Graphics and Gameplay

[RSOblivion]

Admin: split from a derailed thread, let's hear your thoughts!

With the upcoming CPU/GPU tech the detail level of games can quadruple by 2014. 7 million polygon player controlled entities are being designed for games in 2014, unlike the 200,000-400,000 ones we have now and the 2,000-10,000 ones we had 2 years ago.

With that in mind a lot of dev studio's have lost sight of gameplay, something very obvious with industry big guns Bioware and Infinity Ward in the FPS genre's but also by many of the other dev's who have become complacent when it comes to games being sold off marketing.

The hardware is advancing fast, with proper multi-threading becoming industry standard which results in far more processing power for things like NPC's and AI for all sorts of things. Stuff the Atari wouldn't have even dreamed of besides electric sheep...

[Bek]

If you're worried about gameplay taking second place, then logically you should be buying only games that put gameplay ahead of graphics (Dishonored, Human Revolution, Legend of Grimrock + other indie titles).

Source on the 7 million polygon claims? That sounds like a character sculpt, not an in-game mesh so I'm skeptical. Especially if said characters are expected to be deforming, dynamically lit (Heyo Unreal Engine 4) etc. Also I'd like sources on what currently uses 400, 000 for currently released games? Not that polygon counts are an accurate way of judging a mesh's performance impact anyway... And when it comes to the GPU side of things memory size and speed is also a big limiting factor, especially when it comes to consoles, as not only are textures getting larger but models are using more maps. A typical fps gun could have diffuse, normal, specular, AO and even a gloss map, so these things quickly add up.

Generally I'd say the order of importance for a videogames is gameplay > story > graphics > audio, although that's obviously a really simplified list. But play indie games, use kickstarter, look into old games.. there's enough out there that you shouldn't be feeling forced into playing AAA titles that aren't even that fun.

[MunchY]

Generally I'd say the order of importance for a videogames is gameplay > story > graphics > audio, although that's obviously a really simplified list. But play indie games, use kickstarter, look into old games.. there's enough out there that you shouldn't be feeling forced into playing AAA titles that aren't even that fun.

Never underestimate audio! I rate it as highly as graphics (more in some games) but apart from that I agree with your hierarchy

Graphics will probably only continue to surpass gameplay for the big companies, but there will always be devs pushing the limits with gameplay. It'll just become harder to find... And probably cheaper than the 'AAA' games...

[Auld]

Its like dinner at a fancy restaurant. A well presented plate (high end gfx) really sets off an excellent meal. But if the meal is all looks and doesnt taste any good, it puts more of a dampener on things....like a broken promise.

[SayWhat?]

Never underestimate audio!

[MrMoilT]

Admin: split from a derailed thread, let's hear your thoughts!

With the upcoming CPU/GPU tech the detail level of games can quadruple by 2014. 7 million polygon player controlled entities are being designed for games in 2014, unlike the 200,000-400,000 ones we have now and the 2,000-10,000 ones we had 2 years ago.

With that in mind a lot of dev studio's have lost sight of gameplay, something very obvious with industry big guns Bioware and Infinity Ward in the FPS genre's but also by many of the other dev's who have become complacent when it comes to games being sold off marketing.

The hardware is advancing fast, with proper multi-threading becoming industry standard which results in far more processing power for things like NPC's and AI for all sorts of things. Stuff the Atari wouldn't have even dreamed of besides electric sheep...

Those numbers sound nice and fancy and all but nothing will change much, look at the 90's compared to now the numbers would be a lot bigger yet do we actually see anything change in the core gameplay of todays games?....not really fps game remain the same the graphics just get better and its pretty much the same across all genes.

What we really need devs to do is make sp games that have at least 100hrs of gameplay and mp games with at least 500hrs.

Oh and by the way Atari where the first to make a 64bit platform and that was back in the 90's lol, dunno why people have a stab at Atari all the time if it wasn't for that company we wouldn't have what we have today. By the by Atari in the 70's,80's & 90's is not the same Atari of today!