Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

Unpopular opinion: 3D graphics came to video games too early.

When the major studios stopped using hand-drawn or prerendered sprites about 20 years ago, we IMO still weren't anywhere close to the peak of what could be achieved with such techniques.

Instead, every game jumped on the 3D bandwagon even if gameplay didn't benefit from it.
As a result, we got over a decade of low-poly graphics (triangle boobs etc.) that have aged absolutely terribly.
 
Unpopular opinion: 3D graphics came to video games too early.

When the major studios stopped using hand-drawn or prerendered sprites about 20 years ago, we IMO still weren't anywhere close to the peak of what could be achieved with such techniques.

Instead, every game jumped on the 3D bandwagon even if gameplay didn't benefit from it.
As a result, we got over a decade of low-poly graphics (triangle boobs etc.) that have aged absolutely terribly.
It had to happen at some point, and it's not like 2D graphics looked all that hot with the Atari 2600.

A first attempt will usually look flawed as the kinks haven't been ironed out, it's always meant to be improved upon.
 
Unpopular opinion: 3D graphics came to video games too early.

When the major studios stopped using hand-drawn or prerendered sprites about 20 years ago, we IMO still weren't anywhere close to the peak of what could be achieved with such techniques.

Instead, every game jumped on the 3D bandwagon even if gameplay didn't benefit from it.
As a result, we got over a decade of low-poly graphics (triangle boobs etc.) that have aged absolutely terribly.
It had to happen at some point, and it's not like 2D graphics looked all that hot with the Atari 2600.

A first attempt will usually look flawed as the kinks haven't been ironed out, it's always meant to be improved upon.
Yeah, they "had" to do it. It seemed like such a huge jump from what came before that it really sold itself. (it's the same with disc media and load times, which wasn't quite there yet when the PSX dropped) Unfortunately, there was a good long period where 2D and even 2.5D games were devalued and underappreciated, while 3D games were still struggling with stuff like how to make your dude move and seeing where you're going. Like, almost every 3D fighter just had to have a sidestep until Street Fighter 4 came along and made 2.5 ok.

Older 3D arcade games and PC games (on modern hardware) are often fine, but PSX/N64 basically just couldn't hack it. For me it's just miserable trying to play all those low-framerate N64 racers and FPSs, it's about the cleanest possible case of older games being completely obsoleted by newer ones you can find.

Virtua Racing (1992) is still looking/playing pretty sweet, the "Dire Straits - Money for Nothing" aesthetic is truly timeless.

 
Yeah, they "had" to do it. It seemed like such a huge jump from what came before that it really sold itself. (it's the same with disc media and load times, which wasn't quite there yet when the PSX dropped) Unfortunately, there was a good long period where 2D and even 2.5D games were devalued and underappreciated, while 3D games were still struggling with stuff like how to make your dude move and seeing where you're going. Like, almost every 3D fighter just had to have a sidestep until Street Fighter 4 came along and made 2.5 ok.

Older 3D arcade games and PC games (on modern hardware) are often fine, but PSX/N64 basically just couldn't hack it. For me it's just miserable trying to play all those low-framerate N64 racers and FPSs, it's about the cleanest possible case of older games being completely obsoleted by newer ones you can find.

Virtua Racing (1992) is still looking/playing pretty sweet, the "Dire Straits - Money for Nothing" aesthetic is truly timeless.

Virtua Racing has nothing on S.T.UN. Runner which came out in 1989 and was also 3d.

 
Unpopular opinion: 3D graphics came to video games too early.

When the major studios stopped using hand-drawn or prerendered sprites about 20 years ago, we IMO still weren't anywhere close to the peak of what could be achieved with such techniques.

Instead, every game jumped on the 3D bandwagon even if gameplay didn't benefit from it.
As a result, we got over a decade of low-poly graphics (triangle boobs etc.) that have aged absolutely terribly.
That always how it is. NES did 2d to early, it was a flickering mess with tons of slowdown. SNES did it right, things and character now actually looked like things and characters. Nintendo should have waited until 1990. Sony should have waited until 2000. All the graphical hardware features that are now standard should have been delayed until they were universally understood and adopted.

Dropping SNES/Gensis devs into the deep end with the PS2 would have been a disaster. They had to cut their teeth on the PS1 in the same way the NES was preparation for the SNES, not only for the software devs but the hardware teams as well. The PSX was also a technological marvel for something released in late '94, the problem was that hardware development on the PC side was about to hit light speed so it started to look old relatively quickly.

SCEA also stopped some 2D games from being released in the US and Goemon comes to mind. Many games also went from JP to US localization then to the EU so if it got blocked by SCEA the chances of it coming to Europe became slimmer. Parodius is one exception, it was only released in the EU and JP.
 
That always how it is. NES did 2d to early, it was a flickering mess with tons of slowdown. SNES did it right, things and character now actually looked like things and characters.
Lotta awkward moments when the NES equivalent actually had less slowdown: Castlevania, Gradius, Contra. Many such cases! SNES carried the same "tech demo" curse with rotating sprites, six button controllers, and so on. Same as every other game console, I guess.
 
Halo has crap writing, especially the novels which had the exact same dilemma as Naruto.
Halo has crap writing because, nobody on the team was a writer. Much like how Spyro the Dragon had zero people on the team who was a writer, voice actor, or cinematographer, yet the remake included all of those things.

Halo 4 and 5 had more writers on it than the previous 3 games combined.
 
Everyone working at bioware on dragon age post da:O is gay.
If you look up the romances for both da 2 and inquisition its obvious the gay choices have had a lot of more time and effort put in to them. Hell even the character models speaks of this. All the male models are conventional attractive males and most of them have intressting backstories.
What im most confused by is how unattractive all the female companions are cause there are some attractive female models in the game. The dwarfen lady you meet at the first quest hub in DA:I is cute af. But casandra looks like a woman at a gaybar in her mid 30´s. The other woman in inquestion looks like a abigail shapiro without the titts.
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Everyone working at bioware on dragon age post da:O is gay.
If you look up the romances for both da 2 and inquisition its obvious the gay choices have had a lot of more time and effort put in to them. Hell even the character models speaks of this. All the male models are conventional attractive males and most of them have intressting backstories.
What im most confused by is how unattractive all the female companions are cause there are some attractive female models in the game. The dwarfen lady you meet at the first quest hub in DA:I is cute af. But casandra looks like a woman at a gaybar in her mid 30´s. The other woman in inquestion looks like a abigail shapiro without the titts.
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I think it's more that their diversity initiative involved hiring slash-fiction obsessed women to write the stories. That's like hiring coomers. EA should make The Sims more inclusive by hiring the people frequenting Loverslab to make up for it.
 
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