Watching these retards argue over which slop looks better is like watching drug addicts argue over whether meth or fentanyl is better.

@Kyonko802 video game graphics that are going for realism will never be the "best looking game ever." art style is what makes a game's graphics last, and that's why so many are so nostalgic for the 16-bit era graphics because the art on display in a lot of those games was absolutely stunning. and there's a reason why so many indie horror games love using the ps1 aesthetic.

this intense focus on realism is part of what balloons video game budgets.

i've NEVER seen a game have water that looks as good as mario sunshine's does and that game is on the FUCKING GAMECUBE.

@beardalaxy @Kyonko802 The GameCube is a diced potato compared to today's fancy computer hardware, and yet the aesthetics produced were timeless. Not too many bugs, either.

@berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 that's also because now games are made with homogeneous art styles, nobody is making games with art styles that look like what CGI movies were big at the time (remember the PS2 marketing hype was that it would give you pixar level graphics). We're at the stage where making a game look like a early-mid 2000s Dreamworks/Pixar/(now closed animation studio name here) is 100% possible now and yet what do we get? More realistic hollywood looking slop.

everyone who said the brown grey look of a typical UE3 game was bad had no idea how bad things would get.

@PurpCat @berkberkman @Kyonko802 i wouldn't say nobody is making games like that. ratchet and clank rift apart is sublime. the characters are so expressive too. the remake back in i think 2014 was also really good, but most of its cutscenes were pre-rendered as opposed to rift apart which is all done realtime iirc.

kingdom hearts 3 also went for this look but i don't think it nailed it 100%. it still looks pretty video-gamey.

@beardalaxy @berkberkman @Kyonko802 That's the issue. There's not enough games like that, which try to make themselves look like a Pixar/Dreamworks/similar movie.

Most of the games from Sony have been stereotyped as AAA corridor simulators. Even worse is what I like to call the ArtStation effect: where you'll run into concept art from say a mid as fuck kids show and think wow it's more interesting/cuter than the final result.

I saw a Twitter artist praising the Order 1866's art book, talking about all the shit that didn't make it into the game and how the lore/art was more interesting than the final product; which was stereotyped by many as "if Hollywood made a game". You just know if the devs were given more freedom over the management at Sony/whoever they might have made something interesting.

And also unfortunately as Ken Levine's post Bioshock 1 career has shown, sometimes you have to wrangle people like that hard to make a game. Left to their own devices, they'll either make a game with enough content that's scrapped to make multiple games, or make a game in endless development. Or worse; they'll be like Tim Sorbet and endlessly schizopost on Twitter.
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@PurpCat @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 I think the devs' intent on the art style (and animation) is overlooked but crucial, which is why I loved Hi-Fi Rush's colorful and cel-shaded look while I hated the odd and flat cartoonish look of that Battletoads reboot. A "realistic" artstyle could work well, but it's difficult to get it right (or at least engage in a good way). The only game that I can easily recall with that sort of style was inFAMOUS, and that seemed like it was going for a gritty superhero/villain comic look via those bright effects (then again, it still looked like most of those brown and dull PS3/X360 games).
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@berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 the trick is with realistic stuff is you have to have an art style that's unique outside of just the normal stuff.

Everyone remembers BioShock because of it's art deco environments even though it's on the UE2, which was an old engine at that point.

@berkberkman @Kyonko802 @beardalaxy also Mass Effect 1 and Singularity are memorable because while being UE3 games with the normal UE3 look at times, the environments and art direction were entirely different.

Or Prey on the ID Tech 4 engine shedding the look Doom 3/Quake 4 had in a lot of ways. More examples of realistic games that did it right.

You won't see something like this from shit like TLoU2. I'm just a fan of unique art styles.

@PurpCat @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 Was there even a notable art style within the original Last of Us on the PS3? I never had any interest in that franchise from the beginning.
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@berkberkman @beardalaxy @Kyonko802 TLoU1, the Killzone series in general, and some others seem to have been made to wow people at E3 as they see the graphics.

Visually it's bland as shit, but the idea of "wow these graphics on the PS3" after that E3 demo made people buy it. It's also notably the "test game" that PS3 repairers and frankenstein swap modders use to test the console afterwards.