How important are graphics to you?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Hello everyone .


One thing I have been noticing happening with me lately which I don't care for much, Is ever since modern era gaming, When I play 360 games or earlier Xbox One games that aren't 4k. Mostly only modern realistic looking games that are in between PS2 gen and PS4 Pro/One X gen I notice they are muddy and of worst resolution and often times have bad frame rates and It kinda ruins my experience and I go back to something One X enchanced.  Before I used to never focus enough to care but now I can see the difference. It makes anything that isn't 4k look bad to me. (Excluding retro games)


Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon of graphical snobbery? Were you ever a graphics snob.   And on a scale of 1-10 how much do graphics matter to you?  I assume a PS4 Pro might give this too if you play it for too long.  It's like jumping from a Ferrari back into the Camry.


As I mentioned above, this does not include most retro games. It also does not include switch, because Nintendo makes their 1080p games look gorgeous no matter what.  The smaller screen gives nice pixel density and most of the games are cartoony.  For some reason when I play PS2 I don't nitpick the graphics. And especially SNES because it's 16 bit and the best of the best 16 bit has to offer for the most part.  I know the graphics were amazing of it's time so i'm less likely to critique and just enjoy gameplay.  But I think with new games, they kinda depend on graphics quite a bit more.  I have become a graphics snob that I never wanted to be .   Please slay me with the VG Collect sword before I become a PC master race member.  Please free my soul. 


As a whole I wouldn't say graphics mean everything to me yet, but i'm getting there.  It's really something I care about more then I should.  I will try to break this tonight by playing Tomb Raider definitive edition.  It's a old XB1 game that will be 1080p.




Thanks for sharing your opinions .   

[kashell]

I was never a graphics snob. Bad graphics aren't enough to make me not play something.

But, I'll still judge something's graphics the house down whether they're gorgeous or hideous.

[triggerhappymonk]

To me graphics are just what you see and your opinion. That being said, there are some games (especially of the N64 or PS1) that can really distract me with how bad they are

[burningdoom]

Graphics are cool. I'd be lying if I said they didn't matter at all. Of course good graphics make for a more immersive and impressive experience.

But at the same time, cool graphics don't mean jack if the gameplay sucks. Gameplay is king.

[98dgreen]

As long as they don't make me nauseous I don't care.

[hoshichiri]

I believe you've run headfirst into the uncanny valley here- it's easier to ignore issues in retro games becuase they aren't meant to look realistic, so you don't think about it. But starting in the generation you describe, we could really try for real-life style visuals. At the time, it was fine becuase it was the best out there. But now that we can do so much better? You only see what's wrong, not what was once right.

It's also why it's not an issue for games that were never meant to look realistic. Klonoa 2, the Puppeteer, Viva Pinata, & Katamari Damacy series look fine, becuase they were stylized to begin with.


Personally, I find I do surprisingly well with old games from a graphical standpoint- although granted, I mostly play the stylized stuff anyway. There's a lot of old-school mechanics that rub me the wrong way now though, and make certain games a lot harder to come back to (see any RPG with random battles.)

[bikingjahuty]

Gameplay is the number 1 most important thing to me. Everything else is just icing on the cake. Things like graphics are actually less import to me than sound, which I've seen greatly enhance my enjoyment of a game, even a mediocre one.

[Agozer]

Graphics don't matter. Good art direction however, does.

Quite a few people I've met seem to confuse the two. When they praise a game's graphics, they are more often than not praising the game's art direction.

[kamikazekeeg]

Depends on the game.  Games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and God of War are so high end that they really help sell the world they are in more.  Slack off on that and the game fails to have the same impact.  Older stuff can be harder to go back with the drop in quality, but they can still look good in their own way at times too, but I'd be lying if I'm not spoiled by modern games.  Not that every game needs high end graphics to be good, like I enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles 2 quite abit, even though that game runs real poorly and isn't the best visually at times.

[pizzasafari]

I'd love to say graphics don't matter at all to me but there is an extent to which that's true, if I don't know what I'm looking at it can be really hard to care about what's going on onscreen.
With more recent games it's less about how high the graphics quality is and more about how good it looks visually, like the style and whatnot, anything with modern technology can be made to look great in the right hands. With older games it's tricky, I grew up with the PS1 so I'm fine with PS1 graphics for the most part, but N64 and Saturn visuals have just aged too badly for me and it does impact a lot of the games for me. Though some Saturn games still manage to look gorgeous, like Panzer Dragoon. But that square-based rendering man, hasn't served it well as the years have gone by.

SNES graphics still look great to me, that look is ageless. With NES, erm... this is going to get me crucified, I know, but it since it was before my time the actual 8-bit aesthetic has never really been my thing. It's really hard for me to believe what I'm looking at is what it's supposed to be and it impacts the experience for me. Please don't hit me.

[oldgamerz]

I'll say, that bad graphics or sound is better than no graphics or/and no sound. the Magnavox Odyssey was a 1st generation gaming console that didn't have no sound and no tv picture. Instead of graphics the Magnavox Odyssey had plastic board game like overlays. When the console was on and plunged in to the television. A light showed in the background among the static, behind the overlay and that was your graphics. And you had to make up your own noises for sound.

 But the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey is too old in my opinion and I am afraid that an actual Atari 2600 or any kind of Magnavox Odyssey would start a fire if I plugged it in.

If anyone asks the 1978 Atari 2600/VCS is a 2nd generation home video game  console. considered one of the first home consoles that could be hooked to a television set with any kind of graphics and any kind of digitized sound.

In short graphics don't matter to me but gameplay does.

Magnavox Odyssey Video review by @gameboy3800
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY6OaEmVuP8&t=928s

[stealthrush]

Least important to me. As long as I don't get sick playing it, it's fine.

[kypherion]

Doesn't really matter. If the game is good and you like it that's what should matter. Super Mario 64 isn't a 4k game but look at how much fun that game is. Same with Bloodstained: Curse of the moon. Yeah it's 8-bit but the game is fun as hell.

[betelgeuse]

As long as I know what I’m supposed to be looking at. Stuff like #idarb...no thanks.
The new releases that look like 8bit are getting a little played out for my taste as well.

I don’t mind going back to play older versions of Call of Duty etc. as long as the controls still work well. Call of Duty 2 with no run button is brutal and most older sports games suffer the clunky controls.

[oldgamerz]

I will say that the full motion video graphics of the people in games like "Interstate 76" for earlier Windows PC's is extremely bad for it's time. In fact the full motion videos have people in primitive polygons, they have no eyes they have no mouth and everything inside their design consists of squares. In other words even though I hate to point fingers but the full motion video character design in the car shooting video game hit "Interstate 76" has less detail than characters from Minecraft. In which reminds me to ask you all what do you think about Minecraft's character graphics?

To my knowledge TON's of people loved Minecraft  and don't mind it's graphics, but Speaking of video game being in 4k, this may be a weird question but does anyone desire to play Minecraft in 4K?  I only played a little of minecraft I never even figured out exactly how to play Minecraft yet.

Compared to other modern games, what do you think about Minecraft graphically?

 I really didn't mind the graphics of Minecraft, I just never figured out how to play it