Its not like games that tried to be realistic before didn’t exist and not like games that purposely go for a non realistic style now are not a thing. I’m pretty sure we have more pixel style graphics games coming out now yearly than when they were actually a thing.
I wouldn’t be surprised. You probably have young people making games that have nostalgia for games made in the style of 8bit, more than the games that were made that way because of tech constraints.
Games tried to have better visuals, but with the exeption of literal simulators (Gran turismo, flight simulator so on), games never tried to be photorealistic. They had their own visual style. And yes their own static light mapping played huge role in their visual appeal. Imagine Crazy Taxi with a photorealistic visual style. Even games that are set in reality had their own unique visuals, like Max Payne, Nfs : MW, and even GTA IV a relatively new, and quite relaistic game had its own unique appearance. And these were mostly not because of technical limitations, they were specifically going for this look.
Its not like games that tried to be realistic before didn’t exist and not like games that purposely go for a non realistic style now are not a thing. I’m pretty sure we have more pixel style graphics games coming out now yearly than when they were actually a thing.
We have more indie pixel games coming out yearly than all of the original consoles put together during their lifetime I’m pretty sure.
I wouldn’t be surprised. You probably have young people making games that have nostalgia for games made in the style of 8bit, more than the games that were made that way because of tech constraints.
Games tried to have better visuals, but with the exeption of literal simulators (Gran turismo, flight simulator so on), games never tried to be photorealistic. They had their own visual style. And yes their own static light mapping played huge role in their visual appeal. Imagine Crazy Taxi with a photorealistic visual style. Even games that are set in reality had their own unique visuals, like Max Payne, Nfs : MW, and even GTA IV a relatively new, and quite relaistic game had its own unique appearance. And these were mostly not because of technical limitations, they were specifically going for this look.