Graphics over gameplay

[FrontSideBus]

You dont need to have good graphics to enjoy a game. For example: My 6800GT has died and Im currently running a 32mb Radeon VE, for those that havent heard of it before, its basically a crippled Radeon 7000 with 1 pixel pipeline. I was playing thru Freelance before at 800*600 with everything on low and no aa/af. Looked nasty but once i started playing I was really enjoying myself. Same goes when I was playing TIMCOOP with cougho last night.
Good graphics is nice. But if you have a solid game, with good graphics is better

[Grey M@a]

Go play robotron then tell me the gameplay doesnt suck you in, I know it might be a shock for the Playstation generation to see 8 bit graphics but you can waste hour after hour trying to get through the levels (200 of em to be exact) myself and Kirkabus spent the summer hols during our uni years trying to get to the end, no saves, 3 lives 200 levels and the odds stacked against you, lets just say many a broken gamepad over that game when they meet mr wall.

If you have no idea what robotron is, pla the flash version here Gotta love midway turning their classics to free web versions.

Actually just go here and play most of te classic games, Rampage, Joust, Robotron, Sinistar Who needs flashy engines when you can this much fun on games from 15+ years ago

http://www.midwaygames.com/page/ClassicGames.html

[cheechy]

Lol I had (still have) a Commodore 64 as well.......

.....also had:

Amiga 500
Amiga 1200
SNES (American)
PS1 & PS2 and LOADS of PCs over the last 13/14 or so years.

Its funny though - the game that had the most influence on me was probably Elite on the '64

[cheechy]

Oh and Rebelstar raiders (by silverbird) on the Spectrum. Spent weeks of my life as a teenager playing this!

[dkmech]

People keep bringing tetris up... Well there are many versions of tetris. Some of them make me sick. The gameboy version, however, looks ace. So graphics can be important even in simplest games.

[Grey M@a]

The original graphics of tetris are like a brand name you notice the game a mile off

[dkmech]

To illustrate my point

Both are tetris. But the second one would be a lot easier to play (with all other things being equal) as the blocks are colour coded.

Gameboy tetris, while not colour (grayscale) provided additional information about the blocks through "colour" and therefore used graphics to make it a better game to play. However we can see other examples where graphics don't add to gameplay:

[Mutley]

http://www.midwaygames.com/page/ClassicGames.html

OMG. What have you done? I've regressed! AGH! No more work will be done today, damn you!

[smtkr]

give me Super Metroid any day of the week

Without a doubt, the best game ever made (seriously, I challenge anyone to name a better game).

Gameplay is important to me, especially in the 3d games of today. FPS are a proven formula for 3d and hard to screw up the gameplay. Other types of 3d games seem to be a mixed bag. Developers need to realize that todays games require gameplay innovation first because we can't enjoy a beautiful 3d world if we are constantly frustrated with complex gameplay schemes.

[[DW]Cougho]

You dont need to have good graphics to enjoy a game. For example: My 6800GT has died and Im currently running a 32mb Radeon VE, for those that havent heard of it before, its basically a crippled Radeon 7000 with 1 pixel pipeline. I was playing thru Freelance before at 800*600 with everything on low and no aa/af. Looked nasty but once i started playing I was really enjoying myself. Same goes when I was playing TIMCOOP with cougho last night.
Good graphics is nice. But if you have a solid game, with good graphics is better

wooo! timcoop ftw!

Couldnt agree more with the last sentance tbh. I mean i still play dungeon keeper, and it still stands up well to the latest games. Plus after a while you get used to bad graphics, loading up dungeon keeper makes me cringe for 5 or 6 minutes but after that it doesnt look too bad.

[Fatboy40]

Definately gameplay first.

I think the Advance Wars series on the Gameboy Advance prove this without a shadow of a doubt.

[iranu]

My friends company supplied all the kit for the London World Cyber Games event at the weekend, one of teh games they wanted installed on 2 machines was Starcraft - minimum spec = P90 - apparantly it's still one of the most played games across Europe. P90 is almost 10 years old.

[UKMuFFiN]

anyone been on neave?

[Blackmage]

hey i belivie that graphics help gameplay! would you play pong over farcry?

[Grey M@a]

OMG. What have you done? I've regressed! AGH! No more work will be done today, damn you!

Glad you enjoyed it, but you can't beat the classics

And Blackmage give me Robotron over farcry any day of the week. Farcry is a crap game at the end of the day, give it a year it will be shelfed

[oralpain]

Graphics do seem to have taken priority over game play, but this is not new. it's jsut easier to market a pretty picture than it is to market a gaming experience.

Anyway, if I have to make a choice between good gameplay/control/substance, or good graphics, ill definatly take the former.

The games I've been playing on my 2.7Ghz athlon 64 recently...





Yep thats "Dark Sun, Shattered Lands", "The Elder Scrolls: Arena", and The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall" (the prequels to Morrowind). Still fun, almsot 10 years after I first played em.