You guys notice older games are not as ugly as before?

[tigersty1e]

So Doom 3, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2 from 2004 still look pretty good. The eye candy is just as appealing to me as the games today. These games are 3 years old.

But back when it was 2004, games from 2001 (3 year old games) looked like a$$ compared to the games of 2004.

Bascially, it looks like diminishing returns are coming into effect.

 

[Fulcrum]

If this trend holds, then that could be good. Maybe it will get more game designers to start focusing on actual game play again instead of on eye candy.

 

[tigersty1e]

Not to mention hardware that lasts longer than 6 months.

Hopefull. But probably not. They'll come out with a new interface or gimmick.

 

[Noema]

Those games set the bar really high and still hold up well, but they are starting to show their age, specially when it comes to lightning. Motion blur is also the 'next big thing', IMO and most new games will feature it, making older games look a little dated without it.

Far Cry's outdoor scenes still look excellent, but indoors...absolutely terrible. And Half Life 2's lightning is pretty bad too. Not to mention some of the textures look very low res by today's standards.

 

[Lonyo]

HL2/Doom3/Farcry are still some of the top engines around today.
Once UE3/CryEngine 2 etc are out and being used properly, the games of 3 years ago might not look quite so good. We are still pretty much on the 2004 gen engines, whereas in 2004 those games you listed were the new gen engines.
In 3 years you might well say "I can't believe how good the games of 2007 like Crysis, UT3 etc still look, back in late 2007 games from 2004 looked like ass compared to the games of 2007"

 

[CP5670]

So Doom 3, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2 from 2004 still look pretty good. The eye candy is just as appealing to me as the games today. These games are 3 years old.

But back when it was 2004, games from 2001 (3 year old games) looked like a$$ compared to the games of 2004.

Bascially, it looks like diminishing returns are coming into effect.

Yes, I've noticed this too (in Far Cry's case, at least). Most newer games look the same or only slightly better, but somehow still manage to run much more poorly.

Far Cry's outdoor scenes still look excellent, but indoors...absolutely terrible.

You need to turn on the HDR and adjust its parameters correctly. Many indoor areas look fantastic with it, better than a lot of more recent games. It seems to bring out the normal mapping on the walls much more than usual.

 

[Jeff7181]

I think physics are going to change things... being able to interact with anything in the game accurately. It's a little crazy that in a game like Oblivion if you bump an item on the edge of a table there's a chance it'll fly across the room as if it was shot out of a cannon. It's also a little crazy that I can run full speed into a chair and not move it... or stand on the back of a chair and it won't tip.

 

[Bateluer]

Some of this is due to console oriented development. Its why games from 2002/3 looked eerily similar to games in 2005. The consoles hadn't been updated yet, and the publishers wanted to port the same title to multiple platforms in the cheapest manner possible.

 

[aka1nas]

Also, we have been on various iterations of DirectX 9 for a quite a while now, and even that mainly differed from Dx8 only by having a more flexible shader model.

 

[RandomFool]

Even older games don't run very well on my computer, i really need to upgrade.

 

[mooncancook]

I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

I didn't go very far this time either because I get a little nauseous riding the water craft. For some reason this game make me feel more dizzy than any other FPS I've played.

 

[Fenixgoon]

the infinity engine (IWD and Baldur's Gate) is timeless, it's still my favorite rpg setup

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
I didn't go very far this time either because I get a little nauseous riding the water craft. For some reason this game make me feel more dizzy than any other FPS I've played.

I remember there was an article in a gaming magazine that said that the FOV made some gamers sick.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

I thought it was kind of crappy looking even at release. It had nice water, and the people looked pretty good, but the textures looked like an incremental upgrade from HL1. I thought it looked more like a high res texture pack for HL than the latest greatest engine from Valve :^/

 

[RandomFool]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I didn't go very far this time either because I get a little nauseous riding the water craft. For some reason this game make me feel more dizzy than any other FPS I've played.</end quote></div>
I remember there was an article in a gaming magazine that said that the FOV made some gamers sick.

It made me sick, I tried a couple times to get through it but everytime I started playing I felt like I wanted vomit and I ended up taking a nap instead.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

</end quote></div>

I thought it was kind of crappy looking even at release. It had nice water, and the people looked pretty good, but the textures looked like an incremental upgrade from HL1. I thought it looked more like a high res texture pack for HL than the latest greatest engine from Valve :^/

You haven't played the Cinematic mod yet, have you?

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
Not to mention hardware that lasts longer than 6 months.

Hopefull. But probably not. They'll come out with a new interface or gimmick.

Physics chips are already on the horizon.

 

[Schadenfroh]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
the infinity engine (IWD and Baldur's Gate) is timeless, it's still my favorite rpg setup </end quote></div>

You would be interested to know that some people are working on an open source clone of the infinity engine.



and dont you forget about PlaneScape: Torment!

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: lxskllr
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

</end quote></div>

I thought it was kind of crappy looking even at release. It had nice water, and the people looked pretty good, but the textures looked like an incremental upgrade from HL1. I thought it looked more like a high res texture pack for HL than the latest greatest engine from Valve :^/

</end quote></div>

You haven't played the Cinematic mod yet, have you?

No I haven't. I'll look it up.

 

[Imaginer]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
Not to mention hardware that lasts longer than 6 months.

Hopefull. But probably not. They'll come out with a new interface or gimmick.

Dont forget about the hopeful reduction of power requirements as well

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: RandomFool
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I didn't go very far this time either because I get a little nauseous riding the water craft. For some reason this game make me feel more dizzy than any other FPS I've played.</end quote></div>
I remember there was an article in a gaming magazine that said that the FOV made some gamers sick.
</end quote></div>

It made me sick, I tried a couple times to get through it but everytime I started playing I felt like I wanted vomit and I ended up taking a nap instead.

Too bad. That's a fun part of the game. Maybe you can use cheats to get past it?

 

[bamacre]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: CKent
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: tigersty1e
Not to mention hardware that lasts longer than 6 months.

Hopefull. But probably not. They'll come out with a new interface or gimmick.</end quote></div>

Physics chips are already on the horizon.</end quote></div>


Physics chips may never be needed. Crysis is one big game that won't use it. Instead the game will utilize multi-core cpu's. Why code for a physics chip, when we have tons of cpu power at out finger tips. A dual core cpu, from what I have read, will be the sweet spot for Crysis. And in less than 30 days, we'll see quad core cpu's for less than $300.

Intel has already stated they want to have have an 80-core cpu in 5 years.

 

[Billyzeke]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: RandomFool
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I didn't go very far this time either because I get a little nauseous riding the water craft. For some reason this game make me feel more dizzy than any other FPS I've played.</end quote></div>
I remember there was an article in a gaming magazine that said that the FOV made some gamers sick.
</end quote></div>

It made me sick, I tried a couple times to get through it but everytime I started playing I felt like I wanted vomit and I ended up taking a nap instead.</end quote></div>

Too bad. That's a fun part of the game. Maybe you can use cheats to get past it?

I used dramamine to get through that part of the game. I tried modifying the FOV and it helped some, but the dramamine worked like a charm.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: lxskllr
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

</end quote></div>

I thought it was kind of crappy looking even at release. It had nice water, and the people looked pretty good, but the textures looked like an incremental upgrade from HL1. I thought it looked more like a high res texture pack for HL than the latest greatest engine from Valve :^/

</end quote></div>

You haven't played the Cinematic mod yet, have you?

I looked for that on FilePlanet. Is that the exact name for the mod?

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: lxskllr
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: mooncancook
I haven't touched HL2 for more than 2 yrs and I never went very far into the game, I was curious to start it up today, wanted to see how it look with gfx options max. It's still looks good, but definitely look dated when compared to Oblivion, especially the textures look quite low-res.

</end quote></div>

I thought it was kind of crappy looking even at release. It had nice water, and the people looked pretty good, but the textures looked like an incremental upgrade from HL1. I thought it looked more like a high res texture pack for HL than the latest greatest engine from Valve :^/

</end quote></div>

You haven't played the Cinematic mod yet, have you? </end quote></div>

I looked for that on FilePlanet. Is that the exact name for the mod?

It's on filefront