Torchlight 2 - The Right Way

[stormlord]

Here's some trivia:
The same (music) composer that worked on Diablo 2 also worked on Torchlight 2.

Also here're the (very friendly) system requirements for Torchlight 2:
System Requirements
OS: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7
Processor: x86-compatible 1.4GHz or faster processor
Memory: 1GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.2GB free space (subject to change)
Video Card: DirectX compatible 3D graphics card with at least 256MB of addressable memory.
DirectX®: 9.0c

The art-style in Torchlight 1/2 reminds me of WoW somewhat in its first release. Could this be because Torchlight 1/2 has Blizzard North working on it? Some people think this is one of its worst choices. But I don't think it matters. Quite remarkably, one of the reasons WoW had such popularity early on was its low system requirements. One of stated goals of Blizzard North when working on Torchlight 1/2 was to keep its system requirements very low to increase the size of their audience. They did this without using shaders.

One can explore in much more depth how they went about the art in Torchlight 1/2 here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...t_.php?print=1

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Gameplay similarities aside, the art controversy surrounding the announcement of D3 was somewhat fascinating to me and, in a small way, contributed towards Torchlight's look. My reaction to the first screenshots was that Blizzard had created a beautiful, living painting. To me, it was absolutely gorgeous, and a style that I would have loved to have pursued.

But knowing the direction Blizzard went with the game helped inform our decision to go in a different direction. We didn't want the inevitable comparisons, so in a way... it helped us define which artistic choices were now off limits.
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