Aesthetics should be informed by the storytelling. In some cases you will actually want realism when the storytelling suits it. Otherwise it’s just as absurd as hyper realism for superheroes. Comics should’ve never strayed from their style.
What irks me is that it's a video game. A video game character should only be limited by your imagination so the more stylish or out there the better. Instead in the modern era, we have games where they design characters who look like random dudes from the Apple store or Starbucks. Games have the full potential to create what we want, but they just render nerds!
It's good to see you looking better. Rivals has done an incredible job on the character designs. Style counts, especially for iconic comic book characters. Woke ruins everything it touches, and I'm glad they have been exposed.
Nope. Marvel Rivals is made by a Chinese developer. The only developers that aren't following any DEI checklists are from China or South Korea. Western devs are doubling down on getting Sweet Baby Inc involved in their projects, and Japanese devs are falling into the DEI trap as well.
They teach the importance of idealism in superheroes and super villains, literally first semester in art school. It is one of the first things you learn.
Avengers looks like they took some stock character models then went shopping for UE5 clothing assets until they found something close enough then made a few custom tweaks and said ta-da it's Captain America! They all look so incredibly boring and uninspired. And that is probably a good description of their dev team.
I like the M-Rivals style because it reminded me of early 90s comic covers. Kept the spirit of the original IP without being an exact copy. Photorealistic is okay, but considering at the time most people expected MCU, and those likenesses are protected, it added to the disconnect.
Great to see you back Mel. Hope you had a great New Year's day. Funny thing is my 30 BD is coming up. So I might miss your stream Wednesday. Me and my family are going on a trip. Great video. 👍
its not just hyperrealism, its more the bland feel of it since many of the real models they use, they alter them. Gaurdians of the Galaxy by Square Enix felt way better in their designs (though they def nerf women's butts and busts) but it felt more vibrant and worked super well.
Guardians of the Galaxy was mid, so it flopped. The character design blew cheeks and they looked just as bad as Marvel Avengers. Idk why people drink the GotG koolaid.
Yes! The only cool realistic female character is finally back! 🥰 I also got that flue or whatever - was out through Christmas and New Year… but unfortunately I didn’t get it from Melonie 😥 Next year I guess…
LMAO Everything in the other Marvel game looks like it was contracted out with minimal context and slapped together by another team. You can throw high resolution textures at dang near anything and make it look "better," but, you can't hide bad assets. Gladiator Hulk is the ONLY decent looking asset. Ironman looks like he was just put on a witness protection program.
I didn’t hate Marvel Avengers (obviously could’ve been a lot better). But I’m definitely gonna checkout Marvel Rivals after the great reviews my friends have been giving it.
It's nosaj. But I really would keep these characters looking original, instead of changing them. Marvel contest of champions don't even do that they just release a full new version of the character. This will be a hidden profile.
Wow! Black Widow in the movies looked great and they go with the cross dresser on the right? Glad to see the stylized version on the left. Realism can work as we've seen with J.G. Jones version of Black Widow. But, J. Scott Campbell has drawn a great stylized BW. Speaking of J. Scott Campbell, I'd hate to see what Hollywood would do with Danger Girl in this era of woke movies. Campbell does the best G.I. Joe comic cover as well. Surprised they haven't tried to cancel him.
I played a decent amount of Marvel Avengers, mostly because it was the closest thing we've had to X-men legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance since those games came out on PS2, and you are spot on about the character models. I don't know how so many games seem to play and look worse than they did 20 years ago.
I think it depends on the game/genre... Civilization 6, with its cartoony style and freaking POW decals in combat, looks horrible. Yet Civ 5 and Civ 7 look great, which definitely approaches a more realistic tone. So yea... depends on the game/genre. "It looks like a mobile game" or "it looks like fortnite" isn't a compliment by any means these days.
Art direction > realistic graphics, all night, all day, 8 days a week. They will at least allow a game’s looks to age gracefully even if the gameplay doesn’t. Developers used to know this
Art direction is present in realistic graphics as well. It's just that when art direction is bad, then the characters look bad. We've seen stylized characters with bad art direction too. I mean, I could make a video of realistic graphics with good art direction compared to stylized graphics with bad art direction and say, "Realistic graphics are better than stylized graphics. Here's the proof," but all I'd be doing is cherry picking to make it appear as if I have a sound argument, when I really don't.
@@G360LIVE Tbf, realistic graphic tends to be more boring with art direction since so many triple A game companies uses realism as a cost cutting procedure as oppose to an art direction to fit into their story.
Realism is great sometimes though. Take the Sony Spiderman games for example; like them or not, just about everyone (but MJ) is really well designed, especially the villains. Until we had those games, we had never seen a really well designed, realistic Kraven. Venom looks absolutely fantastic too. Marvel Rivals is KILLING IT, especially with their designs.
I disagree, everyone in Marvel Spider-Man looks WORSE than both their live action and comic counterparts. On the other hand, there's some concept art "hidden" in Marvel Rivals of how Peter looks and he looks great, so I can only imagine everyone else from his universe would as well.
I like the hyper-realistic graphics when it's something based in real life. Something like a Battlefield game, yes, give me the realistic soldiers and tanks and what not. But when it's something like superheroes, then the hyper-realistic graphics just kind of water down the feeling of the superheroes. Something about trying to take these larger-than-life characters, with enormous muscles and crazy powers and near immortality, and making them look like Joe and Jan Smith down the street...it doesn't work.
It depends on the game. If im playing a realistic military shooter like call of duty which is super realistic graphics and based on real life military gear then i want realistic outfits over a scantily clad anime girl with cat ears, if im playing as a superhero obviously realism isnt as important, although some level of realism is appreciated if youre going for a realistic graphic style. Like most of those outfits arent bad because theyre realistic, theyre bad because theyre just lazy low effort character design. Like that white black widow outfit is super low effort and lame
If only CoD keep it to that instead of trying to be like fortnite with skins that make no god damn sense for a militaristic game...why do we have Nikki Minaj and Snoop Dog shooting against Homelander and so on.
A lot of normies want more realistic looking graphics. (Monster Hunter World for example. The normies that joined with it often can't stand the previous games or Rise's visuals due to them leaning more on the stylized visuals. It's usually western normies though that reflects western devs today.)
The Thor from Marvel Avengers looks like a regular guy cosplaying. Even Chris Hemsworth who is a human looks more impressive than that game version. I am glad that Marvel Rivals went for a more comic and awesome art style.
You see why cell shaded games age better over time Because that style is timeless regardless of technical limitations Like XIII classic and wind waker still look good 20+ years later
On top of the ugliness and lack of flair, the Avengers designs feel so... stumpy. Everyone's legs kinda just... look short in proportion to their bodies, and their arms look like twigs compared to their torsos. To paraphrase the great Pimperor, Fleekazoid, Avengers is a "hero" game where our "heroes" are the residents of Seattle. Meanwhile, Rivals' heroes actually look larger than life. They could probably make a hobo hero who throws pocket fentanyl look like the coolest thing ever.
I think it very much depends on the context. For example, when it comes to games that are somewhat more based on reality, history, or simply have a more grounded concept (like oldschool Medal of Honor, CoD, Mafia, Stalker etc. that I really liked back in the day), with enough creativity and good writing they can be just as fun with obviously more realistic looking characters, and I certainly preferred them that way. But at the same time I also liked power fantasy type of games, with magic, over the top heroes, and these two categories can and should coexist without turning everything into a homogenous blob where every genre (and gender😅) looks exactly the same.
For me, it depends on the type of game. If it's an Overwatch style multi-player game like Marvel Rivals, then yes, the stylish art style works perfectly. If it's an FPS like COD, then the realistic style suits it best. It all depends on the type of game in my opinion.
It's becauae narrative or dialogue heavy is a lot harder to do in an interactive format in a compelling way, where the interaction is integrated, and not pasted ontop, or where it becomes a QTE punctuated film. I guess the old text convo RPGs probably still do it best. It's a wonderful medium, but you're working in sooo many dimensions. It's a lot to reconcile if you want it ALL to be meaningful and draw you in
I noticed all the "male" characters have sloped shoulders, even the damned Hulk and robot man. And all the female characters have square shoulders, like men are supposed to have. Rivals has men that have good solid shoulders, you're welcome ladies says the dev.
I wish there were more stylized games. One of my favorite hyper stylized games is XIII, which feels like a comic book. The original is amazing, but do not ever get the remake cuz they screwed it all up.
I prefer artistic and creative character design over the boring realistic ones any day.
Aesthetics should be informed by the storytelling. In some cases you will actually want realism when the storytelling suits it. Otherwise it’s just as absurd as hyper realism for superheroes.
Comics should’ve never strayed from their style.
When DEI hires use the word "realistic", they mean dog ugly.
GREAT MELONIE MAC GO BOOM MARVEL RIVALS DESIGNED ARE BETTER THAN AVENGERS DESIGNED
What irks me is that it's a video game. A video game character should only be limited by your imagination so the more stylish or out there the better. Instead in the modern era, we have games where they design characters who look like random dudes from the Apple store or Starbucks. Games have the full potential to create what we want, but they just render nerds!
And nerfed, remember Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy game? Flat butt lol
In the new Marvel Rivals event with the Fantastic Four, Dracula was going for a walk.
A very enthusiastic walk.
Dracula: I was minding my own business.
Fantastic 4: That's BS!
Dracula: I was!
@@FrostyShock349 And what were you doing whilst you were "Minding your own business?"
The "reaslitic" ones look like they're wearing cheap comic con costumes.
Spirit Halloween bargain bin.
Thats what my mother said too when i showed to her lol
It's good to see you looking better. Rivals has done an incredible job on the character designs. Style counts, especially for iconic comic book characters.
Woke ruins everything it touches, and I'm glad they have been exposed.
Disney ruined Marvel’s look honestly.
Yup! Mcu is 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮
They ruined the comics ever since they took over. The last 15 years of comics has been utter Shite!
Exactly...
@@Lawrence_Talbotlowkey
Where are your muscles? - I hid them under my shirt.
Marvel Avengers: "Are you challenging me?"
Marvel Rivals: "Yes."
EXCELLENT MELONIE MAC GO BOOM WORK.
Alternatively,
Marvel Rivals: "No. You are assuming you would provide a challenge."
I reject the challenge, cause you are no challenge.
Not even challenge at all.
Dont roget "Guardians of the Galaxy" game with flat Gamora butt lol
I don't think I played a single new western developed videogame all year.
Clearly Netease cares more for its audience than Crystal Dynamics. Surprise?
Glad you're feeling better, Melonie.
Eastern devs once again showing western devs how it’s done. Eastern devs, especially China, do not give a poo about wokism
Even cosplayers at Comic Cons do a far better job with their costumes than any of these superhero blockbusters.
facts
Most the characters actually look amazing. I hope this means the gaming industry is healing now.
Nope. Marvel Rivals is made by a Chinese developer. The only developers that aren't following any DEI checklists are from China or South Korea. Western devs are doubling down on getting Sweet Baby Inc involved in their projects, and Japanese devs are falling into the DEI trap as well.
They teach the importance of idealism in superheroes and super villains, literally first semester in art school.
It is one of the first things you learn.
Avengers looks like they took some stock character models then went shopping for UE5 clothing assets until they found something close enough then made a few custom tweaks and said ta-da it's Captain America! They all look so incredibly boring and uninspired. And that is probably a good description of their dev team.
I like realistic but the issue is they keep giving us unattractive characters and poor outfit designs that are bad
Same.
CD Thor looks like he got up on the wrong side of a storm cellar. CD Cap looks like Private America. CD Black Widow has no curves...by design!
Yup. That's the issue. Stylized is fine, but so is realistic. Both have to be done right, or they're both going to look bad.
I like the M-Rivals style because it reminded me of early 90s comic covers. Kept the spirit of the original IP without being an exact copy. Photorealistic is okay, but considering at the time most people expected MCU, and those likenesses are protected, it added to the disconnect.
It reminds me a lot about Joe Madureira's art style. Madureira was a very proeminent artist from Marvel in the 90s.
God bless you and thank you for your content.
Thank you so much, God bless 🙏🏼
Looks like the developers tried to obeisify The Hulk but they didn't go all the way
It's definitely good to see you upload again. Really missed these videos and Bible Time videos. 🥰
There's something called "heroic proportions" somehow, Western devs unlearned it.
Marvel Rivals art style has beef & Marvel Avengers has soy. Rivals looks how comic art should be, & Avengers plain & simple looks dull & boring.
It reminds me of those good old days of great comic artists like Byrne, Lee, Lim, Adams and Benes who knew how to draw amazing men and women!
That Thor is getting whooped in Dragon Age 2 🤣 🤣 🤣 Melonie I couldn't stop pfffting because of YOU!😂
Gimme that stylized graphics goodness.
Hope you're feeling better, Melonie. You sound a lot better.
Thumbnail says it all: Style every time, baby!
In all sincerity, I hope you're feeling better, Melonie. Praying for you 🙏
Hulk looks like he’s one week out from a bodybuilding show in Marvel Rivals compared to an off season body on the Marvel Avengers lol! No comparison!
Every time I see that Marvel Rivals Thor, I hear "By the power of Greyskull, I have the power!" in my head.
Great to see you back Mel. Hope you had a great New Year's day. Funny thing is my 30 BD is coming up. So I might miss your stream Wednesday. Me and my family are going on a trip. Great video. 👍
Yay she's back! Hope you are all better, Melonie!
Getting this notification has me stoked ! Hope youre doing okay 💪🔥🕶
its not just hyperrealism, its more the bland feel of it since many of the real models they use, they alter them. Gaurdians of the Galaxy by Square Enix felt way better in their designs (though they def nerf women's butts and busts) but it felt more vibrant and worked super well.
Guardians of the Galaxy was mid, so it flopped. The character design blew cheeks and they looked just as bad as Marvel Avengers. Idk why people drink the GotG koolaid.
This isn’t my kind of game. But I will admit the Rivals design are so. Fucking. Amazing.
Melonies a cool looking character too
Yes! The only cool realistic female character is finally back! 🥰
I also got that flue or whatever - was out through Christmas and New Year… but unfortunately I didn’t get it from Melonie 😥
Next year I guess…
Mm-hm, yes, yesCATPHOTOBOMB! {g} 6:59 cat leaves the chat. {g}
Hi melonie i love your videos keep it up
Definitely prefer stylized. I don't need realism in my fictional characters.
Deus Ex just got sacrificed for that!!!
Shame on them
Lol 😂😂... 0:42 Thor on the right looks like a male version of Kassandra from AC Odyssey
Captain america
😊 you're better. I'm happy. I see you better.
Marvel Avengers embarrassed itself…
I prefer a combination of stylized and realistic. Warhammer 40K Space Marine II pulls this off well.
I’m a Wolverine main, but I also use Spidey, Hulk, Magneto, Psylocke and Storm for fun.
It’s not just hyper realistic, they pick the unattractive model and costume design.
I see a Cole Train! But where is Edward-chan!?
LMAO Everything in the other Marvel game looks like it was contracted out with minimal context and slapped together by another team. You can throw high resolution textures at dang near anything and make it look "better," but, you can't hide bad assets. Gladiator Hulk is the ONLY decent looking asset. Ironman looks like he was just put on a witness protection program.
Rivals is so great looking because they look like comic book characters
I didn’t hate Marvel Avengers (obviously could’ve been a lot better). But I’m definitely gonna checkout Marvel Rivals after the great reviews my friends have been giving it.
Rivals: "Black Panther!!!"
Avengers: "gimp panther..."
Fantastic game!!! I’ve been on it 24/7
Glad to see you are getting better, praying for you and yours.
100% agree with you Melonie
Realism obviously has its place in fiction, but it seems obvious that stylization works best for superhero media.
The bad ones look like they charge 2 dollars to take a picture with them at the local fair 😂
What I love about that Fantastic 4 pic is Mr Fantastic as leader standing tall, front and center.
@meloniemac where is Laura's arms on the statue lol ?
It's nosaj. But I really would keep these characters looking original, instead of changing them. Marvel contest of champions don't even do that they just release a full new version of the character. This will be a hidden profile.
Wow! Black Widow in the movies looked great and they go with the cross dresser on the right? Glad to see the stylized version on the left. Realism can work as we've seen with J.G. Jones version of Black Widow. But, J. Scott Campbell has drawn a great stylized BW.
Speaking of J. Scott Campbell, I'd hate to see what Hollywood would do with Danger Girl in this era of woke movies. Campbell does the best G.I. Joe comic cover as well. Surprised they haven't tried to cancel him.
The BOOM is back
I played a decent amount of Marvel Avengers, mostly because it was the closest thing we've had to X-men legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance since those games came out on PS2, and you are spot on about the character models. I don't know how so many games seem to play and look worse than they did 20 years ago.
Dang, this Marvel Rivals game looks extremely cool. By the way glad you’re feeling a little better Mel.
I think it depends on the game/genre...
Civilization 6, with its cartoony style and freaking POW decals in combat, looks horrible. Yet Civ 5 and Civ 7 look great, which definitely approaches a more realistic tone.
So yea... depends on the game/genre. "It looks like a mobile game" or "it looks like fortnite" isn't a compliment by any means these days.
Thank you
I could definitely beat that Marvel Avengers Hawkeye in a fight.
Art direction > realistic graphics, all night, all day, 8 days a week. They will at least allow a game’s looks to age gracefully even if the gameplay doesn’t. Developers used to know this
Art direction is present in realistic graphics as well. It's just that when art direction is bad, then the characters look bad. We've seen stylized characters with bad art direction too. I mean, I could make a video of realistic graphics with good art direction compared to stylized graphics with bad art direction and say, "Realistic graphics are better than stylized graphics. Here's the proof," but all I'd be doing is cherry picking to make it appear as if I have a sound argument, when I really don't.
@@G360LIVE Tbf, realistic graphic tends to be more boring with art direction since so many triple A game companies uses realism as a cost cutting procedure as oppose to an art direction to fit into their story.
Shame Marvel Rivals is such an Anomaly
mk11 is a very good example, realistic but also good looking. but marvel's avengers characters design !!!??? meh......what a shame.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Marvel Rivals has simply become the pinnacle of Hero Shooters, a work of art in online game format! That alone says a lot.
Pro tip is to always be talking to your dicord when doing this, makes you look cooler rather than going into a random presentation
Realism is great sometimes though. Take the Sony Spiderman games for example; like them or not, just about everyone (but MJ) is really well designed, especially the villains. Until we had those games, we had never seen a really well designed, realistic Kraven. Venom looks absolutely fantastic too. Marvel Rivals is KILLING IT, especially with their designs.
I disagree, everyone in Marvel Spider-Man looks WORSE than both their live action and comic counterparts. On the other hand, there's some concept art "hidden" in Marvel Rivals of how Peter looks and he looks great, so I can only imagine everyone else from his universe would as well.
I like the hyper-realistic graphics when it's something based in real life. Something like a Battlefield game, yes, give me the realistic soldiers and tanks and what not. But when it's something like superheroes, then the hyper-realistic graphics just kind of water down the feeling of the superheroes. Something about trying to take these larger-than-life characters, with enormous muscles and crazy powers and near immortality, and making them look like Joe and Jan Smith down the street...it doesn't work.
The stylized versions look more like the comic books.
Black Panther looks like Leader of Tribe vs Homeless person
It depends on the game. If im playing a realistic military shooter like call of duty which is super realistic graphics and based on real life military gear then i want realistic outfits over a scantily clad anime girl with cat ears, if im playing as a superhero obviously realism isnt as important, although some level of realism is appreciated if youre going for a realistic graphic style. Like most of those outfits arent bad because theyre realistic, theyre bad because theyre just lazy low effort character design. Like that white black widow outfit is super low effort and lame
If only CoD keep it to that instead of trying to be like fortnite with skins that make no god damn sense for a militaristic game...why do we have Nikki Minaj and Snoop Dog shooting against Homelander and so on.
A lot of normies want more realistic looking graphics. (Monster Hunter World for example. The normies that joined with it often can't stand the previous games or Rise's visuals due to them leaning more on the stylized visuals. It's usually western normies though that reflects western devs today.)
Avengers wasn’t to bad for that single player xD
1:37 chubby Hulk 😂
Raziel looks better than Crystal Dynamics character designs and he is literally a ghoul.
Scarlet Witch Is My Favorite
Japanese companies tend to understand it better. Videogames are *fantasy* not simulations.
Marvel Rivals is better than Marvel Avengers.
I mean, even cosplayers usually look way better than these so-called “realistic” characters
To be fair, Black Widow looked pretty hecking good in Avengers, at least some of her outfits. Kate Bishop and FemThor were terrible though.
The Thor from Marvel Avengers looks like a regular guy cosplaying. Even Chris Hemsworth who is a human looks more impressive than that game version. I am glad that Marvel Rivals went for a more comic and awesome art style.
You see why cell shaded games age better over time
Because that style is timeless regardless of technical limitations
Like XIII classic and wind waker still look good 20+ years later
That game embarrassed itself from the very start.
On top of the ugliness and lack of flair, the Avengers designs feel so... stumpy. Everyone's legs kinda just... look short in proportion to their bodies, and their arms look like twigs compared to their torsos.
To paraphrase the great Pimperor, Fleekazoid, Avengers is a "hero" game where our "heroes" are the residents of Seattle.
Meanwhile, Rivals' heroes actually look larger than life. They could probably make a hobo hero who throws pocket fentanyl look like the coolest thing ever.
You can get away with lower poly counts with more stylized characters too.
I think it very much depends on the context. For example, when it comes to games that are somewhat more based on reality, history, or simply have a more grounded concept (like oldschool Medal of Honor, CoD, Mafia, Stalker etc. that I really liked back in the day), with enough creativity and good writing they can be just as fun with obviously more realistic looking characters, and I certainly preferred them that way. But at the same time I also liked power fantasy type of games, with magic, over the top heroes, and these two categories can and should coexist without turning everything into a homogenous blob where every genre (and gender😅) looks exactly the same.
For me, it depends on the type of game. If it's an Overwatch style multi-player game like Marvel Rivals, then yes, the stylish art style works perfectly. If it's an FPS like COD, then the realistic style suits it best. It all depends on the type of game in my opinion.
Crystal Dynamics also did a perfect Guardians of the Galaxy with awesome looking characters
Crystal Dynamics did not make Guardians of the Galaxy.
@@samlugano737 yep, it was Eidos, sorry. They are still Western studio
They’ve got the dopey uninteresting look down
marvel's rivals giving the woke agenda the biggest middle finger
2:15 - Prince Valium Thor.
For real i love the comic accuracy in rivals. If people want to make things realistic. Make it look good. Its not hard 😂
lol i forgot about sophia
ps. i love cole train
It's becauae narrative or dialogue heavy is a lot harder to do in an interactive format in a compelling way, where the interaction is integrated, and not pasted ontop, or where it becomes a QTE punctuated film. I guess the old text convo RPGs probably still do it best. It's a wonderful medium, but you're working in sooo many dimensions. It's a lot to reconcile if you want it ALL to be meaningful and draw you in
As the time goes by, the Asians devs proven themselves that they can make a TRUE diverse characters than the west.
Thor in Marvel Avengers looks like a stage actor no matter what outfit he wears. Overall, the rest look slouchy and don't have the hero pose
Melonie what's your favorite marvel super hero?
I noticed all the "male" characters have sloped shoulders, even the damned Hulk and robot man. And all the female characters have square shoulders, like men are supposed to have. Rivals has men that have good solid shoulders, you're welcome ladies says the dev.
I wish there were more stylized games. One of my favorite hyper stylized games is XIII, which feels like a comic book. The original is amazing, but do not ever get the remake cuz they screwed it all up.