Which do you prefer? Do you only like certain types of stylization or is all great for you? How do you feel about the AAA push for realism? Do you think it is hurting or helping the game industry? What was the best style of graphics in your opinion? Do you want more realism in game graphics or stylization? Anything regarding the topic is on the table!

I kind of like stylized graphics because it opens room for lots of creativity and art style choices whereas realistic graphics are mostly interchangeable with other games with a similar art style.

I personally prefer stylised graphics way more, they have more personality and make the games more recognisable. That, and how there’s lots of super old games that still look pretty good today thanks to their more simple and cartoonish style.

I don’t hate realistic graphics though, they work well for the games that use them.

Why not a mixture of both?

As long as they are consistent with the tone, setting and just know what they're doing, you can have success with either style or even a mixture of both.

Stylized 100%

Depends. Sure, I like stylized looks like Crash 4 or Rayman series, but on the other side, games like Kirby and Sonic have been showing some cool looking realistic scenarios (if only in cinematics). If where talking of stages, I'd say realistic, but if we talking about the characters, definitely i'd like a more stylized approach

Just out of personal taste, I've always preferred stylized graphics.

I think realistic graphics have their place in encouraging digital artists to continue to push the boundaries of technology, and will probably become at least a little faster/easier once real-time raytracing becomes more viable for even the cheapest hardware. That said, I do think the current push for realism in AAA games is unsustainable, resulting in absurdly-high budgets with diminishing returns. What even is the point of current-gen consoles like the PS5 anymore other than to play ports of already-beautiful PS4 games with slightly better anti-aliasing, reflections and MAYBE 60 FPS gameplay (way too many games are still too unoptimized to handle a consistent 30, just like in previous generations). How many people have bought an impressively-realistic-looking game, "Oohed" and "Ahhed" at the graphical achievements for like 10 minutes, then forced yourself to enjoy the $70+ game you just bought for at least a couple more weekends because it turns out there's no gameplay "substance" behind all the visual "style."

Finally, I just miss when games in franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog or Final Fantasy came out more than once every two or three years, without drastically reducing the quality to meet that quota. Barring an ethical and efficient use of AI to drastically reduce the time it makes an entire AAA game while ensuring everyone gets to keep their jobs, simple, stylized graphics are the only way to feasibly put out games more often throughout the year while maintaining some semblance of polish and quality. I'm tired of waiting multiple console generations just for a Final Fantasy spin-off, for example, to finally come out, admire the visuals a bit, then feel like I wasted my money once I stop admiring the graphics and ask myself if the actual game is "fun."

I think there's a balance to be struck between the two

Preference for stylized. I say this while keeping in mind that the range for stylization is very, very big. It can be as minimal as let's say Def Jam: Fight For New York and Timesplitters or Second Sight, or much, *much* more strongly like in Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (2023) ,Cookie Cutter (2023), Blud (2024), Darksiders series, Resistor (upcoming), Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip (upcoming) Wuppo, Rayman, No Straight Roads (2020), Genokids (upcoming), Lost in Random (forgot when this one released), Kya: Dark Lineage... the list goes on.

And there's an unfathomably wide range in-between, full of potential.

Like for example in Soulstice (2022)

Soulstice's environments are more close to being realistic and generally having blue shades from being overcast, giant ice and otherworldly crystals in later areas aside.

Meanwhile, the character and creature designs plus style effects are more in line with Italian comics (think Huntik or W.I.T.C.H) and anime (people have cited Claymore and Berserk as influences for Soulstice), but in 3D as a DMC/Bayonetta/Darksiders-styled game.

(sidenote, i do recommend having at the games in question)

So yeah, much greater preference for the stylized stuff.

Stylish games that released 20+ years ago still look stylish today.

Games that looked "real" 20+ years ago do not still look real today.

I think generally I lean towards stylized, but it really depends the game genre/type.

I can't recall many realistic looking platformer games, and often times FPS games are more realistic than stylized.

Stylized hands down, but as someone who mostly plays last-gen games and 2D indie stuff, I find myself easily blown away when it comes to games that try to do realism.

It always annoys me when the game designers' idea of "realism" is that everything's rusty or looks like it's been smeared with Vaseline and you'll rarely see any colors other than brown & grey.

i KNOW RIGHT? There are so many beautiful colors out in nature, from the cool blues of the ocean to the warm oranges of sunsets, but they always choose the ugliest browns. Maybe if your lucky they add a muddy green or yellow to the grass. I would like realism way more if they had actual color to them.

Yeah I feel ya. No matter how impressed I am at the realism of modern game graphics I always feel bad knowing that the devs behind it were probably worked to death.

Let's be fair. Stylized graphics hold up well even years after they are released, but that's an artificial advantage because they are designed with the limitations of the hardware at the time. Now that we're getting realistic graphics which can be handled by the hardware, I think that advantage has been lost more or less, at least for the studios that can afford to make realistic graphics. Just take a look at The Division 2 - it was released in 2019 and still looks great today on my 1070, despite the tech advancing rapidly since then, to say nothing of what Unreal 5 et al can let developers do in the future.

Stylized graphics are much more accessible and easier to handwave away, much like how people hide behind weaknesses in their art by calling it "their style". That's not to say that stylized graphics are evidence of poor art, but when done incorrectly it can appear that way. Just like how realistic graphics, when done incorrectly, can appear half-baked and straight out of an asset flip.

Lastly, stylized graphics may not appeal to everyone, whereas realistic graphics do because everyone has an idea of what reality is supposed to look like. That's a big advantage for AAA developers who want to capture as big a market as possible. Plus, it looks much more impressive to view.

Cope. To paraphrase Jack Sparrow...but you have remembered those games. As opposed to all the other games that had no gameplay and no art direction either, which you likely forgot to the point of suppressing them from your memory entirely.

That's like saying calculators made 20+ years ago can still calculate anything you typed in them instantly, whereas computers that were released 20+ years ago can't play Crysis 3.

There's a balance to be had with optimization and visuals, which is an artificial handicap that people seem to impose on realistic-looking graphics. No wonder people say that realistic graphics look bad when they fail to consider that comparing realistic to stylized graphics is like comparing apples and bagpipes.

Current tech -- such as mesh shaders -- are hindered from mass adoption due to not enough consumer hardware supporting it. When we cross that barrier, say 10 years from now, I think "realistic" games will look, well, realistic. And not the "this statement didn't hold up well" because we're much closer to realistic now than we were 20 years ago.

stylized makes a game feel more unique and memorable

I like both, honestly. I really like the PS2 era of gaming with stylized realism a lot of games went for like Resident Evil 4, Haunting Ground, Devil May Cry.

I don't like modern realistic graphics. They have entered the "uncanny valley" for me of seeming "almost" realistic but not quite there which I find to be off-putting. Especially when you get to the really technically advanced stuff like ray tracing, advanced lighting effects, and super high poly models with extreme amounts of detail. Because then you still see parts of characters clipping through their own model, phasing partially through objects and the environment, snapping between animations in an unnatural way, making uncanny facial expressions. I can forgive all of those things a lot less when the graphics are more stylized. And then there's the heavy use of mocap which always feels like movement that is just barely not quite human. They also use so many fancy lighting and rendering effects that make the games seem "prettier" than real life which is uncanny too.

And for me, the fancy lighting and heavy detail reduces clarity and readability of gameplay elements and environment interaction. I prefer the old way of big, stylized, rotating items you can just pick up. Having to walk up to things in the environment, that blend in with everything else, to see if a button prompt shows up if I can interact with it is lame and slows things down. And give me a plain old sheer cliff face or tree wall any day, over invisible walls where I just have to guess which part of the environment is a playable area of the game.

stylized 1000%. it just looks better overall

I don't think we have really seen a design alongside graphics packed work which is the focus the most memorable Game that tried this is King of Fighters xiii I don't really see any more Games that lift that focus except maybe Wukong legend the industry on the focus of graphics barley scratched the Surface of grapics, animation can work places outside of gaming I would actually check out more Ar Vr hybrids or web divised AR animations.

For realism, I don't need anything higher fidelity than like, Half-Life 2/Max Payne level of graphics. I'm 100% immersed at that level and anything much more than that just feels like a waste to me. You get the idea it's realistic, and it's believable, but it's not overly polished to the point of uncanny valley vibes, because it's a game and any weirdness at that high of a level just takes you out of it.

Stylization helps in that regard, and as a bonus, it doesn't age like milk over time, because if a solid style was picked, you see the style when you play no matter what point in the future, rather than the age of technology trying to wow you like it's real life, except they look like plastic wooden puppets.

And it's not a binary. Movies are stylized right? Even the Blair Witch Project. Same way with realistic graphics. Realism and how it's approached and depicted itself is a style, even when trying to match the real world. And that can be down to framing, lighting, tone, etc. So even if you do choose realistic fidelity, you would still want to choose how to stylize it for artistic cohesion.

Specifically video games, Stylized graphics stand out. If there is a goofy lookin remote for these things, there ought to be something fitting for the interaction. No one is playing call of duty with a gutauir hero style gun remote; they are going to use a keyboard with a bunch of keys with symbols you won't even look at, or a drum, or a steering wheel. I think Stylized games give gamers more fitting vibes to their freedom and creativity.

i prefer stylized graphics because realistic ones nuked my laptop

stylized graphics. having an interesting art style will always look better than pushing realism which always falls short in some area/stops looking impressive years down the line. i love the art style of something like jet set radio because it looks like a 3d comic book vs something like red dead redemption which looks nice but ultimately not super impressive anymore. realism is just boring to me and doesnt give much creative freedom.

I hate art direction that strays too far from realism.... but at the same time... going for realism and failing is the most terrifying shit you can ever witness.

*cough* mass effect andromeda *cough*

I like both, but if I had to choose I would prefer stylised graphics. It's easier to immerse myself in another world when it doesn't look like what I can see in real life.

I don't think realism should be forced in new video games. Variety is always nice ; if all video games had the same style, it would be boring.

Gotta go with stylized

to be honest? i don't think i've ever played a game with realistic graphics.

father had many games with 'realistic' graphics from 2000s, like crazy taxi or ski game(i don't remember the title) but i didn't find any of them appealing.

i only played mario kart and just dance in my childhood and i still found them cool with finding enough points to make 'fanarts' of.

Stylised graphics. It makes games more recognisable and takes less time to work on.

stylized looks to games make them stand out more and it tends to make games age a lot better, while i dont have anything against realism it can get pretty stale lol