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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The drive for graphical performance is detrimental to the industry

Conina on 19 June 2016
sethnintendo said:
Conina said:

 

While other small or big developers with small or big projects prospered.

Right now I just see small and big.  The medium developer is pretty much gone.  Luckily, some indie developers are putting out as good of a quality game that you would see from the medium developers of the past.

So where is the border between a small and a medium project? Where is the border between a medium and big project? These arbitrary lines are subjective.

Nevertheless I'm trying to list a few successful/great games of the last years, that are IMHO neither big AAA-titles nor the "usual" small indie game:

2013: Rayman Legends, XCOM: Enemy Within, Tearaway, Pikmin 3, DmC, Rocksmith, The Wolf Among Us, Trine 2, Lego Marvel Superheroes, Phoenix Wright 5, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, Goodbye Deponia, Company of Heroes 2, Puppeteer, Shadowrun Returns

2014: The Walking Dead: Season 2, Divinity: Original Sin, The Talos Principle, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Shantae and the Pirates's Curse, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Professor Layton 6, Wasteland 2, Danganronpa 1 + 2, LittleBigPlanet 3, Elite: Dangerous

2015: Pillars of Eternity, Game of Thrones, Tales from the Borderlands, Rocket League, Cities: Skylines, Grim Fandango: Remastered, Project CARS, SOMA, Life is Strange, King's Quest, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, Disgaea 5,

2016/2017: The Witness, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, Grim Dawn, Dreamfall Chapters, King's Quest, Deponia Doomsday, Shenmue 3, Bloodstained, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Mighty No. 9, Yooka-Laylee, Battletech, The Bard's Tale 4, Obduction

Please no discussions that title A belongs in the "small" category or title B belongs in the "big" category.



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GOWTLOZ on 19 June 2016
GoOnKid said:
GOWTLOZ said:
Graphics are an important part of the industry. Not more than gameplay, pacing or level design, but anyone saying they don't matter at all isn't really looking beyond there own interests.

Graphics can make characters and environment feel more real and believable and can make the game world more immersive. Kratos in God of War 3 feels more real than in 1 or 2 and that improves the immersion. The set pieces and scale of the game is also more epic due in part to graphics improvement.

Drake also feels more human in Uncharted 4 than he did in 2 or 3. That definitely improves the immersion.

GTA V's world feels a lot more immersive on PS4 than it did on PS3. More foliage, better lighting, more varied fauna, resolution and framerate all improve the experience.

Graphics aren't the be all end all of games, far from it, but gamers are quite thankless for all the improvements in video game immersion that have come due to the industry pushing the graphics. Deep within many people who say they don't care about graphics actually do and you know that when they are disappointed in a game due to the graphics not being upto their expectations, most recently with the GT Sport pre E3 trailer. Also GT 5 and 6, graphics seemed to be the main sore point of these games where they were heavily criticised for it despite having some of the best in class physics and gameplay.

You have good points, just want to say that it heavily depends on the game. Imagine an Animal Crossing with superduper realistic graphics. Would that work? I think not.

That's why every genre doesn't have great graphics. Sim games like Animal Crossing and The Sims don't benefit from it and soi they don't have great graphics. 

But most genres do benefit from better graphics, and these genres are the ones that come into the limelight. That's why it seems like all games are pushing graphics further, but actually its just some of the more popular genres that do it.