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I love that Microsoft is starting the trend of making games with this "style".
- Thread starter Troast
- Start date
Rare has really improved their style. Sea of Thieves already looks gorgeous.. but man Everwild is another level entirely.
I really hope Everwild pulls off whatever gameplay they're deciding on since if they keep those graphics up i'm there if it's good day 1.
Don't like this style at all.
You can have realistic visuals while still having a colourful, eye-popping artstyle.
You can have realistic visuals while still having a colourful, eye-popping artstyle.
Me too. It ages way better than games that try to emulate real life and it's just more fun to look at.
Because this just makes it look like a cheap game.
- and yeah as the above said, too reminiscent of a typical "indie" artstyle which instantly puts me off.
Luckily there's other 8 million games doing that style, while these can co-exist and do their own thing.
Well if there are 8 million games doing that style then there are 80 million games doing this one.
Same can be said for gritty AAA games these days as we have too many of them.
i mean...sea of thieves looks anything but cheap. Its HDR implementation is really top drawer as well
Rime as well. We had tons if them this gen.
They work really well for indies with less resources, soothing, calming art style. I like it myself
Ah precisely the style I despise. The indie looking flat colors and textures on open fields which is kinda cartoony but not quite games. The "game made in unity even if it was made in something else" look.
Can't wait for this trend to die, I can't stand it, it's everywhere.
Can't wait for this trend to die, I can't stand it, it's everywhere.
I think it comes off extra strong because their first party efforts were kinda lacking the last couple years and they were known for Halo, Gears and Forza - so everything that looks somewhat different and colorful then those is a nice surprise for outsiders looking in.
This seems like a bizarre connection to me. I'd be surprised how anyone could look at the art style in Sea of Thieves, coupled with the beautiful sky oxes and incredible water tech and think it's cheap. Same for what we've seen of Everwild.
I've played plenty of games that have sought a 'realistic' art style with lower budgets that really haven't hit the mark.
There's also a marked, demonstrable difference between this kind of colourful, flat art style at this budget than some similar art styles in the likes of RIME.
These are indeed beautiful, especially Everwild, but Microsoft has not started the trend of this style. Cartoony/cel-shaded styles similar to this have been around for a while now. Or do you mean within Microsoft game productions this seems to be a trend now?
Outside of racing games, Realism is generally a pretty boring artstyle tbh.
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Rare certainly know what they're doing as far as art style and animation goes. Everwild looks wonderful.
I think Craig has stared into the abyss long enough.
I can't imagine a game having a less inspiring looking art style than Everwild. The lifeless pastels are especially amusing given the whole "this game is so ALIVE and filled with AMAZING WONDERMENT" PR nonsense that surrounds the game.
Any time a game has both a washed-out pastel art style and some shitty fantasy moose with "oh so cool giant glowing antlers!!11!!" it's just the most massive turn-off to me.
And this isn't about me preferring "realism" or anything. I just genuinely hate this art style, and it has got to be the biggest trend in game visuals right now.
Grounded looks amazing though.
Any time a game has both a washed-out pastel art style and some shitty fantasy moose with "oh so cool giant glowing antlers!!11!!" it's just the most massive turn-off to me.
And this isn't about me preferring "realism" or anything. I just genuinely hate this art style, and it has got to be the biggest trend in game visuals right now.
Grounded looks amazing though.
Actually I don't like the SoT style at all but I absolutely adore the Everwild one. I'm happy that Rare is trying sth different compared to other MS studios. We should also note, that Xbox has had quite a few games with unique art direction recently including the Ori series and Cuphead.
Yeah, some real bizarre responses in here. Especially the ones that are acting like we're in a shortage of realistic looking games.
Some people are just no fun.
I'd say we have more colorful AAA ones to than gritty. All Nintendo AAA would fall in the colorful category for example.
What about AC games? Definitely on the colorful side, specially Odissey. Gods and Monsters is certainly a move towards that style even further
Same could be said for Sony IP's like Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, even Spiderman. More colorful than gritty.
How about God of War? I'd say definitely more colorful than gritty as well, but with more mature themes. Same with Uncharted.
Even From Software has moved a bit to the colorful side with Sekiro, even if ever so slightly.
There's not that many gritty AAA as we may think I'd say, specially out of the horror genre that is by definition gritty, but TloU2 being so recent has left a strong impression I'd say
It's very promising that they're opening up their brand beyond the standard shooter and action genre. The Xbox Original had an incredible variety of interesting titles and it will be great to see that again. It should be noted that this generation has been better in this regard compared to the PS3/XB360 era anyway.
I do like it, but I feel tinge of being tired of it a bit already. I think because the simpler something is, the more easy it is to start looking the same. Same with a lot of low-poly things. They end up looking really similar. The more detail the more distinguishable. So i think this kind of blends them together more than other types might.
I like variety. I feel like they've already got this covered, and idk if I want to see a ton more of it. I also think there are lots of ways to make more colorful cartoony artstyles that aren't as often explored that don't look like this.
I like variety. I feel like they've already got this covered, and idk if I want to see a ton more of it. I also think there are lots of ways to make more colorful cartoony artstyles that aren't as often explored that don't look like this.
like viva pinata
I really love the style of Everwild, i just hope the game is also fun to play, but we will have to wait and see.
This isn't a new trend or something MS started. Anyway, I don't really think Grounded is all that similar in art style to the other two. But yeah, SoT and Everwild look amazing, especially the latter. Everwild is also the Xbox first party game I'm most excited for.
i mean...sea of thieves looks anything but cheap. Its HDR implementation is really top drawer as well
These are nice cherry-picked flattering gifs, but you only have to look at something as basic as the character models to know what I'm talking about.
In my mind the reality of the matter is that if they had better resources they would push for more detail and something more realistic (while still maintaining a colourful vibrant style). Maybe I'm wrong, but I've seen too many indie games try to mask technical deficiencies by applying some similar artstyle.
In fact all these water gifs just prove my point, since that's like the only part of this game that would actually be considered realistic and is the part that gets the most praise.
I'm not being aggressive, I'm just being honest. It's such a vanilla, lifeless art style yet the whole discussion surrounding the game is about how brave they are to not pursue the dreaded, evil "realistic" art style. It's honestly baffling.
It'd be nice if the art style didn't feel so tethered to green fields and cliffs in a spiritual world thing.
Everwild is probably my favourite looking next gen game so far even though I think Hellblade is the most impressive.
I honestly can't wrap my head around Sea of Thieves being described as "vanilla" or "lifeless".