Xzi said:
Well I often find myself in the mood for switching between the two styles. Realistic and highly stylized. As I said, Okami is my favorite looking game, but the great thing about Crysis is that it has realistic graphics while maintaining highly unrealistic gameplay. Besides, when are you going to find yourself on a remote jungle island battling Vietnamese soldiers, mutated dinosaurs, and technological monstrosities? Is that really something you have to worry about pulling you back to the reality of your every day life? If so, I'd like to ask you more about your profession. ;D
Even if you aim for hyperrealism, though, there are still stylistic choices you can make to make something visually more interesting. Even things such as framing of distant objects from the viewpoint of various level areas. An example of a game that does this really well in a city is Halo 3: ODST; in the nighttime city streets areas, you have the close-by high buildings that of course look different as you move about, but in one direction a little ways off, you are ALWAYS being stared down by a triangular cluster of ominous buildings. It manages to evoke this oppressive all-seeing eye effect while remaining realistic (insofar as Halo's cities are "realistic", anyway). No violation of hyperrealism is necessary to do things like that.
But the Crysis 2 trailer doesn't seem to have much such artistic flair. Granted, it's hard to tell given the editing and whatnot, but it certainly wasn't emphasized at all.
Admitedly, working such considerations in can probably be difficult when you have an extremely large area that can be poked at by the player, since it throws many methods of framing out the window. I can't fault Crysis 2 for it if they
did run into such issues, though I'd still argue that, if the game generally has the aesthetic feel as seen in the trailer, I probably wouldn't personally wind up valuing it all that highly from an aesthetic standpoint.