TrustyGamer has a point. Photorealism is a good thing, but can it really be an escape from reality - especially for ostensibly lighthearted fare - when the color palette it draws on represents the depressing color scheme of our own worlds? Increasingly, that seems to be the case in every title, including EA's Skate, which "look(s) like shots from a heroin game where you have to skate to get your next fix."
"Nowadays, all screenshots basically look like they are from the same post-apocalyptic World War III nuclear fallout nightmare," smakus writes. He finds games to be stress-causing and not stress-relieving because of the dreary, gritty environments we're subjected to, compared to grim titles like Doom and Duke Nukem that dealt death largely in primary colors.
Next-gen "realistic" games (i.e. non-cartoon protagonists or action) with lively, bright colors? I can think of Bully, although the winter months stretch of that game started getting me in a funk. TF2 has cartoons in a real environment. And there's Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but that's probably outside the scope of the writer's argument. I'm sure all of you can think of more.
Like I said, I am color-blind as a bat, and so asking my opinion of a color is almost beyond useless. But it is a good question regarding design: What is ultimately the reason people will buy a game - realism or fun? - and how should that govern the rest of the game's look, feel, sound, story, etc?
I Miss Color [TrustyGamer]