This is my problem with stalker 2. If it wasn’t on UE5 I could probably have a great time without the washed out, blurry, fuzzy look due to my gpu constraints. We’ve hit a plateau with photo realistic graphics imo
not to mention games have been looking pretty much the exact same since 2016, think Battlefield 1. They’re just a million times more demanding because “more polygons = better”, instead of using texture and light tricks like games used to. Besides raytracing, but i don’t understand why game devs don’t wait until raytracing is casually dealt with by GPUs to force it in to games. Most games literally just MIRROR reflections perfectly on water like minecraft shaders, as if it was stainless steel, which if you’ve ever seen water it’s not how it works.
They couldn't even create dynamic lights (in game) and A-life so even without UE5 their incompetence wouldn't make game any better just performing a bit better.
Project Zomboid is such a wonderful game. As you pointed out, its lack of graphical fidelity allows the developers to focus on intricate details and complex mechanics. But despite its simplicity in visuals, the game can still look pretty stunning, especially when you enhance it with mods that add high poly textures or replace existing ones.. It’s just that its often challenging to fully appreciate this visual appeal due to the game’s inherent paranoic nature. The constant tension of survival, the depressing and lonely atmosphere, combined with the clutter of the UI and HUD occupying much of the screen, can really overshadow the game’s aesthetic. So I like to occasionally toggle off the HUD to immerse myself. Unique weather events like a foggy winter day or a violent thunderstorm are particularly mesmerizing when the HUD isn't in the way.
NO SEAN YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, EVERY ONE HAS A CHOICE WHEN DOING DRUGS, WHICH JUSTIFIES WHY I HAD TO EXTERMINATE THREE GANGS SIX MONTHS AGO - Steve probably
Im 100% ok with us reaching the plateau for graphics. Lets sideline that and start making games that run well (optimized) and focus on making truly immersive games. Open every building. AI procedurally generated conversations with and between NPCs. Better VR.
As much as I would like to say graphics don’t matter they really do. “Aesthetics” or the way something looks does heavily influence our interpretation or “experience” of the game. Visuals is how we physically see the game and thus visuals are the dominant factor to shaping that experience. However I do think there is a point where things are “too” real. Where things become so realistic they are detrimental to getting subconsciously “lost” in the experience. Where instead of entrancing you and suck you in it has a reverse effect where all you can think of is the real world and how THIS isn’t it. Take swat 4 for example. It is “realistic” but it is still unreal in many ways that it looks. It FEELS real however its visuals and textures clearly aren’t exactly reality. And the way they look directly ENHANCES the feel of that game. To be aligned visually with the INTENT and atmosphere of that setting
GSC switching to UE5 for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 makes me pretty mad tbh because it feels like it was only done for the sake of more "realistic" graphics. Never mind the fact that UE4 could have produced similar results
@PosterityIslesNews agreed. What's insane to me is that while yes Arkham Knight had its issues at launch, that game was UE3. It feels like UE5 just exists as a marketing tool with absolutely nothing to offer aside from fancy graphics.
@@Neros_light Having been neck deep in UE5 trying to make my own project, graphics are only part of it. There's lots of streamlines to workflow in the animation and AI systems in 5 compared to 4, and everything is pretty well documented no matter what you use. But most importantly more systems are exposed to blueprints in 5 compared to 4, allowing non-coders to make stuff that they otherwise couldn't. I already have my hands full getting to grips with everything else, the last thing I want to do is semicolon hunt. That said, perf is a big concern going forwards for the engine. I'm hoping further patches bring more optimizations to make the engine friendlier to systems with less VRAM so people that got fucked by NVIDIA by buying an 8GB card can still game at acceptable fidelity and framerate. As to the devs of STALKER, probably the main reason they were able to make a AAA title in a warzone at all is because of how much UE5 speeds up workflow and allows people to don a lot of hats. It empowers smaller teams to bench way above their weight in terms of fidelity. For fucks sake, they have a smartphone app that will let you point a camera at your face, perform dialog, and translate that directly to ingame characters. It's just cool to hate Unreal because of TAA and DX12 shader compilation stutter/compile times.
@@fearingalma1550 it's more the awful fps drops for me that bug me. I'm not one of those who typically cares. I'm happy if a game runs well at 30 or 60
@@fearingalma1550 They didnt make title in warzone, 70-90% of whole development team right now in Prague, with executives in Kiev, most of them are fled in 2022 just to avoid mobilization.
While the gameplay is turn-based, I’d like to recommend Quasimorph as another game about looting and shooting while building up a base and managing faction relations. Its pixel art is beautiful and the music is some of my favorite.
I was going to mention quasimorph as well, it is absolutely fantastic. Because I grew up playing things RTS’s I have an inherent distaste for turn-based games and quasimorph is one of the best turn-based game I've ever played, and one of my favorite games I've played.
hey, this video was a fun watch! thank you so much for making it, and i am very, very happy to hear you liked Intravenous 2 so much! it was a labor of love and, frankly, an unhealthy amount of work in the 12 months leading up to release hahaha thanks again!
Stalker 2 is a prime example of how visual complexity doesn't matter if the game is a buggy mess, with graphical glitches, broken sound and a poorly functioning AI system to name of few of its major issues.
Here to throw a little light on Tunguska: The Visitation as another decent top-down Stalker-like. As for one person creation? I offer up Cultic. Great vid on giving some love to a couple of instant classics.
The thing with EFT is, is that its the gun nuts wet dream. I literally put 3k hours into just to enjoy the weapons. SPT is the shit but it runs worse than online and I aint playing it till I get a new pc. Also Zomboid is legit one of the best games ever, especially with the gun mods. I am questioning their current direction however. The npc's would make this game incredible yet were getting more hobo crafting bs.
If you ever make a follow-up vid to this please check out OTXO and Quasimorph. They're both incredible games and aside from having tons of depth they are staggeringly different from one another. One's a hyper violent roguelike in the vein of Hotline Miami with killer gunplay and the other is a high stakes RPG with a wealth of mechanics to engage with. Loved the vid, thank you for throwing ZERO Sievert and Intravenous on my radar
Would you rather move through a forest of 10 trees made of 1,000 polygons or 1,000 trees made of 10 polygons? Would you rather have a 10m draw distance full of objects made of 1,000 polygons or a 1,000m draw distance full of objects made of 10 polygons? I'm so tired of companies trying to make stuff photorealistic when games from the 1990s are good enough and games from the 2000s look better than many modern games. The focus on graphics have left sound, A.I., physics, and other gameplay elements behind so that we can have the same boring game with slightly better graphics.
Loved your video dude, but i do have a few suggestions. I think you should have mentioned what exactly you are talking about or indirectly laid out a general overview of the video (or just anything else to attract your audience's attention) near the start. Probably should have also mentioned somehow that you would show 3 types of games, ones where it matches the competition, one where it's better and one where it's unique. Something like an "Umbrella term" or a "Magnetic phrase" I mean. I was almost about to leave until I saw you actually started talking about something that wasn't Tarkov/Stalker/Sievert. At that point I was thinking "Wow I dont really care about 20 whole minutes of just these 3 games when your main point is easy to see, buy indie stuff." Aside from that, definitely agree with your video. The first ever game that wasnt a "3d game from a 1st or 3rd person view" was hollow knight, been hooked on indie games ever since. Had loads of fun with many, but I think "Sanabi" is worth mentioning the most. It's one of the most obscure games I have played till now and no doubt one of the greatest ones as well.
@@steven.2602 Nah. Stylish pixels are like a nice appetizer, but a full high fidelity adventure is a meal. People don't like going to events for appetizers.
@@Darth_Bateman Im not entirely sure what you're trying to get at, but my point is that a game's art direction needs to fit the player's expectations, regardless of the art "style". if a player wants something more immersive and serious in nature, the art direction should be more serious in nature, whether or not its pixel art or some other medium. not to ignore the fact that some mediums simply are better at fulfilling certain expectations, but what an art medium can convey isn't rigid, either.
@@steven.2602 *inhales* Hoookay, so during the last game event I saw on TH-cam, the creators of Dead Cells showcased a new game called Tenjutsu. Tenjutsu looked amazing, but everyone just complained about the fact that there was just ANOTHER pixel game. Tenjutsu looked cool and stylish, but EVERYONE was making a pixel game. and here is the thing. . . When there is a litany of 3D games, no one complains because this is what we want at our core. Pixels are a good appetizer, but when you flood the market full of 2D pixels, people just get annoyed.
Mercenaries was a fun game but I absolutely SUCK at it especially since I'm the type of person that always goes loud. Still a great game it just ain't for a machine gun enjoyer like me.
i remember buying intravenous 1 when it first came out and feeling kinda sad when i saw the dev talking about how it was kinda just a test project and that they weren't taking it very seriously around when workshop support got added, really really happy they made a second game thats even greater.
Was just looking at Intravenous 2 before watching this video actually. I've heard of the sequel before but nothing on the first game, is it worth getting the first one or should i just go right for the sequel?
the developer is making a remaster of the first game for Intravenous 2 as a paid DLC, they are both on sale right now but the DLC is set to release around Feb-March of next year, it will include all the improvements of IV2 plus different and better map design.
@@TheButterAnvil the only reason why I mentioned the remaster is because the QoL and improvements from IV1 to 2 are insane, even the developer himself was warning players to play IV1 first before 2 came out because the QoL was so drastic that it could ruin the first game for you. But either way, both games are great and if you haven't touched either of them, I would go in order.
The issue with these remasters of recent games is not just a graphical issue, but they exist because of driver incompatibility. Sony wants to release its games on PC, and this is not an easy thing to do, often inferring entire changes in the backend of the project, for this reason remasters exist and have become increasingly common, as we are having significant changes in the drivers on recent hardware, which makes certain older games incompatible with being run on recent hardware.
We are capable of making games that have TRILLIONS of polygons and run them at 2k+ fps. You don't have to settle for 2d. We just need engineers like me and others obsessed over performance, working on projects you like.
For the last time, with Unreal Engine, it's not the engine, it's the developers. I can name you 5 indie and 5 AA studio games that run great even on the Steam Deck. I can also name you 5 AAA UE games that run shit on anything.
I believe you. I do think there's a correlation between the engine and poor products though. It's like unity getting blamed on all the shitty indie games made with it. I'll admit to my ignorance as to what's "really" going on though
Idk what it is, but I don’t like stalker 2 as much as I thought. I loved the trilogy, anomaly, and just recently downloaded gamma for the first time. This game just doesn’t feel like stalker for some reason and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. In my opinion stalker 2 should’ve been anomaly or gamma. I like the game still, but I probably won’t be playing it as much as the others. Hopefully mod support will change my mind and draw me back into it
Played Intravenous,literally couldnt have enough while waiting sequel,finished aswell felt like a junkie wanting more of it,even checked devs other games but i cant wait for a 3rd game
Yeah, I just want to play a game that doesn't look like a blurry mess while also making my computer spout weird noises. Dishonored 1 still looks better than most modern games to me simply because it had a great art style. It also ran perfectly fine on the computer I had when it launched. P.S.: Permadeath (or even simply reloading the mission when you die instead of reloading a quick-save) absolutely saved stealth games to me. There is basically 0 incentive to play Dishonored 2 in stealth, since you can mid-combat knockout everyone and still get low chaos or simply blink away and lose pursuers. But the fear of losing a lot of progress instantly makes you avoid combat like the plague. Intravenous really did hit it out of the park using the high difficulty to make the player want to engage with the incredibly well designed stealth systems. Complete masterpiece.
As much as I can agree with you and I do. Issue with non lethality of low chaos for Dishonored 1 was that it had three options for it when things went to shit- run (doesn't work all the time, cuz now folks are on high alert and will get erratic), non upgraded gust (which flings ppl around and is expensive. Also noisy) and tranquilizer darts (limited option). And NONE if everyone comes running in to kill you. That's the issue for me at least- you have only one "stealthy" option from Outsider's repertoire to go back into stealth. Dishonored 2 gave us what Intravenous had from the word "go"- risky action that only requires you to potentially get spotted that lets you knock folks out (knockout parries for Dishonored 2 and punches in Intravenous). Intravenous still did it better because they went above and beyond with their stealth
Oh and don't even get me started on only three options to knock someone out stealthily in Dishonored 1- back choke, tranquilizers and dropping on them (without stabbing. It works.) It doesn't make it less infuriating than it should be to not use all your arsenal when your options for full low chaos are either limited per level or guarantee you getting spotted and swarmed simple due to how long it takes to knockout someone. Intravenous required only 2 punches to knock someone out. 1 on Masochism.
@@jacket5435 I actually liked it that way. It made it so that gettin detected always carried the possibility of you having to kill or be killed. A stealthy option to go back into stealth would take away from what I felt was the biggest strenght of Dishonored 1 when compared to Dishonored 2 (for my personal preference, of course), as Dishonored 2 had no external incentive to use stealth instead of fast paced non-lethal combat. In all honesty, I think what would "fix" Dishonored for me would be detections increasing chaos.
@@DrownedCrew For me, Dishonored 1 discouraged stealth internally and punished you for killing due to only 3 powers being usable in non-lethal playhtrough (blink, dark vision and gust) AND 2 easy to do options outside of them (chokeout and tranquilizer dart). Sure, with Dishonored 2 you have way lower incentive to be stealthy. For me, Dh2 is better due to having more non-lethal options when you're spotted. As for detection increasing chaos... doesn't fix a problem which is lack of options and forcing of "one way or fuck yourself" type of interaction Dishonored 1 had with not killing people.
@@jacket5435 I mean, yeah, it doesn't fix the problem of having low options for non-lethal, but I see that as a separate problem. I was only talking about the external incentive to stealth because it's the only one that interferes with my personal preference. But I can see how lack of non-lethal options could bother someone. It's just that the lack of non-lethal combat options is more aligned to how I personally enjoy stealth games.
I haven't even watched the video yet, and I already agree with the title of it. Some people care way too much about graphics when the game itself is great.
That top down extraction game kind of reminds me of Total War 2. It had like over 50 levels and I would play it on my school computer. It was hard, but once you got the hang of it it was a blast
Realy like to see how Zero Sievert if finaly getting the comuntiy it deserves. Ive been playing since launch and genuinely think it is one of the better games ive ever played.
to bad zero sivert (or however its written xDD) is half of the time abondonware, and when they finally release an update after 6months of no communication at all its something nobody asked for, and sometimes it seems they actively ignore what their community wants/asks for
Source, Xray, even Unity (most of the time) are engines where I can actually see shit, where it's not all just a blurry incomprehensible mess where everything has a metallic sheen to it and particle effects merge into one. Most Unreal Engine games, even going back to UE3, have always just looked aesthetically inferior to those other engines. UE just does not have the clarity or smoothness.
If you enjoy PZ, CDDA might be for you. It is much harder to play and the graphics are lacking if you don’t have a good texture pack. But! There is tons that you are able to do and the depth is deeper as well compared to PZ. It is also free (there is a steam version but there is some sort of drama around it and it costs money).
I played 2/3 games here, and I don't recomend them :D Them being Zero Sievert a.k.a no balance game, I'm talking about that stupid change with weapon range damage :D And project zomboid, probably the most boring game I ever played, without mods there's really nothing to do, the mechanics simply exist to exist.
You know what ruled? the rendered, reactive lighting of the mid 2000s that you were talking about with Splinter Cell, and especially Doom 3. If we'd chased that sort of handcrafted lighting rather than ray tracing and computer generated reactions, I think games would be much less demanding and much more artistically satisfying. I feel like I'm crazy when I listen to people talk about games with "great graphics" these days, for every amazing still frame there's noticeable pop in and weird collision bugs and anti-aliasing that's not quite right and animations looking uncanny because the item is photorealistic but it's not actually reacting to being held, I'd much rather games still looked like they did in 2008 and were more cohesive and immersive than what we've got today. Even the new Indiana Jones, it looks GORGEOUS when you're standing and looking at a vista, but the first little bit of gameplay in the jungle has leaves going from blurry to sharp and popping in all over the place and it's VERY noticeable. I don't wanna be one of those "remember when" guys but I feel like AAA games are further from being works of art now than they have been since the '80s. Budgets are so high that big companies just can't afford to take risks or the game might put them 8 figures in the hole and 120 people lose their jobs, and they cost the same (less if you consider inflation!) than they did in 1998. It's lots of things, from the insistence on open worlds to the homogenization of every big genre in every game, but at the end of the day, it's graphics that are killing the industry. Every time I see someone say "why aren't companies making games like Red Dead Redemption 2" I want to rip my hair out, it's because Red Dead Redemption 2 required enormous amounts of employee abuse and an unlimited amount of money to make. And to add to the low fidelity/high level of depth conversation, obviously Dwarf Fortress is the original but it's honestly about as close to an Excel spreadsheet as you can get while still being a "video game", but Kenshi is a game that I never would have thought could exist. What starts out as a simple but hardcore CRPG turns into a fucked up, slavery-driven game of post-apocalyptic Civilization by the end. You gain points in strength by loading up a backpack full of coal and running to the next town over without getting enslaved, getting your leg chopped off is only a problem if you're poor, robot characters don't swim, they walk across the ocean floor. It's such a unique vision of the "1-to-1 simulation" ultimate dream of video games, it reminds me a lot of Star Citizen, but it actually came out because they weren't worried about it looking like real life.
I played the shit out of Zero Sievert before update 0.40 weapon overhaul made the game borderline unplayable. Such potential squandered by shitty devs not listening to the community.
STALKER 2 has loads of issues. They removed A-Life, you get too much loot from enemies which makes stashes useless, you get too many armous (i found 4 in the first 5 hours), optimisation relies on upscaling, mutants WERE tanky asf, enemies spawn behind your ass, etc. Stick to the originals, especially the mods. Stalker 2 should've been better than Stalker 1 mods, so it counts.
Threat Interactive does good videos on the topic of game performance. TLDR, necessity is the mother of innovation, and when that’s removed… well… you get what you get. Adapt, adopt, win, except there’s been no need to adapt or adopt, so we lose.
IWP being better? You only get spammed by nades and get buttfucked by lack of medkits and bandages. I don't understand any of those masochistic mods they completely ruin Stalker for me.
As much as I love STALKER 2, Unreal 5 is my biggest complaint. I have a decent PC, now I know the RTX 2070 SUPER is 5 years old but it shouldnt run like ass. When the game does run right with Frame Gen/DLSS the game looks like a grainy mess with tons of white bordering/distance grain that makes it incredible difficult to see anything past 100 meters. Unreal has always ran like complete dick no matter the game and I purposely avoid games that use it, You know what I love more? Waiting for my shaders to compile EVERY time I launch a game that uses it, its the reason I stopped launching/playing Call of Duty, the shaders should already be ready after the first launch and compile I shouldnt have to wait to play a game whenever I WANT to play it. With Unreal becoming more prevalent in games in the near future I just will not buy them, cause I already know my PC will struggle when I can already play games like Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus, DOOM Eternal that run complete fine at 1440p near Max to High Graphics. UE5 relies too much on DLSS/Frame Gen support to make it a worthy engine for me to play on.
Graphics are overrated, sure. but the biggest problem is that optimization seems underrated. Sure, just upscale from 480p so you can almost hit 60fps when there's absolutely nothing going on. Games can sparkle on for all i care. But you can do that without demanding that i use liquid nitrogen just to make sure my gpu doesn't turn into an IED. There is a beauty to games that go for a more "retro" style tho. Giving you just what you need at a level of fidelity you could probably run on a NES. Great if you're a small team and are smart enough to not bite off more than you could chew.
tarkov is an experience , but not an awesome experience , the game is not that fun and its not for everyone , i mean , if you got a job you`re pretty much out of the race because of the nature of the game
TheButterAnvil please be more specific about what games you're talking about, I bought Homefront thinking it was Homefront The revolution because you weren't specific.
if i say "system shock is good" will you be shocking systems IRL? Or what? Its your problem, brother. You should've at least check what game you about to BUY.
Yes, we don't need modern graphics that requires 4090 to run stable at 30 FPS but it doesn't mean that everything should use that damn pixelart, just make the game with less details
That last part in the video is so true. Ive been telling my friend to grab literally zero sievert, presumably the best game to enter extraction shooter genre (in my experience as this is my second game in this genre after arena breakout) yet none of them seems interested in this game. Why? Because its a pixel top down shooter!
Graphics draw people in, story gets the interested, gameplay keeps them engaged. Graphics are too much of a selling point for too many games and often overrated, I remember playing the Delta Force games from the '90s and 2000s. The graphics were behind the times but the gameplay was awesome, and the story wasn't anything to sneeze about but it served as a good setup for the gameplay and kept you Entertained. Too many games try to hide their mediocrity under graphics.
I prefer good style over hyper realistic graphics. It can be fun at times trying to simulate real life in a video game but at the same time I also enjoy not having to uninstall all games I own to download some hyper realistic looking game. Which if turn on the not at all overhyped raytracing makes my computer slowly cook alive and the game just runs worse but but! The sun reflects in like a super cool way now.
Yeah, everyone is so focused on graphics (they just want us to cough more money for better rig) but forgot about good and fun content. Very few AAA games managed to capture me lately. Gaming industry is going to shit - this is why we get bazillion of remakes and remasters. Milking a cow mummy. They don't know how to make a good game. Yes, I might be harsh and probably unfair...but look around. And that makes me salty.
🌏 Get NordVPN 2Y plan + 4 months free extra ➼ nordvpn.com/butteranvil
It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌
#ad
The photorealistic graphics arms race and its consequences have been a disaster for the videogame industry
This is my problem with stalker 2. If it wasn’t on UE5 I could probably have a great time without the washed out, blurry, fuzzy look due to my gpu constraints. We’ve hit a plateau with photo realistic graphics imo
not to mention games have been looking pretty much the exact same since 2016, think Battlefield 1. They’re just a million times more demanding because “more polygons = better”, instead of using texture and light tricks like games used to. Besides raytracing, but i don’t understand why game devs don’t wait until raytracing is casually dealt with by GPUs to force it in to games. Most games literally just MIRROR reflections perfectly on water like minecraft shaders, as if it was stainless steel, which if you’ve ever seen water it’s not how it works.
lol also it feels like indie games are the last bastion of not forcing “good” graphics because indie devs don’t have the time to 3d model crazy things
You said it , YOUR GPU , there in lies the issue buddy
They couldn't even create dynamic lights (in game) and A-life so even without UE5 their incompetence wouldn't make game any better just performing a bit better.
@@planetsenNot everyone want to spend thousand of dollars on a gpu to play game
Project Zomboid is such a wonderful game. As you pointed out, its lack of graphical fidelity allows the developers to focus on intricate details and complex mechanics. But despite its simplicity in visuals, the game can still look pretty stunning, especially when you enhance it with mods that add high poly textures or replace existing ones..
It’s just that its often challenging to fully appreciate this visual appeal due to the game’s inherent paranoic nature. The constant tension of survival, the depressing and lonely atmosphere, combined with the clutter of the UI and HUD occupying much of the screen, can really overshadow the game’s aesthetic. So I like to occasionally toggle off the HUD to immerse myself. Unique weather events like a foggy winter day or a violent thunderstorm are particularly mesmerizing when the HUD isn't in the way.
try Cataclysm dda you dont need graphic
@@Boykisser228zxc Cataclysm is just pure gaming autism when it comes to depth. The good kind of gaming autism.
NO SEAN YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, EVERY ONE HAS A CHOICE WHEN DOING DRUGS, WHICH JUSTIFIES WHY I HAD TO EXTERMINATE THREE GANGS SIX MONTHS AGO
- Steve probably
Suffah Steve suffah
Visual design and art style will always be more important than graphical fidelity.
There’s a reason Balatro is running for game of the year
Im 100% ok with us reaching the plateau for graphics. Lets sideline that and start making games that run well (optimized) and focus on making truly immersive games. Open every building. AI procedurally generated conversations with and between NPCs. Better VR.
As much as I would like to say graphics don’t matter they really do. “Aesthetics” or the way something looks does heavily influence our interpretation or “experience” of the game. Visuals is how we physically see the game and thus visuals are the dominant factor to shaping that experience.
However I do think there is a point where things are “too” real. Where things become so realistic they are detrimental to getting subconsciously “lost” in the experience. Where instead of entrancing you and suck you in it has a reverse effect where all you can think of is the real world and how THIS isn’t it.
Take swat 4 for example. It is “realistic” but it is still unreal in many ways that it looks. It FEELS real however its visuals and textures clearly aren’t exactly reality. And the way they look directly ENHANCES the feel of that game. To be aligned visually with the INTENT and atmosphere of that setting
Couldn’t agree more, some of my favorite games aren’t really graphically intensive.
GSC switching to UE5 for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 makes me pretty mad tbh because it feels like it was only done for the sake of more "realistic" graphics.
Never mind the fact that UE4 could have produced similar results
better results probably, since it would be more optimised and easier to work with
@PosterityIslesNews agreed. What's insane to me is that while yes Arkham Knight had its issues at launch, that game was UE3. It feels like UE5 just exists as a marketing tool with absolutely nothing to offer aside from fancy graphics.
@@Neros_light Having been neck deep in UE5 trying to make my own project, graphics are only part of it. There's lots of streamlines to workflow in the animation and AI systems in 5 compared to 4, and everything is pretty well documented no matter what you use. But most importantly more systems are exposed to blueprints in 5 compared to 4, allowing non-coders to make stuff that they otherwise couldn't. I already have my hands full getting to grips with everything else, the last thing I want to do is semicolon hunt.
That said, perf is a big concern going forwards for the engine. I'm hoping further patches bring more optimizations to make the engine friendlier to systems with less VRAM so people that got fucked by NVIDIA by buying an 8GB card can still game at acceptable fidelity and framerate.
As to the devs of STALKER, probably the main reason they were able to make a AAA title in a warzone at all is because of how much UE5 speeds up workflow and allows people to don a lot of hats. It empowers smaller teams to bench way above their weight in terms of fidelity. For fucks sake, they have a smartphone app that will let you point a camera at your face, perform dialog, and translate that directly to ingame characters. It's just cool to hate Unreal because of TAA and DX12 shader compilation stutter/compile times.
@@fearingalma1550 it's more the awful fps drops for me that bug me. I'm not one of those who typically cares. I'm happy if a game runs well at 30 or 60
@@fearingalma1550 They didnt make title in warzone, 70-90% of whole development team right now in Prague, with executives in Kiev, most of them are fled in 2022 just to avoid mobilization.
While the gameplay is turn-based, I’d like to recommend Quasimorph as another game about looting and shooting while building up a base and managing faction relations. Its pixel art is beautiful and the music is some of my favorite.
I was going to mention quasimorph as well, it is absolutely fantastic. Because I grew up playing things RTS’s I have an inherent distaste for turn-based games and quasimorph is one of the best turn-based game I've ever played, and one of my favorite games I've played.
hey, this video was a fun watch! thank you so much for making it, and i am very, very happy to hear you liked Intravenous 2 so much! it was a labor of love and, frankly, an unhealthy amount of work in the 12 months leading up to release hahaha
thanks again!
Fantastic work, glad you liked it
Stalker 2 is a prime example of how visual complexity doesn't matter if the game is a buggy mess, with graphical glitches, broken sound and a poorly functioning AI system to name of few of its major issues.
Here to throw a little light on Tunguska: The Visitation as another decent top-down Stalker-like. As for one person creation? I offer up Cultic. Great vid on giving some love to a couple of instant classics.
The thing with EFT is, is that its the gun nuts wet dream. I literally put 3k hours into just to enjoy the weapons. SPT is the shit but it runs worse than online and I aint playing it till I get a new pc. Also Zomboid is legit one of the best games ever, especially with the gun mods. I am questioning their current direction however. The npc's would make this game incredible yet were getting more hobo crafting bs.
The direction feels right apart from crafting system making it feel like 7days but the time its taking its too much
If you ever make a follow-up vid to this please check out OTXO and Quasimorph. They're both incredible games and aside from having tons of depth they are staggeringly different from one another. One's a hyper violent roguelike in the vein of Hotline Miami with killer gunplay and the other is a high stakes RPG with a wealth of mechanics to engage with. Loved the vid, thank you for throwing ZERO Sievert and Intravenous on my radar
Would you rather move through a forest of 10 trees made of 1,000 polygons or 1,000 trees made of 10 polygons? Would you rather have a 10m draw distance full of objects made of 1,000 polygons or a 1,000m draw distance full of objects made of 10 polygons? I'm so tired of companies trying to make stuff photorealistic when games from the 1990s are good enough and games from the 2000s look better than many modern games. The focus on graphics have left sound, A.I., physics, and other gameplay elements behind so that we can have the same boring game with slightly better graphics.
I mean this is just tripe.
@@jonredcorn862 , I don't know what you're talking about.
Loved your video dude, but i do have a few suggestions. I think you should have mentioned what exactly you are talking about or indirectly laid out a general overview of the video (or just anything else to attract your audience's attention) near the start. Probably should have also mentioned somehow that you would show 3 types of games, ones where it matches the competition, one where it's better and one where it's unique. Something like an "Umbrella term" or a "Magnetic phrase" I mean. I was almost about to leave until I saw you actually started talking about something that wasn't Tarkov/Stalker/Sievert. At that point I was thinking "Wow I dont really care about 20 whole minutes of just these 3 games when your main point is easy to see, buy indie stuff."
Aside from that, definitely agree with your video. The first ever game that wasnt a "3d game from a 1st or 3rd person view" was hollow knight, been hooked on indie games ever since. Had loads of fun with many, but I think "Sanabi" is worth mentioning the most. It's one of the most obscure games I have played till now and no doubt one of the greatest ones as well.
>IWP mentioned
For more STALKER mods, do anticipate New Project if you want both good gunplay and story mods in one package
in intravaneous, you dont need fancy equipment just your fists and smart body placement
Yeah fists are op
Depends on what you're trying to sell.
Because if a big event happens and every game is a pixel rogue-like , players will get annoyed.
That's more dependent on art style/art direction than actual graphical fidelity IMHO.
@@steven.2602 Nah. Stylish pixels are like a nice appetizer, but a full high fidelity adventure is a meal.
People don't like going to events for appetizers.
@@Darth_Bateman Im not entirely sure what you're trying to get at, but my point is that a game's art direction needs to fit the player's expectations, regardless of the art "style".
if a player wants something more immersive and serious in nature, the art direction should be more serious in nature, whether or not its pixel art or some other medium.
not to ignore the fact that some mediums simply are better at fulfilling certain expectations, but what an art medium can convey isn't rigid, either.
@@steven.2602 *inhales* Hoookay, so during the last game event I saw on TH-cam, the creators of Dead Cells showcased a new game called Tenjutsu.
Tenjutsu looked amazing, but everyone just complained about the fact that there was just ANOTHER pixel game.
Tenjutsu looked cool and stylish, but EVERYONE was making a pixel game.
and here is the thing. . . When there is a litany of 3D games, no one complains because this is what we want at our core.
Pixels are a good appetizer, but when you flood the market full of 2D pixels, people just get annoyed.
i went to buy intravenous and was surprised to have it in my library already. hell yeah
Mercenaries was a fun game but I absolutely SUCK at it especially since I'm the type of person that always goes loud. Still a great game it just ain't for a machine gun enjoyer like me.
i remember buying intravenous 1 when it first came out and feeling kinda sad when i saw the dev talking about how it was kinda just a test project and that they weren't taking it very seriously around when workshop support got added, really really happy they made a second game thats even greater.
Was just looking at Intravenous 2 before watching this video actually. I've heard of the sequel before but nothing on the first game, is it worth getting the first one or should i just go right for the sequel?
The bundle with both games is on sale right now, it's cheaper than buying both individually.
@@MasahikoKohineko oh ong? gonna get it then lol
the developer is making a remaster of the first game for Intravenous 2 as a paid DLC, they are both on sale right now but the DLC is set to release around Feb-March of next year, it will include all the improvements of IV2 plus different and better map design.
Both are very similar. 2 is what you'd expect from an iterative sequel, but is very similar to the first game. Would probably say play in order
@@TheButterAnvil the only reason why I mentioned the remaster is because the QoL and improvements from IV1 to 2 are insane, even the developer himself was warning players to play IV1 first before 2 came out because the QoL was so drastic that it could ruin the first game for you. But either way, both games are great and if you haven't touched either of them, I would go in order.
The issue with these remasters of recent games is not just a graphical issue, but they exist because of driver incompatibility. Sony wants to release its games on PC, and this is not an easy thing to do, often inferring entire changes in the backend of the project, for this reason remasters exist and have become increasingly common, as we are having significant changes in the drivers on recent hardware, which makes certain older games incompatible with being run on recent hardware.
We are capable of making games that have TRILLIONS of polygons and run them at 2k+ fps.
You don't have to settle for 2d.
We just need engineers like me and others obsessed over performance, working on projects you like.
For the last time, with Unreal Engine, it's not the engine, it's the developers. I can name you 5 indie and 5 AA studio games that run great even on the Steam Deck. I can also name you 5 AAA UE games that run shit on anything.
I believe you. I do think there's a correlation between the engine and poor products though. It's like unity getting blamed on all the shitty indie games made with it. I'll admit to my ignorance as to what's "really" going on though
Typical Unreal Fanboy moment : )
This game is ZERO Sievert.
Also 6:06 reminds me of Super Animal Royale, 2D top down applied to PUBG back in 2021
Project Zomboid is one of the largest open-world zombie games I've played and yeah, the mods enhance what is already there. Just absolutely insane.
if zero sievert's guns are some of the best you've ever heard you didn't hear a lot.
Been playing zero for like a year and it's one of my favorite game
Idk what it is, but I don’t like stalker 2 as much as I thought. I loved the trilogy, anomaly, and just recently downloaded gamma for the first time. This game just doesn’t feel like stalker for some reason and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. In my opinion stalker 2 should’ve been anomaly or gamma.
I like the game still, but I probably won’t be playing it as much as the others. Hopefully mod support will change my mind and draw me back into it
Played Intravenous,literally couldnt have enough while waiting sequel,finished aswell felt like a junkie wanting more of it,even checked devs other games but i cant wait for a 3rd game
I'm surprised stalcraft wasn't mentioned
I like it but the MMO aspect keeps my from diving deep enough to talk about it
Yeah, I just want to play a game that doesn't look like a blurry mess while also making my computer spout weird noises. Dishonored 1 still looks better than most modern games to me simply because it had a great art style. It also ran perfectly fine on the computer I had when it launched.
P.S.: Permadeath (or even simply reloading the mission when you die instead of reloading a quick-save) absolutely saved stealth games to me. There is basically 0 incentive to play Dishonored 2 in stealth, since you can mid-combat knockout everyone and still get low chaos or simply blink away and lose pursuers. But the fear of losing a lot of progress instantly makes you avoid combat like the plague.
Intravenous really did hit it out of the park using the high difficulty to make the player want to engage with the incredibly well designed stealth systems. Complete masterpiece.
As much as I can agree with you and I do.
Issue with non lethality of low chaos for Dishonored 1 was that it had three options for it when things went to shit- run (doesn't work all the time, cuz now folks are on high alert and will get erratic), non upgraded gust (which flings ppl around and is expensive. Also noisy) and tranquilizer darts (limited option). And NONE if everyone comes running in to kill you. That's the issue for me at least- you have only one "stealthy" option from Outsider's repertoire to go back into stealth.
Dishonored 2 gave us what Intravenous had from the word "go"- risky action that only requires you to potentially get spotted that lets you knock folks out (knockout parries for Dishonored 2 and punches in Intravenous).
Intravenous still did it better because they went above and beyond with their stealth
Oh and don't even get me started on only three options to knock someone out stealthily in Dishonored 1- back choke, tranquilizers and dropping on them (without stabbing. It works.)
It doesn't make it less infuriating than it should be to not use all your arsenal when your options for full low chaos are either limited per level or guarantee you getting spotted and swarmed simple due to how long it takes to knockout someone.
Intravenous required only 2 punches to knock someone out. 1 on Masochism.
@@jacket5435 I actually liked it that way. It made it so that gettin detected always carried the possibility of you having to kill or be killed. A stealthy option to go back into stealth would take away from what I felt was the biggest strenght of Dishonored 1 when compared to Dishonored 2 (for my personal preference, of course), as Dishonored 2 had no external incentive to use stealth instead of fast paced non-lethal combat. In all honesty, I think what would "fix" Dishonored for me would be detections increasing chaos.
@@DrownedCrew For me, Dishonored 1 discouraged stealth internally and punished you for killing due to only 3 powers being usable in non-lethal playhtrough (blink, dark vision and gust) AND 2 easy to do options outside of them (chokeout and tranquilizer dart). Sure, with Dishonored 2 you have way lower incentive to be stealthy.
For me, Dh2 is better due to having more non-lethal options when you're spotted.
As for detection increasing chaos... doesn't fix a problem which is lack of options and forcing of "one way or fuck yourself" type of interaction Dishonored 1 had with not killing people.
@@jacket5435 I mean, yeah, it doesn't fix the problem of having low options for non-lethal, but I see that as a separate problem. I was only talking about the external incentive to stealth because it's the only one that interferes with my personal preference. But I can see how lack of non-lethal options could bother someone.
It's just that the lack of non-lethal combat options is more aligned to how I personally enjoy stealth games.
I haven't even watched the video yet, and I already agree with the title of it. Some people care way too much about graphics when the game itself is great.
ngl zero sievert has made me jump more than any other game lol
That top down extraction game kind of reminds me of Total War 2. It had like over 50 levels and I would play it on my school computer. It was hard, but once you got the hang of it it was a blast
I got 2 of these 3 games (The Intravenous duology & Zomboid), good to see someone talk about them!
Realy like to see how Zero Sievert if finaly getting the comuntiy it deserves. Ive been playing since launch and genuinely think it is one of the better games ive ever played.
i've played zero sievert for a long while now, and it definitely scratches the loot goblin itch for me perfect. i absolutely adore the game.
to bad zero sivert (or however its written xDD) is half of the time abondonware, and when they finally release an update after 6months of no communication at all its something nobody asked for, and sometimes it seems they actively ignore what their community wants/asks for
Source, Xray, even Unity (most of the time) are engines where I can actually see shit, where it's not all just a blurry incomprehensible mess where everything has a metallic sheen to it and particle effects merge into one. Most Unreal Engine games, even going back to UE3, have always just looked aesthetically inferior to those other engines. UE just does not have the clarity or smoothness.
If you enjoy PZ, CDDA might be for you. It is much harder to play and the graphics are lacking if you don’t have a good texture pack. But! There is tons that you are able to do and the depth is deeper as well compared to PZ. It is also free (there is a steam version but there is some sort of drama around it and it costs money).
Never heard of it! I'll take a look
Was gonna have this on the side while doing some low-poly modeling, but ended up being fully captivated instead :D
I'm not shallow, I actually clicked on this video, unlike all the people that need it more
Even blurred I recognized project zomboid, I’m too far gone.
I'm glad someone else is talking about Intravenous, it really is pretty damn good
I love being threatened to buy a game it’s like you already sold me but now I don’t have a choice
I played 2/3 games here, and I don't recomend them :D
Them being Zero Sievert a.k.a no balance game, I'm talking about that stupid change with weapon range damage :D
And project zomboid, probably the most boring game I ever played, without mods there's really nothing to do, the mechanics simply exist to exist.
zero sievert mentioned 🗣
i bought zero sievert just after i stopped playing stalker 2 because i decided to wait for the "final" version of the game xD
do you have any addons on IWP?
Cotz
you might also enjoy OTXO
I should check it out fs
12:25 depends on whether you are playing as steve or sean
Zero Sievert is lit
me when good graphics dont make a better game
Dont let this man near quasimorph
Just gonna mention Quasimorph as another great indie extraction shooter
Looks cool
17:28 what game is this?
Stalker GAMMA
You know what ruled? the rendered, reactive lighting of the mid 2000s that you were talking about with Splinter Cell, and especially Doom 3. If we'd chased that sort of handcrafted lighting rather than ray tracing and computer generated reactions, I think games would be much less demanding and much more artistically satisfying. I feel like I'm crazy when I listen to people talk about games with "great graphics" these days, for every amazing still frame there's noticeable pop in and weird collision bugs and anti-aliasing that's not quite right and animations looking uncanny because the item is photorealistic but it's not actually reacting to being held, I'd much rather games still looked like they did in 2008 and were more cohesive and immersive than what we've got today. Even the new Indiana Jones, it looks GORGEOUS when you're standing and looking at a vista, but the first little bit of gameplay in the jungle has leaves going from blurry to sharp and popping in all over the place and it's VERY noticeable.
I don't wanna be one of those "remember when" guys but I feel like AAA games are further from being works of art now than they have been since the '80s. Budgets are so high that big companies just can't afford to take risks or the game might put them 8 figures in the hole and 120 people lose their jobs, and they cost the same (less if you consider inflation!) than they did in 1998. It's lots of things, from the insistence on open worlds to the homogenization of every big genre in every game, but at the end of the day, it's graphics that are killing the industry. Every time I see someone say "why aren't companies making games like Red Dead Redemption 2" I want to rip my hair out, it's because Red Dead Redemption 2 required enormous amounts of employee abuse and an unlimited amount of money to make.
And to add to the low fidelity/high level of depth conversation, obviously Dwarf Fortress is the original but it's honestly about as close to an Excel spreadsheet as you can get while still being a "video game", but Kenshi is a game that I never would have thought could exist. What starts out as a simple but hardcore CRPG turns into a fucked up, slavery-driven game of post-apocalyptic Civilization by the end. You gain points in strength by loading up a backpack full of coal and running to the next town over without getting enslaved, getting your leg chopped off is only a problem if you're poor, robot characters don't swim, they walk across the ocean floor. It's such a unique vision of the "1-to-1 simulation" ultimate dream of video games, it reminds me a lot of Star Citizen, but it actually came out because they weren't worried about it looking like real life.
RDR2 has great art direction but it also suffers from a lot of the "render it worse and TAA over it" syndrome. It never quite looks sharp
I played the shit out of Zero Sievert before update 0.40 weapon overhaul made the game borderline unplayable. Such potential squandered by shitty devs not listening to the community.
STALKER 2 has loads of issues. They removed A-Life, you get too much loot from enemies which makes stashes useless, you get too many armous (i found 4 in the first 5 hours), optimisation relies on upscaling, mutants WERE tanky asf, enemies spawn behind your ass, etc. Stick to the originals, especially the mods. Stalker 2 should've been better than Stalker 1 mods, so it counts.
Mate these video's are so so high quality. Please for the love of god keep at it. Big views coming up for sure
so what's the name of the games? He didn't bother to list it anywhere in the description or here in the comments -_-
Edit:
Zero Sievert
Intravenous
Threat Interactive does good videos on the topic of game performance.
TLDR, necessity is the mother of innovation, and when that’s removed… well… you get what you get.
Adapt, adopt, win, except there’s been no need to adapt or adopt, so we lose.
Everyone needs to watch ALL of his videos on his channel. That Kids got some really good points.
Looks like I'm playing 2d
IWP being better? You only get spammed by nades and get buttfucked by lack of medkits and bandages. I don't understand any of those masochistic mods they completely ruin Stalker for me.
As much as I love STALKER 2, Unreal 5 is my biggest complaint. I have a decent PC, now I know the RTX 2070 SUPER is 5 years old but it shouldnt run like ass. When the game does run right with Frame Gen/DLSS the game looks like a grainy mess with tons of white bordering/distance grain that makes it incredible difficult to see anything past 100 meters.
Unreal has always ran like complete dick no matter the game and I purposely avoid games that use it, You know what I love more? Waiting for my shaders to compile EVERY time I launch a game that uses it, its the reason I stopped launching/playing Call of Duty, the shaders should already be ready after the first launch and compile I shouldnt have to wait to play a game whenever I WANT to play it.
With Unreal becoming more prevalent in games in the near future I just will not buy them, cause I already know my PC will struggle when I can already play games like Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus, DOOM Eternal that run complete fine at 1440p near Max to High Graphics. UE5 relies too much on DLSS/Frame Gen support to make it a worthy engine for me to play on.
it is 1m from where i am
One video games really infruence me on the graphic sucks concept is Noita and Enter the Gungeon
Graphics are overrated, sure. but the biggest problem is that optimization seems underrated. Sure, just upscale from 480p so you can almost hit 60fps when there's absolutely nothing going on. Games can sparkle on for all i care. But you can do that without demanding that i use liquid nitrogen just to make sure my gpu doesn't turn into an IED. There is a beauty to games that go for a more "retro" style tho. Giving you just what you need at a level of fidelity you could probably run on a NES. Great if you're a small team and are smart enough to not bite off more than you could chew.
tarkov is an experience , but not an awesome experience , the game is not that fun and its not for everyone , i mean , if you got a job you`re pretty much out of the race because of the nature of the game
No shit!
hunt showdown?
Another banger as always
A native and clear picture is all I want.
TheButterAnvil please be more specific about what games you're talking about,
I bought Homefront thinking it was Homefront The revolution because you weren't specific.
i said Homefront the revolution and showed the main menu. Skill issue
if i say "system shock is good" will you be shocking systems IRL? Or what? Its your problem, brother. You should've at least check what game you about to BUY.
Yes, we don't need modern graphics that requires 4090 to run stable at 30 FPS but it doesn't mean that everything should use that damn pixelart, just make the game with less details
nice video man
That last part in the video is so true. Ive been telling my friend to grab literally zero sievert, presumably the best game to enter extraction shooter genre (in my experience as this is my second game in this genre after arena breakout) yet none of them seems interested in this game. Why? Because its a pixel top down shooter!
Gameplay and mechanics should take place over graphics, you can make a game look gorgeous but it doesn’t matter if it sucks to even play.
Graphics draw people in, story gets the interested, gameplay keeps them engaged. Graphics are too much of a selling point for too many games and often overrated, I remember playing the Delta Force games from the '90s and 2000s. The graphics were behind the times but the gameplay was awesome, and the story wasn't anything to sneeze about but it served as a good setup for the gameplay and kept you Entertained. Too many games try to hide their mediocrity under graphics.
I prefer good style over hyper realistic graphics. It can be fun at times trying to simulate real life in a video game but at the same time I also enjoy not having to uninstall all games I own to download some hyper realistic looking game. Which if turn on the not at all overhyped raytracing makes my computer slowly cook alive and the game just runs worse but but! The sun reflects in like a super cool way now.
Yeah, everyone is so focused on graphics (they just want us to cough more money for better rig) but forgot about good and fun content. Very few AAA games managed to capture me lately. Gaming industry is going to shit - this is why we get bazillion of remakes and remasters. Milking a cow mummy. They don't know how to make a good game.
Yes, I might be harsh and probably unfair...but look around. And that makes me salty.
GAMMA is better and True Stalker is trash
Isometric is the best point of view for a game.
because they're trash*
OH MY GOD HE SAID PROJECT ZOMBOID!!!!!221112WAE. OH OMY FOGFDSA!!WSJ