This. My friend kept bitching about CoD:Ghosts because "when you look at the wall up close you can see the pixels and that's why the game is terrible." Not because of the bland gameplay or the generic aesthetics. Nope, it's because of the pixels on the wall. Sigh.
Actually, the main issue with CoD: Ghosts on the graphics side was that it re-used assets over 5 years old, and tried to upscale it. Plus it's atheistic IS going for a more realistic and gritty near future world, and it just looks arcady when it has freakin 2D fire effects... when looking for a game that did gritty near future and realistic right, look at Metro: Lat Light, that game easily has one of the BEST graphics engines to date, up there with Crysis 3, yet it's aesthetic is impeccable, get that along side an amazing atmosphere and you have a game that will stand the test of time. Would that game have been bad if it DIDN'T have an amazing graphics engine and high res textures? No, but it would have degraded the overall experience quite a bit and damage the most important part of it, the atmosphere, making it a decent game, but not nearly as great as it is.
Paul-William Claude I assume you're one of the people that plays really far away from their TV on a couch? If you're like me and play on a monitor jaggies are actually a pretty big annoyance and while aren't game breaking, god do they make the game just look terrible.
Paul-William Claude "Jaggies" can break an aesthetic though. Many times they make odd lighting effects, so objects look like they don't belong in the environment. Then there are "Shadow Jaggies", which just basically means shadows are made of squares, which again can break the aesthetic if things are all round, but their shadows have lots of sharp corners.
There's also the fact that good graphics in an aesthetically uninteresting game makes the game quickly become outdated. There's no point in worrying too much over graphics if those graphics are going to become visually unimpressive in a few years. Good aesthetics can save a game from that, making you say, "Well, the graphics are old, but this is still a fantastic-looking game".
@@MineNAdventurer I think the better example here is WoW vs. ESO. The cartoony aesthetic saves WoW from looking dated, even though it's graphical capabilities are a lot worse than ESO.
This made me realize that at least 99% of the people that ever play minecraft don't care that it looks blocky and pixelated, and don't complain about graphics. Huh.
In short, "The ability to draw well does not mean that the drawings look nice." To add to the examples, Minecraft. Even without shaders or texture packs (though they often add that extra "oomf") Minecraft can generate some truly breathtaking visuals. Graphically, it's not terribly impressive-the only polygons used are squares-yet, this becomes a pleasing aesthetic that probably attributes to the game's popularity.
I've often thought how excellent I think the aesthetics of this video series is, without the need for op graphics. With just a few well-chosen lines, it conveys so much action, emotion, and even beauty. Each of the characters in Extra Credits is very recognizable, even though they're all basically stick figures with hair and different colored shirts... and generally don't even have arms. That's beautiful!
+Girolamo Esposito See i disagree with that style of aesthetics, if it looks so plasic and cartoony i cannot be immersed in it : / . On the other hand blizzard has done pretty well with overwatch and WoW dispite its cartoony look.
A better example is Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, it had sub-par graphics for the time but its to this day the most aesthetically impressive RPG I have ever played.
This is excellent. One of my students raves about xbox one and its games purely for graphics in games. Mario Galaxy, Minecraft, and even Cave Story are very unimpressive in graphics yet are plain beautiful
I agree completely, Mario Galaxy is one of my all time favourites and it looks great even though you can clearly see all the pixels. Cave Story is also amazing, everything about it emits charm.
Whenever people talk about the graphics of Xbox one, I think that graphically, a $500 PC could do better. If you want graphics, get a 1080ti. If you want a good game, focus on gameplay, aesthetics, etc.
You know, I think this episode and your episode on the uncanny valley go hand in hand. Just pouring graphics or hyper realism into something isn't going to make a game that lasts visually for years to come. It's going to end up making something we laugh at years later, when a similar style of graphics outpowers it. Aesthetic, stylization and a less realistic approach are important for making games that last visually beyond their console's replacement in the industry. Even in a game that tries for greater realism. Because really, the uncanny valley episode explains everything.
Aesthetics are what make the game's visuals memorable. You'll forget how detailed something looks over time, but you won't forget what it evoked -- the combinations of shapes, colours and the overall "feel" of it. I think Journey is a great example. Regardless of graphics, you'll know exactly what it is just looking at it, and the game itself looks and FEELS incredibly beautiful.
I think Subnautica is a good example of this as well. Even though you can turn settings to high, that isn't why the game looks good. It looks good because of its asthetic.
+xylophone I'd argue that LIMBO has the most incredible aesthetic. The way the game is approached with no tutorial, very little explanation and MASSIVE amounts of trial and error play perfectly into the dark and silhouetted visual, like you're being left in the dark. Ori and the Blind Forest comes very close, though.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was awesome. Too bad the other two went onto a combat-base instead of the puzzle-base that the first of the three started with. I know there's an original PoP; you can play it in Sands of Time by putting in the right code at the very beginning of the game.
Remember that dude who was like "Why would you play Minecraft? The graphics are awful?" That was me until I played it and climbed my way over a pixelated mountain, stood on top and gasped out loud and beautiful landscape built entirely out of square blocks blanketed by the bright sunset sky. Pretty sure that's what this game is talking about, it's not about resolution, it's about the pretty colors and amazing scenes.
This is why Nintendo's Wii-U manages to have some of the prettiest games of this generation, while the PS4 and Xbone are struggling to out-do their last-gen counterparts. Its why Mario Galaxy is often sided as being pretty enough to go toe-to-toe with HD games and why Yoshi's Island on the SNES is still one of the prettiest games of all time. Visuals are like music and sound, you can increase fidelity endlessly BUT it will still take something special to top gems like old-school Sonic, Megaman, Final Fantasy, and Zelda's sound track... although to be fair Zelda and Final Fantasy can still come out with some pretty awesome stuff.
+Twilord One of the reasons I love Nintendo. Their games age really well, and they're fun. And yeah, Square Enix does some really awesome stuff with Final Fantasy. They keep to their aesthetic while pushing the boundaries of what they could achieve graphically.
***** That really is the type of mental image that I feel games should be able to summon in the player years later. Watching Dragon Roost Island in Wind-Waker emerge in the distance is burned into my mind when I think of that game because of the combination of audio and visual style that they used to give that sense of adventure.
this is exactly why I love Nintendo games, and why I was so disappointed with Skyward Sword. they tried so hard to merge the design elements of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (both aesthetically brilliant games), and in so doing completely lost any personality for the game they were building. Zelda WiiU looks to be turning that back around though.
Dark Souls. I remember being amazed at firelink shrink. The game was jus so beautiful. Wasn't even close to having the best graphics but is the most beautiful game I've played.
+Chad Worthy Firelink shrine + The character creation music (that little simple arpeggio) are LITERALLY the first two things that i remember when i think about dark souls Firelink shrine in particular isn't that detailed...but it has so much personality...sometimes i feel like i can imagine how the chantry would have been in it's better days It will probably allways be my favourite place in dark souls, which has been, since 2011, my favourite game ever (it managed to dethrone games i played more than 15 years ago on the snes-pc-ps1...my childhood favourites...usually you can't compete with those!)
+Chad Worthy the most beautiful game is the i currently playing, ori and the blind forest, i think that is THE best 2D platformer game i've ever play...
Dude, Dark Souls 2 looked good because of that too. Graphics were absolute shit, but they went with this soft warm color pallette that looks better than a lot of things.
Transistor, Ori and the Blind Forest, Journey, Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2, Vanillaware games, Okami, Windwaker, Suda 51 games, Nintendo Yarn series, Hyper Light Drifter, World of Final Fantasy ( yes, I'm including it!), Ratchet and Clank PS4, Tearaway, Bloodborne, and Life is Strange are some of the games that prove pure graphical fidelity doesn't make a game better. A lot of these games are brimming with atmosphere and feelings that a lot of hyper-realistic games don't provide. The above games all have a clear identity and wonderful cohesion between the style and their gameplay.
Dude you are basically missing Hideki Kamiya's entire library (Resident Evil 2, DMC 1 and 3, Vietiful Joe, Bayonetta, and the Wonderful 101). Sure, only two of them are known for their graphical fidelity (DMC 1 and RE2) But the first was based on what Mr. Kamiya likes and the other is trying to be a B grade horror flick in game form. The other three are infamously over the top.
tcrpgfan Thanks for pointing those out! It was impossible to name everything. Vietiful Joe pulled me in IMMEDIATELY back in the day. Ans loved the art style of Bayonetta and Wonderful 101.I wasn't really around for the first several Resident Evil games and only played the DMC remake which I happen to like. I saw the HD trailer for the original Resident Evil, and it looked a lot more eerie and impressed me!
Ollie Play the early REs, but avoid the original, seeing as the remake does the same story, just with a much better sense of aesthetics. Seriously, the only serious competiors the REmake has in terms of classic survival horror games is Silent Hill 2 and Eternal Darkness, it's considered that scary. The DMC reboot is shit compared to the older entries, especially gameplay-wise. Older entries had a lock-on mechanic and way more likable characters. It's good when compared to other hack and slashes released now, but it is way less of a roller coaster ride of awesome than the originals.
+Big Z Yeah. They realized that "cutting edge" sixth generation graphics don't age well, while cel shading with simpler, squishier, and more artistic shapes last forever.
MarchuxProductions Nah Bad graphics don't really matter to me if the rest of the game is good. I still love to play a lot of low graphics games. The immersion comes from the combinations of gameplay/ story / characters/difficulty and the design in those games. This is why I love Nintendo games. Don't get me wrong I also love games with good graphics and beatifull/realistic enviroments. It's great when they are there, but they aren't essential to me, because if I just wanted the a realistc enviroment and no aliasing I would look out my window or walk around in the real world ;) Real world "graphics" of the game called life are beautifull you know".
Scientea Realistic =/= good graphics. And if a game takes itself seriously (aka The Last of Us), 2d sprites just make me laugh. And believe me, that's a real problem. I'm talking in more of a modern sense. If a game has a big budget, yet it still looks like ass, it's pathetic. BTW, my favourite game of all time was released in 2004 (Half-life 2) and my second favourite game was eleased in 1999 (Unreal Tournament), so I'm not reeally a graphics whore either :D
catsrsuper The Wii U has up-to-snuff graphics, what are you talking about? The PS4 and Xbone are just as powerful, they just use more expensive and over-priced parts to make the system cost more. Can't blame them, though. That *is* how a business like that works and keeps going.
MarchuxProductions I would loooooooooooove to play the last of us in a pixel style, it would be fun, plus the story could still be told through the aesthetics, make them bleek, pixel bloody and dark XD, like chrono trigger or shovel knight
Lindle Lee Bad ? No just a tiny bit inferior, Nintendo works with lesser technology alot , but mMario kart 8 seems as clean as a whistle, once its been cleaned
i r8 8/8 no h8 its gr8 m8 dont b l8 2 ur d8 It's not really all about pixel count though. I agree that it looks great but the shaders, polygon count. lighting, etc, etc or not as good. The hardware is just not capable
Well at least its used well, fuck most of Xbox and PS4 hardly use their hardware ... One Nintendo game Could rival any title the other consoles.. I mean yes PS4 and XBOX are good consoles, but i would always recomend the WII U over o ther csoles
I've seen this problem before. I remember someone said that Doom's graphics are better than Call of Duty. I disagreed, explaining that graphics are how the game looks as opposed to how it feels. Doom feels way better than Call of Duty, but Call of Duty looks better. That's because Doom has the aesthetics and Call of Duty has the polygons. Doom (1993) > Call of Duty 4 (2007)
Ivan Draws yes I agree but the idea publishers have of tagging open worlds onto any game they can for more selling points is destructive. Not every game works as an open world experience.
Ivan Draws it's the same thing as the whole "we need multiplayer to sell" attitude leading to bland multiplayer being added for no reason other than to fill a checklist
Defenders of Nintendo have often said, "It's not the power, it's what you do with it", and that's essentially what this episode says. Take the Metroid Prime Trilogy, for example. That's some dang good aesthetics (Elysia from Prime 3 sticks out in my mind especially).
Defenders of Nintendo actually say: "It's not the power, aestetics or what you do with it, its the nostalgia value." All that Nintendo has done with its titles, is increase graphics while saying "Oh look, its MARIO, you love MARIO, right. Well, now it comes with way better graphics."
Michiel Wesseling If you are looking to refute my point, bringing out one exception is not really gonna make it, even more so when the franchise has dosens upon dosens of games in it.
I'm playing them again on Wii U and it's amazing just how well the game STILL looks and has aged. I mean graphically it looks obviously dated, but my God does everything still have that breathtaking look and beauty to it.
Good graphics and good aesthetics = Good looking game. Bad graphics but good aesthetics = Good looking game. Good graphics but bad aesthetics = Bad looking game.
The Mass Effect trilogy did have awesome aesthetics. Not only does everything look space-ey, but the technology of each race looks different. The graphics improvement between games doesn't hurt either. My only complaint is the lens flares in ME3. Before I noticed them, everything just looked impressive and dynamic. Now, I cringe when I see the light on Legion's head make a horizontal line across the entire screen.
As a former Runescape player, I can point to RS's major visual updates. The visual aesthetic used to have fairly sensible weapon designs. I wouldn't have ever called them realistic, but they had a certain level of normality to them. When an item broke this mold, like Dragon Armor or a Godsword, it was instantly eye-catching and somehow unique, enforcing its nature as something beyond the capacity of an ordinary human. Now, all objects have the "Final Fantasy/WoW over-the-top" look to them. Instead of making the game look better, the new style just detracts from the relative weight the inhuman designs had. Instead of "This is how a weapon made by a god looks," it's "This is just how everything in this game looks."
Agree completely, except for the bit about Parappa the Rapper looking better than Beast Rider. Maybe it's because it looks incredibly dated today, but when I look at Parappa, I see a giant sicky mess of colours. I don't mind it though as it's a game that's not to be taken seriously.
Yep, dogshit graphics, but incredible aesthetics. Sadly the graphical quality that can be produced by their newer consoles is far to lacking to portray any realistic aesthetic, which sucks because nintendo games look great... in higher resolutions and with better techniques or when they're first party games which take full advantage of the hardware and make their aesthetics fit perfectly.
Windwaker is another good example of a game with good Aesthetics. The stylized look gives it a unique feeling and it felt ahead of it's time and memorable.
I was just trying to make a humorous comment around how society and the NSA can sometimes consider middle eastern and terrorist as synonymous. Rereading the comment, I suppose it was a little insensitive. I apologize +Misty Wind.
Once again Extra Credits...you take something I have felt implicitly for YEARS without having the words or phrasing required to describe it, and you somehow explain it with beautiful style in the space of a few minutes. Thanks for the descriptors, cannot wait to see where I can use this information in the future, and looking forward to the next video!
Even all this time later, this is probably one of the most important episodes of EC ever made. One of the best topics they've tackled for learning, and they hit it right on the head.
One of my favorite episodes so far, this points out a common problem that many don't see through and it ends up making games that aren't charming or imersive. I feel like pushing visuals to the limit shouldn't be the main goal but getting the idea across as it was ment to be.
+Sebastian Inostroza So, uh, Mario Kart 8 looks better than anything on the Xbox One or PS4, which really shouldn't be possible, so, I'm gonna have to dock Nintendo points for, uh, witchcraft. -RFC 2016
NieR:Automata is a prime example of how to do aesthetics right As the game progresses, the brightness of the world's colors slightly shifts to match the tone of that particular point in the storyline. Places with completely different color pallets, say the desert versus the city ruins, have different music, movement, and geometry to match everything together nicely. Even in the parts of the game where I felt I could pick out less than 4 distinct colors, the experience didn't break because everything else backed it up. The parts leading up to and including the Eve battle in particular - few colors, equally great immersion.
I truly agree. For a recent example, though it is limited at a technichal level, I loved DmC aesthetic. Same goes for Borderland 2. Just amazing, like playing in a 80's cyberpunk comic.
My favourite game aesthetic is from the game Child of Light. From the visuals to the music, to the rhyming style of the dialogue and narrated portions, the entire experience has you feeling like you’re inside a fairy tale; and that’s exactly what the game is. A beautiful, wonderfully constructed fairy tale.
I must say that these videos are amazing. They are so well put together and every aspect and thought put into these videos are awesome and to everyone who works on these videos great job. The art direction, the intelligent discussions, the flow of the videos, and everything going together so well made me so want to subscribe and hope that they get more. If more channels made videos like this i would subscribe to a alot more channels.
TLDW: Graphics are quality of the image and imaging techniques, used to portray the aesthetic of the game. aesthetics are the way the game looks, sounds and feels, ie colour, image style, consistency of the designs, language structure, music and even to some extent lore, among many other things.
I have to say, you do nail the aesthetics for this series. The drawings and characters are both appealing and entertaining, the theming is consistent, and I'd even say your voice and how you speak matches the animated character. I'd say your own show is a great example for this subject. :)
Another thing that needs to be said, is that aesthetics does not mean stuff being colorful. Aesthetics means that stuff needs to have personality. The rapper game that the video showed as good aesthetics was nothing more than a clusterfuck of happy colors. Only personality that I saw in that was that it was just colorful. That is just the opposite end of everything being a shade of brown. Both extremes have bad personality.
That comes to explain why i've grown to love Sonic games, or Mafia & Mafia II, or at some extent GTA, while some hot games of today like BF4 look somewhat bland...
I agree with this video. I always wonder why people drool over better more 'realistic' graphics when games that age well usually don't try to visually mirror the real world. To me some of the best looking games are those that favor a more stylized or even cartoon-like aesthetic over an attempt at realism. It just helps makes the game much more memorable and enduring as a whole in my opinion. I'm not saying I don't appreciate graphical realism it has its place. I mean when Crysis came out and I got to play it on max settings I was genuinely impressed. However, I still do not think the emphasis should be on graphics alone. For instance, WindWaker HD may be graphically inferior to something like Ryse or CoD: Ghosts, but I think overall it a much more visually pleasing game. However, I have hope that more games will notice that graphics don't necessarily make a game look great, but that they can aid an already great aesthetic with visual flare. That my opinion at least. Also, I'm not trying to come off as a Nintendo fanboy, I don't even own a Nintendo console myself, but to me it seems that Nintendo really understands this Aesthetics vs Graphics concept since many of their games are, technically, graphically inferior yet they still look great. That's just my opinion anyway. Thanks for reading and thanks for posting this video.
Preston Owens I feel there is only 1 genre where graphics mmatter more than Aesthetics and that is racing simulator games. Note that I say simulator. Games like Mario cart (and it's plethora of rip-offs) would not work if they were photorealistic but at the same time games like forza, gran tourismo and even need for speed would not be what they are if they did not strive to look as photo realistic as they could. 9I couldn't help but laugh when I got my hands on gt3A-spec after not playing it since I was 8 and seeing the brag of "photo realistic graphics" on the back of the box and comparing it to the NFShot pursuit I had been playing. Even then Burnout is full of carnage and manages to look great and blend G&A well very nicely. Especially in Revenge and also Paradise which is a vibrant CARtoon-ish artsyle (shame the controls and or mechanics have made me rage quit more than once)
AtomBacon I'd like to play a racing game with a neon drenched tron-ish/ wachowski SpeedRacer aesthetic that puts the player on tracks that change in sync to the background music. For instance, certain obstacles, paths and jumps would appear in tune to the music, while the neon lights on the road would ebb and flow as they changed hue with the mood of the song. In this way, the player would not only have to pay attention to their driving, but also to the music of the track to anticipate upcoming advantages and obstacles. Yet the various visual cues in the game would help to alert observant players so that no one is taken aback by something that just appeared out of thin air. Also, while the game would have a tron-ish look to it, I'd want the game to have very good graphics as the cars and tracks, while fantastical would still be visually grounded in realism.
The thing that opened my eyes on how beautiful HD can be was seeing Skyward Sword running in HD on dolphin. Before that I couldn't care less. The one thing I do like from High Res is that you'll be able to clearly distinguish different objects from large distances. But most "AAA" games are just small rooms with very detailed textures in there, which you'll forget are there very fast. I think another nice thing we can have with current graphics is good dynamic lightning effects, but both that and the large distance thing also come with somewhat practical sides.
The second to main reason why I don't play Skyrim: skyrim has a very sad, grey theme. It is very ugly. But Oblivion? On a nice day, it is beautiful. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the flowers are a rainbow of floweryness. And through the oblivion gates, it is dark, scary and has a very hellish vibe going on. The main reason of course is that I don't have the money to buy Skyrim. :P
One word: IMAGINATOR. That mod changes the game massively. Oh, and a ton of texture mods as well, together with W.A.T.E.R. VTW, Skyrim was €3,74 in the Quakecon week on Steam ;)
Of course the asthetics of skyrim are dreary. The land is undergoing extreme classism, and discrimination. Also, there are giant, fire-breathing dragons, that threaten the entire world. So don't complain about skyrims asthetics, when it easliy fits the tone of the game.
What *is* the tone of the game, though? Oblivion has light hearted moments, and also terrifying caves/dungeons full of zombies and screaming skeletons. Is Skyrim the same?
+AQUAcat 10 Not exactly; aesthetics is the whole package. The visuals (art style), the sounds (music and voice acting); it's what makes the game unique
it's the art style + the design. Art style describes how you depict various elements. Design is what elements you choose to use and how you use them. Design in video games is similar to the concept of composition in other visual media.
I feel like the reason newer games are more bland is because they can be realistic. A lot of companies want to make their games look realistic, and in doing so, they add in the blandness of realism. Because older games couldn't look realistic because of their graphics, they gave up trying to give it realistic styles and made them unique or wacky. That's why Nintendo, at least I feel, is viewed as a company for kids. They are an old school company that likes sticking with their roots, and keeps the awesome and wacky stuff usually associated with kid's games because they've always done that, and that's just how Nintendo works. These types of companies don't care about realism or graphics and instead focuses on creating its own universe. I'm sure other companies do this to, but Nintendo does it much more consistently than Microsoft or Sony and is much larger than everyone else.
I'm on a binge run and I haven't commented yet but this finally put into words my feelings on art and how really simple refined drawings can look amazing while more technical drawings that are lacking direction look meh, thank you for putting that into words
This is why I still say Mario Galaxy is one of the better looking games of the seventh generation. However time did hit it a little bit with the textures, so I will still be down if Nintendo ever decides to make an enhanced HD port.
I think, that Elite: Dangerous does a fantastic job at combining graphics with aesthetics. They have a high number of polygons (not as ridiculous as Star Citizen thou), while still keeping this nice warm orange style, which makes you feel relaxed, when you are cruising around in the solar system.
I'm glad you mentioned Borderlands as an example of aesthetics done right. I was thinking about it the whole time, how the graphical choices, voice acting, music, and well, everything just seems to click so well and give a genuine feel for Pandora.
At one point in time, maybe in the next 10 years, the graphics will max out and the only thing separating the games visually would be the art and aesthetics. Not only would the developers then be forced to do that, they also wont need to spend as much money on graphics and engines since they'll be a solved problem.
That comment about the Samurai game breaking the immersion with electric guitars and heavy metal. Was that a reference to the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series? Because if so then I couldn't disagree more about it being immersion breaking. The heavy focus on rock riffs and powerchords set the aesthetics for the game perfectly, an over the top action hack and slash game with exaggerated combat styles and beating up swarms of enemies.
They were just bringing out examples there, in lots of cases it's pretty subjective to the individual players themselves on whether or not the music mixes well with the visuals; I wish Extra Credits would note that more in their videos.
I agree. It's a matter of taste, but even a excellent 'Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes' game that was released for the XBox was set in a medieval time but the metal/rock guitar riffs added not only to the aesthetic of the game but complimented its frantic 'chaos of war' type of feel. I don't think it's immersion breaking at all, if it's done right. P.S.: I'd like to see this channel cover the topic of 'realism vs immersiveness', and get right to the heart of the matter about what makes a game immersive, at least in regards to game mechanics (not just art direction)
I have to agree somewhat... Dynasty/Samurai Warriors is not meant to immerse. It's meant to be fucking outrageous and over the top. They're meant to be the kind of games that takes your suspension of disbelief and then does horrible unspeakable things to it and you don't care because its fun.
Okami! That's actually a really good example that was briefly mentioned. It ran on the PS2/Wii (later also PS3) but it is hands down one of the prettiest games I have ever seen.
Finally a video I can show to people to explain what I mean better without having to fetch pictures all over the place. I think a great example of this would be comparing Assassin's Creed with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and onward. AC2 kinda had the same feel as the first but not enough though. The aesthetics in the first game were so polished it didn't matter how inferior it was to its successors technically...
Huh, I thought AC2, and Brotherhood (and even Revelations) were aesthetically pleasing... Maybe you're just not into the setting? Because man they have some of the most beautiful examples of architectural design I've seen in the game. Even the random crowds of people were so pleasing to look at sometimes. With the colors and the music and everything. It's just a work of art. Can't say the same about 3 or 4 though...
Well, AC2 is beautiful. I just didn't get the same sense of realism or composition as I got in Acre in the first game, really. As for Brotherhood, you look at it from far away and you can tell it's just a game, unlike the first two that fool the eye more at times. I value when aesthetics look believable, too :/
Aoi Kurashiki I think that is, and I share your opinion, because they turned what really should have been a Standalone title into a running series. Black Flag and the original AC are the only games in the series I will deem even worthy of mention. The other ones just seemed like a cheap bastardization of history and real topics people cared deeply about, with every subsequent installment they continued to insult the intelligence of their players, We know what happened to the knights templar and the hospitaler, upon returning to Europe, we know why they were disbanded, the ousting of the templar order is esentialy the reason why Friday the 13th is considered a "jinx date", We took a very real story of European Monarchs betraying a caste of knights over personal debt and turned it into a righteous fanfiction of magic brainwashing and world domination conspiracies. I bought unity, and un installed it when I got to the pyre part. I refuse to be taken for a imbecile. Even people who aren't versed in European history seem to have noticed this, as they falsified a real existing world, not something distant to us like the lost civilizations and peoples, but rather cities we live in, know the history of, architecture that is depictive of our society and the source of European cultural diversity to this day, and tried to make it into a tale of evil corporations using magic to controll the world. That might be why you felt the way you did. Honestly I won't lie I hold high disdain for the series, as I believe is obvious by the comment, but I do it for a reason, They have been re skinning a game and adding increasingly bullshit plot lines since what 2007(is that when AC1 came out?). Tho Ubisoft generally is a plague on the industry imo, releasing half arsed crap, if you pay a bit of a attention you will notice that they use pretty much the same mechanics and one of 3 plotlines for the last 20 games they made...
As someone who hopes to get into game development in the next 5 years,your videos are quite helpful to understand some basic mechanics of making games.
Trailer= Oh my god! The graphics are beautiful Watching gameplay= THE GAME LOOKS SO GOOD, I WANT TO GET IT Playing the game= agh, this is boring! I'm playing Minecraft. This is what happens when you spend too much on graphics and throw away the gameplay...
Loved it. A meta-question: is it the target Aestethics of Extra Credits that has made you auto-tune your voice in some of your presentations? If so, understand that it annoys the listener more than it fulfills that role (in my perspective). Keep up the great work!
Can we please make this required watching for all reviewers and developers? It's be great if we could get people to realize that poly count is a useless measurement.
That’s what’s wrong with the current generation of game devs. They make a game hyper realistic just because they can and feel like they have to. When I told a dude on fortnite I was playing on my switch he started saying stuff like “can your system support 6 TeraFlops of power” and other stuff and I say “hey, as long as it’s fun, I’ll play it
WOW that screenshot at 4:39 brings me back... I remember seeing that beta shot from TF2 back in high school, almost 6 years before the game actually came out. A friend of mine actually pre-ordered it, and showed me the receipt. This was back before Steam, so he went to an actual game store to buy a PC game (I know, right??)
Gunpoint is a perfect example of this. It looks incredible and everything about it just screams "noir", from the music and sound to the gameplay and dialogue. And yet this game was done in 8-bit style, and even so, the characters are so well fleshed out it's unbelievable.
As someone working in computer graphics, I want to give this man a cookie. Adding an Nth light map won't do the game any good if you don't get actual artists to give life to the scene.
This actually came in fairly strong recently for me. I mod games heavily to get the experience I want and also play Skyrim, shocker, but when SE came out I enjoyed it for the graphic improvement but to get the amalgam of survival/wrpg/jrpg/ SIM-like/adventure experience honed from over 130 mods compiled over several years.
Nice video, I always believed that artstyle and aesthetics are more important than just graphics. This is also the reason I detest a lot of PC gamers :P
You know, we can't just be scapegoated for wanting more graphical power (cough cough froza, sports games, shooters). Also, we accept Nintendo because of their games flavor, like in pokemon or mario. Also, we as a pc gamers love indie devs which by far excel in simplicity
_This is also the reason I detest a lot of PC gamers :P_ What? That's...unrelated. Also, are you forgetting all those indie games out there with amazing aesthetics? Are you forgetting that graphics can drastically enhance aesthetics? Aesthetically, Halo 3 is gorgeous. Graphically, it's ugly and outdated. Do you know how much better it'd look with a touch-up? This can even be seen in emulators of Nintendo systems especially. Older games are now running at 1080p/60 FPS and they look so, so much better. There's a point where bad graphics can destroy an aesthetic. You can have an astoundingly pretty aesthetic, but if it's in sub-HD resolution and a choppy framerate it's generally going to be noticeable and detract from the look of the game significantly. I've noticed this in Halo 4 quite a bit. The render distance is 5m for detail, tested personally. Impostering is used past about 30m or so, where models completely lose their textures. It's incredibly ugly and the resolution is painful. I love the game and the aesthetic, but it could be *so much more.* There is nothing out there that says PC games don't have _better_ aesthetics. I'd actually say they do have better aesthetics. I can see you have a lot of misconceptions about PC gamers as the kinds of guys who go out and buy Alienware(for God's sake, never buy prebuilt).
I'm just going to say that I don't detest EVERY PC gamer, just the ones that flood every gaming website I know. They may be a minority but they sure are loud >.> Doesn't mean I hate the PC as a platform either :P
letsgoiowa i think why she/he most dont like pc gamer like me is,because they mostly care about graphic more than gameplay which i mostly see alot in the pc/console community.
Darkness19Z I think it's fair to say we care about games more, considering we usually own much, much more of them. Anyways, we get better gameplay to the tune of more players per server, mods, and quicker support.
I hadn't thought about separating the two like that. It all makes perfect, almost obvious, sense, but I hadn't thought about it before. Love these videos!
I think one thing overlooked with the new Battlefront is the aesthetics. I know, it's an empty enough shooter compared to what's on the market right now, but I really think from an aesthetic point of view, it's a step in the right direction. The graphics were focused on, only to the point where the aesthetic wasn't sacrificed. The overall visual and sound design is done so well, and really reinforce the fact you're in the Star Wars universe Just my 2 cents on a good example that should be noted, for future games by EA may improve, cause they're just trying to make games that appeal to a mass market.
A decent chunk of that game is taken directly from real life with photogrammetry. Dice is very good at aesthetics and graphics. Just look at Dragon Age Inquisition. You could tell Battlefront was heavily inspired from the original movies. Luckily, it already had some great material to draw from :)
yeah. it's one of the reasons why i just can't get into this gen of games. a lot of effort put into adding as many details as possible simply because "the technology is better". well it just hurts my eyes. i very much prefer the simplicity and the sense of space in old games and some ps1 and ps2 titles.
I agree. I'm attracted to games due to the more ambiguous, dreamlike "otherworlds", and in particular, exploring and getting lost in them. My favourite games are typically 8, 16 or fake-bit platformers with exploration or a sense of travel and atmosphere. The idea of computer games that are totally realistic is interesting to me, but doesn't have the same pull as more ambiguous art styles and technical (or enforced/voluntary) limitations.
Same here. The game that I'm playing most now? The Megaman X collection on a PS2 Emulator. These are SNES and PS1 level graphics but I don't care, they look great
0:30 Killzone 2 had awesome aesthetic yo. It's not surreal and in-your-face like Katamari, but all the subtleties of lighting, lens flare, prop placement, the view of towering metal scraps of buildings and how the lightning lights up the night is pretty aesthetically provocative. Beautiful, even.
This is an incredibly ignorant statement, one that shows a complete lack of understanding of the video. As far as Aesthetics go, both Twilight Princess and Wind Waker have fantastic depth and richness. Neither one has better aesthetics than the other, merely different. Taking everything into consideration, I would say Twilight Princess is only slightly better than Wind Waker, but better nonetheless. Twilight Princess has a dark or melancholy atmosphere and everything in the game backs this up. It has a serious tone and well written, complex story. A story that has greater depth than Wind Waker's. Wind Waker has a more colorful atmosphere, with a more open and free world that builds on that. Though, it also has some areas that dip into darkness (especially the dungeons). I'd place both of them at top tier, in regards to games in general and in the pantheon of Zelda games.
The Witness has a really intricate world with vibrant colours and very different colour palettes between its biomes. The game even just lets you walk around when you're not feeling the puzzles to relax and meditate and appreciate the visual aesthetics.
I fully agree with this. Aesthetics are much more important than the graphics alone. 0:51 Also, sorry for nit-picking, but I'm pretty sure that's a detail map. Normal maps are the textures that are basically just images to make a model look a certain way, while detail maps are images to give those textures certain effects, like making them look more 3D.
eh.. how so? trine had amazing graphics AND amazing art. (i use the term art instead of aesthetics because aesthetics is actually a stupid term to use and this video shouldn't have used it)
David Bandel How so? The first definition I get when I look up the word "Aesthetic" is: 1. -- Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty. "the pictures give great aesthetic pleasure" -- giving or designed to give pleasure through beauty; of pleasing appearance. synonyms: artistic, tasteful,
David Bandel Well I know this comment is months old, but did you happen to pay attention to this video at all? Aesthetics is not art; Aesthetics is art, sound, placement of entities, character names, mood, etc. Saying that Aesthetics is simply "art" is like saying humans are simply water; While it's true that water makes up a large majority of the human body, it's also comprised of a lot of different elements. The same goes for aesthetics.
Shadrakor i never said aesthetics is art. you read way too much into what i said then went off on it like a bull chasing a red flag that wasn't even there. made you look childish. care to try again? or back off like a biiiiiiiiiiitch?
Thank you, I've been trying to explain this to some of my friends for a long time, but never really knew how to explain it. You've earned a subscriber.
This.
My friend kept bitching about CoD:Ghosts because "when you look at the wall up close you can see the pixels and that's why the game is terrible."
Not because of the bland gameplay or the generic aesthetics. Nope, it's because of the pixels on the wall.
Sigh.
People keep bitching for "jaggies". smh
Actually, the main issue with CoD: Ghosts on the graphics side was that it re-used assets over 5 years old, and tried to upscale it. Plus it's atheistic IS going for a more realistic and gritty near future world, and it just looks arcady when it has freakin 2D fire effects... when looking for a game that did gritty near future and realistic right, look at Metro: Lat Light, that game easily has one of the BEST graphics engines to date, up there with Crysis 3, yet it's aesthetic is impeccable, get that along side an amazing atmosphere and you have a game that will stand the test of time. Would that game have been bad if it DIDN'T have an amazing graphics engine and high res textures? No, but it would have degraded the overall experience quite a bit and damage the most important part of it, the atmosphere, making it a decent game, but not nearly as great as it is.
Paul-William Claude I assume you're one of the people that plays really far away from their TV on a couch? If you're like me and play on a monitor jaggies are actually a pretty big annoyance and while aren't game breaking, god do they make the game just look terrible.
Paul-William Claude "Jaggies" can break an aesthetic though. Many times they make odd lighting effects, so objects look like they don't belong in the environment.
Then there are "Shadow Jaggies", which just basically means shadows are made of squares, which again can break the aesthetic if things are all round, but their shadows have lots of sharp corners.
You should show your friend this video.
There's also the fact that good graphics in an aesthetically uninteresting game makes the game quickly become outdated. There's no point in worrying too much over graphics if those graphics are going to become visually unimpressive in a few years. Good aesthetics can save a game from that, making you say, "Well, the graphics are old, but this is still a fantastic-looking game".
like fallout 4 vs fallout 3 alot of people still play fallout 3 more than fallout 4
I think this applies to movies and cgi/special effects as well.
@@MineNAdventurer I think the better example here is WoW vs. ESO. The cartoony aesthetic saves WoW from looking dated, even though it's graphical capabilities are a lot worse than ESO.
* _TF2 main theme slowly starts playing in the background_ *
@@Arnalv Or the original Deus Ex.
This made me realize that at least 99% of the people that ever play minecraft don't care that it looks blocky and pixelated, and don't complain about graphics. Huh.
this.
You will never see any Minercaft player complaing about graphic.
That is probably the most +1'd post I'll make in 3 years o-O
haha well, congratulations!
Yeah, who cares if it has bad graphics? The aesthetics more than make up for it :)
In short, "The ability to draw well does not mean that the drawings look nice."
To add to the examples, Minecraft. Even without shaders or texture packs (though they often add that extra "oomf") Minecraft can generate some truly breathtaking visuals. Graphically, it's not terribly impressive-the only polygons used are squares-yet, this becomes a pleasing aesthetic that probably attributes to the game's popularity.
No pun intended? (oomf is the old hurt sound)
It's not the graphics, mate.
It's how you use them
Yeah graphics doesn't matter
it does XD without graphics you would just have sound
+gameturbo131 I bet it would be possible to have a purely a sound based game
Delta X Simon.
This is really a matter of aesthetics instead of graphics XD
Style > Graphics.
Live it, love it, learn it.
***** can't change the dictionary bra deal with it.
hgbguy Verily it is so! Else wouldst not our language become most dissimilar?
Garuu Spike
Well, said :3
GaruuSpike Ralsei looks awesome and just look at the game XD
Orcane... That smooth animation and cute little orca
I've often thought how excellent I think the aesthetics of this video series is, without the need for op graphics. With just a few well-chosen lines, it conveys so much action, emotion, and even beauty. Each of the characters in Extra Credits is very recognizable, even though they're all basically stick figures with hair and different colored shirts... and generally don't even have arms. That's beautiful!
Team Fortress 2 is the perfect example of aesthetics being more important than graphics alone, nice choice!
+Girolamo Esposito See i disagree with that style of aesthetics, if it looks so plasic and cartoony i cannot be immersed in it : / . On the other hand blizzard has done pretty well with overwatch and WoW dispite its cartoony look.
A better example is Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, it had sub-par graphics for the time but its to this day the most aesthetically impressive RPG I have ever played.
I think TF2 works so wonderfully is because of it's shock value, child-like graphics with extreme violence make up for an amazing style
Jim Bob I disagree have you're opinion but I think it delivers well it's cartoony shady style fits perfectly in a wacky world with wacky characters
This is excellent. One of my students raves about xbox one and its games purely for graphics in games. Mario Galaxy, Minecraft, and even Cave Story are very unimpressive in graphics yet are plain beautiful
I agree completely, Mario Galaxy is one of my all time favourites and it looks great even though you can clearly see all the pixels. Cave Story is also amazing, everything about it emits charm.
Galaxy looks damn impressive for a Wii game.
Whenever people talk about the graphics of Xbox one, I think that graphically, a $500 PC could do better. If you want graphics, get a 1080ti. If you want a good game, focus on gameplay, aesthetics, etc.
You know, I think this episode and your episode on the uncanny valley go hand in hand. Just pouring graphics or hyper realism into something isn't going to make a game that lasts visually for years to come. It's going to end up making something we laugh at years later, when a similar style of graphics outpowers it.
Aesthetic, stylization and a less realistic approach are important for making games that last visually beyond their console's replacement in the industry. Even in a game that tries for greater realism. Because really, the uncanny valley episode explains everything.
This video still holds up over a decade later. I used to be one of these people who solely focussed on the graphics of a game but ignored aesthetics.
Aesthetics are what make the game's visuals memorable. You'll forget how detailed something looks over time, but you won't forget what it evoked -- the combinations of shapes, colours and the overall "feel" of it. I think Journey is a great example. Regardless of graphics, you'll know exactly what it is just looking at it, and the game itself looks and FEELS incredibly beautiful.
That game is the epitome of beautiful! Same with Ori and The Blind Forest and Okami.
Aaron KTJ Half-Life 2 has a good balance.
I think Subnautica is a good example of this as well. Even though you can turn settings to high, that isn't why the game looks good. It looks good because of its asthetic.
Ori and the Blind Forest anyone? Most beautiful game ever.
Trine series comes in close :/
I challenge anyone to find a better graphics + aesthetes combination.
+xylophone I'd argue that LIMBO has the most incredible aesthetic. The way the game is approached with no tutorial, very little explanation and MASSIVE amounts of trial and error play perfectly into the dark and silhouetted visual, like you're being left in the dark.
Ori and the Blind Forest comes very close, though.
Bloodborne is beautiful, people rarely appreciate the beautiful detail in that game
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was awesome. Too bad the other two went onto a combat-base instead of the puzzle-base that the first of the three started with. I know there's an original PoP; you can play it in Sands of Time by putting in the right code at the very beginning of the game.
Remember that dude who was like "Why would you play Minecraft? The graphics are awful?" That was me until I played it and climbed my way over a pixelated mountain, stood on top and gasped out loud and beautiful landscape built entirely out of square blocks blanketed by the bright sunset sky. Pretty sure that's what this game is talking about, it's not about resolution, it's about the pretty colors and amazing scenes.
This is why Nintendo's Wii-U manages to have some of the prettiest games of this generation, while the PS4 and Xbone are struggling to out-do their last-gen counterparts. Its why Mario Galaxy is often sided as being pretty enough to go toe-to-toe with HD games and why Yoshi's Island on the SNES is still one of the prettiest games of all time.
Visuals are like music and sound, you can increase fidelity endlessly BUT it will still take something special to top gems like old-school Sonic, Megaman, Final Fantasy, and Zelda's sound track... although to be fair Zelda and Final Fantasy can still come out with some pretty awesome stuff.
+Twilord One of the reasons I love Nintendo. Their games age really well, and they're fun. And yeah, Square Enix does some really awesome stuff with Final Fantasy. They keep to their aesthetic while pushing the boundaries of what they could achieve graphically.
***** That really is the type of mental image that I feel games should be able to summon in the player years later.
Watching Dragon Roost Island in Wind-Waker emerge in the distance is burned into my mind when I think of that game because of the combination of audio and visual style that they used to give that sense of adventure.
this is exactly why I love Nintendo games, and why I was so disappointed with Skyward Sword. they tried so hard to merge the design elements of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (both aesthetically brilliant games), and in so doing completely lost any personality for the game they were building.
Zelda WiiU looks to be turning that back around though.
Kelly McCabe
Zelda U does look gorgeous. Though at the moment my Wii-U is firmly pointed at Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Heh, just got a thumb's up redirecting me to this old comment, in case anyone is curious - Xenoblade Chronicles X was awesome.
Dark Souls. I remember being amazed at firelink shrink. The game was jus so beautiful. Wasn't even close to having the best graphics but is the most beautiful game I've played.
+Chad Worthy
Firelink shrine + The character creation music (that little simple arpeggio) are LITERALLY the first two things that i remember when i think about dark souls
Firelink shrine in particular isn't that detailed...but it has so much personality...sometimes i feel like i can imagine how the chantry would have been in it's better days
It will probably allways be my favourite place in dark souls, which has been, since 2011, my favourite game ever (it managed to dethrone games i played more than 15 years ago on the snes-pc-ps1...my childhood favourites...usually you can't compete with those!)
+Chad Worthy the most beautiful game is the i currently playing, ori and the blind forest, i think that is THE best 2D platformer game i've ever play...
Dude, Dark Souls 2 looked good because of that too. Graphics were absolute shit, but they went with this soft warm color pallette that looks better than a lot of things.
Darker Ds2 looks washed out and bland
Transistor, Ori and the Blind Forest, Journey, Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2, Vanillaware games, Okami, Windwaker, Suda 51 games, Nintendo Yarn series, Hyper Light Drifter, World of Final Fantasy ( yes, I'm including it!), Ratchet and Clank PS4, Tearaway, Bloodborne, and Life is Strange are some of the games that prove pure graphical fidelity doesn't make a game better. A lot of these games are brimming with atmosphere and feelings that a lot of hyper-realistic games don't provide. The above games all have a clear identity and wonderful cohesion between the style and their gameplay.
Dude you are basically missing Hideki Kamiya's entire library (Resident Evil 2, DMC 1 and 3, Vietiful Joe, Bayonetta, and the Wonderful 101). Sure, only two of them are known for their graphical fidelity (DMC 1 and RE2) But the first was based on what Mr. Kamiya likes and the other is trying to be a B grade horror flick in game form. The other three are infamously over the top.
tcrpgfan Thanks for pointing those out! It was impossible to name everything. Vietiful Joe pulled me in IMMEDIATELY back in the day. Ans loved the art style of Bayonetta and Wonderful 101.I wasn't really around for the first several Resident Evil games and only played the DMC remake which I happen to like. I saw the HD trailer for the original Resident Evil, and it looked a lot more eerie and impressed me!
Ollie Play the early REs, but avoid the original, seeing as the remake does the same story, just with a much better sense of aesthetics. Seriously, the only serious competiors the REmake has in terms of classic survival horror games is Silent Hill 2 and Eternal Darkness, it's considered that scary. The DMC reboot is shit compared to the older entries, especially gameplay-wise. Older entries had a lock-on mechanic and way more likable characters. It's good when compared to other hack and slashes released now, but it is way less of a roller coaster ride of awesome than the originals.
Wind Waker and Okami are the best examples of this to me.
+Big Z Yeah. They realized that "cutting edge" sixth generation graphics don't age well, while cel shading with simpler, squishier, and more artistic shapes last forever.
+Sofa King Isn't that the truth!
Okami and Xenoblade both.
aye.
0ongli Haha definitely not Xenoblade. The Wii had a few polygons missing for what it tried to do.
Nintendo games, especially ones developed by Nintendo, are pretty much all about aesthetics while PS4/Xbone are all mostly about graphics.
Both sorta fail, though. Bad graphics break immersion very easily, you know.
MarchuxProductions
Nah Bad graphics don't really matter to me if the rest of the game is good. I still love to play a lot of low graphics games. The immersion comes from the combinations of gameplay/ story / characters/difficulty and the design in those games. This is why I love Nintendo games. Don't get me wrong I also love games with good graphics and beatifull/realistic enviroments. It's great when they are there, but they aren't essential to me, because if I just wanted the a realistc enviroment and no aliasing I would look out my window or walk around in the real world ;) Real world "graphics" of the game called life are beautifull you know".
Scientea Realistic =/= good graphics.
And if a game takes itself seriously (aka The Last of Us), 2d sprites just make me laugh. And believe me, that's a real problem.
I'm talking in more of a modern sense. If a game has a big budget, yet it still looks like ass, it's pathetic.
BTW, my favourite game of all time was released in 2004 (Half-life 2) and my second favourite game was eleased in 1999 (Unreal Tournament), so I'm not reeally a graphics whore either :D
catsrsuper The Wii U has up-to-snuff graphics, what are you talking about? The PS4 and Xbone are just as powerful, they just use more expensive and over-priced parts to make the system cost more. Can't blame them, though. That *is* how a business like that works and keeps going.
MarchuxProductions I would loooooooooooove to play the last of us in a pixel style, it would be fun, plus the story could still be told through the aesthetics, make them bleek, pixel bloody and dark XD, like chrono trigger or shovel knight
As for Mario Kart 8 -- Brilliant graphics and brilliant aesthetics. Best looking game I've played in a long time.
I'm sorry but the graphics there are bad compared to a good PC or the PS4 or Xbox 1. Looks awesome though
Lindle Lee Bad ? No just a tiny bit inferior, Nintendo works with lesser technology alot , but mMario kart 8 seems as clean as a whistle, once its been cleaned
*edit*forget about my comment, I was wrong about certain things.
i r8 8/8 no h8 its gr8 m8 dont b l8 2 ur d8 It's not really all about pixel count though. I agree that it looks great but the shaders, polygon count. lighting, etc, etc or not as good. The hardware is just not capable
Well at least its used well, fuck most of Xbox and PS4 hardly use their hardware ...
One Nintendo game Could rival any title the other consoles.. I mean yes PS4 and XBOX are good consoles, but i would always recomend the WII U over o ther csoles
I've seen this problem before. I remember someone said that Doom's graphics are better than Call of Duty. I disagreed, explaining that graphics are how the game looks as opposed to how it feels. Doom feels way better than Call of Duty, but Call of Duty looks better. That's because Doom has the aesthetics and Call of Duty has the polygons.
Doom (1993) > Call of Duty 4 (2007)
Making great games is complicated.
Great Graphics + great art style + great story + great game mechanics + great level design = Great Game
It's a shame the open world trend is destroying good level design
It doesn't destroy anything. You can still design a good open world. People are still learning to do that.
Ivan Draws yes I agree but the idea publishers have of tagging open worlds onto any game they can for more selling points is destructive. Not every game works as an open world experience.
Billy Kane That's true.
Ivan Draws it's the same thing as the whole "we need multiplayer to sell" attitude leading to bland multiplayer being added for no reason other than to fill a checklist
Nintendo has always known that
Defenders of Nintendo have often said, "It's not the power, it's what you do with it", and that's essentially what this episode says. Take the Metroid Prime Trilogy, for example. That's some dang good aesthetics (Elysia from Prime 3 sticks out in my mind especially).
Defenders of Nintendo actually say: "It's not the power, aestetics or what you do with it, its the nostalgia value." All that Nintendo has done with its titles, is increase graphics while saying "Oh look, its MARIO, you love MARIO, right. Well, now it comes with way better graphics."
Baron Ironmaggot so super mario bros. 3 has better graphics than the original?
Michiel Wesseling If you are looking to refute my point, bringing out one exception is not really gonna make it, even more so when the franchise has dosens upon dosens of games in it.
Baron Ironmaggot also, I have heard a Nintendo fan use graphics as an arguement. new Nintendo games offer too much new content for that.
I'm playing them again on Wii U and it's amazing just how well the game STILL looks and has aged. I mean graphically it looks obviously dated, but my God does everything still have that breathtaking look and beauty to it.
Good graphics and good aesthetics = Good looking game.
Bad graphics but good aesthetics = Good looking game.
Good graphics but bad aesthetics = Bad looking game.
I agree.
True dat. Tf2/bioshock 1/2 over C.O.D. anytime!
I think Kerbal Space Program is a good example of having fantastic aesthetics and still very good graphics.
The Mass Effect trilogy did have awesome aesthetics. Not only does everything look space-ey, but the technology of each race looks different. The graphics improvement between games doesn't hurt either. My only complaint is the lens flares in ME3. Before I noticed them, everything just looked impressive and dynamic. Now, I cringe when I see the light on Legion's head make a horizontal line across the entire screen.
As a former Runescape player, I can point to RS's major visual updates. The visual aesthetic used to have fairly sensible weapon designs. I wouldn't have ever called them realistic, but they had a certain level of normality to them. When an item broke this mold, like Dragon Armor or a Godsword, it was instantly eye-catching and somehow unique, enforcing its nature as something beyond the capacity of an ordinary human.
Now, all objects have the "Final Fantasy/WoW over-the-top" look to them. Instead of making the game look better, the new style just detracts from the relative weight the inhuman designs had. Instead of "This is how a weapon made by a god looks," it's "This is just how everything in this game looks."
Agree completely, except for the bit about Parappa the Rapper looking better than Beast Rider. Maybe it's because it looks incredibly dated today, but when I look at Parappa, I see a giant sicky mess of colours. I don't mind it though as it's a game that's not to be taken seriously.
This is why Wind Waker looks better than COD Ghosts
Nintendo is a perfect example
thats pretty much their entire gaming philosophy
And with the amount of bandwagoning that goes on in the AAA games' industry, you'd think it would've become a trend by now.
so is Valve
Yep, dogshit graphics, but incredible aesthetics. Sadly the graphical quality that can be produced by their newer consoles is far to lacking to portray any realistic aesthetic, which sucks because nintendo games look great... in higher resolutions and with better techniques or when they're first party games which take full advantage of the hardware and make their aesthetics fit perfectly.
Battleblock Theater!
Windwaker is another good example of a game with good Aesthetics. The stylized look gives it a unique feeling and it felt ahead of it's time and memorable.
why did youtube decide i needed arabic subtitles?
+Misty Wind lol
+Khanh Nguyen Nah, he is a racist. Literally.
I was just trying to make a humorous comment around how society and the NSA can sometimes consider middle eastern and terrorist as synonymous. Rereading the comment, I suppose it was a little insensitive. I apologize +Misty Wind.
Sanketh Bhaskar its alright.
+Sanketh Bhaskar (S3) Sorry I didn't catch it
Once again Extra Credits...you take something I have felt implicitly for YEARS without having the words or phrasing required to describe it, and you somehow explain it with beautiful style in the space of a few minutes. Thanks for the descriptors, cannot wait to see where I can use this information in the future, and looking forward to the next video!
Journey has great aesthetics
Hell it has great graphics too.
***** Cel-shading also tends to age well as well.
Even all this time later, this is probably one of the most important episodes of EC ever made. One of the best topics they've tackled for learning, and they hit it right on the head.
I know this is old, but boy - does this ring true even now. Thank you for voicing my thoughts. c:
One of my favorite episodes so far, this points out a common problem that many don't see through and it ends up making games that aren't charming or imersive. I feel like pushing visuals to the limit shouldn't be the main goal but getting the idea across as it was ment to be.
Splatoon is a good example of this.
also windwaker
Dhruvit Shah And Jet Set Radiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
+Dhruvit Shah exactly the example i had :)
+Sebastian Inostroza
So, uh, Mario Kart 8 looks better than anything on the Xbox One or PS4, which really shouldn't be possible, so, I'm gonna have to dock Nintendo points for, uh, witchcraft.
-RFC 2016
minecraftportall337 lol witchcraft
NieR:Automata is a prime example of how to do aesthetics right
As the game progresses, the brightness of the world's colors slightly shifts to match the tone of that particular point in the storyline. Places with completely different color pallets, say the desert versus the city ruins, have different music, movement, and geometry to match everything together nicely. Even in the parts of the game where I felt I could pick out less than 4 distinct colors, the experience didn't break because everything else backed it up. The parts leading up to and including the Eve battle in particular - few colors, equally great immersion.
I truly agree. For a recent example, though it is limited at a technichal level, I loved DmC aesthetic. Same goes for Borderland 2. Just amazing, like playing in a 80's cyberpunk comic.
My favourite game aesthetic is from the game Child of Light. From the visuals to the music, to the rhyming style of the dialogue and narrated portions, the entire experience has you feeling like you’re inside a fairy tale; and that’s exactly what the game is. A beautiful, wonderfully constructed fairy tale.
I must say that these videos are amazing. They are so well put together and every aspect and thought put into these videos are awesome and to everyone who works on these videos great job. The art direction, the intelligent discussions, the flow of the videos, and everything going together so well made me so want to subscribe and hope that they get more. If more channels made videos like this i would subscribe to a alot more channels.
TLDW: Graphics are quality of the image and imaging techniques, used to portray the aesthetic of the game. aesthetics are the way the game looks, sounds and feels, ie colour, image style, consistency of the designs, language structure, music and even to some extent lore, among many other things.
+
Honestly this is why I love Psychonauts. It's such an insane aesthetic but it works because everythings like that.
I have to say, you do nail the aesthetics for this series. The drawings and characters are both appealing and entertaining, the theming is consistent, and I'd even say your voice and how you speak matches the animated character. I'd say your own show is a great example for this subject. :)
Minecraft is a great example. The graphics are simple, but the aesthetic is great because, simply put, it's great pixel art. ;)
Minecraft is bland as all fuck. Just get sphax though and that's a problem solved
L Bell ~~~DISCLAIMER:THIS STATEMENT IS PURELY OPINION~~~
what problem?.
Everybody who says fallout 4 graphics are shit should see this video.
Otger Fabre
Thank you.
Otger Fabre
Thank you.
+Otger Fabre fallout 4 will hopefully(probs not) be a fallout 3 and not another fallout new vegas or skyrim, those games are the worst.
+Otger Fabre came here after one too many "FO4 looks like shit!"
+Otger Fabre So you are sayng that fallout 4 graphiscs are shit but the aesthetics are awsome.
Another thing that needs to be said, is that aesthetics does not mean stuff being colorful. Aesthetics means that stuff needs to have personality. The rapper game that the video showed as good aesthetics was nothing more than a clusterfuck of happy colors. Only personality that I saw in that was that it was just colorful. That is just the opposite end of everything being a shade of brown. Both extremes have bad personality.
This had got to be one of my all time favorite of your videos. I wish every person who ever played a video game would watch it and learn something.
That comes to explain why i've grown to love Sonic games, or Mafia & Mafia II, or at some extent GTA, while some hot games of today like BF4 look somewhat bland...
hey battlefield is a good game even if dice focuses more on grafics than other stuff but still BattleField 4 is awesome
I agree with this video. I always wonder why people drool over better more 'realistic' graphics when games that age well usually don't try to visually mirror the real world. To me some of the best looking games are those that favor a more stylized or even cartoon-like aesthetic over an attempt at realism. It just helps makes the game much more memorable and enduring as a whole in my opinion. I'm not saying I don't appreciate graphical realism it has its place. I mean when Crysis came out and I got to play it on max settings I was genuinely impressed. However, I still do not think the emphasis should be on graphics alone.
For instance, WindWaker HD may be graphically inferior to something like Ryse or CoD: Ghosts, but I think overall it a much more visually pleasing game.
However, I have hope that more games will notice that graphics don't necessarily make a game look great, but that they can aid an already great aesthetic with visual flare.
That my opinion at least. Also, I'm not trying to come off as a Nintendo fanboy, I don't even own a Nintendo console myself, but to me it seems that Nintendo really understands this Aesthetics vs Graphics concept since many of their games are, technically, graphically inferior yet they still look great.
That's just my opinion anyway. Thanks for reading and thanks for posting this video.
Preston Owens I feel there is only 1 genre where graphics mmatter more than Aesthetics and that is racing simulator games. Note that I say simulator. Games like Mario cart (and it's plethora of rip-offs) would not work if they were photorealistic but at the same time games like forza, gran tourismo and even need for speed would not be what they are if they did not strive to look as photo realistic as they could. 9I couldn't help but laugh when I got my hands on gt3A-spec after not playing it since I was 8 and seeing the brag of "photo realistic graphics" on the back of the box and comparing it to the NFShot pursuit I had been playing. Even then Burnout is full of carnage and manages to look great and blend G&A well very nicely. Especially in Revenge and also Paradise which is a vibrant CARtoon-ish artsyle (shame the controls and or mechanics have made me rage quit more than once)
AtomBacon I agree, realism is particularly well suited to racing simulators.
That being said I would LOVE to do a hot pursuit interceptor mission (where you are the cop trying to bust one really tough bad guy) on rainbow road.
AtomBacon I'd like to play a racing game with a neon drenched tron-ish/ wachowski SpeedRacer aesthetic that puts the player on tracks that change in sync to the background music. For instance, certain obstacles, paths and jumps would appear in tune to the music, while the neon lights on the road would ebb and flow as they changed hue with the mood of the song. In this way, the player would not only have to pay attention to their driving, but also to the music of the track to anticipate upcoming advantages and obstacles. Yet the various visual cues in the game would help to alert observant players so that no one is taken aback by something that just appeared out of thin air.
Also, while the game would have a tron-ish look to it, I'd want the game to have very good graphics as the cars and tracks, while fantastical would still be visually grounded in realism.
2 years late, better than never.
The thing that opened my eyes on how beautiful HD can be was seeing Skyward Sword running in HD on dolphin. Before that I couldn't care less.
The one thing I do like from High Res is that you'll be able to clearly distinguish different objects from large distances. But most "AAA" games are just small rooms with very detailed textures in there, which you'll forget are there very fast. I think another nice thing we can have with current graphics is good dynamic lightning effects, but both that and the large distance thing also come with somewhat practical sides.
The second to main reason why I don't play Skyrim:
skyrim has a very sad, grey theme. It is very ugly. But Oblivion? On a nice day, it is beautiful. The grass is green, the sky is blue, the flowers are a rainbow of floweryness. And through the oblivion gates, it is dark, scary and has a very hellish vibe going on.
The main reason of course is that I don't have the money to buy Skyrim. :P
One word: IMAGINATOR. That mod changes the game massively. Oh, and a ton of texture mods as well, together with W.A.T.E.R.
VTW, Skyrim was €3,74 in the Quakecon week on Steam ;)
Oooh. Of course, mods! I forget about the wonders of a community element. If another sale like that comes along...
Hannah Hooful Absolutrly do so! I'm veri happy with the fact I bought it, even for the 15€ I paid! It's really worth it!
Of course the asthetics of skyrim are dreary. The land is undergoing extreme classism, and discrimination. Also, there are giant, fire-breathing dragons, that threaten the entire world. So don't complain about skyrims asthetics, when it easliy fits the tone of the game.
What *is* the tone of the game, though? Oblivion has light hearted moments, and also terrifying caves/dungeons full of zombies and screaming skeletons. Is Skyrim the same?
so the Aesthetic is the art style?
AQUAcat 10 indeed.
+AQUAcat 10
Not exactly; aesthetics is the whole package. The visuals (art style), the sounds (music and voice acting); it's what makes the game unique
Fabled_cat yep pretty much
it's the art style + the design. Art style describes how you depict various elements. Design is what elements you choose to use and how you use them. Design in video games is similar to the concept of composition in other visual media.
I feel like the reason newer games are more bland is because they can be realistic. A lot of companies want to make their games look realistic, and in doing so, they add in the blandness of realism. Because older games couldn't look realistic because of their graphics, they gave up trying to give it realistic styles and made them unique or wacky. That's why Nintendo, at least I feel, is viewed as a company for kids. They are an old school company that likes sticking with their roots, and keeps the awesome and wacky stuff usually associated with kid's games because they've always done that, and that's just how Nintendo works. These types of companies don't care about realism or graphics and instead focuses on creating its own universe. I'm sure other companies do this to, but Nintendo does it much more consistently than Microsoft or Sony and is much larger than everyone else.
using Okami as an example for asthetics is pretty spot on
it was far from having the best graphics, but it really felt like a living piece of art
Okami and Borderlands are awesomeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
I'm on a binge run and I haven't commented yet but this finally put into words my feelings on art and how really simple refined drawings can look amazing while more technical drawings that are lacking direction look meh, thank you for putting that into words
This is why I still say Mario Galaxy is one of the better looking games of the seventh generation. However time did hit it a little bit with the textures, so I will still be down if Nintendo ever decides to make an enhanced HD port.
I think, that Elite: Dangerous does a fantastic job at combining graphics with aesthetics. They have a high number of polygons (not as ridiculous as Star Citizen thou), while still keeping this nice warm orange style, which makes you feel relaxed, when you are cruising around in the solar system.
Wow, you made it through the whole video without mentioning Wind Waker. Good job, that would have been impossible for me :P
I'm glad you mentioned Borderlands as an example of aesthetics done right. I was thinking about it the whole time, how the graphical choices, voice acting, music, and well, everything just seems to click so well and give a genuine feel for Pandora.
It's 2020, and the graphics of this video haven't held up well, but the aesthetics are still wonderful
At one point in time, maybe in the next 10 years, the graphics will max out and the only thing separating the games visually would be the art and aesthetics. Not only would the developers then be forced to do that, they also wont need to spend as much money on graphics and engines since they'll be a solved problem.
That comment about the Samurai game breaking the immersion with electric guitars and heavy metal.
Was that a reference to the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series? Because if so then I couldn't disagree more about it being immersion breaking. The heavy focus on rock riffs and powerchords set the aesthetics for the game perfectly, an over the top action hack and slash game with exaggerated combat styles and beating up swarms of enemies.
They were just bringing out examples there, in lots of cases it's pretty subjective to the individual players themselves on whether or not the music mixes well with the visuals; I wish Extra Credits would note that more in their videos.
I agree. It's a matter of taste, but even a excellent 'Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes' game that was released for the XBox was set in a medieval time but the metal/rock guitar riffs added not only to the aesthetic of the game but complimented its frantic 'chaos of war' type of feel. I don't think it's immersion breaking at all, if it's done right.
P.S.: I'd like to see this channel cover the topic of 'realism vs immersiveness', and get right to the heart of the matter about what makes a game immersive, at least in regards to game mechanics (not just art direction)
I have to agree somewhat... Dynasty/Samurai Warriors is not meant to immerse. It's meant to be fucking outrageous and over the top. They're meant to be the kind of games that takes your suspension of disbelief and then does horrible unspeakable things to it and you don't care because its fun.
Okami! That's actually a really good example that was briefly mentioned. It ran on the PS2/Wii (later also PS3) but it is hands down one of the prettiest games I have ever seen.
Finally a video I can show to people to explain what I mean better without having to fetch pictures all over the place. I think a great example of this would be comparing Assassin's Creed with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and onward. AC2 kinda had the same feel as the first but not enough though. The aesthetics in the first game were so polished it didn't matter how inferior it was to its successors technically...
Huh, I thought AC2, and Brotherhood (and even Revelations) were aesthetically pleasing... Maybe you're just not into the setting? Because man they have some of the most beautiful examples of architectural design I've seen in the game. Even the random crowds of people were so pleasing to look at sometimes. With the colors and the music and everything. It's just a work of art.
Can't say the same about 3 or 4 though...
Well, AC2 is beautiful. I just didn't get the same sense of realism or composition as I got in Acre in the first game, really. As for Brotherhood, you look at it from far away and you can tell it's just a game, unlike the first two that fool the eye more at times. I value when aesthetics look believable, too :/
Aoi Kurashiki I think that is, and I share your opinion, because they turned what really should have been a Standalone title into a running series. Black Flag and the original AC are the only games in the series I will deem even worthy of mention. The other ones just seemed like a cheap bastardization of history and real topics people cared deeply about, with every subsequent installment they continued to insult the intelligence of their players, We know what happened to the knights templar and the hospitaler, upon returning to Europe, we know why they were disbanded, the ousting of the templar order is esentialy the reason why Friday the 13th is considered a "jinx date", We took a very real story of European Monarchs betraying a caste of knights over personal debt and turned it into a righteous fanfiction of magic brainwashing and world domination conspiracies. I bought unity, and un installed it when I got to the pyre part. I refuse to be taken for a imbecile. Even people who aren't versed in European history seem to have noticed this, as they falsified a real existing world, not something distant to us like the lost civilizations and peoples, but rather cities we live in, know the history of, architecture that is depictive of our society and the source of European cultural diversity to this day, and tried to make it into a tale of evil corporations using magic to controll the world. That might be why you felt the way you did. Honestly I won't lie I hold high disdain for the series, as I believe is obvious by the comment, but I do it for a reason, They have been re skinning a game and adding increasingly bullshit plot lines since what 2007(is that when AC1 came out?). Tho Ubisoft generally is a plague on the industry imo, releasing half arsed crap, if you pay a bit of a attention you will notice that they use pretty much the same mechanics and one of 3 plotlines for the last 20 games they made...
For the longest time I only liked the first game, and then the only other one to really make me feel it was worth playing was AC2
As someone who hopes to get into game development in the next 5 years,your videos are quite helpful to understand some basic mechanics of making games.
Trailer= Oh my god! The graphics are beautiful
Watching gameplay= THE GAME LOOKS SO GOOD, I WANT TO GET IT
Playing the game= agh, this is boring! I'm playing Minecraft.
This is what happens when you spend too much on graphics and throw away the gameplay...
Hylian Crew Its funny, because Minecraft has _really_ bad graphics.
jhwk101 yeah, with minecraft, the higher the resolution the uglier it gets lol
Loved it. A meta-question: is it the target Aestethics of Extra Credits that has made you auto-tune your voice in some of your presentations? If so, understand that it annoys the listener more than it fulfills that role (in my perspective). Keep up the great work!
If you've been interested in what that episode talks about I recommend you also check out Errant signal's episode called "photorealism".
PheseantNetsuke That and this series' episode about the Uncanny valley.
I really loved this episode, even if I dont plan to make games, I enjoy game design playlist a lot. so much interesting stuff
Can we please make this required watching for all reviewers and developers? It's be great if we could get people to realize that poly count is a useless measurement.
That’s what’s wrong with the current generation of game devs. They make a game hyper realistic just because they can and feel like they have to. When I told a dude on fortnite I was playing on my switch he started saying stuff like “can your system support 6 TeraFlops of power” and other stuff and I say “hey, as long as it’s fun, I’ll play it
I can't be the only person who thinks this narrator sounds like a Salarian.
Duggan Canning Oh my god he does
WOW that screenshot at 4:39 brings me back... I remember seeing that beta shot from TF2 back in high school, almost 6 years before the game actually came out. A friend of mine actually pre-ordered it, and showed me the receipt. This was back before Steam, so he went to an actual game store to buy a PC game (I know, right??)
Your graphics suck, and your esthetics rock!
Excellent video, guys.
Gunpoint is a perfect example of this. It looks incredible and everything about it just screams "noir", from the music and sound to the gameplay and dialogue. And yet this game was done in 8-bit style, and even so, the characters are so well fleshed out it's unbelievable.
I particularly liked the aesthetics of your graphics/aesthetics blobs.
As someone working in computer graphics, I want to give this man a cookie. Adding an Nth light map won't do the game any good if you don't get actual artists to give life to the scene.
Ahem...I give you the game that does this perfectly: Breath of the Wild
This actually came in fairly strong recently for me. I mod games heavily to get the experience I want and also play Skyrim, shocker, but when SE came out I enjoyed it for the graphic improvement but to get the amalgam of survival/wrpg/jrpg/ SIM-like/adventure experience honed from over 130 mods compiled over several years.
Nice video, I always believed that artstyle and aesthetics are more important than just graphics. This is also the reason I detest a lot of PC gamers :P
You know, we can't just be scapegoated for wanting more graphical power (cough cough froza, sports games, shooters). Also, we accept Nintendo because of their games flavor, like in pokemon or mario. Also, we as a pc gamers love indie devs which by far excel in simplicity
_This is also the reason I detest a lot of PC gamers :P_
What? That's...unrelated. Also, are you forgetting all those indie games out there with amazing aesthetics? Are you forgetting that graphics can drastically enhance aesthetics? Aesthetically, Halo 3 is gorgeous. Graphically, it's ugly and outdated. Do you know how much better it'd look with a touch-up? This can even be seen in emulators of Nintendo systems especially. Older games are now running at 1080p/60 FPS and they look so, so much better. There's a point where bad graphics can destroy an aesthetic. You can have an astoundingly pretty aesthetic, but if it's in sub-HD resolution and a choppy framerate it's generally going to be noticeable and detract from the look of the game significantly. I've noticed this in Halo 4 quite a bit. The render distance is 5m for detail, tested personally. Impostering is used past about 30m or so, where models completely lose their textures. It's incredibly ugly and the resolution is painful. I love the game and the aesthetic, but it could be *so much more.*
There is nothing out there that says PC games don't have _better_ aesthetics. I'd actually say they do have better aesthetics. I can see you have a lot of misconceptions about PC gamers as the kinds of guys who go out and buy Alienware(for God's sake, never buy prebuilt).
I'm just going to say that I don't detest EVERY PC gamer, just the ones that flood every gaming website I know. They may be a minority but they sure are loud >.>
Doesn't mean I hate the PC as a platform either :P
letsgoiowa
i think why she/he most dont like pc gamer like me is,because they mostly care about graphic more than gameplay which i mostly see alot in the pc/console community.
Darkness19Z I think it's fair to say we care about games more, considering we usually own much, much more of them. Anyways, we get better gameplay to the tune of more players per server, mods, and quicker support.
I hadn't thought about separating the two like that. It all makes perfect, almost obvious, sense, but I hadn't thought about it before. Love these videos!
a nice example would be comparing a nice piece of pixel art to high resolution noise
I think one thing overlooked with the new Battlefront is the aesthetics. I know, it's an empty enough shooter compared to what's on the market right now, but I really think from an aesthetic point of view, it's a step in the right direction. The graphics were focused on, only to the point where the aesthetic wasn't sacrificed. The overall visual and sound design is done so well, and really reinforce the fact you're in the Star Wars universe
Just my 2 cents on a good example that should be noted, for future games by EA may improve, cause they're just trying to make games that appeal to a mass market.
A decent chunk of that game is taken directly from real life with photogrammetry. Dice is very good at aesthetics and graphics. Just look at Dragon Age Inquisition. You could tell Battlefront was heavily inspired from the original movies. Luckily, it already had some great material to draw from :)
yeah. it's one of the reasons why i just can't get into this gen of games. a lot of effort put into adding as many details as possible simply because "the technology is better". well it just hurts my eyes. i very much prefer the simplicity and the sense of space in old games and some ps1 and ps2 titles.
Yep, Most games that look realistic it's too hard to tell the difference between a lot of things because they're in a shadow or something.
I don't know. Infamous second son and Sunset overdrive have pretty great aesthetics to me.
I agree. I'm attracted to games due to the more ambiguous, dreamlike "otherworlds", and in particular, exploring and getting lost in them. My favourite games are typically 8, 16 or fake-bit platformers with exploration or a sense of travel and atmosphere. The idea of computer games that are totally realistic is interesting to me, but doesn't have the same pull as more ambiguous art styles and technical (or enforced/voluntary) limitations.
only games that have good graphics that are good are horror games.
Same here. The game that I'm playing most now? The Megaman X collection on a PS2 Emulator. These are SNES and PS1 level graphics but I don't care, they look great
0:30 Killzone 2 had awesome aesthetic yo.
It's not surreal and in-your-face like Katamari, but all the subtleties of lighting, lens flare, prop placement, the view of towering metal scraps of buildings and how the lightning lights up the night is pretty aesthetically provocative. Beautiful, even.
AKA "Why Wind Waker is actually better than Twilight Princess."
This is an incredibly ignorant statement, one that shows a complete lack of understanding of the video. As far as Aesthetics go, both Twilight Princess and Wind Waker have fantastic depth and richness. Neither one has better aesthetics than the other, merely different. Taking everything into consideration, I would say Twilight Princess is only slightly better than Wind Waker, but better nonetheless.
Twilight Princess has a dark or melancholy atmosphere and everything in the game backs this up. It has a serious tone and well written, complex story. A story that has greater depth than Wind Waker's.
Wind Waker has a more colorful atmosphere, with a more open and free world that builds on that. Though, it also has some areas that dip into darkness (especially the dungeons).
I'd place both of them at top tier, in regards to games in general and in the pantheon of Zelda games.
The Witness has a really intricate world with vibrant colours and very different colour palettes between its biomes. The game even just lets you walk around when you're not feeling the puzzles to relax and meditate and appreciate the visual aesthetics.
Graphics: FF7 Remake, Aesthetics: Persona 5 Royal.
Perfect! This was really educational and entertaining to watch. :)
Subscribed!
xenoblade proves this so well oh my god
Not just xenoblade, but Splatoon also.
GANTZ100pts yes so true
Riki the Legendary Heropon Lets just put "All of nintendo".
FORMINCRAFTIA TRUE
I fully agree with this. Aesthetics are much more important than the graphics alone.
0:51 Also, sorry for nit-picking, but I'm pretty sure that's a detail map. Normal maps are the textures that are basically just images to make a model look a certain way, while detail maps are images to give those textures certain effects, like making them look more 3D.
Katamari Damacy is the best thing ever.
This video aged like fine wine.
Trine 2 explains this perfectly
eh.. how so? trine had amazing graphics AND amazing art.
(i use the term art instead of aesthetics because aesthetics is actually a stupid term to use and this video shouldn't have used it)
David Bandel From a PC perspective, Trine 2 isn't graphically great. It does however have amazing visuals.
David Bandel
How so? The first definition I get when I look up the word "Aesthetic" is:
1. -- Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.
"the pictures give great aesthetic pleasure"
-- giving or designed to give pleasure through beauty; of pleasing appearance.
synonyms:
artistic, tasteful,
David Bandel Well I know this comment is months old, but did you happen to pay attention to this video at all?
Aesthetics is not art; Aesthetics is art, sound, placement of entities, character names, mood, etc.
Saying that Aesthetics is simply "art" is like saying humans are simply water; While it's true that water makes up a large majority of the human body, it's also comprised of a lot of different elements. The same goes for aesthetics.
Shadrakor i never said aesthetics is art. you read way too much into what i said then went off on it like a bull chasing a red flag that wasn't even there. made you look childish. care to try again? or back off like a biiiiiiiiiiitch?
Thank you, I've been trying to explain this to some of my friends for a long time, but never really knew how to explain it. You've earned a subscriber.