I’ve heard some devs say that graphics are more related to marketing than gameplay. Games with good graphics get more clicks.
Some games have a better story and visuals that movies these days… Watching playthroughs is at times more interesting than watching series.
I watched a 4K play through of Hellblade 2 a couple of months back. Played and loved the original after my wife played it and loved it. She played the second one and said that while the story was good and it’s very pretty, it was kinda dull to play.
So yeah, I watched someone else playing it, and yeah, the story and visuals were great.
The dcss philosophy
Some games don’t even need a story. Apex and League of Legends for instance.
I feel that’s almost unfair to LoL. Shitshow of a game it may be, the lore is actually pretty fantastic. It’s also got nothing to do with the game itself which is why I’m waiting on that MMO.
No, a thousand times no. MMO are static loopy deathtraps. Nothing can ever change or evolve, everything is dead and storytelling is bland and impossible to focus on.
But ot be fair I hate them with a passion…
It takes time, effort and manpower to get good gameplay right.
I mean, plenty indies dish out excellent gameplay. So, I rather feel like it conflicts with good graphics.
In particular, and this is an old-man-yells-at-cloud take, I do not feel like 3D graphics do us many favors for gameplay.
3D usually just means less overview what’s happening around you and more directions in which you can miss jumps/targets.
Game worlds suddenly need to look realistic, with sprawling (empty) mountains, cities and whatnot, rather than just screen-after-screen of compressed gameplay levels.
And of course, it’s also much more challenging for gamedevs to prototype in 3D, when prototyping is essential for good gameplay.
