Are Next Gen Graphics Really Needed on Next Gen Hardware?

[MikeyTaylorGaming]

They fixed that in WWHD though

Aye aye! HD was the only version I actually played! The swift sail made things much quicker, though still a lot of travel between Islands if there's a specific place you want to be and don't have the Ballad Of Gales yet XD

 

[aofelix]

They fixed that in WWHD though
And there are islands evenly dispersed with things to do on each one, so it's not so bad.

Yeah still sucked. Travelling in WW HD was nothing but a chore. The crap found from island to island was just that... crap. Very few quality islands. Developers who dip into the open world genre really need to make the travelling fun. I'd say thats EQUALLY as important. I literally swift sailed on WW HD, set a direction then went away for 4-5 minutes. I treated it as a loading screen.

That and the frame rate dips in a few boss fights are the ONLY real major critiques I have of an otherwise MAGICAL and PHENOMENAL game. Its sad Nintendo overlooked the travelling bullshit and it does make me slightly worried for the new Zelda title.

Having an open world which works is very difficult. I hope the new Zelda title manages to do it although in all honesty, I think its an unnecessary risk for a franchise which does not need it.




The best open world experience travelling wise I've ever had is Dark Souls since travelling from place to place was part of the challenge.




Next gen graphics don't matter if we get next gen gameplay but developers seem obsessed with framerate + resolution pushing ATM.

 

[p1ngpong]

I got an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G graphics card the other day for my gaming rig.

If only I had bought an OUYA instead....

 

[aofelix]

Yes, yes you do. Hardly any PC can last a decade and still play games at a quality comparable to consoles. If we're talking quadruple digits then fine, maybe a $1000+ PC would stay relevant for that long, but that's a huge expense and usually a pain in the ass. I'm not saying that PC's are worse, they're objectively better, but a console is a good marriage of performance, quality and price point because it's built for purpose whereas PC's are multipurpose because that's their nature. As for the reply, I'm talking to you and another user at the same time, sorry for the confusion.

I think you're right but this gen might be a little different. Last-gen the consoles were really worth their money. The companies took a loss and thats because they packed in excellent hardware.

This gen, the consoles are really pretty weak by today's standards technologically. Therefore I'd bet on a GTX 970 being able to better PS4/XBOX Ones for this whole generation and stay relevant. Near the end they might stutter but I believe it will always be able to 1080p/medium settings a game which is still better than what a PS4 and XB1 will be able to do near the end of the gen.


Upgrading does become a ballache when a new DX revision comes out and your graphics card doesn't support that but if you can time your purchase to a relevant DX revision, you're pretty much set. I had a 5 year old rig which I upgraded because DX fucked it over. However, it was still able to play the newest titles at better quality than my PS3 and 360 (even a poorly optimised shitty port like Dark Souls). I think it was Bioshock Infinite which eventually convinced me to invest in a whole new rig. I could have just gone for a card but [piracy alert] Dolphin and PCSX2 made huge strides in emulation to the extent a 4670k could play ANY game at pretty much full speed. That swayed my wallet.

 

[Foxi4]

I think you're right but this gen might be a little different. Last-gen the consoles were really worth their money. The companies took a loss and thats because they packed in excellent hardware.

This gen, the consoles are really pretty weak by today's standards technologically. Therefore I'd bet on a GTX 970 being able to better PS4/XBOX Ones for this whole generation and stay relevant. Near the end they might stutter but I believe it will always be able to 1080p/medium settings a game which is still better than what a PS4 and XB1 will be able to do near the end of the gen.


Upgrading does become a ballache when a new DX revision comes out and your graphics card doesn't support that but if you can time your purchase to a relevant DX revision, you're pretty much set. I had a 5 year old rig which I upgraded because DX fucked it over. However, it was still able to play the newest titles at better quality than my PS3 and 360 (even a poorly optimised shitty port like Dark Souls). I think it was Bioshock Infinite which eventually convinced me to invest in a whole new rig. I could have just gone for a card but [piracy alert] Dolphin and PCSX2 made huge strides in emulation to the extent a 4670k could play ANY game at pretty much full speed. That swayed my wallet.

You're forgetting that last gen consoles were also more expensive. The PS3 started off at $499/599 depending on the bundle. The Xbox wasn't far behind at $399 or $299 for the useless Core model with no HDD that was quickly discontinued. Adjust that for 10 years of inflation and that's a hefty bill to pay, and it's not like they were powerhouses - 512MB Shared RAM wasn't much even back then. I think the PS4/XBO are well priced for what you're getting.

 

[aofelix]

You're forgetting that last gen consoles were also more expensive. The PS3 started off at $499/599 depending on the bundle. The Xbox wasn't far behind at $399 or $299 for the useless Core model with no HDD that was quickly discontinued. Adjust that for 10 years of inflation and that's a hefty bill to pay, and it's not like they were powerhouses - 512MB Shared RAM wasn't much even back then. I think the PS4/XBO are well priced for what you're getting.

Yeah I'm not debating their value. Both companies have obviously played it safe this gen by aiming to profit from day 1.

I'm saying that its a different situation to previous generations when evaluating how long a PC will last since the consoles by todays technological standards are shitty compared to what the PS3/360 were when they were released.