How come I see so many indie "ps1 graphics" game but I don't see people making games in the style of 2000-2010 games at all.

[u/Fantastic_Response15]

I know that a lot of people consider the ps1 era of graphics nostalgic or eerie which makes it fit for horror games and also is easy to replicate, especially if they're aiming for the nostalgic feeling. One thing I'm curious about though is how I don't see any modern projects trying to mimick the 2000-2010s era of games. it's hard for me to explain it exactly since I didn't experience it so I'll give a few examples of games whose graphics really caught my attention: Re4, Silent Hill 3, Shadow of the Colossus or like CoD Mw2 or Gta IV. One more notable example are the "piss filter games" or "fuckload bloom games (I'm looking for some games with fuckload bloom if anyone could recommend some.)". It just seems like a really cool looking and unique era of graphics to me and I wish I would've experienced it but my point is that a lot of people definitely experienced those during their childhood or teenage years and I'm surprised I don't see anyone trying to recreate the looks of those games in current times.

I'm sorry if it's a stupid question but it has been stagnating in the back of my mind for some time and I had to get it out. If there are modern indie projects or just more old game recommendations in general that fit my bad description I'd love to hear them aside for an answer to why people aren't trying to replicate the feeling of that era.

[u/HatingGeoffry]

PS2 era look is harder to achieve and make look great, and a bad-looking PS2-era style game won't look as cute as a PS1-style game.

[u/sarcastic_patriot]

It's in the weird period of gaming that didn't age very well. The games were trying for realism and failing, while earlier games knew they couldn't achieve realism so they went for artistic and stylized, which ages better.

[u/LITMAC97 → u/sarcastic_patriot]

?? If anything the weird era is the PSX era, which might be the ugliest console gen.

There’s a lot of PS2 and Gamecube games that are still gorgeous to look at (Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, God of War, MGS2 and 3, etc).

[u/BangkokPadang → u/LITMAC97]

But those rose to the top and required teams with lots of skill and time honed during the PS1 era.

It's tough to go from "I should make a game" to building God of War and MGS2 by yourself.

Much easier/more realistic to make your own game that looks and plays like twisted metal or Wipeout than one that looks and plays like Metroid Prime.

[u/LITMAC97 → u/BangkokPadang]

Oh yeah, I’m not denying that, just the claim that the PS2 era was uglier.

[u/Zeus78905 → u/sarcastic_patriot]

I love how Resident Evil 4 to 6 look also Mass Effect 1 to 3

[u/Stinehart]

I always wonder why no one seems to be making PS1 style pre rendered background games, like Final Fantasy, Legend of Dragoon, Resident Evil.

Feel like that would be a good thing to bring back for indie games!

[u/am0x → u/Stinehart]

Lots of work.

[u/Nauticus87 → u/Stinehart]

They still do! Check out Crow Country as a great example.

[u/SpringSalt9288 → u/Stinehart]

Expedition 33 has a few places like that as a reference to that era and art direction, im guessing

[u/teck101 → u/Stinehart]

Phase zero

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3462190/PHASE_ZERO/

[u/ice_spice2020]

Simply chalk it down to trends and how easier it is to make.

That being said, there is a (hopefully) new trend of PS2 aesthetic games being made by indie devs. I only have one example called Heatwarped; a racing game that's practically a clone of NFS Underground 2 with how the whole game looks. At one point I thought this was a career overhaul of Underground 2 until I learned it's an entirely new game.

Anyways you can try out the demo for it on Steam I highly recommend it.

[u/liccman]

Give it 10 more years or so

[u/Fantastic_Response15 → u/liccman]

Oh I will

[u/Zeus78905]

It's probably easier and faster to make PS1 graphics than PS2 graphics

[u/Fantastic_Response15 → u/Zeus78905]

Maybe that could be one of the main reasons

[u/WashUrShorts]

Whats weird to me is , they worked with whatever tricks they had to do because the consoles had limitations -
Best example the Fog of Silent Hill - but if they could archived the Same processing power without the Fog, they wouldnt even have thought about it.

So they did the best with their tools -

But nowadays, People try to recreate these Games in the most lazy ways.
I have heard the argument "Its like a Resident Evil clone" so often on Games and that was kinda the whole and only Shtick.

And most of them are Azz.

I mean there is a reason Tank Controls got abandoned or Resident Evil is now TPP/FPV - because they can.

Doesnt mean all of them are bad - Abiotic Factor is kinda great , you have a Retro look but Modern Quality of Life Features and Substance /Depth

[u/WorthBase919]

I mean put a piss yellow filter on wolverine and you’ve got yourself a 2000’s era game right there.

[u/Anotheranimeaccountt]

PS1 style graphics have a certain charm and soul to them that a lot of modern games don't have anymore because they all keep looking the same thanks to stuff like UE5 and other reasons

[u/minimim-wage-enjoyer]

I cannot wait for 10 years from now when I can play the hit indie military shooter called “modern combat extreme” or something like that. It’s just a piss filter military shooter, but it will be glorious.

[u/smith_and]

I think 95% of the "ps1 graphics" indie games i see look way closer to ps2, or dreamcast at worst. it's like with 2d indie games 15-20 years ago when every "nes graphics" indie game looked more like a turbografx or genesis game. there's certain parts of the style people try to replicate but they don't really hold true enough to real hardware limitations as a whole and end up looking a generation newer.