[imcrs]

Artstyle is far far more important than graphical capability.

A game like Team Fortress 2, released in 2007 (!) looks so much better than many modern games because there is a coherence and style to the art. It's not "HD" for the sake of "HD."

We're in a period where the graphical canvas is getting larger every year, and the temptation is to fill it with as much color and pop as possible. But some restraint really works wonders.

[theandrewbailey]

> We're in a period where the graphical canvas is getting larger every year, and the temptation is to fill it with as much color and pop as possible.

It's been a while, but last I looked, it seemed that the temptation was to use ever muddier and desaturated visuals, with as much glare and shiny surfaces as possible.

[subwayclub]

It comes and goes in phases according to the available technology. The first Quake was all muddy brown and gray. Quake 2 and Unreal both introduced color lighting and looked like a disco on Saturday night. Mid-2000s games added a lot of new lighting and post-processing effects but they had limitations causing harsh shadows and highlights, hence another round of gray/brown photorealism came through.

But in this decade things are finally feeling more evened out. Lighting models are sophisticated enough to allow for designs similar to a film set or photo shoot, and post-processing is getting past basic glows and filters and into a spectrum of quality/performance tradeoffs.

Of course, the games that don't aim for photorealism always age better. That's been the case since people started digitizing photographs for games.

[pfranz]

What's funny is that it looks like Valve lowered the polycount and quality of TF2, likely to accommodate the user-added stuff like hats--which seems in the spirit of stuff this article is upset about.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/23221/team-fortress-2-looks-...

[bo1024]

I think this is a great point. It's why even cartoon-art games like Super Mario Brothers (1985) can age really well visually while games that put so much effort into graphics still age poorly.

If the main goal in a game is to make the graphics of yesterday look and feel obsolete, then that game will probably look and feel obsolete tomorrow...

[WillKirkby]

https://eev.ee/blog/2016/06/22/graphical-fidelity-is-ruining...

[saturdaysaint]

TF2 has nice stylized models, but IMO the in game graphics are dated and not particularly special compared to newer genre examples like Overwatch, Splatoon, or Destiny.

[intoverflow2]

I feel TF2 has a place in peoples hearts so it keeps getting wheeled out in this debate way more times than it's deserved these days (especially considering Valve compromised both the art direction and coherence in recent years).

All 3 examples here are excellent but I want to say I know a lot of people hate on Destiny but the art direction, environmental art, creature design is all magical in terms of tech and results. Honestly feels like concept art brought to life and anyone dismissing it and not even giving it a chance just are missing out on some seriously impressive visuals resting perfectly between realistic and stylistic.