I was interested in realistic graphics more when there was rapid progress being made with every iteration, because the technology was cool and impressive, but now there seems to be increasingly diminishing returns with only marginal improvements year on year, and they just increase in bloat and can't afford to be niche. I look more for interesting and inventive gameplay these days, and indy/small budget games are where it's at. I started gaming in the 8 bit era, btw.
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Adult me is making teenage me happy, because I play games which looks super realistic and state of the art in my teenage times :D
First Forza game looked so damn good at the time, like almost real for the videos (yes I know but when your peak graphics is really surpassed you think it's real). Nowadays that never happens cause I'm old and time passes so quickly. I do stop to enjoy the flowers now and then still. Sometimes quite literally in video games to check out how things are progressing I love jungle scenes and they sort of needs tons of plants.
(yes I know but when your peak graphics is really surpassed you think it's real).
Friend of mine thought this once we played a racing game one Dreamcast. He came into the room and thought we watch a race for a moment.
“It’s 2026. Finally, I can play Mass Effect on the highest settings!” :3
Right? I'm tearing through Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne remaster and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It's great.
Thanks for reminding me of my lold backlog :D
My personal example are HD packs for ps2 games on emulator... My backlog there is really long and I loving the fact that i can play them on a higher resolution :D
I still stand by the whole "Glorious PC gaming master race!!!!" Circlejerk had a profoundly negative impact on video games, as for about 10 years the mainstream gaming community seemed to only give a shit about frame rates and resolutions and Devs where happy to just focus on that instead of making their games fun to play or have interesting stories.
Eh, I think that's more of a business thing. Numbers are something execs can compare on spreadsheet. Putting more budget into making number go up is something execs will do. Creativity can't be quantified as anything other than risk.
Of course anyone that likes video games knows making the same game over and over just with more pixels is boring. But how can you explain that in the form of a spreadsheet?
Of course anyone that likes video games knows making the same game over and over just with more pixels is boring
I wouldn't be so confident in your average video game consumer. How many "HD Remake" games sold like hotcakes?
Unfortunately, I'd have to agree with you. I recently got told by my brother that he a late thirties piss ant, thinks my 1440p 144hz monitor is shit compared to his 4k 260hz. Piss ant plays only dota. Only game he plays is dota. FUCKING DOTA. he is fucking herald 3. It's like he is bottom 20%, he lives life in 30 fps and thinkshe can get use from 260hz.
I don't even want to know what the price tag on his monitor / TV was.
Stories?! In my games?! We have AI for that.
do you even raytrace
/s
In most games I find no matter how good the static assets look, the animations immediately break the illusion of 'realism'.
One recent exception to this were some of the cutscenes in Expedition 33, the facial mocap was very on-point and, even though the game isn't anywhere close to photorealistic, it felt close to watching real actors perform a scene.
Really I just want one thing. The same thing every gamer wants. To escape to the one place uncorrupted by capitalism.
Join the fight Komrade
TO...SPEEESSS!

You should play World of Workcraft for like 40 hours a week.
Maybe you'll be invited to heroic raids then!
Not mythic, that's for the 200 hours per week players.
Ghost of Yotei did a great job in gameplay and graphics.
Excuse me this is a circle jerk about why indie games are clearly superior.
Why can't we just enjoy games that are fun?
Somehow, I never had that first feeling. The first console that there ever was at my house was a PS2 (my dad's), and the only game he purchased was a SNES Station. So I kinda grew up playing only pixelated games. Turns out I got too used to it and play almost no realistic games.
It's like a rewiring through new experience. Back in the day games were improving in looks and gameplay rapidly. Then the latter started deteriorating for many big studio titles.
You tell me some new AAAA Ubisoft game is coming out and my gag reflex starts to tingle.
A new pixel graphic indie title with great reviews? Sign me up.
The fruit that was once sweet has become poison.
I’m there with you, but a little worried that AI pixel slop is coming to ruin it.
Retro gaming has become my jam, but I’m also rapidly approaching 50 and have an 8y/o that likes to learn my old games with me for now. So I’m gonna enjoy that while we can.
My expectations were far lower, without me realising it, as a child.
I remember getting Mortal Kombat 4, on the N64, and thinking "holy shit, the graphics are so good!!! SO 3D!"
My gosh the graphics did not age well.
I remember Resident Evil 2 used to scare the pixels out of me!
Me; neither.
I'm incredibly sick and tired of videogames usually picking just two lanes:
- Super photoreal graphics, optimisation be damned, that'll look dated in just a few years.
- Pixelated nostalgia tripping for people still stuck in the past.
There are plenty of video games that strive somewhere in between, like Cities Skylines, Factorio, Zelda Breath of the Wild, etc
Funny cuz it's true
The reasons for adult you playing games younger you played are:
- They remind you of your youth. This happens when you get old enough to notice your youth is gone before you could even take full advantage of it.
- They don't require a subscription and they don't disappear when the publisher pulls the plug.
- They're more fun.
As a teenager, I warned people that at a certain point, we will reach the diminishing returns of investment on graphics. I was called a "Mario playing child" by my peers.
I started to feel validated since 2016. And the "DEI-jaw" chud gamers like to whine about is also likely created by the too much faith in how much current graphics can recreate realism accurately.
good graphics have replaced good art direction and style
If youre my age, then games were advancing in graphic fidelity at the same rate as getting better and more in depth. Devs were able to learn from eachother on what makes a game great. Then the horse dlc happened, and suddenly devs could only make games that could be chopped up into pieces and sold as an al a carte game instead of the 7 course meals they had been making.