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[kiphalfton]

Playing through a couple PS3 games, and it is absolutely crazy how bad they look when compared to current gen games. Even stuff like RE5, which I thought was the pinnacle of graphics for awhile, doesn't look that great any more.

It's fun looking back at previous gen, now that this gen is wrapping up, and actually seeing how far we have come.

 

[Elder Legend]

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

Yeah it’s crazy how 7+ year old games age.

 

[Woodchipper]

Journey still looks fucking amazing though. Art design is everything, which is why MGS2 still looks good as well, almost 3 generations later.

 

[kiphalfton]

 

[Guilty_AI]

Are you telling me that old games really look old?

 

[ManaByte]

Do we need to post the PS2 Silent Hill 3 old man pic?

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Yeah last gen didn’t age very well. There are exceptions like I still think Halo Reach looks great, and MGS4 as well which isn’t surprising since as the above poster said MGS2 still looks amazing even two generations on. Gran Turismo 6 still looks nice, and the Initial D games.

I booted up my ps3 to play GTAIV the other day and it gave me a headache after like half an hour.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Yeah, I started looking back halfway through this generation, and the games generally don’t look at all how I remember them.

Even some early stuff from this generation, like cross-gen games and ports like Tomb Raider, has noticeably aged.

At some point this generation, most games started looking fantastic, and really dated older ones.

 

[Elder Legend]

Are you telling me that old games really look old?

To be fair some really old games age way better than others though, it is true. I think games that tend to be on more realistic side age really really bad due to "realism" that easily gets outdated as the tech gets better , but more artistic stylized games like Jak and Daxter or something like Final Fantasy with a lot of colors and fantasy art still look good to this day for what they are.

 

[Bakkus]

Graphically, they've aged infinitely better than what 10 years old games at that time had. Aesthetically, they have not at all.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Resident Evil 5 looked great because of the level of detail on Chris Redfield's character model and the environment but the color grading looked bad. You also had "realistic looking" games like Battlefield 3 and Far Cry 3 where the dirty lens and SSAO post-processing effects ruined the overall look of the game.

But this happens every console generation where older games from the previous console generation look dated because as time goes on we're being exposed to better graphics and rendering techniques.

 

[CobraXT]

i play ps3 regularly .. most games looks good graphically .. but yeah image quality is shit .. i care about IQ more then graphics .. i assume ps4 games will be timeless because almost all of them have clean image .. except driveclub : _

 

[IfuckinghateReddit]

Afrika didn't age at all. It already looked old when it came out.



(I still love it anyway)

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Best gif ever.

You beautiful bastard

 

[kiphalfton]

i play ps3 regularly .. most games looks good graphically .. but yeah image quality is shit .. i care about IQ more then graphics .. i assume ps4 games will be timeless because almost all of them have clean image .. except driveclub : _

I think a big part of it is the god awful environment textures and object models. Characters look good, but then the environments look like a blurry mess.

 

[RPS37]

I hate to admit it, but I feel like resolution is a big part. I loved Pacific Rift when I played it years ago. Tried to play it the other day and let’s just say...MY EYES.

 

[June]

PS3/360 gen always looked suspect because the transition to HD was super bumpy. Image quality was poor, lower resolution jaggies, compromised framerates, over compensation with blur and shit, etc.

I remember people saying at PS4/Xbone launch that the step up wasn't substantial enough, but the fact that those consoles cleaned up the image quality was good enough for me.

 

[kiphalfton]

I was a bit skeptical of the cell shading for Deadly Premonition 2, but I think it will actually contribute to the game aging better than the first. Yes it's obviously a newer game, but there's not a huge graphical improvement, but it definitely looks cleaner with the outlining.

 

[Bonfires Down]

Played RE5 on PC maybe two years ago and it looked perfectly fine. Same with Dead Space. I was very happy with the visuals in those games, though I suppose the console versions are a fair bit worse.

Something like unmodded Oblivion though? Yeah, that's pretty rough.

 

[Lionel Richie]

I hate to be that guy, but stuff like El Shaddai hasn't aged a day:

And that's because it goes for a unique look instead of photorealism. I feel like the trend of going for REAL LIFE graphics needs to die already.

 

[zcaa0g]

The biggest problem with the PS3 was it was the AliasStation 3. Jaggies galore.

 

[zcaa0g]

I hate to be that guy, but stuff like El Shaddai hasn't aged a day:

And that's because it goes for a unique look instead of photorealism. I feel like the trend of going for REAL LIFE graphics needs to die already.

"unique look" is another phrase for "bad graphics".

 

[Lionel Richie]

"unique look" is another phrase for "bad graphics".

This is what zoomers believe friends.

 

[Danjin44]

meanwhile games like Valkyria Chronicles aged like a fine wine.

Games with realistic graphics usually don't age well.

Edit: Also InFAMOUS 1&2 also aged pretty well because of the more comic style visuals.

 

[93xfan]

I agree OP. Even from the start of this gen, I felt the difference was massive. Battlefield 4 Multiplayer really showed this off. I thought people were crazy saying the didn’t see a big difference at the time.

 

[MasterDerico]

If a game has a good gameplay and it's fun, will forever be like that.

BUT, if you are a graphics whore, than yeah, you'll get disappointment. And i suggest movies, best graphics ever!

Im not saying this to OP or directly to anyone, it's just my thoughts.

 

[Danjin44]

If a game has a good gameplay and it's fun, will forever be like that.

BUT, if you are a graphics whore, than yeah, you'll get disappointment. And i suggest movies, best graphics ever!

Im not saying this OP or directly to anyone, it's just my thoughts.

I would say a game with good art direction will make visuals age better even if decades has passed.

 

[MasterDerico]

I would say a game with good art direction will make visuals age better even if decades has passed.

For me it's the gameplay and fun factor!

 

[Fbh]

Running on the original hardware, sure.
But I think the biggest factor are the low resolution, bad performance and jaggies. The big last gen games that got PC ports (Or Xb1X backwards compatibility) and can be played at 1080p+ and with good performance still look pretty good IMO.

It's when you go back to play them on a Ps3/X360 that the blurry image, jaggies galore and sub 30fps kick in and makes them look and feel really dated.

meanwhile games like Valkyria Chronicles aged like a fine wine.

On the flipside though.
Other mid budget franchises like Yakuza got notorious graphical upgrades this gen while Valkyria Chronicles 4 looks very similar to the original and could easily pass for a Ps3 game

 

[Danjin44]

Running on the original hardware, sure.
But I think the biggest factor are the low resolution, bad performance and jaggies. The big last gen games that got PC ports (Or Xb1X backwards compatibility) and can be played at 1080p+ and with good performance still look pretty good IMO.

It's when you go back to play them on a Ps3/X360 that the blurry image, jaggies galore and sub 30fps kick in and makes them look and feel really dated.



On the flipside though.
Other mid budget franchises like Yakuza got notorious graphical upgrades this gen while Valkyria Chronicles 4 looks very similar to the original and could easily pass for a Ps3 game

They did some upgrade to its weather effect and even look at the tank in your screenshot, it has more detail than the original game.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

I would say a game with good art direction will make visuals age better even if decades has passed.

Very true. Persona 3 and 4 are also great looking PS2 games. Atlus/SEGA and Nintendo generally do a great job with the art direction in their games.

 

[baphomet]

Edit: Also InFAMOUS 1&2 also aged pretty well because of the more comic style visuals.

Those are all bullshots.

 

[existensmaximum]

And still, most Super Nintendo (and even NES games) have aged beautifully. I can still appreciate their graphics to 100%.

 

[YCoCg]

Games that had unique art styles have aged a lot better but yeah, the whole brown and grey meme, unreal 3 look and bloom overdose all came from that era.

 

[zcaa0g]

This is what zoomers believe friends.

Or those who dance on a ceiling?

 

[Soodanim]

This is a thread about art styles. OP might not have known it, but it comes to light when the examples of games that hold up start coming in.

I thought OP was going to go in the gameplay direction and it was going to be a thread about mashing A to open a chest.

 

[ruvikx]

I disagree. Half my game time these days seems to be the ps360 generation stuff, either directly on a ps3 or on the One X via backwards compatibility. I did Gears of War 2 again & couple of weeks ago, sure they've added a 4K patch but it looked & played great. I even did some original Gears of War as well (which has zero patch) & guess what? It's still good. Halo Reach? Awesome. God of War 3? Even on the ps3 (non remaster), it looks good. The Dead Space trilogy? Ditto. Sure there are more jaggies & the image quality is blurrier, but the games themselves have aged very well, both mechanically & yes, visually.



A lot IMO also depends on the type of TV display people have. Playing older games on a ten year old 1080p Panasonic Plasma = a normal experience IMO. Meanwhile some more recent TV's make older content look like crap.

 

[German Hops]

Both consoles suck, so it's no surprise.

 

[Jesb]

This is where stylized graphics, aka not realistic looking visuals will age better. This is what’s great about indie games. A lot of them will always look good.

 

[Nikana]

What about Wii games though....

I tried playing some Quantum of Solace for God knows what reason a few weeks ago.

It hurt my eyes.

 

[//DEVIL//]

in General. anything cartonish or cell shaded graphics will age pretty well. anything real 3D graphics wont age as good. I am guessing because the 3d technology advances way faster than cel shading tech

 

[SegaShack]

What about Wii games though....

I tried playing some Quantum of Solace for God knows what reason a few weeks ago.

It hurt my eyes.

They only look good on CRTs, even then some are ugly looking though due to combination of low graphics and art style (Force Unleashed, Conduit, Epic Mickey, all visual trash).

 

[Area61]

It depends on the system and the game style too i guess. Playing dreamcast catalogue recently and i find most of the games visually great. Maybe one of the reason they are emulated and tweaked and such but still they looks decent even in 2020. Apart from some pixalated 3d games obviously.

 

[kunonabi]

What about Wii games though....

I tried playing some Quantum of Solace for God knows what reason a few weeks ago.

It hurt my eyes.

Its the same deal. The realistic stuff on the Wii looked bad then and looks worse now. The stylized stuff on the right to TV can look gorgeous though.

 

[Traxtech]

I play PS3 on my OLED with a Mclassic and some games look down right beautiful!

 

[Punished Miku]

I hate to be that guy, but stuff like El Shaddai hasn't aged a day:

And that's because it goes for a unique look instead of photorealism. I feel like the trend of going for REAL LIFE graphics needs to die already.

Most of the Wii U library is still GOTY material today too.

The real lesson is that you have to put more work into a great art style than just mimicing photorealism if you want to make a great game that stands the test of time. In the case of some of these PS3 games, they're really not even that old. Much older games can still look great today.

 

[LordKasual]

And i just want to bring your attention to the last game Sonic Team actually tried on:

This is 2008 Xbox 360 with Global illumination.


Ran like absolute shit, but it was dropping frames in style.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

All the top tier Sony exclusives look good actuslly.

 

[Honey Bunny]

Why are we still linking bullshots, have we learned nothing?