Playing games have been a part of our existence since ancient times. In Ancient Egypt, it was sent, in Europe chess, in china Go, and so on. Video games are certainly different in many aspects but are here to satisfy the same need we always had. It might have been a humble start. The first one was made in 1958, and it was the basis for Pong. They were 2d back then and with a quite simple design. In the 1980s, developers tried to manipulate their players into thinking that games were 3d. They did that by using featured lines of different colors. When the first 3d graphics did appear, they were the cutting-edge of technology. They all look incredibly bad comparing to today’s standards, of course.
But that is all far behind us. How about video game graphics in the last ten years? Well, it certainly is in much higher definition. And use frame rates that were not possible at the beginning of the industry. If you look at the ones that are released in the last few years, it becomes much harder to tell is that a video game or a photograph of real life. Now, a lot of people are disappointed in the freshly released Cyberpunk 2077 from CD project red and its glitches. But even that will certainly be much more polished soon enough, and it shouldn’t distract us from what we can see in such titles like Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Assassin’s Creed games, or even Witcher 3. Titles like this, and many others, are almost a cinematic experience. It is hard to predict where it will end, although it is safe to say that some graphics will depict sceneries of beauty most of us will not witness in real life. Any video game lover that might be interested in the best of video games from the last decade can check out this site. But what really happened in the last ten years in this industry, and where is its evolution leading us?
Source:pcgamesn.com
Even the seventh generation of consoles had a lot to offer us in the graphics department. These include Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii, and the Playstation 3, which released in 2007. That might look like a long time ago, but the graphics here were still quite good. God of War III and Red Dead Redemption certainly had astounding video quality. And some of the titles from this period, like GTA V, are still incredibly popular. In 2013 the Playstation 4 was released. It is a part of eight generations of console games, together with Xbox One and Wii U, and Switch. From this eight’s generation, most of the games we play today come from it. Even at the very start of that era, we had games like The Last of Us. When it comes to the graphics of that game, it’s hard to accept that it had already been eight years. Naturally, something like The Last of Us 2 has even better graphics, but that is normal. A sports fan might mention something like NBA 2k21 or FIFA 21. It is sometimes hard to see the difference between the graphics in these games and the real-life matches they depict. It should be mentioned that some of these last ones are available on Playstation 4 and 5.
So what about Playstation 5 is so special? Well, most significantly, it haves a solid-state drive made for high-speed data streaming. That makes it possible to have immense advancements in storage performance. Furthermore, an AMD GPU that can display 4K resolution of 120 frames per second, and many more gains. Already mentioned Cyberpunk, will be a great example of what the new system can achieve once it reaches its actual potential.
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The last decade was certainly full of surprises, various trends, and innovations. From the very beginning, in 2010, an indie game movement was born with the rise of Minecraft. No graphics analysis would be complete without mention of this wonder. Graphics are almost a nonexistent factor in its popularity. But it proved that sandbox in games has a huge audience. It likely influenced many open-world titles, which on the other side, had amazing graphics for its time, like Skyrim. Indie developers got additional help in 2012 when the crowdfunding site Kickstarter was born. It made it possible for authors to find funds for developing games that they envisioned. Many of them also had poor graphics, which is normal for indie companies. But some of them had a quite intriguing aesthetic, showing that it is not always the budget that is a final measure of game quality. 2014 started a new trend of free-to-play games. While it is correct, they have better graphics than indie games. They certainly didn’t use the maximum potential of today’s technology. These games also introduced microtransactions into gaming. Not a graphics related innovation or a good one at all if you ask many players. But it still needs to be noticed. The next year saw Twitch becoming a more and more vital part of the gaming industry. It is almost to video games what television is to movies. The growth of E-sports also began in this period. That would be another place where they are starting to rival real life. Some games, like League of Legends, now attract more viewership than most real-life sports. Calling someone a professional E-sports player and a millionaire might sound strange, but that is the reality.
Source:pcgamer.com
So what does the future holds for the video game industry? Virtual reality is also improving. So while we can expect them to become more indistinguishable from reality, we can also look forward to a more engaging experience. The next step is not always easy to predict. But once it happens, it might be quite hard to go back to some of the older ones. Even the classics are not so easy to play once you get used to better graphics. So be sure to enjoy games as they arrive at your platform of choice.
