Why "good" graphics don't matter | Asmongold Reacts
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2023
- What do we mean when we say "this game looks good"? Is it really the graphics?
by @NovemberHotel • Why "Good" Graphics Do...
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Игры
There's definitely a difference between "graphically impressive" and "visually appealing". If I wanted to immerse myself in a realistic world, I'd just go outside and touch some grass.
You should touch grass anyway. It’s good for you!
@@TB-BBByou can do that too but it’s way less fun :(
I'm referring strictly to the look of a game and not the functionality. But even then, the feel of shooting in games is often very different from what it would be irl. @@TB-BBB
@@Retrosenescent fuck shootin people in real life because there is no respawns and so you cant engage in funny ragdoll physics shenanigans 🤔😂
Ghost of Tsushima is the best of both worlds in my book
"Graphics are sprinkles on a cupcake they might make you want to buy the cupcake but they don't really make it taste that much better you don't buy a cupcake because of the sprinkles either" WELL SAID MAN i cannot agree more
Dude that's really good, I'm using this for sure
But the problem is that people choose cupcakes based on their appearance =) Of course, someone will find a proven bakery & order cupcakes from him, but for most people impressions are more important, & no one will sell really bad taste cupcakes anyway. No matter how much you would like to believe that “gameplay is all above”, but graphics are a component of gameplay.
Graphics do matter, but not to the degree it's currently focused on, the REAL problem is development resources allocation, graphics should be placed within a strict budgetary constraint.
@@imnotakingimnotagodbut people will leave a nice looking game that plays bad for a less visually appealing but much more fun game. I think vanilla cupcakes look better than chocolate but I understand that I prefer chocolate, first impressions are important but so is actually looking into what you are actually about to purchase and whether it’s something actually want, which I would say most people who don’t buy games the first week they are out do
And as for your “no one is gonna sell a bad tasting cupcake” they are plenty examples of developers selling bad games that look nice
Oh look, a food analogy that's GOOD
The reason why the early leaps in graphics were so impressive to people is that it gave the art departments more tools to work with, which they gobbled up. We are now at the point where the new tools given by "better graphics" are marginal in improving the art design.
and it takes exponentially more time now to create the more detailed stuff when it doesn’t really matter
The only thing that is maybe an advancement is the RTX shit but tbh that is not something most games can profit from.
Graphics can matter alot. The jump of playing sims on my 3070 on my quest 2, versus playing on my 4080 on quest 3, is a big difference. iracing/ams2 are finally crystal clear. That matters heavily for immersion in my headset. Not as much as the direct drive wheel upgrade over the gear driven one, but more than the loadcell brake over the logitech one. It matters
@@diablo.the.cheater RTX is as big as when we went from 2D games from 3D games, and it's the 90s all over again. In early days, 3D games performed extremely poorly and the graphics cards capable of 3D rendering were expensive as hell. RTX just needs more time to develop and more tools to implement it. RTX is the singular biggest leap in graphics we've had in almost 30 years, but it was rushed. Ultimately all games will support it beginning next-gen probably as literally all games could benefit from it.
I’d say it more that it used to be a puddle that became a pond, then a lake, now it’s more like an ocean becoming a larger ocean. It’s just less obvious. Also, many people simply don’t have the eye to recognise what’s improving. Some RT GI might utterly transform a scene to one savvy user, whereas another might not even notice the improvement.
As someone living in southern parts of Poland (so close to Czech), I definitely felt immersed when playing Kingdom Come Deliverance since the environments was something I was very familiar with (not only forests and mountains are the same - I even spend my childhood playing swordfighting in these somewhat wild natural areas, my head full of Lord of The Rings, Robin Hood, etc.)
Same! I was sucked into that environment like crazy. Devs were in Czech in person to see it and get inspired which is amazing. They nailed it even on this dogshit engine which performance is so poor.
I'm from Ukraine and our nature is also very similar overall. When I tell you that this game pulled me out of my worst depression episodes...... believe me. It was just so therapeutic to be immersed in the nature together with that lovely music, I felt like I was a child all over again, running around in my home village 😓
I also gotta say that Witcher 1 (and 1 specifically) also gave me the same feeling! Both of these games are securely in my top-10 of all time for sure.
@@Li_Tobler Well, Witcher is made by Polish devs (based on books by Polish author that was inspired by European folklore).
To add to the list, I heard from my friend that Two Worlds 1's vistas are also quite familiar to him (that's another game by Polish studio, but that one is rather bad in comparison).
@@NaoyaYami of course I'm aware, big fan of pan Andrzej as well! 🤗
The game you mentioned looks kinda like Gothic ⚔
@@Li_Toblerbut it plays even jankier despite being so much older xD
If the game is bad, no amount of good graphics can save it. But if the game is awesome, then great graphics can shine and are just a chefs kiss. Unfortunately most games focus on the graphics, not on the game and story d:
D4 is a perfect example
Because previews and marketing often push graphics, it's the easiest to relate to the consumer.
@@ittylink Ive been playing EQ1 again after lots of indie titles and yeah the ui sucks but the game is good you get skill ups you need etc, something missing from the games of today
The only game to nail graphics, story and gameplay is red dead 2, hands down
But even if the gameplay is awesome, graphics that are not good enough will make the game overall suffer. A lot of people will simply not try out or play a game because is not visually appealing.
As someone who has been learning game dev and unreal engine for 4-5 years now, realistic graphics are much easier to achieve than a stylized art style. Mostly because of the tools unreal engine gives you out the box are targeted more towards realistic graphics. Unreal Engine gives you megascans which are 100% realistic assets. If you want to make a stylized game you need model the style yourself and either make the materials yourself or use other tools like substance painter.
I always cringe with anime games trying to use the unreal engine. The realistic graphic does not match with the artistic artstyle of animes. Best example is Shounen Jump Force. Game looked like dogshit.
So it is more along the lines that companies are being too cheap to differentiate themselves anymore?
@Olpyhon I've seen some decent anime games in UE. I've never heard of the one you mentioned, but I'll give it a look lol but yeah, I'd say I do see more stylized games being made with unity. But there are definitely plenty made in UE, for sure.
@kosmosXcannon depends on the game and the company. A lot of big Dev companies using unreal engine are still going to make everything from scratch, but it goes both ways. Tons of big companies are definitely taking advantage of things like megascans and metahumans cause these options are free with Unreal Engine.
@@Olpyhon exactly, even as anime fan i always cringe looking at anime characters to be an almost realistic plastic model like jump force did and also star ocean since star ocean 4 till now
good example for anime games where the in game character models looks appealing and not bothering are hoyoverse games, persona 5, tales series, xenoblade series, atelier ryza and so on
I'm from Russia and "Atomic Heart" just blew my mind with its style and cultural references. This game has become a cult game for us in terms of style. It contains almost fifty years of our history, carefully distributed and presented in a "retro-future" style. I can confidently say for the majority of players that we like it and we still thought that American players would like it less precisely because they would not understand this style. You are one hundred percent right.
A lot of its charm got completely lost in translation also. The game had SO MANY Russian cultural references and memes from the past ~150 years its impossible to translate them all accurately, people outside the ex-soviet bloc would never get those references.
As an American, I liked the Russian cultural references in Atomic Heart and I actively looked up some of the historical figures referenced in the game (eg. the geneticists who were purged/executed in real life due to Stalin favoring Lysenkoism). The voice acting in the English dubbed version is very strange/somewhat mediocre because it is wildly inconsistent. The game has a mixture of completely random stereotypical Queen's English British accent, Southern/country American accents, East Coast accents, etc. and it feels a bit immersion breaking because it felt like the devs just used random English speakers from completely different parts of the world.
@@Intranetusa Yes, I heard that there are problems with the dubbing in the English version. But we must pay tribute - this is their first game.
Yep, cannot agree more. You know where I first heard about this game? I heard about it from my miggle aged colleague, who said "I spent like 2 hours at prologue".
I bought it a spent about an hour at prologue, oftentimes being close to breaking to tears. I kinda feel lump in my throat even now, just by writing about it.
Just to clarify - we both did complete the game eventually lol
The graphic is just there as a tool to help you experience the world around you. The reason we play is to experience good gameplay or storytelling.
Graphics have to be as good as the art style demands.
@@balloonb0y677 I remember getting more joy out of games produced in the 80s and 90s when they where using 240 interlaced (I think ) on the old NES than I get in today's 4K with high resolution textures.
There's a massive difference between graphics and **art direction**. From Software games put a huge emphasis on art direction because it's what makes worlds and enemies unique and memorable. Great art direction immerses the players, giving a world a feel of "grand scale" and boss fights the feel of "epic battles". When you have that, most people overlook graphical fidelity.
I've never before experienced a boss fight with as much spectacle as the Radahn fight. When you look at the individual details of textures and outfits for Elden Ring, they're pretty blotchy. But when you look at the scale of the battle field, the starry night sky, your army of companions aiding you, and the huge spectacle that is Radhan, you just can't help but be amazed
Radhan disrespectful here i am looking around enjoying the land scape and this dirty mofo launches a arrow the size of a house at me, instantly killing me before i even cross the field.
Asmon inspires me.. My parents said if i get 50K followers They'd buy me a professional camera for recording..begging u guys , literally
Begging...
There were some complain that AC6 use "dated" graphics too, but it was before launch, and those people seems just judging from the demo and early preview. I personally don't aware about it, too busy tracking moving enemies, projectiles, lasers, and exploding stuff.
@@namantherockstarno
@@r3dr4te963 yeah there is quite a big difference between graphics when deeply analysing and graphics in motion.. do the people complaining actually just stop and look at ground textures?
The whole discussion can be wonderfully transferred to the photo world. When digital photography started so many people on the forums got angry and looked at the pixels at 2000% zoom and told how beautiful and great the photo was. However, if you zoom out, you have a completely irrelevant photo of an underexposed green field. While super talented photographers took the most amazing and artistic photos and then some idiots zoomed in to 2000% and got annoyed that any pixels were not as sharp beceause the mega Pixel count were lower then average.
I remember a time I was handed a cheap earlly 00s camera and told to take pictures of the desert for a project. The megapixels was so low that everything that the camera produced looked like a blurry oil painting. The photos won some small awards at school because of the "artistic direction" I went with while I was desperately trying to make interesting photos from a bad camera.
@@NameIsDocLol, that’s funny. I imagine you could do the same with some vintage film cameras
@@incription yes probably, the errors become "deliberate choices." and limitations you must work around.
@@NameIsDoc And that is the essence of art... doing something with what you have in hand.
@@NameIsDoc basically what happened with old videogames with their art and music, and boy did we get some fuckin bangers
The OG warcraft 3 is about 2GB, each model have one 36 shapes to construct it. It was the high spec back in 2003 but 20 years past people still play it.
I remember when I played Dark Cloud on the PS2 release, I had a sudden epiphany that graphics were going to plateau. And I was happy, cause that obviously meant we'd get a final generation of consoles and every game from then on would just be those consoles and I could accumulate a huge library of games without having to start over for the next generation every time.
I was so naïve...
yep dont under estimate corporate greed. they only make these new consoles to force others to move on in order to play multiplayer. me i prefer solo play. they doing the same thing with computers unfortunently with worse OS systems :*(
That dream is still alive. It’s called PC
@@alexzandermanning6094 they are forcing pc users to install higher spyware OS which are usually have no backwards compatibility for good old games
Valheim is one of my favourite looking games of all time, the graphics are very very simple, but the artstyle and overall use of the assets it has, makes it such a visual spectacle no matter what im looking at in the game.
Yep and they didn't skimp when it came to the lighting and the environmental atmosphere. The night feels dark and storms on the ocean feel dangerous.
I also love the gameplay and progression system of valheim, people say its grindy but those people have never played runescape.
this comment 100%
@@jaredgarden2455 it really is grindy ngl
I find the rain storms in Valheim very immersive
Realism is temporary. An art style is eternal.
Doom is eternal
bro i have seen you on every video on youtube, its time to log off
Ok I don't need to enjoy a game for an eternity.
Dude he didn't mean that, it's just old games with defined art-style are still to this day visually appealing while realistic graphics get old every 2 years and then newer realistic graphic replace it.
Try playing realistic graphics game after 20 years :D@@hexerei02021
Not really. Art direction is also important for realistic games, but people don’t realize that realism is an art style.
Same thing seems to be happening to TV shows, with some companies not knowing how to make the visuals work together. They'll have a bunch of characters who are supposed to live in the woods, give them brand new costumes, nightclub makeup, very tidy surroundings and lighting from any random direction.
The paint may be ugly, but the painting can still be beautiful
I just think we're in an era where no one says "these graphics are insane, i gotta play this" cause we've seen it all.
So far throughout history, we've been shown time and time again that we actually hadn't seen it all in spite of thinking so. Chances are that trend will continue.
@@perlundgren7797 In computing though, we're well down the road of incremental improvement and refinement rather than rapid innovation in a lot of areas. In the late 90s we were getting significant new CPU and GPU features every generation (I remember when SIMD and the Voodoo 1 rendering in 16 bit color were mindblowing new capabilities), there was marked visual improvement every time you upgraded. Now, games from 10 years ago running on current gen hardware look almost as good as current gen games, because not much about the platform has changed over that time, you just have more cores, more memory, and more bandwidth.
When you can already render at near cinema quality in realtime on consumer hardware where else do you go with a platform that's bound to a 2D panel? I'm sure we haven't seen it all in the general sense, but as far as the traditional PC/console paradigm the limiting factor is now the 2D display. VR doesn't seem to have a whole lot of mass appeal because the hardware is still fairly awkward and primitive and a lot of people simply can't deal with the sensory mismatch and get headaches or motion sickness. I guess next big thing has gotta be some Elon Musk wirehead sh it, because that sounds more likely with current tech than a holodeck.
we haven't seen it all. Graphics improvements in major games have slowed down, yes, but it will leap forward again just like it has time and time again. Our current time is about increasing developer tools, access to making games, that's why so many indie games are thriving.
Idk the Matrix UE5 demo blew my mind when I saw it the first time
Now such word-of-mouth has shifted to mobile games. Examples include Uma Musume Pretty Derby's concert (2021) and Goddess of Victory: Nikke (2022)
Crysis is a stellar example of skill over the tool, came out 2007 and it still looks so realistic , I would say exceeding most current games.
If you look back at why, they went on field trips to do reference work and color studies of how things looked, not just using google images.
Also it was passion not just a job, I think that makes the ultimate difference in these fields.
Showing my dad the Crysis 2 trailer, where it shows off all the armor modes in the cinematic, was all it took to convince him that and Xbox 360 was an actual hardware upgrade from our Wii!
@@jonathansoko1085 you tripping, crysis 1 was an actually revolutionary open world gameplay + sandbox destruction for its time. Now I will admit Crysis 2 and 3 were steps down
@@jonathansoko1085yea the movement feels pretty ass nowadays and the terrain is pretty clunky to get around sometimes (my experience playing it like 4 months ago for the first time)
crysis
lol unreal 5 presentations do seem like their entire perception of reality is from the Internet 😂
I remember this being a huge discussion when Windwaker came out. That was the first graphics vs. art style situation I remember being a big deal
Windwaker is exactly the game I think of whenever this discussion comes up. The game's art style hasn't aged a DAY, it looks just as good (or bad, if you fall on that side of the discussion) as it did on day one.
Every other 3d Zelda game has aged MUCH more poorly, purely from a visuals aspect.
There are some other games that were affected by this as well. Jet Set Radio being the first one that comes to mind after Wind Waker.
Anything that was Cel Shaded just basically doesn't age.
i think because the higher ups and investors fired the experienced senior people in the company,
and they're the one that responsible for the overall art direction and other gameplay elements,
but they were seen as a "risk" by the higher ups, because Art Direction takes ton of time, takes experimentation, and hard to implement.
they think if they just get rid of the guy and hire someone that was mediocre and a "yes man",
they'll makes more money and they can churn out game faster.
not knowing that their decision led to their downfall.
Elden Ring is one of my favorite games visually-wise because of the art direction. It looks like a painting, it's absolutely stunning from an artistic point of view, even though a lot of the textures are not as high res as other games. Okami, the 2006 PS2 game is another example of game where the art style and direction are so good that it feels like playing an art piece.
Also I don`t recall anyone complaining of Elden Ring running poorly or having massive loading times.
@@Notmyname1593 I do but I also recall this being a PC issue and it was fixed in the first week.
OMORI. Sure, it's a pixel art game while you move around, but when you get into battles and you're looking at the photo album, or in some still-image cutscenes, the art is phenomenal (it has this really neat animated 4-frame flip art book style). So is that 180- track OST.
Textures in any game are not improved since 2010.
@@Dhalinpixel graphics is a no brainer, just look at terraria
One of the absolute best examples of poor graphics, but incredible art style/lighting/mood has to be the game called Journey. It is jawdroppingly gorgeous at all times, using extremely simple textures and shapes. It has the best use of lighting I've seen, which gives it incredible dynamic range and atmosphere.
"Poor" is not the word I would have chosen as, as you ,mentioned it, it's regularly jawdropping. But you're right :)
i saw that shit it's beautiful
That game has so much atmosphere! The arty style is just: Wow!
Yeah that one extended part where you’re sliding really fast across the sand was mind blowing at the time for me. The lighting is so good
I can't say poor, more using less is more to make them memorable.
It’s not that “good graphics don’t matter” it’s really “photo realistic graphics don’t matter”.
@@dantefromdevilmaycry9857 I bought a 3090 mostly for CUDA stuff but of course have fired up some games on it. Coming from a 1050 the difference really isn't all that remarkable like it was back in the day when the fundamental featureset of GPUs was improving basically every generation. Sure, I can run games at 4K but I don't even really notice the pixels much in a 1080p frame to begin with on my ~28" monitor from a few feet away.
@@dantefromdevilmaycry9857 You see what happened was game lighting was done before hand and games like AC Unity used a static time of day. Which meant a person can author the scene to make it look great and create that sense of connection to whats happening on screen
We then switched to more real time global illumination techniques combined with a dynamic time of day, you can have absolutely beautiful looking scenes to bland standing in the same position.
Funny how people play games to escape reality, yet they are wanting their games to be more realistic...
If you want to know the important of graphics, just look at the Baldurs Gate 3 and Zelda - It looks beautiful and stunning, but every person I've seen play it only really recognizes said graphics after being blown away by the gameplay first. Its literally something I've heard said hours in to the game "how beautiful does this game look BTW?", after already figuring the game out.
One of the biggest leaps I noticed was the preview of the halflife2 engine. The water looked so crisp, the barrels had realistic physics.. so good
Yeah, I can still remember the demo they showed.
Agreed. Still starfield is blurry as s***. I know some textures are bad etc but if game forces you using Taa AND FSR just to blur everything and there are two gpus that can work without fsr and work over 60fps is bs. You still have to disable TAA using .ini tweaks... No gamma or fov settings etc. Gamma and fov arent graphics to be exact but TAA and upscaling forcing is.
Yeah man! Those tech demos and eventually the game itself were such pivotal moments in gaming. The thing HL2 did so incredibly well was not only having good graphics and physics, but also utilizing those things in the game. I still think the gravity gun is one of the coolest weapons ever. Also, it's actually pretty embarrassing for other game devs that a 2004 game still has one of the best uses of physics in games.
Yes cpu intensive leaps are what truly matter in the end
Ryse: Son of Rome released in 2013 and could still be passed as releasing today. Those graphics blew my mind when it released and it was a really fun game as well.
I totally agree, i played it not too long ago, and I really thought it was way much recent that that, and it looks way better than some new games
I think two games that were critically missed in this video are Zelda : Wind Waker, and Hades. Both of them are breathtaking with art style, and in the case of WW, still hold up to this day.
It's a little funny because WW was absolutely bashed when it first came out for its graphics.
Which I didn't understand at all because it's one of the most beautiful to look at.. and now apparently everyone agrees?
Others have said it before but complicated/realistic doesn't mean visually appealing to look at.
Well, I think it's a question of hindsight too. It might have not been very novel or limit-pushing at the time, but nowadays it's easy to see that it aged very well, and has a pretty timeless style. Which would have not been obvious at release. A lot of games from that era aged very poorly @@Manas-co8wl
@@Dekharen You're right. Back then, we may have wanted realistic graphics just for the awe value and a sense of technical progression. I think we overestimated how much we'd actually enjoy said graphics once we got it. We didn't realize much more of realism is just much more of the same thing we see everyday.
I think also people miss that realism in general leads to having a hyper-specific idea of something. A good example of a success is DOOM 2016 ; the original DOOM had a very specific feel to it, going through futuristic corridors with ominous music playing; it was very well re-created with stilla good dose of wonder. Same for say TW3, which aims to present a world as a large, unknown entity, but doesn't fail at providing every detail to maintain that fantasy. A simpler style calls to the reader/watcher/player's imagination, which are essential to the dreamy side of a different world. Realism grounds it. Sometimes it's good, but often, it's bad.@@Manas-co8wl
As someone with 20/20 vision, and accurate colour vision (through the spectrum, professionally tested) and I can spot moving pixel from a monitor with very small contrast difference, I still struggle at times to spot enemies in most shooters.
10:58 I would also add in MGS1, 2 and 3, games that absolutely blew everybody's balls off with how graphically impressive they were at the time, while still holding up to this day thanks to their masterful visual design and direction (I suppose your mileage may vary on MGS1 depending on how early you got into gaming, but for me a lot of the visuals still work extraordinarily well).
I do remember articles about MGS1 graphics, seeing your characters breath in the cold and whatnot. For the day it was legit. 3rd is still my favorite, hope the remake is done well.
MGS also has always done a great job of including so many small details. The fact you can shoot the enemies "!" over their head and they get dazed for a second, and they put interactions with just about anything you could think of. You could call and have codec conversations about the item you're holding, or have them just help push you in the right direction for whatever part of the game you were on. Plus the 4th wall breaking of the CD case thing, and mantis controller port 2. Or even the fact that you get different cardboard boxes that you don't really pay attention to, just to find out, you can sit in the box on a truck and transport to older parts of the game. Those minor details are still so impressive to me.
Idk if MGS1's graphics were blowing anyone's minds. Moreso the gameplay and writing. Twin Snakes, maybe
@@jase276 I think they were mind-blowing. But not because graphics for their own sake are worth all that much, rather because the graphics were masterfully used in the service of gameplay.
Stealth games take advantage of graphical fidelity more than other genres do, I think. Slithering through the grass in MSG3, tanks rolling past you 3 feet away in your ghillie suit in CoD4, a silhouette with three glowing green dots in the shadows breaking the fourth wall in Splinter Cell. These experiences feel way more visceral when they are visual phenomena you are immersed in yourself than they do just as gameplay mechanics you're interacting with from a distance.
MGS4 still looks incredible to this day. It's a shame it hasn't been ported to modern consoles
That depth perception thing is actually totally something I've overlooked about why visibility in games can be so bad. Your eyes can't focus on a 2D plane to make the details of what you're looking at get any better than what is visually rendered on the screen.
2:50 This- this is the part that always gets me whenever one of my friends points to an unreal game and is like 'Dude- this isn't triple A but it looks it! I mean, it's just them walking around at the moment in this kickstarter but man- the graphics are amazing! So much effort went into it!'
I'm... not sure how many times I can say that it's really easy to make a pretty forest/ grass area in a few minutes. There's a ton of Kickstarter games that got funded that use the default character model, default animations, tutorial level stuff- it blows my mind that that stuff sometimes gets funded
Asmon just nailed the part about Atomic Heart. This game really is more immersive for russian community because it was meant to appeal more to them.
As an Italian i can enjoy Atomic Heart as much as i can enjoy Fallout or Bioshock, both of which are based on American culture which is equally "foreign" to me.
I can't express enough how much more I like when a game has an artstyle that gives it a personality, there's a reason why I still play some of the oldest games out there and don't mind the graphics, because it has it's own charm, unlike right now when it's just a bland copy of realism, which isn't bad but it's just boring.
silent hill
fallout 3, NV and skyrim come to mind
diablo 2
I think games like Super Mario 1-3, Fragile Dreams, Okami, No More Heroes, Bayonetta, Chrono Trigger, Conker, Jade Empire are better examples. Fallout 3 and on to me shows age because they focused on it being more technically graphically impressive then art style. You fire up original copy of Fallout 3 you can't help but notice how ugly it is.
And no one mentioned dishonored. Truly an underrated game
Bloodborne’s style is amazing. I played it literally this summer and not only I finished it twice, it literally was so good I made an 1h video about that. One of my greatest video game experiences of all time
13:12 this reminds me of the video of an Unreal dev talking about a specific multiplayer map Facing Worlds that gained or lost popularity in different versions SIMPLY due to how easily visually-readable it was. it turned out a super photo real one was too cluttered and difficult to parse during heated combat, than the very simple original geometrical version, so they eventually reverted it to find a middle ground.
My favorite visual style in games is when they "fuse" realistic graphics with slightly cartoony or goofy ones. A pretty good example of this (imo) is Detroit:Become Human, which on first glance looks stunning and very realistic, but when you look closer, the characters really do look video gamey and artificial but in a good way, another good example of this is the Marvel Spider-Man games, which again, look amazing but still have that goofy side of them like eyes and skin. This way it appeals to people who love realistic graphics, and it appeals to people who aren't a fan of them.
I haven't played Detroit: Become Human myself, but I watched like 8 different playthroughs of the game because it's so entertaining and almost each playthrough had something new to show. Really cool game, and yeah the artstyle works quite well.
American McGee’s Alice still holds up so well with its art direction despite being from over 20 years ago. Maybe I should finally give Madness Returns a go, I adored the first game so much as a kid.
Madness Returns is 100% kino.
Graphical Aesthetic and art direction lasts longer and leaves more of an impact than hyper realism.
Always have. Always will. Your game is only cutting edge until something else comes out, and steals the crown.
It's like a game of flavor of the month hot potato.
I'd be careful of calling that 'hyper realism'. 'Hyper Realism' is what the OG Blizzard artists coined as the name for their cinematics art style. It already means a specific thing. What you are looking to use here is the term 'photo realism'.
99.99999999% of games arent even cutting edge on release. fucking bethesda using a game engine from when i was a child. im nearly 30.
This is very contradictory due to the fact that realism is an art style and uses graphical aesthetic and art direction to create it. Art style can be good or bad.
I believe it was in BF4 that if you put the graphics to minimum there were a few objects (like boxes) that you could see thru at distance.
Agreed except with shooters seeing enemies. I love the idea of trying to blend in. It sucks when you always stick out like a sore thumb.
A reason i never take flashy camos.
The whole "hard to see" aspect just gave rewards for having good vision.
Feel very reward spotting and headshoting the guy few could see.
Apex i never really had issues seeing people. But i remember taking my camo idea to unique levels.
I used the white camo on Mirage, gave him black and white stripes....
I made him a Zebra. With his clones herd
Takes me back to playing old cod with pop as kid.
Render distance was shit and foggy, but when i saw a little black dot at long distance, guessed it was the blurred image of some shoulders and got a headshot.
That was extremely satisfying.
As a Russian, I can see why the author of the video disliked Atomic Heart design, and I fully agree with Asmongold's take on that. The game has so many insights on the Soviet architecture and style, or rather, 'easter-eggs' that only people that live and the post-Soviet countries (or endorsing the Soviet culture itself) could understand and perceive it correctly. I think it is also one the reasons why also Stalker games were a huge popularity here while they were almost unseen within the Western community back when first released (but also gaining traction now). On the other side, I personally didn't like the gameplay of Atomic Heart, but I really loved the art-style and rock remakes of Soviet classic music, it is solid 10/10 just because of this.
Here to say this. Though it's a cyberpunk fantasy, it is first and foremost nostalgic for both those who saw all of this or only read\saw in old movies. That was a part of culture some of us witnessed.
Saying the game is generic and has no style is ignorant. Its very hard to notice if you're not Easter European
I agree and disagree. I'm quite unfamiliar with most eastern-European history, but I can identify most of the surface level details in Atomic Heart. The gameplay itself is just not that compelling. I think Atomic Heart and Bioshock have near identical gameplay and I dislike both of them for it. But Bioshock's(first game's) story was more interesting. Atomic Heart is just alternate history, while Bioshock is alternate history plus a mysterious city under the ocean that we only get to see after it all went wrong.
i love the art style from atomic heart but something bugs me with the games graphics. maybe its too clean, or bright, i dont really know but something really bothered my with that game. stalker i found much better as it had more grit and edge. at least thats what i think it is
I know a lot of people associate it with opression and poverty, but I love soviet era aesthetic. Seeing those little easter eggs that most people don't know about made me really happy.
I think a better argument is "Stylised graphics are better than realistic graphics" they tend to age better and stand out more while creating a certain level of charm and familiarity.
Yeah exactly. Like that's why I love guild wars 2. You can tell they create their own assets when one experiences its world so it aged really well.
That's why I find it hilarious when graphic junkies talk about how it looks alright. It's like dude the game is 10 years old and still looks beautiful.
And they stepped up their game with each expansion.
It's like going back to old maps in WoW and just experiencing how much it evolved. But the passion of creativity was still there. 😊
Isn't that exactly what they said?
@@axelbruv yeah I'm just specifying wording.
There are games that have a realistic art style that age well. Realism is an art style.
@@thomasffrench3639 such as?
Totally agree. My favourite game of all time is Dishonored, and my roomate laughed at it because the visual is not as realistic as games came out the same time. But you know what, people still love the game till now, and I still replay it once in a while. That's a great game with great style
To me, fluent and natural animation is the key. When WoW first came out, it has one of the best animation sets Ive seen in any other 3d game. Getting the movements done right is very difficult, and often overlooked. Graphic on the other hand is the easiest thing to notice the "Improvement", so Im assuming any decision maker with a marketing mindset wants to push it much harder than other aspects of the game.
Morrowind is a super immersive game. Although it has bad graphics even for 2002, the artstyle is still legendary to this day and no other game is able to capture the sense of outlander in outlandish world
My first open world game back and it released and still my favorite. It truly has a sense of place and identity to it, feels like an actual world. It’s kinda my personal issue with most modern open world games, they’re very impressive visually but they have no real identity. More like a sandbox than a world, and ultimately forgettable
Morrowind is peak bethesda
@@benjamindavis2475 some would say Daggerfall was the peak
@@TheManeymon Daggerfall is peak as an RPG sandbox, but Morrowind is peak world building (and lore IHMO), two masterpieces on their own.
being completely procedural sucks-Morrowind is much better along with Oblivion as there is actual handcrafted locations mixed in with procedural@@TheManeymon
Speaking of "good graphics", The Judgment series from RGG studio has had really good face animations and graphic. You can really see the detail that was put into it. Same with the world as well so much eye candy in those games.
Bro Im finishing up Yakuza and Im moving on to Judgement soon and I see this comment. Hopefully the soon to be released LAD Gaiden and LAD8 from RGG will also have those graphical improvements from Judgement that you are talking about.
@@Siuolplex Yakuza LAD also had good animations as well but not as good as like Lost Judgment. I doubt LAD 8 and Gaiden will be worse especially after that Gaiden gameplay trailer that shit looks crispy.
Im not completely sure but as far as I recall, supreme commander: forged allience(rts) left a huge impression on me for combining graphics and artstyle, may not be high fidelity when you zoom in but you can scale the player field all you want it that game. And from certain angels it really looked like an amazing outer space battle reminding me of games like the Total War but in a futuristic artstyle and dynamics. Also not surprised a small community is still active but its cool they have their own custom launcher for multiplayer, maps and mods called FAF, forged allience forever. Actually didn't come across any new rts games I loved as much and would definitly buy a modern spiritual successor.(Its been 13 years also Iron Hearts 4? isnt that great; incomparible with a cluttered over encumbering HUD, one of those games you spend more time figuring out what to do then play, rts suggestions are very welcome.) EDIT: if anyone takes inspiration from this I want to see a vew new units but foremost balancing all of them with improved dynamic micromanaging movement and targeting/turn speed instead of unnecessary weird bufs/nerfs, also the old pathfinding of engineers and commander are terrible and give us an even bigger map! for 32 people? ^^
It's interesting to think about how as graphics get better, no one will have that experience of seeing something that objectively looks like garbage but at the time it was the coolest thing ever and so realistic.
My favorite example of a game that isn't realistic looking, but looks amazing is Octopath Traveler. They stuck to the pixel style and made some of the best looking games I've personally played.
Fully agreed. Octopath Traveler 2 is amazing!
The HD 2D era that game brought for Square Enix is such a blessing.
Here in Russia we love Atomic Heart, it has a lot of cultural references to many things people remember from soviet era, or have seen it in soviet movies and other media. It also has many places and assets that many people who were born after USSR crashed can relate to. Like village houses are really remeniscent of what I have seen when I was visiting my relatives in distant village in taiga, and my granddad had exactly the same car hero drives through the game. Also lots of slav memes and remixes of iconic soviet era music. It takes that bright and euphoric post-war period in 50s and turns it into retrofuturistic sci-fi with darker tone.
@@Shofixinah, you don’t have to like it. But definitely not cringe.
@@ShofixiNews flash bud, your opinions are *not* facts.
I'm from the Caribbean and read your post and tried Atomic Heart and I must say it's really good. All the best and thanks.
23:00 the background music is from LA Noir! Now that's a throwback!
A big issue I have with many modern games is the overuse of particle effects that cover the entire screen, it's not pretty or cool. 3:21 good example, the video even pointing it out.
This is why indie games are the new kings. They nail both art style and gameplay.
You could also think about this situation in the scope of art. Hyperrealism is a very interesting and impressive skill in the art community, but a lot of people would prefer stylised art that doesn't point out every single minute crevasse of detail. Stylization allows people to cling to it, and gives the game an identity.
I believe any professional artist could do hyperrealism with enough patience and time. But unique art styles are just something special to each artist and are tough to replicate. I don't remember hyperrealistic drawings/paintings, I always remember the unique stuff!
@@klaraptor I would argue that something like the Mona Lisa would fall into trying to be hyperrealistic, but it is probably the exception to your comment.
Very excellent commentary on the look of games and importance of it. Love your cupcake analogy, I'm going to borrow it and credit you with it!:)
6:08 "you don't buy a cupcake because of the sprinkles" amen
Surprised he didnt mention dead space. The usage of lighting and ambiance effects was amazing for the time and the remake recaptured that feeling.
I been gaming for 30+ years, if graphics stopped improving in 2015 I would have been 100% ok with it, maybe even a little happy because it would have meant I wouldn't need to keep spending money updating my hardware and graphics at that point in time was good enough.
Great take from Asmon about the difference between art style and graphic quality. It did make me take the video he reacted to with a grain of salt when the guy started his montage of Elden Rings clips at around 9:00. He did say the right thing just after, so I'm not sure what to think about it.
More important than graphics are things like composition, choice of color, use of lighting, etc. If the human eye has a hard time to recognize familiar patterns, shapes and symmetry In the first 1-3 seconds when looking at something, it doesn't stay to look closer for the fine details
Man pumps out more content then reddit mods delete posts.
No u 🤣 fuckin' got em 😎
Big ups to the editors! 🙌🏽
Than
It's easy to pump out loads of content when it is 95%other people's content you are pumping
@@littlesebastian4389 meh, more like 40% when the content is 10 minutes long and he adds 20 minutes to it.
Largely agree, but UI is largely separate from graphics and very much important. If a HUD is incomprehensible, shakes all the time, and has you looking away from the game all the time, its probably really bad, but that has an actual effect on gameplay while graphics doesnt. If its hard to go through your inventory or even options menu, that has an impact on your gameplay experience. UI is far more important than graphics from a gameplay standpoint.
Yeah I remember a meme comparing the UI to Elden Ring from what we got and to what it would probably look like if another AAA developer like Ubisoft made it. Ubisoft would have turned it into shit.
I think complaint isn't that the UI in elden ring is bad, but it is minimal. Where other AAA devs were pushing over designed, overcluttered UI.
This is a topic for another discussion. The author of this video was emphasizing graphics vs artstyle/art direction, that's all.
@@paulrayner6744 they mentioned UI as a part of the discussion fairly clearly early on. Its not a focus but the discussion should still happen.
I also hate the use of temporal anti-aliasing. Like yeah, it gets rid of pixelation, but it takes away so much detail and makes the image a blurry mess.
I remember the first time I played Donkey Kong Country on SNES and my mind was blown on the first swimming level. And in my opinion, that game still looks great to this day.
I remember playing COD Ghost back in the day and while the graphics were awesome, for whatever reason after playing two hours or so, I couldn't see the enemies from a far. I had the same issue when playing COD Warzone in the jungle map. The enemies would be right in front of me, but everything just blends and it's hard to spot after playing a while. This is why I like older games more, because while the graphics look more simple, nothing ever blends and you can see an enemy without a problem.
15:00 its a combination of wanting more fps, being able to see enemies more clearly, but also it removes unnecessary clutter in the game, like taller grass, more dense tree's shadows, etc.
Agreed shadow's more then anything else ruins shooters almost want to go back to older gen console so I don't have to deal with them but the functionality of this Gen of consoles far surpasses the old generation I wish consoles had the same graphic options tht pcs have I never understood why they dont
Ahh the mic drop at the end of this video. Absolute GOLD!!😂🤣
Vampire Survivors for instance. It has a pixel-ish artstyle you know from older games but the gameplay oh maaan. You struggle so much at the beginning, but you keep getting stronger and stronger. After 15-20 hours of playtime you get an item that changes the game completly. After 30-40h of gameplay again. After 60h again. And before you know it you are addicted because it is such a good game. And the best part about it, is that it is only 5$ and on console or mobile phone free.
When I was a kid "Crazy Taxi" was one of my favorite games. Offspring songs playing with the crazy gameplay for the time 1999-2000 didn't need to have the best graphics of all time to be memorable.
The Atomic Heart's Art Direction was very closed to my heart as this is what I grew up with. It's exactly how the USSSR would envirion future. The art team made something that no western company ever did, capture the spirit of that soviet idealism, and it's something that the westerners would have a hard time liking because many would try to compare it, instead of taking it as something that many saw without comparing it to something else.
And it Soviet capture failed and failed and is currently failing because it always fails
To certain other people Atomic Heart looks like nazi utopia. Like what a great world would we all have if Adolf succeeded. That was already a thing in both Wolfensteins. But we were in control of a person who opposes this tyranic idealism. And we could relate. Imagine Wolfenstein, but the protagonist is an SS officer - that would somewhat ressemble AH.
@@kiloreg What are you on about?
Nowhere near enough Brutalism in that game.
This game was.so.bland and boring
tho ure5 is not really just graphics it also has with the demolitions with the chaos engine and really since it kind of just came out there is more to see but really im hyped for the chaos engine side of things
I feel this is one of the reasons low poly games have started to make a comeback. Games like ultrakill,lorn,iron lung are super popular.
Believability and immersion sometimes matters in a game, BUT sometimes it doesn't, depends on what the audience wants. e.g. VR game players are trying to get something totally different than mmo players. One requires immersion and believability and the other doesn't care about that. However its hard to ignore good game mechanics no matter what.
One thing to keep in mind is even a lot of the first UE4 demos appeared photo realistic. Those videos have been a thing for the better part of a decade now, but the games rarely, if ever, come to fruition.
I think Borderlands is a good example of a game with a very distinctive art style. After playing through Borderlands 1, and 2 again and with that art style it looks just fine. Even in 10 years i think the old borderlands games will look fine.
I remember the first time, in Elden Ring, when i stumbled down that super long elevator to the underground area for the first time and saw the sky down there... I was in a moment of awe... And then when i heard the music near the first structures and the scary lighting choices made there... I remember feeling aftaid as shit!. That is a momemt in gaming that i will never forget.
Graphics became "good enough" for me with my New 3DS XL. That is still my most played console, and the one I'll probably be taking with me into the old folks home. I've been playing video games since Pong (literally), so I've seen every major leap along the way. Still kick back with Xenosaga and Dark Cloud 2 on my PS 2 from time to time, as well.
I think Vampire survivors is perfect example. I had more fun in that game than i had in many for years.
Raw gameplay > everything else. Having super addictive slot machine aspects baked into the design also helps.
I spent way to much time playing Vampire Survivors, one of my favorite games of the last few years. Also nostalgia might be blinding me, I could see it being a version of Castlevania that came out when I was a kid 😂
24:50 fr, firewatch is so perfect
i think a game looks good if it's stylized with some aspect like showing and lightning. From what I seen and read, good lightning can make even older games look fantastic
I was in awe with elden ring's world. It was so beautiful, the lights , the areas. Maybe it's just me but elden ring has best kind of graphics for me
its not the best graphic out there but its amazing because the art style and graphic combined made it look way better than any other AAA games.
@@PEAKENTV exactly 💯
I was planning on waiting for it to go on sale like I usually do but the more I saw footage of it the more I wanted to wander around in that world myself. Paid full price after a couple weeks. Granted if the game was _just_ pretty I wouldn't have spent 500+ hours in it, or gone back just to get a different ending; Elden Ring was at minimum above average in every aspect.
Good graphics don't matter if it's not a selling point. Releasing something on a new-gen console as a new-gen experience hints at an overall upgrade. My recent review of Monochrome Mobius touched base on this. The game suffered from inconsistent graphical texture. Like some of the characters were made with PS5 graphic capabilities in mind while lesser characters looked like they were stuck in a pop-in state with zero textures. It looked like they took an old game an slapped some new visuals on top of old assets.
elden ring may not have super high fidelity textures when you inspect each asset up close but because of that they were able to increase draw distance which makes the environments look breathtaking at a distance. and i would much rather prefer this direction for open world games.
I think the Yakuza series is the perfect blend of realism and distinct artstyle. RGG studios go out of their way to make important characters' faces super porey and realistic (Beat Takeshi's reprisal in 6 is stellar imo, down to his droopy eye), and the cities they have convey that feeling of a cluttered japanese town, while still being distinct via a pure strong artistic hand, from the neon and skeevy Kamurocho to the sleepy coastal Hiroshima.
gaidens grahpics were a treat with the stellar art direction
@@eobardsprodigy Gaiden as in "Man Who Erased His Name"? I've only seen the early trailers, but the city looks so shiny and awesome. And the hostesses? Top tier graphics!
I really have to get a physical copy so I can play, although it'll be my first time importing from Japan.
@@3slicessenpai the hostess part is garbage as its just awkward when u play the cabaret but the cutscenes look phenomenal u can just look up the opening for gaiden
Most developers and publishers nowadays are too focused on creating "next gen graphics" instead of "next gen gameplay".
The first game where the graphics made me go like "WoooooW" was Final Fantasy X. FFX has an amazing art style, also the graphics themselves were way ahead of it's time.
Same here. There was that one cutscene where Tidus and Yuna are screwing around in some lake and 13 yr old me was like "Dafuuuuuuuq"
@@TheFudily Dude the cutscene where they go save Yuna from Seymore and Yuna deciding to jump down to be saved by valefor. Still gives me chills
I know I am a month late to the conversation but the scene i always remember was from ffx2 where yuna held that concert in the thunder plains. My slightly emo teenage self always seems to return when i see that cutscene. @@jani14jani
I felt that way about Red Dead Redemption and again on GTAIV.
From the perspective on a console player sometimes how the ui is built is approaching the same issue of button layout. Id you swap the interact and dog button oh well or if you can edit your button layout then what ever. But when you go from playing normal games like elden ring that put dog on o or b or similar games like maybe nioh where it’s x or a to a game like outward that makes dog L1/LB and doesn’t allow you to change that it makes playing the game very jarring and uncomfortable so well the graphics don’t break it constantly pressing every wrong button can really make playing it less enjoyable. Along with that sometimes making a menu without thinking about what’s natural or changing the hud to put info in odd places can have similar effects where it doesn’t ruin the game but when you keep looking for info in wrong places and having to fight a menu all the time it can really take away from the experience
I think the best example of a game with timeless style, is the Original deadspace, and its remake.
That game is so iconic, the moment you hear thos health drinks, or isaacs shoes stimping across a steel floor...you just Know
And its a great example that graphics matters too. I definitely wouldnt play the first dead space after playing the remake, is so good.
Love this creator, NovemberHotel, he definitely deserves a lot of attention. Great video once again
How all of his videos are about why destiny 1 is bettere than destiny 2
@@muzzie1591 cause it is
Art style >>>>> graphics
It's not even a discussion.
Not that it matters, because gameplay is more important than anything else.
Back in the 90's, graphics improvements meant more than visuals, it meant new ways of gameplay and allowed for new mechanics.
Nowadays it just means you get a handful od sun rays distracting you from the action.
Some games nowadays seem to have issues where there's too much visual clutter, like overuse of bloom or magical effects for instance, that actively detract from readability, which makes me turn off all that "detail" they spent time adding. I don't remember that being a thing 1-2 decades ago.
I remember how in quake3 everyone made environments look as blurry as possible.
Good graphics matter to an extent especially in marketing... but gameplay is always what makes people stay and replay the game.
Dragon Dogma is best example that Graphic Doesn't matter
The game is kinda old (well its old game) the graphic is unpleaseing
but man the story is soo good
Espesially when you found out the story behind the dragon that stole your heart
or the one in the Bitter black isle that you stumble into the cycle of unending Suffering and Pain
It matters if the whole screen is like that. In the example you gave with the moonlight sword, it's irrelevant because the background looks gorgeous
At the 14 minute mark I just wanna point out mw2 the new one where they took this and made purposefully the infected game modes infected wear a very hard to see skin on purpose cause it gave the infected a advantage for not always being seen and that's great development and was totally slept on, but yeah just a small example.
Art direction is also massively important. You can have worse technical graphics with better overall art direction and it results in a much better looking game.
I've always believed that fun factor should come before graphics. You can always have both of course, but some games focus more on the "Visual Porn" over the story. That's just my opinion anyways.
In regards to atomic heart, I really loved it; definitely one of my favorite games I’ve played recently. The art style may feel a bit bland I get his point there. But the game does a good job of being grandiose and presenting you with memorable locations and scenes. And really the soundtrack and story more than the visuals are where it shines imo. I definitely recommend it 9/10
I have to disagree with him, the art style of Atomic Heart is NOT bland. Quite the opposite.
Honestly i would say it's as bland as Bioshock or Fallout neither of which are bland to me at all. In fact i get lost in the world all three of these games provide so i have to agree to disagree with the OP of this video.@@jase276
@@jase276 cyberpunk soviet russia is a dope concept
way to much talking in game for 9/10
Atomic Heart went for certain feel with their art style though. It's meant to red out, it's quite literally TNO, but reds are good guys and that's why you don't get gray filter. But it's still concrete and glorification of the system over the common folk under the guise of glorification of common folk. You are born in government-appointed habitat, go to government-appointed school, get government-appointed career path and bat for the government-appointed branch. Now here is your government measured dose of government-produced happiness, now produce government-approved emotion like subtle smile without losing that government developed stare™into the future™.
One thing that you should understand about soviet union - while top gov was corrupt, the most damage was done by actual functioneers, who genuinely believed that government knows better and that government can make people happier by dealing with their problems. It's a cartoon villains ruling the gentle giant and that gentle giant is really trying to get you the cake. Except this cake is of wrong ingredients and, being a size of a house, crushes you to death.
One thing not talked about a lot is how in order to achieve better graphics in the way of lighting and textures, many games sacrificed physics. In the 90s and 2000s, so many games had impressive physics engines that would make objects and particles in the game worlds interact in awesome and realistic ways. Things would float in water and cause ripples or waves, fire would spread, bodies would ragdoll and you can move them, bullets would chip away at objects and leave casings that you could kick around, flimsy objects would react to your model bumping into them, things in the scenery werent magically bolted to the ground and can be interacted with, etc.
It feels like in order to make sure everything looked prettier, they made things feel more static and lifeless.
You don't like trees in every open world to be immortal?
I think the game that has aged the best when it comes to its visuals is the Resident Evil 1 remake from 2002. Those pre rendered backgrounds were gorgeous. When it was remastered in 2015 I remember that many people thought it was a new game and were shocked to find out a game that looked that good came out in 2002
My favorite RE and in my top 10-15 all time!
Yes I'm still surprised to hear this