It really blows my mind sometimes when I think back to when I started playing games, and they looked like this:

Then I look at some of the games coming out these days:

I mean, holy sh*t, the difference is just staggering. And I'm no grizzled veteran, I'm still in my 20s, so for this much technological progress to have happened in my short life, it's just... wow.

I mean, in this era of HD, PBR, HBAO and all that jazz it's easy to become jaded, as I often do, but from time to time I try to step back and recognize just how freaking futuristic the present is. Even Wii U graphics, which are mocked for being weak, are basically science fiction by the standards of my childhood.

Hell, when I was in primary school, portable games looked like this:

Now, we're on the brink of the release of a portable system that can do this:

The future is now, baby!

Technology is moving fast for sure.

Yeah i agree. The biggest leap was the 10 year period from 1995 to 2005 when we went from ps1 and sega saturn graphics to xbox 360, that was a godlike leap in such a relatively short space of time. I mean you went from square headed polygonal characters to a console that produced LA noire.

yes

In terms of technology it's sometimes staggering, yeah.

But I sorta feel that game design has regressed since the fourth, fifth, and six gens. So it's kind of a hollow leap forward for me :-/

yas!

i know xenoblade chronicles x isn't the best example.... but for some reason it made me wow big time for its environment...

i know the character design sucks but hey... for some reason it captured my heart

Yes! Especially with the Switch! The handheld mode is a BEAST!

Occasionally, absolutely. Battlefield 1 and Uncharted 4 blew me away visually this year for sure.

I do often worry that the industry isn't making big enough strides in other areas of design, and that the rush for the best graphics is harming development in a number of potential ways (particularly the ever increasing budgets resulting in smaller, safer games with problems at launch and incomplete structures), and a lot of the games that have really impressed me in the last few years didn't rely on the best graphics to be compelling, but I do enjoy a good spectacle from time to time!

IQ is one of em. Then there's VR

Mario 64, 1996

Gears of War, 2006