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[H . R . 2]

Dark & colourful

care to enlarge upon that with an example?

 

[FeldMonster]

Most of your "bright and colorful" examples are simply normal/daytime/medium.

The opposite of the dark/gloomy is the unicorn vomit in Nintendo games.

 

[Damigos]

care to enlarge upon that with an example?

Diablo

 

[H . R . 2]

Diablo

I am not a huge fan of Diablo but If my memory serves me correctly 3 was a bit brighter and more colourful than 2

 

[Meesh]

Depends on the story, setting or themes in the game for me. Colorful art and graphics sometimes highlight game play and how enjoyable the overall experience is, much in the way darker or more gritty art and graphics do.
If done right, the graphics and for that matter art are as much a character as any player or NPC.

 

[Damigos]

I am not a huge fan of Diablo but If my memory serves me correctly 3 was a bit brighter and more colourful than 2

True.
I meant diablo 2

 

[Tiamat2san]

Why not both?
It’s possible.

 

[H . R . 2]

Dark & colourful

you reminded me of Batman AK so I went and searched through my screen grabs and found some beautiful screenshots that I took back when I was playing through AK a second time

 

[Damigos]

you reminded me of Batman AK so I went and searched through my screen grabs and found some beautiful screenshots that I took back when I was playing through AK a second time

Exactly my colour palette
Thanks for sharing

 

[IFireflyl]

I picked bright and colorful, but with a caveat that I'm not a fan of cartoony-style games. Bright and colorful does not mean non-realistic. The real world is plenty bright and colorful. (And also plenty dark and gloomy, but that's not my point!)

 

[Dark Star]

dark, creepy, deathly, gloomy, etc.

I love that stuff. Especially Soulsborne games.

 

[Edgelord79]

What an odd poll. Wouldn't this depend on the type of game?

 

[IFireflyl]

What an odd poll. Wouldn't this depend on the type of game?

 

[H . R . 2]

What an odd poll. Wouldn't this depend on the type of game?

yes it would, however, we are not discussing games at the very ends of the spectrum such as Mario or Silent Hill
we're talking about games where you can pick either style, for instance, Crysis 4 or a new GEARS
if you were in charge, what would you pick?

 

[Edgelord79]

yes it would, however, we are not discussing games at the very ends of the spectrum such as Mario or Silent Hill
we're talking about games where you can pick either style, for instance, Crysis 4 or a new GEARS
if you were in charge, what would you pick?

Again depends on the game. Gears gritty and dirty so I would choose more gloomy and Crysis is more futuristic so I guess either could work.

Preference depend on the game.

 

[H . R . 2]

Again depends on the game. Gears gritty and dirty so I would choose more gloomy and Crysis is more futuristic so I guess either could work.

Preference depend on the game.

I personally love atmospheric and detailed games like The Order 1886 where every lens stain, every bit of lighting, the color palette, etc. is meticulous and purposeful so I'd love to see a Crysis with that same mood and atmosphere given that the story is now in a post-apocalyptic phase it is even more fitting to have gloomy visuals

 

[H . R . 2]

Ummm, there's obviously a second picture missing here.

I am sorry, there must have been an error
here you go

Prince of Persia Sands of Time

Prince of Persia Warrior Within

 

[nemiroff]

I don't really understand how people are able to pick one here. Everything is relative. I'm abstaining my vote.

 

[22:22:22]

I don't really understand how people are able to pick one here. Everything is relative. I'm abstaining my vote.

For sure.

Relative to both the game's intention etc and my mood.

 

[H . R . 2]

For sure.

Relative to both the game's intention etc and my mood.

but it shouldn't be too difficult to picture yourself as the director of your favourite game and consider what you'd choose if you were them
again I am emphasising, we are not talking about extreme cases, but games that can very well have either of those styles
for example I'd make STARFIELD a survivalist's story by making it mostly dark, hostile, lonely and occasionally bright and colourful for the shock factor

 

[Hunnybun]

That first image in the OP is everything wrong with modern “realistic” presentation in media for me. Not only games, but most movies too. Almost everything, especially in open air shots, has this dark, gloomy tone, natural color and lighting be damned. It’s terrible. When you see a screenshot of a pre-90s movie you immediately know when it’s from because of natural lighting. It’s become a rarity these days. Even the most natural scene looks filtered now, and it probably is.

Bright doesn’t equal colorful. The Ori games are colorful, but often dark and gloomy.

Just give you graphics appropriate color. Piss/dark filters don’t make anything better.

The way almost all modern films and serials look drives me fucking crazy. It's not just the colour filters, which don't really bother me that much, but - and I really don't think this is just me - there seems to be this pervasive fashion for making the image film grainy and 'rough', like older films. Even though all this stuff is almost certainly shot on top of the line digital cameras.

I assume the intention is to make it look 'authentic', but authentic to what?! Old, crap technology? That is so fucking dumb it hurts.

What the fuck did I spend £2k on on OLED tv for?!

I know the fact that all modern content basically has to be streamed doesn't exactly help, but that's definitely not all the problem. If you stream a big budget kids movie that don't tend to suffer from the same pretentiousness, you can find some amazing looking stuff. But I don't want to watch fucking kids films lol. On Netflix now I find the average 80s or 90s film in 1080p looks better than the hot new big budget series in 4k HDR. That's fucking nuts.

We're at this weird point now where next gen games look way better than almost all actual filmed content.

 

[AJUMP23]

I want all the colors

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

Both. It depends on the type of game. I wouldn't want a completely dark/gloomy Uncharted or Zelda or fully Bright horror/survival (Fatal Frame, Silent Hill etc.).

 

[H . R . 2]

Both. It depends on the type of game. I wouldn't want a completely dark/gloomy Uncharted or Zelda or fully Bright horror/survival (Fatal Frame, Silent Hill etc.).

I personally like 'gloomy' more than I like my games dark. Death Stranding, for instance, is colourful on the surface but gloomy and dark in nature.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

I personally like 'gloomy' more than I like my games dark. Death Stranding, for instance, is colourful on the surface but gloomy and dark in nature.

Even Zelda has its split of Bright and Gloomy. So a mix is always good for action/adventure. But I don't think a bright setting will work for horror/survival games.

 

[kingwingin]

 

[DavidGzz]

Hmm, RDR2? When I think of the options here, I think of Fortnite vs. Dark Souls. I wouldn't put realistic graphics in the second category. I guess I like both if you're going to include RDR2 and Elden Ring in the bright category...

 

[iHaunter]

Not going to vote because it depends entirely on the genre - I like both.

 

[Cockles & Whelks]

I couldn't stomach Warzone after Fortnite. If I want doom and misery I'll walk out the door.

 

[Hunnybun]

Hmm, RDR2? When I think of the options here, I think of Fortnite vs. Dark Souls. I wouldn't put realistic graphics in the second category. I guess I like both if you're going to include RDR2 and Elden Ring in the bright category...

Yeah that was my thought too - RDR2 while mainly just realistic, also has slightly muted colours imo. It looks like it has a subtle blue tint to it.

In games where either muted or bright are realistic alternatives, something like Spider-Man on PS4 is a game I'd say is full of bright colours. Or the Uncharted games. Even the Doom games.