Best video games current

cturbo

What are the top video games right now that feature great narratives and stunning art? I'd love to explore a few.

Neox

Highly subjective, no?

I'd do a callout for Arco!

iam717

Vote for?

Expedition 33

--

Also steam list "top" is a good go to, GOG "top" listings is also a good review spot, unless you are trying to get the "unpopular" not exactly main stream narratives and stunning art, then you have to hunt for those or look in a search for: "this unpopular game is amazing."  usually an indie dev team or solo.

cturbo

I gave Expedition 33 a shot, and it was decent, but since I didn't play it for long, I can't really say much about the story. I appreciate you telling me about GOG; I wasn't aware of that site.

cturbo

I just tried out Cyberpunk, and honestly, it's kind of boring.

cturbo

 GoldenEye 007 - Nintendo 64 still my fav!

iam717

here comes a new batch, you got 100 in this list alone so that should give you and others some ideas and such:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaldzrXjOe0

Some people like to mod cyberpunk, but i hate how everything is being locked behind something, but anyway, keep on letting us know how it goes and list some of the ones you delight in.

cturbo

iam717 said:

here comes a new batch, you got 100 in this list alone so that should give you and others some ideas and such:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaldzrXjOe0

Some people like to mod cyberpunk, but i hate how everything is being locked behind something, but anyway, keep on letting us know how it goes and list some of the ones you delight in.

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. I tried Cyberpunk and found it quite dull, and after reading, I noticed many others felt the same way. The graphics seemed cheap to me, like a knockoff of GTA. Recently, I played a lot of games on Xbox Game Pass, which was enjoyable. I haven't really been gaming for over 30 years, but I do recall the games from back in the day on PC, Sega, Nintendo, and Amiga, which had great narratives and felt more solid, without bugs. Back then, the gameplay was prioritized over graphics. Nowadays, while the graphics are impressive, modern games seem to have more bugs, and the storytelling isn't as strong.

thomasp

Huh, great narratives and gameplay over graphics? The rose-tinted fog seems particularly strong here. Take Psygnosis as an example - Shadow Of The Beast, Killing Game Show and in particular Awesome want a word with you. Or most (all?) of the Bitmap Brothers titles, perhaps excluding The Chaos Engine and Speedball 2. Take the Commodore 64 as an example where some games sold you the loading screen (a scan of the box cover artwork) and then spent disk 2 to load some game that had very little to do with that artwork.

I think you need to fire up an emulator to shatter your memories.

Benjammin

This thread is troll bait, and calling out game graphics being "cheap" or "dull" in an industry focused forum is just bad taste IMO. 

zetheros

I liked Cyberpunk 2077's graphics, thought it was pretty immersive. I agree with newer games being bugladen and poorly optimized. UE5 has lowered the bar of entry to becoming a game developer, for better and for worse. I think a lot of senior talent for optimizing games has left the industry; either let go for cost cutting measures or have moved onto work that pays far better.

I've currently been playing Dune: Awakening and have been having a pretty good time. There's jank and it could definitely be optimized better, but still felt worth the $40 for me. The devs are very responsive and have been pushing out patches quite quickly.

Axi5

Benjammin said:

This thread is troll bait, and calling out game graphics being "cheap" or "dull" in an industry focused forum is just bad taste IMO. 

I'd be inclined to agree, but I think the OP is a student which implies they're young and probably of impressionable age so I suspect it's herd mentality opinion.

@cturbo
Cyberpunk's graphics, even if it released today, are objectively good among it's peers and there's a reason it's still used as a gaming benchmark 5 years since release.

FWIW on topic with the thread, I've been playing Clair Obscur and it's fantastic, definitely GOTY worthy, however my bias is showing and in my opinion Cyberpunk clicked with me more and is my preferred way to spend time

cturbo

Benjammin said:

This thread is troll bait, and calling out game graphics being "cheap" or "dull" in an industry focused forum is just bad taste IMO. 

Grow up! I'm not the only consumer who feels it appears cheap; you ought to do your research and step out of your bubble

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/wc7m1j/opinion_cyberpunk_2077_has_bad_graphics_no_bait/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SchmFuGmTqw

cturbo

zetheros said:

I liked Cyberpunk 2077's graphics, thought it was pretty immersive. I agree with newer games being bugladen and poorly optimized. UE5 has lowered the bar of entry to becoming a game developer, for better and for worse. I think a lot of senior talent for optimizing games has left the industry; either let go for cost cutting measures or have moved onto work that pays far better.

I've currently been playing Dune: Awakening and have been having a pretty good time. There's jank and it could definitely be optimized better, but still felt worth the $40 for me. The devs are very responsive and have been pushing out patches quite quickly.

For sure, I've read about that. A lot of the good workers have either left or been replaced by cheaper labor from overseas. Everyone is just copying each other, which has led to a lack of originality. That's why games with a 30-year history continue to be successful. Also, there's way too much anime!

Benjammin

cturbo said:

Benjammin said:

This thread is troll bait, and calling out game graphics being "cheap" or "dull" in an industry focused forum is just bad taste IMO. 

Grow up! I'm not the only consumer who feels it appears cheap; you ought to do your research and step out of your bubble

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/wc7m1j/opinion_cyberpunk_2077_has_bad_graphics_no_bait/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SchmFuGmTqw

Right....
There's a very good chance that there is at least one CP2077 environment artist on these forums. Game artists are well accustomed to negative feedback - its part of the job - but it can sting when its just insults without any constructive commentary. 
So if your goal with this thread is to directly insult the developers, then carry on I guess. If not, maybe rethink how you phrase things. 

Eric Chadwick

cturbo said:

Grow up! I'm not the only consumer who feels it appears cheap; you ought to do your research and step out of your bubble

Umm. You are posting in the heart of this bubble.

You’re certainly free to express your opinion. But as said, here you’ll interact with and possibly learn from industry veterans, many of whom have worked on these exact games. 

https://polycount.com/discussion/224052/cyberpunk-2077-konpeki-plaza

https://polycount.com/discussion/186130/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-krakow-art-positions

There are also a lot of reasons why issues like shown in that YouTube are happening, in multiple open-world games, and they have to do with the constraints inherent in these types of games. Difficult issues to solve, with no right answers. And limited budgets. And deadlines. And etc.

Anyhow the more tactful way to approach criticism like this, or like any other really, is to instead ask why this is like it is?

Lamont

cturbo said:

... but I do recall the games from back in the day on PC, Sega, Nintendo, and Amiga, which had great narratives and felt more solid, without bugs...

Speedrunners exploit bugs in these "bugless" games all the time . There wasn't much in the way of Q&A in those days, unless it was office staff . "Narratives" in older games were almost non-existent for the top 100 games on any console (Amiga had more story-types I would say), we just wanted to play.  Go from left to right, top to bottom, get to the next area. Little bit of exposition at the start and something to conclude the story at the end with a word-dump and/or flashy screen.

For example my favorite games on the NES, Master System and Atari had zero narrative unless you read the manual to get an overview of the story and the goal of the protagonist . It was thinly applied to give the player some idea of what is going on in the world in most cases.

You have opinions about things so expand on them a bit more.

iam717

TDRL; haven't gamed in quite awhile, stories haven't been the greatest lately, agree.

Just for the record i haven't been gaming since ARK 1 (kind of a nightmare but otherwise neat for me at the time.)

Maybe it was forced but also the p.c. i used at the time was 12 years old and i got it to run enough for me so could've added to the, i enjoyed it vibe.(it was a challenge to run and made it more "exciting to see if i could with that old pc.")

Mech/dino's with being able to attach weaponry especially to flyers, exploration and discoveries, what is not to love.   (the flying suits i didn't really see coming but i suppose the ironman vibe was hiding in the background.)

All that to say i haven't played cp2077 but saw all the hype and was interested, i also thought the artistry when it comes to polish artworks all around was neat to see, all the situations around it though like the long time-frame and still ending up with situations was a little downer but i can only imagine what was going on and speculate on what happen, otherwise very strong potential.

As a Gta clone viewing it from the outside in, perhaps but the visuals and "future tech", possibilities makes it stand apart enough for me to not see that resemblance.   Mods for that i hear are getting pretty cool, but i might not be able to enjoy gaming for a while and with the state of everything going on i doubt i might ever.

Otherwise i take delight from trailers and artistic achievements i see all around in the dev world, indy more so cause i am rooting for the legit little guys and not imposters calling themselves indy and ruining the label for who knows what reasons.

On a side note i do have to slightly agree some of this dialog and stories haven't really been 10/10, even DeathStranding 2 has been off putting, recently viewing a playlist and me and the presenter was like, wtf is going on. lol i found it amusing either way and doesn't take away from the achievement of artistry and releasing of a title that is trying something, "different".

For the record i myself wouldn't mind going backwards and making better stories with engines that are capable of more and having less visuals, so if and or when stories return that leave a mark, people could mod in replace said designs with higher quality pieces, while moding.  How likely that is, is another situation, just a random thought. (example: like zelda, if one could mod it, add in say raytracing ect and change models to say Fina lFantasy type cinematic models, would just put a different, spin to things) is the point i am trying to make with this.  (def a very long time if anyone where to do such a thing but might be pretty awesome to see visually.)

cturbo

Eric Chadwick said:

cturbo said:

Grow up! I'm not the only consumer who feels it appears cheap; you ought to do your research and step out of your bubble

Umm. You are posting in the heart of this bubble.

You’re certainly free to express your opinion. But as said, here you’ll interact with and possibly learn from industry veterans, many of whom have worked on these exact games. 

https://polycount.com/discussion/224052/cyberpunk-2077-konpeki-plaza

https://polycount.com/discussion/186130/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-krakow-art-positions

There are also a lot of reasons why issues like shown in that YouTube are happening, in multiple open-world games, and they have to do with the constraints inherent in these types of games. Difficult issues to solve, with no right answers. And limited budgets. And deadlines. And etc.

Anyhow the more tactful way to approach criticism like this, or like any other really, is to instead ask why this is like it is?

Eric Chadwick said:

cturbo said:

Grow up! I'm not the only consumer who feels it appears cheap; you ought to do your research and step out of your bubble

Umm. You are posting in the heart of this bubble.

You’re certainly free to express your opinion. But as said, here you’ll interact with and possibly learn from industry veterans, many of whom have worked on these exact games. 

https://polycount.com/discussion/224052/cyberpunk-2077-konpeki-plaza

https://polycount.com/discussion/186130/cyberpunk-2077-cd-projekt-red-krakow-art-positions

There are also a lot of reasons why issues like shown in that YouTube are happening, in multiple open-world games, and they have to do with the constraints inherent in these types of games. Difficult issues to solve, with no right answers. And limited budgets. And deadlines. And etc.

Anyhow the more tactful way to approach criticism like this, or like any other really, is to instead ask why this is like it is?

I did not aim to offend anyone, nor was I criticizing individual artists, as I believe they have remarkable design capabilities. My focus was on the game itself, and I was simply noting that it was disappointing when it was launched, which cannot be denied given the extensive media coverage. I am curious about why this is the situation. However, being labeled a troll and being told that I should not express my views is not particularly productive.

cturbo

iam717 said:

TDRL; haven't gamed in quite awhile, stories haven't been the greatest lately, agree.

Just for the record i haven't been gaming since ARK 1 (kind of a nightmare but otherwise neat for me at the time.)

Maybe it was forced but also the p.c. i used at the time was 12 years old and i got it to run enough for me so could've added to the, i enjoyed it vibe.(it was a challenge to run and made it more "exciting to see if i could with that old pc.")

Mech/dino's with being able to attach weaponry especially to flyers, exploration and discoveries, what is not to love.   (the flying suits i didn't really see coming but i suppose the ironman vibe was hiding in the background.)

All that to say i haven't played cp2077 but saw all the hype and was interested, i also thought the artistry when it comes to polish artworks all around was neat to see, all the situations around it though like the long time-frame and still ending up with situations was a little downer but i can only imagine what was going on and speculate on what happen, otherwise very strong potential.

As a Gta clone viewing it from the outside in, perhaps but the visuals and "future tech", possibilities makes it stand apart enough for me to not see that resemblance.   Mods for that i hear are getting pretty cool, but i might not be able to enjoy gaming for a while and with the state of everything going on i doubt i might ever.

Otherwise i take delight from trailers and artistic achievements i see all around in the dev world, indy more so cause i am rooting for the legit little guys and not imposters calling themselves indy and ruining the label for who knows what reasons.

On a side note i do have to slightly agree some of this dialog and stories haven't really been 10/10, even DeathStranding 2 has been off putting, recently viewing a playlist and me and the presenter was like, wtf is going on. lol i found it amusing either way and doesn't take away from the achievement of artistry and releasing of a title that is trying something, "different".

For the record i myself wouldn't mind going backwards and making better stories with engines that are capable of more and having less visuals, so if and or when stories return that leave a mark, people could mod in replace said designs with higher quality pieces, while moding.  How likely that is, is another situation, just a random thought. (example: like zelda, if one could mod it, add in say raytracing ect and change models to say Fina lFantasy type cinematic models, would just put a different, spin to things) is the point i am trying to make with this.  (def a very long time if anyone where to do such a thing but might be pretty awesome to see visually.)

Absolutely, I agree; it is missing the plot or the gaming experience that draws players back consistently. The graphics and gameplay should be integrated as a whole, yet I notice that there is a stronger focus on the graphics rather than the gaming experience itself.

Eric Chadwick

cturbo said:

...
The graphics seemed cheap to me, like a knockoff of GTA. 
...

All I'm saying here is just... be aware of your audience. As said, you're free here to express your opinions. We aren't here to shut you down, on the contrary it's great to have you here!

This is an artist community. We thrive on thoughtful feedback... constructive and related to improving the quality of the artwork. 
https://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions#respect

Blanket frustration is generally not received well here, as you've seen. Partly because we see this all the time, if you go into any fan forum you'll see a lot of whining about this and that, without much substance, and without much awareness of the human side of art-making. We get it, people want to let off steam together, but after awhile it's just a whole lot of noise, and mostly negative noise. So much so that it doesn't help game developers get better at their craft.

One thing I do is try to put myself in the frame of mind of how I would feel if someone was berating or making fun of the work I posted here. Instead, what feedback would help me get better? That doesn't mean sugar-coating everything, rather just try to be insightful and directed in our feedback. People do really appreciate right-to-the-point and honest crits here, we thrive on insight that's informative and helpful towards implementing improvements.

Anyhow a lot of words, hope it starts to help explain how things tend to work here.

kanga

I caught some vids on youtube last  night that placed a lot of blame on AAA greedy investors. It seems they cause huge delays in approvals costing a veritable fortune, cause too much interference with art direction. Not being gamers the direction is often unwarranted or incorrect. There was even talk of huge budgets involved in white washing funds with budgets reaching $400 mil. They are also being blamed for loot boxes and ingame sales and ads. These vids are a response to the latest price rise of games. $90 bucks to you americans and over $100 for us ozzys (no caps on purpose  .

The light at the end of the tunnel is indies. Their quality has shot up. They are games made by gamers, the sort that AAA folks would love to make. No ingame purchases or advertising. No super weird plot lines. No crazy production delays due to unqualified indecision. Produced by gangs of around 30 peeps. Often sold at very low prices as a reaction to overpriced big corporate products.

Anyhow its just what I saw.