How Important Are Graphics in Video Games?

[Alyxx Thorne]

Sometimes as long as I can enjoy the gameplay of a game, graphics and story aren't that important.

Silpheed is a good example of this phenomena.

Yes. Forgetable story, graphics that look like a StarFox clone, decent music, but awesome classic gameplay.

[Blightmare]

The ever popular Depends on the Game.

 

For me, i really look at the gameplay first. A game can have terrible graphics, but amazing gameplay, and I will play it. if it has amazing graphics, but terrible gameplay, I won't touch it for long.

 

But, there are some games I've played where the graphics really are key with the gameplay. I've played a few where the gameplay was great, but the graphics and animation was so bad, it really destroyed the experience.

[Raicuparta]

Just thought of a nice example:

Okami. For the PS2 and Wii. This is an example of a game that depends highly on the visual component, and does it well. Amazing visuals, simply gorgeous. Of course not the kind of graphics to please the "graphic whores"

[Jek Jek Roo]

Just thought of a nice example:

Okami. For the PS2 and Wii. This is an example of a game that depends highly on the visual component, and does it well. Amazing visuals, simply gorgeous. Of course not the kind of graphics to please the "graphic whores"

 

Yes, Okami looks really amazing. I love that game only for the ink drawings stylized graphics

[Eedo Baba]

Another good example would be the recent game Stacking. the detail of the painted dolls is genuinely impressive.

Apparently they actually made each doll physically, then 3d scanned them to acquire textures for the models.

[evercharmer]

It does indeed depend on the game.

 

I may not need great graphics to enjoy a game, but that doesn't mean I don't have a huge tower that can play most current games on the highest settings easily. However, if all a game has is good graphics, I'm not going to keep going back to it if the story isn't good.

 

Admittedly, I don't play a lot of games. I just like to get the most out of the ones I do play, and that includes graphics.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Just thought of a nice example:

Okami. For the PS2 and Wii. This is an example of a game that depends highly on the visual component, and does it well. Amazing visuals, simply gorgeous. Of course not the kind of graphics to please the "graphic whores"

I wouldn't say Okami has great graphics, but they are certainly unique and stylish. You could say the same about Tron really. It may not look nice, but at least there's nothing that looks quite like it.

[tehFoist]

I love a good looking game as much as the next person but sometimes you have to draw the line. Crysis: Incredible visuals and it is fun to play around in the sandbox but the single player was pretty boring. But, on the other hand I have been hesitant to pick up Homefront because it has some pretty lackluster visuals...

 

I think overall gameplay/story is mucho importanto, but pretty visuals don't hurt at all. Penumbra had some nice visual effects but it wasn't AAA quality and its still one of my favorite games of all time.

[Bjossi]

I am probably one of the few who find System Shock 2 to be pure eyecandy. Only a few engines since then have had such beautiful, deep colours. MedSci's "blueness" is so gorgeous and unique in my opinion. I adore the graphics of that game. And I am also probably one of the few who think FEAR 1 looks better than FEAR 2, for me blurriness and desaturation do the opposite of improving visuals, for that reason I also much prefer the original Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay from the remake. Why do so many games rely on blurriness? I am near sighted in real life but I don't see all blurry when using my glasses.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I kinda dislike the term "graphic whore". I prefer to call them "pixel intolerant".

[Raicuparta]

Just thought of a nice example:

Okami. For the PS2 and Wii. This is an example of a game that depends highly on the visual component, and does it well. Amazing visuals, simply gorgeous. Of course not the kind of graphics to please the "graphic whores"

I wouldn't say Okami has great graphics, but they are certainly unique and stylish. You could say the same about Tron really. It may not look nice, but at least there's nothing that looks quite like it.

You have to take in to account the hardware capabilities. It's true that at the time Okami was launched, there were a lot of much more advanced games out there, but not on the PS2. Okami pretty much uses every drop of performance the PS2's hardware can give. Not like Gof of War & God of War II, probably, but still makes an excellent use of the at the time limited hardware.

[Blue]

Graphics: the method of conveying information beyond the game engine.

All the game ever thinks or "sees" are entities, trajectories, nodes and numbers. Textures, brushes, models (and animations of models) give visible voice to the invisceral numeral-based systems of the engine. And the most important part about any texture, brush, model or animation is its readability. Any artist can tell you that. (Models and so on are the art of a game (unless some really creative coding went into the engine but that's besides the point))

(I WONDER WHICH IS WHICH)

 

Being able to simply tell what what is from a glance is extremely important to visual design and development. Beyond that, anything goes, as low poly or high poly as you wish. Any additional tricks and methods added on are just bonus non-essential frills. The visible design decreases in quality if the design doileys are made more important than the readability of a model.

Of course, level lighting plays into this, but Texturing and lighting go hand in hand and both play second fiddle to the model design.

However some effects can be implemented as integral components of the gameplay, such as Mirror's Edge which relies on strong and efficient Radiosity solutions in order to guide the player, as well as color saturation modifiers to indicate player health, or Camera-based node drawing detection (aka the Paintbrush) in Okami. These are not so much indicative of poor or excellent visual development as much as they are clever design on the part of the Tech team in coordination with the Director.

[Axeldeath]

I love a good looking game as much as the next person but sometimes you have to draw the line. Crysis: Incredible visuals and it is fun to play around in the sandbox but the single player was pretty boring. But, on the other hand I have been hesitant to pick up Homefront because it has some pretty lackluster visuals...

 

I think overall gameplay/story is mucho importanto, but pretty visuals don't hurt at all. Penumbra had some nice visual effects but it wasn't AAA quality and its still one of my favorite games of all time.

 

Don't pick up Homefront unless you <3 MW2 and CodBlops ( hehe ) Multiplayer and enjoy bad singleplayer campaigns.

[Bjossi]

Codblop should be a valid noun in English.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Codblop should be a valid noun in English.

I second this.

[Kirkreng]

Codblop should be a valid noun in English.

I always refer to it as Blops, sounds kind of fun.

[superjchamma]

I don't give a crap about graphics, you can make the graphics look like a friggin Atari game, it's the game itself that matters the most. What matters the most is its controls, fun factor, and gameplay. Although on one exception is if the graphics begin to effect the gameplay on its own.

[Jek Jek Roo]

I don't give a crap about graphics, you can make the graphics look like a friggin Atari game, it's the game itself that matters the most. What matters the most is its controls, fun factor, and gameplay. Although on one exception is if the graphics begin to effect the gameplay on its own.

 

I agree

[Bjossi]

I don't give a crap about graphics, you can make the graphics look like a friggin Atari game, it's the game itself that matters the most. What matters the most is its controls, fun factor, and gameplay. Although on one exception is if the graphics begin to effect the gameplay on its own.

 

They often do, but not so much any more now that we have reached a sort of graphical plateau at this point. It is in the hands of artists to make games look noticeably better than anything else out there, not engine programmers.

[scarydance3]

graphics are as important as you think they are, there is no right answer because everyone is different.