Why "good" graphics don't matter | Asmongold Reacts

why good graphics don't matter there's always been an obsession with video game Graphics ever since their Inception in his years have past graphical technology has improved as Hardware has improved naturally and seeing the leaps in graphics since the early 2000s has been nothing but amazing to witness during my time as a gamer I think so too I feel like people never talk about this but some of the graphical updates especially like whenever we first saw certain games like wow like remember like old blizzard cinematics bro that [ __ ] was like a completely different world for the last decade graphical improvements began to mean much less comparing games from 2023 to 2013 I often find that just a few but a lot of those games from before 2013 still look better than the ones releasing in current year now certainly there are some noticeable improvements if you really focus on the textures and analyze the pixels nobody cares about this yeah nobody really gives a [ __ ] because like at that point like Graphics this is what I think graphics do is they just level off and to be honest we hit this point years ago this point was like I I'd say like 2010. now the graphics again and and if you look right here this point is higher than this point and the graphics have improved right like you've got a Unreal Engine 5. it is better but it's just a little bit better it's not like it's a big deal when comparing a modern game to one a decade old when playing a game like Dishonored from 2012 or BioShock Infinite from 2013 or even the Order 1886 from 2014. yeah these games you didn't know any better you'd think these games were new releases yeah just don't look as dated as you might think for being 10 years old yeah technology getting better since then very few games can top these games or even match them visually so why is this well like all the style it's all about style like a lot of the Dark Souls Graphics actually kind of suck like the the Fidelity of the in of the individual pixels is very but shitty the bloodborne is the best example of this bloodborne's awful but the style everybody knows the style and that's what matters all things a tool is only as good as the one who wields it and when in the right hands modern game development tools can produce amazingly impressive results but unfortunately incredible so many studios have been putting out games that while graphically are impressive due to their technology that they're built with never played this end up looking like utter dog [ __ ] a game like forespoken has great graphics but looks extremely generic and almost blinding in its visuals where you see this all the time like with uh a lot of the unreal five games like have you guys ever seen some of these games that were made in unreal five like I think the best example of this was the Quinn fall that had like a bunch of just pre-rendered assets put together like it looked like Atlantis and it's like people were pogging over this but the truth is that you can create this with almost no effort at all like it's not like this was some sort of like expertly crafted place it was just pre-rendered uh you know assets being put in a world be washed out in ugly sort of way Immortals of avium a game released just a few days ago running on Unreal Engine 5. see that's the game remember that game how many viewers did that game have I mean it had dozens of viewers right it was like 70. yeah that's a lot is graphically outstanding but looks like an Unreal Engine oh wait a second this was the game that I saw the trailer for and I said it was going to be garbage I was right oh my God I just realized that I didn't even see it from that frame holy [ __ ] it already came out we all knew yeah it's like I'm a [ __ ] Nostradamus I think anybody could have seen that that wasn't difficult no I'm not a genius for picking this out you're right an asset flip project even though I know it isn't the devs probably did work very hard on creating those assets but it just doesn't come across that way it doesn't help that this game in particular is so visually bloated like I love fast-paced games but I can't tell this just looks like trash what the [ __ ] is happening like this is this is this is [ __ ] garbage like what is this garbage on screen here the visibility is just awful due to the graphical and artistic style they went for yep while I understand that realistic Graphics sell to the Casual audience I'm always looking towards companies that have a more distinctive art style instead even if it is more low poly some wrongfully ascribe this generic look of video games I love how people say like realistic Graphics sells to a high audience or the most mainstream audience remember the two most mainstream games in the last 10 years have been Minecraft and fortnite the [ __ ] out of here like I bro anybody trying to push that there's no way to the Unreal Engine itself but just because a game is made and unreal doesn't mean they have to look like this I think CF thieves is a great example of a game that takes advantage of the strengths that the Unreal Engine provides I don't know it is a beautiful game in many regards but it still has a distinctive art style that separates it from a game like say atomic heart it's not the engine yeah see I didn't play atomic heart because it just looked like it wasn't it wasn't good it just just didn't look good now it's being used firewatch a game made in the unity engine is another example of a game that's a visual treat yet is not what I would consider AAA graphics and to get to the main point here I'm a strong believer that Graphics don't really matter to some degree sure but we've reached a point in the last Graphics or sprinkles on a cupcake they might make you want to buy the cupcake but they don't really make it taste that much better you don't buy a cupcake because of the sprinkles either 10 years and especially in current year where Graphics have mostly plateaued so art style oh have graphics plateaued I feel like we keep getting better and better graphics but it's like really I mean it they definitely like whenever you compare Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64 and Nintendo 64 to GameCube like these like were [ __ ] massive right they were huge but like I would say unreal five and some of the the demo engines that they've shown like these are like Photo realistic settings it's incredible it is absolutely [ __ ] amazing like that one game that was like the police body cam game that people were angry because they thought it was real and that yeah unrecord yeah it's [ __ ] phenomenal how great the graphics are but not everybody wants to play a hyper realistic game is everything and the fact that games from 10 to 15 years ago still hold up really well today is a testament to how true that statement is games like rage from 2011 or stalker from 2006 World of Warcraft thanks still hold up incredibly well in games like Fable or Dragon Age in kingdoms of amalor employ a Timeless art style and visual style so they can be enjoyed for years to come yeah two years ago with the release of Alden ring there were some very strange rage bait online about Elden ring having bad Graphics it does if you look very closely at a lot of the different items and NPCs and textures in Elven ring they are below the industry average for AAA games and it doesn't matter because you don't care that's see that this is this is what game this is what like these like game developer Andes don't realize is it doesn't matter how good your menu is or how intuitive your UI is or how many pixels a flower has on it or how realistic garlic looks in the video game people care about gameplay people care about a good [ __ ] experience and yes these things matter but not really it's the the focus is totally [ __ ] wrong in modern AAA games like I feel like most modern AAA games and this is starting to change at least a little bit the the way the what they focus on and what they care about is like stupid [ __ ] that like I think most actual real Gamers don't care about and that's why you keep seeing these like double A games and like you know indie games that are just completely outperforming these AAA games massively the graphics are dog [ __ ] are you sure about that the graphics are dog look at it though look at that water mini games that came out on that same year have better quality water mini games that came out that same year have better quality ground and it doesn't matter because this one looks more better visually appealing it doesn't [ __ ] matter it's the style oh [ __ ] the graphics are dog [ __ ] the graphics look at the look at the pixel count on the Moonlight blade is the quality of this weapon anywhere near the quality of some of the other items in other like video games no I think other video games have much more like uh higher Fidelity items they do they have higher Fidelity items if you zoom in on that weapon I can guarantee you that it's not going to look as good than if you zoom in on other weapons and other games that are equivalent to this that were either made by other AAA Studios and you know what it doesn't [ __ ] matter and that's what people see everybody is so focused on why Elden ring actually has good graphics they don't understand the difference between graphics and art style and Fidelity and design the graphics and Fidelity might not be a nine but the art design and the style are an 11. that's the difference our dog [ __ ] but I'd take a hundred different games with an art style half as good as what fromsoft delivered before another Atomic hearts or Immortals of avium or forespoken and I do want to reiterate something I've mentioned in my past videos and that's that these two things aren't so true this guy bro absolutely I completely agree mutually exclusive you don't have to pick just one Skyline can have both amazing graphics and an amazing art style games with both amazing graphics and amazing art styles Halo 1. half-life 2. World of Warcraft 2004. uh Warcraft 3 Bioshock true uh I would say probably the first Fallout Skyrim for its time I think that's good yeah Witcher 3 yeah and even high visibility I think games like Bioshock and Dishonored perfectly encapsulate that but even games like doom doom 2016 are great looking games and a trick I recently learned about do maternal is that the lighting on the enemies are separate from the environment so they are always lit and clearly visible even in Darker areas isn't it crazy that a game that's built that's made off of gameplay and making gameplay important and the main focus like that's smart right because like yeah that makes it easier to see what's going on because the gameplay is the focus in turn makes the game look I really systematic or realistic but is much better for the gameplay Doom serves the game director Hugo Martin said that during development for Eternal they had at first made the lighting come from the environment much like they did with doom 2016. you know what game also has Environmental Lighting and it makes it harder to see what's going on Diablo 4. but in play testing it felt really bad because oftentimes you couldn't clearly see what it was that got you killed and with eternal being a much more punishing game and more fast paced than 2016. visibility took precedent over realism there it is I think what's really important to take away from that is visibility really matters in games it is I always felt like visibility in Apex kind of sucked personally I think The Mortals that has this problem it's a problem I and many others have with many different modern games yeah like I I just I've always I always had a problem seeing things in Apex I don't know why I never had this problem in like war zone like besides like that one like the like latex like rose skin like the it was like solid black besides that I never had this problem in any other uh any other shooter now I primarily play PC on a 27 inch monitor like four feet from my face yet oftentimes there are so many cases where it's almost impossible to see an enemy that's right in front of me why does it feel like everyone just Blends in to everything now some might throw out the realism argument here again and games going for a more military Sim style or something like that should lean into the fact that it's hard to see enemies and while I can understand that to a certain degree seeing things in real life is much different than on a screen yeah it's just totally different you're completely right and also like I'm not in real life I'm in a video game so like whatever they do in a video game is gonna like I'm not yeah like it's not real life looking at a mountain range in real life versus a picture of that mountain range your eyes can pick out much more things in person whereas in a picture you're gonna lose a lot of detail because you just have captured a 3D environment well you don't have the uh one of the reasons why is that you don't have the depth perception like looking at a monitor monitors are good and like they've become better at like you know projecting depth but it's not going to be like real life but on a 2d plane and when you play video games it's on a screen which is essentially a picture you aren't going to be able to see the same things on this Mountainside in Battlefield 2042 compared to if you saw this mountain in person yep I think back to the 2008 to 2012 era of FPS games and the textures were a bit lower resolution but the character models were often highly detailed and it really made them Stand Out by having sharper objects on somewhat of a more blurry backdrop this made it almost more akin to real life because your eyes can pick out an enemy a bit easier in those older games especially at a distance and funnily enough you'll often see competitive FPS players crying everything that things down in games in order to have a bit more of a Competitive Edge I think a lot of that is for FPS like frames per second but also yeah it removes a lot of the unnecessary um like foliage you know like it's like there's two reasons for that it's not just one thing well I don't think every game should look like battle bit it's been a lot of fun playing that game and having long-ranged engagements in my gameplay you can actually see enemies from afar or see someone when they peek out from the side of a building and I still I'm gonna be honest guys I still think the best BR for long range combat and ballistics is Pub G and I don't think any video game has come close I I think pubg just stands so far above everybody else for Mid and long range gameplay that it's not even remotely close tarkov I don't play tarkov so I can't compare that feels great to have some of that long-range gun play in a battlefield Style game again like I did back in Bad Company too surprised you hit him I think one of the best examples of art style being more important than Graphics though is with the PS5 Demon Souls remake I think in every dude the PS5 Demon Souls remake was so good it completely changed my entire perspective on remix because like after the Warcraft 3 remake I uh you know kind of lost hope in remakes until I played this anyway except for graphics the Remake is worse than the original the atmosphere is much diminished the art Direction became more generic looking and both the enemy designs and environments have been changed to go against the visual storytelling that the original did so successfully that didn't bother an entire play the original ring doesn't have the graphical Fidelity of the Demon Souls remake I think it's a far better looking game because of its incredibly strong art direction another example I've mentioned in the past is about the destiny franchise where there are many instances another example I've mentioned in is Destiny the past is about the destiny franchise where there are many instances where Destiny 1 looks better than Destiny 2. the art Direction and lighting of the sequel leaves the game feeling a bit more plastic than its predecessor huh and while there is definitely some incredible visuals inside of Destiny 2 areas it's when comparing places inside both games that you can really start that looks really nice hard to notice just how big of a drop off there is in the sequel several shots on the cosmodrome where the moon are noticeably uglier and even in the reprised like King's fall great use of Shadows and contrasting colors from the original are now washed out and missing detail in the sequel some of my favorite games visually are ones that use an almost cartoon aesthetic like OverWatch which has a very pixar-esque look yeah OverWatch has a great style games like kingdoms of amalore or the Fable games or a game like Alice madness Returns these games all hold up incredibly well today their visual designs have stood the test of time and can be played today without feeling too dated due to the strength of the art Direction and Atmospheric design now some games have bad art style and bad Graphics I think Pokemon scarlet and violet are a pretty good example of that both graphically and artistically they look like absolute [ __ ] and that's not the switch's fault sword and shield on the switch looks much better than scarlet and violet and for some reason the more 3D and open world the games have gotten the worst of visuals and art Direction uh I never really played a Pokemon game past 2006. I stopped giving a [ __ ] about Pokemon whenever I went to middle school so I really have no idea what Pokemon is like now it's both unfortunate and confusing because a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 the game also on the switch looks pretty good given the hardware and I was hoping Pokemon's visuals would at least be somewhere in that ballpark by now especially since it's clearly possible I don't know well I mean it's Nintendo right so like you know the Nintendo switch was as powerful as an Xbox 360. or maybe less so yeah you've gotta just understand it it's Nintendo it's a GameCube yeah every time I hear a studio try to sell their game and their focus is on how cinematic or photorealistic it is I usually just check out the industry spends so much time trying to make games realistic without remembering that Games should focus more on the gameplay and its art Direction this is what I was saying like he's completely [ __ ] right like absolutely no I don't give a [ __ ] about how like her hair like I don't care about this like maybe this gets people to buy the game but it certainly doesn't get people to play it or at least it doesn't get me to play it I just don't care about this stuff at all it's like they say every time a game developer brags about how cinematic their game is an angel loses its wings I care much less about a world that looks ultra realistic and more about a world that feels realistic with a clear cohesive art Direction and World building through its environmental storytelling and I think sometimes people confuse themselves into thinking a game that looks realistic is more immersive but I think that has very little to do with making a game immersive I don't think that uh I I think that having great graphics does make it easier to be immersed in a game definitely but I think having Graphics that have a feel of escapism does that even more like I think it's hard to become immersed in a game like Starfield because of how bad the characters look I think also lost ark had this issue because Lost Ark was designed in unreal five or sorry unreal three the other opposite five uh it was designed in unreal three and it looks like it it looks like dog [ __ ] and like every time they do us a close-up to a character's face in Lost Ark I just cringe because it just looks so [ __ ] bad it's more about believability do the visuals sound design music and tone of the game mesh well if so then that's all that's needed to immerse someone yep going back to atomic heart for a second I think a big reason why it failed to immerse me is despite its impressive visuals graphically the game's tone and art Direction feels very generic and it pales in comparison to Bioshock at every turn and I make the comparison to Bioshock also like another reason why I think this matters like I bet this guy is an American so Bioshock has a lot of references to American like uh idealism right like the 50s and stuff like that whereas atomic heart is doing it off of like Soviet and like Russian [ __ ] so like there's not that intrinsic understanding that you like it's not there's not like a cultural understanding in the same way I think that matters because obviously it was a very clear inspiration I wonder what what people in like uh in Russia and like the places around that I I wonder what they feel about this game if they liked it or not paired to Bioshock the Unreal Engine technology is all that's selling that game because the story The gameplay and the atmosphere feels pretty uninspired which is unfortunate it's a game that otherwise could have been really interesting if helmed and directed by the right Talent sometimes I look at games from 2014 and 2015 and think that visuals peaked back then there's of course exceptions to that in recent years but I think it's a bit wild that Assassin's Creed Unity from 2014 somehow still has more striking visuals and lighting than the newer games the Order 1886 despite being a fairly average game looks absolutely amazing I think lighting and shading matters a lot and I think that like once you have like if you've ever seen like for example like some of the wow things and like without the right lighting and shading they look like garbage but like actually in game they look amazing much better than or vice versa titles in recent years Dying Light one looks more impressive than its sequel even Far Cry 4 has more attention to detail than Far Cry 5 with for having much more lively environments versus the more static ones of fire well it's because this is all washed out with Bloom look at that Battlefield 1's destructability and details beat out 2042 and it's not even close Infamous Second Son Arkham Knight these games still outshine games eight to nine years later visually the graphical technology in more high-res textures are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for modern AAA developers because somehow we keep seeing regressions in so many different areas over the years it's not just the visuals but the animations too but I'll save that for another day environmental storytelling is the most effective way to tell a story and immerse us in a world humans are visual creatures an exposition dumping is often a big turn off this doesn't mean that dialogue or even some Exposition is a bad thing thank you one thing that is the biggest [ __ ] block in the new game to me is whenever okay finally now we can talk to you for 30 minutes about something that you have no frame of reference or understanding about and will immediately forget the second that this screen is over okay good now talk to this other guy who's got 10 more minutes for you like I wayfinder was like that yeah I just like I I I don't know I really appreciate games that allow you to play the game and then you slowly learn more about the game over time yeah it's a book man far from Jesus but it's important to make sure that the visuals speak for themselves in the dialogue and Exposition service the visuals rather than the other way around I think a game like firewatch does this almost perfectly and I plan to cover that in a future video so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss that one thank you guys for watching leave your thoughts on the discussion of art style versus Graphics in the comments section and I'll see you all in the next one what a great video like I'm so glad I watched this this is amazing like this is such a good [ __ ] video like I I I'm pretty much I I agree with like every single thing that he said revnet was really cool yeah Remnant was the same thing like Remnant had great style but like even though the graphics weren't like super high quality it was very easy to understand what was going on and you could appreciate what was happening so yeah I mean I just think that good graphics also like I don't know what's happened with some of these AAA Studios recently I think Starfield is like Starfield is the best example of this how is it possible that a triple a studio after seven years or six years of development produces that how does that happen it's honestly just kind of sad do video games have directors like movies have directors um sometimes they do sometimes they don't I mean there's a game director but he's directing in like a different way uh then there's like people that design like obviously they're doing storyboarding Etc so yeah I I don't know the nuances to it but I think that some yes some know but yeah I mean I just don't understand like how you develop a game like Star field or uh like I'm trying to think of some of the other like really big games that have come out recently that are just like kind of mediocre like how do you do that how do you how do you [ __ ] up on that level but yeah I think that he's right about Graphics like in the Fidelity of Graphics like the actual like pixel count of certain things but being lower with these old games but the games look better because they have a more definitive style that's more appealing I'll link you guys a video there's a creative director yeah there you go Starfield looks embarrassingly rough yeah failure to innovate but that's just stuck in their own ways and refuse to evolve yep Starfield is fine you just don't like it you're not liking the game doesn't mean it's bad or a failure in most cases okay well um I mean you liking the game doesn't mean it's good either so I I mean I could just use that same argument like the NPCs in the game are garbage they look stupid the story is boring the gameplay sucks it's super repetitive you have a loading screen for every activity you do the same things the entire game you have the same five guns and three of them are bad like you you look bro like play it play it all you want enjoy it all you want if you like the game that's fine but if you want to eat [ __ ] stop trying to convince me that it's chocolate just eat [ __ ]

Channel: Asmongold TV

Views: 1,018,594

Keywords: asmongold, asmongold reacts, asmongold wow, asmongold highlights, asmongold youtube, world of warcraft, asmongold funny, asmongold tv, asmongold channel, zackrawrr

Id: boUS8QGxEng

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023