Modern graphics a turn off for anyone else?

[Exhuminator]

A friend and I used to talk about when that point would arrive when the graphics actually become TOO good.

If all games started looking totally realistic, we'd see more games begin using abstract visual styles to differentiate themselves. Not unlike how hyper realistic renaissance art moved into suggestive modern art over time.

[Snatch1414]

I like modern graphics except for one thing:

The characters in games these days are so realistic and lifelike that when they get shot in vital organs or stabbed, then they just shrug it off and keep moving like nothing happened, it really messes with my suspension of disbelief.

I noticed this in Far Cry 3, CoD Modern Warfare 3, and it was downright terrible in Resident Evil 5 (probably cause I was bad at it and got stabbed a lot). To quote Kyle reese, " The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything."

In a 16 or 32 bit game my brain knows shooting someone really just subtracts from a 'health bar' computed by the CPU, so I don't expect them to behave like a real injured person, but in these more realistic modern ones I feel like I'm fighting a terminator or something. It may help if games either took themselves less seriously and went for a more light-hearted tone (like Team Fortress 2). Or perhaps it would help if they provided some explanation for why the characters were so powerful (like Crysis, where the enemies included cyborg aliens or humans wearing performance enhancing nano-suits).

Yeah the problem with incurring damage in modern games is that the system everyone uses now was started by Halo, a game where you play a fictional space soldier in futuristic armor. Your shield would go down, then back up. Then Gears of War used it. This time there's no shield to explain it away it's just a normal dude in heavy armor. Okay, fine I guess. Now all of a sudden we have Nathan Drake and Lara Croft running around taking damage in the same way wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I've played a lot games in my day and I'm used to suspending disbelief, but when I was taking fire from a HELICOPTER in Uncharted and hiding behind a crate to recover to full health I couldn't help but be taken out of the moment by that.

[Snatch1414]

A friend and I used to talk about when that point would arrive when the graphics actually become TOO good.

If all games started looking totally realistic, we'd see more games begin using abstract visual styles to differentiate themselves. Not unlike how hyper realistic renaissance art moved into suggestive modern art over time.

That's a good point and logically it makes sense and I think it'll happen now that you bring it up. My issue would still be the lag time between "omg it's so realistic!" and developers beginning to do what you describe. I can picture it being looked back on much like the days when CD quality footage was possible, but I'm getting way ahead of myself.

[Exhuminator]

My issue would still be the lag time between "omg it's so realistic!" and developers beginning to do what you describe.

Some developers have figured out this inevitable outcome ahead of time. Hence the art styles of say Yoshi's Island, Okami, or Rez for example. I think once average gamer Joe finally has his truly photo realistic graphics in all his games, he will realize this long sought technological achievement is simply pretty boring. Only then will there be a consumer desire for alternative art styles in games en masse.

[Anayo]

Yeah the problem with incurring damage in modern games is that the system everyone uses now was started by Halo, a game where you play a fictional space soldier in futuristic armor. Your shield would go down, then back up. Then Gears of War used it. This time there's no shield to explain it away it's just a normal dude in heavy armor. Okay, fine I guess. Now all of a sudden we have Nathan Drake and Lara Croft running around taking damage in the same way wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I've played a lot games in my day and I'm used to suspending disbelief, but when I was taking fire from a HELICOPTER in Uncharted and hiding behind a crate to recover to full health I couldn't help but be taken out of the moment by that.

Yeah, Nathan Drake demonstrates this too. Far Cry 3 bugs me for the same reasons. You play as a young man with no special powers or anything, yet when you get shot, holding the Y button and wrapping a bandage around your arm somehow makes your health bar fill up. I much prefer the style of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, where they embrace the absurdity of this by having your main character dig bullets out of his arm with a ridiculously macho attitude, or pulling out a little exercise/stress relief squeezer and pumping it a few times while making overly dramatic grunting sounds. It capitalizes on its own "video game logic" to a comedic effect.

[jp1]

So where does it come to a head? Do we ultimately have a relationship with a game console? Does it become self aware?

It's a pretty tumultuous relationship. I press all her buttons, but she is easily turned on. She can be fun and all, but it seems like we are less connected than we used to be. She is hot, sometimes even too hot, in the end she needs too much space though. I usually have to clean her up myself because her hygiene is atrocious. However, her spot is so easy to find and she lights up whenever I touch it. Unfortunately, it never comes to head...I don't think she is well equipped for that.

[TSTR]

^I think you're becoming better at this than I am.

[BoneSnapDeez]

but I own two -- TWO -- SNES games

We need to talk.

My biggest issue, as contradicting as it may sound, is that I am no longer impressed with graphics

Yeah. I mean, I love certain distinct art styles (see Muramasa and whatnot), but I can't bring myself to get excited about what the (technically speaking) "best graphics" look like these days.

I do remember seeing SNES games back in the day and being blown away by how they looked light years ahead of NES games.

[jp1]

^I think you're becoming better at this than I am.

No way! You are win!

Yeah. I mean, I love certain distinct art styles (see Muramasa and whatnot), but I can't bring myself to get excited about what the (technically speaking) "best graphics" look like these days.

I do remember seeing SNES games back in the day and being blown away by how they looked light years ahead of NES games.

That's exactly what I mean. The tiny strides that might be accomplished by a new generation of console or a game that stretches the limits of the hardware (do they do it at all anymore?). Is nothing compared to the leaps that we were treated to in the 8-16 bit jump or even the 16-32 bit jump. You also had developers back then that saw squeezing every last pixel by tons of tricks and amazing programming as a challenge. I don't know if that is true these days either.

Take Skyrim, it is damned impressive. However, Daggerfall was groundbreaking, it knocked my socks off. Look at the specs of any of the older consoles and check out some of the articles about "Pushed the Limits" and it is remarkable. Then consider the ridiculous amount of power in modern consoles and they seem like they should be capable of more. Someone point me to a game with such amazing technical prowess that it should bring the Xbox 360 to it's knees, but somehow it runs buttery smooth. This is 8 years in...we should be seeing that.

Not that it is relevant to the topic at hand. That just happens to be the time when graphics are important to me, when they inspire me to play just to see what else the game is capable of pulling off. It still needs to be a great game first though, and usually someone putting that much love into a game cares enough for it to be awesome.

[J T]

I think once average gamer Joe finally has his truly photo realistic graphics in all his games, he will realize this long sought technological achievement is simply pretty boring. Only then will there be a consumer desire for alternative art styles in games en masse.

The pursuit of realism has benefits for the more artistically stylized games. Games like Okami and Rez benefitted from 3D graphics engines, and newer non-realistic games continue to benefit from these things as well, such as Borderlands or Trine 2. The pursuit of realism has led to better tech that has opened doors for more creatively stylized games. Just look at the history of games that tried to look like comic books: XIII looked cool in its day, but it can't compare to A Wolf Among Us. Even Comix Zone, which still looks quite nice all these years later, ultimately hits up against the Genesis' shortcomings in its goal of looking like a comic book.