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[Spyxos]

Of course, they are totally different games, but they all look the same to me. They don't have any features that stand out. Everything is a colorful chaos that I can hardly distinguish from each other. If someone told me that all these characters and worlds were made by one and the same studio, I would believe it immediately.

How do you see this?

 

[HRK69]

Labor without love

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Maybe they all hired the same focus group.

 

[Dacvak]

Frankly, I’ve felt this way about 99% of the games that have come out in the last 5 years. Not even just the ones that people like to dunk on.

The only fresh games I’ve played in recent memory are indie games, Astro Bot, and a small handful like Metroid Dread and Baldur’s Gate 3.

 

[Clintizzle]

America: The Game.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Schmendrick]

That's what streamlined design (because you want to appeal to absolutely everyone, as if that could ever work) and artistic bankruptcy look like.
This pastel coloured "we have Pixar at home" style is simply disgusting.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Its for modern audiences

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Don't forget this massive hit.

Sure, they all look the same because they are made by the same people.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Maybe they all hired the same focus group.

Yeah it's called Sweet Baby Inc.

 

[XXL]

Purple is the new hotness.

 

[DirtyBast8rd]

Unappealing sheit is what it is.

 

[SJRB]

Purple promotional color scheme = pass, easy as that.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Yes, I believe the name for that particular aesthetic is ‘Commercial Poison’

 

[Magic Carpet]

years ago there was a thing about hero groups
The Hero
The Lancer
The Big guy
The Chick
The Kid

It’s been going on for longer than I’ve been around.

 

[simpatico]

We're losing the ability to produce good art. Yeah I know you can find some in the outskirts and corners, but in large man shit is terrible. It's not limited to games.

 

[XXL]

What more interesting is how the Avowed key art is heavily inspired from the movie Annihilation.

 

[ByWatterson]

Sweet Jesus Inc.

 

[HRK69]

What more interesting is how the Avowed key art is stolen from the movie Annihilation.

I'm surprised there hasn't be more of a discussion about this.

Are you sure? I'm seeing similarities but that's about it

 

[Spyxos]

What more interesting is how the Avowed key art is stolen from the movie Annihilation.

I'm surprised there hasn't be more of a discussion about this.

I would say heavily inspired, but stolen nah.

 

[Edgelord79]

Purple… the most favoured of all colours for some reason.

 

[XXL]

I would say heavily inspired, but stolen nah.

I guess stolen is harsh. I'll edit my comment. Inspired is better.

 

[Fake]

The age of purple. This is generation Z for amateurs.

 

[Quantum253]

When did streamers start using purple LEDs in their backgrounds. Probably when this weird, everything neon purple starting coming around

 

[Wildebeest]

For as long as I remember, the game industry has just all just copied reference images from the same movies over and over. Lord of the Rings, Black Hawk Down, Alien, Star Wars, and so on. All regurgitated over and over and over.

 

[FunkMiller]

Blue and pink combined make purple.

Blue = boys
Pink = girls
Purple = gender fluid.

Human psychology is a very interesting thing.

 

[SpiceRacz]

The “danger hair” of video games.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

No personality? Not attractive? Good news!!! You’re now non-binary, make things purple!!!

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Purple is the new hotness.

Yep. If there is any purple in the thumbnail for a game, you're in for a whale of a time somewhere along the line

 

[Parazels]

I miss these colors!

 

[calistan]

To be fair, you could do the OP with any half dozen action movie posters from the last 20 years.

 

[Fbh]

If you look deeper than just they key art and a few select screenshots it's easy to tell them apart. That said I do think all of them have bland art direction that's generic at best, and blue with purple is definitely the trendy look this gen.

Avowed in particular is so disappointing because the Key art is fucking awesome IMO

But then you look at the actual game and it just looks aggressively generic.

 

[Ironman_Bad]

They all look equally mediocre

 

[StueyDuck]

I've been saying it for a while now, modern gaming is just repackaged slop.

sure, there's "differences". but it's all still the same. whether it's art style or game play or mechanics etc. You never get anything new, just more of what you've had before (which wasn't great to begin with)

Ghost of Yotei might look incredible and unique, but will it do anything new or unique? The first game did the wind mechanic which was novel but it still worked mostly like your average ubi open world.

 

[SlimySnake]

I despise this art style. it screams cheap moba to me and while i expect it from b tier studios like Obsidian, watching Bioware and rocksteady chase this purple style really sucks. Two of my favorite studios of all time. Both with some incredible looking games. Anthem and Arkham knight still look amazing after all these years. And they are churning out this moba mobile looking games.

Just awful.

Thank god for sucker punch. Ghost Of Yotei looks absolutely beautiful.

 

[Guilty_AI]

We had the brown filter, now we have the purple filter

 

[ADiTAR]

It's a purple bubble.

The issues some Western gaming companies face is that they hired people with agendas, and they think that agenda is shared by their audiences. Clearly it is not.

 

[TheChumpNation]

Why do the faces in these games always look so shiny and wax-like?

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Just had this come up on YouTube

It really has infected everything

 

[SmokedMeat]

Avowed’s artwork is badass. I’m not judging the game until I’ve played it, and I’m especially not lumping it in with the GaaS failures.

 

[Holammer]

I have high hopes for fairgame$ to exceed Concord.

 

[Radical_3d]

There’s been always trends in video games. All bad. Remember “brown is real”? Oh, the 360 glory days…

 

[StereoVsn]

Of course, they are totally different games, but they all look the same to me. They don't have any features that stand out. Everything is a colorful chaos that I can hardly distinguish from each other. If someone told me that all these characters and worlds were made by one and the same studio, I would believe it immediately.

How do you see this?

It’s the Modern Audience version of the bald Space Marine. At least during 360 era one of the big issues was hair rendering.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Yeah it's called Sweet Baby Inc.

To be fair, they're a consultation studio. So, the devs reach out to them if they want their service. The dev studio still has to okay whatever they throw their way.

This "look" and "style" is all just the current standard for the American game industry, unfortunately. Probably the same artists and designers bouncing around too.

There’s been always trends in video games. All bad. Remember “brown is real”? Oh, the 360 glory days…

Exactly. Trends come and go, we've just been in a trend that a lot of people aren't happy with.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

There’s been always trends in video games. All bad. Remember “brown is real”? Oh, the 360 glory days…

Bit of a difference there old chummy. Those games weren't pushing real life agendas to sock it to the 'Chuds' or some bollocks

They all had well written stories to boot

Unlike the dross we're expected to buy these days written by infant's.

 

[Parazels]

There’s been always trends in video games. All bad. Remember “brown is real”? Oh, the 360 glory days…

This is why I'm not that nostalgic about that generation.

 

[Radical_3d]

Bit of a difference there old chummy. Those games weren't pushing real life agendas to sock it to the 'Chuds' or some bollocks

They all had well written stories to boot

Unlike the dross we're expected to buy these days written by infant's.

This is why I'm not that nostalgic about that generation.

You, sir, have no heart.

 

[ResilientBanana]

I hear they all sold super well.

 

[TintoConCasera]

They all had well written stories to boot

Even if that's a bold statement if I ever saw one, I'd still take a Bullestorm over a RedFall any day of the week.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I see a lot of purple.