Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
This is related to issues discussed in this thread, I was thinking about this and something really clicked for me.
I was reminded of the 2005 first person shooter Darkwatch, about a vampire cowboy, and just how goofy the game is and how over the top it's fanservice was and how goofy many games from back then used to be, in a charming way mind you, but the vast majority of video games back then used to be very escapist like that, not at all trying to feel "real" but more like playing a comic book or cartoon.
A big part of this could just be simple limitations of graphics at that time, you couldn't make characters look in any way "real" so why not go over the top?
But now in today's climate we have games that go so far in the opposite of something like Darkwatch, gone are square jawed male heroes and huge breasted heroines, instead we have something like Anthem, which despite being a sci fi action game features a lot of characters who are simply unappealing at best or just ugly at worst.
What changed? Where did this attitude that fantasy and escapism has to always be toned down now, that even a game where you fly around and shoot aliens can't feature badass heroes and buxom babes but instead people who you might see while shopping at Wal-Mart, come from?
Well, as I said for the longest time it was rare that you could make a video game character really start to look real, that all changed with the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004, suddenly the faces of characters really started to approach real life.
But beyond the technical aspects, it was the tone and general aesthetic of Valve's approach, Half-Life 2 was about an alien invasion but the idea was this was happening in the "real world", it went for a grounded feel, this wasn't a comic book or cartoon but a gritty hard science fiction reality that had you meeting and fighting alongside people who looked like everyday people., not comic book characters.
Darkwatch meanwhile looked like something straight out of the 90s aesthetic wise, like the FPS Blood, but came out a year after Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 on other hand was very forward thinking, more like a game from the 2010s.
This is most obvious when you compare the game's female characters, Tala from Darkwatch and Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, keep in mind Darkwatch came out the year after Half-Life 2, which is fucking hilarious to think about.
Valve continued the trend with the Left 4 Dead series and it's female characters, who looked like everyday people and it's general tone of a zombie apocalypse happening in the "real world"
It's interesting to note that Valve was basically done after Portal 2 in 2011, but I think they had a long lasting influence, I think Half-Life 2 is what every AAA western developer is going for these days, they want their games to have a grounded feel, like they're taking place in the "real world" even if it's science fiction or fantasy.
And that makes sense and take some of the sting out of it all as to why they make games the way they do now, but you'll notice that Alyx Vance is still an attractive character, she looks like a real person but she's not in any way ugly or unappealing and Valve didn't make the games they way they made them for any political reason, this was long before any virtue signaling or the idea of using games as tools of social engineering.
I mean beautiful women exist in real life, do they not? We're not talking unicorns here, is there not a happy medium between something over the top like Tala and the ugly females you often see in modern games? Something like Alyx Vance.
And while grounded and realistic is cool, what's wrong with a little variety? I'd like to see more games that have the over the top style of 90s and 2000s games, complete with the fanservice, modern AAA gaming is feeling pretty samey when they all want to go for that "grounded" tone, when even something like God of War does it.
This brings me back to the fact that in the mid-2000s games like Darkwatch and Half-Life could coexist peacefully, we've gotten away from that and that's a shame, I miss the variety gaming used to have in tone and approach.
But am I right? Is Valve the progenitor of the style and approach of modern video games?
I was reminded of the 2005 first person shooter Darkwatch, about a vampire cowboy, and just how goofy the game is and how over the top it's fanservice was and how goofy many games from back then used to be, in a charming way mind you, but the vast majority of video games back then used to be very escapist like that, not at all trying to feel "real" but more like playing a comic book or cartoon.
A big part of this could just be simple limitations of graphics at that time, you couldn't make characters look in any way "real" so why not go over the top?
But now in today's climate we have games that go so far in the opposite of something like Darkwatch, gone are square jawed male heroes and huge breasted heroines, instead we have something like Anthem, which despite being a sci fi action game features a lot of characters who are simply unappealing at best or just ugly at worst.
What changed? Where did this attitude that fantasy and escapism has to always be toned down now, that even a game where you fly around and shoot aliens can't feature badass heroes and buxom babes but instead people who you might see while shopping at Wal-Mart, come from?
Well, as I said for the longest time it was rare that you could make a video game character really start to look real, that all changed with the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004, suddenly the faces of characters really started to approach real life.
But beyond the technical aspects, it was the tone and general aesthetic of Valve's approach, Half-Life 2 was about an alien invasion but the idea was this was happening in the "real world", it went for a grounded feel, this wasn't a comic book or cartoon but a gritty hard science fiction reality that had you meeting and fighting alongside people who looked like everyday people., not comic book characters.
Darkwatch meanwhile looked like something straight out of the 90s aesthetic wise, like the FPS Blood, but came out a year after Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 on other hand was very forward thinking, more like a game from the 2010s.
This is most obvious when you compare the game's female characters, Tala from Darkwatch and Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, keep in mind Darkwatch came out the year after Half-Life 2, which is fucking hilarious to think about.
Valve continued the trend with the Left 4 Dead series and it's female characters, who looked like everyday people and it's general tone of a zombie apocalypse happening in the "real world"
It's interesting to note that Valve was basically done after Portal 2 in 2011, but I think they had a long lasting influence, I think Half-Life 2 is what every AAA western developer is going for these days, they want their games to have a grounded feel, like they're taking place in the "real world" even if it's science fiction or fantasy.
And that makes sense and take some of the sting out of it all as to why they make games the way they do now, but you'll notice that Alyx Vance is still an attractive character, she looks like a real person but she's not in any way ugly or unappealing and Valve didn't make the games they way they made them for any political reason, this was long before any virtue signaling or the idea of using games as tools of social engineering.
I mean beautiful women exist in real life, do they not? We're not talking unicorns here, is there not a happy medium between something over the top like Tala and the ugly females you often see in modern games? Something like Alyx Vance.
And while grounded and realistic is cool, what's wrong with a little variety? I'd like to see more games that have the over the top style of 90s and 2000s games, complete with the fanservice, modern AAA gaming is feeling pretty samey when they all want to go for that "grounded" tone, when even something like God of War does it.
This brings me back to the fact that in the mid-2000s games like Darkwatch and Half-Life could coexist peacefully, we've gotten away from that and that's a shame, I miss the variety gaming used to have in tone and approach.
But am I right? Is Valve the progenitor of the style and approach of modern video games?