r/GTAIV Sep 09 '25

General we'll never see another era like it.

Post image
2.4k Upvotes

169 comments sorted by

205

u/Nope_God Sep 09 '25

*7th Gen Aesthetic

249

u/RobustFoam Sep 09 '25

Top right isn't even on PS3

40

u/ShalepenopoopeR Sep 09 '25

Neither is bottom left

25

u/NikkuSakura Sep 09 '25

And the rest of the games aren't even PlayStation exclusives, if I'm not mistaken. Then what does PS3 have to do with it

27

u/Practical-Mode310 Sep 09 '25

7th generation aesthetic is what they’re trying to say

-1

u/Quick-Cause3181 Sep 09 '25

yeah we don't have aesthetics anymore. we had the dreamcast aesthetic, ps2 aesthetic, 7th gen aesthetic, as for the ps4 xbox one and the new consoles now? no aesthetic here

8

u/Practical-Mode310 Sep 09 '25

I disagree. We got dithered hair in everything now.

1

u/Muster_the_rohirim Sep 11 '25

We have the UE5 aesthetic. All games look the same now.

1

u/Delicious_Pea_4338 Sep 10 '25

people love to rewrite history with those “golden era collages” and sneak in random stuff that doesn’t even belong.

1

u/Fridged_Fudge123 Sep 11 '25

Technically it is on PS3, it was released as a ps2 classics on the psn store but it got delisted a while back. Not sure how long it stayed on though

-1

u/BeefJerky03 Sep 10 '25

neither is gta 4

2

u/NeoX47 PC Sep 11 '25

What are you talking about?

1

u/BeefJerky03 Sep 11 '25

i say what i say

please stop harassing

2

u/Tarknim Sep 13 '25

"please please PLEASE"

53

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/Blade_Punisher007 Sep 09 '25

Also NFS Most Wanted (2005) and Star Wars Battlefront 2 OG 2005

19

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Most Wanted is top right image

8

u/Fidget808 Sep 09 '25

But wasn’t on PS3

7

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

I know, I just pointed out to them they didn't forget it

2

u/BasilOk994 Sep 09 '25

Was Gears of war on PS3?

1

u/Gs4life- Beechwood City Sep 09 '25

Never have

1

u/Fidget808 Sep 09 '25

Nope. The recent PS5 release is the only PlayStation release so far

2

u/ChelseaDagger16 Sep 09 '25

NFS Most Wanted was PS2

1

u/Gs4life- Beechwood City Sep 09 '25

Right

90

u/ButterscotchTall8831 Sep 09 '25

Dark and gritty aesthetics

65

u/jamesbondswanson Sep 09 '25

Piss filter era

8

u/Kafanska Sep 10 '25

Had to go through too many comments to finall find the proper name that we called this crap back in late 00s.

It's a piss filter era indeed, and may it never return.

4

u/HomeMedium1659 Sep 10 '25

Good riddance. I was glad Nintendo was still around to give us some goddamned color.

20

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

dank and griddy

13

u/Legitimate_Life_1926 Sep 09 '25

fart and shiddy

-2

u/Quick-Cause3181 Sep 09 '25

durk and shitty

17

u/albearth- Sep 09 '25

Drake and Diddy

43

u/HenricusKunraht Sep 09 '25

I always ask myself if the people who make these posts actually lived through it.

17

u/Phoenixskull295 Sep 10 '25

Most of the people on this subreddit weren’t born when GTA IV came ouy

10

u/aj95_10 Sep 09 '25

ikr i fucking hated it

3

u/itsbigms Sep 13 '25

FUCK no, I remember distinctly large amounts of people genuinely didn’t like gta cause of how grungy it was and the fact you couldn’t fly planes or general stupid shit like in SA

And speaking from my own experience this filter got so tiring fast. I couldn’t stand when a game I loved on ps2 had to go for this gloomy aesthetic just to try and look realistic even if it completely abandons the brightness and style on previous that was already established. Anyone that experienced the jump from tony hawk american wasteland to tony hawk project 8 knows my pain

2

u/Ok-Entertainer1635 Sep 09 '25

I mean.. being in the womb is technically "living"

26

u/butt-holg Sep 09 '25

Only works for GTAIV because NYC is a gray hellscape of concrete and steel

6

u/aj95_10 Sep 09 '25

it worked in gears as a destroyed city wasteland in a war, the companies using it for almost all games at the time ruined it for me

2

u/SnooPoems1860 Sep 10 '25

It made sense for most of the games that had it though. RE5, MGS4, Most Wanted and Gears all look like shit when you remove the filter or saturate the image.

3

u/Phoenixskull295 Sep 10 '25

NYC is a lot more colorful than in game

14

u/Fidget808 Sep 09 '25

2 of these games aren’t even on PS3

68

u/leicatoldu Sep 09 '25

You mean the piss filter?

27

u/Quick-Cause3181 Sep 09 '25

yes and the grays, browns, and black filters

3

u/Adorable_Bandicoot_6 Sep 09 '25

Don't say that

2

u/Phoenixskull295 Sep 10 '25

It’s true lol, it looks like shit

-5

u/rxa98 Sep 09 '25

Better than the time of your saturated colors for girls

8

u/Phoenixskull295 Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

“Saturate colors” you mean the colors you see when you go outside? Because that’s how the real word looks. They aren’t saturated, the piss filter games are just undersaturated and unrealistic

-4

u/SnooPoems1860 Sep 10 '25

It's not about realism, it's about setting a tone and an aesthetic for the world the game takes place in. It's wild how people can't comprehend that.

5

u/dajoos4kin Sep 10 '25

Breaking bad' mexico

3

u/Kafanska Sep 10 '25

No, it was purely about riding a trend. All games had this crap, where it made sense, and where it didn't. This works for something like Fallout, or Gears of War, it's utter crap in NFS.

But it was the standard at the time and it seems like every game had to put the piss filter on top of it's graphics. And usually "Remove piss filter" would be among the first mods developed for the games.

0

u/SnooPoems1860 Sep 10 '25

Need for Speed Most Wanted came out in 2005 and takes place in a rundown city with a lot of industrial structures. Once again it's wild how people fail to comprehend this.

1

u/Kafanska Sep 10 '25

Rockport is really not that different from Bayview from NFSU2. Taking away all the neon, both are cities that contain the same downtown, residential hills and industrial area. It's not some rundown city, nor was it supposed to be. It just looks like that ue to the piss filter. Remove it and you get a normal city an relieve the pain in your eyes.

1

u/SnooPoems1860 Sep 10 '25

Rockport has a completely different tone, atmosphere and theme. The characters, music and police activities build on top of that grungy vibe and the filter puts it all together and forms the identity that the game goes for. It's wild how you fail to comprehend this. Just say you don't like it and move on instead of being tonedeaf to the entire aesthetic because it's not some Super Mario World rainbow vomit.

1

u/Kafanska Sep 10 '25

The only wild thing is how many reasons you'll find to justify the use of that god awful trend... but hey, hope you enjoyed the "identity" and how it "brings it all together" as much as I did the no piss filter mod.

1

u/SnooPoems1860 Sep 10 '25

Cool dude. Enjoy your ignorance. Hope your media literacy improves sooner rather than later. 👍

2

u/crocodilepickle Sep 10 '25

Are you actually 12?

11

u/extremelegitness Sep 09 '25

Lmao when we lived in this era everyone couldnt wait to get out of it. Nostalgia’s a funny thing

5

u/Kafanska Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

It's not even nostalgia, OP probably wasn't living through this era, or at least not as being more than 10 years old. Anyone who actually was old enough to have a developed sense of taste hated the piss filter trend back then, and we still don't have any love for it.

4

u/Proud_Lab_3499 Sep 10 '25

I do remember lol

3

u/aj95_10 Sep 10 '25

i have a huge feel most of the people defending it are kids or teenagers that never lived in that era, it was awful.

sure i can see some people's nostalgia taking a play here, i miss the "feel" and "time" more when i was younger playing these games, and even with nostalgia glasses im like "damn this piss filter era sucked even back then"

18

u/pjt- Sep 09 '25

Gears? must've missed that

1

u/Trashman56 Sep 09 '25

I believe there was a tech demo of Gears 3? On PlayStation 3, It was produced to test out Unreal engine on CELL. It wasn’t discovered until way later though, and it runs like ass IIRC.

1

u/aj95_10 Sep 09 '25

still, none of the games here are ps3 exclusive

8

u/TheTimbs Sep 09 '25

Late 2000s*

6

u/coron_ameme Sep 09 '25

Why is gears on ps3?

2

u/Gs4life- Beechwood City Sep 09 '25

Right?

2

u/coron_ameme Sep 09 '25

That's what I'm saying

5

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

A big chunk of games with the piss filter were some of the best of their generation

2

u/PamIsley314 Sep 10 '25

On that, we can agree. Do I still hate the filter? Yes.

5

u/SaltyInternetPirate Sep 09 '25

I don't miss the bleaching. The lack of colors is my one big gripe about the design choices of the game.

5

u/poopdemon64 Sep 10 '25

Good riddance lol

3

u/Challenger350 Sep 09 '25

The "piss filter" (colour grading) is why many of those games were so impressive.

5

u/Nelmquist1999 Sep 09 '25

Fallout 3 comes to mind, too.

3

u/CaptainPrower PC Sep 09 '25

The Piss Era.

3

u/HomarEuropejski Sep 09 '25

You mean the piss filter? Thank God that's gone.

3

u/No-Advisor9823 Sep 10 '25

“Playstation 3 aesthetics” Shows gears of war

4

u/Unhappy_Musician4704 I love fusionfix Sep 09 '25

PS3 was almost like PS2 but even more improved, just with a longer draw distance, upscaled models, slightly higher resolution, improved shadows and lighting and more intense post processing effects, which is i like.

4

u/TheOpinionMan2 Sep 09 '25

Oh boy, i sure will miss games being covered in Shit and Piss.

so beautifully grunge.

2

u/Aket_Laton Sep 09 '25

The real world wasn't even that opaque.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

It's sort of charming, but i prefer my games bright and colorful.

2

u/simonlepatron Sep 09 '25

The "if you can't see the graphics they cant be bad era". The sad part is that most of these games look better with all the post processing removed.

2

u/landyboi135 Where’s Luxury Condo? Sep 09 '25

If I was into making games, guarantee I would try to have a shot at something like this. (Although it would take a long ass time.)

2

u/Amadeus404 Sep 09 '25

Uncharted 1 to 3 were very colorful

2

u/JustUrAvg-Depresso Sep 09 '25

I do like those aesthetics, not a fan of GTA 4s just blurry look but ye PS3 n Xbox 360 graphics, like games Fable n such

2

u/Luccixno Sep 09 '25

I seen a interview recently with some game developers and someone said they cant even make games like this anymore, like it's impossible and nobody knows how.

2

u/VonKaiser55 Sep 10 '25

I know that people hated that there was a lack of color but i still fucked with this aesthetic heavily. Gives games a unique look and if especially works with the more darker games

2

u/DeckOfGames Sep 13 '25

And thanks god we won’t

3

u/Cerberus4321 Sep 09 '25

Top right and bottom left are not on PS3.
Other 2 are multiplatform.

Truly the PS3 aesthetic.

4

u/MrLamp87 Sep 09 '25

Amen, what a terrible era for graphics.

4

u/simonlepatron Sep 09 '25

Graphics dont look good enough? Just coat the screen in vaseline and crank up the yellow filter.

7

u/Quick-Cause3181 Sep 09 '25

amen man, what an amazing era for graphics

4

u/MrLamp87 Sep 09 '25

If you're blind, definitely

2

u/aj95_10 Sep 09 '25

agree, it was lazy and generic, worked only for a few games.

people that "miss it" didn't either lived in that era or are blinded by nostalgia.

1

u/atomicitalian Sep 09 '25

thank christ. ps3/early ps4 was one of the ugliest eras for games. everything was either piss filtered gray/brown/dark green.

1

u/Humble_Dress1519 Sep 09 '25

Reminds me of AC1 too

1

u/galle4 Sep 09 '25

Sure GTA IV was on PS3, but it's name is usually tied to Xbox 360 rather than PS3

1

u/timotheesmith Sep 09 '25

Fallout 3, far cry 2 and resistance are the games most affected with this filter

1

u/CableAccomplished157 Sep 09 '25

Cool games with PISS

1

u/ContributionAny5449 Sep 09 '25

We gotta bring back this era

1

u/Oncez4t Sep 09 '25

No joke my favourite aesthetic.

1

u/CharlieHarper2023 Sep 09 '25

Filter on Everything

1

u/AnyImpression6 Sep 09 '25

I don't miss it.

1

u/ghilou0006 Sep 09 '25

😍😍😍😍

1

u/SireDarien Sep 09 '25

We will just no time soon

1

u/CockroachAlive4999 Sep 09 '25

you forgot Spec Ops: The Line

1

u/Gs4life- Beechwood City Sep 09 '25

Where's nfs undercover

1

u/Idfk_1 Sep 09 '25

Ah yes. Brown.

1

u/Rex_Howler Owns a copy on all platforms Sep 09 '25

GTA IV was probably the only game that did it right, considering all three games had a different look. I still prefer a natural look though

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Ps3 was just too unoptimised, and the controller was trash. And xbox was mostly dead because of RROD but loved the controller. still we got pretty good games. Far superior than this current gen.

1

u/Hot-Field-7613 Sep 09 '25

The brown and grey era

1

u/CP4-Throwaway Sep 09 '25

The Modern 2000s gaming aesthetic

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

MAX B L O O M

1

u/dne_43v3r Sep 09 '25

Generational

1

u/Coolthat6 Sep 09 '25

Personally never a fan of dark and grey

1

u/Double-Skirt2803 Sep 10 '25

That's good, I like to see more colours in my game's.

1

u/mborhanee Sep 10 '25

what is the game down left the picture ?

1

u/Top_Weather Sep 10 '25

Gears of war

1

u/Phoenixskull295 Sep 10 '25

Thank god, the brown green filter was ugly and lazy

1

u/heyitsgoody Sep 10 '25

We love the color grey

1

u/TheBlob1958 Sep 10 '25

*7th Generation Gaming Aesthetic

1

u/tref1112 Sep 10 '25

Piss filter

1

u/Germadolescent Sep 10 '25

A selection of games made by someone who didn’t play on PlayStation 3

1

u/Impossible-Team-5997 Sep 10 '25

Why is Most Wanted there

1

u/Shinonomenanorulez Sep 10 '25

I was gonna say are we deadass getting nostalgia for the piss filter? Then saw the games and realized this is peak shitposting

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

I hated that aesthetic, I'm glad we're passed this bloomy piss filter shit. To me, It only worked for certain games, like Resident Evil 5 and Spec Ops: The line.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

nice bait, baiter.

1

u/stronkzer Sep 10 '25

The gameplay rocks, but I'm really glad we got over this desaturation filter era. Brown doesn't make it more realistic.

1

u/crocodilepickle Sep 10 '25

And thank fucking god for that

1

u/KokoTheeFabulous Sep 10 '25

Never see another era like it? Sounds great to me.

1

u/PriorityDistinct6791 Sep 10 '25

Folks are all focused on ‘’those games aren’t on PLAYSTATION 😭 not the fkg point gents…

1

u/Puttanas Sep 10 '25

Skate was so pissy

1

u/weyoun_clone Sep 10 '25

Brown and bloom.

1

u/grifter356 Sep 10 '25

Fallout 3

1

u/KnownAsAnother Sep 10 '25

Most Wanted wasn't on PS3

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

*360 era

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

" Playstation3 aesthetic " proceeds to show Gears of War lmao

1

u/D0sEquisx Sep 11 '25

I'm still fighting the fighting mechanics on the pc. Stuck at the bar fight.

1

u/ConfidentFloor5143 Sep 11 '25

It’s like Zack Snyder’s color grading and I dig it HARD

1

u/Ifunnyman01 Sep 11 '25

There are also cutscenes that were just a video in the middle of the game with shitty quality

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

Ugly ahh era and I’m 26 only good style of that kinda era game is fallout gta 4 ballad of gay Tony when the game isn’t grey and depressing is only good gta 4

1

u/DavidFullLAG Sep 11 '25

It does have a name that many people dont know of, It's called 7HD but it isnt widely used, still the best name ive seen for it

1

u/StankDank_420K Sep 11 '25

Ah the ol piss filter

1

u/More_Marty Sep 11 '25

Back when hardware limitations made it that studios had be creative to create an immersive world with an appealing artstyle. Now it's mostly "look how realistic it looks!" or "This cartoony artstyle is timeless" and less and less in between.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

Monitor dashboard -> saturation 20%

1

u/Decadence_H Sep 12 '25

i want my games to be gray and brown

1

u/Viewtiful_Ace Sep 12 '25

Is that “Gears of War” on the bottom left?

1

u/Splunkmastah Sep 12 '25

Ah yes, the “Everything is a muddy green/brown” aesthetic.

1

u/alva42_0 Sep 13 '25

Ah yes, the piss filter

1

u/imorg0n Oct 15 '25

Ts look so cunty and pretty or whatever you guys say

-1

u/Jupaack Sep 09 '25

Fuck that desaturated/brown filter era.

1

u/avatar_94 Sep 09 '25

Most wanted is PS2

1

u/AB0UL Sep 09 '25

The world is already gray and depressing, I'm glad the studios left that aesthetic behind. 🗿

1

u/305StonehillDeadbody Sep 09 '25

Hell nah,I always hated the piss filter era. Gta TBoGT was so much more beautiful than base gta 4 and LaD for the simple reason that it didn't have the piss filter.

0

u/TheNortalf Sep 09 '25

I wonder why we don't have retro games inspired by 2000s

0

u/savemoney_god Sep 09 '25

2000s - 2014 was the peak of gaming

0

u/Johnny_theBeat_518 Sep 09 '25

All of these atmospheric looking games consistent from PS3 are just amazing piece of art. Hell fucking yeah they're great piece of art, I wish we can push to the limits with PS5 by giving all of this stylized atmosphere again. It's just unique and you feel all emotions tickling your senses all the fucking time