RPG's Should Look Better Than Shooters, Says CDProjekt Red

[News Portal]

"We don’t see any reason why RPGs should look worse than shooters. They should actually look better," says CD Projekt Red's co-founder Marcin Iwinski. "The story’s always the thing, because that’s the thing which keeps you playing," he said, speaking of their newly-announced Cyberpunk RPG, "but these days (...) you’re going to want bells and whistles on the graphical side, and we want to deliver on that as well."

Source: VentureBeat (via VG247)

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[meji]

It's an admirable goal.

Imo, RPG players tend to want a good story and the graphics are a distant second.

Shooter players want something to shoot and they want it to look fantastic while doing so, story comes a distant second.

Rather broad generalisations but it's how those player groups seem to be when you step back to look at it. There are plenty of shooters that have story and plenty of RPG's that have great graphics, that is true, but in general they excel in that one targeted area.

[^2Lantern]

I tend to disagree, slightly. When playing a FPS I want max frames per second, as little lag as possible and smooth gameplay. To get that I nearly always turn the graphics settings down to Low. To be honest I don't so much about the gaphics as long as I can make out what im shooting at.

In a RPG I always have the graphics set as high as I can. Story is important but these days I want it to be pretty too.

[André Axe'm]

RPGs are more forgiving of taxing your video card.

[Disco LT]

RPG's for me are about immersion, and for me the better it looks the easier it is to loose myself in the game. I'm not the only one thats stopped to admire the sights on Skyrim now and then am I? >.>

[meji]

You make a good point Lantern, particularly in regards to FPS (which honestly isn't something I've worried about for a good while). The whole 30 vs 60 in regards to console gaming is a big thing at the moment, even Carmack weighed into that recently. I tend to lump FPS in with a general "graphics" description.

As you mention smooth control/input/lag is paramount to a successful shooter. For me the only trouble I ever have in shooters with this regard is when it's a direct console port to PC and they keep the general console "non-direct" aim features in.

Perhaps I should put it another way. Sell an RPG with poor graphics and it will probably sell to it's audience anyway so long as the story is good ( ie entertaining, immersive, challenging etc). Sell a shooter with poor graphics and it won't sell as well to it's audience.

That said, shooters are getting better story's and RPG's are getting better graphics (but not necessarily better story's ie ME series).

[Bek]

Generally speaking, gameplay > story > everything else. Will be interesting to see what CDPR makes though.

[diamondd]

Generally speaking, gameplay > story > everything else. Will be interesting to see what CDPR makes though.

my sentiments exactly

[Drakand]

Generally speaking, gameplay > story > everything else. Will be interesting to see what CDPR makes though.

my sentiments exactly

these

[Edward]

I wish graphics wasn't the number on focus of games.

The main thing is gameplay/fun above all.

For RPG's I see graphics been more important because you want to feel apart of the world. But its not as feasible.

FPS's are the benchmark for graphics because there the best genre to showoff the graphics. Also with the smartest mind John Carmack raising the bar with the Quake engines development for the best graphics is set for that genre. Only recently they have been able to expand it to be able to render larger worlds.

[Angeredsoul]

i felt that the witcher 2 was a very pretty game.

[korbain]

I would love more developer to push graphics in RPG's, i cannot wait for the next generation of elder scrolls games to see how immersive the game world will be because of the graphics

Obviously gameplay and story are priority, but if you can do the graphics too, we're all winners

[sifter132]

Generally speaking, gameplay > story > everything else. Will be interesting to see what CDPR makes though.

I compare it to women...most guys SAY they want personality over looks, but I think we would almost all agree that there is a baseline of looks that a woman has to pass before she gets approval from us. So converting that back to games...I tend to subconsciously write off games that have average/outdated looking graphics (new games that is), but once you pass my internal graphics baseline then it's all about the hook of the gameplay/story. I couldn't care less how nice Crysis 2 looked, I couldn't get into it.

Sorry ladies for talking like you're not in the room

[Gnavin]

I compare it to women...most guys SAY they want personality over looks, but I think we would almost all agree that there is a baseline of looks that a woman has to pass before she gets approval from us.

Getting off topic, but personally I think that applies to both genders. People like to think they're above that kind of shallowness, but you're unlikely to get in to a relationship with someone you're not physically attracted to, are you? Of course, other elements can change your perception of them, like personality or your personal history with them which will make them more or less attractive to you... And I guess that analogy applies to games too. :p
(I'd personally replace "approval" with "attraction" in your example, but I'm just a pedantic **** when it comes to terminology. :p)