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Games that visually can withold the test of time without being cell shaded/cartoonish.

Tahnit

Tahnit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,965
I was playing some more destiny 2 today (as you do) and in the middle of a vex offensive in the new expansion realized that this game on PC looks fucking incredible still. And i dont think time is going to make it look any worse. I think games have gotten to a point that they will always look good. This isnt like gta 3 days or anything. Shit just looks good.

What other games do you think visually will stand the test of time?

I mean 3d games of course. sorry.
 
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Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,485
Dishonored. It's not like it's realistic in its art direction, but the painterly aesthetic of textures and strangely boxy proportions of both people and objects in the world lend the series a distinctly ethereal look that hasn't aged yet. Dishonored 2 is still a visual knockout (it only came out a few years ago), but even the first game still holds up really well.
 
Human Resources

Human Resources

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,104
it will blow your mind one day in the future when you realize that destiny 2 looks so dated
i've had that same feeling many times
there was a moment on the menu screen of jade empire for the xbox where i swore that the character on my curved crt tv/vcr was photorealistic
 
Dark Knight

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,244
Go back far enough and a lot of stuff looks cartoonish, like 75% of all 16 bit games. Unless you're talking specifically about 3D stuff.
 
Jakenbakin

Jakenbakin

Member
Jun 17, 2018
11,781
Probably should have specified 3D games because a lot of people are going to be (correctly) posting 2D games :)
 
SeriousGoku

SeriousGoku

Alt Account
Banned
Jun 20, 2019
752
The heavy hitters of this gen will stand the test of time.
Horizon, god of war, rdr2, tlou2 etc
 
Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,485
Human Resources said:
it will blow your mind one day in the future when you realize that destiny 2 looks so dated
i've had that same feeling many times
there was a moment on the menu screen of jade empire for the xbox where i swore that the character on my curved crt tv/vcr was photorealistic
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Destiny is, to a degree, heavily stylized. The first game has some stuff that aged like milk (the Cosmodrome doesn't look so hot these days), but the Dreadnought, mechanized ruins in Venus, and Hive ruins on the Moon are quite striking on an artistic level, if not a technical one.
SeriousGoku said:
The heavy hitters of this gen will stand the test of time.
Horizon, god of war, rdr2, tlou2 etc
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Folks said the exact same thing about games like The Last of Us in the previous generation, and while they still look decent, they're blown out of the water by major releases we've seen these past few years.

Their art direction will absolutely hold up, but on a technical level? I don't think so. RDR2 is definitely going to age faster than God of War or Horizon, if you ask me, since its art direction lends itself better to a realistic presentation, while Horizon's machines and God of War's pretty-much-everything are going to still be pretty impressive for a long while.
 
vestan

vestan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Dec 28, 2017
24,604
MGS2

Reminder that this game came out in 2001

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Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
I think Half-Life 2 still looks really good. Also Resident Evil 4. Virtua Fighter 3 also.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,360
Triscuitable said:
Dishonored. It's not like it's realistic in its art direction, but the painterly aesthetic of textures and strangely boxy proportions of both people and objects in the world lend the series a distinctly ethereal look that hasn't aged yet. Dishonored 2 is still a visual knockout (it only came out a few years ago), but even the first game still holds up really well.
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Eh, I tried to go back to the first maxed out on PC and it was pretty fugly. That said, I don't have much love for the game in general (was super hyped pre-release but ended up hating how it felt to play - ditto with the sequel).
 
caff!!!

caff!!!

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,029
There's more or less a graphics curve from the PS1's lowpoly style of graphics with pixel art style texturing (MGS) to now and only style will make a game not seem massively dated.
Triscuitable said:
Dishonored. It's not like it's realistic in its art direction, but the painterly aesthetic of textures and strangely boxy proportions of both people and objects in the world lend the series a distinctly ethereal look that hasn't aged yet. Dishonored 2 is still a visual knockout (it only came out a few years ago), but even the first game still holds up really well.
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Human Resources

Human Resources

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,104
i will agree that good art design will stand the test of time
i always thought the first MDK had an awesome giger-esque design that the sequel couldn't replicate
 
Tagyhag

Tagyhag

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,448
Yeah, definitely a lot of games today will still look good.

One thing though is that they'll look comparatively more flat and low IQ when we hit 8K/high ray tracing but still decent.

If we're talking about games from like...2005 and older? It becomes a lot harder if we're JUST talking about 3D games, because you still have other games like Age of Empires 2 and Commandos which still look great.

Maybe simpler 3D games like REZ?
 
Famassu

Famassu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,186
Vagrant Story is still pretty pleasing to look at. It's a bit stylized but not cellshaded or cartoony.
 
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,268
Resident Evil REmake on Gamecube still looks fantastic to this day due to it's blending of pre-rendered backgrounds and great character models/lighting.

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Smartlord

Smartlord

Member
Oct 27, 2017
198
Came here to rep Half Life 2.

Yeah, it's gotten some minor HDR upgrades from the Orange Box update, but go back and load up that game and be shocked it came out the same month as Halo 2. If you want to be even more amazed, give yourself a replay with Half Life 2: Update. It's a free community update on Steam that fixes bugs that have accrued over the years and ups the quality of the lighting a bit while keeping the same textures and models. Was running it at 1080p downscaled and it still is quite the looker. (Screenshots are from Half Life 2: Update. Click to see full size.)

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Ionic

Ionic

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,734
Also in to say Half-Life 2. The environments still look great, but it's the faces that get me. 2004 had a lot of graphical heavy hitters, but HL2 is the only one that holds up in that department. There were plenty of big name games releasing over the next 10 years that didn't put as much effort into making natural expressions as HL2 did.



Edit: Game is 15 years old. It's insanity. 6 years before this we had Half-Life 1.
 
Cranster

Cranster

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,788
Halo 1 still looks great, heck I'd argue all of them do for the most part especially in regards to environments and lighting.

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Now I would argue there are elements in each game visually that mau not age aswell as other aspects, but alot of the work Bungie and 343i have done is really damn good.
 
RedSwirl

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,048
Gran Turismo 2 still looks oddly realistic to me, in a way basically no other game from that era does. They nailed the naturalistic lighting.

vestan said:
MGS2

Reminder that this game came out in 2001

KMiOanC.jpg

0i42ncc.jpg

vZwk7X7.jpg

1RzjdPz.jpg
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I forgot MGS2 (and some other early PS2 games) didn't use texture filtering and thus maintained the PS1's blocky textures but with higher polygon counts, leading to a unique look that was never replicated again.

higemaru said:
Silent Hill 2 & 3 look incredible and for a PS1 game, Silent Hill is leagues ahead of the stunning Metal Gear Solid due to its use of fog and detailed environments.
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Silent Hill 1's art direction and environment detail really manage to shine through the real-time graphics of the era. Many would consider the game's original resolution and pixelated textures a part of that style, as evidenced by the many recent indie horror games visually inspired by it.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,416
Final Fantasy XII from 2006 still looks good to me. Generally well designed faces and fantastic enviroments. Also MGS 3, the boss' model and Volgin's look great.
 
Dr Pears

Dr Pears

Member
Sep 9, 2018
2,669
Would Portal 2 be considered cartoony?

I'd say the simple clean art-style will still look great in like forever.

I'd say Mirror's Edge will similarly also stand the test of time.
 
Kasey

Kasey

Member
Nov 1, 2017
10,822
Boise
Cranster said:
Halo 1 still looks great, heck I'd argue all of them do for the most part especially in regards to environments and lighting.

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med_11.jpg


Tv3x_dZI7L0ae7C1XKLzh1xQ-i3exBQgs6Ds7swbH7Y.jpg

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DGHZ26MOUNCRHCZZJCC34YHIBI


H4-Campaign-pic-4.jpeg


halo-5-guardians-enemy-lines-mission-shocases-game-mechanics-says-343-industries-492892-2.jpg


Now I would argue there are elements in each game visually that mau not age aswell as other aspects, but alot of the work Bungie and 343i have done is really damn good.
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343 really knocked Sanghelios out of the park.
 
jak153

jak153

Member
Oct 30, 2017
110
I think most cod games post mw2 look pretty good besides some of the crossgen ones on last gen. Although personally I think they do have a hint of a cartoony style
 
RedSwirl

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,048
♡♪!? said:
Final Fantasy XII from 2006 still looks good to me. Generally well designed faces and fantastic enviroments. Also MGS 3, the boss' model and Volgin's look great.
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FFXII is one of the games that still holds up when you throw it in an emulator.

In fact, games like it, Metal Gear, and Resident Evil nailed a sort of unique balance between "realistic" and "stylized".
 
RestEerie

RestEerie

Banned
Aug 20, 2018
13,618
I think shadow of the colossus looks great even now and the remake is going to make the game looks great 10 years from now.
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,670
Games with good lighting.

It's incredible how much a good lighting engine or well placed lights can improved a game visually.
 
dmshaposv

dmshaposv

Member
Oct 27, 2017
957
Games with good art direction (halo, mgs, half life 2 etc) age like fine wine.

Polycounts and rendering effects will always keep advancing overtime. The only anomaly was crysis which was had blah art ditection but graphics tech that was 3 gens ahead of the game. Now that console games final caught up and exceeded this gen, it is completely forgotten in the list of best looking games of all time.
 
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