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[Agisthos]

A few years ago when PDZ was in development for the Gamecube we heard rumours about Rare taking the game in a cell shaded direction. We all laughed and said how ridiculous, but looking at how PDZ has turned out I think there may have been some truth to this.

The style of PDZ is cartoony, colorful, unrealistic and has that comic book feel to the character animation/design. One game it reminds me very much of is XIII.

 

[Zilch]

Do you remember the cartoonish renders of Joanna that Rare had on their website?

 

[The Faceless Master]

 

[Sriram]

It was an april fools news story from cube-europe.

 

[Agisthos]

I wish they had just gone with a normal realistic graphic style, but whats done is done i guess. Prehaps that would just be too much work with trying to make launch

 

[cbrotherson]

I think it may have been a case of cel shading being the 'in' thing at the time, and also that Rare had secured the substantial talents of Will Overton, who was artist and designer for mags Super Play and N64, prior. Will is a fantastic artist (I wish he went into comics full time, I'd love to see his storytelling) and Rare probably wanted to show him off given the design ethics at the time, hence the pics of Jo that you see below.

Chances are, once the cel shading craze died down a little, Rare and MS prob wanted to get the game back to more semi 'naturalistic' roots, esp given the success of Halo and the draw of titles like Half Life, Far Cry and Doom 3.

C.

 

[dbish]

IMO, they should have stuck with what they had. That "anime Johanna" looks a heck of a lot better than the current in game model they have now. I'm all for a delay of the game if for nothing else to change the freaking character model (actually, all of them, environments looked good, characters crap).

 

[Screenboy]

I dont even think Rare knows which Joanna Dark they're going with theres that many!

 

[----]

I dont even think Rare knows which Joanna Dark they're going with theres that many!

Is it possible that Perfect Dark Zero takes place over many years and that's why her appearance changes so much during the game? It seems like in some sections she looks like a teenager and in other sections she looks like she's an adult.

 

[dbish]

OOO, it all makes sense. She ages throughout the game, and as she gets older, the graphics get better. Hence the "roller coaster" of graphical quality - it shows the passage of time!

I can see it now "Other games just use sun up and sun down and character models aging to represent the passage of time. We, however, have decided to represent the technological advances of the new age with better graphics throughout the years! The differing graphical levels totally puts you in the game!"

 

[Shiggy]

It was an april fools news story from cube-europe.

 

[Drexon]

I still say she looks like a hooker. ;P

 

[Suburban Cowboy]

actually the cell shading wasnt announced until after rare was sold.

 

[The Faceless Master]

why do their wallpapers have jaggies?

 

[aerofx]

Yikes, she has long alien fingers.

 

[Widfara]

actually the cell shading wasnt announced until after rare was sold.

This is true. One motive might have been to distinguish PD from Halo, as Microsoft wanted or wants to have both franchises on the forefront.

 

[raYne]

Yikes, she has long alien fingers.

That's the first thing I noticed as well...

 

[AndoCalrissian]

I much prefer the cartoon Joanna than the current one. Looks like they just took the same character design and made it into a real person. Bleh.