Color In Games

[RyanG]

OK, I'm here to talk about the subject of the title of this thread.

I honestly don't understand why everybody gets so bent out of shape whenever they see a game that doesn't have brightly-saturated colors. All I hear is "Wow, that looks really brown." or "Too much grey."
I'm not trying to say that one is better than the other, I myself prefer games of both type. I enjoyed STALKER very much due to it's atmospheric nature and I think the color scheme fit very well with the theme and general, well, atmosphere of the game. On the other hand, I have enjoyed other games with more saturated colors... for some reason Oblivion comes to mind but that's probably not the greatest example.

I'm just trying to understand the rationalization behind your guys' love of color schemes like these... and your disliking of grey and brown.

Discuss.

 

[Dog--]

I never see/hear this..

 

[Lucid]

I've only heard a color complaint with Diablo 3.

 

[Darkside55]

Because of developers' belief that gray and brown are the colors of REALISM. It's the most overused color palette in gaming today. "Good graphics" today means "Lots of browns, grays, and bloom." GAME OF THE YEAR!

 

[lame-o]

What?? There's a lot more to why redundant games suck.

 

[Darkside55]

Did I say that was the only reason why redundant games suck?

 

[AmishSlayer]

Because of developers' belief that gray and brown are the colors of REALISM. It's the most overused color palette in gaming today. "Good graphics" today means "Lots of browns, grays, and bloom." GAME OF THE YEAR!

Yes, but I'll still take browns and grays over another tropical setting. It's a dead horse that keeps coming back for more.

 

[VirusType2]

I honestly don't understand why everybody gets so bent out of shape whenever they see a game that doesn't have brightly-saturated colors.

I'm actually the opposite. Saturated colors are what they use in WoW or in cartoons, and using them in a game that is attempting to look realistic is counter-productive to that end, unless of course, whatever it is in the game would look that way in real life.

 

[Kyorisu]

Colours aren't really the problem. It's the lighting of colours that causes the ugliness.

 

[Vegeta897]

Color is light :arms:

 

[Raziaar]

As long as games are colored inside the lines, I don't care.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

actually too much of either extreme gets on my nerves. BTW I think Stalker was perfect for its nature.

 

[Raziaar]

It's a well known fact that radiation desaturates.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Don't really give a shit, so long as it suits the tone of the game.

Although, too much grey can be kind of... depressing. Case in point: Fallout 3. But then again I guess a post-apocalyptic wasteland isn't meant to be particularly uplifting.

 

[MJ12]

I think HL2 does really well with color schemes, it has quite a bit of variety for one game.

 

[mechanicallizard]

it all depends on the game and its own settings and the atmosphere it requires

 

[Kyorisu]

Color is light :arms:

You have textures yes? In those textures you have a variety of colours. Those textures need to be lit to be seen. The type of lighting used can vastly change the appearance of those textures. The way you say that only applies to the light in the real world i.e. the stuff coming out of your monitor. You can put you arms down.

 

[Vegeta897]

I was making a joke. I know computer rendering doesn't work the same way as light in real life.

 

[Lobster]

The color scheme a game goes with doesnt bother me, what bothers me is when they apply a fixed colorised overlay to the entire image, which makes everything look bland and fake. Stalker isnt a bright and cheerfull game, but it does in many areas look real, the textures and model details are all easy to see, and you get a good sense of depth to your surroundings.

Then if I take the first Gears of War (or the unreal 3 engine in general) as an example, they use some amazingly detailed art assets in their work, then ruin the overall image (imo) by applying a softened washed out overlay to everything, every surface including wood suddenly looks like its made out of a single block of wax.

But I would never judge a game entirely on that, I see Diablo 3 fans going nuts because blizzard has added some sunlight, and a few pretty spell effects, its a ridiculous argument that has no bearing on the game in general.

 

[MJ12]

Well it's one of the big factors which adds to how crappy Fallout 3 looks IMO.

 

[kupocake]

Halo is in this thread, so put down your entertaining Mattel Spaceships.

With that one exception, I struggle to think of a game of quality that made me think 'gee, the colours in this are too depressing / too garish for the setting'. And I like both ends of the spectrum and it's like bleeding rainbows onto teenage angst poetry.

 

[nipples]

The colors are important because they help set the mood of the game. Obviously a bleaker game is going to use a bleak palette, see Gears and Killzone.