Graphics Pet Peeve

[YCRanger]

So I finally got to rent a copy of Dishonored for PS3 today. I've been eagerly awaiting a chance to play this awesome looking game. I pop it in, arrive on the shores from the boat and look around to get a good glance at the art and the environment. Then I notice it, screen tear. Nothing takes me out of a first person game then screen tearing. I'm trying to immerse myself in this fantastic looking environment but when I look around that little ripple is enough to take me out of the experience.

Now let me be straight up in saying that I am not a huge graphics guy. My all time favorite games are ps1 games and I still play them without caring how they look. It just happens to be in this case this was the one specific graphics issue that I hate.

So I'm wondering, do you guys have a specific graphics issue that will drive you up the wall?

 

[Nouw]

I'm not sure if it counts, but it really annoys me when I can't read the text in a game on my t.v. Can't they have an option, like Vanquish, for increasing or bolding the text?

 

[krazykidd]

The lack of color . Yes games are getting better at having color than say 2 years ago . But in my opinion , the whole grey and brown thing , should have never happened .

 

[Beautiful End]

I'm not sure if it counts, but it really annoys me when I can't read the text in a game on my t.v. Can't they have an option, like Vanquish, for increasing or bolding the text?

It does...BECAUSE IT SUCKS!
For the longest time, I couldn't play Modnation Racers because I couldn't read any of the menus and I didn't know how to use my bat-gadgets on Arkham Asylum. That was one of the reasons I bought a HDTV, even though my old SDTV was still perfectly functional at the time. (Mind you, it was 32in. so it wasn't that small)

OT: Eh, I don't care much about graphics. I guess it depends. It the game is good but the graphics are shit, I'll completely ignore it. But if the game isn't as fun as I want it to be, I'm gonna start being nitpicky about everything in attempt to find one good thing about the game.

There's also the games who use different graphics, like Borderlands. That actually attracts me to the game.

And of course, there's also those games whose graphics are decent but they interfere with the gameplay (Some random FPS with invisible walls and height requirements for some movements) and those whose graphics just plain suck balls that it kinda shows the developers weren't even trying so it can't be forgiven (Charlie's Angels, Aquaman 64, etc).

But in short, I don't care. I don't buy a game because it looks pretty. I buy it because it looks fun. Like Minecraft.

 

[Leoofmoon]

I'm not sure if it counts, but it really annoys me when I can't read the text in a game on my t.v. Can't they have an option, like Vanquish, for increasing or bolding the text?

I have that too, I think its mainly because most games are now being made more Widescreen 1080p HD TV's

 

[Tallim]

Yeah screen tear for me as well. Although it only happens in Dishonored during "cutscenes" like the boat rides so it isn't so bad (on ps3).

 

[WoW Killer]

When I'm sitting down to play a new game, and the technophile next to me complains about some bizarre graphical glitch that I honestly wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been pointed out. Thus follows "you can't play like that, can't you see the weird effect on the noses?" and we get hours of trawling through menus, downloading drivers, reinstalling entire operating systems, and I just want to play the frickin game.

Captcha: more chocolate. Yes, that helps.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Improper (or almost non existent) Facial Rigging,
as in everything looks wonderful graphically, but the characters have no expression, or they try to have expression, but their faces just get all messed up, landing them in the uncanny valley. It's a really common problem these days. This problem also exists with body animation, but it's less noticeable than the face.

As others have said, I also don't care for the lack of color (although it was a phase and some people are moving away from it now) and text that is too small to read on a standard definition TV. I bought an HDTV because I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't find a single RPG that didn't have this problem. I couldn't even read the text of The Witcher 2, even though it has larger font sizes for SDTVs.

 

[debra_ beretta]

I'm with you guys who have suggested font sizing. I recently bought myself a new rig and due to nice new shiny HDTV and lack of a PC desk, I figured that seated at my sofa in front of my TV would be a good idea. It wasn't. I'm struggling to read ;_;

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Canned animations and shadows. Honestly, Human Revolution's body animations make me physically ill.

As for shadows, I feel that they can make or break a game. The shadows in Skyrim are horrendous looking, while the ones in Stalker are gorgeous. I really like sharp, crisp shadows.

 

[TheCommanders]

Lense flares are the work of the devil. On rare, rare occasion they can be used in cinematics, but beyond that they are simply adventures into blinding annoyance.

Not sure if it counts as a graphical issue or just a visual one, but any game that makes it harder to see when you take damage (splashes of blood or red on the screen) can fuck right off. What the hell was wrong with health bars?

 

[SaetonChapelle]

I hate an ability to read text as previously stated by another. I also despise when in a beautiful game, I still experience characters limbs or various parts of themselves falling into and through buildings or other people. The game can't even register that there is a figure there. I still find games coming out when I will often times just disappear into a building or object with half of my characters body still exposed.

And, as stated above, lack of color and facial expressions. Or when a characters dialogue can't match that of their lips (Although Im not sure this can be considered a graphical issue). I realize a lot of games are translation and this I excuse, but when I game in made in English primarily with the English language in mind (or others, doesn't matter) I want their dialogue to at least match up.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Lack of Colourblind options. It seems like almost no games have them so it's made it a necessity to live with it but it really does ruin so many games when I can't actually see what i'm supposed to be doing.

 

[WarZombieMK2]

I'm not really sure if it counts, but when you can't see your OWN shadow in some games, THAT really annoys me.
Sometimes seeing your own shadow is really important, like when you approach a corner and don't know if the enemy around it will see your shadow and be warned about your presence or not.

 

[MortisLegio]

Bad texture pop-in. I don't really care about graphics that much but when I can't tell whats going on because the textures wont load then I'm not going to play that game for very long.

 

[Dragoon]

It's a really small thing but it really annoys me when things clip through clothes, whether it's other bits of clothes, weapons or something like that. It's really noticeable in AC3 especially with the swords.

 

[Fappy]

Screen tearing drives me fucking bonkers as well. You're not alone OP. I have put games down permanently that have had excessively poor screen tearing. Never play the PC port of Force Unleashed II. My God.

I realize my first mistake was playing Force Unleashed II to begin with, but still. Christ.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm with you on the screen tearing, OP. I got a gaming rig and got back into PC gaming almost solely because I can force V-Sync on everything. My wife hates that I pointed out that aliasing is a thing, I had to point it out the first time we up-scaled PS2 games on the old PS3s, they look like freaking ant farms. That's why I've had no issue forking over for the HD God of War, Ico/SotC, and MGS, I don't consider them a waste of money at all and it's a vote to tell the powers that be that there's interest in those titles still.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Another thing is explosions. I'm surprised that so many modern games have explosions that look like total ass.

You've got these excellent textures on the armour and warships, but the explosions? Look at them, they're big brown poop clouds.

 

[Xaio30]

Whenever the camera decides to clip through a mesh and exposes the hollow scene prop that it actually is.
Immersion = Out the window.