Developers! We want Games, not Graphics!

[danbroad]

Does anyone else feel that sometimes, devs seem to try and push the graphics envelope so hard that the games themselves suffer? Does anyone here wish that the story and gameplay came first?

Isn't a great game a great game, regardless of the graphics engine it uses?

After all, here we all are, feeling inadequate in the face of Crysis. I'm sure it's going to be great, but Half life 2 was GREAT fun to play again last week, and the graphics didn't look too bad at all.

When I think of my favourite games, it's the playing experience, and not the graphics, that come to mind first.

I'd rather a developer took, for example, the ageing Havok engine and crafted a work of immersive genius - one that could run on a PC world laptop - than provided a repetitive and generic piece of eye candy.

An older engine has advantages - ironed free of bugs, tweaked and patched, and less expensive to license.

If it runs on everyones computer as is, then it'll sell more copies at full price - rather than picking it out the bargain bins in two years when the average computer can then run it.

System shock 2, remade right now with the Havok engine? It might not be DX10, but don't tell me you wouldn't be interested...

 

[danbroad]

Valve seem to be way ahead in terms of this stuff - that engine's good but old - but the games are so good, the graphics don't matter quite so much.

 

[danbroad]

I'm sorry I hadn't time to reply to my posts earlier.

Yes, my mistake, I meant the Source engine, not the Havok physics. I guess what I'm trying to say was that for me, the latest gen graphics hold an allure, but the story and the immersion are what will keep me playing, and the desire to see what happens next.

I'd rather see a game which played well with my existing hardware, than a game that looked great but never reaaly grabbed me. HL2 is an excellent example of a story I can play again. Graphically, it's almost getting old school, but when I played it last week, I was really looking forward to slicing and chopping in Ravenholm, and pitched battles in City 17, and those spidery poison headcrabs...

In contrast, Stalker, which I'm playing now, may look better, but isn't really keeping me up that extra hour wanting to play on..

Of course, if the future releases combine [no pun intended] great gameplay, an interesting story, and wow-me graphics, then it's worth the money spent upgrading to the latest GPU. If not, then I'd rather play HL2 again...