Realism or an artistic look?

[Harrison]

Now that hardware is becoming much more advanced it is becoming possible to finally create realistic looking 3D environments within games. But equally we don't have to make games look real; they could just as easily look more artistic and unique in style.

So which do you prefer? And which would you like to see more of in the future? More realism and cinematic like visuals in games? or more artistic and unique looking games?

I personally like to see the later. If I wanted photo realistic visuals I could watch a film. I prefer games to look more artistic with a unique style. Although certain genres such as first person war games would work better with realism and true to live visuals.

[Demon Cleaner]

A game should always look like a game, I don't want a digitized game, I always hated that. Digitized would be too realistic, but I like games which have a realistic setting too with good graphics, but you should be able to see that it is a game.

What do you exactly mean by cinematic? That the ingame graphic is looking like CG? If so, I would like it, but as I already said (twice), I don't want digital material in games. That already annoys me, when missions are debriefed, some games use digital stuff, wasn't that also the case with C&C games?

[Harrison]

Oh, I didn't mean digitized, I meant photo realistic so that a game is hard to distinguish from a film. As you said, I also prefer a game to look like a game, and can be recognised as a game.

But you are right about digitised video. I've always hated that too. It just looks so false and tacky, like some low budget cable sci-fi show or something, especially the C&C cut scenes. At least they are not doing it so much now and instead using in game scenes for the cut scenes in most games now. It was when CD started to take off as the new media for games that every developer was trying to utilise the space on CDs with video clips and the buzz word was "multimedia".

[AlexJ]

I quite like variety. I'd like a game to look as realistic as possible if that's the intention providing the gameplay isn't compromised as a result. On the other hand, I also like games with a quirky style. A lot of the most original (and fun) games have made no attempt to look realistic at all and instead have concentrated on making the environment as fun as possible.

[Submeg]

I like both styles, but I chose artistic because in general I would like more original games. They make me want to play the game because it is unique from other games that are available. Having said that, if I were playing a game like battlefield, I would want the game to look as realistic as possible

[toomanymikes]

I love it when graphics are done right. People hated Wind Waker but I thought its graphics were fantastic. Games like Okami, Jet Set Radio and Paper Mario are just as impressive to me as the likes of Oblivion, Shoadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Soild 4. As long as they suit and enhance the game then I couldnt care if they looked like a film or a picasso!