Anyone hates the cheerful overpolished artstyle of modern games?

[JayJ350]

I honestly didn't play much PC stuff from that era except Rainbow Six and Mechwarrior. I actually hated PC gaming back then especially since you couldn't use a controller.

Oh I wasn't really into it back during the 95-98 era either, my dad had a nice Gateway 2000 Windows 95 PC and that was basically the only computer I used until I got a Compaq that ran Windows ME. It was a real piece of chit but decent enough for it's time and I made do, even got a PCI GPU for it and used to play games like Starcraft, C&C, and Duke Nukem 3D. Windows XP was when I really got into PC gaming for the first time, building my first gaming desktop, with a Pentium 4 and Radeon 9800 Pro. That was some great chit back in the day, I remember playing early Steam games like Half-Life 2 and CS Source on it all the time and games like C&C Generals and NFS Underground. That's still one of my favorite PC eras, back when things really got good and they had more set standards with games running more smoothly. I know what you mean about the old Windows 9X era being kinda jank, heck even going back to XP can suck if you want to use a controller, I think Win 7 is when they finally made the 360 controller a standard.

[theory816]

Yeah I think some games are overly polished. Think of it like making a watch. You'd want some parts to be polished and other parts to have nice textures and a unique design. Just think if every watch maker made all the same polished watches instead of having their own unique designs.

The thing about the ps1-ps4 era is that we had a ton of video games because it was more affordable to make a game at the time and they didn't spend all day on graphics.

I've said before, I'd take ps1-ps4 graphics games and make them superior with great gameplay mechanics. The best thing is, its possible to do so today.

[alltrapbrah]

The exact same thing is happening in Hollywood funnily enough.

Films, even those with dark subject matter, are becoming very clean and polished looking. There’s this kind of sheen or gloss over everything, and an overly manicured look to all the sets, props, wardrobe, etc.

Akin to the gaming industry the advance in tech probably plays some role in it, but i don’t think it’s merely that.

Clean and polished is definitely the stylistic taste that’s in fashion right now. Gritty and imperfect is a thing of the past.

Note: “dark” should not be confused with what we are talking about here. Many things still have a dark theme or subject, but they’re presented in an overly clean and polished way. The new Mortal Kombats are a good example of this.

[TokenV]

not sure if I understand the OP, do you mean nowadays we get more GTA V and less GTA IV?

[alltrapbrah]

not sure if I understand the OP, do you mean nowadays we get more GTA V and less GTA IV?

Didn’t watch the whole video but it seemed to focus mostly on technical details and graphical features, whereas what we’re talking about in this thread is a more stylistic thing.

Having said that, watching GTA4 and GTA5 side by side you can see how GTA5 is cleaner and brighter than GTA4.

[ProSaibot]

The trend you'll notice is most of these colorful cartoon zoomer games are the free to play games designed to basically just suck kids in and milk them (or their parents) dry. Fortnite is just basically all cameo characters now so there's not much art in just making fortnite versions of celebrities and other games characters lawl

Most games still generally have good artwork. I'm not even going to list games because there's no where to start or end. Just kidding I will. Look at things like cup head, absolutely amazing artwork and effort went into that game. Hellblade, insane atmosphere. So many games out there with intricate, unique monsters or whatever type of characters.

Scorn was basically a love letter to hr Geiger

Sooooo many incredible indie games with awesome 2d and pixel are and stuff


Open your motha fuggin eyes my boy

i refer to AAA games. Indies and devs developing niche games know what works.

Hellblade is gritty AF but is a niche game. Only AAA dev I can think of that say FU to the zoomer look is Fromsoftware

not sure if I understand the OP, do you mean nowadays we get more GTA V and less GTA IV?

So so. GTA5 has that baby-oil artsyle I'm talking about. As someone mentioned the Fortnite look. Although I get why they would in order to represent the modern plastic looking LA.


A good example is HL1 & HL2 vs modern FPS. HL had that liminal space and grit feel to it. Some say ''yeah but because old graphics'' but not really. A good example of a modern FPS going from slight gritty look to that ''baby oil'' look is CS:GO/CS2. Example:

[davik]

thats movies as well. they make **** out to be all happy when this world is a depressing mess. its what happens when youre rich and delusional.

[nkiritsis13]

Agreed.

My own example:
Doom 2016's art direction > Doom Eternal

You can still have plenty of color without cranking the saturation up to eye-bleed levels. That's my number 1 pet peeve with reshade presets, too.

A lot of games (obviously not all) have a similar quirk going on as a lot of Hollywood films and TV shows where everything is too vibrant and clean. Again, it's not going to affect everything because not everything is going for the same visual style, but when it clashes, it really does so to a noticeable degree, and in the case of games can make them less "realistic" looking even when that was ostensibly the developer's aim.

No idea what OP is talking about but I definitely noticed a shift towards the overly cartoony/comic look. Basically the fortnite sorta look. The latest street fighter game totally encapsulates it:

I think that's at least part of it for sure, and the latest Street Fighter is the perfect example there.

What's particularly grating about all of these games trying to follow Fortnite is how we wound up in a situation where a significant chunk of games are trying to ape the same sort of "hello, fellow they/thems" aesthetic and attitudes.

Don't like Fortnite? Too bad, Company X's next game is going to have a near identical design philosophy with blinding colors and Marvel writing because that is why the kids are playing it, so naturally they'll hop onto cringecore shooter #23.

No, overly vibrant colours making the style of the game look kid and ghey friendly.
FromSoftware games are a good example of having a good gritty style. It is also one of the driving points why they are popular




This, way too much saturation and vibrance. Most games feel like some black swagger teens fantasy.




GTA5, GoW:Ragarok, every Ubisoft game, Mortal Kombat 1, Spider-Ghey, Every FPS etc.

All games share something similar, as JayJ350 said - way too vibrant colours making the world cartoonish.

Also the added layer of goofy friendship relationships in the story further ruin the vibe.
The 90's even managed to make Spider-man feel like a violent comic with it's athmosphere. Now Spiderman is ghey as phuck.


Check CS:GO, with the new CS2 even they jumped into the ''Vibrant'' look to appeal to kiddies even more. And it was one of the few FPS left that didn't fully look like ghey like Valorant, COD, Battlefield.


MK1? Literally the gheyest Mortal Kombat I have seen. They focused so much on the gaming looking ghey that they forgot they were making a nextgen game. Ending up looking way worse (graphically) than MK11 that was released 5 years before that

The latest Call of Duty games are such a bloody joke that it's as pathetic as this generation of soys.

It's as though they went in the opposite direction as back in the 2000s with the "grey/brown shooter" trend, except that was practically just a filter that didn't interfere, and these days you could easily remedy with a reshade preset. Even then, it was generally overblown only because of the surge of games trying to copy the few that pulled it off well. Nevertheless, the core design philosophy was still in tact and appropriate for the games' settings and tones, whereas these days it's devoid of sense or internal consistency.

As with my Doom Eternal example, they went from having a very grounded and natural approach to how the Doomslayer would physically interact with things like picking up a new weapon or ripping the keycard off a corpse to lazy, floating, glowing icons. Or how Apex Legends is in some insane way related in any way to Titanfall. Even the latest Gears of War games are full of vibrant, off putting faff despite the demographic having nothing in common with kiddie dress-up shooters.

[rollerball]

Every game looks amazing on QD-OLED.

[KilaByte]

In b4 the usual edgy depressed crew.

In after short bus depressed crew.

[DASBUNKER]

Agreed.

My own example:
Doom 2016's art direction > Doom Eternal

breh you literally copied my example above

[eod8989]

Was COD Black Ops the first game to use the fortnite look? Came out in 2010. I remember seeing this chit when it first came out and thinking this looks nothing like the old FPS games i played. Something about it just looks off.

[FallOutBrah]

im more interested in any game on the n64 than any new game coming out nowadays.

[JayJ350]

This is basically a perfect example of the difference between PS1 - PS3 era colors vs PS4 - today colors. Games used to go for a far more natural look, which is ironic when you consider all of the modern lighting effects they try to use these days to make things supposedly look more realistic.

Also shows why I consider so many new games to look cartoonish compared to older games.

[alltrapbrah]

This is basically a perfect example of the difference between PS1 - PS3 era colors vs PS4 - today colors. Games used to go for a far more natural look, which is ironic when you consider all of the modern lighting effects they try to use these days to make things supposedly look more realistic.

Also shows why I consider so many new games to look cartoonish compared to older games.

I never played CS:GO nor have I played CS2, but I have played a fuk ton of the original CS and quite a bit of CSS…

Anyway, I don’t at all recall Dust2 being as drab and grey looking as the CSGO pic. I actually remember it having a lot more yellow/orange tones akin to the CS2 pic.

[JayJ350]

I never played CS:GO nor have I played CS2, but I have played a fuk ton of the original CS and quite a bit of CSS…

Anyway, I don’t at all recall Dust2 being as drab and grey looking as the CSGO pic. I actually remember it having a lot more yellow/orange tones akin to the CS2 pic.

I think you need to go back and play those games or adjust your monitor.

[alltrapbrah]

I think you need to go back and play those games or adjust your monitor.

Cute.

Load up Google images and type De_dust2, and look at the pics of the map from the older games.

What defined the Dust maps was a desert theme with a colour palette comprised of various shades of yellow.

As I said I have not played CS:GO, but it looks like they did away with that colour palette for that version. It seems CS2 aims to restore it, though it’s more orangey this time around, which is kinda cool.

Anyway, try not being such a ph4g next time and actually investigate this stuff.

[JayJ350]

Cute.

Load up Google images and type De_dust2, and look at the pics of the map from the older games.

What defined the Dust maps was a desert theme with a colour palette comprised of various shades of yellow.

As I said I have not played CS:GO, but it looks like they did away with that colour palette for that version. It seems CS2 aims to restore it, though it’s more orangey this time around, which is kinda cool.

Anyway, try not being such a ph4g next time and actually investigate this stuff.

Yeah I can't see any bright neons and pastels anywhere in the old games. Just look at those tarps in the new one for example, went from an army green color to bright pastel teal. Everything is notably more bright and saturated looking.

[alltrapbrah]

Yeah I can't see any bright neons and pastels anywhere in the old games. Just look at those tarps in the new one for example, went from an army green color to bright pastel teal. Everything is notably more bright and saturated looking.

Again, the dust maps - stylistically - are trying to capture something of a desert/sandy feel. Now, I've never been to a desert (unless you count Texas), but I'm guessing they're fukin' hot and... BRIGHT!?! Who'd have thought.

Who cares about the tarp. There's also a palm tree with some green leaves if you wanna get bent out of shape about that too.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this may not be the best example because I think the CS2 map is actually trying to get back to something more like the original conceptualisaion, whereas CS:GO moved away from it.

EDIT: Notice the differerence between the sky in the two versions. In CS2 they're obviously going for a sunnier, desert heat middle of the day vibe.

[nkiritsis13]

breh you literally copied my example above

Sorry man, the thread wasn't updating for me when I posted. Hit it and all of a sudden I went from the middle of page 1 on post #10 to the middle of the second page.

I'm in agreement though, I can't stand what they did to the sequel.

[JayJ350]

Again, the dust maps - stylistically - are trying to capture something of a desert/sandy feel. Now, I've never been to a desert (unless you count Texas), but I'm guessing they're fukin' hot and... BRIGHT!?! Who'd have thought.

Who cares about the tarp. There's also a palm tree with some green leaves if you wanna get bent out of shape about that too.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this may not be the best example because I think the CS2 map is actually trying to get back to something more like the original conceptualisaion, whereas CS:GO moved away from it.

EDIT: Notice the differerence between the sky in the two versions. In CS2 they're obviously going for a sunnier, desert heat middle of the day vibe.

Well now you're just trying to justify the modern games look lol

[rollerball]

Been enjoying playing Ratchet and Clank and South Park on the PS5.

[DASBUNKER]

Sorry man, the thread wasn't updating for me when I posted. Hit it and all of a sudden I went from the middle of page 1 on post #10 to the middle of the second page.

I'm in agreement though, I can't stand what they did to the sequel.

no worries just thought it was funny we picked out the same example even tho I don't think its the most obvious one. Your detailed posts are always great to read! wish Eternal was more like '16

[alltrapbrah]

Well now you're just trying to justify the modern games look lol

I've seen your posts before and I know you're not as dense as you're coming across right now. I'm justifying why De_Dust2 is bright, not modern games in general.

Would you complain that RE4 is too dark? No, you wouldn't. Why? Because the style/theme is a deliberate design choice that suits the game.

I'm not saying you're wrong about modern games, frankly I agree. What I'm telling you is to pick better examples. You're hating on a desert themed map for being bright, that is DUMB.

[JayJ350]

I've seen your posts before and I know you're not as dense as you're coming accross right now. I'm justifying why De_Dust2 is bright, not modern games in general.

Would you complain that RE4 is too dark? No, you wouldn't. Why? Because the style/theme is a deliberate design choice that suits the game.

I'm not saying you're wrong about modern games, frankly I agree. What I'm telling you is to pick better examples. You're hating on a desert themed map for being bright, that is DUMB.

It's literally just a pic someone else posted here. You don't have to be so obtuse.

[swolefnatic]

StarCraft and Diablo had some gritty and beautiful art style

[BraneyGumble]

Yeah I 'member those old school "isolated and depressed and melancholic and stuff" games, like

- every single Nintendo game ever
- every single sports/racing game ever
- 90%+ of all platformers/point and click adventure games and MMORPGs
- minor FPS mentions like Q3 Arena and UT2003/4

Maybe you're just nostalgic about the piss/schit filter games of the 00's.

[JayJ350]

Yeah I 'member those old school "isolated and depressed and melancholic and stuff" games, like

- every single Nintendo game ever
- every single sports/racing game ever
- 90%+ of all platformers/point and click adventure games and MMORPGs
- minor FPS mentions like Q3 Arena and UT2003/4

Maybe you're just nostalgic about the piss/schit filter games of the 00's.