As a big Zelda fan I put over 200 hours into Breath of the Wild and thoroughly enjoyed it, including its Add-Ons. The last time I played it was 1-2 years ago.
So I was in the mood for some Zelda again and started BotW - and was seriously shocked by how bad it looks and runs. Both resolution and framerate are a mess. I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy, but there simply is no better way to describe it.
BotW has a nice art style, its world is beautifully designed and realized and the gameplay is fun (I even like the breakable equipment), but unfortunately the low resolution makes this nice art style and beautiful world look completely blurry, and the performance... man, I really don't remember BotW running this badly.
Depending on which part of Hyrule you are exploring, it feels like this game is struggling to even hold 25 frames per second.
It's not like the game's technical aspects are just not impressive or groundbreaking enough - it's like the game doesn't even get the fundamentals right. Shouldn't decent image quality and smooth controls/gameplay be a given for any game at this day and age? It's 2021 and I'm stuck playing BotW in a blurry and stuttering fashion and that's the baseline Nintendo has set for one of their biggest releases ever. It shouldn't be too much to ask this masterpiece of a game - or any game - to have crisp image (and audio) quality and smooth performance first and foremost, and I really don't like that Nintendo or any other game companies tend to get a pass for this.
Another excellent example is Fire Emblem Three Houses - this game is a technical mess and was basically outdated on the day it released. The worst thing is, reviews mostly ignored that and scored it into the 90s. If the new James Bond movie released with blurry image or compressed audio quality, do you think reviews would praise it anyway? No. Movie critics would tear the film apart. Movies have established a baseline for certain technical standards they are expected to meet, which also helps in terms of futureproofing. I wish there was something similar for games. The only thing I can remember is Sony saying no game releasing on PSVR is ever allowed to drop frames below 120fps - or else it won't get released.
I generally believe that performance is one of the, if not THE most important aspect(s) determining how well a game ages, and Breath of the Wild shows that.
My prime positive examples are Metroid Prime and Haunting Ground - these games have aged wonderfully from a technical perspective, despite their low resolution they both look, and even more importantly, play great even today, both running at smooth 60fps (Haunting Ground's meticulously directed fixed camera work also helps a lot).
Compare them to non-60fps games from the same era. The difference in overall look and playability is staggering.
TL;DR:
Technical shortcomings like poor performance make games age badly, and BotW shows that.
So I was in the mood for some Zelda again and started BotW - and was seriously shocked by how bad it looks and runs. Both resolution and framerate are a mess. I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy, but there simply is no better way to describe it.
BotW has a nice art style, its world is beautifully designed and realized and the gameplay is fun (I even like the breakable equipment), but unfortunately the low resolution makes this nice art style and beautiful world look completely blurry, and the performance... man, I really don't remember BotW running this badly.
Depending on which part of Hyrule you are exploring, it feels like this game is struggling to even hold 25 frames per second.
It's not like the game's technical aspects are just not impressive or groundbreaking enough - it's like the game doesn't even get the fundamentals right. Shouldn't decent image quality and smooth controls/gameplay be a given for any game at this day and age? It's 2021 and I'm stuck playing BotW in a blurry and stuttering fashion and that's the baseline Nintendo has set for one of their biggest releases ever. It shouldn't be too much to ask this masterpiece of a game - or any game - to have crisp image (and audio) quality and smooth performance first and foremost, and I really don't like that Nintendo or any other game companies tend to get a pass for this.
Another excellent example is Fire Emblem Three Houses - this game is a technical mess and was basically outdated on the day it released. The worst thing is, reviews mostly ignored that and scored it into the 90s. If the new James Bond movie released with blurry image or compressed audio quality, do you think reviews would praise it anyway? No. Movie critics would tear the film apart. Movies have established a baseline for certain technical standards they are expected to meet, which also helps in terms of futureproofing. I wish there was something similar for games. The only thing I can remember is Sony saying no game releasing on PSVR is ever allowed to drop frames below 120fps - or else it won't get released.
I generally believe that performance is one of the, if not THE most important aspect(s) determining how well a game ages, and Breath of the Wild shows that.
My prime positive examples are Metroid Prime and Haunting Ground - these games have aged wonderfully from a technical perspective, despite their low resolution they both look, and even more importantly, play great even today, both running at smooth 60fps (Haunting Ground's meticulously directed fixed camera work also helps a lot).
Compare them to non-60fps games from the same era. The difference in overall look and playability is staggering.
TL;DR:
Technical shortcomings like poor performance make games age badly, and BotW shows that.
Maybe getting spoiled by Playstation 5 games with 4k, 60fps and nonexistant load time is a real thing already.
