- A veteran game designer who worked on Thief has argued that Alan Wake already reached a strong enough level of realism in 2010.
- He believes games should have stopped chasing graphical fidelity at that point.
- Modern games are still pushing for realistic visuals, especially with a title like GTA 6.
Modern games continue to showcase brilliant visuals, but the leap from generation to generation has certainly been less noticeable this time around.
Many believe that graphics should no longer be something games chase, especially as they push budgets into the hundreds of millions of dollars. A veteran designer behind the Thief franchise agrees, noting that games reached good enough visuals in 2010.
Why it matters: Modern games are still pushing for more realistic visuals, with a title like GTA 6 showing what modern consoles are still capable of.
Randy Smith Evergreen, a veteran designer who worked on the Thief franchise, has recently spoken about game graphics.
In an interview with PC Gamer, he argued that 2010’s Alan Wake was already “as photoreal as videogames ever needed to be,” calling the modern fidelity curve outrageous.
He also argues that immersive sims, in particular, should not be chasing visuals. As long as games can achieve photorealism to a relative degree, he argues that studios can find a sweet spot where they don’t need to push any further.
I think Alan Wake is the fidelity everything needs to hit.
Of course, this point of reference is interesting since Alan Wake 2 marked a huge visual jump over the original. In fact, many dubbed it the best-looking game of 2023.
With tools like DLSS 5 now available to developers, perhaps the graphical race will slow down a bit. However, one thing is for certain: the games industry won’t abandon the race altogether, even if it ends up harming gaming in the long run.
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Sajjad Hussain is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tech4Gamers.com. Apart from the Tech and Gaming scene, Sajjad is a Seasonal banker who has delivered multi-million dollar projects as an IT Project Manager and works as a freelancer to provide professional services to corporate giants and emerging startups in the IT space.
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