Technology

remember the best games of your life were perfect dark with your friends running at 9 FPS.

The frame rate was shat on at the time and with good reason, that was unplayable for me. Best times were Halo 4-16 local multiplayer.

As someone who really doesn't care much for game graphics I feel that a comment I wrote a few months ago also fits here:

I’ve never really cared much about graphics in video games, and a game can still be great with even the simplest of graphics - see the Faith series, for example. Interesting story and still has some good scares despite the 8-bit graphics.

To me many of these games with retro aesthetics (either because they’re actually retro or the dev decided to go with a retro style) don’t really feel dated, but rather nostalgic and charming in their own special way.

And many other people also don’t seem to care much about graphics. Minecraft and Roblox are very popular despite having very simplistic graphics, and every now and then a new gameplay video about some horror game with a retro aesthetic will pop up on my recommended, and so far I’ve never seen anyone complain about the graphics, only compliments about them being interesting, nostalgic and charming.

Also I have a potato PC, and it can’t run these modern 8K FPS games anyway, so having these games with simpler graphics that I can actually run is nice. But maybe that’s just me.

30fps is fine too on most games.....

friend of mine makes do with a gtx960@720p and is perfectly fine with it, the fun games run. even new ones.

maybe an upgrade to digital foundry perfect 120fps would be worth it if it werent so damn expensive nowadays outside the us.

You lost me at 1080p. It's a basic quality of life thing. Even 1440p is a HUGE upgrade even for regular computer use not even gaming.

I run 4k but I use/need it more work space at work than gaming.

I agree that this happens to an extent but Digital Foundry in particular makes a point to take into account performance of the cards most used by regular people and are one of the biggest forces in that space pushing people to not just hit "ultra" and move on as you can see with their optimized settings series and the like, as well as getting the best out of older games as in their retro series. They like games that look good and play smoothly, of course, but I don't think it's fair to associate them with that kind of ULTRA MAX OR DIE attitude.

I think there's sometimes an overcorrection from the "gameplay over graphics" crowd. I've been part of that group before and get it, it's frustrating when from your perspective the industry is ignoring the parts of games that you care about the most. But it's a strange thing to pick on because at the end of the day pretty things that feel smooth to play are wonderful! That can be done on a toaster with beautiful pixel art / low poly 3D models, but it can also be done in dramatically different ways by pushing high end hardware to its limits. There's room for both and I adore both. Games are art like anything else and it'd be strange to tell people who appreciate going to a beautiful movie shot on particularly nice film on-location in expensive places just because it's still a good movie if you watch it on an old laptop with awful web compression or because an underground mumblecore film from 2003 is also great.

Graphics aren't all that matter to me but if the primary joy someone gets from gaming is seeing ultra-detailed and perfectly rendered scenes the best way they possibly can, good for them. Personally, I like getting good visuals when I can but my primary concern is always framerate, as particularly in first person games even 60fps often triggers my motion sickness and forces me to stick to short sessions. Ultimately I see the this whole debate as a relic of the past that only made sense when the only games the average person had access to were AAA/AA releases. Low-spec gaming is better than it has ever been, with the indie scene continuing to go strong like it has for the past 15+ years and an ever-expanding backlog of classics which now run on just about anything every year.