Are graphics really that big of a deal?

[chozo_hybrid]

As long as I can tell what I'm looking at, I don't care.

 

[Tallim]

Graphics are there to represent the world and provide the player with information be it directly related to the gameplay or just for background/immersions sake. Graphics are great if they don't interfere too much in the actual game (overuse of light bloom I'm trying not to look at you)

If I know what's going on and can make choices based on what I can see then the graphics are good enough. Obviously any extra polish is nice but usually not necessary.

Though I may be biased due to my love of ascii based games and the old C64.

 

[Lightslei]

Legend of Dragoon should sum up my feelings about this.

 

[S.R.S.]

Graphics are a big deal just look at all of the previous posts. There's no denying that we'd all want a sexy looking game to play.
Sometimes it gets really stupid;

Spoiler

Been waiting for a while to use that.

 

[kazork]

Well i own a wii and a laptop, i do not have a HD tv so i am lucky that i do not really care about graphics. But i do care about good game art and visual style. This is one of the reasons i still think that the snes had the best games. Great visual style and at the same time good gameplay.

 

[bismarck55]

Graphics stopped being ugly towards the end of the last console generation. There's no need for games to look as good as they do now, it's just overkill.

 

[nipsen]

..like I was saying - before I was interrupted by the launch of the 360, and fanboys screaming in shifts until they ran out of blood-vessels to crack - graphics is about flowing gameplay and immersion. If new tech can give us more complex and context-aware animation, smoother framerate, and maybe physics based animation - that would very likely be great.

More polished pixels, image-filters and smoothing - sure thing, could also be great. But now we're in the realm of presentation and perceptive imaging technology all of a sudden.

 

[nipsen]

Graphics stopped being ugly towards the end of the last console generation. There's no need for games to look as good as they do now, it's just overkill.

..right. "16-bit is more than enough", hm? lol I hate the internet.

 

[Woodsey]

I dunno, it's cool to be all hippy-ish and say graphics are totally irrelevant to them, and every time I call up for spouting such BS.

If Assassin's Creed 2 tried to recreate all it's features, every mission, etc. etc. in 8-bit it would be bloody rubbish.

Anyway, for those that just don't mind average graphics then fine, but I prefer really sexy ones. More immersive, you can relate to the characters far better, the world is more believable etc. etc.

Graphics stopped being ugly towards the end of the last console generation. There's no need for games to look as good as they do now, it's just overkill.

Are you suggesting we should just stop technological advancement when everything just works fine?

 

[Kasawd]

For me, it depends on the genre.

I need none of them fancy pants graphics for ma' RTS games but I would really enjoy a detailed environment for the immersive quality in my survival horror games.

Zealots can look like a blue/yellow splat on the screen as long as they still stomp zerglings but I can't get into a resident evil game if the zombies are walking rectangles with rectangle extensions.

 

[Maverick Siragusa]

is the pope the leader of the catholics?

is china a communist country?

is twilight an abomination to vampire movies?

 

[Bob_Bobbington]

I don't see graphics as a huge part of what makes a game. Lately I've been playing Deus Ex (I know, late to the party) and the graphics from it have not diminished the immersion one bit for me. Pretty much the only thing that diminishes immersion graphics wise is inconsistencies with graphics (looking at you Far Cry 2 draw distance). Graphics are never a make or break with me.

Also

 

[Continuity]

I dunno, it's cool to be all hippy-ish and say graphics are totally irrelevant to them, and every time I call up for spouting such BS.

If Assassin's Creed 2 tried to recreate all it's features, every mission, etc. etc. in 8-bit it would be bloody rubbish.

Anyway, for those that just don't mind average graphics then fine, but I prefer really sexy ones. More immersive, you can relate to the characters far better, the world is more believable etc. etc.

Immersion has little to do with graphics, immersion is fuelled by a little thing called "suspension of disbelief". If a game can't stand up without its graphics crutch then that is a sure sign that the game is rubbish.
What you're basically saying is that you like shiny things - I'm not going to extrapolate that into a comment on you personally...

 

[nipsen]

I don't see graphics as a huge part of what makes a game. Lately I've been playing Deus Ex..

Well, the problem really is that since DeusEx, what we've had is higher resolution and more pixel-shader effects. We don't really get better "graphics" than that (..with some exceptions).

 

[Cody211282]

I dunno, it's cool to be all hippy-ish and say graphics are totally irrelevant to them, and every time I call up for spouting such BS.

If Assassin's Creed 2 tried to recreate all it's features, every mission, etc. etc. in 8-bit it would be bloody rubbish.

Anyway, for those that just don't mind average graphics then fine, but I prefer really sexy ones. More immersive, you can relate to the characters far better, the world is more believable etc. etc.

I'm not saying that they aren't important, what bugs me is that 90% of a games budget go to the, and thus graphics are driving the industry instead of story or anything else. Then again I'm so out of the loop on what looks good when I installed Alpha Protocol I went "cool this games looks rather nice", but it turns out I was the only one who thought so.

 

[Pegghead]

I don't really care about graphics but if they look like complete ass by comparison to everything around them then I'll notice. Besides, gameplay is far more important than either story or graphics in my opinion.

 

[Keava]

If its an AAA title, made by big developer, published by major publisher and advertised for more money i could count then yes, i expect it to have smooth, up to date visuals along with decent gameplay.

Indie games or smaller projects can be excused with more simplistic graphics, so can be games that have some reasoning behind it, old games are still great, but when there starts to be loads of money behind a game there better be some visible effects.

 

[Halceon]

Are you suggesting we should just stop technological advancement when everything just works fine?

(dunno about the original quoted guy's thoughts, but...) I'm suggesting we focus technological advancement into other fields. Like natural speech synthesis, emergent dialogues and AI actions.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Graphics will not make a game but they can certainly break one.

Sound design is first and foremost the most important part of any game's presentation (note I'm putting aside the question of gameplay here) IMO. Graphics come a distant second. Bad sound design can wreck a mediocre game, and fantastic sound design can make a very good game great.

 

[RIOgreatescapist]

People have diferent goals whislt playing videogames. For some, a lot. For others such as myself, not so much.