For the Love of Graphics

[Fatal Impurity]

But then you also get your setting that effect's the realism of the presence of colour...afterall a desert hardly has anything at all nevermind a brightly coloured plant or piece of cloth! A good example of this "realism" is Red Faction, this game is set on Mars, thus it is largely red in colour...but that's waht you'd expect of a mining colony on a red planet right?

Oh, it's not just the setting that I'm moaning talking about. I understand your point, when you reach the Chernobyl NPP, the buildings are grey, the sky is overcast, and overall it's a very bleak place.

But I mean, surely there should be some colour in the game. Reactor 3 and 4's cooling tower is still red and white. A burning helicopter is bright orange and yellow. The grass around the sarcophagus is still green. People wear green uniforms.

I can understand the dusty yellow hue of Metal Gear Solid 4, but it can't be all yellow buildings and ground - especially inside the buildings (some art decor please? ). And a yellow sky as well?

Your absolutely right but i mean in times of war the sky is usually filled with sand and a million different chemicals, plus deserty places like the middle east often if not most of the time have sand storm's which can generally make the sky look sandy and yellow...but yeah i would like to see more games with varience with colour. In fact maybe this the exact reason why so many quirky Jap games (such as anime beat em ups/puzzlers etc) are getting more popular outside of Japan (Katamari Damacy is one good example of this) and this is because of the their bright vibrance and large pallette of coulours. It's quite obvious that people are appriciating colour as a component of games much like art does and therefore these games (which before we're considered daft or garish colour wise) are being considered fun visually.

Maybe it's time for the game companies to adopt a new art direction with games, instead of going for the drab "over-realism" they have been doing over the last few years maybe they would be re-introducing colour into games, giving them brilliant colour yet decent graphics like classics like Crono Trigger did in their time!

[Nifleheim7]

As long as there are gamers with different tastes,there will be games with different visual styles.
I would hate it if ALL games looked like Gears of War,Final Fantasy or any other game that is popular for it's graphics...

[Rostum]

I will definitely agree that developers in general really need to take larger risks in terms of art direction and development.

[Nominus Experse]

One word: Myst.

[Slothy]

Far too many people look only at a games graphics, and nothing else. It's their only concern. These are the same people who continually dis classic games because they aren't the latest technology. I agree with what Fatal Impurity said, and I think that people like this will never truly enjoy a video game.

I think people with this opinion are probably far more pervasive in gaming society than people who actually focus only on graphics. Seriously, for all the talk of most people being focused only on graphics I don't actually see a lot of it, ever. It usually seems that if someone just likes the 360 or the PS3 over the Wii or something along those lines they get labeled as someone who likes graphics over gameplay whether it's true or not.

Back on topic; in game graphics are what I pay attention to the most, but it always annoys me when a great game, with great art direction has terrible box and interior art, especially when I find out that the Japanese and European box art was better. I'm looking at you Ico! *shakes fist*

[ReloadPsi]

If I'm gonna go ga ga for anything graphical (quite rare) it's usually box art (also quite rare).

[Fatal Impurity]

Far too many people look only at a games graphics, and nothing else. It's their only concern. These are the same people who continually dis classic games because they aren't the latest technology. I agree with what Fatal Impurity said, and I think that people like this will never truly enjoy a video game.

I think people with this opinion are probably far more pervasive in gaming society than people who actually focus only on graphics. Seriously, for all the talk of most people being focused only on graphics I don't actually see a lot of it, ever. It usually seems that if someone just likes the 360 or the PS3 over the Wii or something along those lines they get labeled as someone who likes graphics over gameplay whether it's true or not.

Back on topic; in game graphics are what I pay attention to the most, but it always annoys me when a great game, with great art direction has terrible box and interior art, especially when I find out that the Japanese and European box art was better. I'm looking at you Ico! *shakes fist*

The FF's are also a prime example of this, the in game graphics are always top of the range (for their time) but the european boxart is always a plain white background with a simple title whilst the North American boxart is always something brilliant with full colour and displays the characters!

[Slothy]

The FF's are also a prime example of this, the in game graphics are always top of the range (for their time) but the european boxart is always a plain white background with a simple title whilst the North American boxart is always something brilliant with full colour and displays the characters!

Call me crazy, but I think I'd actually prefer a plain white background with the current FF's logo to the box art we get in North America. I'd kind of like the simplicity of it, particularly the showcasing of Amano's logo design, as opposed to just pictures of the characters or something. I'd say the FFXII Collector's Edition was my favourite box art in the series so far, with the possible exception of the FF Anthology box art (an Amano drawing of Terra in Magitech armour. I'm too big an Amano fan to not love it).

[scrumpleberry]

Well since I play Guild Wars the most of any game, I have to same in game graphics. The game is so amzingly beautiful. Everywhere you go you see something stunning. Today while mapping the desert I found a HUGE statue that had fallen and was really cool. Or while on the coast I found a nice view of a castle on a cliff in the distance.

Guild Wars does have incredible graphics.

Also, graphics are good if they push the machine to the best it can possibly do - like CT and VI.

[Fatal Impurity]

The FF's are also a prime example of this, the in game graphics are always top of the range (for their time) but the european boxart is always a plain white background with a simple title whilst the North American boxart is always something brilliant with full colour and displays the characters!

Call me crazy, but I think I'd actually prefer a plain white background with the current FF's logo to the box art we get in North America. I'd kind of like the simplicity of it, particularly the showcasing of Amano's logo design, as opposed to just pictures of the characters or something. I'd say the FFXII Collector's Edition was my favourite box art in the series so far, with the possible exception of the FF Anthology box art (an Amano drawing of Terra in Magitech armour. I'm too big an Amano fan to not love it).

I can see where your coming from but i mean it can of wore thin with me after FF7...because the case on the american cover with the backview of Cloud with his Buster Sword was so damn cool that i was cursing Square that us Brits had to have the plain boxart that we did end up having...

Another time when the American boxart was much cooler than the European/Japanese was with FF9 that had some damn cool artwork...

Anyway if you like it like that then fair enough that's your preference but i MUCH prefer the American covers!

[Raebus]

American Covers = Awful. Too many images are used, "OMGZ, LOTS OF IMAGES TO KEEP MY ATTENTION, LOLZ".

UK Covers = Simple and elegant.

[Mirage]

I prefer the white box with artwork over that "omg eyecandy" stuff on NA covers.

[scrumpleberry]

Honestly, I like the covers over here (UK) better.

[Discord]

Well, a game that looks like pacman but has great art-work isn't worth very much is it? It's still nice to have a nicely drawn-out desktop image though.

[Melodies_of_life]

..hmm... I really play a game for the story, but if the graphics are any good then I just get some eye-candy along with the story! hehe