Am I the only person tired of almost every single game that comes out taking place in near-total darkness?  I understand that having a game take place at night can add a lot to the ambience, but unless you are specifically going for a survival horror feel, please, throw me a bone.

I've been playing Ghostbusters, and while it's a fun game, I actually got a headache on the last couple of boards because you can't see anything whatsoever, and I have the brightness jacked way up.  Even with the PKE meter out, it's pretty impossible to see your way through quite a few sections.  Don't get me wrong, though, Ghostbusters is far from the only guilty party.  It seems like a lot of big games are extremely dark, so my question is this:

Do developers make games dark because people like it?  I know it drives me crazy personally, and I can't be the only one.

Umm, what? Most games have a sunny atmosphere in order to appeal to those looking for a light casual experience. A couple of games with specific art styles don't support your complaints. Ghostbusters is only one game.

I admit, there are dark spots in Ghostbusters (I won't name them since I don't know where you are-- stupid secret achievements and me not getting around to finishing it on the 360 :-p), though shouldn't be anything too dark, but sometimes it's the TV too.

On my TV at home games are always dark but that's because I have it setup perfectly to watch TV. When I play games I either have to fiddle with settings (I have several custom settings) or just accept that the games are dark. On my default setting on my TV I can actually never see the little logo you're supposed to see when you adjust the brightness.

I am on the last stage, hopefully that is spoiler-free enough.  I have the game brightness turned to maximum and had to jack my TV brightness up a lot to be able to see at all. 

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not trying to pick on your game, like I said it's quite fun.  It just seems like, as graphics have improved, color has been largely replaced with grey/brown scales and lack of light in general.

That's odd, Lost Island is pretty dark in the sewers but the cemetery should be pretty bright for the most part except for when you're in the various tunnels.  There are a few spots in those two levels I have to take out my PKE and use that to find my way.

And no worries about criticism, as long as it's constructive I love it. ^^

I've never had any such problems. I think your problem is that you're a casual noob. Go back to Imagine: Babyz, deadt0m.

You are not alone in your distaste of that I assure you. I as well despise games that are absurdly dark in their visual presentation. Some genuinely enjoy it, but personally I despise what amounts to being handicapped. So that a developer can attempt to obtain a cheap graphical impression, or obtain a cheap thrill.

The reason developers do this is the same reason magicians can use slide of hand. They are using psychology to their advantage intentionally or not. They know when presented with a environment of darkness the human mind is prone to a number of things. First of which is that focus is increased, followed by agitation, which in turn generates a strong emotional response. This is part of the thrill. What is more the lack of information results in the mind filling in gaps with what it perceives as logical.

To make it simple darkness makes the experience more intense, and as an added bonus it makes a game look graphically better even if it is not. So you will often here someone say boy that game was scary even if the scares are both cheap and blatantly unfair. You will also hear people say boy that game looks good. Even if it had a color pallet of three colors, and half the world was a black mat.

All told it isn't exactly unfair to play to human psychology, but if your a extremely righteous person it is understandable if you find being handicapped to be mere frustration. Personally I avoid black games like the plague. Thankfully I think some developers have clued into the fact that a lot of gamers are not amused by these shenanigans either by personality of physical limitation.

For instance I found that Bioshock was very good about this. They had a darkness setting right up front. So you could set it to just the right spot for you personally, and the far ranging pallet let players get good distinction. So while there is a problem I think developers are getting a lot better about not abusing blackness so much that it is game breaking.

R u one of the people that like your movies dark too?

Most people prefer movies very dark, I seen it in cinemas too. And i think it's seen as a noob thing to watch movies too light and without proper contrast.

Stop whining and play metroid prime 2. Not only is it total darkness, it even hurts you! Haha.

Doom 3 was great with this.