All the gears and stuff can make for an interesting asthetic that I'm beginning to appreciate, as affected as it is.

We've got a moderately cool to severe brainstorm in the forecast this evening--

Haven't seen the de bruges flick yet but there's got be a Paoli one in the making somewhere--

one of the many reasons i throughly enjoy playing this game. the translation to motion in the application itself is executed flawlessly.

It reminds me of one of the only decent elements of the Will Smith "Wild Wild West" movie. Steam Punk... when will you get the cinematic (live action) treatment you deserve.

He owes John Berkey a drink:

[movingwalls.artorg.info]

Okay that is fracking sweet!!

@Seth L: That is some awesome art. For some reason, though, while look at it, I kept hearing Emerson Lake and Palmer's Toccata in my head.
Not that that's a bad thing, by any stretch of the imagination.

@Seth L: i'm not seeing it.

@tetracycloide: So I take it the in-game art gets better? My wife and I are playing Prophecies, and we thought pre-Searing was stunning, but we're stuck on the first continent in post-Searing, and the "smoking, blasted wasteland" asthetic is getting reeeeeeeeally old.

Are you implying that there's a version of Burning Man that isn't psychotic?

@zeppelined: prophecies was the least artistically expressive of the titles currently available but it does pick up visually after you get out of post-searing ascalon. if you enjoyed pre-searing as much as it sounds like you did i'm sure you'll enjoy kryta, maguma, and the fire islands as well.

@tetracycloide: Cool. Thanks! Now there's an in-game reward worth questing for - interesting places to explore.

If they ever produce some sort of adaptation of Philip Reeve's work up and running, they should get Dociu to do the concept work.

Look's like Howl's Moving Castle.

It looks creepy to me. Did anyone else check out the link to the other artwork? very nice

Okay, does everything that shows up on Gawker media blogs that involves high-tech extravagant gearwork and shiny bits of metal being used in an anachronistic fashion automatically considered steampunky?

You guys are about the only sci-fi thing I keep up with and Kotaku's the only gaming site I follow closely as I think you guys're wonderful, but you're starting to contribute to the influx of abuse to one of my favorite words.

@KraZe: Maybe because "high-tech extravagant gearwork and shiny bits of metal being used in an anachronistic fashion" sounds like an excellent definition of steampunk?

they keep having expansions...dear god please let this be an expansion...and let it be done right.

I play GW pretty much every day and "People Know Me"...

So this is old hat for me.... but maybe i'll notice stuff like that again once "I'm Very Important".... lol

Where's its weak point so I can attack it for massive damage?

@icelight: Not really.
Steampunk is about a lot more than just shiny bits of gearwork and the like. The punk element I'll leave alone as we're simply speaking on aesthetic and setting things, but without the other key word there, y'know, the age of steam or some equivalent, where there were many of our earlier jumps in technological advancement were starting to take hold along with the societal changes, you're starting to toss out most of the word's definition and are instead just going by the rule of cool.

"Oh there's a snazzy little compact word someone invented that sort of resembles what I'd like to say and I'm rather quite lazy and instead of actually describing the gritty pieced together feats of engineering and why I like them I shall simplay say it is 'steampunky'."

Sure, it *sort of* works and I really even wouldn't mind it that much if Kotaku hadn't used it in connection with this atrocious little bit of tits and failed coolfactor [kotaku.com] but when you have what appears to be missiles and motorbikes that ride on walls, it's just a future-western, not 'steampunk' per se.

As it is they did and io9 and Kotaku run under the same banner, have the same wonderful feel, etc. so my anger extends to the lot of it.

I can't help but think it's not too smart to put that much mass on top of such itty bitty feet.

I'm missing the point, aren't I?

@KraZe:
C'mon, man. That's a high horse you're a-ridin'.

A word's meaning is based on it's cultural implications. You might have your own personal super-rigid meaning for Steampunk, but if everyone else thinks that the word has a different definition, then they're right by weight of numbers. Unless you use the word in conversation as often as them all combined... which is probably not the case.

@zeppelined:
Yeah, post-Searing Ascalon is pretty bleak. Once you get up into the Shiverpeaks, a mountain range covered in ice and snow, it'll change. Kryta and the Maguuma jungle are green, but more of the swamp and jungle motiff, as opposed to the temperate greenery of pre-Searing Ascalon.

And yes, the scenery improves in the subsequent games - if I recall correctly, the concept art is from Factions, which has a generally pan-Asian feel to it, with a little bit of gothic Black Forest Germany/Romania thrown in in the form of the Kurzicks, and some pirates as the Luxons (even though their sea has been turned into jade...)

The guy was raised in Transylvania? That was one of my life dreams, back when I thought it was filled with castles and movie-monsters.