There are still games made with a decent story and new concepts.
Yeah game-designers and hardware developers need their kick to keep on developing. A pity that their challenge is not yours but i think you would be one of the least, just complaining on these matters.
Castle Wolfenstein was great, I liked No one Lives forever as well, the whole humor concept in it wsa super. I found Anachronox hilarious and is still a game i like a lot. Not just for the graphics but for the story-concept.
Max Payne also is a game that keeps a spot in my memory.
There are so many nice games that are really joyfull…Ragdoll Kung-Fu, sure not masterpiece graphics and the movieflics were utmost crap but i cracked my pants from laughing for the things you can do with it.
I guess the focus currently seems to be on most powerfull graphical representations of real worlds and great physics on a lot of game-related online magazines, but trust me there are many games that are not specific 3d and flashy related yet still are fun.
rag doll kung fu is just insanity. i got tired of it after about an hour, but it sure was fun during that hour!
i made a quick video to demonstrate why i love 2d platformers & super mario bros 1 engine so much 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnnAi-mAbPg
the beauty of levels like this is not only timing the jumps correctly, but also avoiding the fish… which requires you to have to dynamically modify your speed, based on where the fish are. very cool
i played within a deep forest about a year ago and really enjoyed it. i’ve been meaning to pick it back up again soon. i’ll have to try the others as well!
hseiken I think had a good idea going–make games with less polygons, but then they could use all the effects that newer cards offer.
A game in a tron-like reality (and not just the bikes either) would be easier to do now than ever, and it really wouldn’t take that complex of polygons to do it either.
Also, if less polygons are used, it leaves more room for doing unusual physics like alternate gravity fields, infinite play areas (like a 3d version of one of the weird mazes on Adventure [atari2600] that doesn’t have to use teleport points like the Quake3 version did, or like that one area on Forsaken), rooms that twist but your character’s gravity moves with the twisting (zelda on the n64 had one small area that did that), there are so many possibilities.
That within a deep forest game is interesting. I wish I could resize the graphics, but that’s okay, it has been fun.
Kizzume, have you ever played Tron 2.0?
http://buenavistagames.go.com/product/tronPC.html
i don’t believe it’s being sold or supported anymore but,
it might give you some ideas,
it is kind of old but i just played it through once again a 2 months ago, an it was still as good as the first time i played it.
i havent seen anything that can match the beauty of these types of visuals in this game.
Spheres Of Chaos - A Pyschedelic arcade game
Pyschedelic? Well, yes, that is how it’s spelled on the game web site 
. No game I ever played deserves the Pyschedelic label that much, this game (video+audio) rocks !
i have been re-reading some of Chris Bateman’s posts on his blog “only a game”, which basically cover the complex subject of gamer psychology… particularly i have been re-reading his articles about Roger Caillois’ Patterns of Play and also the articles about his develping the demographic game design model, which is essentially a questionaire he is developing which categorizes different gameplay styles and preferences. it’s really interesting stuff and highly recommended to anybody interested in the psychology of video gamers, or how developers factor gameplay preferences into game development
as i was reading the article on one of Caillois’ patterns of play called Mimicry, I noticed there are some references to the importance of graphics in games, and I thought it was pretty good food for thought:
This site will probably give you something good to chew on for a while, Kizzume. and while you’re at it, check out the new survey Chris has posted recently which is closer to the eventual model of what the DGD2 will be all about.
Right now i’m re-reading the articles so i can formulate a post to him detailing my gameplay preferences, and also i can hopefully become one of his case studies, as i find this stuff absolutely fascinating!
Took the survey. Thanks.
I checked out Tron 2.0, very cool. I love the engine they’re using–the bloom over anything that is bright was the perfect effect. They did a really good job on that.
There seem to be something about realism which makes games, if anything, less immersive…
I’m a huge fan of Oblivion - it’s the first game in probably 10 years which has given me optimism about the future of game design… It’s not without its flaws of course, and it takes a fair bit of dedication to open itself up to you; but I think of the game almost like a real place and it’s compelling to be there and play the game with total freedom…
But it’s still not as immersive as when I play games like Back to Skool, SNES Shadowrun, other long forgotten Spectrum games like Colony and Terminus… I think in some ways, quirky game design, along with not trying to render every inch of the game world in (obvious) graphics engine clarity, leaves more to the immagination and increases immersion… In much the same way as a good book.
I often think, it would be amazing to take a game with the atmosphere and character, and open-ended (well fairly) of Shadowrun, and update it to Bioshock/Mass Effect/etc. standard… But would it? Would it lose character by taking over from your own imagination?
I think it almost certainly would… But I think there’s possibly completely different approaches to graphics which could bridge the gap somewhat: improving the physical mechanics of immersion whilst leaving the gameworld somewhat unspoilt…
I’m thinking along the lines of what comic book artists do and what they did with films like Akira, where the realism still requires your own brain to do a fair bit of work - filling in the spaces with something more significant than anything you can realise in a 3D modeller…
…and I’m not just thinking of some kind of improved cell-shader engine - I mean something which combines elements of 2D and 3D animation in a very clever way, and assembles scenes somewhat representively, acting more like a cinematographer than a simulator…
There actually is a new Shadowrun game, it’s supposed to be pretty good, but I think it requires Vista so i won’t be playing it any time soon
but this post really intrigued me… it is mysterious to me that your imagination increases immersion when you play games with crap graphics. because this most certainly does not happen to me at all, like it does when i read a book. when i play an old game, all i am “seeing” is what’s on screen. but it is most likely due to the fact that i don’t have a very visual mind at all. when i read a book and imagine what is happening, it is not so much visual as directional. i couldn’t explain it very well without going in depth… but i could tell you the north/south orientation of the imagined geography of every book i’ve ever read, but i can’t picture in my head what the characters’ faces looked like, because when i read the book, they didn’t have visual details like that. at best, their body had some kind of human-ish blob-type of shape in my imagination, but that’s the best i can describe because it’s entirely not visual to me. that probably makes absolutely no sense, but it’s just like your statement making no sense to me! i guess when i play a game, i am using my eyes, so it disables any feeble visual imagination i may be capable of.
i guess you could say that i just have a crap imagination 
at least i can “imagine” music though. i think i wouldn’t want to be alive if it wasn’t for that!
yeah the uncanny valley is pretty weird. i’m not sure i entirely believe the research. but i did watch the link you posted and it was interesting.
near the beginning it looked a lot more fake, especially if you watch her mouth. it was a bit unnerving actually.
however the later parts, for example in the part near the screenshot you posted, it looked very lifelike, and especially if you’re not looking directly at her mouth, it is very convincing.
Well, I finally have a site set up for the terrains I made for df2. Just got it done today.
Here are some screenshots:
Hehe yeah when she get’s more and more angry and the depth of field narrows, nice job there. 
And true, the mouth could use a little more work, the corners seems too white and the inside lacks shadowing, but real time computer graphics is beginning to look really good. Look forward to try a hit title in the future…
My personal take on this issue is as follows:
Like so many industries, Game developers create games to make money. They follow the demand. The demand is created by the users. If they don’t supply the user’s demands, they don’t make money. Simple really.
On a deeper level, people play games to escape their problems and boredom, to escape the perceived limitations of reality. I don’t have an issue with game players, everyone knows it’s a huge market. But I feel for the most part it is a mass consumed distraction from reality and at some level reality has be lived.
Violently glorified games. It’s such an unconscious act of fear and should be condemned not praised. It’s the Jerry Springer of marketing and packaging fear as a commodity, and not something this world needs more of.
Furthermore, sensory reality is in the mind, and if you’re thinking it’s a positive thing or cool to cause pain, suffering and destruction for others that in essence becomes your sensory reality. And so you play the “game” on many levels.
Sorry if this sounds preachy and my intent is not to start a hater thread. I realize I won’t get much support on this given the fact this topic is about games and I’m okay with that.
My favorite fps is still deus ex…sigh… The number of choices put everything else in the shade.
The lit/philosophy references were a bit hammy but they still made me happy.
And ive heard it used tracker music too!
I absolutely do NOT understand the obsession with “Realism” in regards to video game graphics… in fact, it kind of scares me. It really makes me wonder if there are a growing segment of the population that are only interested in video games because they want to get as close to the act of murder as possible without actually doing it.
That aside, as people in this thread have already mentioned: What ever happened to creativity? We have a wonderful array of graphics capabilities these days that noone seems to want to use for anything but “realism”. Why not do something in the vein of American McGee’s Alice or make a game with the most “realistic” cartoon cell shading you can? Why not create dramatically new visuals that nobody’s seen before? Why not base an entire game around the concepts of surrealism or abstract art? We have the technology to do all of these things, but noone seems to care. There are a million potential innovations waiting to wow the world, but instead we focus on making things look like everything else in this world: mundane and boring. If I want to look at real people, I will. If however, I want to play a video game, it’s because I want an immersing, fantastical experience like no other.
AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF GRAPHICS:
f**** graphics. Yah. That’s right. f**** em.
What ever happened to focusing on good gameplay? If we had the technology we have now back in the 80s, THE GAMES IN THE 80S WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH WORSE!!! … people seem to focus so much on graphics that they forget all the things that really make a game good. When I used to play FPS games in the mid 90s, I never thought “Oh what I wouldn’t give to see realistic blood” … instead I thought “What I wouldn’t give to have bigger guns, physics, and destructible everything… and a controller layout that isn’t so awful” …
and in that vein, I’ll take a moment to explain what DOES need realism: Physics. f**** graphics, give us realistic physics instead. Give us PPUs and a grand unified, cross platform physics engine. Physics not only make a game fun, but they also simplify gameplay, and engage the user in ways that flashy (often distracting) graphics never can. They help to tell the story in a way us humans can understand, no matter how simple the visuals are.
While we’re at it, we need more motion sensing tactile input methods like the WiiMote. I’m personally waiting for Nintendo to come out with the “Powerglove 2” or some such thing. Perhaps some wireless motion sensing arm/leg bands that take mocap to the next level?
These are the things the industry should be focussing on IMO, not “realistic graphics”. Creating a truly engaging experience for the player is only possible when you define what’s fun, and take it to the next level. I’m sorry to say industry fanbois, but looking at shiny things just looses effect after about 5 minutes.
I’m also going to add: The PS3’s graphics suck. Plain and simple. They shouldn’t have alienated their developers by going back to the stone age code-wise just to squeeze some extra GPU cycles. The outstanding success of the oh-so-wimpy Wii should be more than enough to prove this point.
… btw, the new Simpsons game kicks a copious quantity of behind
my favourite topic comes up again!!! recently (like the past few weeks), i have become aware that there is an ENORMOUS community of independent game developers releasing freeware or shareware games that are completely not focused on graphics, and many of them are actually quite quite good… my favourite websites so far are:
http://indygamer.blogspot.com/ – updated very frequently (once or twice a day) with new game releases/reviews … i would suggest checking out some of the recent monthly recaps, with lists of games released by genre – http://indygamer.blogspot.com/search?q=recap
http://www.tigsource.com/ – similar to indygamer, although it somehow seems to usually list different games.
and of course - http://shootthecore.moonpod.com/
this is the definitive website with descriptions, ratings, and download links for pc shmup games (2d shooters). i’ve been getting heavily into these lately, many of them are very very well designed and addictively fun. a few i recommend:
Warning Forever
You simply MUST try this game. it’s a shooter, except it’s all boss battles. every time you kill the boss, it comes back larger and more difficult… except it evolves intentionally to screw you up. i.e. if you attack it a certain way, it will add more armour at that certain place… or if it kills you with a certain type of bullet, the next incarnation will have more of those types of guns. it is indescribably fun. mostly because every single time you play it, you reach that magic point of the game’s challenge meeting your own skill level.
Blue Wish Resurrection
This is one of those bullet hell shmups … really polished (considering it’s a freeware game), great bullet patterns and tons of fun
there’s also lots of “metroid-vania” style 2d platformers which are of a very high quality, things like
Cave story
and of course awesome puzzle games like
Enigma …
looks familiar?? some of you might remember the Amiga/DOS game “Oxyd”… yep, this is an oxyd clone with a level editor and an online levels database !!! games with a good online content distribution system seem to be the best.
and of course there’s Nifflas’ goodies like Knytt Stores, Within a Deep forest which i’m sure many of you are familiar with.
and lots of experimental/art games with new rules and gameplay types which will satisfy those of you looking for new experiences
basically , why the hell do i even upgrade my computer? i tried out the Crysis demo and at medium graphics detail, it runs like 10fps. i was really disappointed. (even though the UT3 demo runs GREAT, what’s up with that?)
i think i am FINALLY content with not upgrading for a while, now that i have found such a wealth of quality, free games with low system requirements.