Which is more important in gaming?

[Darkblade]

With all this Wii, PS3, and X360 talk going around it comes to my mind again the mentality of gamers. Many people want great graphics. Actually, it seems like most people want great graphics. This trend is more visible in the US where people react to pretty pictures more than content.

The Wii is being sold on its game controller and subsequent gameplay advances. It should be very cool to play and create a new experience for gamers.

The PS3 and X360 basically add nothing new to what is already established in gaming, other than they are faster and have fancy next-gen disc drives.

Computers are basically glorified PlayStation's and XBox's. Much more powerful with great options and choices but otherwise the same idea.

New games are usually touted for their great graphics (Doom 3) or their great gameplay (Half Life) or both (WOW). But you usually one or the other.

After reading some comments I want to know what people really want. Some of the more discouraging comments I've seen complain that the Wii isn't graphically advanced enough (keep in mind they don't mention the controller). Others complain the PS3 is too expensive, laud the graphics, and make no mention that it's a technical advancement more than a gaming advancement.

 

[Staines]

While gameplay is more important, graphics are still important in gaming.

I like the Wii's idea because it is trying to revolutionize the gaming experience. Trying to feel the excitment and the joy back in the day like when you saw your first fatality in Mortal Kombat. Finally beating sephiroth after realising you had to beat him so many times or even the time when we had to blow the cartridges to get those SNES games to work (along with our own 2nd little way of getting it to work. Thats what i feel the Wii is trying to accomplish, and that if the Wii succeds that console companys and game designers alike will try harder to follow the path of what the wii succeded to do.

While not fully supporting the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 as much as the wii, i do agree with their motive, and that is that they are not trying to fix what isn't broken. And while the wii will be giving us a new way to play games, i think that the 360/PS3 will give us a better expirence even though it is just and upgrade of it's previous consoles. How you ask? Well, even though it's true that the upgraded hardware in these two beasts will improve graphics, textures etc. It will also give us things like better and smarter AI: something that can never be upgraded too much. It will also give us more interaction with enviroments and bigger enviroments in general.

The thing i don't understand though is when people call the wii a last gen machine because of it's graphics, even though they are a clear improvment over the last generation (i got to agree though that some do look horrible: far cry for an example). I think people need to get the idea that there is a section that is "acceptable" and thats what i think the wii's graphics is, PS3's graphics are going to be way over average and thats a very good thing, but it isn't the standerd.

But on the other side of the arguement i hear that because PS3 has great graphics it therefore has to have crap gameplay (refering to its games). Games are not determined by the console. It is determined by the game devlopers and how well THEY create the game.

 

[Tidus Blade]

Defenitly gameplay, I could play something like Excite Bike or Duck Hunt and say it was funner, better, more exciting and more addicting than any motorbike game in 2007!

 

[rasengan]

Gameplay and the second biggest factor of the console will be the price.

I'm getting the wii not because of the controller{a lot of games is using the gamecube controller anyway} but because of the good games and reasonable price.

 

[President Rufus]

Gameplay. That's what made some games legends. Sure, pretty graphics can make a game look good, but it will only suck if there's no graet story behind it, or any replay value. I still love Harvest Moon 64 over any of the new ones because I find it has soemthign so simply attractive to it in it's simplistic gameplay.

Resident Evil 4 was one of teh latest rarities in gaming I feel. It was beautifully rendered, but teh new playing style and battelign system allowed for a smoother feel, esp the controls on the Cube.

Here's a prime example. Why is FFVII getting a remake for the PS3? Though I played FFVIII first and had a partial liking to it, but when I played FFVII [and I am currently anticipating a package in the mail of the PC version with Seminal Emerald], I've discovered that is an awesome game.

On the GCube, they brought back 'classics' with Smashbros, Metroids, Remakes and new releases of Resident Evil, the upcomign Zelda Twilight Princess, so on and so forth.. that's not to say that any other new concepts are cool and inventive, like Killer 7.

I'm looking forward to th eremake on "classics" though because they seem to be working best. I think most of the new FF games are falling apart with bad stories, and some so-so characters.

Why else do you think no one has surpassed Sepiroth's title of Ultimacy?

 

[gun blade wielder]

I would say the gameplay is more important.

 

[CloudS7]

Of course gameplay is the most important. But besides the way it's played, the games have to be quality. With Wii you get Nintendo titles you can depend on (Zelda, Mario, ect.) , maybe even some FFs. With PS3 you get a little bit O everything, and definatly good RPGs. With X-Box you get Halo. All will be expensive, and it's worth the wait for price to go down, but graphics are definatly important. I think we all know that's one of the ways FF pwns all others.

 

[Kentaro]

gameplay is the most important.

 

[Morrigan]

I think,for me is having fun playing a game you like and also good graphics too

 

[Tidus Blade]

Graphics arent really anything great, just how it looks, so you will still know it's a car if it was on SNES or PS3, dosent mean that it has crap graphics it's unplayable, people are thinking of today's technology, think how were those graphics for the day it was made, FFVII graphics might be crap compared to Gran Turismo 4, but go back to the release day of FFVII, and ask how were the graphics, people would start commenting on how amazing the graphics are. Now, go ask anyone about the FFVII graphics and they will talk about how it's outdated and crappy.

Gameplay is the most important aspect of any game, without gameplay, the game will be most not fun and nobody is gonna play a stupid boring game just to stare at how detailed are the graphics on his new HDTV. Games like Mario and Metroid developed into Mega Series because they were fun and everyone wanted to play it. Ive played Mario Bros. over 200 times now because it's really fun and it dosent matter if you want to repeat the same thing. Tetris, is really fun and never gets boring, graphics really suck but nobody cares as long as it's fun.

 

[Cecily]

Of course, gameplay is the most important. It'd be hard to sit there and play a boring game, even if it looks good. Still, a close, CLOSE second to gameplay is the price point. I don't have a lot of money. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are out of my price range. The Wii is just barely at the edge; ideally, I wouldn't want to pay more than $200, but it looks like those times are over.

The Wii is at least trying to make new strides in gameplay with the motion sensing capabilities of the controller. PS3 also has these capabilities, but like I said, it's out of my price range.

Now, with all that being said, I am a Final Fantasy fan. Final Fantasy XIII is coming out on the PS3, not the Wii. This puts me in a bind. Also, from what I've seen, the Wii controller hasn't really done anything significant for Twilight Princess's gameplay. It just seems to encourage making repeated hacking motions and getting your arm tired. I'm sure more Wii games will come out in the future that make great use of the controller (like Warioware: Smooth Moves), but I'm sticking with the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess.