Why Photo Realistic Graphics is Doomed to Fail

[DanneSandin]

CGI-Quality said:

Depends on the game/circumstances/goals of the dev. Certain games work well will closer-to-real-life visuals. No, not every game needs them, but if a market can exist for these types of games with stylized visuals, I see no reason why more realistic game graphics can't have their place.

That's the problem I see with many in the industry (gamers, journalists, and some devs alike), when something works, we suddenly think it should be done away with for "fear" that's it's going to impair the market. The aim to try and reach reality hasn't hurt the industry (from where I'm sitting, seems like it's helped out a lot). And btw, Naughty Dog has never tried to achieve photo-realism with any of the Uncharted titles (they stated very clearly that they were avoiding that). The games have a stylized look that avoid The Uncanny Vally completely.

As for what The Uncanny Valley is, you're preaching to the choir.

Well, if you're already on board with this concept, surely you must agree that having almost human like game characters will turn people off? Even if UC has a stylized design, they're trying to emulate real life objects. Gears of War, on the other hand, do not risk getting too realistic imo. compare these two imagies:

Clearly, UC is giong for a more realistic look on Drake, rather than what's been done with Fenix; he's a lot more... cartoony. Well, maybe not a lot :P And going the way of UC is the wrong path imo...