So what the hell. I was just going to stick to music, then I fell into video games like fucking every other nerd blog out there. So, this is just going to be a depository for all of my writing practice for a while. This in response to a topic on 3D graphics in one of the forums. I go to. Competely out of context, here goes:

I'm on it with Syd. Even back then, if you had an eye for it, you can tell it was shit. Nasty framerates, "realistic" graphics that just looked like a mesh of pixels, and poor direction (we have 3D graphics, now how the hell do we use them?) were easy to notice if you were used to smoother, fleshed out 2D graphics (early N64 PS1 pixel-messes gave-and still give me- nasty headaches). Look at games like FF7 and Symphony of the Night. The latter went adventure game route and added messy-looking characters to superior-looking, more artistically-driven backdrops, while the latter pushed 2D graphics to those rivaling the arcade games that always looked so much better than their home-version counterparts.

Both of those games realized limitations. They understood that they'd never get end-all super-realistic visuals out of the current hardware, so they found their own ways around using expressive animation, art that draws the eyes away from limitations that could not be curted, and other neat tricks. The appealing visual styles coupled with other positive features of the games led to them both being fun, memorable games that still hold up reasonably well by today's standards (while many games popular in those days have been doomed to obscurity, for good reason in most cases).

Everyone says graphics don't matter, and I'll agree to an extent. I don't give a damn about normal mapping if I don't even want to play the game. But the games that are typically held as among the best or more important typically had inspired visual design whether it was Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Super Metroid, Doom, Half Life 2, or Braid. The environments, animation, and character design all understood that visuals bring you in and immerse the player, creating atmosphere. Back to the whole early 3D thing, we were so obsessed in those days at trying to make something look realistic or ahead of its time, it ended up all looking ugly, and in unfortunate cases where gameplay took a back seat to graphics, games suffered even worse for it.