geewhiz, graphics have got a loooong way to go.

this isn't news. but i just booted up la noire for the first time on my new xbox, and the graphics are pretty crud it seems. i like the game though, it's really interesting. that said,

one tends to forget details like graphics and overly sharp edges when one thinks back on a game.

last time i played a game, it was on pc, nearly a year ago.

l.a. noire has worse graphics than most 360 games? is this true? does it look better or worse than gta 4? cos that game looked lovely (at least on pc)

i guess i just forgot how bad graphics still are... and also looking at screenshots is very deceiving.

anyway, discuss and whatnot. when will they peak? and maybe it's just me, but doesn't hl2 have better graphics than la noire?

graphics on PCs are much, much, muuuuuch better than on current gen consoles, no wonder a x360 game looks worse than GTA 4 on PC (especially with Icenhancer)

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

homeboylizard

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

homeboylizard

1. don't generalise, or categorise me.

2. i never said i only cared about the graphics, i just noticed them. i said i still liked la noire.. i'm just as able to like a crud looking old game, i was just surprised.

3. and yes graphics do have a long way to go, e.g. la noire which is a new game. battlefield 3 looks fabulous though, no denying that.

how come first person shooters always look so much better? do they have less to process or something?

It's a matter of getting used to a certain standard.

When I played games on my Atari 2600, they looked fine.

And when I played on NES, they looked fine.

And when I played on Commodore 64 they looked fine.

And when I played on EGA they looked fine.

And when I played on VGA they looked fine.

Each generation has a set of standards.

Consoles are obviously 5-10 years behind the latest greatest PC standards.

Going from PC to console you will be disappointed.

But if you only play on console, you won't notice anything, things will look fine.

RDR on PS3 is lower rez than RDR on 360.

I played it on PS3 and loved it.

If you sit there and compare, you will say "these graphics suck."

But if you shut up and just play the game, you won't notice anything bad, and will be having fun.

It's a matter of getting used to a certain standard.

When I played games on my Atari 2600, they looked fine.

And when I played on NES, they looked fine.

And when I played on Commodore 64 they looked fine.

And when I played on EGA they looked fine.

And when I played on VGA they looked fine.

Each generation has a set of standards.

Consoles are obviously 5-10 years behind the latest greatest PC standards.

Going from PC to console you will be disappointed.

But if you only play on console, you won't notice anything, things will look fine.

RDR on PS3 is lower rez than RDR on 360.

I played it on PS3 and loved it.

If you sit there and compare, you will say "these graphics suck."

But if you shut up and just play the game, you won't notice anything bad, and will be having fun.

ZombieKiller7

let's make one thing clear, I AM ENJOYING THE GAME. also, i'm not complaining, i don't mind about the graphics, i was just surprised, that is all. i still enjoy playing mafia 1, i'm no graphics hoar, i'm just surprised.

it's a good point that you are just used to whatever you have. but i was starting to think (naively) that graphics are catching up on real life, e.g. a screengrab of arkham city, or heavy rain looks amazing. different in motion though.

let's make one thing clear, I AM ENJOYING THE GAME. also, i'm not complaining, i don't mind about the graphics, i was just surprised, that is all. i still enjoy playing mafia 1, i'm no graphics hoar, i'm just surprised.

it's a good point that you are just used to whatever you have. but i was starting to think (naively) that graphics are catching up on real life, e.g. a screengrab of arkham city, or heavy rain looks amazing. different in motion though.jpph

Even the best graphics on PC are a weak approximation of reality.

If you understand the concept of a "limit" in calculus you will understand why digital will never replicate analog.

But in a way digital graphics can look BETTER than reality, they can look cleaner and sharper.

Reality (analog) is inherently blurry and ugly.

When you look out onto the street with your naked eye, you don't see sharp images, you see rays of light bouncing off surfaces into your cornea to be processed by your brain. These images are inherently "not sharp." I hesitate to say they are blurry lest you think I am talking about blurry vision.

This is the reason why computer images (even low rez) often look more pleasing than reality.

When we played games on early systems, they looked more pleasing to us than the real thing.

As we use more and more advanced systems, they look even more pleasing, higher pixel density and so forth.

The only time they look "bad" is when we compare them to each other.

The way to enjoy games is to stick to one platform, so your eyes get used to a certain resolution, then they look great.

If you jump around to multiple platforms, the lower rez ones stand out and look horrible.

I experienced this sensation when going "PS3 only" earlier, I played games ONLY on PS3.

As my eyes got used to the resolution they started looking better and better.

The culmination of this was my experience with RDR, which I had so much fun with, had more fun than I had in years.

Only when I compared different versions I said "Holy crap this is so ugly, how did I enjoy this."

So

Don't compare, just stick to 1 platform and play. You will have more fun that way and games will not look bad after 2-3 weeks, you will not even notice anything wrong.

[QUOTE="homeboylizard"]

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

jpph

1. don't generalise, or categorise me.

2. i never said i only cared about the graphics, i just noticed them. i said i still liked la noire.. i'm just as able to like a crud looking old game, i was just surprised.

3. and yes graphics do have a long way to go, e.g. la noire which is a new game. battlefield 3 looks fabulous though, no denying that.

how come first person shooters always look so much better? do they have less to process or something?

People use more money to make them because lots of people buy them. especially a BF game

I think graphics today are freaking gorgeous personally. dkdk999

Yep. I agree. And there is no finishing line for graphics either. "They have a long way to go" to what? they will always be improving and increasing realism. Once games look truly realistic then they will improve the lighting,scale,textures all the time. Even in 20 years there will be something new coming out to push games further

I haven't played that many games on the HD consoles. I did play a friend's Dead Space (XBox 360) on my 24" 1080p Tv/monitor. The game graphics looked fine to me.

No, that's not me playing. I did take the photo....

But if you shut up and just play the game, you won't notice anything bad, and will be having fun.

ZombieKiller7

That about says it all for me. I too like pretty graphics when they're available. But once gameplay starts, I forget about them.

Seen this video a couple of days ago. Interesting video showing new graphics technology ->http://www.wimp.com/gamesrealistic/

Seen this video a couple of days ago. Interesting video showing new graphics technology ->http://www.wimp.com/gamesrealistic/

Colinschindler

haha yep I knew it would be that. I have a thread now with a real time demo of it. And the videos of it still get a tonne of hate. And its not new. Its been around for about 2 years with these videos and the guy has been working on it for about 7 years

Consoles graphics look pretty poor compared to the nicest looking games available for the pc, but they are still very impressive and can pull off some great tricks. LA Noire looks awful even for a console game from all I've seen, I wouldn't touch it myself (because I don't like the look of the game not its graphics).

[QUOTE="homeboylizard"]

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

jpph

1. don't generalise, or categorise me.

2. i never said i only cared about the graphics, i just noticed them. i said i still liked la noire.. i'm just as able to like a crud looking old game, i was just surprised.

3. and yes graphics do have a long way to go, e.g. la noire which is a new game. battlefield 3 looks fabulous though, no denying that.

how come first person shooters always look so much better? do they have less to process or something?

Having grown up with the NES, SNES, and N64 as my main gaming consoles till about 2006, along with my PC, every single game released is a masterpiece in my eyes. Every time I see a new game released and see how gorgeous it, it baffles me that someone can slam it and say it's ugly. In my eyes graphics are at their peak right now. It's just hard for me to accept that they can possibly get any better!

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

homeboylizard

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

homeboylizard

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

homeboylizard

What if they turn gear of war or any good looking game into 8bit with stick figure but still have the same gameplay. Would you still say what you just said?

[QUOTE="homeboylizard"]

Why do you people only care about the graphics? The graphics doesn't matter. The only things that really matter are the story and gameplay.

And if you think that graphics has a long way to go...fiest your eyes on THIS!

kenchen23

What if they turn gear of war or any good looking game into 8bit with stick figure but still have the same gameplay. Would you still say what you just said?

Wow, this argument's been played over so many times I didn't even need to read the thread to know what's happening. Here's the deal: Graphics don't really matter that much, but then again, you guys probably aren't using the term the same way I do. I am referring to graphics capabilities, and most often, these add nothing (Although, I will admit that the new Frostbite stuff is pushing some boundaries on animation that I've been waiting to be pushed for quite awhile). Meanwhile, aesthetics, or what in some cases is called art, matters a lot more. There are games from back in the 90's that look a hundred times better than those now due to good color balance, and art, and if you look at the games that do this now, they can run the gamut from GPU-intensive to requiring almost nothing, it just depends on what kind of style they're going for.

Now, arbitrarily demanding better 'graphics' is just going to confuse the game industry, and make people think they need to put more money into technical capabilities, when really, they should be hiring more artists, or putting more money into the gameplay or writing. These are the areas that need improvement right now. Graphics is a side concern at the moment. People were being held back in the 90's with poor graphics, but not anymore.