#realistic graphics

[briannabug]

[fantasyresident]

Photo-realism In Gaming: My Thoughts

I’m probably going to get torched for this, but what stance can I take on an issue without being hated by someone? Anyways, I’ve been noticing a trend that slightly disturbs and distresses me going on in gaming, especially with big console titles. More often than not, game developers are adopting a more realistic, technologically advanced approach to making video games. The average character from video games these days looks like a person from our world was plucked and dropped into the video game world. Countless titles have adopted this “style” if you want to call it, and it makes me uncomfortable as a fan of fantasy-inspired games. Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and Pokemon are what ultimately got me into gaming as a hardcore fan, so seeing this new direction of gaming is a bit sad and disappointing for me. It’s almost as if new technologies are making devs want to make their games more and more realistic, equating realism with high standard graphics. 

I’ve always believed that what determines good graphics is not only good textures, but also an effective visual style, not how photorealstic something appears to be. I’ve always known games to be an escape from the real world, and as a person with autism who has trouble looking people in the eye, when I’m practically controlling real people in video games it makes me feel uncomfortable and that’s something nobody ever discusses because realistic graphics are always praised without any other remarks about it, and autism is largely swept under the rug. I understand, it’s fascinating that things look so realistic. Technology has come a far distance, and not without hard work. But at the same time, I feel like maybe there could be more people like me out there who feel the same way about the lack of stylized games that got them into gaming in the first place, and I weep for them. This whole situation makes me feel discouraged to try very many games because they all look realistic with little style influence. I’m not here to state that realistic games are bad, that’s not my point. My point in bringing this up is to voice my honest opinions about the state of gaming and graphics while also bringing to light the increasing reliance upon realistic graphics to immerse players rather than using a more fantasy-inspired colorful style.

 I'm aware game devs are hard at work either way, but with technology like facial scanning to create characters, I just yearn for simpler days in which art was a hand-made craft that took a lot of an artist's heart and soul to make, like it was a creation born from the heart. When a character is hand-crafted rather than made largely by scanning in features, it feels more like you were involved in the creation process of that character. Many of you aren't going to understand my feelings on this, and that's fine, I don't expect anyone to. But when you feel so strongly about art and have a condition like autism that doesn't allow you to be comfortable even in your world of gaming, it really hurts to see where technology is taking the gaming industry. I'm just anxiously awaiting the day that more people rise from the ashes and decide to bring back the style of graphics that made me love games from the start.

[briannabug]

outlast 2 environments

[briannabug]

outlast 2

[briannabug]

Laird Byron & Nick Tremblay

[bielxperience]

BIEL XPERIENCE

[bielxperience]

BIEL XPERIENCE

[zelmiica]

no but i’m actually really impressed with the winds and waves graphics??? like that water looks crispy af, dare i say some of the best water we’ve seen from nintendo