VG Graphics fanatics

[lordlundar]

This is a post I made on another forum, so I'm simply gonna cut-and-paste it. It regards how video games lately seem to be focused solely on graphics.

It's always been a personal beef with me when someone refuses to play a great game because the graphics "suck" (in other words, not the best thing to be seen ever). I used to work in the gaming department in an electronics retailer and had customers looking for a great game reject my choices because they don't look pretty (and it took a lot of restraint to stop myself from beating some sense in them). I've played a number of these games where graphics were the primary focus.

Do I still have them? Nope. Why? Because for the most part, the rest of the game SUCKS! Plot is basic at best (which is amusing when they promote a "fantastic storyline"), controls are shoddy because they want to show off the visuals, and characters have no, well, character!

And the worst part is that these games cost several times more to make than ones with real depth. My favorite games? Xenogears, Final Fantasy pre-7, some of you have seen my post on getting Lunar, Legacy of Kain series, CastleVania: SotN, MegaMan X series (X7 excluded), Kingom Hearts, Pretty much ANYTHING by BioWare, etc. Notice a trend?

None of these games break the bank when it comes to development (a good number of them aren't even primary licenses by the company) but for the price of rendering one scene to make it look beautiful, developers can put it into making a 30+ hour epic that brings people back trying to find all the nuances in the storyline. I lost track of how many times I've went through Xenogears and STILL haven't nailed the plot. Ever wonder why BigFish games make such big profits? Because they are inexpensive to make and hook a person.

Graphic focused games are meant for one purpose: to attract people with no understanding of a good game and tell them it's the best game ever. The FF3 and FF4 remakes were slammed because they looked "bad" and Crono Trigger DS is getting slammed because it's so dated. Never mind the fact that it is one of the best RPGs in the world. Nope, because it's sprites as opposed to polygons it means it should get a 1 out of 10. Meanwhile these same people think Halo 3 has an epic story line. HA! Compared to the prior examples I gave, it's a kiddie story.

A lot of people think I spurn recent titles and prefer older ones for feelings of nostalgia. I won't deny that there is a part of that which is true. However a much larger part of me goes to those because they are games which instead of costing $10 million+ dollars to make and it turns out to be a 3 hour long rehash of a game made last year, are one percent of the cost, last 30+ hours to play and grab me every step of the way. I see no need to get a PS3 or 360 for "oober-looking" games that don't grab me. I have a Wii, my computer, and some older systems that I get more fun out of than looking at a highly rendered main character that if they showed any emotion would cause an outcry for not being "real".

And the fun is the most important thing, right?

[Sylvia727]

Actually, graphics are one of my red flags not to pick up a game. I'm not computer-illiterate, but I'm hardly fluent. All I know is that if a game has great graphics, it probably won't run on my basic computer. I'd rather play a game that looks okay and runs smoothly than one that shines and sparkles but stops and starts. If a game gives me a choice on graphics quality, I usually turn it to "low" just so I can play it through without it "stuttering". And yeah, I've noticed that games with great character developent and plotlines tend to be the ones that aren't as pretty.

I guess it comes down whether you prefer beauty over brains.

[BlaqueKatt]

Lunar, Legacy of Kain series, CastleVania: SotN, MegaMan X series (X7 excluded), Kingom Hearts, Pretty much ANYTHING by BioWare, etc. Notice a trend?

first-I love you
second-Lunar was made availabe for the GBA a while back(happy katt)-I don't notice Suikoden (more info here)in that list-hard as heck to collect all 108 characters(90 playable)-but the transfer of the hero from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3(if you saved your game data) was great!!!!!

[lordlundar]

I actually never got the chance to get into it. By the time I had both interest and some money coming in, they were well outside my reach.

[AFPheonix]

Oh I don't know about that necessarily. The Abe's oddyssey games are actually quite pretty for their time, and story-wise and game play wise are really quite good. I'm sure there's other games like that out there.

Me? I'm having a shitload of fun right now playing Force Unleashed, slamming people into walls and then electrocuting them to death.

[lordlundar]

Oh, I'm not saying that it's one or the other, but that usually when the demands are to make a game look graphically stellar before anything else, that a lack of quality does occur in other aspects of the game and it does show.

Consider Crysis for example. Best graphics to date to come out and the physics application like nothing ever seen before. Included in the package are sluggish controls, a plot that's been rehashed several times, a minor gimmick (the suit powers) and traits seen in most FPS games. I will admit that there is only so far you can go on some of these, but if you check the advertising, plot, controls, and characters were never mentioned. What was? The graphics primarily (roughly 90% of the advertising) and the gimmick. Meanwhile, had Crytek opted to make it less graphically intensive and develop the other aspects, you would have a game that runs on most rigs well, with one hell of a game to back it up.

[AFPheonix]

That's true, although I find that to be titles mostly for fanboys, and those typically are FPS or sports type games.

Lost Odyssey is visually quite nice, is a classic turn-based fantasy title, is interesting and two disks long.

The most recent Metal Gear title made my jaw drop, it was so pretty, and also had an awesome plot. Oddly, I'd call that a fanboy game too, but it was still developed well.

[Pedersen]

Here's one for you all: Legacy of the Ancients. Made back in the 1980's. Get a C64 emulator, and find the disks. It will take a good 50 to 60 hours to finish the game (at least), has blindingly simply graphics, and is still one of the most fun games I ever played

[otakuneko]

You like a lot of RPGs and platformers. I've never finished an RPG and platformers just annoy me.

I'm with you on the graphics thing though. I don't care. Hell I used to play entirely text-based MUDs without even simple ASCII diagrams. I play Space Empires 4, a hugely moddable 4X game with flat 2D graphics (aside from some portraits) that would've looked dated 10+ years ago. But you know what? It doesn't need anything better. Because of the dated graphics, SE4 can be played (albeit, should not be processed) on a Pentium 100. It's also completely portable, meaning you can slap it on a USB stick and play your Play-By-Web turns anywhere.

I still play Diablo, which brings me to my primary philosophy about graphics in a game: they should fit the game. Diablo's dark, grainy graphics contribute immensely to its immersive feel. This isn't bright and colorful killfest ala DOOM, this place is SCARY, who knows what monster might be lurking around that corner. Diablo 2's cheery colorful cartoony graphics, along with the faster pace, absolutely destroyed all that. Thusly why I not only still have several copies (including an ISO) of my Diablo CD, it's still installed. Yet my D2 discs were given away long ago.

On the other end of the spectrum Far Cry (never played Crysis) is an absolutely fantastically beautiful game. And it works, much the same way Diablo's "poor" graphics only intensified the atmosphere of the game. You're a man in a Hawaiian shirt sneaking around a lush tropical island, dodging and killing bad guys. Too bad they had to ruin it with those stupid mutants.

On the flip side we have games where the graphics don't match, or at least shouldn't. Here we have Diablo 2, Doom 3, and Space Empires 5. SE5, released in 2007 (or was it late 2006), finally went to a 3D graphics concept. And it sucked horribly. I haven't touched the game in nearly a year. SE5 is the reason I'll no longer buy games without pirating them first, even if it's a sequel to a known good game, from a known good developer.