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Jdawg445Lady Kestrel

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A laid-back chat on a least important adventure game element - the graphics

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I’m not going to keep quiet anymore - the graphics of today’s games SUCKS MONKEY BALLS!!


Uhh… Hi! You may remember me from such silly threads as “Graphics, the Universe and Everything”, “O Graphics, Where Art Thou?” and “Old graphics die hard!”. Today, we’re going to compare the graphics of some new and old games. First, let’s take a look at the graphics of some of the more recent ones:

This is the latest in the Dracula series - Dracula 5. FIVE! Now, let’s see the original game released in 1999.


While the female character in the latest game looks literally like having all of her blood drawn, generic, and expression-less, you can see every one of the wrinkles at the granny’s face and sense all the apathy of the old man.



The latest games in the Secret Files series (Sam Peters/Secret Files 3) certainly don’t look bad by no means, but they’re less inspired (I’m not talking about the bra) and detailed, looking, at best, slightly below the quality of their predecessors:



Hell, you know the Armageddon is close when even Nancy Drew games start pulling the plug in the graphics department:

The latest game in the series. And, picking at random an older title:

(Nancy Drew 11)

Here’s also the upcoming game, Nancy Drew: Labyrinth of Lies:


compared to the ND: The Phantom of Venice:


I don’t know about you, but I like better the models/graphics in the older ones (even though the new one looks like 3D).


Next, new Larry Reloaded:

and Love for Sail:


Even the new Broken Sword 5 (bear with me!), while looking OUTSTANDING, and having high above-average graphics, has certain uneven qualities to it that fall just a bit short of the original:


Also, plenty had been already said about new/old Gabriel Knight model and Moebius graphics:

where I think I’d rather have the pointy models of 3D GK3:


Of course, I just cherry-picked those screens for my own “purpose” (like, new Tex is better FMV than any of the previous games), but meeting a breath-taking graphics seems a much harder task nowadays, especially with less Myst-clones (perhaps the recent 1st-person revival will change things) than what you had with Riven, Schizm… Also, to be completely fair, I must also mention the most awaited games from bigger companies/budgets, like those in the Hype-o-Meter. It’s still uncertain whether The Whispered World 2 shift to 3D and more “misty” world would prove worthy of the original, or will Armikrog:

play in motion in the stylish manner of Neverhood. Are Syberia 3 new screens match to the beauty of the original? The Vanishing of Ethan Carter certainly promises to tear my theory apart, while Frogwares seem to be the company which constantly makes their graphics better.

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

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Rime, Vane, Rapture, Ethancarter, Armikrog, Witness etc. look fantastic.
All AAA indie stuff.

But mostly these PnCs have this freeshovelware quality to it, you are right.
One of the reasons why AGs cannot be taken seriously. Instead of doing typical
style , they should use unique graphical expression like KZO if there are budget problems.

Its further evidence of AGs demise. Poor graphical expression + narrative problems and
shortcomings against other genres in the last decade + forced puzzles that don’t bode
well for new people.

     
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nomadsoul - 06 September 2014 10:40 PM

All AAA indie stuff.

Isn’t that a contradictio in terminis?

One of the reasons why AGs cannot be taken seriously.

Being in a niche does not mean that we’re not taken seriously. Wink

Instead of doing typical
style , they should use unique graphical expression like KZO if there are budget problems.

Not every artist is capable of doing so. And not every low-/no-budget designer can get a good graphics artist for their game.
Shouldn’t we be using this revival in our genre to see which designers are really good, and hope they can get coupled with good graphics artists in the future?
Or maybe find the few that can do both really well? Stasis’ graphics look awesome, for instance, and that’s mostly a one-man project…

Its further evidence of AGs demise. Poor graphical expression + narrative problems and
shortcomings against other genres in the last decade + forced puzzles that don’t bode
well for new people.

Ah, so that’s why we’re getting more coverage in mainstream media than we did in the last decade… Tongue




We used to have a lot of games with bad graphics in the past as well. Not every game was a Curse of Monkey Island or a Syberia. The same applies now. And even if there’s a general decline in graphical quality (that’s not tied to budget constraints), then I’m still not worried. There’s a slight rise in popularity for our genre. Sometimes you need to take a step backwards before you can make a leap forward.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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TimovieMan - 07 September 2014 02:40 AM
nomadsoul - 06 September 2014 10:40 PM

All AAA indie stuff.

Isn’t that a contradictio in terminis?


After recent Game Conventions, the whole industry is trying to re-evaluate the old
concept. No Man’s Sky stole everything from big publishers like Ubisoft.

     
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I love the more artistic takes on some games and I agree that we’ve had some cardboardy graphics here and there but I also think that most of these graphics suffice. They are nothing to be praised but they work well enough. Not every game can be a visual masterpiece.

It would be nice if the artists found a way to make more lively characters and surroundings though. And there are ways to make cruder graphics work, like that GK3 example, and Culpa Innata. They weren’t exactly beautiful games but the character expressions in them were very good.

     

Currently Playing: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening
Recently Played: Red Embrace: Hollywood, Dorfromantik, Heirs & Graces, AI: The Somnium Files, PRICE, Frostpunk, The Shapeshifting Detective (CPT), Disco Elysium, Dream Daddy, Four Last Things, Jenny LeClue - Detectivu, The Signifier

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I think developers need to be aware of their budget/technical restraints when they choose how the game will be presented and remember that what was accepatle 15 years is not acceptable now in realistic 3D games.

     
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I think one of the biggest reasons for this phenomena is the fact that todays technology is simply designed with photorealism in mind. Higher resolutions and number of animation frames makes every little flaw stand out like a sore thumb. This despite of how small it is. The Uncanny valley effect is almost always present in one way or another. To have sparse graphics with limited animation in a game today often makes it look even more barren than it did in the past.

     

NP: A Link Between Worlds, Beneath a Steel Sky and Vampyr

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I must admit that (re)playing Syberia in the Community Playthrough has made me long for newer games with great graphics, even though I don’t normally put too much emphasis on the graphics.

Lets hope that Daedalic continues to make visually beautiful games, and that the new Sherlock Holmes, Dreamfall Chapters and Syberia 3 all turns out to be as beautiful as we expect.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Have the majority of the market even got powerful enough PCs to handle AAA graphics? I doubt it.

I prefer hand drawn 2D, but even though that that has low spec requirements it still costs a ton (which is why BS5 was 2.5D) so even if the market had the hardware there isn’t enough demand for these games for publishers to justify pumping that kind of money it them sadly.

     
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Dan_Dan_91_07 - 07 September 2014 02:00 PM

Have the majority of the market even got powerful enough PCs to handle AAA graphics? I doubt it.

I’d suspect a majority of adventure players already got good enough hardware to run AAA graphics. People with low end machines just tend to be pretty vocal, as i.e. during KS campaigns there’s actually not that many people who are concerned about it, the ones that are, are just noisy.

     
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Dan_Dan_91_07 - 07 September 2014 02:00 PM

I prefer hand drawn 2D, but even though that that has low spec requirements it still costs a ton (which is why BS5 was 2.5D)

Huh? I was under the impression it costs nothing: Acquire AGS or adventure maker for free, and proceed to make the graphics. Where is the cost coming from?

     
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One of the most glaring examples (also mentioned by the original poster) is the new and, er, “improved” Gabriel Knight 20 years later.

     

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Still better than this:

     
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For me Gabriel will always be like the first game, at least that’s the image I have of him, is the image that has been engraved in my mind. The supposed “improvements” on his appearance for me are ... #$%#$##@|#€¬¬9()/&$%# @.

     

” I remember. Somebody died. It was me.”
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Lambonius - 07 September 2014 09:46 PM

Still better than this:


Diego in his first line of the thread said this

I’m not going to keep quiet anymore - the graphics of today’s games SUCKS MONKEY BALLS!!

Its 2014, and its graphics debate, Gabriel looks fine as a real actor in GK2 for its time.

Edit:

It just hit me, its you again Wink

 

     
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nomadsoul - 07 September 2014 10:20 PM

Its 2014, and its graphics debate, Gabriel looks fine as a real actor in GK2 for its time.

 

If only he had been able to act…

     

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