Games like those were the exception, especially with SCEA's early efforts to discourage publishers from releasing pixel-based games in North America.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
I miss the beautiful ugliness of Playstation 1 era games [Lots of screenshots]
- Thread starter Era of not Yakuza
- Start date
- Sony Retro Screenshots
100%
There's great modern work in the horror genre, but I do wish the aesthetic was carried over to others on a more regular basis.
One of my biggest 2021 surprises was the adventure title Northern Journey. Though it's more of a Quake-era look.
Still worth checking out, landed at #3 on my personal Top 10.
There are some really great examples of developer creativity to make good looking PS1 games. I just don't think Syphon Filter is one of them, because it broadly just looks like a way uglier version of a modern third person action game.
I think MGS' camera perspective and visual tricks, RE's fixed camera and static backgrounds, Silent Hill's fog and atmosphere, are good examples of how PS1 games can still look great.
I think MGS' camera perspective and visual tricks, RE's fixed camera and static backgrounds, Silent Hill's fog and atmosphere, are good examples of how PS1 games can still look great.
Not gonna lie, PlayStation OG was basically my core youth gaming experience and yet the OG PlayStation is the one era I absolutely hate in terms of visuals.
like nothing from the PlayStation does anything for me.
which is odd because N64 I don't feel that way. To me Mario/Zelda still holds up.
I think it has to do with my absolute disdain for aliasing, dithering etc. and PlayStation was probably the worst console of all time for that.
like nothing from the PlayStation does anything for me.
which is odd because N64 I don't feel that way. To me Mario/Zelda still holds up.
I think it has to do with my absolute disdain for aliasing, dithering etc. and PlayStation was probably the worst console of all time for that.
Ah, this is a good excuse to post this :
That era's graphics have aged like milk honestly, but there is a charm to it. Toy Story 2 kind of holds up, I replayed it a few months ago, what an amazing platformer
That era's graphics have aged like milk honestly, but there is a charm to it. Toy Story 2 kind of holds up, I replayed it a few months ago, what an amazing platformer
Ooh, thanks for the rec! Added it to my wishlist to check out later tonight!
It's not out yet, but Frogun gave me pick PS1 / PSP vibes as well. It's not going for the aesthetic as hard, but it reminded me of it a lot.
Yeah, I could not disagree more. Fuck that ugly ass Era of games. We are blessed when we get a good looking remake
it's been a while since I've been really been dialed into the emulation scene, do you know if duckstation is a big improvement over the beetle hw core in Retroarch for ps1?
I couldn't get over how ugly PS1 games were even when they were first released. Completely skipped that console because I couldn't get on with how stuff looked.
OP
OP
I really like the new look from 4K + any stuff you can config BUT I had no idea I could make changes to make it look more similar to the original hardware
I made some changes but honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. Is it ok now?
I made some changes but honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. Is it ok now?
This is the era and platform that made games my primary interest so yes, I do have a healthy nostalgia for this look. I'm not denying that it's ugly, but it existed in an important time and place for me and I still love it to death.
OP
OP
+ I don't really get people who are saying they hated the graphics back in the day. Hell, I thought it was amazing coming from SNES, with N64 games like Star Fox looking even better.
I respect the effort from whoever made this, but it's literally just a bad version of a great game. I don't get this.
The top comment should give a clue. Plus it's probably going to be free to play when it releases
I need the chrono cross remaster to be a real thing. I maintain that it is one of the most beautiful games ever made, even if it's not that impressive technically.I get where you're coming from but I think I prefer the beautifully beautiful PS1 games lol
Otherwise I think I have more fondness for n64's blurry visuals. Can't stand jaggies in most games, and it's funny how 2d pixel-art psx games were kind of shunned but now hold up ridiculously better (Breath of Fire 3 and 4 are still gorgeous on original hardware).
It is/was too ugly for me. I even completely skipped that generation. My jump was from SNES to PS2.
There were a few games on the PS1 that were quite ugly, and I wouldn't pick some of the examples given on the original post of this thread, but overall I feel that PS1 games have aged better than PS2 ones. Most PS1 games were very stylized whereas PS2 had a sea of games trying to aim for a more realistic look and most of them ended looking like blurred messes that became forgettable. That's not the case for all of them, just what I perceive as being the most common aesthetic those games went for.
Agree with this 100%. The only games that look good from that era were the cartoony games like Breath of Fire 4 and Xenogears
I have intense nostalgia for the era. Have thought about it a lot lately and...
I think that's a big factor, I know atmosphere will always be stronger when you're a kid but I really think having to fill in the blanks with imagination did a huge job in making the atmosphere so strong.
Anyone have any recommendations for something low cost to run a ps1 emulator on?.. That isn't a Series S
I think that's a big factor, I know atmosphere will always be stronger when you're a kid but I really think having to fill in the blanks with imagination did a huge job in making the atmosphere so strong.
Anyone have any recommendations for something low cost to run a ps1 emulator on?.. That isn't a Series S
I genuinely enjoy the look of many 3d games of that era and I would be perfectly fine buying a game today that has older style visuals just with modern improvements like a stable frame rate and slightly farther draw distance.
That said, I will never pass up the chance to shill fist of the north star for ps. It has a similar art style to the mega man legends games/dr slump but with a darker tone obviously. The game absolutely nails the look, and still looks great today.
That said, I will never pass up the chance to shill fist of the north star for ps. It has a similar art style to the mega man legends games/dr slump but with a darker tone obviously. The game absolutely nails the look, and still looks great today.
The textures in MGS are not designed to be filtered like they are in the screenshot. They should be treated like pixel art to look correct. A lot of the screenshots you find online are from emulators or the PC version which almost always have texture filtering enabled and make the game look worse than it actually does.Can't have this thread without talking about the gorgeously blurry faces of MGS. Also: most iconic opening level of the gen?
Due to the excellent use of lights/darkness/fog, Silent Hill 1 is still one of the best looking PS1 games with polygon backgrounds.
Eh, it's just a different interpretation of the source material, worthy of both admiration and respect.
Reminds me of that old chiptune remake of Dark Side.
It'll never replace the source material, but it's a grade A effort and damn good in its own right.
I feel the same way about PS1/Saturn/N64 era graphics as some do about 8-bit graphics. Meaning very nostalgic. Wish people would show it the same amount of love :/
It was a really really visually strong era of games that i think we can finally start to look at with clear eyes. Extreme levels of imagination and execution and variety that really made specific aesthetics shine far better than they would today i think. Texturing was kind and there was so much great work done by so many people. Vagrant Story is a popular mention and deservedly so, with incredible texturing and scene work.
Few games have captured the atmosphere of nights and cities like the games of that era, not just on the PS1, and i really think the lack of fidelity was a really big part of this. I honestly still think that fidelity is anathema to atmosphere, and i really think this is evidenced by going back to play old games you haven't played before and truly appreciating the art in a way that is unclouded by the technological race that contemporary games rarely escape.
Few games have captured the atmosphere of nights and cities like the games of that era, not just on the PS1, and i really think the lack of fidelity was a really big part of this. I honestly still think that fidelity is anathema to atmosphere, and i really think this is evidenced by going back to play old games you haven't played before and truly appreciating the art in a way that is unclouded by the technological race that contemporary games rarely escape.
I suppose it might be hard to do within the limitations of a single engine, but wouldn't it be cool to play a game that gets better looking/more technically proficient as you progress. Kind of like an artistic tour guide through the generations.
I like the aesthetic for horror games or anything that has a dense cold/dark atmosphere like MGS1.
The games fit in right in that middle zone of unsettling. It's just unclear enough that your mind can go wild to fill in the horror.
Oh and the footsteps, PS1 had some great footstep sounds
The games fit in right in that middle zone of unsettling. It's just unclear enough that your mind can go wild to fill in the horror.
Oh and the footsteps, PS1 had some great footstep sounds
Yeah I had a hard time finding any decent screenshots of either MGS and FF7. It always looks better in motion.
Yoji Shinkawa's art is also prevalent in the game via codecs, which helped tremendously.
PS1 games still look pretty good imo, from a design standpoint at least. G-Police is one of those games that still has a really cool vibe because of the graphics.
I feel like these chunkier low poly models are an artifact from FF7 being the first 3d game and these models look and animate similar to sprites in 16-bit JRPGs a few years earlierIt looked so bad for so many fancy design ideas. Thinking Aeris is wearing a pant suit because there was no good way to conjoin dress polys?
I remember putting on a Medal of Honor game a few years ago, almost instant motion sickness. Hardest gen of games to go back to.
Yesssssssss.Can't have this thread without talking about the gorgeously blurry faces of MGS. Also: most iconic opening level of the gen?
At least rivalled by FFVII I guess.
There are a lot of PS1-era games that I think just look straight ugly nowadays. But there are certain games, even with their low-res textures and low-poly models, that I still like the look of even compared to modern standards. Games like FF7 or MGS (or some of the PS1-era horror games, as others in this thread have noted) have this beautifully retro look to them, which I can enjoy much the same way that I still enjoy certain "outdated" sprite-work.
I also don't buy for one minute the people saying they thought it was ugly at the time and even skipped it for that reason. That screams mad revisionist memory to me. Early 3D games were mind blowing, and did not look A THING like most people think they do now on a CRT. I know that because I have one.
The hilarious part of this IMO is just how hard it leans into the Megaman Legends aesthetic, undeniably one of the best on the PS1.
And it really boils down to having a solid artstyle from the get-go and cleverly combining 32-bit 3D and 16-bit 2D to realize it. And very few games actually nailed that balance, with many others having to cheat around it to get that sense of harmony.
Including Crash Bandicoot straight-up hacking the system to do it. XD
This is also my take.
I dunno what it's like for folks who never experienced first-gen 3D in its heyday, but the good-looking games of that era still look good to me because they did what all artforms do when faced with tech constrictions; draw the best thing you can now, as opposed to hamstringing for what you want it to look like.