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Open world games that accurately depict night time....

Tetraeon

Member
I'm here to echo the Dragon's Dogma love.

Flarealxc0.gif


It was legitimately a threat to go adventuring at night and when the sun was setting you knew it was time to head back. So good.

This looks awesome. Finally, a light spell that isn't completely useless.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Speaking of racing games, Dirt Rally has really dark night environments, especially when it's raining. Game has pretty good damage modelling too so it's possible to smash your headlights which can make for some harrowing ass driving.
 

Keasar

Member
I'm here to echo the Dragon's Dogma love.

Flarealxc0.gif


It was legitimately a threat to go adventuring at night and when the sun was setting you knew it was time to head back. So good.

Yup, I also say Dragon's Dogma.
DD_screen_March3_11_bmp_jpgcopy.jpg

This picture makes me remember my favorite moment in the game. Walking through a forest to try and get to a nearby fort, my friend sitting next to me watching play. The forest is completely dark and its hard to see anything. Suddenly I stop after hearing some noise and ask my friend "Did you hear something?" and I just stare into the darkness. Suddenly two bright orbs are staring at me and out of the dark rushes a huge fucking dragon and starts attacking me. I had completely missed him because of the night.

Loved that game.
 
Fallout New Vegas w/mods


lol, this has been a pain in my ass lately.

So many lighting mods state their aim is to aid immersion yet they over-correct the problem by making everything pitch black. Interiors are worse. You'll walk into someone's home and find them sitting alone in the inky blackness, staring at a wall. Eerie as hell.

My real answer to this is to echo the Dragon's Dogma sentiment.
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
i guess i'll just play it then...might need some patience tho.

Once you get into it enough, the issues become a little less pronounced. Although, if you alternate between it and a game/games that run at 60fps or higher... you're gonna have a bad time.
 

Keihart

Member
Once you get into it enough, the issues become a little less pronounced. Although, if you alternate between it and a game/games that run at 60fps or higher... you're gonna have a bad time.

Yeah, good tip.

I usually don't care much about drops, it's just that the starting tutorial and then the game crashing , kinda put me down.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Xenoblade Chronicles count? It has some some superb views at night.

No. It's pretty sure, but it does not depict night time being actually dark and being night time.

Don't think anything comes even close to Final Fantasy XV in this regard, tbh.


https://youtu.be/abc8ROmgYSw?t=19m27s

Eh, that's not the best shot of FFXV that showcases its night time. It looked good, but not quite as dark and difficult to see the surrounding like Dying Light or Dragon's Dogma at night.

InsidiousForsakenBillygoat.gif


This is better.
 

Tigress

Member
Dragon's Dogma is the only open world game I've played that does so, at least that I can remember.

Pretty much this has been the only game that I have played that I can remember that does it right. Never thought I'd like it so much (thought I might not) until I tried Dragon's Dogma and it's one of the aspects that I really like about it. Wasn't a fan of the roleplay/characters/story of that game but the gameplay was done so well that made up for it entirely (which for me says a lot honestly as most RPGs those first three things are more important to me).

And honestly, I wish more games would do so, I love the gameplay of the dark from that. I would totally absolutely love it if Fallout did this (maybe if mods come to PS4 I can get a true darkness mod for it). And Elder Scrolls too.
 

Caffeine

Member
ocarina of time skeletons come out of the ground and poe ghosts pop up out of nowhere, castletown locks your ass out all you have is navi the fairy to light your way and yell hey listen its a scary realization of night time #scared.
 
A huge part of what makes realistic night in my opinion is how they deal with light sources. Way too many games have been throwing a dark filter on everything, resulting in darkened light sources that make no sense. First game I remember this being a big deal for me was Bad Company 2. Fires at night were really dark and looked ridiculous.
 
I really don't like bumbling around in the dark actually. Realistic nighttime is amazing for games that need a good atmosphere, but for the most part I just want to play the game and not worry about carrying a lantern, collecting lantern oil, candles, flashlight battery etc. At least give me the ability to skip forward time.
 

watershed

Banned
Imagine very few games because outside of heavily lit city areas, the world is pitch black at night and that would suck to play in for most games.
 

Blizzard

Banned
DayZ was probably realistic in this regard, but it was incredibly frustrating for that reason. I prefer unrealistic renditions that are more player-friendly (which presumably means I'm not the DayZ target audience).
 

Spyware

Member
Interesting what people see as "realistic" in this thread. I live in northern Sweden and during the summer it doesn't get dark here. As in not even RDR levels of "dark". It looks a bit like a foggy afternoon when you go out at like 1 am. During the winter it gets quite dark, but it also looks way darker than actually it is due to all the lights. I've never in my life needed a flashlight outside, and I've been camping a lot and living in a cottage in the middle of nowhere (without electricity) during all seasons.

I rarely like those pitch black nights people seem to see as realistic. Dying Light is the exeption because it really changed the gameplay. Horror like games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Is also fine, but general open world? Bleh. It's just annoying after the first night or so.
A pitch black cave here and there is alright but if night is too dark and it's an open world game with time skip, I will skip it.
 

Reallink

Member
GZ seems pretty bright out at night to me. Though I do like that going inside in some spots becomes pitch black. Though it was just one environment at night in GZ. TPP could be better I hope. Haven't seen much nighttime stuff of that.

GZ's Brightness/Gamma is fucked by default on PS4 (can't comment on Xbone or PC), it's way too bright/washed out. You'll notice even with the in game correction slider at minimum, the test pattern doesn't even come close to being correct. Nearest I can figure they "mastered" the video levels on an RGB Mismatched set up. Bloodborne has the same problem. Maybe there's some translation or documentation issue over in Japan like NA's infamous Vita Wifi setting "Use Wifi in Power Save Mode" which actually does the direct opposite of what it says.
 
DayZ was probably realistic in this regard, but it was incredibly frustrating for that reason. I prefer unrealistic renditions that are more player-friendly (which presumably means I'm not the DayZ target audience).

Huge DayZ fan, still frustrating as fuck.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
lol, this has been a pain in my ass lately.

So many lighting mods state their aim is to aid immersion yet they over-correct the problem by making everything pitch black. Interiors are worse. You'll walk into someone's home and find them sitting alone in the inky blackness, staring at a wall. Eerie as hell.

My real answer to this is to echo the Dragon's Dogma sentiment.
This mod is pretty good actually. The extreme darkness there is because it was at the beginning of a sandstorm(also part of the mod) at night. This is more what it looks like normally, and with interiors. Very useable, but it definitely god pretty dark.





I've also got a pretty bright IPS monitor, so I can turn the brightness setting down in games and still see ok. These shots may be darker for some of you than they are for me.
 
Seriously this. Never has a game's day/night cycle mattered more. When that sun goes down shit gets very real, and you can feel the weight and loneliness and danger of it.

Far Cry 4 I don't notice much of a difference between day and night. Does anything gameplay related change at all? Was wondering this the other day because you can choose to rest and wake up at a particular time, but don't know why I'd ever want or need to.

You can skip night time in far cry 4?
 

majik13

Member
A huge part of what makes realistic night in my opinion is how they deal with light sources. Way too many games have been throwing a dark filter on everything, resulting in darkened light sources that make no sense. First game I remember this being a big deal for me was Bad Company 2. Fires at night were really dark and looked ridiculous.
totally forgot about this. But I now remeber posting about this same issue back in the day on some BC2 board. Yeah super cheap.
 

Ushay

Member
I actually thought Witcher 3 did an excellent job. The world was dark enough, more importantly the NPC's behaved correctly at night. Families would go to sleep, drunks would come out at night in the city. It really added to the world atmosphere for me.
 

SuomiDude

Member
Depends on where the game is set to take place and when. In nothern countries during midsummer it doesn't get dark at all during night. And on winter it could be dark at midday.
 

Zacagawea

Member
GZ's Brightness/Gamma is fucked by default on PS4 (can't comment on Xbone or PC), it's way too bright/washed out. You'll notice even with the in game correction slider at minimum, the test pattern doesn't even come close to being correct. Nearest I can figure they "mastered" the video levels on an RGB Mismatched set up. Bloodborne has the same problem. Maybe there's some translation or documentation issue over in Japan like NA's infamous Vita Wifi setting "Use Wifi in Power Save Mode" which actually does the direct opposite of what it says.
Are you sure about Bloodborne being fucked up? It really bothered me when playing MGS, but I think Bloodborne looked appropriate enough
 

Gruso

Member
DayZ was probably realistic in this regard, but it was incredibly frustrating for that reason. I prefer unrealistic renditions that are more player-friendly (which presumably means I'm not the DayZ target audience).
To be fair, 99% of DayZ's target audience can't handle the night either! Servers are either set to 24/7 daylight, or they're near empty at night.

It's a real shame, because the horror of DayZ in the dark, and the risk/reward proposition of firing up light sources, was once a much loved part of the game.
 

artsi

Member
DayZ was probably realistic in this regard, but it was incredibly frustrating for that reason. I prefer unrealistic renditions that are more player-friendly (which presumably means I'm not the DayZ target audience).

DayZ and Arma are the most realistic for sure, but it's understandable that people don't always want realism. For Arma it's good though since it's a milsim and requires people to use actual night combat equipment and strategies.
 
Pitch black nights in games like Dying Light and STALKER are already very scary and immersive, but in VR they'll be suffocatingly horrifying. Darkness in VR is something else, it really fires up my anxiety.
 

Yrael

Member
Salt.

It's a open-world pirate game that's still in early access on Steam. It's almost impossible to see anything at night on the islands without carrying a torch or having a campfire nearby.

 
The STALKER and DD mentions are great. I love that night itself is such a threat in these, and you have to actually plan for that crap or take the risk of running into surprises. This really cements that feeling of exploration as you see the sun setting and want to push further but know you might not survive the unseen terrors the night carries.

God, I need a current gen DD.
 
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