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[RedC]

But in the case of the video above I do think it's driven by nostalgia. I don't think warping buggy textures is something that people would appreciate.

They do appreciate it due to nostalgia.

It becomes a style.

It's a phenomenon across all industries where older or outdated technology becomes fashionable or stylish.

It reflects a cultural shift where items once considered obsolete or passé are now celebrated for their nostalgic appeal or unique aesthetic qualities

 

[mortal]

Many people like the look of low poly models, myself included

Sure nostalgia is certainly a factor. There's a certain unique charm to the limitations of low poly.
To me, this is the 3D equivalent of opting for an impressionist painting style rather than a photorealistic where every minute detail is rendered.
We've reached a point where visuals in video games can take any form now.

 

[intbal]

Clickbait title.
Thought this was an annoucement thread for a video game based on the movie.

 

[SmokedMeat]

gonna cry ? For all intents and purposes, the Playstation did invent the 3D gaming market and did so masterfully.

Invent?

That’s some revisionist history when Sega was pumping out 3D arcade games and Nintendo did Starfox before PlayStation was a thing.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Invent?

That’s some revisionist history when Sega was pumping out 3D arcade games and Nintendo did Starfox before PlayStation was a thing.

Starfox was one of the few 3D games on 16-bit. 95% on those systems was 2D. 3DO, CD32, Jaguar all failed. Sega had 3D in the arcade, but on the console not so much. Even Saturn did worse 3D than Playstation for the most part, despite Sega's arcade pedigree.

Playstation was a success, despite not being a Nintendo or Sega console. 3D was the norm on this system, and it dwarfed the sales of Nintendo and Sega combined.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Starfox was one of the few 3D games on 16-bit. 95% on those systems was 2D. 3DO, CD32, Jaguar all failed. Sega had 3D in the arcade, but on the console not so much. Even Saturn did worse 3D than Playstation for the most part, despite Sega's arcade pedigree.

Playstation was a success, despite not being a Nintendo or Sega console. 3D was the norm on this system, and it dwarfed the sales of Nintendo and Sega combined.

Doesn’t change anything. Sony created the most popular system of that generation. They didn’t “invent the 3D market”. The market was heading to 3D gaming regardless.

 

[Diddy X]

When there is low detail, imagination fills in the gaps, this is a known fact.

 

[Portugeezer]

They should mimic how we remember them.

 

[Guilty_AI]

When there is low detail, imagination fills in the gaps, this is a known fact.

there's also less information overload, making it easier for the player to quickly identify what is what.

 

[mortal]

Though many would consider R4 ugly by today's standards, I honestly think it still looks beautiful and has aged quite well.
There's just enough detail to get an impression of what they were going for without too much information.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I’m kind of part of this. Next steam games I’m getting are kings field inspired!

 

[SenkiDala]

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

I don't think so. At least that's not the only reason.

Video games are arts, it even mixes a lot of different arts. The 3D visuals of this ERA have a special touch, like the N64 graphics has, same goes for PS2, ZX Spectrum etc etc. In arts you can go back and forth, to create a special mood.

It is like 2D, all 2D games now could look like, I dunno, Streets of Rage 4, beautiful hand drew style. But we still have hundreds of pixelated games, that chose to keep a 8bit mood, or an Atari 2600 mood or SNES mood etc.

It's all about the aesthetics.

 

[analog_future]

It's got a hazy, dream-like, otherwordly feel to it. Which is why I still think it can hold up for fantasy & horror games.


I can dig it if implemented well.

 

[Dorfdad]

Pretty much.

It's like looking up one of your chilhood crushes on facebook and realizing she was actually ugly.

Don’t do this because it kills your soul once you realize she was ugly and you still couldn’t pull her!

 

[Knightime_X]

The jaggy low resolution is what I don't like.
The graphics themselves are ok.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I find it looks better and more engaging than the modern graphics. Limitations also breed creativity. Games like Alisa, Crow Country, and the numerous "retro inspired" titles from indie devs are infinitely more engaging than trash like Halo Infinite, Horizon Forbidden West, etc.

 

[Duchess]

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Invent?

That’s some revisionist history when Sega was pumping out 3D arcade games and Nintendo did Starfox before PlayStation was a thing.

It's not revisionism
''the Playstation did invent the 3D gaming market '' 3D gaming market.

Sega (a company that I personally really like) needed to add the second SH2 to the Sega Saturn because Sony decided to follow 3D graphics. This is history and Sega's stupid engineer Hideki Sato confirmed it.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Don’t do this because it kills your soul once you realize she was ugly and you still couldn’t pull her!

It's fine.

By chance she came living in the apartment above mine and started working as my son's teacher.
So one thing led to another and she became my booty-call.

So, even childhood crushes can be enjoyable.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Games that work in a lot of the same ways from a game play perspective is fine. I just don't see why highlighting the bad parts (graphic limitations) is necessarily required. I think the Crash Bandicoot remake shows that you can build a new game (in that case a new replica of an old one) and keep the style and game play while using what modern hardware has to offer for the graphics. You can intentionally build an isolated world with less in it, but it doesn't need to look like a PS1 game in a literal sense.

 

[Bring Back Scalebound]

I would rather let the people that like that speak for themselves. It could very much be nostalgia-filled snobbery, or they simply really like the look of PS1 graphics. I don't have their eyes, and they don't have mine.

When I play PS2 games, I absolutely adore the "blurry" look those games had. There's zero nostalgia there. I genuinely like how it looks.
But it's not something I want new games to adopt. It was that way in the PS2 era, and if I want that, well... I go play a PS2 game.

Same with the PSX. There is a particular look to them, and some I adore as well. Resident Evil 3 and Breath of Fire 4, being good examples.

If there are more games going back to that, that's fine. As long it has artist value, which is subjective.
You are going for that look, because you want to do your thing with it. You want to achieve something that enhances your game, it's atmosphere.

Not because you want to pander to yours or anyone's nostalgia. Nostalgia, to me, is a hindrance to art.


"Do we need more realism?"

We don't NEED anything, besides art-style. That is in the hands of the developers. As long as the game has a interesting art-style, you can make the most photo-realistic game ever, or the most cartoony game ever. What will make it interesting, is the art-style.

See Metal Gear Solid 5.
What makes that game so arguably gorgeous isn't exactly the realistic graphics. It's the art-style. The use of colors, how the sun light or rain compliments the look of the game, the character designs, so on. Very few games look like Metal Gear 5.

 

[West Texas CEO]

I like it

 

[Trilobit]

What I'd like from a modernized PS1-look is the Minecraft effect. The cruder the graphics the more your mind fills the gaps and it can bring a different kind of immersion to the game. Sort of how top down pixel graphics force you to imagine what monsters and areas look like from the main characters point of view. It's part nostalgia, but mostly art style and atmosphere.

 

[Griffon]

It's mostly because that's what solo indies can afford to make all by themselves without taking 20 years to finish a game. The nostalgia bait is just a bonus.

 

[Umbral]

Pretty much.

It's like looking up one of your chilhood crushes on facebook and realizing she was actually ugly.

No accounting for taste.

 

[Futaleufu]

Starfox was one of the few 3D games on 16-bit.

Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC had a lot of 3D games in the computer 16 bit era.

 

[Guilty_AI]

It's not revisionism
''the Playstation did invent the 3D gaming market '' 3D gaming market.

Sega (a company that I personally really like) needed to add the second SH2 to the Sega Saturn because Sony decided to follow 3D graphics. This is history and Sega's stupid engineer Hideki Sato confirmed it.

Pretty sure it was DOOM on computer machines from the time that got the whole 3D scene going on home systems.

 

[Synless]

Pretty sure it was DOOM on computer machines from the time that got the whole 3D scene going on home systems.

One game, that game did not spearhead the entire 3D market viability. It was on snes after all.

That being said, I’m not saying it was or wasn’t Sony. There was a lot going on during that time.

 

[T-0800]

This may have given games a more "crafted" look that ended up igniting the audience's imagination in ways realism does not.

This.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Tomb Raider
Crash Bandicoot
Tekken
Resident evil
Gran Turismo
MGS
Tony Hawk
Silent Hill
Driver

powerful franchises that were born on the Playstation. Playstation is like the MCU, they create fame for underground actors. Playstation created these franchises that honestly replaced the old 8 and 16 bit franchises.

 

[Guilty_AI]

One game, that game did not spearhead the entire 3D market viability. It was on snes after all.

It introduced the concept of BSP trees for fast 3D rendering which was used in many many games of that era so... it kinda did.

 

[Azelover]

I still love the look of Tobal No.1. It was so magical at the time.

 

[DelireMan7]

At the time of PS1 I found the graphic really awful.
But now I see a lot of charm in it some games still looks amazing.
Vagrant Story is one of the best looking game ever made and I would say there are very few modern games that looks that good to my eye.

I find it nice that new game use this style of graphics. With the quantity of games releasing today it's cool to have some diversity in style

 

[Soodanim]

As the video said at around the 3:00 mark, there's something to be said for simplicity. He was more talking about the brain filling in the gaps, but there's another interpretation I think matters.

It's partly psychological, but we associate those visuals with the games of the era. An era of incredible creativity and innovation.

But I don't think that it's purely psychological. Modern games have to do things like rely on yellow paint to point out points of interest because the move towards realism has created visual clutter from a game perspective. Going back to a much simpler design means being able to have a game that is no nonsense. If a game looks like that, the intention is for it to be a pure game with less fluff and definitely no cinema. When you pick a game like that up, you aren't going to be slowed down by modern design. I'm willing to bet you don't see many 5-10 minute cutscenes in these retro visual games.

 

[Red5]

I don't mind PS1 low poly graphics at all, they were great when we bought the PS1 with RE2 and Dino Crisis, I still play Fear Effect to this day, it has its charms and I'm not really a graphic monger, gameplay over graphics any day.

 

[Hypereides]

I'm actually glad this aesthetic is making a rebound. Talented texture artists and 3D modelers can accomplish some great work on low geometry and disguise its lacking complexity by applying clever techniques.

I just hope this ongoing direction won't lead to an abundance of half-assed executions in the short term. Even though it probably will reach that at some point.

Good video. The presenter asks "what's that special something we seem to have lost going forward from those days?" and I think that's a valid question.

Perhaps when resources were so limited and art had such low fidelity, creators really had to take tremendous care with how they presented their works. A single misplaced pixel or polygon could change how the player interpreted a character, object or location. This may have given games a more "crafted" look that ended up igniting the audience's imagination in ways realism does not. I'm no game developer, these are just thoughts off the top of my head.

Spot on imo.

There was room for the imagination to fill the blanks and/or leave some things for you to interpret. Much of that doesn't really happen now when modern fidelity is so high it doesn't really stimulate your mind eye as much.

 

[cireza]

gonna cry ? For all intents and purposes, the Playstation did invent the 3D gaming market and did so masterfully.

It was the first video game console and also invented CDs.

 

[cireza]

Tomb Raider
Crash Bandicoot
Tekken
Resident evil
Gran Turismo
MGS
Tony Hawk
Silent Hill
Driver

powerful franchises that were born on the Playstation. Playstation is like the MCU, they create fame for underground actors. Playstation created these franchises that honestly replaced the old 8 and 16 bit franchises.

I don't think Playstation created much of these, they are all third party games. Tomb Raider released first on Saturn by the way. Sony privatized the series afterwards, in their typical way of doing things back then.

 

[darrylgorn]

Keep in mind that these modern retro takes are designed in such a way that they minimize much of the disturbing elements of that era, such as texture warping and low framerates.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I mean it's the same reason we get so many 8bit looking games.

 

[sigmaZ]

I want to see more limited polygon counts with modern graphics like they did in FF7 Rebirth in the mini-games

 

[Scotty W]

I actually don’t have any nostalgia for the second half of the 32 bit generation graphics. However, the early unshaded graphics still look great to me.

 

[Hrk69]

The same reason why people want sequels of games that are 20+ years old. Nostalgia baby

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

I don't think Playstation created much of these, they are all third party games. Tomb Raider released first on Saturn by the way. Sony privatized the series afterwards, in their typical way of doing things back then.

These games only exist because Sony decided in 1993 to make the PS1 a console for 3D games. Don't try to deny the obvious.
That's why Sony gained the trust of consumers, because even though they were leading, they continued to make great games. Any other company would be accommodated.

 

[cireza]

These games only exist because Sony decided in 1993 to make the PS1 a console for 3D games. Don't try to deny the obvious.
That's why Sony gained the trust of consumers, because even though they were leading, they continued to make great games. Any other company would be accommodated.

Tomb Raider was a Saturn project in its inception, Core Design had been working on SEGA consoles for years.

If PS1 did not exist, the large majority of these games would have ended up on Saturn and N64, and then Dreamcast and Gamecube. Many of them did, anyway.

Sony barely made any game back then, these were all third party projects, and third parties would have released their projects on whatever consoles were available. Because that's what third parties do, and how they make a profit.

 

[Trilobit]

The same reason why people want sequels of games that are 20+ years old. Nostalgia baby

Not directed at your comment, but sometimes posters have an incredible disdain towards anything that has to do with nostalgia. I can almost see them gnash their teeth and it makes me think they are biologically incapable of feeling that sensation, which result in their anger-filled reaction.

 

[Northeastmonk]

PS1 has beautiful pixelated graphics. I prefer it over smoother, flatter 3D if that makes sense. In a lot of ways I’d rather play Fear Effect on PS1 than a lot of 3D titles of later gens. PS1 had Fear Effect, Vagrant Story, Xenogears, FF7-9, and many other great games.

3D is a strange thing. Some of it I don’t like revisiting while others definitely scratch an itch. PS1 has always been one of my favorites due to how it’s interpreted. There’s some butt ugly N64 games. N64 is one of my least favorite consoles. There are some incredible games for N64, but I mostly prefer PS1’s 3D. The flat surfaces (even though they look better) bug me. It feels a lot emptier.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Tomb Raider was a Saturn project in its inception, Core Design had been working on SEGA consoles for years.

If PS1 did not exist, the large majority of these games would have ended up on Saturn and N64, and then Dreamcast and Gamecube. Many of them did, anyway.

Sony barely made any game back then, these were all third party projects, and third parties would have released their projects on whatever consoles were available. Because that's what third parties do, and how they make a profit.

This is revisionism

Sega (a company that I personally really like) needed to add the second SH2 to the Sega Saturn because Sony decided to follow 3D graphics. This is history and Sega's engineer Hideki Sato confirmed it.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

How old you ?
No, I'm not Not going to cry and I was playing 3D polygon worlds on my Atari ST in 86 . To try and make out the PS1 invented 3D gaming is for the birds

I'm 36 years old but age doesn't invalidate history, history is history.

 

[KXVXII9X]

I really like the PS1 and PS2 era aesthetic, but I feel they have to be slightly modernized to look fresh. The thing I love from this era is how they do more with less. I love some of the prerendered backgrounds with limited camera angles to create tension and atmosphere. I love the careful use of color and detail. It gives the game a more artistic look.

Instead of trying to replicate this style completely, I think the takeaway should be about careful design. Nowadays it is so easy to go overboard with assets and scope creep that there is little cohesion or thoughtful design. I don't think we have to go way back in the past to achieve these things. I want to move forward, not back.