The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
There was a time when everyone considered Space Invaders to be a masterpiece of engineering and graphical genius, there was simply nothing to compare it against. Later on, people stood open mouthed at the graphics of the latest home computers as they displayed their meagre pixels to the world on the 8-bit platforms, giving us representations of the games we played in the arcades.
The 16-bit machines brought even greater power to the home, giving us Street Fighter moving at incredible speed with all those colours and all that detail, Sonic with his amazing speed and even the WWF superstars as you had never seen them before. This was truly a step up from the last generation of home gaming and it showed, many people thought that with this power we would soon see virtual reality take over our lives, in short, the future was bright.
The Playstation, N64 and Saturn were the next step in this obviously evolutionary gaming world and gave us a much more detailed 3D world as well as faithfully representing the arcade machines at long last. At last we could explore Mario’s world in full, we met Lara Croft and journeyed through scary corridors with Resident Evil. While perhaps the amazement did not last for as long as before, players found all they needed in a platform at long last and were excited at the possibility of future developments in graphics and gaming advancements, surely the next stage would be even greater?
Well, we’ve had the rise of 2D gaming and the great leaps made by each console, we’ve had the injection of a 3D world into our gaming lives from Sony et al, so we were bound to expect something greater from their next projects, weren’t we? The thing is, looking at the latest platforms, these great advancements haven’t really appeared.
Ok, so we’ve now got much better resolution and the graphics are unquestionably prettier. Yes, we can now see more polygons on screen and Lara Croft’s bum is undoubtedly smoother, but is this really what we expected from the next generation, or is it just even a little tiny bit of a let-down compared to the leaps that were made through all the previous generations? The Xbox, the PS2 and the Gamecube all have nice graphics, the Xbox in particular standing out on this front, but is there anything new? We have cell-shading, which is all fine and dandy, but pretty as it may be, it is still just another way to show polygons with a little extra jiggery-pokery.
At the end of the day, it looks as though the graphical changes made by each new system are slowing down somewhat. The great leaps of change are turning into strides and gamers are thinking that we may now have to wait a very long time to see anything near the original vision we had for this millennium’s gaming. Perhaps something will appear that will change this and we will all be hopeful again, but for now gamers are pretty much just hoping that the next row of console images will be shinier and brighter, rather than going that extra mile and showing us something we can only dream of.
The 16-bit machines brought even greater power to the home, giving us Street Fighter moving at incredible speed with all those colours and all that detail, Sonic with his amazing speed and even the WWF superstars as you had never seen them before. This was truly a step up from the last generation of home gaming and it showed, many people thought that with this power we would soon see virtual reality take over our lives, in short, the future was bright.
The Playstation, N64 and Saturn were the next step in this obviously evolutionary gaming world and gave us a much more detailed 3D world as well as faithfully representing the arcade machines at long last. At last we could explore Mario’s world in full, we met Lara Croft and journeyed through scary corridors with Resident Evil. While perhaps the amazement did not last for as long as before, players found all they needed in a platform at long last and were excited at the possibility of future developments in graphics and gaming advancements, surely the next stage would be even greater?
Well, we’ve had the rise of 2D gaming and the great leaps made by each console, we’ve had the injection of a 3D world into our gaming lives from Sony et al, so we were bound to expect something greater from their next projects, weren’t we? The thing is, looking at the latest platforms, these great advancements haven’t really appeared.
Ok, so we’ve now got much better resolution and the graphics are unquestionably prettier. Yes, we can now see more polygons on screen and Lara Croft’s bum is undoubtedly smoother, but is this really what we expected from the next generation, or is it just even a little tiny bit of a let-down compared to the leaps that were made through all the previous generations? The Xbox, the PS2 and the Gamecube all have nice graphics, the Xbox in particular standing out on this front, but is there anything new? We have cell-shading, which is all fine and dandy, but pretty as it may be, it is still just another way to show polygons with a little extra jiggery-pokery.
At the end of the day, it looks as though the graphical changes made by each new system are slowing down somewhat. The great leaps of change are turning into strides and gamers are thinking that we may now have to wait a very long time to see anything near the original vision we had for this millennium’s gaming. Perhaps something will appear that will change this and we will all be hopeful again, but for now gamers are pretty much just hoping that the next row of console images will be shinier and brighter, rather than going that extra mile and showing us something we can only dream of.
Hey, I agree with you.
Normad, Rez and Jet Set are down to Sega's imagination, not down to increasing potential of hardware.
They could've done it on the Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube or Xbox.
Any of the current consoles are powerful enough to realise the potential of a good gaming idea. Digitiser have started complaining (nothing changes) about how most Xbox games are derpressingly generic and unimaginative despite being technically superb.
It used to be hardware designers who set down limits for games.
Now it's pretty much down to the games designers.
They could've done it on the Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube or Xbox.
Any of the current consoles are powerful enough to realise the potential of a good gaming idea. Digitiser have started complaining (nothing changes) about how most Xbox games are derpressingly generic and unimaginative despite being technically superb.
It used to be hardware designers who set down limits for games.
Now it's pretty much down to the games designers.
All I can see is graphics generally becoming more and more realistic and detailed, which is fine. But when a game comes out that has a unique visual style, that always interests me most. A prime example was Jet Set Radio.
Personally I'd like to see the style of Rez taken a step further. Keep the way the graphics, sound, music and vibration all combined, yet fill the graphics in (so to speak) like on the mini cut-scenes in area 5, and expand the general idea into a huge flying adventure.
Personally I'd like to see the style of Rez taken a step further. Keep the way the graphics, sound, music and vibration all combined, yet fill the graphics in (so to speak) like on the mini cut-scenes in area 5, and expand the general idea into a huge flying adventure.
Nintendo have been saying something along those lines.
With the last generation of consoles (Playstation through to N64), there were limits other than graphics (amount of enemies on screen, framerate etc...).
Now they think that the Gamecube has enough power to last them the next 6 or 7 years or so. This might be a little optimistic, but then again, it might not.
Although they are on to something. Like you said, increases in power are becoming more and more superficial. Nitnendo have said that they want to concentrate on making great games on what they've already got.
With the last generation of consoles (Playstation through to N64), there were limits other than graphics (amount of enemies on screen, framerate etc...).
Now they think that the Gamecube has enough power to last them the next 6 or 7 years or so. This might be a little optimistic, but then again, it might not.
Although they are on to something. Like you said, increases in power are becoming more and more superficial. Nitnendo have said that they want to concentrate on making great games on what they've already got.
games like rollcage stage 2 for the ps1 was an amazingly good game - fast well detailed and not bad gameplay either but then vib ribbon - a jumping white line - wasnt bad either. to be honest, graphics dont even matter, its gameplay gameplay gameplay that i bought my ps2 for, and the reason i didnt buy the xbox.
To be honest, I like a nice smooooth game rather than one with loads of detail. If its smooth then it's usually clear and nice to watch. However, when they go over the top with the detail the frame rate goes crap and its hard to be impressed even if the game has great detail. If they can make a detailed game and have a decent frame rate then thats excellent aka GT3.
Vast Luckystar wrote:
> Graphics have reached the stage where almost every new game looks very
> nice indeed.
> Hopefully now developers will concentrate their efforts more on the
> gameplay department. This is where originality and innovation is
> lacking.
Yes, but though you can say 'gameplay is where it counts' and get away with it, most people are still waiting for the next stage in graphics development to lift gaming to an even higher platform.
After all, though gameplay is the most important aspect, few people would still rather be playing games with Spectrum graphics than those of the PS2, and that's coming from a retro-head like me. To have the same impact that the PSX's 3D had on the gaming world, something equally as stunning and unique has to be created.
> Graphics have reached the stage where almost every new game looks very
> nice indeed.
> Hopefully now developers will concentrate their efforts more on the
> gameplay department. This is where originality and innovation is
> lacking.
Yes, but though you can say 'gameplay is where it counts' and get away with it, most people are still waiting for the next stage in graphics development to lift gaming to an even higher platform.
After all, though gameplay is the most important aspect, few people would still rather be playing games with Spectrum graphics than those of the PS2, and that's coming from a retro-head like me. To have the same impact that the PSX's 3D had on the gaming world, something equally as stunning and unique has to be created.
Graphics have reached the stage where almost every new game looks very nice indeed.
Hopefully now developers will concentrate their efforts more on the gameplay department. This is where originality and innovation is lacking.
Hopefully now developers will concentrate their efforts more on the gameplay department. This is where originality and innovation is lacking.
There was a time when everyone considered Space Invaders to be a masterpiece of engineering and graphical genius, there was simply nothing to compare it against. Later on, people stood open mouthed at the graphics of the latest home computers as they displayed their meagre pixels to the world on the 8-bit platforms, giving us representations of the games we played in the arcades.
The 16-bit machines brought even greater power to the home, giving us Street Fighter moving at incredible speed with all those colours and all that detail, Sonic with his amazing speed and even the WWF superstars as you had never seen them before. This was truly a step up from the last generation of home gaming and it showed, many people thought that with this power we would soon see virtual reality take over our lives, in short, the future was bright.
The Playstation, N64 and Saturn were the next step in this obviously evolutionary gaming world and gave us a much more detailed 3D world as well as faithfully representing the arcade machines at long last. At last we could explore Mario’s world in full, we met Lara Croft and journeyed through scary corridors with Resident Evil. While perhaps the amazement did not last for as long as before, players found all they needed in a platform at long last and were excited at the possibility of future developments in graphics and gaming advancements, surely the next stage would be even greater?
Well, we’ve had the rise of 2D gaming and the great leaps made by each console, we’ve had the injection of a 3D world into our gaming lives from Sony et al, so we were bound to expect something greater from their next projects, weren’t we? The thing is, looking at the latest platforms, these great advancements haven’t really appeared.
Ok, so we’ve now got much better resolution and the graphics are unquestionably prettier. Yes, we can now see more polygons on screen and Lara Croft’s bum is undoubtedly smoother, but is this really what we expected from the next generation, or is it just even a little tiny bit of a let-down compared to the leaps that were made through all the previous generations? The Xbox, the PS2 and the Gamecube all have nice graphics, the Xbox in particular standing out on this front, but is there anything new? We have cell-shading, which is all fine and dandy, but pretty as it may be, it is still just another way to show polygons with a little extra jiggery-pokery.
At the end of the day, it looks as though the graphical changes made by each new system are slowing down somewhat. The great leaps of change are turning into strides and gamers are thinking that we may now have to wait a very long time to see anything near the original vision we had for this millennium’s gaming. Perhaps something will appear that will change this and we will all be hopeful again, but for now gamers are pretty much just hoping that the next row of console images will be shinier and brighter, rather than going that extra mile and showing us something we can only dream of.
The 16-bit machines brought even greater power to the home, giving us Street Fighter moving at incredible speed with all those colours and all that detail, Sonic with his amazing speed and even the WWF superstars as you had never seen them before. This was truly a step up from the last generation of home gaming and it showed, many people thought that with this power we would soon see virtual reality take over our lives, in short, the future was bright.
The Playstation, N64 and Saturn were the next step in this obviously evolutionary gaming world and gave us a much more detailed 3D world as well as faithfully representing the arcade machines at long last. At last we could explore Mario’s world in full, we met Lara Croft and journeyed through scary corridors with Resident Evil. While perhaps the amazement did not last for as long as before, players found all they needed in a platform at long last and were excited at the possibility of future developments in graphics and gaming advancements, surely the next stage would be even greater?
Well, we’ve had the rise of 2D gaming and the great leaps made by each console, we’ve had the injection of a 3D world into our gaming lives from Sony et al, so we were bound to expect something greater from their next projects, weren’t we? The thing is, looking at the latest platforms, these great advancements haven’t really appeared.
Ok, so we’ve now got much better resolution and the graphics are unquestionably prettier. Yes, we can now see more polygons on screen and Lara Croft’s bum is undoubtedly smoother, but is this really what we expected from the next generation, or is it just even a little tiny bit of a let-down compared to the leaps that were made through all the previous generations? The Xbox, the PS2 and the Gamecube all have nice graphics, the Xbox in particular standing out on this front, but is there anything new? We have cell-shading, which is all fine and dandy, but pretty as it may be, it is still just another way to show polygons with a little extra jiggery-pokery.
At the end of the day, it looks as though the graphical changes made by each new system are slowing down somewhat. The great leaps of change are turning into strides and gamers are thinking that we may now have to wait a very long time to see anything near the original vision we had for this millennium’s gaming. Perhaps something will appear that will change this and we will all be hopeful again, but for now gamers are pretty much just hoping that the next row of console images will be shinier and brighter, rather than going that extra mile and showing us something we can only dream of.