Sunday 12 March 2017

Week 4 - Realistic Graphics vs Stylised Graphics

Why realistic graphics shouldn't determine the quality of a game

The new generation of gaming, has unloaded a large quantity of games being released with high quality graphics to make it look realistic. This influx of high graphical games means that there have been a lot of low quality games that have been created due to too much focus on the graphical looks of a game rather than the game-play itself. The gaming industry should first aim to have the game-play aspect of a game in place before thinking about which style of graphics the game should aim for. Rather than choosing the realistic style before knowing any of the elements of the game first. 

A recent high graphical game to be released is "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare". This game is renowned for its strong graphics, but the game-play aspect has not been strong enough for the game to work. The overall reviews of this game on steam (as of 12/03/17) is a low 39% positive reviews and within the last 30 days, only 19% are positive reviews about the game. For a AAA game, this is not a game that is worth all the time that has been spent into the game. The graphics for this game do look amazing, but the game-play has completely let down the game. Therefore, the main area that should be focused on first is the game-play, just because a game has high quality realistic graphics, does not mean that it is a good game. 


Game developers should not jump straight to realistic graphics, they should first see the game-play, story and genre of the game they are developing and then decide on the style that would best suite their game.  Whilst realistic graphics is a great aim and is changing the gaming industry by making it a must for AAA games, but it should not be a must. The style of the game should fit the game-play and even have some unique styles, such as the style of the "Borderlands" franchise. This game is a AAA game that creates its own chiselled style and embeds this style into the over the top game-play amazingly well and  has created a high-quality game with a hint of the creator’s own style. Thus, the graphics of a game, do not determine the quality of game-play. 

References:
Borderlands, 2009, Video Game, Gearbox Software.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, 2017, Video Game, Infinity Ward.
Steam, 2016, Call of Duty:Infinite Warfare, viewed 12 March 2017, <http://store.steampowered.com/app/292730/>.

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