this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Nah, better lighting doesn't do a damn thing to make a game more fun. The only notable difference that even matters is better load times.
Well from that perspective literally any upgrade at all is entirely pointless and a waste of money. There’s no point upgrading from your Nintendo 64. None of the games made possible by any console since can truly make any games inherently more fun, it’s all just graphical and performance enhancements.
I have to assume you're too young to remember previous generations.
Increased power makes a difference up to a point, but we're now so far into diminishing returns you can hardly tell the difference between a ps4 game and the ps5 'enhanced' if you don't have a 4k TV.
Increased computing power used to open up entirely new concepts in gaming. 3D environments, then larger and larger worlds, dynamic physics engines, more complex NPC Ai and more power to run larger numbers of enemies at a time.
Now, it hardly matters. There's more than enough power to do pretty much anything you want. Unlimited worlds, thousands of NPCs, photorealistic graphics, and absolutely nothing new. It can always be 'bigger and better' but at what point does that stop mattering? For me, it was last console generation.
Absolutely none of that makes a new console inherently more fun. Many of the games I have on my launch PS1 and N64 are to this day unsurpassed. Not only that but some of the most critically acclaimed, genre defining games of the last 10 years could be run on a calculator. On the other hand we have all this extra compute power yet video game AI is universally garbage. To this very day the hands down best combat AI in a game are Halo 1 and the original F.E.A.R.
Console upgrades today are about making things prettier, fit on bigger screens, and perform better. If you think the jump from PS4 to PS5 wasn’t worth the money, there’s no upgrade that will ever be worth it to you again.
I'm confused why you seem like you're arguing with me but still fundamentally making the same point. Those improvements don't inherently make games more fun, but they create opportunities for variety and new elements to the medium. It was previous tech improvements that made Halo and F.E.A.R. possible, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
But processing power isn't really a relevant limitation to game design anymore. I genuinely don't see any future console generations being particularly enticing for me, outside an upgrade to my steam deck, especially when most of what I play is 5-20 years old anyway.
You’ve got it backwards. I said from your perspective, any upgrade will be a waste of money. You then proceeded to argue how from your perspective, any upgrade will be a waste of money.
Well that is my argument, we hit diminishing returns this generation, and further upgrades are a waste of money.
If you have anything relevant to add, it's certainly welcome, but ignoring context to try to make my point sound worse is just wasting both our time.
We’ve been at diminishing returns for close to 20 years now. I’m not sure exactly what your point is.