Also, we dulled the color palette.
Not sure about that one. 2008 was firmly inside the "make everything brown for realism" era of videogames.
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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You know, you're right. We sort of went from dull brown to dull gray since then - at least for first person shooters.
Mayber "darker" is a more apt criticism than duller.
It works for Demon's souls because it's a dark fantasy game and the new graphics absolutely nail that vibe.
The main consistent difference I'm seeing here is contrast. The more modern versions have darker darks and brighter brights, with less midrange.
I miss the midrange in games. I'm tired of half my screen being streaking white or pitch black. Give me the midrange curves again!
Some games let you change this in settings. Adjusting screen settings can also help.
I just turn off HDR, unless it's winter and I want to save on my gas bill
Yes, but also...
You would find more colour in the mud at Passchendale.
They all just went LOOK AT ME, I'M DOING HDR!!!! while a fuck of a lot of systems can't
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And THANK FUCK for that, if you can have a minimal UI and still make the game ergonomically playable, then I love you and shall worship you till the death of the universe.
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Mirror's Edge (2008) looks like the one on the right, and is an absolute work of art IMO. The sequel sucks tho
Man I feel like mirrors edge was a cult classic, my firat game on ps3 and one of my favorites. It was such a different game and the art and music were amazing.
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"Gotta find that item"
30 seconds later
"Hmm, that items gotta be around here somewhere"
30 seconds later
"I can't be messing around right now, gotta find that item."
5 seconds later
"Hmm, I wonder if the item is in the location it's in"
Also, include these dialogues in a game where there are hidden collectibles, so you have to hear that fuckass dialogue repeat while trying to make sure you don't miss anything, only to accidentally take the correct path instead of the secret path with the collectible because the secret path was more obvious than the main path so you guessed that the most hidden one was for the collectible...
I'M COMPLETELY FINE
Exactly, lol.
I want my games to have very obvious in-game or UI elements showing me which way is the 'correct' storyline path to take. Not because I want it to be easy to find the correct path -- because I want to make sure I avoid the correct path while I explore elsewhere, and I don't accidentally trigger the next storyline event before collecting all the loot in this stage.
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I hate when they remove hud elements and do fuck all else to convey relevant info about shit you can't see. Like they remove the hud elements that tell you what direction you're being attacked from while also having the absolute worst fucking sound design ever so absolutely none of your senses work.
Also, we dulled the color palette.
Be happy it's not Holywood style TEAL AND ORANGE EVERYWHEREEEEE!!!!
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While I do wish they’d keep the visual styling, I personally feel we should aim for a less cluttered HUD in games. There are so many games where it feels insanely satisfying to rock HUDless and just feel like you’re in direct control of the action.
If you can integrate your HUD into the lore to make it part of the story, you get bonus points.
The other part of it is that it's much easier now to dynamically render UI elements when necessary, which removes much of the need for a HUD with dedicated portions of the screen for information.
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Generally I find it's the opposite?
The start of the franchise is a minimalist work of art. The 5th entry is a bloated completionist campaign with a million ways to burn time and zero ways to enjoy doing so
Be sure to pre-order the Ultimate edition to get the exclusive limited edition gold-plated revolver.
Prince of Persia (2008) – Epilogue DLC
The base game ended on a highly impactful, emotional cliffhanger where the Prince chooses to save his lover, Elika, at the cost of unleashing an ancient evil upon the world. It was an incredibly bold ending. However, Ubisoft decided to sell the game's actual conclusion separately as the Epilogue DLC. Worse still, the DLC managed to completely undo the narrative tension of the base game, making Elika upset at the Prince for saving her before she abruptly leaves him. To add insult to injury, the DLC was never even released for PC players, leaving them permanently stuck with a cliffhanger.
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I like the mini debate here about UI. I think less UI is winning, and for good reason in FPS games where visual real estate matters more than status info. I kind of feel we've gone too far in 3rd person ARPGs, though-- specially in removing minimaps and to a lesser extent quest log stuff for games with side quests and collectables.
At the end of the day, how important is that visual real estate? MMOs and RTS, yeah, not important. FPS and some other 3D games? Important. But there's definitely a middle ground I want explored more for ARPGs and any other game with info that goes beyond ammo counts and health.
I'm fine with less info in RPGs as well as ARPGs. In particular I'm kinda happy if there's no minimap to constantly be glancing at and even moreso if there are no quest markers. Put me in the world and make me learn it! Usually there's still the big map for when you're lost.
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One thing ubisoft does right is the hud options. Can go from crazy everything to minimal/ nothing and all between.
No wait I like this. Kinda. Less UI in games please!
Nearly every game I've worked on since the mid 2000s has started with someone saying "this time it'll be hudless" We do a bunch of work on some kind of HUD replacement, and then testers and focus groups come back with "I couldn't figure out where to go," "I couldn't see the enemies," "it's very confusing."
You need to do the art very differently to make a modern game readable without UI. To a lot of art directors and focus groups, UI is less immersion breaking than the art changes that readability without it requires. Not saying it's impossible. Just requires a mind shift that AAA appears unwilling to take.
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Lmao, we remember 2008 games waaaay differently XD
Fallout 3 GTA IV
The piss colored pile of afterbirth that is the Gears of War series….
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And the right is way better. Minus the color thing.
If I wanted a menu simulator, I'd play an RTS or MMO.
Bonus points when left still displays everything in the same number of pixels on your 4k screen as it did on a 480 CRT.
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one of the things I like about vr games is generally less ui and if you really need stats you'll probbly have some watch type thing or even a tablet you can hold up to look at. you can count the bullets you shoot and load and if you fuck up the number it would probably happen in real life too.
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Really it should be Epic Steampunk Adventure Remastered Edition*
*
*We unlisted the original game from every platform and every shill YouTuber will do the marketing for us of convincing people this is definitely the superior product.
I wish ALL games did this.
I don't get it. 2008 was the time where most games had a puss filter and i don't think bloated ui has ever been a plus.
Real YMMV situation.
Some UIs added a lot of flavor and atmosphere. Others got in the way of the action or garbled the display in a way that felt distracting.
WoW famously had an interface that could easily consume most of the screen during raids. Elder Scrolls IV: PC port's interface was notoriously text heavy.
I remember when I was in college for game development. At the time Mirrors Edge was in development. My instructor for UI made us study it as the perfect example of a good UI. The dot wasn't so much a reticle as an anti nausea measure.
This was also a time where UI layers were occasionally just made in Adobe Flash (I think it was just after Adobe bought out Macromedia) so having a UI with crazy out of theme colours and issues syncing with the rest of the game was a real problem.
Designers felt the UI layers were often clunky, mechanical and in the way damaging the immersive experiences that had been becoming increasingly more "life like". It also saves a lot of localization cost.
I didn't end up in that industry but it seems like this became the norm for quite a while. Though I am starting to see better accessibility in game UI's games depending less on audio or visual only feedback. Which is good as we are all getting older.
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