Insiders say cutting-edge graphics are too costly for AAA games
Insiders say cutting-edge graphics are too costly for AAA games
The ongoing industry crisis may finally teach that more graphics do not equal more sales.
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Art style fuelled by pure intent and vision trumps photorealism any day of the week.
Heavily biased here, but just look at Warframe. It is undeniably one of the best looking games out there because it has a voice of its own, and it still runs just fine on decade-old hardware. Same with most pixel/voxel graphics games.
We really don't need to see a billion open pores per square centimeter of facial skin as long as the gameplay's solid, the story's good, and the characters are well-written. Add a touch of art style as I've mentioned before, and you're golden.
Plus I'd rather have a functional game than a pretty one any day of the week. The current trend of rushing big budget/high-tech games to market then finishing them over a couple of years is really getting on my nerves - looking at you, Cyberpunk 2077, Darktide, Baldur's Gate 3 (hate me all you want, but that game was a technical mess at launch), Rogue Trader, S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, Space Marine 2, (insert ~75% of big budget games released since 2018 here).
I just bought 2077 and No Man's Sky with some Christmas money. They were $25 each. If they screw up the launch, that just means it'll be in the bargain bin quicker for us patient gamers.
I haven't tried Cyberpunk yet, but NMS is very solid for $25. I don't think I'd ever have paid full price for it though.
Cyberpunk is 4 years old or more, afaik it never got more than 50% discount, too much for me
I've been enjoying NMS. Could be a while before I form an opinion on CP2077.
That's the silver lining, but it still doesn't excuse the practice in my eyes... It's like someone selling you a house advertised as fully complete, then spending another year or two finishing up the interiors and the plumbing, while you're living there... Or a Cybertruck...
Uhm, googling warframe screenshot (to avoid promo material), i'd count Warframe as a more fotorealistic game, aside frome the weird humanoid figures. I mean, look at this:
"AER memories of old" (currently 90% sale) is what i count as own, simple, art style.
Or maybe Satisfactory, that's good enough in realism, playable on my Cezanne Vega 8 iGPU.
AER was a lovely stop-gap for me after I'd finished Outer Wilds and was a bit bereft. Not remotely the same but I loved the music and flying around.
There's a vaguely cartoon or fun look to the game but I'm having trouble thinking of good examples. Things have the right proportions but it's stylized just enough.
The Plains of Eidolon (your screenshot) is the first open world area, and looks more plain compared to Venus and the cambion drift. Most of the game is made of stylized tiles stitched into levels. It's more obvious as you see all the syandanas and weird frames and the individual factions.
Aah, but they're tricking you through really good lighting and scene composition;) Everything in this game has its own distinctive twist, like a realistic cartoon. Plus DE are aces at painting a scene!
Granted, their modeling and texture work is damned near witchcraft, I still don't understand how they manage to cram so much detail into a 3D model...
And thank you for the recs! I've already played a bit of Satisfactory and it is very satisfactory (sorry...)! Also bought AER because it looks gorgeous!
Not to mention the extra strain on the environment and a person's wallet.
True! One of my favourite games is Cultist Simulator, I literally get stuck standing for hours in my kitchen exploring the library and trying not to die on my phone... That game just stinks of vision, love it!
Art style ages much better too
Agreed. I have a concrete example in mind for this: while it's clear that GSC are still acing the Ukrainian Fallout style, I feel STALKER 2 lost a lot of the series' personality by switching to Unreal... The grit's no longer there, and that grit was a defining element of their atmosphere. I still feel a lot more tension in the first three than in this last one, because I'm sucked into their mindset right from the menu.
Edit: I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 is still a good game (technical issues notwithstanding), it's just... lost some charm along the way.
I'm mad about Space Marine 2. It could have been so good but instead, after losing my progress a bunch of times, I don't really play it at all. I understand dudes are still losing progress even? And the matchmaking is still broken? What the heck are those devs doing?
I don't know, either... They have such a solid core with the gameplay and the world building/art style, but seem to be headed in the wrong direction in terms of ongoing development.
And, yeah, the multiplayer UX is questionable, to say the least...
Hell BG3 still feels like a technical mess.
It looks good enough, but runs like shit on the Deck. And I'm not sure why, it's not like there is a ton of render distance or detail needed.
Heh, I started considering if I should edit in a rant about BG3 in my initial comment and you've graciously provided the window I needed, thank you!:))
I don't know what they did, either, I mean Rogue Trader used to run better while in Beta, and it wasn't even supposed to run on the Deck as it was... Hell, even my PC starts trying to lift off during most of Act III...
Plus, and I may get nuked for this, the game is incomplete as well. Yes, first and foremost Justice for Karlach and Minthara, the most endearing and the most emotionally complex characters in recent memory respectively (try a Good romance with Minthara and get whiplash going from total domination, blood and carnage to the healthiest concept of a romantic relationship in the entire game, that needed sooo much more exploration!), who both got severely shafted content-wise.
But even beyond that, the bits they cut out near the end can really be felt as rushed amputations rather than anything planned... At least, that's how they feel to me. Credit where it's due, Act I and II, and most of Act III are pretty much RPG perfection, but it hurts so much seeing it fumble right as the crescendo boils to an end...
Honestly, Warframe should be what every corpo gaming company is trying to emulate. There's a so much content, amazing game play, stupidly complex story, the monetization doesn't harm the playerbase or limit the game, and the devs not only care, but actively play the game themselves.
They've got a dozen different genres of game crammed in there now, don't want first person shooter? You can play space battle, kiju hunter, street fighter, fishing sim, cabalela's big game hunter, tony hawk pro skater 2, interior design sim, and more without ever opening a different game. I keep trying to play something else and keep going back because it's both a fun and exciting game, and playing different game modes reward you with things that help your other game modes. Imagine if spending an hour shooting things in CoD and fishing in animal crossing rewarded you with better magic in Skyrim.
Frankly, corpo companies spend millions to have this kind of walled garden system and warframe managed to do it on a budget and to the player's benefit instead of harm. It's what gaming needs to strive to be.
DE truly are impressive in how utterly not greedy they are. Not to mention that, as you've said, Warframe really seems to be a passion project for them and it shows in every single detail - especially the Warframes themselves, every model is a display-worthy sculpture, I swear!
And, yeah, they are perfectly attuned to the community, actively participate not only within said community, but also mobilise people toward helping other noble causes (see the explosive success they've had with fundraising for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation)!
And I totally understand what you mean about the almost paralysing amount of choices on offer in the game itself, I have 2.5k hours in it, playing relatively regularly for 5 years now, and they thoroughly hooked me in with their last batches of updates! Again! I have to consciously make myself play other games every now and again just so that I won't burn myself out!
I'm really hoping that, with 4 vehicles now and the knave racing in duviri, that we'll get a conclave racing game mode at some point.
Oh, Conclave definitely needs less killing and more sports! I think Lunaro could be great if they'd rework it a bit. And actual races sound like they could be a blast, yes!
Heck, Tennolympics! Why not! Go all in!:))