Crispy™ AAAfraid of darkness.

[dnf]

Ever noticed a trend in AAA games with day/night circle that the nights don't seem dark at all? Most codexers are getting mad at the lack of darkness in the new thief game, instead, they put a blue filter. Unfortunately, the new thief is not the only one affected by it. From the top of my head, we have games like the modern Fallouts, Far Cry 2 and 3, Batman, Alan Wake, etc... In Far Cry 2 i mostly skipped the nights because it looked ugly graphically wise.

Alan Wake is a interesting example in how much this trend sucks: 90% of the game you spend hiking thru a boring forest fighting baddies. Even tough the game uses some kind of dark and light mechanic, it's pretty rare to find an pitch black scenario, and the only moment it does happen (in a DLC chapter), it was pretty good(and the only moment the game was slightly scary).

What do you think are the reasons for this? ? I dunno, i think even casuals would have liked a more dark approach.

So yeah, why don't we get darkness like Stalker, Thief, Silent hill and Dark Souls(fucking Dark Souls being awesome again) again? Is there an AAA game that does darkness right?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Dragon's Dogma.

Edit: Also, the reason games have pointless day/night cycles is because suits want another bullet point for marketing, but actual darkness affects gameplay in serious ways and only a shit dev would throw that in on a whim.

 

[DefJam101]

There are many reasons for this but one that's not often mentioned is that modern LED TVs don't display solid blacks very well at all.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

 

[felipepepe]

There are many reasons for this but one that's not often mentioned is that modern LED TVs don't display solid blacks very well at all.

Yeah, even thought I love dark areas, playing Demon's Souls on a tropical country was a pain... unless I played at night, the contrast with daylight + LED tv made impossible to see anything on dark areas like the Tower of Latria...

 

[sea]

There are many reasons for this but one that's not often mentioned is that modern LED TVs don't display solid blacks very well at all.

This is the real reason why modern games don't have super-dark areas. Monitors and TVs these days don't have good black levels and "pure black" is not as visually interesting to look at for extended periods. But there are some awfully bright nights in games these days all the same.

Pussy. Needs to go through Tomb of Giants without using any sort of light. Those eyes... eyes everywhere...

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Pussy. Needs to go through Tomb of Giants without using any sort of light. Those eyes... eyes everywhere...

Those Skeleton Beasts should aggro and jump on you from outside your light range, just like Chimeras in Call of Pripyat. That would make Tomb of the Giants so much more fun. Especially if they could jump up cliffs.

 

[felipepepe]

Those Skeleton Beasts should aggro and jump on you from outside your light range, just like Chimeras in Call of Pripyat. That would make Tomb of the Giants so much more fun. Especially if they could jump up cliffs.

Time for a "Hard Mode" Dark Souls mod.

 

[DefJam101]

B-but Dark Souls is the hardest game ever made! Why would you want to make it any harder?

 

[Sodafish]

The darkness in Metro 2033/LL can be properly dark if you have your gamma set right. Can't think of any other AAA title that does this though.

 

[dnf]

The darkness in Metro 2033/LL can be properly dark if you have your gamma set right. Can't think of any other AAA title that does this though.

GTA 4 maybe, tough it's based on jew york, so there is still plenty of lights. Metro is not that AAA tough.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Pussy. Needs to go through Tomb of Giants without using any sort of light. Those eyes... eyes everywhere...

Those Skeleton Beasts should aggro and jump on you from outside your light range, just like Chimeras in Call of Pripyat. That would make Tomb of the Giants so much more fun. Especially if they could jump up cliffs.

They do if you don't have a lantern or whatever. Though you're probably in more danger from the giants and the black knight in that regard.

 

[Gurkog]

STALKER can be proper dark... and scary as fuck when you run into shit while wandering the open areas. CoP at the start, I was ambushed by a couple bloodsuckers at night. Luckily they chased me into some bandits and I let the suckers kill them. It was fun!

 

[felipepepe]

One thing in that regard that really annoys me is the unexplainable ambient light everywhere, so stuff is never really dark. Skyrim is the biggest offender in that regard, the difference from a "dark area" of a cave and right next to a torch is almost none:

VANILLA:

Modded for only actual light sources:

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Same goes for Morrowind and Oblivion. Makes you wonder why they bothered including torches and Night Eye.

*picks Khajiit*

"Oh boy! It's night and I can see in the dark...wait, I didn't turn it on...Hm. Oh."

 

[Metro]

Don't get me started! I was debating Khajiit vs. Argonian and a buddy of mine said Night Eye was useful. I think I've used it maybe a dozen times. Raging so hard, I wanted all the enemies I fought to call me a dirty lizard!

 

[Konjad]

I have no idea what's the reason for that. It looks silly and breaks the point of darkness in the first place. There are games that do it right though, ie. Risen 1/2

(It's not even night in this screenshot, as the sky is bright, yet and you can already see pretty much nothing except that there is some vegetation in the darkness)

 

[Excommunicator]

dannyfx1 hit it on the head. Even if screens could properly show blackness they would absolutely not put blackness in these games.

They live by the mantra of "never inconvenience your dumbest of players". They use night time as a gimmick, not because they want people to experience darkness. It's for effect.

It's the same as everything else in these games. Enemies taking turns to attack the PC, auto-locking targeting/actions, non existent challenges. Anything which has the potential to add difficulty will be "fixed" for these players.

 

[Kane]

What do you think are the reasons for this? ? I dunno, i think even casuals would have liked a more dark approach.

no, it's simply that you can up your monitor's gamma value if you things are too dark and circumvent any design in that manner.

 

[dnf]

Same goes for every modern Bethesda game ever.

Fix'd.

 

[dunno lah]

Opposing Force's Foxtrot Uniform chapter also had a pretty good dark sewer section.

 

[dnf]

good sewer

I hate sewers so much. Are you talking about Half life expansion?

 

[dunno lah]

Yesh.

 

[sea]

Ultima Underworld is set entirely in a sewer, and that game is pretty good.

 

[Luzur]

STALKER can be proper dark... and scary as fuck when you run into shit while wandering the open areas. CoP at the start, I was ambushed by a couple bloodsuckers at night. Luckily they chased me into some bandits and I let the suckers kill them. It was fun!

im playing CoP right now, and man some of the shit i have survived some nights ingame, like when i was walking around that Sawmill in that first area, and headed for what i thought was some guys around a campfire, i was just a few feet when i noticed those guys behaved very, very strange.

 

[Sodafish]

im playing CoP right now, and man some of the shit i have survived some nights ingame, like when i was walking around that Sawmill in that first area, and headed for what i thought was some guys around a campfire, i was just a few feet when i noticed those guys behaved very, very strange.

I'll always remember that area well because I quicksaved right before an emission started, and had to sprint to those warrens across the bridge from there whilst popping anti-fatigue pills constantly, only barely making it before getting fried. Good times.