Realistic or Cartoon visual style?

You know what, I really like cell shaded graphics

But I do enjoy realistic graphics too.
I do like how DOOM felt both very realistic (pretty graphics) and nostalgic (enemy design) in its graphics. Nice clash of styles.

But there are many realistic looking games, where are all the cell shaded ones ?

I like both. I might prefer non realistic graphics, since there is way more you can do with it.

@R4gn4r0k And yes, cel-shading is awesome.

Uncharted style

realistic

depends on the game

Realistic. If I want cartoon style I'll play on my 8 and 16 bit consoles.

Depends on the game, but I mostly like realistic as you can't have much atmosphere in a cartoon style game.

Cartoon/cell shaded. "Realistic" mostly look so bland and boring, a few games can work wonders with it, Witcher 3 for example, but for me no game comes close to the beauty of Wind Waker.

They also age a lot better too.

Cartoon. realistic graphics don't hold up in the long run. But the cartoon style looks fantastic even as far back as the GCN.

Depends on the game's tone

Some games mix both, e.g. Resistance 2 and 3.

Depends on the game in question, naturally, there is no one correct answer. A game like Mario would look horrible if it used the Uncharted style, and a game like Uncharted would look like a joke if it tried to look like Pokemon.

There's no one right answer, and those who think that there is are wrong.

You picked some hella awful examples.

Personally I like both given that they have some good art direction.

Uncharted 4 and Dark Souls 3 would have been awful in Cartoon Style and The Wonderful 101 and Splatoon would have looked terrible if they were made to be Realistic, but that's just my take on it.

Besides That's just based on looks. Doom does not look like a Cartoon, but it sure plays like one so take that what you will.

I want creative art, not realistic. I dont want it to look like a boring Pine Tree, i want it to look like a frozen Pino Tree from the lost ancient world located under the Canadian Tundra. Dont want no red tail hawk, give me that Tunderbird!

Aww, is that a squirrel, ooomg it just transformed into a flying fang mouth serpent looking rat.

They both have their place. I prefer realistic, but some games just need to have that cartoon look.

Depends, but picked cartoon cause the realistic pics you put look lame.

The grayer and brown it is, the more hardcore.

Cell shaded.

@elpresador-911: You mean cinematic style.

@uninspiredcup: You mean like shit.

I prefer realistic over cartoony as it helps immerse me more into a game, but cartoony games have their place.

depends on the game obviously. One upside to cell shaded/'cartoon' graphics is they can help a game age better

Cartoony graphics are for lazy cheap developers like Nintendo

For the love of God, I can´t imagine myself playing a "realistic" looking Mario or Sonic game.

I like both and depends entirely on the game.

I like both, but I might have a slight preference for cartoony graphics, big fan of handrawn art and cartoony reminds me of that. Depends on the game, genre. Right now playing the new TMNT I just love the graphics.

Depends entirely on the game, but sure stylized graphics tend to age better by default.

Its funny you say that, Zelda cost more then majority of games on the market. You think developing a game for 4 years is cheap? Its looks mate, just cause your texture dont look cartoony, donesnt mean it cost more.

Also, a bunch of them "realistic" textures people love so much are copy and paste textures sold by big companies that thats all they do. They make palm trees and then sell them to like 30+ studios. Then the studios adjust the textures with filters and stuff to fit their game.

I am not opposed to realistic visual style, but I prefer the cartoon style for my video games. Its a matter of preference.

Like so many have already said, depends largely on the game.

My feeling is that if the art direction comes up with a coherent and living world, no one will even bother asking.

So yeah, both :)

I'm not locked down on a particular style. I'm happy with either style:

Realistic, but it depends on game.

I lean more over the cartoon style because it's visually more appealing most of the time.

Cartoon-style graphics almost always age better than realistic-style graphics.

Colors.

I feel that cell shaded games are mostly timeless (graphic wise) as opposed to realistic graphics,that tend to look bad as games look more detailed.

for example The Wind Waker graphics look better nowadays than twilight princess.

I really like both and it depends on the game style and the tone they are trying to set within the game.

Soon wouldn't work with cartoon graphics, but the charm of wind waker couldn't be achieved with realistic graphics.

Stylize graphics generally age exceptionally well. Realistic looking games tend to look like crap after a few years. Fortunately this is less of a problem as of late.

Both is the boring answer... but there is something kinda cool about a game that does the cartoony/cel-shaded graphics well.

I went with cartoon style but also think art styles in games should be a little more influenced from comics. Which is obviously closely linked to cartoons but not identical. Also good with anime/manga art styles but the japanese seem to have that well covered already.

I only like cartoony on anime/ toon base games borderlands just use it to cover up bad game models

lol gyrocopter one of the most fun ways to get around in any game.

On topic, like everyone else I like both different games suit different graphic styles more. I'm not sure 'cartoony' is the best word for graphics that aren't realistic. That implies lack of detail or kids style graphics. DA Inquisition has some of the best graphics I've ever seen, really realistic environments and then places like the Fade which is all computer generated and still looks amazing.

I like stuff that just looks 'good'. I don't care about the style, or how it gets there.

@jun_aka_pekto said:

I'm not locked down on a particular style. I'm happy with either style:

Stylized leaning towards ideal realism.

Although it all depends. But thats were I would fall on by default.

Some time realism like Battlefield 4, Far Cry 4 and simulators can be very great looking and very nice looking (just cuz something is super real looking, doesnt make it nice pleasing to look at, sometimes it can be stale and bland).