Quote:
Originally Posted by
CaptainChaos 
I would think that a lack of graphical power might actually be reason enough to try and innovate in other areas of a game since you can't just pretty it up and move on. I think what's actually hurting innovation is the fact that every publisher and dev expects a monumental success out of every game. They don't wan't to take a risk and create something innovative that may not be as big of a success as a rehash of a successful game. Instead they would rather use the majority of their resources on marketing and release a new installment every year or so.
Sure, we have games that have content. It's called MUD, hundreds of people still play them... Or go even farther back, start to rally your own troops and play a bit of table top. It's fun isn't it, playing in a magical world where you have everything at your tips yet NO GRAPHICAL INTERFACE TO PLEASE THE EYES. Ahh yes, the reason why movies love CG, games love polygons, because we are a species with sight. Unfortunately those trends got old long ago, might it be we want that AND graphical quality? I for one am sick of the idea that one would settle for Q3 graphics just so you can get a more in depth world. We have MMO crap for that, which isn't on consoles because they lack the ability to expand by developers choice. So your stuck with developers who wish to release story based games, finite endings as well as world interaction. Unfortunately this requires a bit more creative to spice up, one of the big areas that are obvious is graphics.
Now we could talk about games like skyrim, where the graphical quality differs from the PC. You could make more games like that, nice full range RPG type games. Unfortunately even those games are reaching severe limits on the console. Look at Fallout3, in all honestly it isn't that graphically advanced. Not compared to anything on the PC, I actually hate playing it on the PC because the lack of visuals. I might as well play it on a console, unless I bother to download the mass amount of texture packs and such. Even with that, it looks like crap when you compare it to Skyrim on the PC, or even worse GTA IV with the ICEnhancer.
So now what do we do? Keep making the same crap that is obviously taxing the hardware? No, we want to make new crap. We want to make pretty crap, because that's exactly what the next gen is going to deliver. Prettier crap. There won't be major advancements in gameplay, not until somebody decides to build a complex enough game to remotely mirror life. Until that's one your going to see the same finite stories, the same sandboxed fps shooters. Basically, the same crap. The difference? At least with better graphics, nicer audio, we actually might feel more emerged in the games. Then maybe we'll get a new form of enjoyment from playing them. Honestly, what DO you expect? You think something like STALKER would work well on a console? Maybe if it looked like crap, I could see it. Next gens might get there, then we'll see more roaming FPS games. While on the other hand, the next gen PCs are going to be beastly beyond belief. It's always been this way, always will. I just wish they would keep to a regular cycle so we don't see 5 years of PC hashed BS because the devs focus on a console with hardware that runs like crap.
