The Timeless Beauty of Pre Rendered Graphics

List recommended by GameTalesHQ at the end of the video: Desperados: Wanted dead or alive (2001) Commandos: Behind enemy lines (1998) Commandos: Men of courage (2001) Beach life (2002) Stronghold (2001) Stronghold: Crusader (2002) The sims (2000) Sim city 4 (2003) The settlers 4 (2001) Anno 1602 (1998) Robin Hood: The legend of Sherwood (2002) Gangsters: Organized crime (1998) Diablo 2 (2000) Sudden strike (2001) America: No peace beyond the line (2001) Age of empires (1997) Age of empires: Age of kings (1999) American conquest: Fight back (2003) Rollercoaster tycoon 2 (2002) Zoo tycoon (2001) Sanitarium (1998) Baldur's gate 2 (2000) Planetscape: Torment (1999) Fallout 2 (1998)

Hardware limitations made video games better.

That opening montage was sick!

I fell in love with PC gaming as a kid in the mid-late 90s, so these pre-rendered graphics give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I wish they could have a rebirth like the 90s retro FPS are experiencing.

Oh my goddd when this video began and you started the clip montage, I was thinking "man so this is why Anno 1602 always looked so good to me." AND THEN YOU SHOWED IT! I love you

Late 90s and early 2000s will forever be my favorite era of gaming

The big advantage and why this type of graphic is so nice is that everything you see, every sprite was carefully made, balanced with color/contrast/hue. In real real 3d since there you dont know from which angle will they looking the action, its much more hard.

Something I always loved about the prerendered isometrics style, especially for RPGs, is that it felt like you were playing a tabletop game on the most AMAZING terrain ever. The late 90's prerendered stuff absolutely DID age better than older polygon stuff, it's not even close.

I just love how it looks and the atmosphere these types of graphics create. No ammount of advanced 3D graphics on isometric games or attempts at emulating it did it for me.

Nice to see Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood on the list. One of my childhood favorites, for sure.

Man, I wish your video would be longer, appreciate what you did here. It's like going back to the 2000s and enjoying video games for no reason but fun.

Very cool video. But i REALLY appreciate that you were respectful on my time. Too many youtubers nowadays feel it is their sacred duty to turn every video idea into a 28 minute essay nowadays. I don't have the time, lads ... no one does anymore. Cheers from france

There is something magical about these older games.

I agree with this being an underrated artstyle; it offers a certain clarity and style, and has a sort of diorama-like quality to it that you don't get with other types of graphical methods. I'm actually developing an RTS that uses this method, as well as some modern techniques that weren't possible with that era of late 90s/early 00s isometric, like using normal and specularity sprites to allow for fully 3D lighting and shadow-casting on otherwise completely 2D sprites.

Pre-rendered graphics made games look like you was living in that world and made the games look modern as if they were made in 2015 back in 1996-2005.

You were correct regarding the genres that use these graphics. I knew what to expect from a game that had that look. Many hours of gameplay, story, lore. Or, many hours of management.

AHH the Sim City 4 OST. This was a great video, you should make an entire series on these beautiful games!

I loved how expressed your point in just about 5 minutes even after briefly going through the history of the technology and why it was necessary. Often, other YouTubers will go into a long, convoluted monologue about the history of something before getting to the actual point, when they could've expressed their opinion in a couple of minutes. Love the editing and list of your favourite games without wasting too much time. Solid video!

That SimCity 4 OST music in the beginning GOES HARD!! Jesus, the nostalgia is real!

youve really opened my eyes to the beauty of this art style. Great vid!