LogInWeird character portraits, unrecognizable objects, and hallucinations extravaganza.
As the recent example of ARK: Survival Evolved's Aquatica DLC has shown, the only thing gamers hate more than AI-generated visuals is when such visuals are blatantly obvious and look awful even compared to other AI-slop. A situation not too dissimilar from ARK: Aquatica's infamous trailer has now occurred with the remake of Front Mission 3, which is being slammed by the community ahead of its release later this week for using shoddy AI-upscaled graphics.
The wave of backlash began following a report by RPG Site's Cullen Black, who had the chance to try the game ahead of its launch. Based on a compilation of screenshots he gathered comparing the original visuals to those in the remake, it's clear that the developer – an obscure Polish team known as MegaPixel Studio – fed the original game's images into some kind of AI upscaling program, with the results ranging from weird and uncanny to outright nonsensical.
Eerie character portraits, a rocket launcher transformed into, well, something with a scope on it, a map recreated as a bunch of green scribbles, a factory reimagined as a village with oversized tank cars, a fountain that now looks like an ice skating rink, a crowd of Japanese people altered into a racially mixed group – these are just some of the bizarre artifacts found in the remake. Below are a few original vs. remake comparison screenshots shared by RPG Site:
However, the most outrageous examples – and, at least in my eyes, the smoking gun that proves the usage of AI upscaling – are a couple of screenshots featuring Wanzers, the game's mechas and basically the face of the Front Mission franchise.
In one example, a fallen Wanzer was hallucinated into a helicopter-esque vehicle and something resembling a boat covered in yellow "Do Not Cross" police tape, while in another, a Wanzer transformed into something utterly unrecognizable – maybe a spaceship, maybe some kind of sci-fi machinery, your guess would be as good as mine here.
We highly encourage you to check out Cullen's original report to see more examples. Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.