Notable low points in the graphics of PS3, Xbox 360, and DirectX 10 capable games

Now I know these current gen platforms are capable of producing some incredible eye popping graphics and even close in on photorealism, but what about current gen AAA games that miss the mark of getting their graphics to a decent level. Take this one for instance

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer/frame_lead.php?pid=941872&img=76#view_full_size
At first glance it may look alright but I tell you, what the heck is up with the grython’s feathers especially on the wings, to me it looks like it would be good in games 10 years ago and it just doesn’t look good with the current feature textures being used and has obvious hard face overlapping everywhere. It is noted this is being released well less then a year after their last game perhaps by the same dev. team.

What AAA titles do you think missed the mark coming to graphics this current generation?

games 10 years ago.

You picked a crap shot, the thing is probably turning or something and the feathers are in disarray. http://www.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer/frame_lead.php?pid=941872&img=76#view_full_size
That one looks a lot better, as does pretty much ever other one.

I don’t really give a crap about graphics, so if they aren’t spectacular i don’t really care. If you want to talk bad graphics, pick pretty much any game on the ps3 or 360 and it’s got bad graphics (90% of them do, at least). But I don’t drool over that new Far Cry crap, either. For me, that ultra high res, super realistic stuff is all garbage. Out of all of these games that have come out on the 360, the ones that get the best scores are just games that blatantly copy some other game’s design, but do it with a couple new gimmicks and bad-ass graphics (meaning ultra realistic and disgusting).

OOOOOH!!! Look how gray and lifeless everything looks!

And another thing… is it just me or is Normal Mapping pretty much the most awful technology in gaming graphics since 3D came into being? I’ve only seen it done a few times really well, and every other game has way overblown normal maps, and way under-done spec maps, so everything looks like it’s coated in some kind of clear slime, or everything is painted metal or something. Everything. Metal, wood, human skin… it all looks like it’s made of candy. Gray, dead candy.

So, no.

I have to say that Diablo III looks like EXACTLY the sort of game that developers SHOULD be making, and I can only hope that other developers take that into consideration in the future. I think Diablo 2 and the Quake series were to blame for the trend of making everything shiny and gray (and brown!!).

You want disappointing titles? GTA4. It doesn’t feel right the way it looks. That’s obviously just me, tho. It’s still fun as hell. It just doesn’t look right.

For that link to Half-life for an example of graphics from ten years ago, you got to remember that Half-Life had mind blowing graphics for the time, and it was and probably still is the best single player FPS ever (even over HL2).

Yea, I agree with Squiggly on the color choice of developers. Take a look at Gears of War, Gta4, COD4, and a long list of many games that have a color range extending all the way from poop brown to pee yellow. Not to mention the ridiculous over-use of bloom and motion blur. Playing some of those games make me motion sick from all the blur and bloom over use.

good storie line is more important and length of game play I think over textured and modeling …becuase if you have a game like Final fantasy 7 the first greatest 3d game on ps1 well why can’t blender have this we don’t need realism we just have to never use hlsl is hte doom muck gloss over all games i agree with both of you has anyone checked tomb raiders latest ?I hate her !

they aren’t going for photo realism. how long would it take to render that sceen in blender photo realisticly? and that would just be a still render. now throw in physics, ai, etc…and it has to run a 30 frames [er second, on a system that only has 512k of ram. if they were going for photorealism they probably wouldn’t have put a 4 legged bord with a 60 foot wingspan in the shot. there are alot of variables in game graphics. the artists, the developers talent, the look and art style, the game engine, compression algorythms, etc…

simple solution, if you dont like the game dont buy it.

I think what you’re missing there is that scene also appears to have dozens of cars, people, buildings etc all rendered at the same time. Plus, I’m assuming that in the actual game those wings will be flapping, and so it’d be pretty hard to see any detail on them anyway. So… perhaps a slight overreaction?