Graphicks?

[Matador]

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a well designed and beautiful game. Whether it's realistic [like Mass Effect] or Cartoony [Like TF2 or Psychonauts], I can't help but fall in love. That being said, I'm wondering whether the game industry will be able to maintain their trend towards realism, or if the market will move back to a cartoony feel when the graphics threshold is reached.

What would you prefer? CG quality that mirrors life, or an exaggerated style that pushes itself away from reality?

[Pirate Jack]

I'm a total Nintendo fanboy, so you can guess how I'll be voting.

[CB45]

Both have their uses, and you're likely to see both used till the end of time. Realistic styles just don't work for everything, just like cartoon styling doesn't work for everything. Just imagine games like Mario in a realistic style, would you really want to see a somewhat plump Italian man jumping on things that looked like walking mushrooms?

That said the gaming industry depending on where you look tends to lean more towards realistic graphics, when it comes to more adult games at least. Not saying all adult games are realistic or even all games geared for the younger crowd are cartoonish. But both styles have their own place and uses in the gaming industry and will likely be around as long as video games are, each one has something to offer that the other doesn't.

Edit: And as to which I prefer I like them both equally I've enjoyed many games from both realistic and cartoony graphics.

[Pirate Jack]

I don't wanna sound like a cranky old lady, but I think that there's a certain danger in realistic graphics. It's hard to blame an 8-bit video game for violence, it doesn't look real. Same with a cartoon. Even current-gen games don't look truly real, but what if graphics were perfect? What if the graphics were so good that you couldn't tell the difference between killing somebody in a video game, and in real life?

I'm not a psychologist though, so I'm not sure.

[pie]

I like games that develop their own style. TF2 is definitely one of my favourite games in terms of art direction (and also gameplay), but I also like games like HL2 which has a discernible style that nevertheless maintains realism. What I dislike in graphics are games where they've just made good or decent graphics with little thought of a style; a lot of driving games are like that.

Also, Jack, anyone who couldn't tell the difference between a game and real life is disturbed to begin with. Until we start getting into the realm of virtual reality, we can't really attribute games with violent murder.

[Bronze]

I usually don't take notice unless something particularly catches my eye.

[stock]

I think you can look to trends in art for a pretty clear answer. Every civilization has moved towards realistic renderings of subjects they wanted. Greeks, Romans, etc.

They always get to a certain point, and then people decide they want a less realistic style. That or another civilization takes over and ruins all progress...but that's another story.

MY POINT IS! Humans love to mimic real-life with their art. In this case, the art is the design of the games and over the years we've seen a steady move towards realism. Not to say that every game has done that, there are a fair number of cartoon-y games. Eventually we'll get it almost if not totally perfect, but people still love very stylistic/over-exaggerated graphics. Look at comic books, some people don't even TRY to make it look anatomically accurate.

[pie]

I think the trend of art in history leans towards a dislike of boundaries. When neo-classicism became the norm, artists began to become dissatisfied with the limitations and moved into romanticism, which loosened up the boundaries, then into impressionism, which did so even more. At the moment it seems like art is moving back to a more realistic standpoint, but the point is that we like variety, which means that a broad spectrum of art in video games really works for everyone!

[stock]

Exactly!

[Kelso]

I like my realistic games when appropriate, but cleaner, sharper graphics doesn't necessarily lean towards realism. Do I want shinier, more "real" looking graphics for backgrounds and effect? Yeah! Do I want a physically realistic representation of Mario running around that world? Not so much.

[Matador]

Here's where I stand:

Do I like realistic graphics: Yes, especially when they are well executed like those of Mass Effect.

Do I like Cartoony Graphics? HELL YES!!!

We look at real life on a day to day, minute to minute basis. It's ever present and unchanging. Is it beautiful? Sometimes. But I think that cartoony style relaxes our eyes and look at something brand new. someone else's interpretation of life.

Tell five different artists to do a realistic portrait of a specific person, and you'll get the same portrait every time. Tell those same five artists to do a characature of tat person, and you'll get five different interpretations. Even the style of a single character gets varied from cartoonist to cartoonist. Just watch a Looney Toons marathon [I wish such a thing still existed] and you'll see a style change as different animators take over.

I just feel that cartoony style has the freedom to be more expressive. It may have a tough time conveying the serious tone that seems to be the trend in gaming at this point, but I think that there is more potential there than if we keep pushing realism.



Disclaimer: I was going to use an example of realistic games lie MGS4 getting delayed over and over, but then I realized: Smash Bros.

[Ben]

In my own oppinion a consistent art and imaginative art direction is more important then realisim, or poly count, texture size, or anything really. Some of the best looking games stay looking great despite being fairly old. Beyond good and Evil is a great example of this, even today among PS3 and 360 games it looks gorgeous because it perfected its own style.

Realisim bores me to be honest, but so does montony, anime style JRPG's are just as boring to look at as a boring realistic game. I just love to see games do something diffrent.

[Matador]

That's why KotOR still looks good.

There was an article on joystiq last year about how the majority color schemes of games were desaturated browns, grays and greens.

[Pirate Jack]

Does anybody else miss sprite-based games?

[Agrajag]

Does anybody else miss sprite-based games?

ME! Sprites graphics can have some amazing artwork. One of my favorites is Legend of Mana for PS1. It's all 2d sprites, but it looks great. Much better than most 3d PS1/N64 games.