Big Ideas: Should we care about realism?

[Schlup]

Crysis. The name just means photorealism in graphics these days. It's what people expect from Crytek now, and there's no going back for that company. They've built their brand around the latest and greatest rendering technology, so full of buzzwords that it virtually takes a degree in advanced mathematics just to understand how amazing the tech is.

But is all of that realism worth the effort? Does it really matter if you can see individual grass stems waving in the wind? Sure, the ability to see individual pores on your opponent's face is kind of cool, but does it make for a better game?

I think so...what do you think?

http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/10/07/big-ideas-should-we-care-about-realism/

[HashBrowny]

i do think it makes for a better game yes. BUT it also makes for a much more expensive computer to be able to handle the graphics. sure there are people out there that can afford high price home built pc's. but there is also quite a few gamers that cant afford to buy the graphics cards needed to run those certain types of games. not only that. but you will also have more problems with graphics lag. with or without the toughest and strongest Graphics Card.
(example.)- When i bought Crysis 1&2 I bought them right along side of my ASUS ATI EAH4850 1gig  GDDR2, in the same week.
at the time the highest ATI card was 4870x2.  i payed 200+ for that card. and still had graphics lag. and graphics blending together on it. but i also put the game graphics up to the 2nd highest setting.

[Schlup]

Not saying that they have to make the high graphics (realism) mandatory, but give higher settings options for those who can run it!

[CoCoCountyKiller]

Not saying that they have to make the high graphics (realism) mandatory, but give higher settings options for those who can run it!

don't they already have a high setting?
I do like the better graphics for sure!!.....but
( here is the dbl edge sword)
when it takes only the very newest and best card to
experience it then its not worth it. I know technology
 is advancing at a very very fast rate but
where do we draw the line at for the gamers?

co.co.

[Schlup]

Well yeah, they have high settings but I think those high settings should actually produce higher quality graphics.  I think they are limiting even their highest settings right now instead of letting loose with it and making lower settings work with lower end stuff.  Example below using nVidia cards:

Graphic Settings Presets Minimum Hardware List:
Low = 8600GT or better
Medium = 8800GT or better
High = GTX 285 or better
Ultra High = (2) GTX 295's in SLI (Bleeding edge graphics card)