Do you prefer stylized games or realistic looking ones?

[heidi2521]

Alright please some of my questions

1. Under which category Skyrim comes, realism or stylised ?? Please give proper explanation
2. Are we strictly talking about game graphics and no gameplay whatsoever in this thread ??

Skyrim is definitely realism. The humans look like real humans. The buildings/environments are extremely normal and could be found in the real world. The fictional creatures look like they would look like that IRL. so it comes under realism for me.

And yes, we strictly are talking about visuals. Otherwise 99% of the games would be categorized as stylized

 

[vickybat]

Alright please some of my questions

1. Under which category Skyrim comes, realism or stylised ?? Please give proper explanation
2. Are we strictly talking about game graphics and no gameplay whatsoever in this thread ??

Skyrim is definitely realism. Its an astounding feat by devs for making the world of skyrim so so believable even though it contains mythical beings and creatures.

 

[gagan_kumar]

idk y u guys like skyrim so much i kind of got bored with it......

 

[vickybat]

Spoiler

1. Just because i used LBP/Braid/Bastion as examples doesn't mean that the others are excluded. I used them because they came to my mind first and do a good job of showing stylization in games.

You should have been specific in the beginning. It seemed to have been painting a different picture earlier. If you meant games like bioshock infinite, far cry 3 and the likes, then i would have voted stylized.

3. Except for the fact that the gaming industry was driven forward by idTech 1 - 4, but not much by 5. You said that he is considered the father of modern video gaming unanimously while he is considered the father of modern 3D games and FPSs.

Id-tech 5 is very new and you expect it to drive industry this early? We all saw the potential rage brought. Considering AAA titles already in development ( The evil within, doom 4 and an undisclosed project by machine games) and some world leading developers like shinji mikami and john carmack behind, expect it to take the industry forward. Evil within particularly looks to be genre defining stuff.

4. The video game industry is slowing down.

*www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/arts/vi...ine-despite-new-hits.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The Video Game Industry is likely to Experience a Slow Down| Game Industry News | iPhone iPod Touch iPad Game News, Review and Updates
Video game industry weakens as recession worsens | TG Daily

Today AAA games cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and need to sell 2 - 5 million copies to break even. Most games don't sell that much. Tomb Raider and Hitman couldn't meet Square Enix's expectations inspite of selling well.

Profits and margins of developers and publishers are down. Companies like Square Enix are bleeding money. I need not go into the recent THQ demise. One bomb is enough to add a game studio to this list:

NeoGAF - View Single Post - List of studios closed since 2006

Very little innovation is happening in AAA studios and they are becoming more and more risk averse(there are exceptions ofc). These are not signs of a healthy industry.

Well the list has a lot of loose ends. Ea japan was moved under EA partnering model, whereas Dice Canada was closed because Dice was acquired by EA. That was great coz we got excellent franchisee like mirror's edge and of course took the battlefield franchisee into the next level.

Replies in green....

 

[heidi2521]

Replies in green....

1. I see. Looks like my non inclusion of AAA titles in the examples made you exclude them from the category of stylized. I specifically used those examples because they were the most(and most brilliantly) stylized games i could think of without dipping into games that had something or the other to do with Nintendo. You can try asking a mod to change your vote(not sure if they have that power).

3. You did say "have driven the entire industry forward" not "will drive the industry forward" . If Mikami's game does drive it forward, I'd wager that it would be because of the games content and not the tech behind it. I'm not gonna say much about the game because all we have had are a short trailer and some concept art. Bioshock Infinite may drive the industry forward by showing that gamers are accepting of vivid, stylized AAA games, but it won't be because it uses Unreal Engine 3.

4. You do have a point about loose ends. But that list and my point(s) still stand. That list wasn't tailored for this debate you know . Just that a lot of them were shut down because a single game bombed. And I wouldn't call Mirror's Edge a franchise until we get some sort of official confirmation of Mirrors Edge 2. If you look at their Wikipedia page, they have largely been a Battlefield factory factory since their acquisition and EA and rise of Riccitiello who caused the company to go into gamers **** list. ME was probably too far in production at that point in time to get cancelled. I'm not gonna talk about BF since i'm not into them because their campaigns always were on the boring side of things.

 

[darkv0id]

Replies in green....

@ vickybat Regarding the video game industry slowdown and the pursuit of visual realism

I think dead5 was referring to the school of thought that sooner or later visual fidelity will reach a saturation point vis-a-vis development budget. The question is not whether new engines like Unreal 4 and idtech 5 can be used by developers to raise the bar for visual quality, but if it is feasible for them from a financial standpoint.

As pointed out before, major AAA titles already require millions of $$$ in development budget to make. To increase visual quality, this development budget will have to be increased further. The question is, how many developers have franchises which will get enough sales to recover this development cost? Infinity Ward, DICE, Blizzard maybe?

The rest of the devs will have to rely on artistic world design and innovative gameplay mechanics to differentiate their product. If they rely only on great graphics and rehashed gameplay, simply put, they wont be able to recover the development cost, because gamers will stick to their CODs and Battlefields rather that pick a unknown product which offers the same gameplay.

This is why new engines like idtech 5 and Unreal may not have the same impact as their predecessors.

 

[heidi2521]

@ vickybat Regarding the video game industry slowdown and the pursuit of visual realism

I think dead5 was referring to the school of thought that sooner or later visual fidelity will reach a saturation point vis-a-vis development budget. The question is not whether new engines like Unreal 4 and idtech 5 can be used by developers to raise the bar for visual quality, but if it is feasible for them from a financial standpoint.

As pointed out before, major AAA titles already require millions of $$$ in development budget to make. To increase visual quality, this development budget will have to be increased further. The question is, how many developers have franchises which will get enough sales to recover this development cost? Infinity Ward, DICE, Blizzard maybe?

The rest of the devs will have to rely on artistic world design and innovative gameplay mechanics to differentiate their product. If they rely only on great graphics and rehashed gameplay, simply put, they wont be able to recover the development cost, because gamers will stick to their CODs and Battlefields rather that pick a unknown product which offers the same gameplay.

This is why new engines like idtech 5 and Unreal may not have the same impact as their predecessors.

Exactly. You managed to explain my point better than me

 

[Faun]

I like the setting to be unrealistic, like Dead Space etc. Something which is yet not developed and one can only experience in-game.

 

[Piyush]

Realistic looking ones. But these games also left me with a headache after an hour or so.

 

[Extreme Gamer]

Realistic looking ones. But these games also left me with a headache after an hour or so.

And stylistic ones did not?

 

[vickybat]

@ vickybat Regarding the video game industry slowdown and the pursuit of visual realism

I think dead5 was referring to the school of thought that sooner or later visual fidelity will reach a saturation point vis-a-vis development budget. The question is not whether new engines like Unreal 4 and idtech 5 can be used by developers to raise the bar for visual quality, but if it is feasible for them from a financial standpoint.

As pointed out before, major AAA titles already require millions of $$$ in development budget to make. To increase visual quality, this development budget will have to be increased further. The question is, how many developers have franchises which will get enough sales to recover this development cost? Infinity Ward, DICE, Blizzard maybe?

The rest of the devs will have to rely on artistic world design and innovative gameplay mechanics to differentiate their product. If they rely only on great graphics and rehashed gameplay, simply put, they wont be able to recover the development cost, because gamers will stick to their CODs and Battlefields rather that pick a unknown product which offers the same gameplay.

This is why new engines like idtech 5 and Unreal may not have the same impact as their predecessors.

Well written, but i beg to differ on the bold part. Its too early to make that kind of comment especially for Unreal.

Talk about rich developers and publishers, i would really like to count Bethesda and its subsidiaries(Zenimax-tango gameworks, id-software), Capcom, Warner Bros ( Rocksteady and others), Epic Games, EA etc all having highly successful games using the above engines and they all are pretty strong financially. Whether the same success will be replicated on next gen engines or not, only time will tell ( I strongly believe that it will). In other words, they know how business is done.

Unreal engine 4 is far more versatile than UE-3 ever was. Check this thread- *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/gamerz/172951-power-behind-unreal-engine-4-a.html

I don't see a reason why it won't make an impact. A UE-4 title is already announced by epic games. Its called Fortnite.

Unreal Engine also targets F2P games and has a huge impact among the list. UE-4 is destined to do the same.

 

[Gen.Libeb]

Realistic it is (Crysis / Far Cry / Skyrim). Stylized don't really work for me, I guess that's I why never bothered with Borderlands / Bioshock.
I've never heard the stylized games in your original post. I think you could update your first post with more game examples.

 

[Cilus]

But why there is a clash between realism and the so called stylized? A game, while looking absolutely beautiful can be stylized too. Skyrim and Far Cry do look very good but that does not mean that they are not offering high degree of game play. The character developments in Skyrim is really something.

 

[vickybat]

But why there is a clash between realism and the so called stylized? A game, while looking absolutely beautiful can be stylized too. Skyrim and Far Cry do look very good but that does not mean that they are not offering high degree of game play. The character developments in Skyrim is really something.

Exactly. Initially the thread depicted stylized titles to be indie game like titles with flashy colours and probably the ones with nintendo's approach.

I guess its in right course now....hopefully

 

[heidi2521]

But why there is a clash between realism and the so called stylized? A game, while looking absolutely beautiful can be stylized too. Skyrim and Far Cry do look very good but that does not mean that they are not offering high degree of game play. The character developments in Skyrim is really something.

What clash?

Stylized games usually tend to look absolutely beautiful.

Pretty much every game mentioned in this thread have a high degree of gameplay, be it BF, Skyrim, Viewtiful Joe or Monster Hunter(Except Call of Duty maybe ). Everybody agrees that art direction doesn't determine the degree of gameplay.

Exactly. Initially the thread depicted stylized titles to be indie game like titles with flashy colours and probably the ones with nintendo's approach.

I guess its in right course now....hopefully

Well, stylized games do tend to be more colourful than realistic ones. Bastion and Braid while being colourful and vivid were not very flashy. And LBP(Sony) & Viewtiful Joe(Capcom) are not indie games. And none of them appear to follow Nintendo's approach which usually consists of bright clean colours, smooth character models and a high degree of contrast between the characters and the background.

I didn't realize that my examples could lead to such confusion. I'd presumed that everybody understood that 'stylized' meant not attempting to look realistic. Updating the OP to include more examples.

 

[darkv0id]

Well written, but i beg to differ on the bold part. Its too early to make that kind of comment especially for Unreal.

Talk about rich developers and publishers, i would really like to count Bethesda and its subsidiaries(Zenimax-tango gameworks, id-software), Capcom, Warner Bros ( Rocksteady and others), Epic Games, EA etc all having highly successful games using the above engines and they all are pretty strong financially. Whether the same success will be replicated on next gen engines or not, only time will tell ( I strongly believe that it will). In other words, they know how business is done.

Unreal engine 4 is far more versatile than UE-3 ever was. Check this thread- *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/gamerz/172951-power-behind-unreal-engine-4-a.html

I don't see a reason why it won't make an impact. A UE-4 title is already announced by epic games. Its called Fortnite.

Unreal Engine also targets F2P games and has a huge impact among the list. UE-4 is destined to do the same.

That's why I used the word may while describing their future impact. I completely agree; for all our analysis, only time will tell how these engines impact the industry.

And yes, I had completely forgotten factoring F2P games in the equation. + for pointing that out.

 

[vickybat]

What clash?

Stylized games usually tend to look absolutely beautiful.

Pretty much every game mentioned in this thread have a high degree of gameplay, be it BF, Skyrim, Viewtiful Joe or Monster Hunter(Except Call of Duty maybe ). Everybody agrees that art direction doesn't determine the degree of gameplay.



Well, stylized games do tend to be more colourful than realistic ones. Bastion and Braid while being colourful and vivid were not very flashy. And LBP(Sony) & Viewtiful Joe(Capcom) are not indie games. And none of them appear to follow Nintendo's approach which usually consists of bright clean colours, smooth character models and a high degree of contrast between the characters and the background.

I didn't realize that my examples could lead to such confusion. I'd presumed that everybody understood that 'stylized' meant not attempting to look realistic. Updating the OP to include more examples.

I loved braid. The gameplay had complexity, while the water colour graphics coupled with mesmerizing music simply stole hearts of millions of gamers. I absolutely have no aversion towards that title. Its among my top played games ever. Same goes for little big planet and the likes. I know LPB is not indie and is one of sony's top AAA exclusives that sells.

But to play only that kind of games all the time and move away from realism is what i'm completely against off. See that's the reason why i support microsoft and sony consoles including pc as a platform. They offer everything thanks to a wider developer support including indie with all kinds of tastes. Another game i want to point out is Journey.

The game was GOTY stuff. Won several GOTY awards including a grammy award. So these kind of platforms have something for everyone.

[YOUTUBE]0Z-tteJNDoc[/YOUTUBE]

Amazing stuff. I wonder why sony ignored bringing this game to vita. Stuff like these are system sellers.

 

[heidi2521]

I loved braid. The gameplay had complexity, while the water colour graphics coupled with mesmerizing music simply stole hearts of millions of gamers. I absolutely have no aversion towards that title. Its among my top played games ever. Same goes for little big planet and the likes. I know LPB is not indie and is one of sony's top AAA exclusives that sells.

But to play only that kind of games all the time and move away from realism is what i'm completely against off. See that's the reason why i support microsoft and sony consoles including pc as a platform. They offer everything thanks to a wider developer support including indie with all kinds of tastes. Another game i want to point out is Journey.

The game was GOTY stuff. Won several GOTY awards including a grammy award. So these kind of platforms have something for everyone.

I agree. Braid was (or rather is) one of the most brilliant games ever. The only complaint I have against it would be the giant black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

I don't think anyone here who prefers stylization(me included) wants people to stop making realistic looking games. Sometimes stylization doesn't really suit them(The Assassin's Creed series comes to mind). It is just that stylized games look much more pleasing and hold up much better, much longer. If you have brilliant gameplay to back your game, your realistic looking game will continue to be loved and played even after it looks horribly dated(eg. The original Deus Ex. Looks horribly dated, but nearly anyone can pick it up and enjoy it even today). But if it doesn't have strong gameplay backing it and hopes to sell just on the graphics(Crysis 2 & 3), it may do well now, but will be mauled by other games in the future.

I am not against realistic looking games. I just prefer stylization.

I am one of those gameplay snobs, so the game must have brilliant gameplay(or minimal gameplay so that I can immerse myself in the story) for me to enjoy it while trailers and reviews for Journey seem to indicate it doesn't have much of that, causing me to not pick it up. I've tried Flower by the same dev and even though, much like Journey, it was critically acclaimed I personally did not enjoy it.

 

[Piyush]

And stylistic ones did not?

Nope, at least not for me.
I can play games like Borderlands for hours continuously but FC3 was difficult for me after crossing 90 mins or so.

 

[ithehappy]

Realistic.
Stylish games are for kids.