To the older heads who have experienced most gens (8bit through to current), do graphics still impress you like before?

[DarthBuzzard]

No graphics on a screen really wow me anymore. I'm still impressed, but it doesn't really stun me.

What does stun me is VR, even the smallest details like 3D audio really provide a wow factor that you don't get on a screen even if you can replicate the audio; it just hits a completely different note and makes it genuinely believable.

 

[Liquidsnake]

Yea they do OP, in fact they impress me more than anything else. I only bought a series X and a PS5 to be wowed, I rarely ever finish a game, I just like to marvel in it's beauty.

 

[Dan L]

Old dude reporting - Yeah they sure do - so many times I think of what my young self playing 2600 games on an old shitty 19" tv would think if I could him games of today.

Graphics don't make a game good - but I sure love to look at them. The technical and artistic aspects are great. I mean story and gameplay matter more than graphics but I am constantly getting pumped with how good something looks.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Once in a while, something will jump out at me that makes me do a double take. Most games don't however.

 

[Fumpster]

I started with SNES so not quite what you're asking I suppose, but honestly, I think we're at a point where almost every game looks amazing to the point where nothing feels particularly impressive to me. It's a lot more about the art direction and performance to me, personally.

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

Yup, great new visuals still wow me whether it's technical or down to art direction or both. I feel like having grown up with games since the NES only gives me extra context for how far these amazing looking games have come. I don't really get becoming jaded about it.

 

[Deleted member 13188]

Generally I don't care, but bad art direction (overall aesthetic) can really bother me to the point that I will even drop something. I'm not bothered about how many pixels are being pushed but I have to say when I saw the last Epic demos for Unreal I was like... "Oh shit!".

It's definitely true that we are getting limited returns as time goes on, we'll never get that Dreamcast/PS2/GC/Xbox level jump again.

Cyberpunk is a good example of how the graphical quality (on PC at least lol) didn't really factor into my enjoyment of the game despite being impressed with it; ie it didn't elevate the game to above average even tho it looked good.

 

[affeinvasion]

I never got that whole maybe leap thing because I was still playing nes games after the super nintendo released. And early playstation and n64 games looked like garbage. Then you take into account that arcade technology was light years ahead of what was available on home consoles. I don't think I was ever wowed by graphics until the xbox/ps2/gamecube generation.

 

[Nairume]

Been gaming since the late 80s/early 90s. While I was still wowed by some games, Gen 8 is definitely the first gen that I really didn't feel like the graphical leap was particularly meaningful. The tech probably could have gone into making games run better and handle more complex stuff (which did happen in some cases) but we still ended up with a race to just make stuff look prettier and it didn't really matter as much. The PS5 and Series X are wowing me even less, so I'm glad the Switch represents something different.

 

[NattyBo]

Old dude reporting - Yeah they sure do - so many times I think of what my young self playing 2600 games on an old shitty 19" tv would think if I could him games of today.

Click to shrink...

Lol yeah I started with a 13" zenith (no remote) and an NES. My young self just wouldn't be able to handle the setup I have now, 55" 4k, Nintendo and Sony consoles and a tricked out PC. 🤣

I still get the thrill playing a beautiful game like RDR2, God of War, etc etc.

 

[Kurekure Takora]

Been gaming since the mid 80s. They still impress me (Unreal Engine 5 demo immediately comes to mind.) But after the Dreamcast/PS2/GC/X-Box generation, evolution in graphics stopped...mattering...to the same extent as before.

 

[fick]

Damn that nearly even split.

I voted middle category. Games can still wow me, but generally speaking as you go through the 3D gens, there is less range between the shitty looking games and the good ones. Nothing shown this gen has floored me, though. I'm holding out hope the BF6 trailer is gonna do it for me.

 

[Deleted member 679]

A combination of 1 and 3, weirdly enough.

I'm still impressed by good graphics, but I'm also just as impressed by something like Ni no Kuni on the PS3, Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 or Vagrant Story on the PS1.

New stuff still impresses me, but I just appreciate good looking games in general, from every generation.

Been gaming since the mid 80s. They still impress me (Unreal Engine 5 demo immediately comes to mind.) But after the Dreamcast/PS2/GC/X-Box generation, evolution in graphics stopped...mattering...to the same extent as before.

Click to shrink...

I can agree with this. I remember the first time I played Kingdom Hearts II and thought "wow, this looks amazing, I don't think I'll ever not think this looks good enough", and all those years later, it still holds true. I constantly go back to KH II and still think it looks great. I'd be completely ok with new high profile games having those visuals.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Not really, but I've never been about graphics anyway.

 

[gzell60]

I'm sure the poll's results are exactly what OP was looking for :D

 

[FrakEarth]

I'm still impressed by visuals now and then for sure; watching something in true 4K and 120fps for the first time was like "ok - this is cool", but I'm usually much more impressed these days by moments.

I much prefer cool gameplay moments to more passive narrative moments, as I think it's just harder to nail an interaction (or a set of interactions) than it is to deliver a deterministic animated scene - but I can be impressed with either. The best developers always provide for something really memorable. It might be stepping out into some kind of well-framed landscape shot, or seeing a really stand-out, expressive or artistic atmospheric scene - even in cartoony stylised games I can be really impressed by how something looks or moves... It might just be how cool something is, seeing it the first time...

Like others who have mentioned VR, some of my "wow" moments this gen have been in VR, and not necessarily even on cutting edge devices. The feeling of presence and great sound design is massive in VR.

A few of my favourite moments this gen have been on the Switch and Quest 2, which aren't punching out graphics to the same level as PC, PlayStation and XBox. The move to 3D was a huge magical leap, everything else has been iteratively more impressive. I mean, there's no question, the artistry and level of detail today is insane, and we see beautiful things surprisingly often - I feel like a lot of the time people are brutally dismissive and critical of games that have a ton of amazing work put in to them - but those initial jumps were magical for a kid whose imagination made 8-bit and 16-bit sprites in to elaborate 3D worlds in his mind. We've come a long way!

 

[Egocrata]

I have been playing games since the 8 bit era (starting with an Amstrad CPC) and every time that I boot up Microsoft Flight simulator in my close-to-top-of-the-line PC my brain melts at the visuals like when I was 7 years old.

Sure, everything looks good these days. But some games are just incredible, like I can believe this is actually a thing.

 

[Deleted member 45130]

Not so much for me these days. I remember playing Tekken and Tomb Raider for the first time on PlayStation and being absolutely blown away. This was coming from the Mega Drive and Jaguar.

I remember Uncharted 4 being a game I kept looking at thinking 'I can't believe I'm playing this on a PS4'. It really was such a good looking game, probably still is.

It's difficult for me to see how games can really go any further visually but they will. I'm hoping that developers use power to enhance the gameplay experience over pretty graphics going forward though.

 

[Deleted member 45130]

The best developers always provide for something really memorable. It might be stepping out into some kind of well-framed landscape shot, or seeing a really stand-out, expressive or artistic atmospheric scene - even in cartoony stylised games I can be really impressed by how something looks or moves... It might just be how cool something is, seeing it the first time...

Click to shrink...

Stepping outside of the sewer in Oblivion was a real 'oh my goodness' moment for me back on the 360. I wanted to explore every single corner of that map due to that one moment. An absolutely unforgettable moment for me, definitely one of my favourites.

 

[RedOnePunch]

Honestly, as someone who has been rediscovering old games lately, I'm more impressed with pixel art from the 80's and 90's than anything. Take my avatar for example, modern pixel art indie games just don't really have the same rounded look that 16 and 32 bit pixel art can have.

But yeah I'm still blown away by graphics. I think RDR2 is the most beautiful game ever made. I still find myself going back and looking at screenshots I took. It's like a very detailed painting. I love stylized high detail graphics, which many people consider realistic. (I don't).

 

[northnorth]

Born in 86 started on NES when my sisters boyfriend "Scott" gave me his. Went from that to Genesis to Sega Saturn which was pretty substantial.. nothing mind blowing though. At the time playing Virtual Cop and Fighter and Nights I felt like the arcade was finally fully at home. But there was still something about going to my cousins and playing SNES. The games just felt better than my Genesis ones. I loved Mario World and Kart and Turtles in time. But Super Mario World especially. It felt so big and full of mystery and adventure. LOVED going there and playing it.

So I go there one weekend, fantastic time, and the next weekend my friend came over to spend the night. Games, soda, junk food. And he said he was bringing his Nintendo 64 that just came out. I was like oh cool. Whatever. No Internet, no gaming magazines, no anything really in my house. I had no idea what it was or if it was maybe like the virtual boy or something.

So, anyway, he brought it over, we hooked it up and he was like wait till you see the new Mario. And we turned it on. MIND FUCKING BLOWN. It was like Super Mario World x1000000000. Every corner of every world could be explored in full 3D that actually worked. And I had to have it. Absolutely had to. Even though my parents had just gotten me the Saturn I begged SO hard that Christmas season. Andmy parents came through like always. One of the best Christmas mornings ever.

nothing has come close to that besides my son and I getting PSVR. It's immersion is insane. But also lonely.

 

[crimzonflame]

Nah Dreamcast was the last to impress.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Really depends on the games.
Call of Duty for example I play every year so it never jumps enough to wow me.

Same for driving and flying games, they always look incredible so it never seems surprising.

Meanwhile stuff like 1 Uncharted to the Next blows me away every time.

Then there's a graphically updated live service game that gets me every time I log on for 8+ years now but when I go back to the original look its amazing to see the difference(War Thunder)

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

Absolutely. Demon's Souls recently has been one of those games that makes me stoo and stare and zoom in and shake my head constantly.

I find it especially impressive having played since the NES days as a little kid. It just amazes me sometimes where we are.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Yes, and I really appreciate the effort and amount of detail in games like Demon's Souls or TLoU2. It takes an insane amount of work and craftmanship, which should not be taken for granted.

 

[FireCloud]

Started with Pong. Was an avid arcade gamer in the late 70s early 80s. Played a lot of early PC games during the 80s through the mid 90s.Had an Atari 2600, SNES. Got a PS2 and then converted over to console gaming almost exclusively.

At each stage, I've been in awe of what the talented developers were able to achieve given the limitations of the hardware they had available.

Now it seems that the developers are able to more fully realize their ideas (at least that's my impression)

What devs are achieving recently still leaves me amazed: GoT, GoW, TLOU2, HZD, The Witcher 3...I enjoy my hobby so much by being transported to all of these worlds.

I believe I'm as much as fan of the the technical aspects of what these developers can do as I am playing the games themselves.

 

[Morrigan]

I voted the middle option because it's true that there are diminishing returns, however, I still get "wowed" quite a fair bit honestly. TLoU2, Ghost of Tsushima, and of course Demon's Souls Remake were especially stunning, both in art direction and on a tech level.

 

[Aaron D.]

If anything it makes appreciating modern game visuals even more easy.

I grew up on Pong/2600/Intellivision. Bangers like AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin absolutely blew my mind back in the early-80s.

So when you start with a baseline that's so rudimentary, virtually every iteration that follows is a feast for the eyes.

It will never not be funny when people clown on certain modern titles, saying they look like garbage.

I just shake my head and smile, thinking of how the even the simplest 2600 games were gorgeous to me 40 years ago.

 

[Deleted member 19868]

Nah, the last time I was blown away by a game visually was Metroid Prime, or the set piece at the beginning of the first BioShock with the crashed plane. It's been diminishing returns since then. Doesn't help that most "AAA" games seem horribly derivative and dull, just as whatever gen's dominant genre has always seemed in their heyday (maze games, shmups, platformers, FPS, now it's open worlds again).

 

[Applesaucejaxon]

I've been gaming since the 80s, and I haven't been REALLY impressed since the 360/PS3. Now I'm more shocked when a game looks or runs terribly.
Everything is just slowly getting more refined. I'm glad about this, too. I'd rather take smaller steps if it means I get better frame rates and load times.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

It takes an insane amount of work and craftmanship, which should not be taken for granted.

Click to shrink...

100% this. Playing Prey last gen was one of those moments where I stopped and thought about what the hell it must've taken to design that place. The architecture and aesthetics and detail...

 

[RoboitoAM]

Games with RT are insanely impressive. I mean, look at Quake II, then and now:

And stuff like Control, RT off and on:

 

[Syranth]

I've been playing since Atari 2600. I had a few times in my life where graphics wowed me.
Atari 2600
NES
SNES
Voodoo FX Graphics Card
Dreamcast
Playstation
Xbox 360
PS4

 

[Blackthorn]

As someone who's been playing since the SNES, Uncharted 2 was my "good enough" point and everything since then has just been a bonus. Not sure anything will ever impress me as much as that game did in the context in which it came out.

 

[jett]

Hell yea bro. I was amazed by TLOU2.

Kids these days don't know how good they have it.

 

[chocolate]

Rarely. the visual "floor" now is high so most things look good so theres no massive leaps anymore.

I can still be floored by art direction though, like with Ghost of Tsushima. If you look at the digital assets of that game individually, they're nothing to write home about. If you look at the overall picture however, that game is picturesque and stunning.

 

[The Albatross]

Nah, not in the way they did. I legit salivated over the early PS2 screens... I hoarded NextGen mag and stared at those blown up 480p ps2 screens all day.

I'm still impressed by great looking games like Red Dead 2, but now art direction kinda matters more to me than graphic prowess. Art direction always mattered of course but a game could simply wow me on the tech alone in the past and now that's not really my thing anymore. There's still games from the past that I think have great art direction and pretty lousy technical graphics that I think are stunning. GTA San Andreas fit that for me, a technically ugly game but with terrific art direction on the things that matter to me and an old GTA SA screen will catch my eye and I'll remember how great looking a game that is.

When new consoles come out I'm rarely stunned by the graphics as I was with the leap to PS2. I lived thru 8bit to 16, 16 to 32/64, and then all of the others since, and that PSX to PS2 was just such a huge jump. Madden 2001, MGS2, Dead or Alive, Midnight Club, handful of other early games were like something I'd simply never seen before. The jump to 16bit was important but late NES games looked really good, compared to early Genesis games. Sonic wowed me at a friend's house but more the sense of speed and color palette. I wasn't really into graphics until I knew that graphics could be a differentiator in games. PS2 came out at a time when I was really into the technology of gaming too, I was 16 or 17, had built PCs for gaming and was really into the technical side at that point.

I think another change since then is that PC graphics started to consistently get out in front of consoles for all genres of games and they sort of prepared me for what is coming. PS2 really was doing things I'd never seen before even on PC (I was an avid PC gamer at that point).

Most recently I've thought Control looks great on Xbox Series X. And aforementioned RDR2 which still is the most graphically impressive game to me. But there's very few games that really do it to me like *most* new games did back in the early PS2 gen. There were games I bought for PS2 that weren't even genres I liked but just because the graphics were so good to me. That's not the case anymore for me. I'll never buy a game based solely on graphics, something I did more often then.

 

[MrRob]

Ever since late in the PS3 gen I personally feel like we are at the point of diminishing returns.

Been playing games since Commodore 64

Yeah, art direction is much more important to me these days.

 

[Landy828]

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.

Click to shrink...

I'm the opposite with this one. Started playing games in the 80's, and I only find DS to be a good looking "souls" game. It still has some low-poly areas/characters and some rough textures up close to a lot of things. Lighting is great though.

Having said that, I'm still expecting to be blown away by many upcoming "next (aka current) gen" games.

 

[AfropunkNyc]

As a older head I say no graphics doesn't impress me or excite me as it did when i was younger. Very rare, very rare occasions a game will make me say wow. Shit I said wow when I climbed the hill in Breath of the Wild and the sunlight glared off the mountain. That made me say wow over the many modern graphically intense pc games I've played.

 

[ShimmyShakes]

Still super impressed when something really stunning comes along, but it's never influenced what games I actually want to play.

 

[Rehynn]

Nah, not in the way they did. I legit salivated over the early PS2 screens... I hoarded NextGen mag and stared at those blown up 480p ps2 screens all day.

Click to shrink...

I would go to my dad's office because they had internet and a printer to print Ocarina of Time screenshots before release. I would then spend hours looking at each batch. Could not believe that I would one day see those images in motion, let alone move them myself.

I feel very lucky to have experienced the transition from 16-bit to 3D as a kid. I can still recall how it felt and I'm not sure when anything comparable might happen.

 

[The Albatross]

I would go to my dad's office because they had internet and a printer to print Ocarina of Time screenshots before release. I would then spend hours looking at each batch. Could not believe that I would one day see those images in motion, let alone move them myself.

I feel very lucky to have experienced the transition from 16-bit to 3D as a kid. I can still recall how it felt and I'm not sure when anything comparable might happen.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I agree with this although I didn't have an N64 so I didn't fawn over those games as much as I should have. But similar to you id stare at screenshots of Madden 2001 in NextGen mag and couldn't believe that I'd be able to play a game that looked like that. I remember downloading like a 6sec clip in RealTime Player and watching it on repeat over and over again, stunned by the motion of the players.

 

[wafflebrain]

It's somewhere in the middle. Stuff like TLOU II while very impressive technically especially with those procedural animations during combat wowed me more for the overall art style and just how ambitious the range of assets were and how well realized post infection Seattle was. The sense of progression and journey throughout the city was more impressive in terms of world building via art than any general "holy shit" moments graphically.

Trying to think the last game where my jaw was on the floor for visuals...maybe HL: Alyx? Even then I'd seen impressive photogrammetry done in both SteamVR environments and in flatscreen games so it wasn't some revelation like the jump from ps2/xbox/gc to 360/ps3 era.

2077 has a very impressive presentation with its character designs but the world details are inconsistent on a block by block basis within the city, and while the skyline has a great variety of architectural styles, the on the ground stuff tends to be repeated a bit too much.

GTA V's original release may be the last game that wowed me across the board, the fact they got that game with that amount of unique assets per city block with most of the geometry intact on hardware that old at time of release was a marvel. Just the first few hours of wandering around and taking in the density of details felt like a massive step up from other games. I'd argue its open world especially on PC still hasn't been topped today.

After that exploring Chernarus on the og Day Z mod for the first time was a trip, I'd never seen a map in a game communicate that level of realism in terms of the scale of terrain, roadways, and how they connected to farmsteads, military outposts/bases, and the city portions. It didn't feel like it was made for a game (technically it was originally for a mil sim so duh) but exploring an actual to scale place. Nowadays it looks very dated obviously but at the time there wasn't anything like it.

 

[JaseMath]

Not anymore... not like they used to, anyway. I'd much rather have a game tell a good story or show me something I haven't seen before. Visuals are gravy at this point in my gaming life.

 

[Kevers]

Born in 86 and yes, cosntantly.

 

[Deleted member 8257]

Nothing will ever top the leap from Genesis to PS1/N64 gen for me. It was the only insane graphical wonder that has not been matched. Mario 64 on N64 was unbelievable. I just couldn't fathom it. Even though I didn't own N64, I couldn't help but fawn at the graphics in magazines and display kiosks.

The leap to PS2 was not as impressive but still graphics blew my mind. Since then, I don't know if I got older or this was really what was happening, but the subsequent generations did not blow my face away like the PSX/N64 gen did.

 

[Scottoest]

The PS1, PS2 and PS3/360 generations felt like massive leaps. It's been somewhat diminishing returns since then, although certainly games still come along that set a clear new visual benchmark to my eyes.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Games with RT are insanely impressive. I mean, look at Quake II, then and now:

And stuff like Control, RT off and on:

Click to shrink...

Ray tracing is the the next big leap. Ray tracing on old games looks glorious, ray tracing on new games looks glorious. It's just glorious.

 

[Billy Awesomo]

I've been playing since Atari and Yes, Graphics never failed to impress me. One of the reasons why I became an Animator. I love watching it all progress, and I am always blown away by good tech and art design. Just watching people pushing things to the limit will never fail not to impress me.