In the case of Civilization it is true: modern Civs use cartoonish-caricatirish style, and this image is indeed more realistic.

We were so easily impressed.

To be fair, this is how everyone looked in the 90s.

The PS1/PS2 era was the highlight of gaming. Before it was pixelated and after it was enshitificated due always online / subscriptions etc.

we got better titties now tho.

CIV 5s Alexander the great awoke something in me..

Some vga games still hold up

Caeser of the Legion*

Degenerates like you belong on a cross

What did it awake?

I remember playing some racing game on the Sega saturn and thinking the same

Civ vacillates between realistic and cartoonish.

This is what I love about looking back at the past. We always thought it can’t get better then it did.
Even Crysis, which was the pinnacle of graphics at one point, looks really outdated nowadays.

I was so poor, I could only get EGA. My rich friends had VGA. 256 colors. So many colors.

I played through all Tomb Raider PSx on my RetroPi at least twice.

Flaming bisexuality

I don't think I ever had a point where I felt things reached a pinnacle. Photo-realistic was a goal, but nothing reached that. Some games looked good and I could be impressed with 3d, but that excitement was about how good they were getting, so anticipating what they would look like in the future

I remember saying these exact words the first time I saw the original X-wing on the PC with VGA graphics.

Fair enough.

For me it was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.

Same, brother... same