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Keybordz

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did we take the 2000s decade for granted?

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Nah, you guys are bugin’ the visuals in Beautiful Desolation and Roki are some of the best in the entire genre. Hell, Beautiful Desolation is one of the most gorgeous and aesthetically creative games I’ve played period.

Also the animation in Zniw adventure is to die for.

You’ve really got nostalgia blinders on if you think there aren’t plenty of amazing looking new & upcoming adventure games.

     
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Current age of adventure gaming is great. Indie game releases, classic games being made accesible again and Japan bringing over some great visual novels after years of testing the waters.

     
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I agree with PlanetX. Plenty of good-looking games out there.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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I’m in the minority but I happen to think the 90s sucked. The graphics were too high res, we were moving into the 640x480 era and I’m glad we can now finally again get new games with gorgeous eye-candy like this:


90s and 00s… definitely a dark age for advgaming.

     
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you are not a minority you are lone nutbag

     
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Vehelon - 17 July 2020 08:39 AM

I’m in the minority but I happen to think the 90s sucked. The graphics were too high res, we were moving into the 640x480 era and I’m glad we can now get new games with gorgeous eye-candy like this:

What many people don’t realise is that The Darkside Detective is actually a HD game!

And talking about graphics, it’s absolutely one of the most stylish and best looking games ever made. Combine that with it also being among the top 5 funniest adventure games of all times, it’s certainly a wonderful experience in every possible way.

The Darkside Detective is better than 99% of adventure games from the 90’s, definitely so. One of the most underrated games ever, and some people like to bash it for no real reason.

     
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GateKeeper - 17 July 2020 08:59 AM

And talking about graphics, it’s absolutely one of the most stylish and best looking games ever made.

That boring screenshot with a door and two file cabinets gives me the impression it was made by someone with no talent and creativity, who used pixelart as a last resort. A bit like some indie developers used to make 1st-person horror games because that was so much easier than 3rd-person. Even a game like The Last Door with its enormous pixels showed much more creativity than the Darkside Detective.

Combine that with it also being among the top 5 funniest adventure games of all times, it’s certainly a wonderful experience in every possible way.

LOL! Really?  What are the other 4?

The Darkside Detective is better than 99% of adventure games from the 90’s, definitely so.

Please add an imo next time. Tongue

One of the most underrated games ever, and some people like to bash it for no real reason.

No. Some people (me included) don’t like it for reasons you don’t consider valid.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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Karlok - 17 July 2020 09:57 AM
GateKeeper - 17 July 2020 08:59 AM

And talking about graphics, it’s absolutely one of the most stylish and best looking games ever made.

That boring screenshot with a door and two file cabinets gives me the impression it was made by someone with no talent and creativity, who used pixelart as a last resort. A bit like some indie developers used to make 1st-person horror games because that was so much easier than 3rd-person. Even a game like The Last Door with its enormous pixels showed much more creativity than the Darkside Detective.

It is not pixel art!!
It seems so when you first look at it, and that certainly has influenced the art design greatly, but if you study the art style even a bit more thoroughly, you will find out what exactly has been done there.

Look at the lights and shadows in that screenshot. That’s nothing like pixel art, because it isn’t! The characters and objects seem to be constructed of pixels of some kind, but more precisely it is just blocky art style. If you play the game you will encounter situations like this:

In that screenshot you have blocky characters, objects and backgrounds, which is what pixel art would be like.

You also have that pixelated semi-transparent fog, which is not traditional pixel art, because back in the 90’s there weren’t any semi-transparent graphical elements that I can recall.

And of course you have the glow effect around light sources and ghosts, which looks nothing like pixel art, but fits in the graphical style brilliantly!

Karlok - 17 July 2020 09:57 AM
GateKeeper - 17 July 2020 08:59 AM

Combine that with it also being among the top 5 funniest adventure games of all times, it’s certainly a wonderful experience in every possible way.

LOL! Really?  What are the other 4?

That’s a very, very tough question to answer.
It also depends on what kind of comedy we are looking for, and whether we look for game series or individual titles. As a series, Space Quest is great, but as individual games they don’t stand out that much. We also have games like Leisure Suit Larry III, which is one of the best adventure games ever and unbelievably funny, but in the end the comedy aspect is not necessarily so great in comparison with some other games. And of course it depends on the mood, etc.

But let’s say like this (in no particular order):
- The Secret of Monkey Island
- ToonStruck
- Time Gentlemen, Please!
And the fourth one… uhm… OK, let’s say Alien Incident, although that game is uneven and there is a very noticeable quality drop in writing, humour, puzzles, and everything in the middle of the game. Before the maze, though, it’s great, even if the humour might rely too much on Star Wars references.
I also think Simon the Sorcerer 3D has the best writing in the series, so if we want, we can call it a tie between Simon 3D and Alien Incident.

     
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i once told a guy ‘tell me about it!’ and actually told me about it. ..and what the 1% of The the 90’s that Darkside Detective isnt better than it/then.

look TDD is awesome but you are just not following

     

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@Advie I think Vehelon was just being sarcastic Laughing


Regarding Darkside Detective - Wow! It looks like something from the 22nd century!
Not!  Smile
It looks cheap, boring and ugly.

Adventure games in 2020s should look like this:


and not like “artistic choice” cheap crap we are (mostly) currently getting.

     

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diego - 16 July 2020 02:34 PM

There’s no comparison in terms of graphic quality between 2000s (yes, 2000s, not 90s) and recent years - we can discuss the quality of games, and YES - there’re standouts in recent games that could be a worthy contender for some of the best graphics ever (Draugen, Easthade, What Remains of Edith Finch…), but in 2000s it was more of a rule, than an exception. The reason is simple as I can see - we still had a lot of larger companies doing business, instead of small companies and indie developers with tight budgets that are majority of adventure developers today.

I see what you’re saying about the quality, but I still think the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s aren’t that different. For example Riven still holds up and that’s from 1997. Reah is another late 1990’s game with great-looking graphics.

     

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VoodooDerina - 17 July 2020 09:10 PM

@Advie I think Vehelon was just being sarcastic Laughing

Yes and no. I think what this thread is really riding home for me is that it’s all a matter of preference. You can love and miss hand-drawn high-res graphics, or you can love pixel art. Both are equally valid. There’s no ‘better’ when it comes to art and it’s silly to argue over it.

By all means, post a thread telling us how much you miss a certain style of graphics. That doesn’t mean it was a better era and everything nowadays sucks.


On TDD:

GateKeeper - 17 July 2020 10:27 AM

It is not pixel art!!
It seems so when you first look at it, and that certainly has influenced the art design greatly, but if you study the art style even a bit more thoroughly, you will find out what exactly has been done there.

Look at the lights and shadows in that screenshot. That’s nothing like pixel art, because it isn’t! The characters and objects seem to be constructed of pixels of some kind, but more precisely it is just blocky art style. If you play the game you will encounter situations like this:

In that screenshot you have blocky characters, objects and backgrounds, which is what pixel art would be like.

You also have that pixelated semi-transparent fog, which is not traditional pixel art, because back in the 90’s there weren’t any semi-transparent graphical elements that I can recall.

And of course you have the glow effect around light sources and ghosts, which looks nothing like pixel art, but fits in the graphical style brilliantly!

Okay, I do have to comment here. You’re right that it’s not technically pixel art, but the lighting effects are just that - effects. It’s nothing special, just a feature of the engine.

The fog looks cool, but really it’s just altering the colors of the background slightly to a greenish tinge. Easily doable even with the most primitive 80s graphics.

You can see something similar in the Monkey Island 2 swamp area, where the clouds are transparent to the night sky and stars:

I would say these features make TDD more attractive, but really nothing special artistically. It’s fairly standard as far as pixel graphics go. I agree with Karlok a game like The Last Door is more appealing and distinctive to me as art, as far as the abstraction enhances the atmosphere.

     
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Vehelon - 17 July 2020 10:13 PM

The fog looks cool, but really it’s just altering the colors of the background slightly to a greenish tinge. Easily doable even with the most primitive 80s graphics.

You can see something similar in the Monkey Island 2 swamp area, where the clouds are transparent to the night sky and stars:

Not the same thing.
That fog in TDD moves over other graphics and objects, with them being visible all the time. Nothing moves in MI2, it’s a static background image, I even checked a YouTube video of that to be sure.
I don’t know how that image is composed technically, but my guess is that there’s absolutely nothing layered there, and the clouds and stars are all part of the same background image.

Vehelon - 17 July 2020 10:13 PM

Okay, I do have to comment here. You’re right that it’s not technically pixel art, but the lighting effects are just that - effects. It’s nothing special, just a feature of the engine.

The fog looks cool, but really it’s just altering the colors of the background slightly to a greenish tinge. Easily doable even with the most primitive 80s graphics.

What exactly are we talking here now? Are we talking about something being a showcase of technical brilliance, or something being artistically good? You don’t need any technical hype to have good graphics, as you don’t need even a computer to create graphics, a pencil will do.

Background colours? I don’t think that’s what’s happening there. Altering the background would be a very weird way of doing that. If that was a static image, sure, why not. But background is background. Game characters are game characters. And that fog is a semi-transparent graphical element on top of the others.

Vehelon - 17 July 2020 10:13 PM

I would say these features make TDD more attractive, but really nothing special artistically. It’s fairly standard as far as pixel graphics go.

Well I personally disagree. When I first noticed The Darkside Detective, I got drawn to its unique and great looking graphics, not knowing much about the game itself. When I actually started playing the game, it was like winning a lottery to discover that it also happened to be one of the funniest comedy games ever made.

     
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TimovieMan - 17 July 2020 06:52 AM

I agree with PlanetX. Plenty of good-looking games out there.

Me too.

     

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