Graphically whats "good" in your opinion?

[Frizz.Meister]

After being involved with a conversation with some lads from a youth group i help lead. I realised that 'Good' graphics is a matter of opinion. Generally speaking most agreed that good graphics are realistic, and detailed.

However i disagree and beleive that good graphics are clear and artistic. Examples being the Mario series and more recently Team Fortress 2.

Of course everything mentioned in the poll is true to a digree but what are your 2 most important?

[alienjesus]

voted artistic style and atmosphere. would rank consistency highly too, but didnt have enough votes.

Clarity is important too, but maybe you should be a little more clear in what you mean by the terms. I took clarity to mean making it clear of differences between a bombable wall and a non bombable wall, or knowing which surfaces you can walk or climb on and which you cant, but i guess it could mean just how well defined objects are in general - aka not fuzzy or blurry or foggy.

[Hobie-wan]

Artistic style is very important. Cartoons don't generally look realistic, nor does WoW. Consistency is pretty important too. Think of old FMV or adventure games where a real person was obviously dropped on top of a background that was hand drawn or old clumsy 3D. Heck, even ones where they were put on top of a photo or another video background with lighting that didn't match at all.

[YoshiEgg25]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

/argument

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

If it looks good to the eye and the game is smooth and playable then it's good to me.

[saturnfan]

On a technical standpoint I went with Frame Rate/Smoothness and realism. However, as a classic gamer, I am good with any game that does not physically hurt to look at.

[t0yrobo]

Art style and atmosphere are the most important easily. Everything else is important (except realism in some cases) but it's not vital. Any game with well executed a well executed style and atmosphere will stand up over time despite other more technical flaws ex. Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Shadow of the Colossus.

[the7k]

Opinions of what is good graphically are one of the biggest things to separate retro gamers from the great unwashed. While everyone else goes for realism and just that, we tend to appreciate imagination and consistency. That's how I look at it anyway.

[JordanPlayer]

I really appreciate clarity and frame rate/smoothness. The way I took clarity was how clear the image is and definition of objects on screen (how some modern games have that "hazy"/blur effect on distant objects). Retro games didn't really experience clarity problems until the jump to 3D where the hardware forced limits on this. I also have played a fair amount of competitive FPS on my PC where anything lower than 60 FPS I can "feel" the difference. When I play a console game and it drops under 30 FPS for the majority of the time it wears on me. I don't like the "slideshow" experience While a game could have a great artistic style and atmosphere, if the clarity and frame rate are terrible it really hampers the game-play experience. I have avoided playing Shadow of the Colossus until the PS3 compilation comes out because of frame rate fluctuations.

[Weekend_Warrior]

For me: Attention to detail and a smooth framerate

Examples: Halo 1 & 2, Gears of War, Bioshock