thought they were very mediocre on a whole. Honestly, I can not remember a single really memorable quest from both games.
The simple quests in R2 and R3 were a far cry from the quests e.g. in G2 Gold where you had Khorinis as this small bustling microcosm and where many quests had multiple solutions, actual choices & consequences or were intertwined even across chapters (it made sense to revisit many NPCs throughout the course of the game).

I honestly can't remember much in the way of specific quests in ANY PB game. I don't remember G2 being anything special here either, but I never completed it.

As I said, I don't think they were ever that good. Their games, to me, was always primarily about the exploration of new worlds and the whole "rags to riches" experience that they handle so well.

I've always greatly enjoyed their world building - and that was true in all the Risen games as well.

To each his own, though.

Of course, the simpler quests are easier for PB to manage, write, develop, keep polished and bug-free etc., but as a player, I would have liked to see them expand on their strengths (G2 Gold and the tight network of quests across Khorinis) instead of making bigger games with less complexity.

I don't know that their games are less complex. Certainly, the combat mechanics and variety of powers have greatly expanded in the Risen games.

However, the balance was broken in both Risen 2 and Risen 3 - and only melee combat was good in Risen 1. Gothic and its sequel remain the best in terms of the power progression curve.

Maybe the NPC relationships have lessened in complexity - but I must admit I never noticed it.

Could be you're right :)

Come to think of it, I do think you're on to something. I mean, it's not immediately obvious and my memory is fuzzy - but I do have a much stronger connection to the Gothic world and its characters (including a few I can even remember, like Diego) than I do with Risen 1-3.

Risen 3 did feel a bit shallow when it came to the sense of place and history of the various islands, I must admit.

That said, it had more significant visual variety and much stronger character progression than the Gothics.

Also, I must be one of the few people who really, really enjoyed the whole Pirates thing in Risen 2 and 3. I especially enjoyed the jungle atmosphere and stuff like constant rainy weather and thunder storms in those games.
 
Looks pretty solid. Verticality/ruins seems to work very well for exploration. Music feels off, lacks that pastoral undertones "magic"...jarring contrast, when jumping into combat.
Combat is as expected, classic janky PB, they really need a new engine.
Fantasy factions seem out of place here, that guy looks like Stormcloak.
Not sure it's a good thing, but I'm getting vibes of Gothic III here.
 
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If this is anywhere near the scale, factions dynamics, god alignments, varied environments, atmosphere, simulation and music of Gothic 3 then its a day 1 purchase for me (of course DRM FREE!).
 
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They can bundle all DRM that ever existed on it plus numerous adware and spyware for all I care - I'm buying.
 
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