>>12123610 (OP)
I'm laughing at all the people in this thread just spinning their tires about stupid bullshit, when in reality this is just a difference in priorities stemming from limitations of the hardware.
In lots of 5th and 6th gen games you were inherently limited by the polygonal fillrate and render distance of the console. So you could either make a really big game with low detail, or you could make extremely simple levels with barely more detail than Duke 3D and jam them full of special effects, hardware accelerated lighting, and special scripting cases that allow stuff like bulletholes in glass, lights you can shoot out, breakable bottles, pots and pans that swing when you shoot them, etc.
Prior to GTA3, the vast majority of studios did the latter instead of the former, particularly games in the stealth genre like Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Splinter Cell. With the success of GTA3 and Halo, people started prioritizing massive levels and arcadey gameplay over realistic special effects and stealth simulation.
>>12124452
Tanker in MGS2 is arguably the most complete example of this overscripted realism bullshit with lights, shadows, breakable objects, pots and pans that swing and ring in different keys based on size, etc. All Japanese staff, no drug use. They did probably work 18 hours a day though.
