Jimquisition: The Best Looking Game of This Generation
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
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Where is Team Fortress 2?
Or did he mean by the term "this generation" he was narrowing his scope to only console gaming. Because that reflects pretty poorly on console gaming compared to PC (again), TF2 is a game that is entirely focused on the difference between Red and Blue, it has a distinct almost cel shaded artstyle yet to spite a console release (in a bundle) it hardly has any presence on console any more.
I wonder if he was bringing up Enslaved as an example of too much gritty darkness or an example of an exception to the trend.
Or did he mean by the term "this generation" he was narrowing his scope to only console gaming. Because that reflects pretty poorly on console gaming compared to PC (again), TF2 is a game that is entirely focused on the difference between Red and Blue, it has a distinct almost cel shaded artstyle yet to spite a console release (in a bundle) it hardly has any presence on console any more.
I wonder if he was bringing up Enslaved as an example of too much gritty darkness or an example of an exception to the trend.
Photorealism is over-rated. Deserves to exist and can work very well for the work you need it for, but over-rated. I keep saying this, yet shelves are still stocked with 'em. I'm more of a fan of fantasy than real life. You don't need to be complete batshit off the wall Suda 51 crazy, but even something like Mirror's Edge is a step in the right diretion. As much as I don't like the game, it does SO MUCH with vibrant colours on a clean white. And Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time looks freaking BEAUTIFUL. I can see every hair on Ratchet's furry little head, and everything is so bright and colourful. Even the canyon in ACIT (a rusty red-brown with a little bit of yellow grass and a river) is more visually stimulating than most games out there that boast stellar graphics. Sly, Okami, Wind Waker, etc, still look damn good. Hell, even the original Spyro games, Klonoa, or Conker's Bad Fur Day haven't aged THAT badly, especially compared to games like MGS1 and Goldeneye.
If there is something important to say about gaming, chances are that many (if not most) of the gaming journalists will say it. I do recall Extra Credits saying something about this, as well as The Game Overthinker. I have also been arguing this point with people ever since the 360's second year on the market. Does that mean everyone is copying me? NO. It is just something that needs to be said because it is true and very relevant to the future of things, which is something we should be considering with a next gen right around the corner.Jimothy Sterling said:
Also, on a more positive note, your show and Extra Credits are the only honest and impartial gaming shows left. I think that is where a lot of the comparing is coming from. After the ME3 drama (which was the biggest video game drama I have ever seen) you both showed that even if you might not entierly have the same stance as everyone else, you at least understood why people were mad. That proves to everyone that neither of you were on anyone's payroll or sycophants of the industry, even though that was pretty obvious from all your shows prior.
I can't remember who said this first or where I heard it, but many older games from the NES, SNES and N64 had to use bright and contrasting colours to account for memory issues. The developers had to create a contrast so that the player could see what the sprite was doing or what the sprite even looked like (eg. the only reason Mario has a mustache in Donkey Kong is so the player can see his nose). There was a limited amount of pixels available, so the character sprite had to look recognizable with less space. There are no such limitations today, and many people have forgotten that creativity comes from constraints. Vibrant colour schemes also helped every game differentiate itself from the competition.
Rare knew this 12 years ago, which is one of the reasons why I believe that today Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are both better games than Goldeneye 64 and Perfect Dark. This is also because I like platformers more than shooters in general (I'd also say that DKC is better, but they're not really comparable).
I'd say one of the best looking games this generation would be Prince of Persia from 2008 or around that time. I didn't like the game as much as others, but it was visually dynamic at least when you healed the land. I'd also say Assassin's Creed 2 for Venice alone (which is why I'll continue to like it more than either Brotherhood or Revelations), Bastion (which loses most for almost being too loud with not enough contrast, but the soundtrack helps) and Braid (where the soundtrack also helps.
Slightly off topic: films made in the 70s had similar budget constraints, so the directors had to be very creative to make the film look good on slim budgets. If you are looking for a visually gorgeous modern film, seek out The Fall (2006). The story's a little bit of a mess, but the film is stunning to look at.
Rare knew this 12 years ago, which is one of the reasons why I believe that today Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are both better games than Goldeneye 64 and Perfect Dark. This is also because I like platformers more than shooters in general (I'd also say that DKC is better, but they're not really comparable).
I'd say one of the best looking games this generation would be Prince of Persia from 2008 or around that time. I didn't like the game as much as others, but it was visually dynamic at least when you healed the land. I'd also say Assassin's Creed 2 for Venice alone (which is why I'll continue to like it more than either Brotherhood or Revelations), Bastion (which loses most for almost being too loud with not enough contrast, but the soundtrack helps) and Braid (where the soundtrack also helps.
Slightly off topic: films made in the 70s had similar budget constraints, so the directors had to be very creative to make the film look good on slim budgets. If you are looking for a visually gorgeous modern film, seek out The Fall (2006). The story's a little bit of a mess, but the film is stunning to look at.
Well, I do have to admit, Viva Pinata DOES look freaking fantastic. Gotta love them bright colors.
YEAH! Killer7 shout out!
YEAH! Killer7 shout out!
I know it's so obvious that it's the reason why it's automatically disqualified, but Crysis was the only game in the last 5 years to make me do the "woah!"
It's 5 years old now, and it still looks better than most games being released today.
And still I am totally in love with that water.
It's 5 years old now, and it still looks better than most games being released today.
And still I am totally in love with that water.
I could agree, however there are some exceptions to the cause of how things look.
Metroid Prime is by far one of the best games that still looks good. I played it for a bit last night and while the ground is very blocky at a distance. The animations and beams look fucking Solid. Even Samus's face looks convincing by today's standards. Besides that, color is all over the place, one minute your in haunted ruins full of browns, oranges, and darkness, the next you are in a jungle with cool greens and blues. The Sequels are much the same
Rayman: Origins is a game that traded 3D visuals for something someone would have done with an Art Tablet, because of this, it will age solidly. When I played it, it flowed great and looks terrific and colorful.
Halo: Reach is a game that will definitley age well. Textures may look typical at times but underneath that, there is one of the most colorful "serious" shooters out there. You'd have to be on meth to not see the amount of well done effort that was put forth into colors and explosions alone. Gun fire from Alien and human weapons seems other worldly and then we have Forge World
While Fallout 3 isn't exactly perfect in graphics (I'd give it like a 7/10 in terms of that) there is one thing that Bethesda really honed in on:
No its not dark gritty realism. Its the use of atmosphere to drive up ones graphics, this method was seen quite well in the following game which NO-ONE would expect a horror game to have. A fine mixture of Glowing Blues that go with Oranges or Yellows.
And BEFORE you type in "Oh Dead Space wasn't a horror game! It wasn't scary like Amnesia! Which you should totally play because it's an Indie game!" Did you even pay attention to the hallway at all?
One the second chapter there is a hallway which has a flat escalator and on the wall is a moving billboard which keeps flashing white and red fast as hell. Well if you walk by it, some of the add begins to shine on both Isaac and the Floor behind him, showing his shadow.
I agree with Jim that Viva Pinata does look good, but one must not ignore other titles with great graphics decisions.
Metroid Prime is by far one of the best games that still looks good. I played it for a bit last night and while the ground is very blocky at a distance. The animations and beams look fucking Solid. Even Samus's face looks convincing by today's standards. Besides that, color is all over the place, one minute your in haunted ruins full of browns, oranges, and darkness, the next you are in a jungle with cool greens and blues. The Sequels are much the same
Rayman: Origins is a game that traded 3D visuals for something someone would have done with an Art Tablet, because of this, it will age solidly. When I played it, it flowed great and looks terrific and colorful.
Halo: Reach is a game that will definitley age well. Textures may look typical at times but underneath that, there is one of the most colorful "serious" shooters out there. You'd have to be on meth to not see the amount of well done effort that was put forth into colors and explosions alone. Gun fire from Alien and human weapons seems other worldly and then we have Forge World
While Fallout 3 isn't exactly perfect in graphics (I'd give it like a 7/10 in terms of that) there is one thing that Bethesda really honed in on:
No its not dark gritty realism. Its the use of atmosphere to drive up ones graphics, this method was seen quite well in the following game which NO-ONE would expect a horror game to have. A fine mixture of Glowing Blues that go with Oranges or Yellows.
And BEFORE you type in "Oh Dead Space wasn't a horror game! It wasn't scary like Amnesia! Which you should totally play because it's an Indie game!" Did you even pay attention to the hallway at all?
One the second chapter there is a hallway which has a flat escalator and on the wall is a moving billboard which keeps flashing white and red fast as hell. Well if you walk by it, some of the add begins to shine on both Isaac and the Floor behind him, showing his shadow.
I agree with Jim that Viva Pinata does look good, but one must not ignore other titles with great graphics decisions.
Team Fortress 2 is a nice-looking game that I think will look nice for quite some time. And it's a western FPS, the genre that seems to be leading the grimdark graphics style.
Just finished replaying Jade Empire and was genuinely surprised to find that it still looks absolutely gorgeous. Way better than Mass effect 1 and Dragon age: origins, and simply for the reason that it's so brightly coloured and, well, pretty. The backdrops (trees covered in cherry blossom, floating palaces, flying machines painted like iridescent insects) are beautiful.
I dunno, I like seeing different people covering the same topic. It shows different styles of journalism. Kind of like watching the Bollywood version of a western culture film. It shows the same thing through a lens of some one else.trollpwner said:
Yeah I think in under a decade from now most people are going to look back at this generation and think of it the same way many do the 90s. Where it took a very long time for people to realize all the sad attempts at being "dark and edgey" for dark and edgeys sake was absurdly misplaced.
Gears of War was a fun series but I will never want to play those games in the distant future like I do my classic PS2 titles or PC games because the visual art direction was awful from start to finish.
Gears of War was a fun series but I will never want to play those games in the distant future like I do my classic PS2 titles or PC games because the visual art direction was awful from start to finish.
Okami was one of the best looking games I have ever played.Daystar Clarion said:No love for Okami in your last gen section?
Stylised graphics will always age better than titles going for photo-realism.
That's why Journey will still look awesome in 10 year, and MGS 4 won't
Ya, I loved Crysis for its awesome colourful visuals. It wasn't until Crysis 2 when they eventually fucked it up.Scrumpmonkey said:No Crysis? Really? Colour. Colour everywhere.
I agree, Okami is the best looking game of the past 10 years in my opinion.Daystar Clarion said:No love for Okami in your last gen section?
Stylised graphics will always age better than titles going for photo-realism.
That's why Journey will still look awesome in 10 year, and MGS 4 won't
It's not you. Extra Credits was a favorite of some people even if my opinion was mixed at best, and it's departure and the contreversy about it left a bad taste in people's mouth that gets more intense when they see something similar, and nostolgia turns to a bit of rage they have to vent somehow.Jimothy Sterling said:
That said your correct, and when it comes to big issues (and this is a fairly big thing within the arena of gaming, and the perception of games) they need to be covered more than once if they are not to be forgotten. This basic message wasn't even knew when Extra Credits did it, it's something that gets covered periodically, and truthfully is something I think should be covered far more.
That said, while irrelevent to your point, I'm not a huge fan of things that are overly cartoony. I enjoyed a lot of the fairly serious cell shaded works, but am less of a fan of things like say Kirby or whatever. Honestly I think what we need to see is something like a western, or universal, version of anime. A serious style of art, meant to convey serious material, whithout it being quite so stylized in terms of facial features and so on, something that would age better. I saw people aiming for this kind of approach years ago, but I see it less and less now, and really the only thing that comes close to carrying that torch is Borderlands (which you mentioned), but Borderlands kind of suffers from just being a little too silly in its overall presentation, and the very limited bestiary and number of models, while easy to overlook in the midst of gameplay, really means it's hard to say if that aestetic is versatile enough for them to do more with it. I mean you can only shoot a skag or some bandit wearing a goalie mask (which comes in varying degrees of size) so many times. I frequently wondered if the limitations were because the designers just couldn't come up with much else that worked.