god I miss having things like visual clarity in games
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I don’t even understand how they’re yucking it up this hard. I guess it’s the AI-upscaling and the raytracing lighting stuff on the grounds of that’s the newest thing? Why is everything in STALKER 2 so hard to see?
Something I hate is how game designers don’t realize we don’t have all of our senses in use when playing games. For example, you can close your eyes and then touch your nose with your right pinky no problem. This is because one of your senses is knowing where all your parts are. You don’t have this in video games. If you spin around in a circle in a first person game, you don’t know where your limbs have gone. You don’t have a literal sense to tell you they’ve moved.
So when some dumbass designer thinks they’re adding immersion to their game by eliminating all direction indicators, then turning up the mudcore dial to 22 out of 10, their game is unplayable because it’s too disorienting. Realistic graphics don’t matter at that point because you don’t have realistic sensory input. Good designers realize this and understand why visual clarity is important. Players can’t rely on their sense of direction, or sense of timing to know where a sound came from, or what the ground is like beneath their feet.
That period between 2002-2006ish when everybody was flexing their best water shaders, I figure many games chose a tropical island theme to show off their new tech, made for a memorable vibe
Enough detail to clearly know what it’s supposed to be. Not enough power to clutter things up and make visuals too busy. Stylization to work around the limitations.
Art tends to shine around limitations.
And just surreal, dreamlike enough to stoke the imagination.
I would kill for a youtube channel that just did nature documentary style panning shots over game scenery from this era with some appropriate music. Like how some games had level preview flybys, but slower.
This isn’t exactly what you are talking about but there is the “unremarkable and odd places in X Game” series by Any Austin. You could maybe watch with the audio turned off to remove commentator. https://youtube.com/watch?v=gGDyB8t1zgE
There is also a somewhat new but highly prolific YouTube channel that posts videos of characters going on runs through their game worlds depopulated of monsters: https://youtu.be/kmWMgAnPrE0
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
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Link 2:
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
this looks like outcast
Having color?
I want to steep in that water
Omg is that Gun? I havent thought about that game in ages.
It’s Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, but it’s also heavily Western-themed
Only thing I don’t miss is the swinging camera-work from games of that era. Holy motion sickness, Batman.
Rayman was so magical to me
Also, late 90s/early 2000s games with low-res overcast cloudy skyboxes<3
Dxun was one of my favourite levels of that era. I loved that rainy jungle vibe.
