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Is a Pretty Face All We Care About?

Is a Pretty Face All We Care About?

With the release of every new game, resolutions are always compared to older versions, even if they are only a year behind. New technology too, becomes the centre of the graphical comparison debate. Mods are no exception to this race toward “better” graphics, using new and sometimes customized technology to render an “updated” version of a game or part of a game. Some gamers understand these comparisons as appraising a game by its technological power, or resolution capabilities. However, I believe that judging a game solely by the amount of pixels per inch is akin to judging a book by its cover or a film by its poster.

The debate about resolution is not that pixels per inch don’t matter; it’s that art taste does matter. We should stop debating about the quality of graphics and realize that what we’re really debating is bad versus good art. Resolution has nothing to do with the quality of a game as a whole, Undertale being a prime example of this. Art style and how a game appeals visually to a player, however, does affect the player’s opinion of the game. For example, I don’t want to play Undertale because the art style does not look good to me, however I do realize the game is fun and exciting despite that. For a less current example, Child of Light runs at the same resolution as Far Cry 4 , however the art style is entirely different.

Those used to playing games with more realistic styles often don’t want to play games like Child of Light because the “graphics” are not to their expectations. I think this is being short-sighted and no different than refusing to watch Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo because the film still uses hand-drawn instead of computer-created animation. To say, however, that you don’t want to watch Ponyo because the characters appear too childlike for the adult themes of the film, would be referring to a difference in art style rather than anything to do with the animation technology. Again, this is about art style, not resolution or technological issues.

Is a Pretty Face All We Care About?

Furthermore, there is definitely such thing as a beautiful looking game that doesn’t live up to it’s AAA trappings. Rambo: The Video Game is just as lame as its title and is one of the laziest first person shooters I’ve ever encountered. However, the backgrounds are well done, the combat environments are dynamic, and Rambo certainly looks like Sylvester Stallone. The game’s graphical quality clearly does not match its gameplay quality.

Therefore, it’s time to stop rating games on how detailed their blades of grass can be, but rather on your own opinion of what constitutes a good game, and a bad one. For some, a good game might include extremely realistic graphics and real life cinematic cut scenes. For others, a good game is more about art style. For me, it’s both. So go out there and judge video games based on your own taste rather than technical specs – even the Mona Lisa isn’t beautiful to everyone.

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