Is this just me being nostalgic or those graphics didn't age a bit?

[Ikagura]

From the late 90's to early 00's PC games really nailed the art style and aesthetic despite the technical limitations and lack of advanced features we got today.

 

[zacharinolongpants]

From the late 90's to early 00's PC games really nailed the art style and aesthetic despite the technical limitations and lack of advanced features we got today.
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I think that with any medium the limitations - be it technological, financial or physical, is a major part of developing an aesthetic that stands on its own through time. Fidelity and polygonal count may add an element of realism, but color, texture, proportion, animation... these are all things that can produce unique feelings and experiences that separate a work from another without its quality being directly correlated to how new it is.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I've said it on here before; but I genuinely think graphics peaked in the 7th Gen and everything afterwards has been pointless dick-measuring shit that serves no real purpose but to run up the cost of development to result in games that look as boring as how they play.

 

[Elwiwi]

The hell is that face kkkkk

 

[Blamhammer]

Smart art, lighting, and texture choices I guess. CRTs helped with visuals too.

Also that's the Max Payne maxing.

 

[otogirisou]

i don't believe in "game aging" to begin with. Like, it's not food, so it can't expire and not edible.

 

[JellyjamLu]

That screenshot of Unreal Tournament gave me the feels.

 

[Vardalis]

I'd take ten games that look like the ones in the OP for every one soulless game we have coming out now. Art style is far more timeless than graphical effects or more polygons.

 

[Ikagura]

The hell is that face kkkkk

Sam Lake aka the creator and face capture of Max Payne

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 9:30 PM

That screenshot of Unreal Tournament gave me the feels.

I genuinely love this map over Facing Worlds.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I think the reflective textures on metal and other things does a lot. Just having a dynamic looking light on a texture makes the world feel more real and doable. You see it a lot in mid-life N64 games too, which tend to be some of the better looking models in those games. And then, by the time of the millennium turn, it’s just all over the place. Games from the sixth gen are just full of reflective textures, moving textures, even early bump mapping.

The photo on faces are really rough though, and I’ve always thought they look ugly. They’re not the worst in Max Payne though, as Tony Hawk is where they’re the roughest. They look less lifelike than if they were a cartoonish replication, since it gives the impression that the characters are lifeless mannequins.



All this talk of graphics means nothing for the gameplay though! Play Max Payne, play Tony Hawk, and play other games from that time period!

 

[GaleComprehends]

If a game has good art direction it usually won't age badly.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

If a game has good art direction it usually won't age badly.

Very typically, yeah.

Also, games that emphasize cartoonish designs and especially movement don’t age as poorly. You see in early 3D animation, even as early as the 80’s, that the folks who had backgrounds in 2D Art and animation were the folks who did the best jobs with making things look good in 3D. It was a major deal to be able to get the technology to the point where 2D artists could apply their trade in 3D and not have to rely on tech support as much.

 

[Spiral1407]

Back when almost every game had a unique aesthetic.

I've said it on here before; but I genuinely think graphics peaked in the 7th Gen and everything afterwards has been pointless dick-measuring shit that serves no real purpose but to run up the cost of development to result in games that look as boring as how they play.

Bump that up to PS4 gen and I'd agree. I don't think games going for realism need to look better than say, Uncharted 4 or RDR2.

 

[Ikagura]

Bump that up to PS4 gen and I'd agree. I don't think games going for realism need to look better than say, Uncharted 4 or RDR2.

BloodBorne also still looks gorgeous.

Sonic Unleashed despite being a X360 game from '08 also looks nice.

Some indie games also have that nice aesthetic while not being fully HD

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

Bump that up to PS4 gen and I'd agree. I don't think games going for realism need to look better than say, Uncharted 4 or RDR2.

Problem is 8th Gen (PS4, Xbox One etc.) was around the time where good art direction started to fade away. Obviously yeah you still had stuff like BloodBorne coming out which had great aesthetics and art direction, but games like that were exceptions unfortunately and most of that gens games (To me anyway) all just look the same.

 

[Ikagura]

Problem is 8th Gen (PS4, Xbox One etc.) was around the time where good art direction started to fade away. Obviously yeah you still had stuff like BloodBorne coming out which had great aesthetics and art direction, but games like that were exceptions unfortunately and most of that gens games (To me anyway) all just look the same.

I'd partly blame late PS360 era games like TLOU where everyone got convinced that "realistic = good"...

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I'd partly blame late PS360 era games like TLOU where everyone got convinced that "realistic = good"...

Yeah, you're not wrong that it was definitely a problem that started to become more apparent towards the end of the 7th gen. 8th gen was just so egregiously bad with it though I still mentally associate that AAA "Prestige game" look with PS4 and Xbone.

 

[Clippy]

While I think that creativity that came from limitations and good art direction are good arguments I also think that survivor bias plays a large role too. There were many games back then that looked utterly horrible but they never caught on and we simply don't remember most of them.

 

[SliperyHippo]

A game only begins to age as they get harder to play: launching in compatibility modes, having to download unofficial patches, or even being cut off entirely by some server going offline because a company decides it's no longer profitable to keep a game online and playable.

 

[gwardojones]

To me, it's the result of the constant race for realism in video games. It was cool to see a handful of games reach higher levels of graphical fidelity in a given console generation; it made it feel like things were always moving forward. But when ALL of them strive for the EXACT SAME realistic look, everything unsurprisingly looks the same.

Old man shouts at clouds rant: I miss the days where it was more important to stand out with unique mechanics and art direction, over everything repeatedly copying whatever is popular until people hate it. We don't really see companies concerned with their own legacy anymore. Everyone wants the biggest, fattest wads of cash and so few devs care if they're moving games forward--or showing the world their talent and ideas. I think we'll return to something closer to that before too long (especially with how many AAA devs are speedrunning the end of gaming market), but it's been major bummer since the PS3/360 generation came about, when everything started to move more and more commercial.

 

[Anoobis]

Part of the problem is that a lot of people in game development don't know how to make those lower fidelity games anymore. Plenty of newer hires can't work with anything other than UE5, and proprietary engines like Dragon or RE or CryEngine are increasingly arcane to those in the current development landscape.

 

[Spiral1407]

Problem is 8th Gen (PS4, Xbox One etc.) was around the time where good art direction started to fade away. Obviously yeah you still had stuff like BloodBorne coming out which had great aesthetics and art direction, but games like that were exceptions unfortunately and most of that gens games (To me anyway) all just look the same.

As the other guy said, that largely started in the 7th generation. Remember all the brown and grey gun games we got with gruff bald men as the MCs? While the PS4 was certainly worse in that regard, I still think there was a decent amount of variety outside of that (especially since Japan Studio was still alive).

It didn't get truly dire until the PS5 came out.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I completely agree . Those games are still top-notch looking because of simple but effective designs in its models and texturing .

For example : Why do we need Trash-containers to have over 6 million polygons with so many details when simple shapes , a good texture and few Polygons can do the trick much better and more efficient to convince us that it is indeed a Trash-container ? Why do we need Ray-tracing when suddenly clearity on the screen get heavily compromised ( and the frames it steals from it too ) and simpler lighting tricks work much better and less demanding for the console/PC ?
Why having so many Details when less details can make things outstand more and is easier to find instead relying on the quest-markers or pointers way too much ?

What i even noticed is that older graphics become more an artstyle and not only even give us an example how to be efficient without working on one model for weeks but using the graphics effectively for the concept .

There are games that make for even small models like people or enemies sooo much effort in their details when actually you see those models constantly in a birds-eye-view 24/7 and dont need to zoom in to play the game .

I dont need much to convince me in a game what a trash-bin , car , person and street-lamp is graphically .

And with low-polycounts it is much easier to create objects and a good texture to underline what it is.

Thats why we got such a huge quantity of games released in the 90s and 2000s compared what tripple AAA squeezing out lately today .

Indies understood what tripple AAA denied .

 

[Badseed Badseed]

I had all this other stuff planned, but screw it...


Why do my boy Max like this?

 

[JellyjamLu]

BloodBorne also still looks gorgeous.

Sonic Unleashed despite being a X360 game from '08 also looks nice.

Some indie games also have that nice aesthetic while not being fully HD
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Call me stupid or whatever but what is the title of second image down? looks very interesting.