Do Graphics really matter?

[Michael-5]

Mr Puggsly said:

Michael-5 said:

BTW, about split screen, the 7th gen was one of the biggest jumps in graphical performance between gens. If split screen gaming has been removed from games nowdays, it's not because of the weakness of the machinery, it's because of the way the market has shifted. Nowadays people play online, or devs are just too lazy to make a solid split screen setting. After all Mario/Party/Kart has featured 4 player split screen since the N64 days, and the Wii is the weakest system at the moment.

The masses is everybody. Even the graphic whores have games in their collection that aren't visually amazing. For the most part, graphics whores are just some people who want software with cutting edge graphics that shows their platform is the best and most powerful!

In regards to split screen. Limitations of the hardware is a big part of the problem. A lot of games have two player split screen, but 4 players is too demanding without lowering the visual quality. Halo 4 is one of few modern shooters with 4 player split screen, but it scales down the visuals for more screens and you still get a choppy frame rate sometimes.

Well then we agree about graphics.

About Split screen, I think lowering the resolution, and quality was always the way that 4 player split screen was done. Goldeneye looks a lot more choppy in 4 player mode then it does in single player.

Devs just got too lazy to make a reduced resolution 4-player split screen mod. Even Halo, in 2 player split screen, there are large black margins on the side of the screen. 343/Bungie were too lazy to fiddle with the display of the game to make a widescreen view from each players perspective to fill the tv screen.

I think the reason why split screen isn't really seen before is not because of graphical limitations. It's because a) devs are graphic whores and they want their games to continue to look good, and b) shift to online gameplay, a lot of devs just figures people don't play 4 player offline co-op anymore.