graphics, consoles and reviews

[lestat2305]

First of all I tend to play a lot of games and do this mostly on a pc. Before buying new games I try to read some reviews in the hopes of learning peoples main issues with the game. Don't get me wrong, I even tend to buy games with bad reviews, the reviews are educational :p

Now what I'm noticing is that todays reviewers tend to value graphics a lot, and that was fine back in 2006 when the ps3 arrived, and heck it was even fine till 2010. but now it just gets plain silly. you see a review of a AC1 and they love the AMAZING GRAPHICS, you got the AC2 and they say the gfx improved, ACB improves again until we get to ACR and now AC3.

anyone get the silly part? they keep talking about amazing graphics for games that are made for, let's be honest, dated hardware. back in 2006, smartphones, tablets didn't exist. touchscreens where a rare sight and an average vidcard hat 256-512 mb memory. single core processors could still be awesome on gaming PC and if you told somebody that a black dude could become president of the US they would say you where crazy.

I mean technology evolved a lot, why didn't the graphics do the same, and worse, why do the reviewers keep telling they still are improving? Look at dishonored, that game could have been made in 2007 by the looks of it. Look at the AC3 trailer, polygons and pointy bits everywhere and the ships explosions are ridiculously weird to look at. Skyrim gained tons of texture packs on a PC and it still can't take a modern day PC graphics card to it's knees.

I know a decent gaming PC can be expensive (around 650$ for a decent one (decent being beating a console by a small margin), good and great ones cost more) but it can do anything and people tend to spend an equal amount of money on their phones nowadays.

Now I don't really care about graphics myself, but find it just stupid that reviewers praise them unnecessarily. For a PC, yes, for a console; nowadays that's a no.

Sorry for the ranting people but it annoys me that gaming websites don't even want to talk about it, I haven't seen a single article on this. So, what do you guys thin?

[williamjones]

Maybe this hsould have been a blog post instead? you just have to ask an admin to allow you to make them.

People, especially since Sega made the 16 bit craze, have always cared about graphics a whole hell of a lot. Japanese game makers stereotype americans for liking graphics more than story or game play even. I wish people would stop caring so much because at the end of all this, what are graphics really supposed to look like? Real life? That will never happen, and if it does, what about fantasy based games? FMV games came along but they looked terrible and the game play was worse. I think a studio should nowadays try an FMV game again and see if technology could make it be way better than before. Maybe a real life Mario game?

I prefer cartoon like graphics which try and be art for most than, the "latest" looking game which will look like crap in 5 years time.

[MarzX11]

Well, that's the thing: they're probably praising the graphics for how they look based on current console hardware which may not be fair if the game is also on PC but for console exclusive games I think it is fair to appreciate the graphics. Take Halo 4 for example: if you compare that game to a new PC game with the best specs then of course Halo 4 won't look as good, but Halo 4 is a game made specifically for the 360 and as a 360 game it looks great given the hardware. And that's good enough for me.

I agree with williamjones; I would prefer it if people didn't try to keep pushing video game graphics to always be up-to-date with the latest PC hardware and rather focus more on gameplay and story while staying a comfortable distance behind in the graphics department.

I find it more silly that a lot of PC gamers that I see online tend to treat video games as a competition to see who can have the best resolution, textures, frame rate, etc. while claiming to care the least about graphics in video games (though I'm not saying the OP is one of those people). I rarely see them talk about the actual games they claim to "play".

In short, graphics for games (at least based on console hardware) are improving and still look good so we really shouldn't keep saying things like "but PC hardware has improved already". If you really don't care so much about graphics, then just enjoy the games for what really matters and don't complain if a game looks like it could have been released in 2007 as long as it still looks nice.

[lestat2305]

In short, graphics for games (at least based on console hardware) are improving and still look good so we really shouldn't keep saying things like "but PC hardware has improved already". If you really don't care so much about graphics, then just enjoy the games for what really matters and don't complain if a game looks like it could have been released in 2007 as long as it still looks nice.

Oh now don't get me wrong, I'm definitly nopt one to judge a game by it's graphics. hell, I've played a number of n 64 and snes games that are way better then current-gen games. I'd take Age of Empires 2 above the 3 without any hesitation, and the 2d zelda games are still more challenging and fun then any of the 3d versions (except OoT of course).
My problem is people saying the graphics keep on getting better then before. That's virtually impossible because of the hardware limitations. they just tend to mess around with the shaders a bit to get a different atmosphere, but that's fiddling, not improving

[MarzX11]

Oh now don't get me wrong, I'm definitly nopt one to judge a game by it's graphics. hell, I've played a number of n 64 and snes games that are way better then current-gen games. I'd take Age of Empires 2 above the 3 without any hesitation, and the 2d zelda games are still more challenging and fun then any of the 3d versions (except OoT of course).
My problem is people saying the graphics keep on getting better then before. That's virtually impossible because of the hardware limitations. they just tend to mess around with the shaders a bit to get a different atmosphere, but that's fiddling, not improving

Whoa, I wasn't implying that you couldn't enjoy older games, and a lot of what you said was just subjective anyway. I don't care what Zelda or Age of Empires games you prefer. Any game can be better than others no matter when it was released, be it 1998 or 2007, but that's not what we're talking about here.

What I was getting at was that people push a hardware's limitations farther than when they began with it, that's what I mean by "improving". People were amazed how Star Fox and especially Star Fox 2 (the un-released game) managed to push the SNES's limitations and contain all that on a cartridge. If you compare Super Mario World to Star Fox, is that not an improvement? They may sometimes only improve on smaller things today (which is what you seem to mean) but there's not much they can really do but if you compare Perfect Dark Zero to Halo 4, you WILL notice a difference (such as how the cinematic and animations are brilliant in Halo 4). Or how in later games like Gears of War 2 and Assassin's Creed 3 they can have more characters, enemies, etc. on screen without issues which they couldn't pull off back in 2005 (again, based on that hardware). I do understand what you mean by a piece of hardware can only let them go so far.

I can see we have different definitions of the term "improving" so let me just say this: I don't mean they are improving graphics to new heights because like you said "that's virtually impossible" but exploring and expanding how far they can go with what they have is improving to me. I do agree though that people shouldn't keep gushing so much over minor things like slightly better lighting and ripple effects (they're nice but it shouldn't be the main focus) every time a new game comes out.

Sorry if you hate me for what I said. Can we just end it here? I don't like to get into big discussions online, I kind of regret coming into this one. I think we just had a different take on the definition of "improving", that's all.

[MaslowK]

They may sometimes only improve on smaller things today which is not much improvement at all(which is what you seem to mean) but if you compare Perfect Dark Zero to Halo 4, you WILL notice a difference (such as how the cinematic and animations are brilliant in Halo 4). Or how in later games like Gears of War 2 and Assassin's Creed 3 they can have more characters, enemies, etc. on screen without issues which they couldn't pull off back in 2005 (again, based on that hardware).

Halo 1 vs Halo 2. 'Nuff said.

[MarzX11]

Halo 1 vs Halo 2. 'Nuff said.

I assume you mean that Halo 2 had a big graphical difference to Halo 1, right?

[Josh]

I would assume. Even though the hardware doesn't change for several years, the techniques do. That allows developers to get more out of the same hardware. Look at Resistance 1 vs Resistance 3.

[DylanD]

Graphics don't evolve quickly in consoles because it only makes sense to support a console for a long time so people can continue to enjoy games on it. Such as the PS2, I hope they continue to keep PS2s on the shelves at stores. If they continuously made new consoles there would be too many for the companies to support and not enough shelf space (at home and in the store) for them. That's my logic anyways.

Also, you shouldn't care about graphics so much. Graphics don't make good games.

[williamjones]

[treos]

my opinion, as its always been, is this: gameplay > graphics 'nuff said

wish they'd make games fun like they did in the 90's (still got a ton in the snes/genesis full romsets i play fairly often)

[MarzX11]

my opinion, as its always been, is this: gameplay > graphics 'nuff said

wish they'd make games fun like they did in the 90's (still got a ton in the snes/genesis full romsets i play fairly often)

They still do make fun games. You just have to know where to look and stop griping over some mainstream games that you don't care about. It's also a vicious cycle of nostalgia; kids growing up now with probably say "games were better back in the 2010's" in the future lol.

90's games are great but I really recommend reading this page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ostalgiaFilter