Do Videogames Need More Graphical Grit?

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing whether some recent videogames, such as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, look "too sterile and perfect" . The author explains: "The animation is fine but the world Snake runs through is too sharp edged. There's no dirt and grime in the graphics because they're perfect versions of what was seen in the original game. Somehow, these better graphics have detracted somewhat from my opinion of the newer game." He continues: "DOOM 3, for as great as it looks, suffers from a lack of grit in still shots. I'm hoping the final game will not have the plastic look of the current pictures. Even the highly polished Quake III Arena didn't come across as being plastic to me." Do other gamers share this perception of graphical sterility in some recent games?

Comments

Re:Games need a dirt filter

[danila]

Bullshit. This valley thing is popping up again and again, but I'd really like to see an illustration. Not just some made up graphs, but illustrations that would prove the point. And beyond that, I don't see how it would apply to video games. Can you provide an illustration here? Consider the Doom3 marine, nVidia Dawn or Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2. Are they beyond or before the Valley? If they are already beyond, we don't have a problem and I don't remember scary character in between these and Pacman. If they are still before the uncanny valley, let me just say that I have extreme difficulty visualising their scary and frightening descendants.

I just thought up a competing theory. :) I think the reason we don't like some human-like creatures/objects is either because they are poorly done or because they specifically look similar to sick/dead/mad humans. Zombies look scary not because they are too similar to humans, but not really humans. Zombies look scary, first, because they were artificially selected for that, and second, because they look like humans with leprosy, plague, anfrax, syphilis, cancer, encephalitis, etc. at the same time. Some robots look scary because they look like dissected humans with all the mess of wires, or like a human with some skin problem. :)

I can't name a character in a well done 3D game that would look bad because of the uncanny valley. It is always bad design that is causing my aversion.