Which generation had the worst “early-gen” look?

[PeakPointMatrix]

More clearly, which generation had it worse graphics-wise with early gen visual trappings?

For me, the early gen brown-and-bloom look of the first wave of PS360 titles was just so unappealing at the time. Almost all games had a bloomy, plastic look to them that they thankfully started leaving behind a year or so later.

I can go back to launch PS1/2/4 games pretty easily, but the aesthetics and look of early PS360 games keep me away from revisiting generally.

In contrast, the PS4/X1 launch games still look really good, and haven't seemed to have aged as poorly for being launch titles.

Which gen had the worst "early gen look" to you?

 

[LexusRacer]

In my opinion, it was the launch games for Playstation 1. It's hard to look at sometimes.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

In my opinion, it was the launch games for Playstation 1. It's hard to look at sometimes.

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That's why I love them! It's like playing vaporware! They just went for it no matter how terrible of an idea it was. I wish more games of today would steal that style.

 

[Lant_War]

Bulletstorm joked with the brown color pallet in the remaster and added an option for making the game even darker for it to be more "realistic".

 

[ClickyCal']

N64/sm64

 

[Castor Archer]

Yeah, 360/PS3 launch was pretty ugly. Halo 3 and Uncharted are leaps and bounds over what those systems started with, it's crazy.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

I agree with you OP, the 360/ps3 gen had some initial growing pains and learning curves.

 

[D.Lo]

Saturn/PS1. Ridge Racer, Daytona, Coolboarders, Panzer Dragoon 1, Toshinden etc were barely functional 3D. Pixel soup beyond a certain point, and jittery textures, polygon seams ripping apart everywhere.

It got so much better after a couple of years, and N64 didn't have the issue right from the start due to the super stable 3D of Mario 64 and Wave Race.

 

[Dennis8K]

PS1 gen. So blocky, so ugly.

 

[Hayama Akito]

N64/sm64

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It's funny because I think SM64 still looks good mostly thanks to Gouraud shading.

PlayStation and Saturn on the other hand has some really... exotic stuff. You really need an acquired taste in order to still enjoy these type of graphics... I mean, I love King's Field but... well, yeah.

 

[Manu]

PS360 when everything was blooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Saturn/PS1. Ridge Racer, Daytona, Coolboarders, Panzer Dragoon 1, Toshinden etc were barely functional 3D. Pixel soup beyond a certain point, and jittery textures, polygon seams ripping apart everywhere.

It got so much better after a couple of years, and N64 didn't have the issue right from the start due to the super stable 3D of Mario 64 and Wave Race.

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No, not Panzer Dragoon 1... it looks gorgeous.

Ridge Racer 1 still looks charming too. (Couldn't find original res screenshot)

It's funny because I think SM64 still looks good mostly thanks to Gouraud shading.

PlayStation and Saturn on the other hand has some really... exotic stuff. You really need an acquired taste in order to still enjoy these type of graphics... I mean, I love King's Field but... well, yeah.

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I don't think KF is ugly, at least it is easy to read what is going on..

 

[PopsMaellard]

Absolutely the 360/PS3/Wii gen.

The gulf between something like Resistance 1:

or Call of Duty 3:

and later gen games like Halo 4:

or The Last of Us:

really can't be understated.

Early PSX games look weird, but were at least interesting, and early N64 games don't look really any better or worse than later titles. Early NES and SNES games hold their own against the later releases very nicely. Even early current gen stuff looks pretty decent compared to where we're at now. But the 360 generation saw a really shocking increase in visuals, albeit largely at the cost of performance towards the end.

 

[Taker34]

PS3/360. It just makes me think of overused bloom, brown muddy textures everywhere, unreal engine 3 visibly being used. Rainbow Six Vegas 1 has terrible visuals in that regard, despite being a phenomenal game. Thankfully it became steadily better throughout that generation but it was a rough start indeed.

 

[Angelus Errare]

PS3/360. Everything was brown and bloom galore. Bloom paired to DoF in early versions of UE3 didn't help since everyone and their mom used UE3.

 

[Strings]

Saturn/PS1. Ridge Racer, Daytona, Coolboarders, Panzer Dragoon 1, Toshinden etc were barely functional 3D. Pixel soup beyond a certain point, and jittery textures, polygon seams ripping apart everywhere.

It got so much better after a couple of years, and N64 didn't have the issue right from the start due to the super stable 3D of Mario 64 and Wave Race.

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I unironically like that early days of 3D look, so my answer is 100% PS360.

 

[Liquor]

PS3/360. Holy shit the difference between the earlier titles and the final runs were crazy, too. I love the Early PS1/Saturn stuff. Beautiful polys.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Xbox 360. The early normal mapped look was awful

 

[neptunez]

Definitely early PlayStation games, even though the industry was transitioning into higher poly 3d, some games looked bad, even then.

 

[ze_]

It's definitely PS3/360. Just look at the jump from GTA IV to V/RDR1.

 

[Haze]

In my opinion, it was the launch games for Playstation 1. It's hard to look at sometimes.

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Honestly true but i'd actually kill for horror games to replicate that look cuz some things we're unintentionally horrifying so I know it would work for a modern horror title

 

[DC5remy]

Og playstation would be my vote.

 

[kittens]

Yeah, it was definitely PS360. I didn't bother with that gen till Halo 3 came out, everything looked so unappealing. I just stuck to DS games lol

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Absolutely the 360/PS3/Wii gen.

The gulf between something like Resistance 1:

or Call of Duty 3:

and later gen games like Halo 4:

or The Last of Us:

really can't be understated.

Early PSX games look weird, but were at least interesting, and early N64 games don't look really any better or worse than later titles. Early NES and SNES games hold their own against the later releases very nicely. Even early current gen stuff looks pretty decent compared to where we're at now. But the 360 generation saw a really shocking increase in visuals, albeit largely at the cost of performance towards the end.

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I remember being blown away by cod 3 on the 360 at the time, it was a Huge jump compared to the PS2 I had.

I remember a level where It was raining and being amazing by the rain and wet surfaces of the soldiers helmet, the water we were walking on and the long grass, it was so realistic, in comparison to anything I had see before it.

 

[i like big butts]

It's funny because I think SM64 still looks good mostly thanks to Gouraud shading.

PlayStation and Saturn on the other hand has some really... exotic stuff. You really need an acquired taste in order to still enjoy these type of graphics... I mean, I love King's Field but... well, yeah.

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I think those graphics are crude but perfectly fine. Everything is well defined and for the most part legible. The more noticeable problem with early PSX games would be their control scheme.

In the wild west of early 3D games, there wasn't any unspoken rules with regards to camera and movement. There were more than a few PSX games that used both an isometric camera and tank controls, which is already pretty confusing because the PSX controller had no analogue sticks, and a lot of them controlled completely different from each other.

 

[Argus]

The brown and bloom early 360-ps3 games era will forever be a blank spot in my retro game playing. I'll gladly play anything before then and after then, but will not ever play that desaturated nonsense again.

 

[theotherMittens]

PS360 was my first thought as well. Those games are ugly.

 

[SuperFakerBros]

Relatively speaking, compared to the games released by the end of their generation, early PS3/360 games were the worst of the bunch but, in all honesty, I don't think early PS games are that far off. N64 don't exactly look ugly to me but early PS games in particularly hold worse than nearly any other game from any other generation

 

[DonMigs85]

Yeah I'd have to say the initial wave of PS360 games as well, except maybe Kameo and Perfect Dark. DOA4 looked ok but wasn't a massive leap over DOAU and DOA3 other than resolution

 

[SaberVS7]

Absolutely the 360/PS3/Wii gen.

The gulf between something like Resistance 1:

or Call of Duty 3:

and later gen games like Halo 4:

or The Last of Us:

really can't be understated.

Early PSX games look weird, but were at least interesting, and early N64 games don't look really any better or worse than later titles. Early NES and SNES games hold their own against the later releases very nicely. Even early current gen stuff looks pretty decent compared to where we're at now. But the 360 generation saw a really shocking increase in visuals, albeit largely at the cost of performance towards the end.

Click to shrink...

Do mind that these early-gen looks were to a degree intentional.

The game plan (no pun intended) for most publishers and studios early on was essentially status-quo visuals (with a few cool new features) but at 720p/60FPS.

Then Gears of War started the Graphics Arms-Race, which the industry has yet to recover from. >_>

 

[low-G]

Yeah PS360. You had a real art vacuum. Some games technically proficient, some not, all with terrible art.

 

[RoboitoAM]

Do mind that these early-gen looks were to a degree intentional.

The game plan (no pun intended) for most publishers and studios early on was essentially status-quo visuals (with a few cool new features) but at 720p/60FPS.

Then Gears of War started the Graphics Arms-Race, which the industry has yet to recover from. >_>

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This industry has always had a graphics arms race.

 

[ALIENSUPERSTAR]

5th generation easy

 

[Driggonny]

There were a lotta early n64 games that just felt like flat, foggy barren worlds drowning in blurry textures. Other than nintendo's games anyway. Compare those early games to something like Banjo-Tooie and I think the difference is fairly stark.

 

[GarthLordOfTheSith]

80% of early PS3/360 games were brown and gray with awful image quality. So that gen was the worst in terms of what you're asking.

 

[Painguy]

Gameboy

From

To

Keep in mind this ignores the GBC

 

[cardboardboxer]

The NES easily. From this

To this

 

[Castor Archer]

Gameboy

Keep in mind this ignores the GBC

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The Donkey Kong Land games were freaking magic. I was blown away as a kid. Great versions of the soundtracks too

 

[Polyh3dron]

NES. Early third party games like 1942 and Ghosts 'N Goblins ran at an awful 30FPS and played awfully.

 

[Stopdoor]

Yeah PS360. You had a real art vacuum. Some games technically proficient, some not, all with terrible art.

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I assume pre-HD resolution made bad art less noticeable. When everything became crystal clear, you couldn't shortcut anymore. Whew.

 

[Trickster]

PS360 early era looked fucking awful, bloom and vaseline everywhere

 

[Prof Bathtub]

Early NES and SNES games hold their own against the later releases very nicely. Even early current gen stuff looks pretty decent compared to where we're at now. But the 360 generation saw a really shocking increase in visuals, albeit largely at the cost of performance towards the end.

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The NES easily. From this

To this

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The NES is a bit tricky, since if we're including Famicom stuff, it's a much bigger gulf, as SMB was seen as furthest they could stretch the original hardware before new chips were added to cartridges, plus the FDS.
So more like:

to

 

[Richietto]

The early ps1 stuff looks like absolute shit. textures are heavily jittery and everything just looks ugly. Devs figured out how best to make 3D work later on and not make games look like pure trash.

 

[Strawberry Jam]

Playstation 1 by far.

 

[Crushed]

-The very very early NES third party stuff like Ghosts n Goblins and 1942 is barely playable jank of low resolution jitter with bad framerates and awful art.

-There's a handful of early Saturn/PS1/N64 games that are just depressing to look at. They look so dreary and unparseable.

-Early PS360 is probably the worst. Soupy, blurry messes with hideous UX design and garishly overdone shader effects. Games that often ran sub-720 with blur filters.

 

[Deleted member 46598]

360 and PS3

This gen was nearly all cross gen stuff that scaled fine, and for the early Saturn/PS1 games - no issue at all, it's more the framerate of that ENTIRE generation which never improved.

 

[Eriol]

For the folks saying PS3, it got Metal Gear Solid 4 less than a year later and it was one of the best looking games

Edit: My bad it was launched on 2008, 19 months after launch.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

The Saturn/Playstation/Nintendo 64 console era began with the 3DO and its games tended to be uglier artistically.

Games like Panzer Dragoon and Ridge Racer were major steps up.

 

[AniHawk]

For the folks saying PS3, it got Metal Gear Solid 4 less than a year later and it was one of the best looking games

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less than a year after what? it came out in 2008.

 

[Eriol]

less than a year after what? it came out in 2008.

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yeah my bad, i was thinking on 2007.