Quote Originally Posted by Odaisé Gaelach View Post
I think that art direction and lighting effects are more important than a high poly count. I see footage of Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 and I can't help but think "That looks a little grey, doesn't it? That looks very yellow..." It doesn't really impress me because even though Gears of War is set in a wartorn wasteland, surely there has to be some colour in there - apart from blood red. Metal Gear Solid 4 is set in the Middle East, but surely there has to be a piece of purple or pink cloth in there...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl really stood out to me because even though it's set around the Chernobyl NPP it's not all bleak industrial greys. There is plenty of colour and effects to amaze you - even in the underground labs. Throw a bolt in an electricity anomaly and the whole tunnel will be illuminated with a burst of electric blue light. Shine a flashlight into a metal grid and you can see the shadows criss-cross on the walls behind. Peg a grenade and it explodes and casts shadows all over the place for a brief split second. Even in one of the most toxic places on earth the noon sky is bright blue and the grass is green. During Blowout everything turns red - and all hell is going to break loose.
I agree some games are too much of one colour, but that might actually be an effect done on perpose to set a theme or atmosphere a good example of this the film Sleepy Hollow (i know it's not a game but these day's games and movies has simaler development processes and directorship) as the film was done with a blue lens to give it that creepy atmosphere...

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?