hinch said:
Slownenberg said:
Honestly I feel like this disproves your point! Sure the PS4 game looks quite a bit better than the PS3 game, and sure a PS5 game is gonna look a quite a bit better than the PS4 game. But look how fantastic the PS3 game looks! While there is clearly a difference, both of them look great - both of them look realistic! So, does the bit higher level of realism in the PS4 game do anything to actually make the game better? Maybe at best it is a bit more atmospheric and that's it. From those two videos I wouldn't say it makes much of a difference at all to the game. It's just a bit prettier. Sure I'd take the prettier version of the slightly less pretty but still great looking version, but it isn't a huge difference and doesn't really affect the game at all.
There's a huge amount of difference with level of detail between TLOU 1 and 2 even from those small clips. I guess we all have our standards. Being primarily a PC gamer I'm just used to playing stuff in the highest quality. I value graphics as part of a package. Doesn't mean I value over it other things, it doesn't make a game more fun I agree. I just prefer if a game didn't look like crap and drag me out of immersion. I still can happily play a Super Mario 3D Land on 3DS and boot up a game on Switch but it would be a better experience on a bigger screen and if i was higher res and not so pixelated when I plug in my Switch into a big screen.
Which is kinda the whole point of this thread. Not saying the next gen won't have a noticeable graphical upgrade to this gen (especially for those who don't play 4k with the current upgraded Ps/Xbox systems), but just saying how much does it really matter at this point. Sure I like seeing prettier versions of the same game, but we're past the point where it makes a difference to the quality of the game for the vast majority of games.
Like at this point, I look at Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn and I think to myself I can't wait for a Zelda game on next gen Nintendo to have the graphical fidelity of Horizon ZD because having that level of detail in the environment would greatly increase the feeling of the world being alive and full, but then a jump from that graphical level to say PS5 level doesn't excite me in the same way at all. Sure it'd be cripser moving up to 4k and textures would be more detailed, but look at what Horizon ZD already looks like...improving graphics beyond that is gonna fall into the "oh cool its a little be prettier" category and that's it.
Again, every generation the same thing is repeated. Just wait several years the games will come and we can make a judgement then.
I look at the Star Citizen video on the second page of this thread and I think okay yeah that looks better but a current gen version of that would be the exact same game just a bit less crisp and slightly less detailed to the point where it wouldn't make a difference. Or I look at the low res FF7 remake texture pics from the first page of this thread and think to myself: "really?! this is what people care about now, nitpicking around looking for any resolutions in a game that aren't super high rez? Who cares?! How does this in anyway affect your enjoyment of the game if you have to go searching for a non-high-rez texture here and there just to prove a point that the graphics aren't perfect?!"
Star Citizen is whole another level of detail. The scope of the game is so huge and hasn't been seen before in a Sim. You can see kilometres in front of you. There so much stuff on there that it requires and SSD to run correctly. Its not all just resolution but the amount of level of detail these developers put into a game as well. More horsepower means that developers can not only push graphics but worlds that are well beyond what you can create on current gen hardware.
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That's my point though, thanks for perfectly illuminating it! The big difference is extra little details or draw distance. That ain't a generational leap!
For the vast majority of games all that means is it looks a bit prettier but doesn't do anything the previous gen couldn't. And I mean we basically already had that happen from the previous gen to the current gen. At this point generational leaps are basically just hey we can fit in a few more details in an already very detailed environment. Not saying that is bad, improving graphics is a generally a good thing, but its just not much to get excited about for new system launches. Not to mention the fact that if you don't have a 4k TV you lose a lot of the tech leap right there.
Maybe you primarily being a PC gamer explains it. It has always seemed that people really into PC gaming (constantly needing the best hardware to set games to the highest settings) care a lot more about every last graphical detail than most people. Doesn't change the fact that the difference between next gen and current gen is basically gonna be better lighting, already very detailed settings become a bit more detailed, and games move from HD to 4k, though obviously that last one is basically a non-factor for anyone who has the upgrade PS4/XBO.
At some point nitpicking between super fantastic graphics and super super fantastic graphics becomes something that just doesn't hold much sway. Though obviously it still does for PC gamers, which is fine. But the thread is just kinda pointing out how while there are still graphic whores out there haha. And hey I used to be one up until we started getting great looking 3D games on the Gamecube and Xbox. I remember thinking to myself playing some games like Rogue Squadron 2 and Ninja Gaiden that graphics had kinda reached a turning point of diminishing returns.
I just looked up video of Rogue Squadron 2 and yes that game still looks pretty freakin fantastic 19 years later. Sure it looks blurry in Standard Def now that I'm used to HD but thats the main graphical "downgrade" I notice. Put it in HD, add high res textures, better particle effects, and add more details to ground surfaces or spaceships would all make it look prettier sure, but really the only thing in the last 19 years of tech advancement that would make any real difference to the game itself would be the ability to add more ships on screen for larger dog fights and maybe a rock solid 60fps for faster action, that's about it in 2 decades of advancement.
In the past two decades the main four achievements of technological progress that have really made a difference in gameplay have been online play, motion control (though that's now become more niche), the advancement of mobile tech allowing a handheld like Switch to have nearly console level power, and graphical upgrades that allowed for large area games like open world games or big battle royale games to be feasible. See how only one of those is graphics related and it has nothing to do with higher resolutions or adding in a few more details each generation.
The current state of super realistic graphics being the norm means that an ever increasing amount of the gaming audience finds small graphical differences less and less important.
