Picking up where we left off: Yes, I own a PS4. But I did NOT buy it for the fucking graphics. I bought it partly out of spite for the fact that Microsoft didn’t deliver this gen.
I bought a 360 the day that it came out (with Oblivion) and used it for about 3 years before it red-ringed on me. The red-ringing wasn’t a problem because I was able to send it back to Microsoft whenever it happened to get it fixed. This of course changed once I discovered modding…but that’s another blog.
Truth was that Microsoft hit it out of the park in their sophomore year and Sony is currently having a stellar senior year. Microsoft, for some stupid reason, thought it would be in their best interest to completely shitify their console offering this gen…but that’s fine. I have a PS4. I will of course miss out on Halo and shit like that, but that’s the price you pay to enjoy quality gaming.
Now, back to the graphics discussion. Graphics are pretty and aesthetically pleasing to look at, but in no way do they enhance the experience beyond a slight tinge of immersion.
Tell me you didn’t feel completely immersed in Grand Theft Auto III? Or even shittier graphics like Deus Ex? Or the pixelated masterpiece which is Final Fantasy VII? My point is, those games looked good for their time, but now when you look back and realize that they have shitty graphics NOW…you feel strange. You’ll of course go back and play those games occasionally for shits and giggles, but they’ve lost their luster. Psychologically you ask yourself why the game feels clunky and out of whack. It’s because you’re now used to the newer graphics, so older games all look and feel like crap.
It’s depressing to see how this works. It’s kind of like the phenomenon that some people in relationships go through where they are presented with a smoking hot chick/dude that works/goes to school/delivers the mail for them and they constantly compare their significant other to that hot chick/dude. It begins eroding the pleasure that both parties feel about the relationship, because there’s an out. I felt this way when I picked up Infamous: Second Son. I told myself I wouldn’t open it until I played Infamous 1 & 2, but what did I do instead? I looked up walkthroughs on Youtube and then played Infamous: Second Son, but it didn’t matter because the games don’t even correlate with each other until the last cinematic hits the screen.
I fucked up. I chose the graphics over the story in that example. I felt guilty for a brief minute, but once I realized that it didn’t matter if I’d played the originals or not, the guilt faded. I’m currently trying to get through the Uncharted series before the new one comes out on PS4. Will I make it? Only time will tell.
Anyway. Stop worrying and arguing and fighting and complaining about graphics. The big game studios know that the prettier the game is, the more it will sell. Unless you’re Nintendo, in which case you can use the same graphics that you’ve been using for the last 20 years and nobody gives a fuck because the game itself is so fucking addicting that if you could play it on a potato…you’d still have a blast.
Seacrest out!