Do Next-Gen Games Give Us Next-Gen Gameplay?

[Magnific0]

Viper1 said:

Magnific0 said:
Well, last generation didn't have such great online play as the current one, community (interaction with friends while playing), online co-op, rankings, achievements. Current tech allows for a better cinematic flow for many games, you could chalk it up to raw power (graphics) but it definitely adds to the gameplay something more than just "make it look pretty". Next-gen also helps improve on physics, better AI, better framerate, better draw-distance. There are tons of things going on many of today's games that are not simply a result of "more polys, HDR, HD textures, better particle effects".

Xbox Live on Xbox offered the online portion you just mentioned last generation.

 

Better framerates?  No.  That will never be a next gen feature.  Frame rates are a balancing act developers will always fight with.   For example, we've had 60 fps games since the N64/PS1 days yet not even half the PS3 games run at 60 fps.  Ironically, more Wii titles run at 60 fps than PS3 titles but as I mentioned, this is not exactly realtive to raw horsepower.

 

 

Well, you disagree with a couple of points I presented, and you're partially wrong with one of them since it's obvious online gameplay (as rich as it is NOW) is a next-gen feature or we could be talking about X-Band and Sega Dreamcast here. And keep in mind I talked about BETTER framerates, I never said 60fps. So you say some PS1/N64 games had great framerates. May I ask you, doing what exactly? Wii games have titles running at 60fps, but what's happening on screen? My point is a next-gen console handles LOTS of things (that add to the global gameplay suchs as physics, AI, more characters, HDR, effects, etc) with a steady framerate that is just not possible with last-gen hardware. It may not be 60fps most of the time sure, but you won't so often see slowdown showing up as it did in COMPARABLY COMPLEX games of last generation. Does that make gameplay better? Definitely.