Panama said: I think Beyond impressed me the most graphically, the character models were very uncanny valley. They're all also a good example that we really don't need new consoles at least for another year or two. Sure they run at 720p and 30fps but they still looked stunning. Smoke and mirrors never hurt anyone in videogames. |
The "uncanny valley" is a bad thing. And I totally agree that Beyond, just like Heavy Rain, lives right at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley. The facial animations are good, but they made the mistake of going for realism instead of style. Unlike Naughty Dog, Quantic Dream failed to realize that a little artistic abstraction helps keep humans from looking like creepy fake people. Beyond has sharp graphics but the faces reach for realism and then fall into the uncanny valley.
Since the game has no AI, no complex physics, no open world exploration, or any of the CPU heavy overhead of a real game, you'd think they wouldn't ruin the only thing the game engine is doing. But just like Heavy Rain the people look creepy. I don't know of computers will ever be able to simulate the human face. Even movies haven't been able to do it right yet, Tron Legacy tried and failed. Instead of trying to do 100% realistic faces and then falling into the uncanny valley. Quantic Dream should do what Naughty Dog does, 80% realism 20% artistic license. I made up those percents, but you get the point.