Category Archives: Opinions

Stunning Graphics In Games: A Bad Thing ?

Computing, Opinions

Reading an article NowGamer published, I started thinking if we have had too much of good graphics ?
Sam Bandah provides a good argument, one that I agree with. Not only in games, a visual bias does exist wherever you look. The world’s highest grossing movie if all time ‘Avatar’ was the most vitally stunning movie I have ever seen, but the story ? That was nothing new.
Another movie, Legend Of The Guardians, had amazing CG work but if I ignored the graphical feast, it wouldn’t be as entertaining.

We, I believe, have reached the plateau of the graphics curve. Quake 1, 2 and 3, Warcraft 1,2 and 3, these games had huge differences in their graphics, but when you see today’s games, how different do you find them ?
Assassin’s Creed was a game lauded by everyone for it’s amazing visuals, but if you jump to the gameplay section of any of it’s reviews, you will find the reviewers considerably less enthusiastic. Pushing the envelope is a good thing, but compromising gameplay and story for how well a game looks is not. Plus, the way games have been getting shorter and shorter, it results in less VFM for the gamers. The video game industry relies on games looking more real (because of our inherent bias that nice looks means actually fun ?) and that kinda explains the hype that is built up around games before launch, but eventually fall short. The same phenomenon is creeping into the mobile gaming industry, Epic Games’ Infinity Blade, rightly called the best looking game on mobile devices, is among the most linear games I have ever played. Same is the case with Rage HD. Sure, my eyeballs love them, but they get boring after a while. People bought them for the hype and the artwork, which satisfies them initially but the lack of other elements gets bugging quick.

Unarguably stunning, but can you run it ?

Game Studios need to realize that while a game’s graphics are important, they are there to only augment the fun. Spending a little less on graphics and more on gameplay would surely make a difference. Games like Little Big Planet, Bioshock etc. show that it’s possible to be make a game which looks good and remains fun to play. Half life 2 and it’s episodes are excellent examples as well. The Valve devs already had the Source engine and once they knew they had graphics good enough, they spent time on the story, developing the characters, optimizing the engine and ensuring a smooth experience. The upside of using the same engine  was that gamers didn’t need a new rig for every game ( Crysis anyone ?). I am not saying that graphics are killing innovation, but that a balance needs to be struck between graphics, gamplay and story for a game to achieve greatness. We have had the graphics revolution, now we need a content revolution too.

In the end, all I wanna say to the developers is that, we are happy with the level of graphics we have, give us games with better stories, gameplay and characters. Make them fun, so that we keep returning not only for the multiplayer but for the exciting single player that your game has.

The Search For The Perfect Design

Opinions, Web, ,

If you have been visiting my blog or posterous for some time, then you might have noticed that I tend to change my blog’s design more often than other people do. I seem to find a new design everytime that looks better, seems better or has better functionalitry than what I have right now. Sometimes, this is set off by seeing another site’s design or a post about new design treds or a newly released theme that crosses my path. This starts an itch, a gnawing feeling that the design, the look of the blog could be even better. Its not necessarily a drastically different design, it might be a better use of colors, a slight tweak in the layout or a font thats more readable. Then after a week or so of deliberation and internal struggle (Am I changing the theme again? So soon ?), I usually end up switching to the new design. A month or so passes, and I start noticing slight niggles and bits of the new design that I don’t like.

For example in my previous theme, I loved the jQuery effects on the homepage, the posts resizing themselves according to the browser window’s size, even the date in the avatars of the people who commented. Later I found that when I wanted to enable the Disqus comment system, it would not display properly due to the auto-resizing posts. The search bar felt a little mis-aligned, a couple of plugins didn’t work properly and the homepage while cool at first, started feeling a bit empty. In my current theme, a custom comment system starts causing problems in the slider. No doubt, all these minor niggles could be fixed by someone who knows PHP and/or about web design, but I don’t have proper knowledge of either ( I plan to learn the language though). So, my options are either to find a better alternative or live with these flaws. I know its better to stick to your theme for as long as possible because switching to a new one leads to the headache of ensuring that all posts are displayed properly, none of the links are broke, the images, the thumbnails yada, yada. I admire all those people who can resist the temptation of not jumping onto the latest awesome design that they see, keeping their old comfortable design. Maybe, I am a classic case of ‘The grass is greener on the other side (or the code is better on the other site ?). Still, I seem to be too restless to live with the flaws even though I know I will never find anything perfect. And my search continues…

BTW the itch seems to have started early with this theme. Expect a design change soon. :P