Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
agreed. i like the 360 and all but the wii simply delivers. gameplay > graphics and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.
I think what people miss is that the graphics have reached the point where they don't really detract from the gameplay - they're just eye candy. I saw someone on one of the gamefaqs boards say something to the effect of "if graphics didn't matter, we'd still be playing the NES." I think he's missing the point. There are things that you couldn't do with older systems that limited the gameplay. Entire genres couldn't exist without
decent 3D graphics. Last generation HAD decent 3D graphics. Now they're just adding eye candy. Higher resolution is nice, but it's not often that it will make a big difference in the playability of a game.
Every generation up to this point has opened the door for new types of games. I just don't see the graphical improvements of this generation doing that. And I think the proof will be that the Wii, with its "last gen" graphics will have the same types of games, and many of the same games, as the PS3 and the Xbox 360.
Not only that, but one of the most important yet overlooked facts is that form and function are intertwined. We've been using gamepads to control our consoles since the very first (function), with the only innovations being slight - analog control, more buttons, a little vibration etc. Yet throughout this time, graphics have evolved from blocks of light to near photorealism (form). You'd don't expect natural control when the game isnt natural (pong), but it begins to become silly when essentially the same control, just slightly modified, is applied to something far more realistic (virtua tennis). It's one thing to press a button to make a little cartoon jump, its another thing to press a button to make a realistic tennis player swing.
The leap in form from pong (B/W, sound for blips) to modern console tennis (3d, HD, orchestrated surround sound) is absurdly huge, yet sticks, pads and buttons are still the name of the game. We may be several generations ahead in form, but IMO the wii is the only system to reach even the second generation of function. And not only has form outstripped function by an absurd degree, it is also at the point where the form is good enough to represent nearly anything, although at a lower level of fidelity.
I've been a gamer for life, and to me, as good as it looks, I still feel like I'm playing retro games on the 360/PS3. When I fire up my Wii, it still feels like a completely different experience. Gears of war sat in my 360 unfinished for weeks, throughout which time I was (and still are) having an absolute blast with Wii Sports...all by myself even.
And as much as I still want the evolution of form to continue, the revolution in function is so staggering that it really has changed gaming for me. The fact that my GF loves wario ware and wii sports doesnt mean the game is dumbed down - it means that function has finally caught up to the point where a non-gamer can really get into it, just the same way our parents wanted us to turn down the damn TV when our 2600s made all those annoying bleeps and bloops. Most adults/non-gamers could tolerate watching others play a 360 game, but they'd never want to pick the controller up.
Sure the 360 and PS3 will look so much better in a few years as devs understand the system, but I see no reason to doubt that Wii games will *play* so much better in the same timeframe. Devs are having some trouble struggling with the new controls, but when thats sorted out, I'm thinking we're going to see (or play, rather), some incredible things.
Surely I'd have dropped $600 to buy a powerful HD Wii, but thats just me. For what it is, I really dig it. Because of the Wii's massive success, showing no slowing in sigh, I fully expect the next gen after this one to focus far more upon function than form, but for the next few years, it's Sony and MS playing catchup to nintendo. It'll be interesting what kind of wicked controllers Sony and MS can pull off in 2010, and whether or not Nintendo will have something new to mix it all up again.
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