One of the biggest hill that consoles war upon is the hill of graphics. Fanboys of ages past can easily recall arguments over which system or game had better graphics, and this has long been a standard for gamers to declare their position. In this newest generation, HD graphics have been given prime importance in the eyes of many, but is it the most important thing?
Apparently not, according to the masses. Loot Ninja posted an article about this very issue recently, looking at the successes of the current day, most notably that of the Nintendo Wii, which does not support HD resolutions of any kind. Studies seem to show that nearly 60 percent of minutes played on video games are played on the PS2, Wii, XBox or GameCube. I guess people haven’t gotten the next gen memo yet.
With many households not even being HD ready, this definitely makes sense. Personally, I’m not much of a graphics whore, but I definitely think that current consoles should maximize on the capabilities that HDTV offers. So what do you guys think? How important are HD graphics to you?
Source- Loot Ninja
I like HD graphics a lot. It’s amazing what you can do these days. Each leaf on a tree moving in the wind, realistic reflections&shadows, dept in sight, it’s all great.
Well, it is just a bit hard to move from one standard to another. Although SDTV’s days are counted, because now, if somebody is hunting for a new TV, it will at least be HD ready. And when TV companies will start to transmit hd channels, the SDTV will have to find itself a place in the attic or in the scrapyard. And if somebody already has a HDTV, but doesn’t have anything to use it, either he is just man with no knowledge of the things he buys, or just a dumbass, like my rich neighbor, who has 3 HDTVs, and he is using a ps3 with the AV cables, a High-end computer with dvi, and watches television with an antena.
Classic games dont need to have HD to them. Its what we grew up with so we dont really complain. Go back and look at all the pixilated games of the NES, SNES, and N64. Even the PS1 wasnt all that realistic, but when those systems were out we were all saying “Look at how real it looks” (save probably the NES and SNES) HD for games is relatively new
Im surprised at that statistic, I would thing there is at least 1 HD device in a persons home . I think many forget computer monitors. What kids up here doe is they buy a Monitor and hook up there PC and xBox to the HD ready screens. So saying most time is spent on older non HD systems does surprise me.
How important is HD? ANy game I get for the PS3 and 360 should look pretty damn crisp and high-resolution….yyy. Part of the reason I dont see Left 4 Dead worth the money is because its graphically unappealing to me. HD is also part of the reason I praise Oblivion so much. I can remember when I got my first HDTV and set up the system. When I first got my 360 hooked up to it I was amazed. It made playing games 10x as visually appealing. I think that HD graphics is something that games from now on should implement. Shoot, I tried playing Far Cry 2 on a non HD TV and simply couldn’t. I had to stop because now games need such large resolutions to make everything fit; I was unable to spot enemies among the clutter of colors on my mom HD TV, leading to constant death and eye strain. Some games you need a large resolution to play.
Now content will always trump graphics I think. But graphics are something I think is important. Shoot, I bought a new TV a while ago just so I could take advantage of the high graphics we have now. HD Graphics, their importance to me, pretty high.
graphics aren’t that important. while in games now they have to be a little above decent, it’s always been better graphics don’t make better games.
P.S. i still cant seem to get the gravitars to work
Graphics are nice, but if a game’s success is predict solely on its graphics, then there’s a problem. With Crysis, it had omgasmic graphics, but also some great gameplay that made it not just a gimmick. Hopefully games will find a balance between awesome graphics and great gameplay. In the end, better gameplay and/or story, etc. wins out over graphics.
I agree with a lot of these posts already.
First of all, Xbox needs to stop trying to make HD arcade games from way back when. Like Sean said, that’s what we’re used to and people shouldn’t complain.
Also, when graphics are pushed too much in a game, I agree that the quality of gameplay isn’t always there to accompany them. Far Cry 2 was a good example of that.
Good graphics do not make a game good. I think we all know that by now. But since everything is moving towards HD, games should move up to the HD graphics as well. I got a PS3 hooked up to my HDTV, and when I play Burnout Paradise @ 720p it looks awesome. I tried to play that game on a SDTV after…the results weren’t pretty… I could not see any of the cars on the road coming at me. I do agree that they should leave the old games as they were…gives us all a good reason to dust off our old tv sets and play those games.
TV’s really need to catch up in terms of resolution, actually. 720p is just 1280×720, and full HD is just 1920×1080, which most monitors over 20″ support. It’s not the HD that’s important so much as the artistic style and how the game world is presented.
Sure, HD gaming is pretty nice, but without substance it’s pointless. It’s like a hot girl with no sense about her whatsoever.
One example of a game like this is Crysis for the PC. It’s an amazing looking game, and no computer in the world can run it on max settings (and high is more than enough for the full experience). But the game play is horrible; I haven’t even finished the first mission because of this, much less than finish the game.
And as a side note: One thing that I have noticed about next gen games is that for the 360, most games are in 1080i, while quite a few of the same games for the PS3 are only 720p.
“wox42
January 20th, 2009 at 8:10 pm Quote
TV’s really need to catch up in terms of resolution, actually. 720p is just 1280×720, and full HD is just 1920×1080, which most monitors over 20″ support. ”
My TV does support 1080p. The game only goes up to 720p. And as far as the difference between 1080p, 1080i, & 720p… everyone seems to agree, you can’t see a difference. My roommate has a 720p TV, and the same blu-ray movies look exactly the same on my 1080p. It might be a different story for games though… anybody have a opinion on that?