Gaming Lounge

[Lemonray]

The statue is left-handed and wears a vambrace, so it's Link from GC Twilight Princess.

I'd give them fifty bucks for it. That's the best I could do.

[Raz]

I've got a spare copy of the following cards;

Reus
Torchlight II
Skyrim

I really need Bioshock Infinite, Dead Island Riptide and Kerbal Space Program.

In other news, Finally picked up Dishonoured since it hit 66% discount anyway. Wasn't sure it would when it was a community vote and it was beat out.

[Mutsukki]

Oh hey, I need Skyrim and I can trade it for Bioshock Infinite or Kerbal Space Program

My Steam is Mutsukki

[Kriven]

Is it just me, or are a lot of newer video games really difficult to look at? I just started Twilight Princess, which I guess isn't really new, but it was at the start of this trend, and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to take in everything on-screen at any given moment, and a lot of the details seem to be blurry and washed out until they're right up in my face. Giving me serious headaches, and this isn't the only game which I've had this problem with (the recent CoD games spring to mind, and Halo 3).

[Koh]

Apparently brown = realism these days, so you'll get an overload of browns and gray. Not exactly the prettiest of worlds. Who says you can't have a colorful world with a serious plot? These people need to take a look at the Mana Series =x.

[Proton]

These people need to take a look at the Mana Series =x.

yeah, look at the japanese jrpg series when making a western military shooter

[puggsoy]

japanese jrpg

Japanese JRPG = Japanese Japanese Role-Playing Game

In any case, I think that all the brown/grey/bland colours are coming from trying to make stuff more like movies. If CoD, Halo, or even some of the later LoZ games were movies, chances are there would be a lot of bland colours, especially around the tense bits. It might not be intentional, but the design course just took them that way.
Too many colours wouldn't make stuff serious enough anyway. You can indeed have

a colorful world with a serious plot

but sometimes a serious plot just isn't enough. The entire experience has to feel serious, and if the world looks too light-hearted, that experience isn't delivered.

Granted, I haven't played many of these types of games, so it's not like I've studied this in depth or anything. It's just something that seemed like a possible explanation.

[Koh]

But realism isn't brown and gray either. If you step outside, it doesn't look like someone took a shit on the world o.o. It looks...vibrant. Even more colorful at the beginning of Autumn and early Spring. If we're going to talk realism here...

[puggsoy]

Reread my post. Not once did I say the word real, nor any synonym of it. I'm not talking about realism at all.

[Marth]

American Mcgee's Alice Returns to Madness. It's a serious game, the designs are dark humor/appearance is still colorful and vibrant enough to be more than imaginative.

See? Most developers are just playing it too safe with the the status quo to really experiment anymore because they don't want to lose money.

As far as I know Alice wasn't exactly a massive commercial success, but look out how different and entertaining it is. We need an industry that utilizes creativity to bring in profits, not fear creativity.

[Koh]

Reread my post. Not once did I say the word real, nor any synonym of it. I'm not talking about realism at all.

No you didn't, I just mean in general. Some of te games do it purely to try to be realistic, like CoD, but it doesn't present realism at all XD. The game in the previous post does have some nice colors for the world. That's more like it.

[puggsoy]

Oh OK, I thought you were replying to my post. I don't think games like CoD are really trying to emulate the real world though, any more than a WWII action movie is. The environment and characters are made to look similar to what people call "real", but it's no more than trying to make the characters and environment look like they would if it were live-action. Both the game and the movie are dramatising the entire situation, with the colours, lighting, and music.
I'm finding it hard to make my point, but essentially, it's not as much "CoD is trying to be realistic", it's more like "CoD is trying to look like a live-action movie".

Alice: Madness Returns does look pretty colourful, but at the serious points (in the trailer, at least) a lot of it drains to less vibrant colours, again to give the fitting atmosphere (I'm not saying this is a bad thing, mind). It could be way different in the actual game though.

[Kriven]

It's interesting that this conversation became focused exclusively on colors when I was talking more about particle effects or something (I'm not technically educated). But it's like, I'm having real trouble distinguishing characters from the environments, items too. I dunno, maybe it is the colors, but I don't really think so. Bloom effects are definitely a little overdone and a little destructive to the presentation in the excess they're being used these days. There's just something that's making these games really tough on the eyes. I honestly think part of it is that the details are too fine, and it's making the part of my brain responsible for interpreting what I see freak out.

Edit: Maybe I'm just getting old and have been adjusted for a different spectrum? I know when I talk to gamers ten years my senior, a lot of them complain about games from the PS2 on up giving them motion sickness and the like.

[Proton]

it's time

[Keychain]

FC3 Blood Dragon was really good, but holy moley was it short. Beat it in 4 hours and that's with a little bit of derping around in the overworld.