| HappySqurriel said: Personally, I think the important question is "What do you REALLY gain from these massive budget games?" I think most people will agree that the answer is (primarily) improved graphics. I personally wonder whether this push towards better graphics, and more realistic graphics, misses the point of what a game is and why we play it. Conisder this image from Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
Certainly, if this game was produced for the XBox 360/PS3 the graphics could be enhanced quite a bit; you could increase the resolution of all of the textures, many of the items that are on the texture could actuall be modeled, you could include normal maps to increase the appearance of polygonal detail, you could use material shaders to give the shield the appearance of metal, his tunic the appearance of cloth, his belts the appearance of leather, his skin the appearnce of skin, and so on ... All of this comes at a massive cost as it increases the ammount of work necessary to complete the artistic assets. What would you really gain from increasing thos graphics? |
It's not just graphics that is seperating games from this generation and the last. There is also AI and physics (take a look at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for an example of some of the new technologies that are possible because of the HD consoles and gaming PCs. It can also be seen in strategy games in which it's now possible to have hundreds and even thousands of units (or the crowds in Assassin's Creed as a non-strategy game example).
