photorealism, arent you tired of it?

[ChromeAlchemist]

sacrifice ^_^ thats a game that did miracles with what it had.

Good god yes! I loved that game so much, I might have to dig it out actually, thank you for reminding me.

Also I agree on the photorealism thing. I would rather something visually compelling and stylised rather than photorealistic, but then I have always been like this. SFIV over VF5,TF2 over Crysis, and so on. I am also a firm believer that it takes precious time from making a solid game when you go for intense photorealism, and if it doesn't then you probably won't be seeing that game for half a decade.

I even heard about the Killzone story being shocking, and yet I am sure great pains were made to make that game as visually pleasing as possible (same with gameplay mechanic though, so it's not a prime example...maybe lair?)

 

[Powerman88]

I don't think you can condemn a game for graphics. Graphics should enhance game play, not define it. I just got L4D and I'm loving it because the graphics are "photo realistic" (in terms of this discussion) and it contributes to a sense of immersion in a zombie apocolypse. I don't think the game would have quite the same effect if it has the same art style as say psychonauts.

I also love Guitar Hero which is a franchise that looks great as a cartoon-ey rock and roll nightmare. Its also fun and immersive, and the art style enhances the game. It wouldn't feel the same if you had GOW2 models on stage.

 

[Superballs]

I still think Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast looks awesome.

Agreed, in fact Sega's last little grey box of wonders was what prompted me to chose the XBOX over the gamecube (tough choice that was but it came down to continuations of my favorite dreamcast franchises). Jet Set Radio Future (it was actually Jet Grind Radio on North American dreamcasts to try and generate interest from the then massive Tony Hawk crowd) was sweet too and the music was mostly really good. Project Gotham Racing was a stellar game and looked realistic enough for me. Shenmue and Shenmue 2 were stellar games too once you got used to the controls (Funny how they really sucked to start but i wouldn't change them a hair afterward). Shenmue was a good balance of photorealism and art, going of course by the criteria that the original Gran Turismo was at one time deemed "photorealistic". Of course our standards were intentionally set lower back then.

Personally i like my level of realism, looks-wise to fit the setting of my game. Otogi for the XBOX would have looked like tripe if they had strived for photorealistic graphics. But my racing and hockey games better look as realistic as possible.

Graphics don't make the game but can help the experience...too many people equate realistic with good.

In my eyes there are 2 kinds of gamer (in my age bracket). The truly hardcore who played games since Pacman or earlier (as early as they could) and also played games that were made before their time. And there are the gamers that only started playing vids when Sony's Playstation made it "cool" or acceptable to be a mainstream gamer-erm-full-motion-video-watcher.

Yahtzee repeated what had been on my mind for nearly 12 years in one of his reviews when he was trashing the Final Fantasy (paraphrase)"dancing like twits in a line waiting for their turn to attack" style of gameplay. But the graphics were good and I guess the story was deeper than Mortal Kombat, but I tell ya, if I want a truly epic story I'll just dive into The Wheel of Time, or, you know, those things we called books.

I don't mind realistic graphics, but they tend to remove the fantasy from the game. I can't wait until they come out with a "Going to the corner store simulator" with truly life-like environments teeming with NPCs, hopefully 3 levels of difficulty too as for some stores you might have to turn a conrner and walk another half a block...don't forget what you were sent there for.