As poll says :) for me, personally, i used to be floored, but now, most games look pretty good, so even when a shit hot game comes out looking great (tlou2, cp, etc) i dont find myself struck like i used to be
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To the older heads who have experienced most gens (8bit through to current), do graphics still impress you like before?
- Thread starter nogoodnamesleft
- Start date
Old head checking in: the Demon Souls remake blew my mind, but that's been the only current gen game to do that for me.
I'll always find impressive visuals impressive. I'm more into well done stylized stuff than realism.
I started gaming around the middle to end of the PS1 generation. Usually, graphics still impress me, not always for how real they look, but how like, nice they look. Games have only been getting more beautiful. Like movies, like, actors don't get more realistic, but the way you can frame them on the screen and how action scenes look get better with new movies.
Yesterday, I completed a full play-through of Dragon Age: Inquisition on PC, it's still a stunner. What I am trying to say is that I'm still impressed by good visuals, but it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest.
Gears of War (1st) was the last game where I was really wowed by the jump, but I don't really mind this, plenty of great looking new games coming out.
Gears of War (1st) was the last game where I was really wowed by the jump, but I don't really mind this, plenty of great looking new games coming out.
I'm playing video games from 92,93 (my first console was Atari 2600 and then NES and Genesis) and amazing graphics still make me surprise sometimes. Not as much as previous generations (2D to 3D graphics, PS1 to PS2 and PS2 to PS3), but a game like The Last of Us 2 on a 7,8 years old hardware can still blow my mind these days.
I think the ability to be truly wowed left me when the Skyrim ports came out and I saw a video in a GameStop talking up its "volumetric god rays."
I'm much more impressed by an interesting art design these days, but that's not to say I mind a, say, Ghost of Tsushima. It's just that it doesn't leave me open-mouthed.
I'm much more impressed by an interesting art design these days, but that's not to say I mind a, say, Ghost of Tsushima. It's just that it doesn't leave me open-mouthed.
No not at all. Haven't been impressed since Dreamcast. Shenmue was my peak. Basically everything looks good now and there isn't any company out there making exclusive pc games trying to push graphics as far as possible anymore.
Started gaming in 1990 on an ibm compatible 8086 and NES, and for me, no.
"good enough" for me has been reached in terms of overall fidelity quite some years ago. I haven't been impressed by that since probably the Gamecube launch & Rogue Leader.
Only thing that wowed me this past gen was Cuphead with its Fleischer style animation.
"good enough" for me has been reached in terms of overall fidelity quite some years ago. I haven't been impressed by that since probably the Gamecube launch & Rogue Leader.
Only thing that wowed me this past gen was Cuphead with its Fleischer style animation.
My old head is the same age as the rest of my old body and yes, the collective organism that is my old self can still be wowed by graphics just like the old days. For reference, I started gaming on the Atari 2600, Colecovision, and Commodore 64. We've certainly come a long way, but there's always some new wonder to see.
Not really, in fact seeing such large leaps between platforms makes things like the difference between PS4 and PS5 barely noticeable. Maybe I'll change my mind when there are more than two PS5 exclusives available
Well early graphics were highly stylized and we were impressed by such things as sprites on screen, smooth scrolling, sprite size, color usage, parallax and special effects, but utimately the picture being rendered on screen are abstracted cartoon images no matter how good it looks, it required a certain level of imagination to see the awesome graphics as being representative of something in the real world. Those graphics can still impress today actually.
Graphics today that are gritty and realistic are much less impressive, because they tend to date themselves. No matter how emphatic posters are about the graphics of some games, they have a habit of moving on to the next shiny thing and if you go back to look at the awesome graphics from 2015 , they already look dated. If games do that visually, then they never had great graphics. They merely pushed the limit of what was possible on a very narrow definition of graphics at a certain point in time. Just like the realistic graphics of the 2000s were marred by the overuse of bloom and brown, the 2010s is marked with ugly uncanny valley humans in acceptable looking environments. My favorite really good looking games remain purely environmental walking sims because I think GPU tech can do realistic looking environments really good now. Not so for a lot of other things.
Graphics today that are gritty and realistic are much less impressive, because they tend to date themselves. No matter how emphatic posters are about the graphics of some games, they have a habit of moving on to the next shiny thing and if you go back to look at the awesome graphics from 2015 , they already look dated. If games do that visually, then they never had great graphics. They merely pushed the limit of what was possible on a very narrow definition of graphics at a certain point in time. Just like the realistic graphics of the 2000s were marred by the overuse of bloom and brown, the 2010s is marked with ugly uncanny valley humans in acceptable looking environments. My favorite really good looking games remain purely environmental walking sims because I think GPU tech can do realistic looking environments really good now. Not so for a lot of other things.
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I started out with 8-bit games on microcomputers in the mid 80s, where even the late NES games felt like a leap. The move to 16-bit felt huge, like the games becoming all that they should have been all along. Pretty much everything looks good to me these days compared to the leaps between earlier generations. I can see the improvements and appreciate the huge amount of work that goes into it, but I haven't seen a generational leap that's impressed me in the same way for a while now. Similarly, pretty much everything looks 'good enough' to me too, as my bar of what a bad game looks like is presumably very, very low :D
Just like in the old days.
It's pretty amazing to me that every gen I can't imagine better graphics, then all of a sudden, Boom! The next big thing hits.
For example, right now, I can't imagine what games will look like the next gen. I'm sure they'll blow me away.
It's pretty amazing to me that every gen I can't imagine better graphics, then all of a sudden, Boom! The next big thing hits.
For example, right now, I can't imagine what games will look like the next gen. I'm sure they'll blow me away.
I've been playing since Atari 2600 and NES days. I didn't get a PS4 or X1, and thought graphics had pretty much peaked.
But I got a Series X and LG OLED this year. I'm blown away by Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4, and Jedi: Fallen Order. Doom Eternal especially.
But I got a Series X and LG OLED this year. I'm blown away by Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4, and Jedi: Fallen Order. Doom Eternal especially.
Yeah. Seeing how different art styles come to life is what gets me excited. And it comes down to the game , right. Like TLOU2 looks incredible but in a totally different way to what makes Guilty Gear Strive look stunning. So for me, it's a combination of graphics + art style that still makes me go "wow".
So I've been playing pre-Nintendo and while I can appreciate great graphics and they do add something to the experience some of my favorite games are not good looking games at all and frankly I would prefer if developers mostly returned to the graphical fidelity of 15-20 years ago if it also meant that games were released more often and that they took more interesting risks in terms of game design.
Rarely, mostly because most game "formats" have been stuck in the same templates since the PS2/Dreamcast era. I can appreciate tech/scene demos though.
No. I can appreciate them and think a game is beautiful, but at no point do I truly feel those same things I felt seeing all the graphical effects in Castlevania IV for the first time, or playing a game like Mario 64, or the first Gears, when it comes to graphical leaps.
The jump from 2D to 3D was magical in a way that was beyond comparison. But in general, graphics still continue to impress me to this day. Nowadays it tends to be more in the form of impressive art styles tho.
I was very impressed with the new Ratchet and Clank game on PS5, for example.
I was very impressed with the new Ratchet and Clank game on PS5, for example.
No. I can barely tell this gen and next gen apart. Everything is just marginal jumps in resolution and texture quality.
I'll always be fascinated with the various ways we make triangles look pretty and draw fast.
Between stuff like raytracing, ai upscaling (both 'live' and retexturing mods/work) , and Microsoft's auto HDR stuff, 'pretty visuals' means all kinds of different things now. I find a lot of that stuff interesting and impressive on its own right, even if there's less "how does this run on mortal equipment" reactions like I had with Crysis.
Between stuff like raytracing, ai upscaling (both 'live' and retexturing mods/work) , and Microsoft's auto HDR stuff, 'pretty visuals' means all kinds of different things now. I find a lot of that stuff interesting and impressive on its own right, even if there's less "how does this run on mortal equipment" reactions like I had with Crysis.
For a few minutes I am super impressed but not as much as before. I've been playing games since the 80s, mostly PC for a long stretch but now usually just on consoles. Recently finished Control on PS5 and it was impressive but it was the story and setting that really will stick with me, not the visuals.
I do really look forward to playing the next ratchet and clank, that looks really neat from a technical perspective with the instant level leaps and stuff. Stuff with faces and "hyperrealism" don't really matter much to me anymore, I don't really care how good faces look in Last of Us 2 or whatever.
I do really look forward to playing the next ratchet and clank, that looks really neat from a technical perspective with the instant level leaps and stuff. Stuff with faces and "hyperrealism" don't really matter much to me anymore, I don't really care how good faces look in Last of Us 2 or whatever.
Yeah agreed, I think art direction and attention to detail is getting more important as well because most generally games have been looking good for years now. GoW still looks fantastic, for example.
I mean, characters were a bunch of blocks when I was a kid.
The details that we have now are astonishing. I remember being impressed when we could distinctly see Spider-Man's eyes and spiders on his costume. Now you've got fabric textures and reflections on the eyes, and perfect webbing - it's just insane. Photo modes are just incredible.
The details that we have now are astonishing. I remember being impressed when we could distinctly see Spider-Man's eyes and spiders on his costume. Now you've got fabric textures and reflections on the eyes, and perfect webbing - it's just insane. Photo modes are just incredible.
Yes i do, but they are definitely not some kind of major selling point for me anymore like they used to be. If a game looks interesting i'll play it regardless of how pretty or not the graphics are. At the same time if i play a game that looks amzing i will be amazed lol.
It depends.
Lately I have been thinking about how far the graphics technology has come in my lifetime. I am still really impressed by the latest tech, and I want to see it implemented well. I love good ray tracing and HDR.
But the jumps are not the same as they once were.
Lately I have been thinking about how far the graphics technology has come in my lifetime. I am still really impressed by the latest tech, and I want to see it implemented well. I love good ray tracing and HDR.
But the jumps are not the same as they once were.
Absolutely, do they impress the fuck out of me. I just got a 4k TV and playing Miles Morales and God of War on in HDR and on 75 inches is very impressive.
The last two generation transitions are the first time I haven't really been wowed and I am an oldie. I feel like halo 4 and the last of us still looked better then many ps4/xbone games released and this generation transition has been very underwhelming. Ray tracing nowhere to be seen and nothing that looks better than PC at launch like their traditionally is at console launch. If devs get ray tracing figured out I think I could be wowed again, but we shall see.
Yup it's why GG XRD still looks so good despite being pretty much 7 years old now and on unreal 3
Sure but it isn't just appreciating big AAA blockbuster stuff. I appreciate stylized visuals, animation, attention to detail, shadows and lighting.
I was playing Grandia for the Saturn the other day and the first ruins section with the giant heads turning towards the door still struck me as impressive and really cool looking. I'm still impressed by aesthetic.
I was playing Grandia for the Saturn the other day and the first ruins section with the giant heads turning towards the door still struck me as impressive and really cool looking. I'm still impressed by aesthetic.
Funny example because Naughty Dog doesn't go for hyperrealism, it's actually quite a bit stylised. It also helps getting around 'uncanney valley' problems.
just as much but with me it has always been little things like animations, enemies reactions, views/vistas. that sort of thing, games still make me stop and look at things.
when i eventually get a ps5 i'm sure things will blow my mind in 4k and RT since i'll be going from a launch ps4.
when i eventually get a ps5 i'm sure things will blow my mind in 4k and RT since i'll be going from a launch ps4.
Graphics do nothing for me unless the underlying game is good. Even outside that, the only time I was impressed by graphics on a technical level in the last 10 years was the Demon's Souls Remake. Art-styles can still impress though, like Cuphead or Hollow Knight.
/edit: I tend to be much more impressed by retro games and what they were doing.
/edit: I tend to be much more impressed by retro games and what they were doing.