Certainly interested in EQ3/Next and this is lookin good.

Whoa...that's an in-game screenshot? Interesting.

SJ said they were in "tease mode" about EQNext.

Thanks for publishing this picture, Feldon, since during the live feed it wasn't this clear.

A more coherent presentation about ForgeLight would have helped. What I got out of it was that there will be more sophisticated physics in games, for destruction of the environment, it will run on any computer no matter how old or how powerful, and the details of the games, like expressions, spell effects, and the environment (like clouds will seem more realisitic) will all be much better than we have ever seen before.

I would have liked to have seen at least a little video of ForgeLight to demonstrate the features, rather than just a still shot, but I guess they weren't ready to demo it. Although was the Planetside 2 trailer done with Forgelight?

It is an engine, not a game, so it's hard to show off something like that in a keynote, I suppose.

I am also suspect, given the state of Sony's overall finances, that they have the money for R&D to develop something revolutionary in the field. But with the cancellation of some of their titles, perhaps they are funnelling money into this engine.

That scowling mouth looks like the same one I have hated on my human for the last 7 years.

Thanks for reminding me about the no zoning thing, Feldon is correct, that was a huge feature of the new engine.

Sonys finances of forge light doesnt matter since forgelight is already produced and being used by developement.

The other good thing about a specialized MMO game engine is if it is made well SOE can recoup some costs by licensing out this engine to other MMO developers.

I remember how great screen shots looked of EQ2 before it was released. While it still looks really great it isn't quite what we were teased with.

No MMO is ever released as it is teased and no MMO resembles its release after two years of life.

Yet, we still get wow'd over every little thing released. We sure have short memories.

There is strong indication they are going to fold EQ1, EQ2 and Vanguard once EQ3 is out. Kinda like how they let their SWG contract go with lucas mainly to push people over to Planetside.

Funny how they let people think it's all lucas's fault, they had the option to renew (it was in the original contact, it's online go read it) but didn't for the reason above. If people believe it is because Lucas doesn't want a competing mmo, first give your head a shake, all these companies want is money and if SOE wanted it, lucas would certainly take the money. If you still believe then ask yourself why not fold Clone Wars mmo too by SOE??? It competes much more with TOR than swg ever would, actually more as it's free to play and each title is aimed at the same demographic age group, where swg is nothing close to either one, think about it.

It's good to notice that SOE has finally realized they are overstretching themselves with too many mmo's and their long term business plan is to focus on consolidating their IP into a single Titles of much higher quality attention and care.

I'm actually excited about Planetside Next and EQ Next. Here's hoping they pull it off, and judging from this screen and screens I've taken a gander of Planetside Next, i think i might once again have two mmo's screaming for my attention.

Everything I've seen from EQ Next looks like a painting rather than a screen shot.

Blockhead that is not how things work.

@Chris, I agree. Totally looks like a painting. I don't like the textures much. EQ2 by far still has best graphic textures over any mmo that I have seen. I am hoping EQNext does even better.

Not to feed the complaint fires, but they couldn't find a better mug to look at? I agree that it looks like a painting, also.

It is a painting, still better than images we've seen before.

@Blockhead

It's pretty well known Lucas Arts dumped the game against SoEs wishes. Lucas Arts is a relic of the past, the company has been a mess for around 10 years now.

It doesn't look like an ingame screenshot. It looks more like concept art.

@kels

My first reaction too, but look at the dome of his head and you can see the tell tale flat lines due to the number of polygons used, it is a screenshot for sure.

Personally I think this artwork looks a lot better then the other ones we saw for EQNext, but the use of soft colouring (paint brush style?) and lack of realism does prevent me from accepting the image completely like I can with EQ2 (at least with Frogloks/Iskar etc), it also has an effect of making things look more 2D then they should do (something I notice in other games with a graphical style).

Overall though it does look very good, its the first image that has started to give me a bit of hope for EQNext as before it all looked a bit too lightweight, whatever happens though I'll only judge it when I see it, new does not equal interesting anymore.

Its a good human face though, while redoing all the character models would be an epic undertaking in EQ2 I think redoing facial features for humans/elves/gnomes etc + hair (fur shaders!) would make a vast improvement.

So far I am not impressed with what I seen with EQ3 (Next) Honestly that looked like something from rift, or wow.

I hope they don't make us folks in eq2 go to eq3, as I not seing anything that hold my attention.

I hate the EQ2 graphics but I play in spite of it. Some pieces of armor and cloth look amazing, but most of the landscape and building material textures look muddy and VERY low resolution even at max settings. Some zones look like they have the models of a modern game with the textures of an early PS2 game. Humanoid faces and hair are nearly textureless. They don't look realistic at all, they have the look of a CGI cartoon like Reboot. I would prefer a realistic look as seen in some modern FPS games but I would still consider a painterly look a huge upgrade from the current graphics.

Did you happen to get shots of the 2 eq next screens that were up briefly during the Keynote?

ah, they looked different to me.

http://i.imgur.com/SISu6.jpg

Here are the shots I was talking about from the KeyNote, they were only up for a few seconds. I haven't seen any of these before.

@Skeksis
You should try LOTRO or AoC. They put EQII to shame, graphically. I think those 2 are the best looking fantasy MMOs, hands down.

@stirfry and @everyone talking about avatar quality

Yeah it's not a game per se, but there is no game that can match Second Life for avatar quality. Since the community makes the skins/hair/eyes/clothing and everything, there are several high-quality avatar/skin makers in a constant arms race to create the most realistic skins. They blow pretty much every other game away (the newbie skin is basic, you have to buy the really good ones with game cash). Animated hair, eyes, emotes, dozens of tweaks for appearance. No game beats SL for quality avatars.

Can't really figure out why other games fall so short, and never update their avatars even after they start to look really dated. Like EQII. Even Lotro and AoC's avatars look low quality compared to Second Life.

Any graphics are better than what EQ1 currently has os you won't see any complaints from me.. great work!!!

That is definately a screenshot. Look at the jaggies on the outside of the head. All I hafta say is get ready to upgrade big.