What's the deal with graphics and visuals anyway?

It feels more like in order to sell games devs are focusing on graphics, effects, and whatnot. It feels like they sacrifice other parts of games to get the best visual quality, whether it's control, gameplay, or story. I get that if that dragster looks beautiful and shiny your going to be looking at that one more than other dragsters that look even slightly drabbier, but what happens if in order to look amazing it has to make sacrifices in other design areas. Handling, gas mileage, safety, comfort, etc. That somewhat how I feel where gaming is now, what's the point of buying a nice looking game if it's not enjoyable or near unplayable? I'd rather have a more interactive, 'intuitive', lively and massive world with at least a fun storyline rather than one with 20 Terrabyte, 2160 ultra realistic 3D 120 FPS graphics and visuals.

Look at games other than AAA mass produced stuff and that no longer applies

The Order is a fine example of how wrong you are....well, you are as wrong as you are right. It's rarely the devs that are trying to fish for the best visuals. It's the gamers/fans/consumers usually. I bet people still bought The Order only for the Graphics.

Some are, some aren't. Why can't some devs focus on pushing graphics, others focus on gameplay, and some focus on both?

If the game has great gameplay, controls and an excellent story, great visuals/graphics will help with immersion and since games unlike movies are interactive I think this is extremely important.

Every game doesn't need intensive graphics treatment, Limbo and others like it are good games, doesn't need a GTX Titan to play them nor is such a card necessary for that developer vision, however for a game like Alien Isolation I would argue that great graphics helped to make it one of the best survival horror games ever made, I would also argue its the best IP in that franchise including the movies except the first one, now all the textures in that game were not great, but they were good enough. Imagine if all the textures in Alien Isolation were great, keeping gameplay and story.... shorter campaign? yes, more expensive to produce? yes, fewer platforms? yes....but any less great? I would say no. in fact I would argue a more focused campaign would add to the quality.

I argue great graphics for pc with mature titles like Alien Isolation... using the car analogy .. whats the point of having a Venom GT just to drive a few yards to the supermarket when a Chevy Volt will do just fine, no drive the Venom GT on the desert highway and destroy the place full speed, wreck it if neccessary.

Graphics can take a back seat for me as long as the gameplay holds up.

I wouldn't care if my game looked like a geometry puzzle, I still play titles like EQ, EQ2, Dungeon Siege, TES3 Morrowing, and so forth. I also play DS games on my New 3DS (backwards compatibility, long live history.) If they offered a platform on the PC where I could legally buy old games and run them with no issue, emulator or not, I'd check it out. I still pine for warcraft RTS even though WoW is out now, probably even more so now than ever. =P

It bothers me that some people still don't realize that even with graphics, effects, and visuals less can be more. I know there are plenty of examples of gameplay over graphics, quite a few indie titles take advantage of this. I want to see more of it from AAA developers, Don't rush titles with pretty graphics out the door to make quick money,Rift, certain WoW expansions, and Skyrim come to mind. Beautifful visuals, rushed and botched launch, and buggy games FTW!

I kind of miss 1990s gaming now...

Sega home consoles, Rare, Cavedog, crassy humor, and offline living room gaming RIP...

I understand the concern for sure. A game doesn't have to have the best graphics to be good, but it certainly helps. I agree that it is a waste to primarily push graphics and neglect the others.

Any game(s) in particular that you are referring to?

Final fantasy 13 and its 'sequels' (prequels?) come to mind, it feels like they spent so much time on the eye candy that they forgot to add the flavors of story and gameplay. I remember the final boss being called crap as well. The graphics were the favorite, the gameplay was the red headed step child, and the story was uummmm.... Orphaned.

I wonder what FF15 will be like?

This is pretty much where I sit on the matter as well.

Honestly sacrificing too much of either, for either puts me off anyway. I find that a respectable balance is what I come to expect. But there are times when some come looking amazing, and actually play amazing too. Those, of course, are my favorite of those categories lol.

I find FPS games are the biggest culprits. Games like COD & BF. Flashy graphics and big spectacles. Very linear with lots of scripted events, but with no substance. You just go along for the ride. You rarely are tasked to do anything other than kill the enemies. God forbid you actually have to think and solve a puzzle or something. All the dude bros couldn't handle all that thinking. Their heads would explode. Seriously though, most FPS campaigns these days have been dumbed down so much that they aren't very fun. I miss the old school FPS games. I like to solve environmental puzzles, interact with NPCs and do different tasks. I like to feel invested and immersed in my games, not just taken for a ride. Games like Half-Life, Bioshock, Metro, and Singularity do a pretty good job of keeping the story moving, but mixing things up. Then there are more open games like S.T.AL.K.E.R. that really immerse you in the world.

Oh. Okay. I thought it might be something like AC: U. I haven't played any FF game since VII on the PS1. Actually, I have Crisis Core for the PSP. But, I haven't had enough time to spare for that one either.

theres a huge selection of games you can choose from... you can go the AAA route and get all the best graphics like you mention. But you can go the complete opposite way and get horrible looking retro games.

Theres some games in that inbetween point where they did put care into the graphics, but obviously didn't have 50 million dollars to spend just on graphics, and those are actually really good games sometimes. I'd say probably half the games i really like are in this area, and the rest are in that AAA spot also. I really can't stand the look and gameplay of retro game trend.

I stay clear of almost all fps games now because its all graphics and nothing much else.

Now that i think about it, probably more than 3/4 of my favourite games are mostly gameplay focused and not what you could call the greatest graphics.

Graphics matter...but have reached the point of diminishing returns. Devs sacrificing stability to go from 900P to 1080P doesn't make sense. This generation has been about extra pixels and polygons...while load times, frame rates, AI and physics are all stuck in 10 years ago.

AI in FPSs has barely improved since Halo CE. Physics have barely improved since Half Life 2. Load times in open world games haven't advanced much since Morrowind. There's not a lot of games with animations better than Prince of Persia 1. Having higher quality textures and resolution only magnifies the lack of advancement in the other areas. Those other issues are a greater factor in wrecking the immersion than the graphics these days.

the new wolfenstein(s) is the exception. i'd say it has flashy graphics, big spectacles and scripted events but the gameplay's still great. it doesn't really have puzzles or meaningful interactions with NPCs or different tasks, but you will feel immersed and invested in the story and characters.

I don't think it's accurate to blame graphics for the lack of advancement in other areas. Graphics are important, especially guys like me (sli, i7, sound card, receiver with real speakers, 144hz 1440p gsync monitor, etc). However, it ought not be to the detriment of other characteristics of the game.

Give me a great story, with great characters and great gameplay. And give me incredible, jaw dropping graphics to boot. Of course, this depends on art style, as some games should push the graphics envolope (modern shooters, open world "realistic" games, etc) while others obviously don't need the fidelity (limbo, braid, borderlands, etc).

Finally, someone who gets it!

gameplay is like healthy fresh food. everyone says they love it more than the fatty fast food, but all the fast food restaurants are full and the fresh produce at supermarket is never bought.

good graphics is the tasty food. you can have both, but it won't be easy.