I think Mass effect has better art direction than TF2.

I read about a new Alien game for 360, there's something to hope for.

Also- this man's obviously never played Okami.

I don't see why everyone picks on Gears.

Sure, there was really nothing new brought to the table story-wise, and its all machismo talk and grunting, but they have a gun.
With a freaking chainsaw on it.

Think about it people.

Luke said: "Maybe! Heck, as it stands we'd settle for games that could just match Star Wars and 2001 for design."

I think you missed the point of what Moby was saying.

@SkutSkut: or Mario Galaxy.

I really think Gears of War art direction and world was copied from Appleseed.

"A.D. 2131, the non nuclear world war which had destroyed the world almost completely ended. Deunan Nuts was wandering in a ruined city."

watch the opening and you will easily mistake it for gears of war. [www.youtube.com]

What he says is true...

I believe the opposite. Good art direction existed in the early stages of video game history.

With this current generation, you have games look more realistic (or representing realistic settings). The more things look like they can exist in our world, the less we can take it for being artistically creative. But who says realistic ideas cannot be made to represent an expression of creativity?

I'm probably taking this the wrong way, though. My definition is probably not what most would think.

My opinion ... Gears has more style than Half Life 2.

HL2's art direction, with the exception of the combine designs, tends to go for realistic. And while it manages OK, the engine is starting to show its age at this point. The Combine designs are ok ... but nothing amazing.
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TF2 has an excellent style, very fun ... even if it does look uncannily like they started out making a "The Incredibles" license.
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Gears is at least slightly stylized. And boy does it pull off "gritty"
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KoTOR 3 *cough* I mean "Mass Effect" ... again, not much of an art direction ... IMO it looks like just another Star Trek rip-off cable show.

I thought Gears had a fantastic look to it. Sure destroyed cities are fairly common in games, but the detail and style of such graceful architecture that was slowly crumbling away was fantastic. I thought the Locust themselves were extremely unique and distinctive too. While there are plenty of games that can be accused of having uninspiring art direction, I really don't think that Gears is a suitable target.

Er, to clarify why I really feel Gears has a better art direction than Half life 2 (and its episodes).
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In both games you spend your time going through pretty much the same environment ... ruins of civilization in a post-apocalyptic setting.

But heres the difference ...
In Gears it came across very gritty, and rather creepy.
In Half Life, as much as I love the games ... I always felt like I was trudging through one large garbage dump ...

2 games going for the same setting, but one pulled it off so much better.

@brent_w: "KoTOR 3 *cough* I mean "Mass Effect" ... again, not much of an art direction ... IMO it looks like just another Star Trek rip-off cable show."

Either you have no idea what Mass Effect looks like, or you have never in your life watched an episode of Star Trek.

What he says is spot on.

A ray of hope: ectochrome.

It's not as if games were designed in ignorance of those "4000 years" of art. Sadly games are made for profit unlike art, (debatable... but I'm not here to debate that) games are made for profit. When games do break the accepted artistic molds they are generally recognized and forgotten. Case and point being Okami, it had brilliant art direction, but failed miserably compared to games like Gears. Simply put, people tend to stick to what they know. If someone tried to put out a game with cubist graphics, no matter how good, the general consensus would be a collective "What the fuck is this shit? 1990 was 15+ years ago." as the people go back to buying Madden and clocking hours on Halo, and honestly I would be tempted to agree. Some styles of art are suited for gameplay, others are not. While a game done entirely in cave paintings would be exceptionally interesting in concept it would be difficult to make a game that would sell using such a system. As for the settings themselves it's much the same. Fantasy is expected to have stuff like elves and magic, etc. There is little room for stepping outside the accepted and previously imagined universes.

Can I just say: Bioshock, for fuck's sake.

@justhesh: I didn't say star trek, I said star trek rip off.

They all go out of their way to distinguish their "look" from star trek, but in the end they just manage to make it even cheesier ... and when you get right down to it, it still feels like you're watching an episode or reading a novel of star trek.

And don't get me started on the "90% of life in the universe amazingly as pretty much the same body shape & proportions as Homo Sapiens Sapiens"

@Killalaz: No I dont. That's why I said "id settle".

@brent_w: You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

@brent_w:
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Fix:
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"90% of life in the universe amazingly *has* pretty much the same body shape & proportions as Homo Sapiens Sapiens."

@Anemone
Here here, I hear what you say. Two games that had brilliant 'state of the art' art direction in IMO (Okami and Jet Set Radio), were slept on by the masses - people just don't want to know

"For every Half-Life 2 there's a hundred games like Gears of War, whose only claim to originality or uniqueness in their visual design is...well, they don't really have one"

Wait, what? I love both said games, but Gears had a much more stylized art direction than Half-Life did.

@justhesh: Even the floww of Mass Effect mirrors Star Trek.

Spend 90% of the time talking about our problems and 10% of the time doing something about them.
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And Star Trek had an excuse for this stuff.
It was a TV show with a limited budget ... why do most aliens look like humans with colored skin and funny things on their head?

Because lots of makeup is cheaper than special effects.
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But whats Mass Effect's excuse?

But with space you have so much breathing room because it's fucking outer space. I think thats when an art designers dream would be able to run wild because they get to make shit up.

@tuteja1986: instant lie. have you played mass effect? i mean i liked the game and all, but god damn, those planets were some boring fucking planets. Barely a sign of plant life in site. Actually, barely a sign of any life aside from some shitty space monkeys and a dune worm

TF2 art director knocking on GoW? Please. I experienced TF2's art design back when it was called Mark of Kri. Yes, there is art in everything, but not everything needs to be classified as "art". Not everything needs an "unique art design". Sometimes gritty realism is what's necessary; other times it's cartoony violence. All I'm hearing is one loudmouth spouting his over-inflated opinion as if it were gospel. Cork it, Francke.

He's right. Oftentimes modern games base their world on one already created in film, or books, or comics, etc. Living up to a standard that has already been established does nothing toward creating an atmosphere that allows artists to produce something unique and original, especially when it's the aesthetic that's being mimicked. Sure games like Okami or Jet Set push the boundaries (visually), but how often to games like that really come along? Many in the industry see games as an income, a growing profit margin, potential market to get rich off of. This is the same with film. The result is all of the crappy rom coms, by the numbers action flicks, and b-movies with a-list actors that pollute the theaters. I'd hate for the gaming industry to end up like the film industry: recycled worthless crap with a few diamonds mixed in.

I am sure allot of comments will be made pointed out great designed games :cough: Panzer Dragoon :cough: but it seems the man is talking about the general whole of video games. Lets face it folks from a design standpoint Halo isnt exactlly breaking the mold.

*insert witty thoughtful comment*

Mentioning Gears will provoke a reaction, but why not pick on Killzone if you want a shining example of games not pushing boundaries in art direction?

@aribus:
I'd hate to see that too, but the gaming industry is far from stagnant. It's ignorant to write off a game like Gears because it's not "artsy" enough. What constitutes "art" worth giving a shit about is highly contentious; take a look at the Gawker Artists ads on Kotaku. If you ask me, they're shit. But to someone else, they're "unique art".

I'm sorry, but there's nothing wrong with the industry's art direction.

I'd have to agree with Mr. Moby. Understand, folks, that's he's not saying they need to 'tighten up the graphix!', he's saying there's no ART DIRECTION. And it's true.

These days, most developers are lucky if they even have a pool of staff artists to work with. More often than not, modelers (and sometimes coders) end up pulling double duty, and end up doing character or prop designs. Now, sometimes that's fine. A fireplug just needs to look like a fireplug. Pretty much anyone on the team could probably make a passable model of a football.
But when you've got decidedly right brain personalities doing left brain work, a lot of the time the result falls short. Case in point: Doom 3 and Quake 4. Blegh.

@brent_w: Are you drunk? Did you seriously just say that Gears had better art direction than HL2... because it's less realistic? The textures in HL2 alone show better art direction than Gears! It's got HUNDREDS of the damn things. Pretty much everything in Gears was either concrete gray, or brown.
As for showing it's age... maybe it's different on the home console versions, but the PC version has had an engine update twice now, and still pushes the bounds of my brand new system. HDR lighting, texture specific reaction effects, and a god-damn dynamic lit flashlight?
And, to top it all off, Half Life 2 shipped with something Gears never got around to: a fucking plot.
Now, I'll accept that your prefer Gears of HL2 as a matter of personal preference. But from a technical standpoint, I just can't stay quite on that. It's crazy talk.

I wonder if anyone has thought about the lack of art direction blame can also be cast upon the majority of the consumers who dont worry about such things. Which is why devs can get away with pumping out bland tripe at times.

Jet Set Radio is one of the most underrated games ever.Why hasn't anyone mentioned Halo...imo no game comes close to matching the beauty,especially Halo CE.

@Captain Impulse: Guys, Art Direction doesn't mean you make your game look batshit crazy, or unrealistic. Art direction is just as important, scratch that: more important when you're making a realistic game.

@edb87:

Chainsaw? a lot of fun
Stomp? even more fun
Gangrape a downed person while swinging a grenade? priceless

@computermachina:
I was going to mention Panzer too, but really it owes far too much to 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'.

If every artist in the world was capable of creating artwork that could be featured in the Met...

As for matching 2001 in art style, well, you need a hell of a lot of creative control and a company that is willing to take a gamble on a "unique" art style.

@InsomniaBob:
Art direction isn't about "technical standpoints",
Technically speaking Halo 3 its leagues ahead of Metroid Prime 3 ... but MP3s art direction is easily 10 times better.
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And to clarify my standpoint ... Half Life 2 is clearly the better game.
But I feel, in just the category of art direction, Gears beats it ...

If you haven't read it yet, please take a look at this post I made: brent_w:

I think it explains my thoughts a little better.
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I never seem to get my posts right the first time around ... boy I wish there was an edit button. :-D

@floppylobster: Killzone has glowey eyes.

Theres your art direction

HL2
Bioshock
Team Fortress 2
Okami
Shadow of the Colossus
Ico
- even Unreal Tournament 3

Have exellent art direction.

And whoever thought GeOW had a better art direction than HL2, should re-think their opinion.

@brent_w: No, I read both your posts, but I just can't agree with you there. To each his own, though.

@muscrat_01: True in each case... but that's... 7 games, over the last, what, 5 years?
Those games are definitely the exception, not the rule.

@brent_w: I disagree, methinks HL2s art style is astounding.

Seriously my appreciation for it skyrocketed after buying the 'Raising the Bar' book. Stuff like the giant citidel contrasting against the city, as it slowley consumes it are amazing, as is the awesome graffiti art, and urban design.

I am I the only one who just doesn't understand what this guy is saying?

"For it really not to be utilized, and for the industry to basically dwell in a certain type of genre which has been around the 1980s up to present time, it's pretty much all they're embracing."

What does that even mean? Is he trying to say that all games look the same or... that what he's saying, right?

Maybe its just his point of view, after working at Valve for a while, but it seems to me that God of War and Animal Crossing are just a little different. Yo Francke, look around! Its just you!!!

@InsomniaBob: Well thats just off the top my head in 5 odd seconds.

Many games have art direction, some are recognised more than others. Even crackdown, or stalker had art direction, but compared to somthing like Team Fortress 2 its effect can be different to a certain extent.

It is basically the whole argument of art vs. realism. What many consider art and others consider realism. To me art style is far more superior than realism because anyone can try to push poly-counts on one thing, but making it come together is another.

@ミスター X:
Because realism can't be an art style. Nope...never.

@InsomniaBob:
agreed.

Why are people posting lists of a handful of games that they think have good art styles? It really only points out that the majority of games out there don't put a high level of importance on art direction. Really, I think this problem stems from the fact that games are more related to technology than they are to entertainment or art. This is seen in the media, where, at least in my city, games coverage is put in the tech liftout, or on gaming websites where importance is put on technical details such as framerate or draw distance. He's right, art direction (as well as other aspects) in gaming are in their infancy. Once these aspects of games become a non-issue, I think (hope) that a greater emphasis can be placed on art direction.

@tuteja1986: I could go as far as saying that Mass Effect doesn't have art directing. It's just the most basic stuff you can come up with, everything is as generic as can be. It's like someone just said to artists to come up with space sci-fi and they did. Now I'm not saying that's bad, but sure as hell not something anyone would remember afterwards.

Games do have great art directing, so all his complaints are not valid. I think the current generation pixel shaders are one thing to blame. If developer just uses all the shaders from developing tool the result will look similar to everyone else, one of the drawbacks of 3D is that since everything is drawn to the screen by the same mathematical algorithms it's really easy to end up looking generic.

And on the other hand, movies have art directing too, and there the tools are much more subtle, like color temperatures, etc. So I might be hanging on to some distant past when every game used to have distinct look and feel, maybe I need to update my view of the matter.

I agree that there's a lack of any visual uniqueness. Apart from what's depicted in terms of structures (like God of War's Grecian architecture, or Prince of Persia's architecture), very few games draw on different art styles. Many of them are trying to push for more 'realism' in the game, which is visually impressive when it succeeds, but not really 'unique'.

At the same time, in the 4000 years worth of art history, which ones would people really remember, or would want to play? Most of the post 1900's artwork is so conceptual and abstract and very specifically message-driven that to go all the way with that style would probably detract more than attract (like, er . . . Vito Acconci's 'Seed Bed' for an example of 'what the hell') and just be really dated. I mean, I love the Dadaist movement, but I just can't see how it's anti-art, anti-war, chaotic, impermenant message could translate well into a game stylistically. Other styles like woodblock printing, Impressionist, or cave art would be interesting, but is that concept appealing enough to sell games?

Then you move back to the years between Renaissance and early 1800's: that really super-realistic style that isn't really any different from the realism games try to portray today, except for maybe softer edges and some changes in palette (I realise there's a difference between the style than just that, but I'm generalising here: and they have been realistic in portrayal).

Yes, a few games were very visually different. Okami is obvious, as is LoZ: the Wind Waker. Other games just have a unique visual atmosphere: Shadow of the Colossus and Prince of Persia are my picks for that. However, on the whole, I find console games tend to fall more onto the realistic style.

It's great that the new consoles can render realism that much better now, but it seems that the only games that are willing to experiment on visual style is on handhelds, and specifically, the DS. Seems like the inability to push for super-realism lets other styles florish.

I'd personally love a game in J. M. W. Turner's pencil and watercolour style [www.tate.org.uk] . But that will never happen.

Mass Effect? Bioshock? Gears of War? Half-Life?

Is that what you guys are comparing in the subject of art direction? Clearly no one here has played Okami, Shadow of the Colossous, and Ico. I know there's a few more, but my mind is drawing up blanks.

@epherlite: "I'd personally love a game in J. M. W. Turner's pencil and watercolour style [www.tate.org.uk] . But that will never happen."

I wouldn't say never, remember SaGa Frontier 2? Had hand painted watercolor backgrounds. Not a great game, but great art.

@AceGamer:
Regardless of specific titles, the fact is the gaming industry offers a lot more in terms of unique art direction than, say, Hollywood. For someone from Valve to criticize art direction in the gaming industry is amusing, since they've been stuck in the same Orwellian lab-coat wearing FPS drudgery since HL1. I'm not knocking the HL series, but someone needs to step outside their own familiar territory before they go on to bash other games.