The whole "realistic = better" attitude is stupid.
Do you think Pixar is hiding technical deficiencies and a lack of resources behind their cartoony styles?
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I love that Microsoft is starting the trend of making games with this "style".
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Do you think Pixar is hiding technical deficiencies and a lack of resources behind their cartoony styles?
The SoT water tech gets praise not simply for being "realistic" but for how it works.
Again, you seem to have this "detail is directly proportional to budget/effort" mentality that boggles my mind. The game Get Even went for realistic art style, but is obviously far lower budget than SoT.
The other side of it is lumping all these games with apparently similar art styles together as though there is no spectrum of technical achievement or budget within them.
You feel how you feel about, and I'm not going to change your mind, but having this mindset of devs choosing this kind of art style chiefly because of a lack of resources will always seem totally bizarre to me, and seems enormously reductive.
Or maybe they just have different tastes than you and want to make something more cartoony.
I didn't say anything about Sea of Thieves? Its art style is similar, yet distinctly different from Everwild.
Maybe we're just in different circles, but I don't think I've seen that discussion regarding Everwild tbh. 99.9% of the comments I've seen have said that the game looks beautiful. 🤷♂
Pixar is incredibly detailed and realistic in some respects while still maintaining a cartoon and colorful art style. That seems like exactly the kind of style the person would be arguing for.
But there's usually way to much noise, it's nice to have games with a bit more eye rest
Not at all - that post was arguing that with more resources they'd push for more detail and realism in general.
See the point they make about the water.
I'd also say that SoT already hits that mix of realism and cartoony look. The water and lighting is fantastic and fairly realistic whilst the character models and environments have a very whimsical stylistic look.
Surprisingly Everwild does nothing for me. It looks pretty, sure, but eh.
On the other hand I really like Sea of Thieves' look despite not liking the game. It reminds me of TF2. It's very simple and clean(whereas Everwild just seems a bit much), and I love the character models. But it can look downrigtht stunning in the right circumstances - the skyboxes, water and lighting are top notch.
Grounded is alright. I mean that type of game would look offputting with a realistic style.
On the other hand I really like Sea of Thieves' look despite not liking the game. It reminds me of TF2. It's very simple and clean(whereas Everwild just seems a bit much), and I love the character models. But it can look downrigtht stunning in the right circumstances - the skyboxes, water and lighting are top notch.
Grounded is alright. I mean that type of game would look offputting with a realistic style.
You know, honestly, I think this reply here hits the nail on the head as to why I don't like the art style in Everwild. It's actually somewhat painful for me to look at. Maybe if it didn't give me a headache to look at I might feel differently about it. I guess maybe for some people this art style is easy on the eyes, and relaxing, but for me it just kinda hurts to look at.
I guess I shouldn't hate on it. More saturation would go a long way to making it not hurt my eyes though. I wish games like this would include a slider for eye comfort.
I agree with you OP. Works wonders for these type of games for me personally.
The style of humor in combination with the artstyle of Sea of Thieves does it wonders. I don't think it would have the same impact if it had the artstyle of say the Ubisoft pirate game.
Also love the look everwild seems to be going for. Could be pushed a tad more towards the style ori uses or a combination there of, but it is still quite close. But definitely shouldn't be realistic. Think this also speaks to a much wider target audience that way.
Edit: I'd like to add that I do have some issues with an art style like Gears. It's a semi realistic game, but not really and that somehow doesn't work for me. Gabe Diaz in Gears Tactics already looks a bit more the way I want the next game to look like, but I hope they push it even a bit further. The games are technically gorgeous though, no question about that
The style of humor in combination with the artstyle of Sea of Thieves does it wonders. I don't think it would have the same impact if it had the artstyle of say the Ubisoft pirate game.
Also love the look everwild seems to be going for. Could be pushed a tad more towards the style ori uses or a combination there of, but it is still quite close. But definitely shouldn't be realistic. Think this also speaks to a much wider target audience that way.
Edit: I'd like to add that I do have some issues with an art style like Gears. It's a semi realistic game, but not really and that somehow doesn't work for me. Gabe Diaz in Gears Tactics already looks a bit more the way I want the next game to look like, but I hope they push it even a bit further. The games are technically gorgeous though, no question about that
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It is, after seeing Everwild you shouldn't look too closely on how detailed Sea of Thieves is or you recognize how mediocre the details are for today's standard.
I really like the Rare art style, but this is not a MS trend, this is a Rare trend. Especially because :
Even in them. Simulation (all of them), sure. Flight simulator is truely breathtaking but have a realistic focus. But earth from above is more beautiful than on the ground :)
This. I didn't liked it. TLoU was more neutral and I prefered it. I hate fake film grain to death so that didn't helped :)
Realistic meaning higher poly models, better quality textures, believable lighting, more detailed scenery - all of which Pixar provide and these games generally don't.
Let me bring up Spiderman as an example. It's hardly the supposedly "overdone gritty realistic" game people here seem to have some weird fear of. It's stylised and colourful, but it's still realistic in terms of all the above things I mentioned.
How it works would also class the SoT water tech as "realistic", again one of the more realistic things about the game.
And yes, my mind isn't about to be changed. The reams of indie games that ape this style (due to budgetary and resource limits let's be honest) have probably forever tarnished it for me.
See above.
This has absolutely nothing to do with a trend that MS started...this look is "in" for a few years now. and people should stop it with "in engine" trailers and judging the graphics out of it, it is worthless, the games will look different.
While they are both cartoony, Pixar (except for some shorts) and more traditional CGI animation are not exactly what this style looks at the highest end, that would be Into The Spider-Verse, the Disney short Feast, or that French film called Mune. Textures that looks painterly, a look that emulates 2D media like comics and graphic novels, etc.
I like realistic looking games and was really impressed what Turn10 showed with FM, if we only consider XGS. However seeing Everwild has me thinking what artstyle Fable uses and I wish they do something like Kena for Fable. Then we would see with Forza Horizon what the talented devs at PG can do with a realistic looking game and see what they can do with a more stylized artstyle. The best of both worlds imo.
They need to think of idea and then pick a style they have it wrong way around look at Everwild looks nice but who know what that going end up being the devs are clear they dont know yet
Look at Nintendo they come up with splatoon with idea of paints shooting and try many style be for we got what we got
Look at Nintendo they come up with splatoon with idea of paints shooting and try many style be for we got what we got
I don't think Microsoft started the trend of making games that are colorful.
These games are really pretty though.
These games are really pretty though.
I'm guessing because it is similar to a style that's common in the indie space at the moment, you have people going "that style was done because of the small budget = cheap, my big budget AAA games shouldn't go anywhere near this look regardless of the execution of the style."
It sounds similar to something I read about in a book recently were the Chuck Jones era of Looney Tunes shorts got flak because they moved from very painterly backgrounds like the previous eras to a more flat and simple ones that meshed better with the character design and allowed action to read better, but because UPA (well known for their low budget TV animation) and other studios opted for a similar look at the time it was derided as looking cheap.
You're only putting, what, 3 examples? Two are from Rare and 1 is from Obsidian.
Rare always had this unique colorful games and Obsidian just decided to experiment with something new.
But trend? No.
Even if I share the love for this art style, I don't think Microsoft is starting any type of trend.
Rare always had this unique colorful games and Obsidian just decided to experiment with something new.
But trend? No.
Even if I share the love for this art style, I don't think Microsoft is starting any type of trend.
A trend within Microsoft. Though I'd say it's mostly Rare being Rare.
I don't think colorful is a style ;)
Ex: Everwild looks beautiful. Grounded looks plain to my eyes. That they're both not hyper-realistic doesn't mean they both have the same style, or both have a distinct style.
I also don't think it's anything that started? Sunset Overdrive had a cartoony, colorful look and a more distinct style than something like Grounded. Nintendo and Sony have quite a bit of either realistic or not realistic games with a wide color palette, many with a more cartoony look (Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing, Concrete Genie, Dreams).
You can also have a colorful palette with a realistic look (Ghost of Tsushima, God of War to the extent Norse Gods are realistic).
Ex: Everwild looks beautiful. Grounded looks plain to my eyes. That they're both not hyper-realistic doesn't mean they both have the same style, or both have a distinct style.
I also don't think it's anything that started? Sunset Overdrive had a cartoony, colorful look and a more distinct style than something like Grounded. Nintendo and Sony have quite a bit of either realistic or not realistic games with a wide color palette, many with a more cartoony look (Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing, Concrete Genie, Dreams).
You can also have a colorful palette with a realistic look (Ghost of Tsushima, God of War to the extent Norse Gods are realistic).
BotW and now Everwild are semi-realistic and all the better for it, imo. It's just so pleasing to the eye.
