"Realistic" humans in video games are in fact really unrealistic, terrifying.

[Jake]

I saw this nice editorial on Slate about how as game graphics become more and more realistic (but still fail to be 100% realistic), they're often falling into the trap of getting so close to real but not quite, that on some level people start rejecting the characters, stop empathizing with them, and to a point are spooked out by them.

Consider Alias, the new title based on the TV show. It's a reasonably fun action-and-puzzle game, where you maneuver Sydney Bristow through a series of spy missions. But whenever the camera zooms in on her face, you're staring at a Jennifer Garner death mask. I nearly shrieked out loud at one point. And whenever other characters speak to you—particularly during cut-scenes, those supposedly "cinematic" narrative moments—they're even more ghastly. Mouths and eyes don't move in synch. It's as if all the characters have been shot up with some ungodly amount of Botox and are no longer able to make Earthlike expressions.

The article's short but sweet. Definitely worth a read.

I don't know if I agree in every instance with what they're saying. It's definitely far easier to read the emotion off of the performances of the characters in Beyond Good and Evil, or Toy Story, than it is in the Gamecube Resident Evil Remake, or the Final Fantasy movie, but that's not always the case.

For example (possibly the only example), the Half Life 2 character animation demos were extremely impressive and not at all death-mask-like, though even those characters were significantly more stylized than the gaming industry's current obsession with what "real life" looks like (that Alias game, the Bond game, most Japanese survival horror, SSX Tricky even).

[Jayel]

They need to hire animators with proper classical animation training...

[Bc9b]

BG&E and Toy Story are rare examples done by extremely talented animators, most of the realistic stuff done in computer animation looks like crap. And, while the writer extremely over exaggerates every point (see his last paragraph, it's like he's shouting Dooooooom! Doooooom!), his point is that it is better to tug our emotions with stylized characters then with realistic ones.

The example that Bill Tiller uses in this interview is a good example of that.

[Lindset]

Yeah, current game-characters are too stiff. Their body language is all wrong, and they often stare into open-air. Half-Life 2 impressed me, and Brothers in Arms looks just as impressive (judging from the E3 footage). We're in a transition here... Things haven't stalled here. It is going to get better.

And yeah, the problem occurs when the devs are striving for making everything as real as possible. Any small error will be magnified because it's such a contrast to the good stuff... Well, anyway, that's my theory

[arrr_matey]

Animators did a good job of realistic mouth movements in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, but I guess they were all vampires or undead creatures, so that's not realistic for most of us.

Personally, I detest any form of realism. It's pointless. Real life is the only real life. Why bother? It's far cooler to immerse yourself in a place that doesn't look like the one you get to see everyday anyway.

Besides, until they start letting characters use the toilets in games, true 100% realism will always remain elusive.

[Salka]

I agree to a certain extent with Arrrr. I would, in most cases and where possible, be emerged in a whole different world from our own. On the other hand, that's not always possible. Some games just can't be done in a style other than realistic. Half-Life, MGS, etc. These games just wouldn't be the same if done in 'unrealistic' styles.

[Bc9b]

But Arrr, you forget the sims.

But searously, you forget that realstic animation can be used to "immerse yourself in a place that doesn't look like the one you get to see everyday anyway," like the examples in Yufster post. Realism, I find, can be just as good as something totaly out there. While I agree that many realistic games could be much improved if they went more crazy (think MGS, with monkeys!), but just because they are realistic doesn't make them crap, and

[arrr_matey]

yeah, that's fair enough, although i think we're stretching the definition of realism as soon as inter-dimensional aliens are involved.

and i still didn't see no crapping in either half-life or MGS!

[Marek]

I don't think the dichotomy here (sorry, my vocabulary has been polluted) is realism vs. wacky shit. It's realism vs. abstraction. You could do Half-Life 2 or MGS in an abstract style without changing the tone of the story. I'm not sure if it would be fitting, but going more abstract doesn't mean you immediately need monkeys playing banjos and whales falling from the sky. The Scott McCloud book referenced in the article explains that really well. I guess this applies to the discussion, though there's some pages that give better examples.

[RLacey]

I may be alone in this, but I'd far rather games had heavily stylised art than one which tries and fails to look realistic. XIII, Zelda: Wind Waker, even The Curse of Monkey Island - all of them still look good, and don't date by virtue of this style.

This is not, however, a plea for loads of cell-shaded games. Just because the two 3D games I listed are cell-shaded, doesn't mean that all stylised games have to be...

[vimes]

I think lots of people here and there use the word realisme in place of credibility. I mean, BGE isn't a game that is realistic in every aspect nor is Half Life : their world is believable.. and I wish this subtility could be understood by graphic-pepole because if everyone goes for photo-realism models or textures, every games will look the same at the end.

[arrr_matey]

When it comes down to it, i just think it's improper for art to try and recreate reality since all such attempts are destined to fail. Abstraction, stylization, whatever we call it are all ways for an artist to say, "Hey, look monkeys. This ain't real life so don't go pretending it is." Realism is a trick used by things like soap operas, crap movies like Black Hawk Down, and old Russian authors. It's boring, dangerous, and unimaginative.

I'm not saying that means you can't draw characters realistically. But until we get holodeck technology, there's always going to be a gap between reality and art so why not use that instead of trying to fool people into thinking there isn't one.

MGS is a beautiful example of this, since the game wraps you up in a "realistic" shell and then blows it all away at the end with all of that "you're actually living in a video game" stuff. MGS is a perfect example of a game that uses realism as a trap and then totally subverts it by the end.

[Jake]

Well, even the Half Life 2 videos had people with slightly larger than life eyes and things, they were specifically designed to be emotive. That stuff is stylized differently than the others. The survival horror and "EA real" visual styles (hitman comes to mind too) in my opinion seem to always have this obsession that "real" somehow equates to really dark small somewhat sunken eyes and overly pronounced cheekbones, which seems to boost the "death mask" look a little.

[MrHoatzin]

Realism is a trick used by things like soap operas, crap movies like Black Hawk Down, and old Russian authors.

I would just like to append this thought: it's not old Rissian authors, it's dead Russian authors. Dear developers, one more thing to consider; realism is fatal.

[spaceship789]

When it comes down to it, i just think it's improper for art to try and recreate reality since all such attempts are destined to fail.

I'm not saying that means you can't draw characters realistically. But until we get holodeck technology, there's always going to be a gap between reality and art so why not use that instead of trying to fool people into thinking there isn't one.

Exactly!

Whilst working doing realtime graphics, I find it offensive when directors DEMAND 'realistic' graphics. They're like "like we gave you realistic photos, why are you reluctant to make realistic animated characters".

And you get the same thing for game makers trying to find a graphics house to do their graphics. I get things like "Our look is legendary realism. Very detailed, very tactile, photorealistic," its incredible just how much people don't get it.

I may be alone in this, but I'd far rather games had heavily stylised art than one which tries and fails to look realistic. XIII, Zelda: Wind Waker, even The Curse of Monkey Island - all of them still look good, and don't date by virtue of this style.

Exactly - atleast your games will stand the test of time...

.. and not be written off by the world as 'horribly dated' in ten years.

[JBRAA]

The movements of the main character in Splinter Cell 1 were handdrawn. I cant say it looked like a 3d model. More animated look but not cartoonish.

[manny_c44]

I would just like to append this thought: it's not old Rissian authors, it's dead Russian authors. Dear developers, one more thing to consider; realism is fatal.

Speaking of which, I just read that Anna Karenina is at No.1 on the best seller's list because its being endorsed by Oprah's book club. That made me smile...I think Oprah should just start abusing the power and endorse stuff like Mein Kampf. I'd like to see that at #1, just for laughs.

[MrHoatzin]

Speaking of which, I just read that Anna Karenina is at No.1 on the best seller's list because its being endorsed by Oprah's book club. That made me smile...I think Oprah should just start abusing the power and endorse stuff like Mein Kampf. I'd like to see that at #1, just for laughs.

Fuck Mein Kampf, I think it about time The Koran and Das Kapital reach the bestseller list...

On a related note, Oprah is beginning to endorse books such as Anna Karenina and 100 Years of Solitude -- and even though the former is prosaic and the latter incoherent -- I find it hard to be contemptuous about her endeavour.

[schepton]

Look at what Half-Life 2 did, they hired an actual doctor, to make sure that the facial muscles and movements were correct.

[Fastback]

Characters in 'puter games never need to take a piss.

Sorry this is my pet peeve for the decade.

[Jake]

Coming in GTA 6, surely. Drink too much, get a beer gut, have to piss constantly.