When consoles were less powerful, all spaces were liminal, and as nobody expected anything else, none were. Now, the fact that it’s not bustling with photorealistic NPCs feels spooky and unsettling (along with the historical details, which feel creepy in the way that vaporwave makes you feel)
So you’re saying when say N64 was the cutting edge, everyone playing it was loving how new and realistic everything felt.
Now compare that to the younger generation that grew up with consoles way way more powerful and saw games that had fully fleshed out cities and citizens and systems to make places feel alive. So going back to tech that’s 30 years old feels very empty and unsettling by contrast?
I thought every new generation of games looked “photorealistic” on release. Every time I thought it couldn’t get more realistic, they got more realistic.
Honestly I don’t think it’s even necessarily a matter of photo-realism but moreso that 3d games from even later into the generation were more cluttered visually. Funny enough I’ve played some PS2 games that emulate the open sparseness style of the N64/PS1 era to invoke horror vibes.
When consoles were less powerful, all spaces were liminal, and as nobody expected anything else, none were. Now, the fact that it’s not bustling with photorealistic NPCs feels spooky and unsettling (along with the historical details, which feel creepy in the way that vaporwave makes you feel)
So you’re saying when say N64 was the cutting edge, everyone playing it was loving how new and realistic everything felt.
Now compare that to the younger generation that grew up with consoles way way more powerful and saw games that had fully fleshed out cities and citizens and systems to make places feel alive. So going back to tech that’s 30 years old feels very empty and unsettling by contrast?
I think this is exactly what’s happening.
I thought every new generation of games looked “photorealistic” on release. Every time I thought it couldn’t get more realistic, they got more realistic.
To be fair, now I can’t unsee it anymore, after seeing it in that light.
Honestly I don’t think it’s even necessarily a matter of photo-realism but moreso that 3d games from even later into the generation were more cluttered visually. Funny enough I’ve played some PS2 games that emulate the open sparseness style of the N64/PS1 era to invoke horror vibes.