Realism VS Stylized

[RichardLaughter_]

To sum up my opinion on the topic, I prefer stylized because the visuals don't age as badly, lower expectations of minor details, and because the developers artistic side can shine more, leading to some beautiful imagery. Bioshock infinite being one of my favorite examples. ^.^

What do you guys think?

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

I think you hit the nail on the head with stylized being the way to go for reducing a game's aging. The only problem is that marketing a stylized game to a mass market in some cases is a lot trickier than let's say showing off near true to life visuals. However I think once graphics technology hits a hard limit on the realism it can provide relative to game budgets they'll be a greater shift towards stylism in the industry to distinguish products. That and the fact that some genres just don't look right in ultra-realistic graphics. Modern Final Fantasies kind of jumped the shark into uncanny valley with regards to uber-realism plus anime-like character concepts.

 

[RichardLaughter_]

I think you hit the nail on the head with stylized being the way to go for reducing a game's aging. The only problem is that marketing a stylized game to a mass market in some cases is a lot trickier than let's say showing off near true to life visuals. However I think once graphics technology hits a hard limit on the realism it can provide relative to game budgets they'll be a greater shift towards stylism in the industry to distinguish products. That and the fact that some genres just don't look right in ultra-realistic graphics. Modern Final Fantasies kind of jumped the shark into uncanny valley with regards to uber-realism plus anime-like character concepts.

Thank you. I actually love the Modern FF look. It's like a blend of both worlds. Like peanut butter and chocolate. My only complaint is the latest ff games won't be on the pc for years. -_-

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

Thank you. I actually love the Modern FF look. It's like a blend of both worlds. Like peanut butter and chocolate. My only complaint is the latest ff games won't be on the pc for years. -_-

To be honest that complaint mostly just applies to certain character designs. I find FF XV characters to look a little jarring compared to lets say XIV's. It can be done right, it's just tricky. Mixing modern character aesthetics with classic Final Fantasy monster design gets trickier as the tech improves. Their world creation though, beautiful. As for that last comment... I feel your pain. Here's hoping to a future with proper PC ports soon after console

 

[RichardLaughter_]

To be honest that complaint mostly just applies to certain character designs. I find FF XV characters to look a little jarring compared to lets say XIV's. It can be done right, it's just tricky. Mixing modern character aesthetics with classic Final Fantasy monster design gets trickier as the tech improves. Their world creation though, beautiful. As for that last comment... I feel your pain. Here's hoping to a future with proper PC ports soon after console

How do you feel about FF explorers for the 3ds? I think it looks fairly good for a 3ds game. Takes me back to the crystal chronicles games on the og ds.

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

How do you feel about FF explorers for the 3ds? I think it looks fairly good for a 3ds game. Takes me back to the crystal chronicles games on the og ds.

Alright, I honestly just wish Square would go with something other than chibi for the art style as it's been done to death. They don't have the same excuse they did on the DS. Adding a little more realism is entirely possible with the portable's hardware. Think Dissidia on PSP.

 

[grossaffe]

It depends. I often prefer stylized graphics, but I would not have wanted, say, Splinter Cell to have taken a stylized look.

 

[RichardLaughter_]

Alright, I honestly just wish Square would go with something other than chibi for the art style as it's been done to death. They don't have the same excuse they did on the DS. Adding a little more realism is entirely possible with the portable's hardware. Think Dissidia on PSP.

Hell yeah. The 3ds is great peice of hardware. I think these devs either underestimate it or choose not to fully utilize it. Hell, the new 3ds can run xenoblade, so I find it hard to believe square can't do a bit more.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

It depends. I often prefer stylized graphics, but I would not have wanted, say, Splinter Cell to have taken a stylized look.

True, someone in the comments made the point of saying it also depends on genre which I can agree with to an extent. Survival horror is a great example of a genre that should be realistic.

 

[zoogie]

What I want is good games. I don't care about the ingredients or numbers, just as long as it adds up to a good game.

There's too many 'experts' who think a good game means 1080p/60fps, cell shaded with occlusion mapping, multiplayer co-op with MMO elements, or Nintendo art direction. None of that matters -- it's the big picture about whether it's fun to play.

 

[RichardLaughter_]

What I want is good games. I don't care about the ingredients or numbers, just as long as it adds up to a good game.

There's too many 'experts' who think a good game means 1080p/60fps, cell shaded with occlusion mapping, multiplayer co-op with MMO elements, or Nintendo art direction. None of that matters -- it's the big picture about whether it's fun to play.

With me, it's not that gameplay doesn't matter, but visuals are like the added bonus. I think a good comparison would be a relationship. Although it is important to have someone you can talk to and understand, meeting our individual tastes in physical attraction is a factor as well.

 

[Taleweaver]

I don't really know why game developers tend to chase realism in the first place. Yes, it looks nice, but what's the point? I don't play games because the graphics look nice, and no matter how close they'll come, it'll never match the real thing. At first glance, that Paris room looks real, indeed. And then you start noticing the little things. The complete absence of dust, how samey all the chests look (not even the slightest variation in textures) and things like that. It's absolutely great for a virtual tour...but for games I don't see much of a plus. Even the realistic looking games need aesthetics and a certain visual style to be catching (same for movies, who can struggle with this as well).
Stylized games, on the other hand, don't suffer from this. It's much easier to pick a certain color palette or style to give the game some unique identity. The irony is that because they don't try to pass on as realism, it gets much more realistic. The reason is, as mentioned, that uncanny valley feeling of the realistic shooters.

True, someone in the comments made the point of saying it also depends on genre which I can agree with to an extent. Survival horror is a great example of a genre that should be realistic.

Don't starve begs to differ. Besides...as far as I've heard, silent hill 2 got much WORSE when it got an HD release. The fog, which was originally in the game for hardware reasons, gave the game that scary feeling. Without it (or much less? Haven't played that remake), the game lost what made it interesting.
It's hard to generalize, but I have this same thing with horror movies. No matter how realistic they attempt to make things with computer graphics, it's just not the same as some "cheap effect" horror things(I'm not talking about jumpscares here).

 

[RichardLaughter_]

I don't really know why game developers tend to chase realism in the first place. Yes, it looks nice, but what's the point? I don't play games because the graphics look nice, and no matter how close they'll come, it'll never match the real thing. At first glance, that Paris room looks real, indeed. And then you start noticing the little things. The complete absence of dust, how samey all the chests look (not even the slightest variation in textures) and things like that. It's absolutely great for a virtual tour...but for games I don't see much of a plus. Even the realistic looking games need aesthetics and a certain visual style to be catching (same for movies, who can struggle with this as well).
Stylized games, on the other hand, don't suffer from this. It's much easier to pick a certain color palette or style to give the game some unique identity. The irony is that because they don't try to pass on as realism, it gets much more realistic. The reason is, as mentioned, that uncanny valley feeling of the realistic shooters.


Don't starve begs to differ. Besides...as far as I've heard, silent hill 2 got much WORSE when it got an HD release. The fog, which was originally in the game for hardware reasons, gave the game that scary feeling. Without it (or much less? Haven't played that remake), the game lost what made it interesting.
It's hard to generalize, but I have this same thing with horror movies. No matter how realistic they attempt to make things with computer graphics, it's just not the same as some "cheap effect" horror things(I'm not talking about jumpscares here).

My inspiration for my opinion on horror comes from the Alison Road Trailer.

The first time I watched this trailer, I felt like I was watching a slasher movie. It's really similar to the the demo I used in my video, but on my first watch of the trailer, I wasn't looking at bad details, which im sure there are some in there, but rather, I was wondering when the scare was going to come from, which gave me a powerful sense of suspense, and I was looking for clues as to what is going on in the trailer as well, which was also powered by suspense.

I do agree with you about horror movies though. Im a fan of old school practical effects. A good example is freddy kruger and the wall in nightmare 1 vs the remake. In the remake, it was done cg and looked soooooo freakin fake. -_- Like....I can't believe they tried passing that off.

 

[Taleweaver]

My inspiration for my opinion on horror comes from the Alison Road Trailer.

I remember watching that. It's a good trailer (might even be a good game), and looks certainly interesting. However, it's not the fine details of what's shown that make it scary. For horror games, it's really all about the sound that sets the mood. As far as visuals are concerned, I think it's more about the trailer being in closed quarters that heightens the tension.

 

[Foxi4]

While I agree that we generally have a higher degree of tolerance for stylized graphics, I gotta say that every game ages, stylized or not. The whole concept of a game "aging" comes from early polygonal graphics, at least to me, and I don't think I've seen a game that "didn't age well" in the last decade. I can pick up MGS: Twin Snakes, play it and enjoy it just the way it is and it's 11 years old. While I agree that modern games "look better" aka "are more visually stunning", I don't think that they automatically make games that preceeded them "look bad" like they used to. There's definitely a threshold of what's considered believable and what's an eyesore, it's different for everybody and for me we've already crossed it. 3D caught up to 2D now, we've reached a point where games look so good that they "can't" age to the point of being an eyesore. It's not about making graphics "prettier" anymore - it's diminishing returns from this point onwards, now development will shift to performance and special effects.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I guess it depends on the game, but I normally prefer stylized. I see realism every day in real life, I just don't think it can ever look as eye-popping as a stylized game because it's too predictable and it can never look as good as the real thing anyway. It seems like the more realistic they try to make a game look, the more fake it ends up looking because it makes all the little things that look out of place or wrong compared to real life so much more apparent.

 

[Foxi4]

I feel that there's place for both, it really depends on the game. Certain titles just wouldn't have the same emotional impact if they were stylized, an animu version of something like The Last of Us would just be cringeworthy.

 

[DinohScene]

GTA SA is 11 years old, still play it on an almost daily basis.
Yeh, stylized games age less badly then realism games.
Tho Black, still looks incredibly well.

 

[Flame]

its about time.

in the current time, Realism is better cause if its done right it can give that big budget movies experience.

in the future and past Stylized is better because its ages better with time.

it's all relative really.

 

[Sliter]

I think this is relative what they want to show ...it come from autors and the idea itself ... an realist mario would not be carismatic, a cartoony god of war wouldn't look that epic and stuff (random examples)

for myself I'm more for stylised, make everything have more personality and looks unic

 

[mgrev]

I like it stylized, also you should check out warframe(for visuals) it kinda semi stylized and and awesome free to play game for pc/ps4/xbone