Issue 36: Casual Friday - Graphics Matter

[The Escapist Staff]

Tim Stevens"Is it wrong, one wonders, to covet someone for their toned abs more so than their mental acuity? Some moralistic person will likely tell you so; the same way holier-than-thou gamers have historically chastened any who would openly show interest in a game, thanks only to its polygonal beauty." Tim Stevens explains why graphics matter.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Slartibartfast

I think that only really graphics matter when it comes to games that fit very definitively into an established genre. The best examples I can think of are 2D fighting, racing, and CRPG's. When a new capcom fighter comes out and they're using 6 year old sprites, it turns you off to the game because it looks terrible. The same can be said about racing games: the gameplay is pretty much always the same, so the quality of graphics are important. CRPG's, like Final Fantasy, suffer from this as well: same old gameplay, same old themes, so let's at least see some graphical improvements.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Rico

Graphics definitely improve the look of the game, but do they improve gameplay? Depends on the game, I think. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes, gameplay isn't even important to the success of a game. Look at Halo on the Xbox. The only reason that game is so popular (in my opinion) is that Microsoft saturated the market with ads for the Xbox; Halo, being the launch title, clearly got swept up into the machine, and we now have millions of frat guys playing Halo, thinking they've got the best game ever in their sweaty little hands.

Then you have a game like Ico, for the PS2. The game, while graphically gorgeous (really, one of the finest looking games you can make for a console system), is much deeper than its film-like visual quality, or the magnificient vistas on display. Basic thematic elements (light and dark - literally) are the core of the game; your only weapon is a wooden stick, your only enemies shadows. Sounds simple on paper, but without the evocative graphics, I think it would have been a pretty dull game.

By the way, the original ad campaign for the Playstation was "R U e", where the "e" was red in color. Hence, "Are you ready?"

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: TimS
http://www.escapistmagazine.com

Hey Rico, just wanted to respond about the "red e" thing. Unfortunately, the color of the E didn't come through in the published version (would have been near invisible on that background!) but indeed it was "UR Not e" (with the e colored red, of course)

http://1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3143409

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Rico

Hrm, could have sworn it was a question, not a statement, but back then I was singularly obsessed with getting enough money for the PS itself, so the ad campaign was probably a fever dream to me.

Anyways, following up on the graphics content, I wanted to make another point regarding "O.G." and current-gen systems. It's interesting to me that one of most popular games on XBox Live right now is a game called Geometry Wars, which is really nothing more than Smash TV crossed with Asteroids. The graphics are vector-based, and while they are very, very pretty, it's the simple gameplay that makes it so addictive (a la Tetris). Games like Half-Life 2 get lots of press for their incredible visuals and real-world (ish) physics, but it's up to the gameplay to make me come back to it over and over, as I'm doing right now every night with Day of Defeat. Look at Doom 3: As soon as I finished the single-player campaign, which took all of four days, I was at my friend's door - good ol' Add/Remove Programs.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: chunter
http://www.xanga.com/chunter
I agree that graphics are a powerful selling point.

I agree that good graphics on bad games are Cool Whip on crap.

The rest, I don't agree with.

The last pieces of computer graphics to amaze me were the Sega Dreamcast as a whole, simply because it represented such a high plateau above its console predecessors, and the Final Fantasy movie (Spirits Within).

An XBox 360's graphics do not look significantly better than those of a Dreamcast or a Playstation 2, so there best be some other selling point, and the overheating power supply and snap-on cellphone faces aren't doing it for me.

I don't expect Playstation 3's graphics to do anything for me either. Show me some fun games I can play at a party and then we'll talk.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Rico

:: I don't expect Playstation 3's graphics to do anything for me either. Show me some fun games I can play at a party and then we'll talk. ::

...which is exactly why I think Nintendo's next console will pull a higher-than-expected market share. Say what you will about that remote/controller thing, it looks cool as hell to use, and it'll be a hit at parties.