Will anyone ever reminisce fondly about the 2026 Toyota Camry? It seems impossible. Today’s cars are almost all ugly to me, and the exceptions are usually concept cars that mimic the lines of decades past.
And yet, on an intellectual level, I know that perspectives on this will change. My first car was a 1990 Toyota Camry that was not at all cool when I was driving it around in the 2000s. Now? It may not be a coveted collector’s item, but someone recently got over 900 upvotes on Reddit for showing off a well-maintained specimen.
A few days ago I asked you guys about a 1990 Camry, and today picked her up. It’s in immaculate condition, especially since it’s 34 years old from r/Toyota
A little later in the 2000s, when I was driving a different uncool car, everyone was making fun of “Xbox 360 brown,” a trend toward muddy, desaturated colors (brown, green, grey, “piss”) and ultra-gritty games (they said swears, even).
New graphics tech and movies like Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix were influences, but if I had to pin the trend on one thing, it would be that the first people who grew up playing videogames were getting older and becoming increasingly defensive about the perception that they were investing thousands of hours into children’s toys. They even tried to make Bomberman gritty with Bomberman: Act Zero—it sucked.
Even as I made fun of the trend myself, I remember thinking this same thing: What’s mocked today will be celebrated tomorrow. Sure enough, I got to play a bit of Gears of War: E-Day the other day, and was pleased to find that its overcast sky is still the color of my old grey Camry.
Gears of War was one of the most prominent examples of Xbox 360 brown/grey/green, and had this new game heavily incorporated the saturated primaries that games like Marathon and Arc Raiders deploy against accusations of greyness, it would’ve come across as a self-conscious lack of conviction in the source material.
Parts of the E-Day campaign trailer (embedded above) do come across that way to me: The original really committed to the desaturated look, and didn’t go for the bright red glow in some of the E-Day scenes.
But it’s close enough. E-Day is certainly desaturated compared to post-Xbox 360 brown games like Overwatch and Apex Legends, which made a point of putting glossy candy coatings on their tech. And I’m not making fun of it anymore. I like it. Or, at least, I like the cheap thrill of remembering what it was like to be 20 years younger than I am now.
I doubt a full return to Xbox 360 brown is in our future, given that even E-Day doesn’t go all the way. And even if I’ve come to appreciate the monochrome look, I’m definitely not pining for Resident Evil 5’s piss filter and bloom abuse, which remain ridiculous.
But I wouldn’t oppose a moderate revival of low saturation grime. It’s the natural next step to follow the conspicuously aliased PS1-style low-poly models that are trendy right now. (The upcoming About Fishing is a good example.)
How do you feel about the gritty, desaturated look? Should it stay in the past or make a comeback?
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