Does HD make it a better game?

[nerdsamwich]

HD graphics make a game better.
But they don't make a game good.

I disagree. If anything, the relentless pursuit of better visuals(not just in games, movies too) makes the total experience worse. All that time and money spent on graphics could have gone into making a better storyline, physics, or enemy AI. Can you imagine how gignormous a game with the budget(in time and money) of Crysis could be if they left the graphics at the level of, say, Half-Life, or even Quake? You could play it for months. Even years.

 

[AtticusSP]

HD graphics make a game better.
But they don't make a game good.

I disagree. If anything, the relentless pursuit of better visuals(not just in games, movies too) makes the total experience worse. All that time and money spent on graphics could have gone into making a better storyline, physics, or enemy AI. Can you imagine how gignormous a game with the budget(in time and money) of Crysis could be if they left the graphics at the level of, say, Half-Life, or even Quake? You could play it for months. Even years.

I think you missed the point a bit.
I was saying that graphics don't make a game good, but they can make it better.
I wasn't saying anything about sacrificing gameplay for graphics, I was saying all awesome gameplay could be improved with better graphics.
Name me a game that wouldn't benefit at all if it looked a little better.

 

[Stegofreak]

Overall, I'd say that HD has heightened my gaming experience for some games. Here's a selection;

Dead Rising: HD made this game infinitly more playable because you can actually read the text. Playing it on SD, even at 36", had me squinting to read what text there was.

Forza 2: Is it just me or was the speedometer too vibrant a red in SD. I found that it didn't draw my attention when I played in HD.

Killzone 2: Looks awesome in both HD and SD.

I will also point out that, the XMB propts on the PS3 take up a lot more screen room on an SD TV. Playing on HD they just do enough to draw your attention while on SD they're huge!

 

[nerdsamwich]

HD graphics make a game better.
But they don't make a game good.

I disagree. If anything, the relentless pursuit of better visuals(not just in games, movies too) makes the total experience worse. All that time and money spent on graphics could have gone into making a better storyline, physics, or enemy AI. Can you imagine how gignormous a game with the budget(in time and money) of Crysis could be if they left the graphics at the level of, say, Half-Life, or even Quake? You could play it for months. Even years.

I think you missed the point a bit.
I was saying that graphics don't make a game good, but they can make it better.
I wasn't saying anything about sacrificing gameplay for graphics, I was saying all awesome gameplay could be improved with better graphics.
Name me a game that wouldn't benefit at all if it looked a little better.

Commander Keen got better graphics, and didn't change the game really at all.

 

[Khazoth]

I would like to say this right now, right here.

Graphics. Are. WORTHLESS.

Septerra Core > Any 3D Final Fantasy

Unreal > Haze (I absolutely refuse to beat the dead horse that is Halo any further)

Planescape: Torment > Star Ocean

 

[Yooz]

Only thing HD is good for is making text readable.

 

[Moeez]

Depends on your TV.

 

[Xerosch]

I would like to say this right now, right here.

Graphics. Are. WORTHLESS.

Yep. Graphics are overrated. Won't save a game with crappy gameplay, no matter how shiny it looks.

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

HD does absolutely nothing but make it more pretty.

Yep. Heck, if the difference between HD and SD actually did anything to the gameplay, then we'd have a serious issue.

Exactly. HD doesn't make a game more immersive or spectacular story-wise...it just makes things look nicer.

 

[AtticusSP]

HD graphics make a game better.
But they don't make a game good.

I disagree. If anything, the relentless pursuit of better visuals(not just in games, movies too) makes the total experience worse. All that time and money spent on graphics could have gone into making a better storyline, physics, or enemy AI. Can you imagine how gignormous a game with the budget(in time and money) of Crysis could be if they left the graphics at the level of, say, Half-Life, or even Quake? You could play it for months. Even years.

I think you missed the point a bit.
I was saying that graphics don't make a game good, but they can make it better.
I wasn't saying anything about sacrificing gameplay for graphics, I was saying all awesome gameplay could be improved with better graphics.
Name me a game that wouldn't benefit at all if it looked a little better.

Commander Keen got better graphics, and didn't change the game really at all.

So, the gameplay is the same way it always was, but the game just looks better? Sounds like an improvement to me. I couldn't complain about that.

 

[EeveeElectro]

It makes it slightly brighter, for me anyway.

 

[Balaxe]

No, just no.

 

[Balaxe]

Fine i'll say more, ive played both and I feel my experience does'nt increase or decrease depending on what I use. It only makes it harder on the devs.

 

[beddo]

As far as I have seen, HD hasn't changed a game in quality in graphics from an HD and SD tv. So I was wonder, why is there such a great demand for getting one or that a game can handle HD. I have only tried it on Fallout 3 and some demos with no difference in quality of graphics. In fact Fallout 3 looked even worse in HD then it did in SD. So what about HD makes it better? I ask because I can't seem to find a reason why.

I'm not sure what you mean, are you playing HD content on an SDTV? In that case there won't be any difference unless you use say component inputs at 480p where the picture will be sharper and smoother.

Go put GTA IV in your console then go back to GTA 3 and you'll really see the difference.

 

[veloper]

Small text should be readable.

HD is ok.
PC is good.

 

[Gaming_Purist]

HD can't make a crap game good, but it can make a good game better.

 

[TheBarefootBandit]

PES is definetly improved from a 60Hz TV - 100Hz HD, same with GTA 4

 

[GoldenRaz]

HD does absolutely nothing but make it more pretty.

This

 

[Good morning blues]

Graphics don't make a game better let alone high definition.
If people were less obsessed with graphics we might actually get some gameplay which isn't identical to what we all played 10 years ago.

You know I'm all for the argument that developers need to stop paying so much attention to graphics at the expense of gameplay but arguing that a video game is going to be just as good an experience on a TV from the mid-eighties as it is on a crystal-clear modern HDTV straddles the border between absurdity and self-parody.

Taken from a console perspective perhaps, but then again I haven't owned a console since the Sega Master System. Computers have been high definition for years, it's always amusing to see people oooh and awwww over the latest console games which are only just reaching standards that computers hit one or two year earlier.

That being said, the last few games I've been playing are all a few years old. A FPS is an FPS, move the mouse, press the button and kill the bad guy. Graphics might suck a little more but the gameplay is the same so who gives a crap.

You playing on a PC doesn't change the fact that a better display improves the experience. Try ditching your nice widescreen LCD display for one of the big boxes of dim fuzziness you played on in the mid-nineties. It's not a matter of how good the graphics are, it's a matter of how well you can see them.

I am a PC gamer too, and I find it notably more enjoyable to play on my 2006 Macbook Pro than my 1999 IBM Aptiva, even when I'm playing the same games.

 

[DYin01]

HD does absolutely nothing but make it more pretty.

Yep. Heck, if the difference between HD and SD actually did anything to the gameplay, then we'd have a serious issue.

It CAN make a difference. When I played Dead Rising on my regular tube TV I could hardly read any of the text which kind of crippled me sometimes as I couldn't always read the important stuff.