Dont like the graphics.

I played starcraft since I was like 7 years old or something and that game was AWESOME. Then I lost my CD when was moving to another house(it was russian pirated CD). Then 1 year ago I bought starcraft. Played throught all campaigns again and remember how awesome it actually was. The maps were awesome. Sounds were awesome. Storyline was awesome. Also I watched cinematics which pirated CD didn't have. And I LOVE the graphics. It is isometric 2D but looks much better then warcraft 3. They made sprites somehow look like realistic and cool motion.
I am zerg player so lets compare zerg.

On the first one you see siege tank blast which looks awesome. Also buildings look like organic structures. Crystals look nice to. Also blizzard did great job with tiles and stuff for maps(you can see all sorts of little things like bushes, rocks, remains of old ships on maps which look great)

And

Creep and ground looks nice and ground looks nice to but crystals, buildings and units...suck...
Especially buildings. I always hated WC3 graphics and it looks exactly like WC3. The buildings don't look like buildings anymore they look like some toys made out of plastic. Also shape of buildings look weird to especially hatchery and extractor. Spawning pool looks worst.
Same with units all look cartoonish like in WC3. Drones look pretty ok thought.
What is also missing is little but fun stuff like green spit from hydralisk. Hydra attack looked much cooler in SC then in SC2. Also explosions look much better in SC then in SC2.

By the way its not only the graphics but sounds to. marines and zealots sounded cool in starcraft but in SC2 their sounds suck.

I never expected that starcraft graphics would be better then SC2. Maybe because I was playing it in my childhood but still I expected different engine from SC2. Was a disappointment.

Flame if you wish lol.

 

Hmmm I think the screenshot you used is actually not of the current build, I could be wrong though.

- The Overlord looks weird.
- The Queen looks HUGE.
- The background terrain looks odd.
- Building are pretty colourful.
- Drones look a bit shiny?

Yeh I'm pretty sure this is an old build.

 

That screenshot is ancient. Watch some current beta videos before complaining.

 

Yes the newest gives much more credit

However I still don't feel starcraft 2 is near of what it could be
Where is the sand on buildings in a desert
Where is the crap on everything?
All the buildings and units are always super polished and shining


Even the marine, the hallmark of starcraft looks and is in my opinion the worst adaptation from sc1 to sc2, he looks disproportionate and cartoony

Sc2 needs more gritty

 

even on low graphics, I had a lot more fun with sc2's beta than with sc1. Hell, I cant even play sc1 now since I get so frustrated with the bad UI since playing sc2.

You really should watch some recent vids on youtube to see how the game really looks, rather than old screenshots. Considering it has the large queen and lurkers, I'd guess this screenshot is at least 1 year old.

 

I thought the same,... but to be honest.. it IS quite nice now in the art department.

It DOES sometime make a MINOR resemblance to WC3, but the buildings are there and look like they should. I suggested a Diablo 3 filter on the colors, but thinking about it wouldn't really make sense.

Roach?

 

I must agree tho, when i played the beta i was alittle bit disappointing with the graphics, the hatchery looked kinda like crap = / - im a zerg player too

 

you guys ask for too much. dont like it? dont buy the game.

 

i like the gameplay =) thats why i'd get it, just dont like how somethings look, its a minor thing to me tho =P

 

This.

What is this, the second, third complaint we've had about the graphics? And all of them have been comparing screenshots of RTS x (be it Starcraft, C&C, or Warcraft) with alpha screenshots of Starcraft II. I love how people have to resort to this sort of thing to validate their arguments.

While we're at it, why pick now of all times to complain? Granted, Blizzard had been fiddling with the graphics right up until the beta release, but the beta's been over for close to a week. Any graphical changes that'd be happening now will just be polish, like gamma correction (the unit selection halos and waypoint lines always seemed a little dim to me). At this point, if anyone has a problem with the graphics, all they can do is suck it up, or just not play the game.

 

I guess the graphic look better in SC:BW, but in the same way that a painting will be more 'perfect' looking than a photo.

SC:BW graphics are, and I mean this quite literally, combinations of 4-8 drawings. They're what are called 'sprites.' A graphic artist sat down, and drew a picture. Then drew it from another angle. Then again. And again, 6 more times. This image is static, it will ALWAYS look the same (obviously, colours change, but that's it). There is no way to apply things like physics, specular lighting, or dynamic battle effects to them. None. You can draw another picture, lit up extra cause he's shooting a gun, but it's ALWAYS casting that shadow at that exact angle. Always.

In SCII, the units and buildings are complete 3D models. They have an actual presence in the ingame world. Rather than being pictures pasted willy-nilly at convenient angles, the models exist. They are affected by the afore mentioned things that sprites simply cannot take part in. There is some loss in detail, but this is a necessary evil to achieve more intricate and, dare I say, realistic entities.

 

Well I like the graphics very much, but since I am a girl, probably I have a different sense for graphics...

 

2D has the advantage that you are in control of individual pixels, so you can aim to make every one perfect. Once you have the pixels defined as you want them, then there is no way of improving them.

With 3D, it's very much up to the drawing algorithm what a pixel looks like. And because 3D is always advancing, pixels are never really perfect.

So the effect is that 2D matures with age, while 3D looks old and dated with age.

 

Never played a game because of graphics or sound. They're a gimmick for me, i dont bother running the game on lowest or on highes settings. Only gameplay counts for me.

I must admit i started a long, long time ago when graphics weren't super-realistic. I was disappointed when i played Assasins Creed (1) for instance: The graphics were great, but the gameplay was somehow the same again and again. I prefer playing old SNES Games then playing Assasins Creed

 

A good thing mentioned by Day[9] is the fact how the distance works in the beta.
Is it from the overlord's shadow? Is it from the actual overlord? Is it the same in all directions?

Granted, people post old screenshots, but I think it's more to make things clear, no matter how much they edit it, it still looks cheerful.

Here's a SS for fun:

 

As far as the little details like the sand on buildings and spit on units are concerned, i think that blizzard is also trying to get the game to work as smooth as possible. They get rid of small details like that in order to get the big picture right.

In my opinion, looking at the whole grand scheme of the design, it works well. It conveys the whole "starcraft" feel fairly well while advancing it into a much cleaner design. The units are identifiable, there is much less clutter and they did not force anything to make it look too much like the old starcraft.

Also, it might be a minor point but the viewing angle is perfect, it is not so flat that things get lost or hidden but it is not so top-down that it loses depth.

 

Really, more of this?


Well, at least that is funny.

Even if the OP had used a SS that wasn't from nearly a year ago; the game looks good. Also, don't forget about all the lovely animations you can't see in a screen shot.

 

There have been a lot of changes to the new look Zerg, here are some examples:







Compared to your image, this is more of what the Zerg look like now:

 

Your graphic card also has a LOT to do with it. My brother has a decent card and computer but the graphics on my computer completely blow his out of the water. When I first loaded up StarCraft 2 I was extremely impressed with the graphics, however I never played StarCraft I in a serious way so nostalgia is not a factor in my case.

 

As a gamer with a high end computer I have no problem at all with sc 2 graphics, they look fine to me....