Graphics....does it really matter?

[Lee]

There's two consoles I'm going to compare here

Round one...

Gameboy v Gamegear. The Game gear had full colour screen and looked pretty damn fine. Which console defeated it? That would be the Gameboy..,why? The games looked better on the GG, but the GB games were just better, the like of Tetris, Super Mario land and Pokemon.

Gameplay > Graphics on this one!

PS1 v DreamCast. That's right, I'm comparing a 32 bit console to a 128 bit console. DreamCast had games that looked amazing such as Shenmue and Sonic Adventure. PSX brought us games such as FFVII....obviously the PS1 was the console that outlasted the DC by four years. Amazing.

Gameplay > Graphics on this one!

I'll not mention the NES jostling with the Genesis, or how the DS has destroyed the PSP, that would be silly.

So what do you think....do graphics really matter?

 

[Spunky]

No graphics don't matter, To a certain degree. If they were the be all end all, Everyone would be using the PS3, If they wasn't important we would still be playing the Amiga.

Most of the time it's the console's features, Gaming library, And it's functionalty, That determines it's outcome.

If someone put a game in front of me that had the best graphics seen by, And a game with sub-par graphics, And great story with awesome gameplay. I will take the second option everytime.

So no graphics don't matter to me in the slightest, Hell i'm playing FF7 at the minute with PS1 graphics.

 

[The Doctor]

Graphics matter to a certain degree. Mario would still have been fun if he looked like a black box, but it would have affected the overall enjoyment of the game.

Graphics and gameplay go hand in hand. A game with great gameplay but shit graphics won't be as fun, and a game with great graphics but terrible gameplay will suck.

We also need to define "good" graphics. I believe that Super Mario World has good graphics. They are memorable, look nice, and fit the style. Graphics have to be pleasing to the eye no matter what system or genre. A million polygons doesn't make the graphics look good. A cartoony style doesn't equal a pretty game. Graphics have to fit, and they have to make you WANT to look at the game.

 

[NSL]

Call me old school, but the complexity of most of today's games kills me. I still play sports games like NHL '98, MVP '04, and Madden '05, because I liked when I could just put the game in and play. There also wasn't a need to do 500 things from Point A to Point B. I simply will not play any of the newer sports games. I'm also not a big fan of the RPGs or First Person Shooters, because they've done too much to the games. I don't mind playing the Halo series, because the gameplay is simple.

I'm split. Older games win me over because of the gameplay. We "old people" weren't given games with 50 million megapixels per frame, so we dealt with Tetris and Techmo Bowl.

Newer games though, need amazing graphics for me to consider playing. Gears Of War is the best example. I love the graphics to that game, so no matter how much I suck (due to gameplay being extreme), I'll still pick up a controller and get eaten alive by wretches every few minutes.