Will The Race For The Best Graphics Hurt The Industry?

[Raamm]

No because if you have the money for top tier graphics you probably have another 50 million to throw at making sure the game plays well.

[Deleted]

I personally think companies pushing for DRM, Pre-order/Pre-purchases and then releasing the game in an unfinished state or putting content behind an additional pay wall on day 1 is hurting the industry far greater than the race for best graphics ever will.

[pateuvasiliu]

Look at games that have amazing gameplay AND graphics:

GTAV
Uncharted 2 and 3
The Last of Us

3 of those are on consoles and calling them amazing graphics-wise is an insult to Crysis, Skyrim with mods and many other titles.

None of those are top tier when it comes to graphics.

[l33t]

Look at games that have amazing gameplay AND graphics:

GTAV
Uncharted 2 and 3
The Last of Us
Sunset Overdrive
Infamous Second Son
Witcher 2(likely 3 as well but not going to list an unreleased game)
Bloodborne
Mario Kart 8

Most of your list are games that have no "amazing" graphics, just good. GTA5, Last of Us, Uncharted are the example of games with good graphics. Awesome graphics you can see if you watch a Skyrim modded movie on previous page. And, only one game that has awesome graphics (amd I've played it, so I know what I am talking about) in your list is Infamous SS. Far Cry 4 is like that too.

There are of course a lot more games with good graphics and awesome gameplay. But there is little to no games with both gameplay and graphics being awesome. Which is, I think, because during a process of development most of the dev budget goes into graphics, and whats left is used to create game systems, storyline, etc. If developers manage to not waste all their money for creating absolutely unneeded pseudophotorealistic graphics, the game will actually have good graphics and awesome gameplay, and will go to your list. But more common thing nowadays is devs being just lazy, or not having enough money to develop anything beyond graphics for their game, sadly. As a result, we have all that crysises, need for speeds, assassins creeds and stuff like that, which looks godly but plays like shit.

Same stuff happening with movies, btw. Rarely we can see a movie nowadays which have awesome special effects and awesome story/actor play. Instead we are being fed with mr. bay's booming shit, movies with awesome special effects but totally not worth even wasting your time watching them.

[pateuvasiliu]

You really can't use the term ''awesome graphics'' when describing anything below this



Consoles by default aren't anywhere near PCs graphics wise ( hence pointing out Bloodbourne and The last of us is a joke ) but when you factor in mods it's even more of a landslide.

[Tech614]

You really can't use the term ''awesome graphics'' when describing anything below this



Consoles by default aren't anywhere near PCs graphics wise ( hence pointing out Bloodbourne and The last of us is a joke ) but when you factor in mods it's even more of a landslide.

This is where you need to realize there is more to graphics then shaders, lighting and depth of field.

There are animations, and no mods for skyrim make the animations in that game anywhere near good, even if a few improve them from straight shit tier.

There is art style and Skyrim has a very bland art style to start with. Mods improve it, but again can only do so much.

There is world design. And Skyrim has a few unique areas and a bunch of copypastrino. Mods again, can improve it but not to the point of what other games are doing. Look at GTAV for an impressive open world game where literally EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ROAD MOUNTAIN DOCK or ISLAND are UNIQUE.

A game like say The Last of Us has animations that completely shit on anything you can get on PC outside of GTAV.

A game like Mario Kart 8 has a better art style then almost anything recent on PC(witcher 3 comes to mind as something that could match or surpass it).

The physics on the cloth and fur in Bloodborne is amazing as well, and not something you see in your super pro modded games.

So much ignorance in this post. All things equal a PC game will surpass the console versions. The problem with this is MS, Sony and Nintendo are using graphical technology that ONLY THEY USE and not putting them on PC. There are very, very few multiplatform games that come close to the animation work in Sony first party games like Infamous Second Son, The Last of Us and Uncharted 3 for example.

There is like 2 studios pushing PC technology with their engines, and that is CDPR, and Crytek. Everyone else is making their games with consoles in mind, and usually making cheaper assets then first party games are under MS/Sony.

In the end, with PC gaming for the vast majority of games you get better lighting, better performance, better image quality and higher resolutions. All of which are easy engine toggles, PC ports aren't really pushing technological assets forward anymore then console games are.

[pateuvasiliu]

game like say The Last of Us has animations that completely shit on anything you can get on PC outside of GTAV.

Yeah because making animations in shooters is so hard.

[Tech614]

Yeah because making animations in shooters is so hard.

Show me a shooter with better walking, facial, melee combat and cut scene animations then The Last of Us. Your sarcasm implies every shooter should be able to do it, prove it.

Not to mention Infamous Second Son, has just as good if not better animations and it's not a shooter. It's a damn action super hero game.

Probably because they actually do it right, not just have some fools in a recording studio and trying to hand code animations in house that look like shit.

[AeneasBK]

It already did.

Glad someone had said it

[Drithien]

It already has. The industry is in a state of almost constant high risk, due to the huge investments required from studios and publishers in most cases to ensure that their game will look as good as possible. If a game fails to produce the expected big profits then even the biggest of production companies can be at serious risk. This is one of the main reasons why smaller companies get bought out, and why innovation and niche gaming have become almost taboo subjects in videogame design.

The industry has been living for quite some time in a state where the average investment for a game of good technical quality is above that afforded by the average studio/publisher. It's a big part of the reason why so many studios have folded, good franchises have become obsolete, and so many games with promise have been reduced to "safe, streamlined, all-encompassing" exercises in boredom.

But not to worry, the industry's public relations department is hard at work to convince people that such boring, uninspired games are the natural way of things; so it won't be long until we have next-to-nothing else to fall back to and forget what creativity in games is almost completely except for an obscure indy game here or there.

[Halyon]

What hurts the industry is the money-grubbing bastardization. Pay for first day DLC already in the files/on the disc, pay for being online to be able to play half the game etc... It's disgusting. I'd rather have a shitty game that looks pretty but I can play the entire damned thing instead of the other.

[pateuvasiliu]

Show me a shooter with better walking, facial, melee combat and cut scene animations then The Last of Us.

What does that have to do with my point?

I pointed out making animations in shooters doesn't mean much. The Last of Us being the ''best'' animated shooter has nothing to do with what I said.

[Baracuda]

People like these are killing the industry: http://sv.urbandictionary.com/define...graphics+whore

[Tech614]

What does that have to do with my point?

I pointed out making animations in shooters doesn't mean much. The Last of Us being the ''best'' animated shooter has nothing to do with what I said.

Well surely since modded skyrim is the pinnacle of graphics and console graphics are pathetic in comparison you can find a damn modded PC game that doesn't have shit animations?

Oh wait, we don't count animations, we like our pretty still screen shots and panning on environments!

Claiming console games are a joke to list is laughable when many first party exclusive games are actually moving graphics forward in directions like animations and world design that actually make the world and game seem believable and immersive. They are also things you look at when playing the game hence them being GRAPHICS.

GTAV, Ryse and Witcher 3 will be the only 2 games PC gamers see(for the foreseeable future) close in those areas to games like Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, Infamous Second Son, Beyond: Two Souls, The Order 1886(we won't speak of it's gameplay here, graphics thread bruuh) and Xenoblade X will all pull off on vastly inferior hardware, because the teams making them are using better technology then the majority of the 3rd party hacks that port games to PC.

[Cattleya]

*snip*

Console vs PC arguments aside, Xenoblade X doesn't really belong in that short list you named there. Graphics (besides the design) are its weak point.

I'm also not sure what pateu's even arguing. That PCs can handle better graphics? Duh?

[Tech614]

Console vs PC arguments aside, Xenoblade X doesn't really belong in that short list you named there. Graphics (besides the design) are its weak point.

I'm also not sure what pateu's even arguing. That PCs can handle better graphics? Duh?

Xenoblade is there for having great world design, which I factor as graphics as well. The graphics, the enemies and their placements, the bodies of water, the mountains, the foilage those are all impressive for a Wii U game. Just as the original was impressive as hell for a Wii game.

And yea, it's like PC can do 4k, better shadows, depth of field, lighting and performance... We all know this. At the end of the day those are simple toggles on any engine worth it's weight, and they're still using the same damn assets of the console versions.

[Deleted]

Yes. Take EA for example, nothing but great looking games that suck balls in the gameplay department.

[IIamaKing]

I think caustic gamers, day one dlc, micro trans in full price games, ship now patch later, are all hurting the industry more.

[Poppincaps]

Yeah because making animations in shooters is so hard.

lol he makes a long post and you only reply to one sentence? He has a point. There are plenty of console games that look just as good as some of the amazing looking PC games. The facial animations in games like The Last of Us or Infamous: Second Son really do trounce what many PC games are doing in that area. There's more to graphics than just the raw hardware of it.

[Mellomania]

lol he makes a long post and you only reply to one sentence? He has a point. There are plenty of console games that look just as good as some of the amazing looking PC games. The facial animations in games like The Last of Us or Infamous: Second Son really do trounce what many PC games are doing in that area. There's more to graphics than just the raw hardware of it.

If the games are below 1080p and have a hard time holding 30 fps it's kinda meh though.