Liam Pritchard of Brash Games writes "I crave innovative gameplay and new ideas as much as the next guy, but come on, who isn’t excited to see just how pretty games are going to be running on the new hardware from Sony and Microsoft. Sure, iOS is convenient and yes, the current gen still looks pretty great, but there’s still something to be said for a new product that can, on a purely visual level, blow your bloody socks off".
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There are gamers, like myself, who have been playing since before the NES and we've watched the technological advancements in graphics through the generations and constantly look for the next leap. For people like us graphics are a major talking point, something we will share when we're impressed, this alone can sell a game to someone.
Nowadays graphics aren't as important as they used to be and people who advocate better graphics tend to get labelled with 'graphics whore' or similar, when we discuss the finer details of the art. However as long as I continue to be impressed with shiny new effects I will continue to invest in games that push themselves graphically, even if it's just to see if my PC can run them.
I don't want to see developers focusing all of their efforts trying to squeeze every last polygon and not have smooth gameplay. We seen it far too often every generation of frame rate drops, v-sync issues, pop-ups, poor draw distances, sub-HD (current generation), or shielded by smoke and fog, and so on. We have come to the point where consoles should be powerful enough to handle excellent graphics and smooth gameplay. Even in large worlds.
In the west hell yes!! In japan no..
I'm all for Graphics but I think it's time Console Gaming changes and takes more risk with MMO's and other Open World type of games.
I stopped playing Console games because the PC offered a total different Gaming experience.
Sure Linear gameplay may work well for some games but it would just be nice to see NEW Console Gameplay instead of the same ole stuff but with better graphics.
And for the graphic whores
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
"graphics exist to serve esthetics"
amen, and from the article....
"I crave innovative gameplay and new ideas as much as the next guy"
Wish this was the case here at n4g where talk is often mainly about "graphics"
How many PC gamers boast about their beastly new graphics card upgraded every six months?
Eye candy always seems to be a first option for many gamers these days.
It something I have discovered over the years about PC gamer with high and low end cards lol.
Also those are the same ones on youtube trying to prove there 2008 card is better than the PS4 GPU.
Personally I'd rather "next gen" meant gameplay, not graphics. I'd be fine with graphics staying at PS3/360/WiiU level if there were more enemies onscreen with better AI and animations in a bigger world with many players potentially online in that world. Take a game like Destiny. It sounds cool but it will never live up to what I wish it could be because they also want it to look "next gen". I want multiple continents with multiple GTA size cities on multiple planets, populated by AI but also with many players exploring it all.
Read a book called Ready Player One. It's description of a virtual reality MMO called The Oasis is what I want, even if it wasn't virtual reality like the book's version. The Oasis is made of multiple universes based on different fiction, one for Star Trek, one for Star Wars, one for Firefly, one for Blade Runner... you get the idea, but hell I'd be happy with one universe or even galaxy to explore. We're a long way away from that because of people's obsession with graphics.
Ready Player One is a great book by the way. I recommend it to any gamer, but mostly to older gamers and sci fi fans. Lots of references to old movies, music, and games, all within the context of an MMO that exists in the year 2044. Warner Brothers bought the rights to make a movie and I hope they do a good job because RPO is my new favorite book of all time.
Very well written comment mate and i have to agree with your comments about better AI, more enemies, larger worlds and animations etc....
Look at how many split-screen games there were on the N64 compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3, it has nothing to do with power. With the PS4 and Xbox 720 developers will still try to sell multiple copies of the same game if they can with the best graphics possible.
Some first party titles might allow split-screen support via the PS Vita, similar to the Wii U and what they demonstrated with Knack and remote play in February, but I doubt most 3rd party games will bother.
I'd expect the state of split-screen gaming to decline further next-generation as the PS4 and 720 are going to push Xbox Live and Playstation network even harder than they did this generation.
Lightbox Interactive had 4 player splitscreen in Warhawk which got reduced to two in Starhawk because they wanted more action going on screen with building drops which could be seen from miles away.
Intuitive and good memorable game play with proper control pad set-up nails it.
I think the best looking graphics don't mean much if games lack a proper story and functional game play mechanics. Crysis is a perfect example of this, great graphics, sub par story and mechanics.