• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Visuals that just don't quite click

X

XANDER CAGE

Member
Anyone ever had a situation where they just weren't quite sure what the graphics in a game were actually supposed to be? Even in games with great technical graphics, there are times where things might not mesh, and sometimes games with good art direction don't have the muscle to quite display some things. Hell, sometimes the visuals are fine and our brains just don't get what the hell we're supposed to be looking at.

I popped FFXII back in recently to do another run, and looking at it brought back memories.

Bad memories.

What the hell is wrong with Vaan's abs?

XjUoM.jpg


Like, if I look at them just right, it looks like he has weird geometric abs. Most of the time, though, it looks like he has a terrifying skeleton thing poking out of his torso - as if someone had inverted his muscles so all of the big parts are concave and all of the creases are convex.

4qOCf.jpg

what is wrong with your torso aaaaaah

That texture is all kinds of fucked. Anyone else have little visual hangups like this?
we all know that the pineapple blocks in Super Mario World are speakers/intercoms
 
G

grumpy

Member
Final Fantasy 13

Anime-like characters, anime-like story, anime-like dialogue. Ultra realistic graphics. That game just looked and felt wrong.

To be honest, I don't think I'd hate 13 so much if it looked like one of the recent "Tales of" games.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Star Ocean 4's Edge:

oil011193189.jpg
 
J

JGS

Banned
Spiderman 3 had very good graphics and city details for an early 360 game.

However, the faces and character movement in the cutscenes were horribly atrocious.
 
S

Shaffield

Member
were the battle animations in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon supposed to be clay figures or something?
this game was too ugly for me to finish, especially after replacing the gorgeous sprites from Sacred Stones.

943695_20081002_embed003.jpg
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Mass Effect 3's 'shitty character generator' NPCs versus player/party characters.

The demo's council sequence makes me wonder if Anderson and Shepard are the same species as everyone else.
 
A

Anteater

Member
For Mass effect games, some of the lighting condition + the character generator characters really made some of the models look inconsistent, Dragon age origins did a better job at it, while characters don't look as unique due to using the same assets/hair in dao, they look much more consistent.

Hair is often bad in most of the games, like the chick in Mirror's Edge:
apTyZ.jpg


duuude
 
T

Tawpgun

Member
For some reason I HATED Crysis 2's visuals. I played the beta and did not like the way the game looked.
crysis_2_multiplayer_beta_1.jpg
Can't really say why. I think it was the brightness maybe... something like that.

Didn't like Blacklight: Tango Downs art style either. It was super bland and gray, and everything was made really grainy and the whole interference/blue screen of death/static effects they had when taking damage were annoying.
Blacklight_Tango_Down_final_smg2.jpg
 
T

The Boat

Member
To be honest, most games' graphics nowadays don't click for me.

I'm not super knowledgeable about the technical side of things, so I might be saying something silly, but the common practice of using piss-filters, bump mapping (or something along those lines) everywhere and loads of other exaggerated effects turn me off to the point of preferring last gen/older graphics to some extent. Oh and the fact that you can spot UE3 2 miles away so damn often.

Of course the biggest problem is bad art direction and design, but I guess that kind of goes without saying.
 
P

Persona7

Banned
Skyward Sword as a whole, everything is pixelated,blurry and muddy. The Image Quality is abysmal. I see what they were going for but it didn't work out at all.

It is a shame because all the cool art is underneath the ugly.
 
S

Sethos

Banned
Battlefield 3 hands down.

The game doesn't really have a style. While it has a beefy engine, the style of the game is bland beyond anything. It's so sterile and completely forgettable.
 
P

perfectnight

Banned
Pretty much anything that looks like Gears of War or those batman Arkham games. The new Zelda also looks like shit to me. Gears and Batman because the models look like they are made out of clay, and because they went overboard with the brown/grimdark/grey aesthetics. I hate how uniform the games look. As for Zelda SS, crappy sd wii graphics aside, the art has this really distasteful washed out look and the characters look incredibly weird and unappealing. Their heads are huge and the rest of their features are just weirdly disproportinate. It's a really bad mix of exaggerated and realistic.

And yeah BF3 art is kind of forgettable but at least it doesn't look like the games I mentioned.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
I'm trying to think of a game with stylized graphics (Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, Borderlands, Okami, Killer 7) that I dislike, but I don't think there's one

I don't like the anime look, so I guess the visuals of most JRPGs these days (bring back low-res sprites :( ) don't click with me.
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
Just to be clear for some folks, I'm wondering a little more about specific details (like Vaan abs texture or Oblivion faces) rather than just, I dunno, games people think have bad graphics. Odd models, textures, etc.
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Most UE3 games still have a distinct "look" to them that never seems to mesh right. Characters and environments look like they're from totally separate planes of existance. I wish I could pinpoint the exact issue but it's noticeable for me in every UE3 game outside of Mirror's Edge. That's honestly why I was super impressed by Samaritan. Hopefully UE4 addresses whatever the problem is.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
For me, one great example is Castlevania - Lords of Shadows. The game itself is absolutely beautiful and most of the animation is excellent. That is, however, except the running animation. Yes, the one animation you see throughout your entire playtime simply looks like shit. There's no weight or connection to the ground and it ultimately ruins the feel of moving through the world. When coupled with a poor framerate the game just doesn't feel good to play which really does hurt ones enjoyment (at least for me).
 
A

Anteater

Member
thuway said:
There is so much wrong in your post its not even funny. The Jungle in Killzone 3 might be one of the most beautiful settings I've ever seen in an FPS.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's the off screen pic and the calibration, but his screenshot does make it look terrible :lol, even the hand and the gun look ridiculous there!
 
P

prwxv3

Member
Skyward Sword. The characters are great and some instances the game overal looks great. But most other times the game looks terribad. Tunnel sections and the puke village most most notably.
 
J

Jokab

Member
GFTyS.jpg

While I appreciate the art as good art, it doesn't click with me. It doesn't make want to play the game, there's just something about it which I can't put my finger on.
 
M

malingenie

Member
Persona7 said:
Skyward Sword as a whole, everything is pixelated,blurry and muddy. The Image Quality is abysmal. I see what they were going for but it didn't work out at all.

It is a shame because all the cool art is underneath the ugly.
Click to expand...

There are moments of genius in SS art style and moments when it looks like crap and the art style actually hinders the IQ.

I found Twilight Princess to be a bigger offender, IMHO.
 
F

Flachmatuch

Member
Meccanical said:
http://www.lo-ping.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/max_payne_face1.jpg

Max Payne's face in Max Payne 1.
Click to expand...

More games should use friends/relatives/remote acquaintances of developers for character design. Made Max Payne one of the funniest games ever. Way too fucking awesome.


Veal said:
You should play the Wii version. The paper filter has been reduced quite a bit. Still gorgeous though.
Click to expand...

Still too much filtering imo. No idea how it looks on the PS3, but that may be the best way to play Okami? I can't try it, I only have an import for the PS2, but iirc the Wii version looked even worse for some reason. Doesn't matter though, awesome game (and plays a lot better with the DS2 than with the Wiimote imo).
 
K

KevinCow

Banned
Enemy monsters in Japanese character action games, like DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta. They're usually way over-designed. Throw claws and appendages out everywhere, a couple angel wings, but that wasn't enough so add a few more angel wings... They just keep adding nonsense until it becomes clusterfuck to look at.
 
Z

ZombiePlatypus

Member
grumpy said:
Final Fantasy 13

Anime-like characters, anime-like story, anime-like dialogue. Ultra realistic graphics. That game just looked and felt wrong.

To be honest, I don't think I'd hate 13 so much if it looked like one of the recent "Tales of" games.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's fair to just label XIII's plot as "anime." There's a lot of anime with mature, competent stories intended for older audiences. XIII's story is just bad. Were you trying to suggest that the plot was childish and the visuals should have been more kiddy to match that? I personally don't the think those gorgeous graphics should have accommodated that mess of a story at all. The story should have just been better to be on the same caliber as the visuals.


Anyway, as for my entry:

Fallout games. Everything about these games is an uncanny-valley, hideous mess. To the point where I can't play them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Déjà Vu: Is PS5's Performance Mode a Rehash of the Early HD Debacle?
Opinion 2
53
3K
Gojiira replied
Visual Novel ‘Shanghai Summer’ Gets February Release Date in New Trailer
News Trailer
8
674
SantaC replied
Unintentionally Funny/ Weird Game Design Choices
Opinion Cringe Analysis
4
703
Angry_Megalodon replied
[DF] Resident Evil 4 Remake on iPhone 15 Pro: Can Mobile Truly Handle AAA Gaming?
44
3K
StereoVsn replied
LTTP: Super Mario Odyssey
LTTP Review 2
75
4K
mayham2199 replied
Top Bottom