OSDev.org

Check out the gameboy. Kick-@$$ games on a low-resolution. Look at tetris and solataire.. no fancy graphics in the world is going to make people like the gameplay in general more. "oh look ma, I got Solataire 2000 3D"

I think games like FPS and the like need fancy graphics because it gets a bit boring looking at the same stuff all the time. The fact that the gameplay is improved in each subsequent version probably helps as well.

- Nick

Well a big problem on sequels is that they improve on graphics a lot more than gameplay most of the time. All this technology and no versatile and easy interface. I'm sick and tired of breaking my fingers on selecting and firing the various force powers in the first jedi knight game. By the time my fingers are aligned and ready to go again, the bosses have already made souvlaki out of me.

DOOM 2 didn't improve on DOOM 1's GFX at all.

Well doom 2 had more monsters and you couldn't use the low-res mode that doom 1 had.

- Nick

There are some games that already have a great gameplay in the first version so there is little but the graphics to improve on for the sequel, like in No One Lives Forever 2. One example of a game where a lot of things could have been improved in the gameplay, but only the graphics were improved, is UT 2003 (although those graphics rock!).

If you compare Uncharted Waters 1 and 2 (New Horizons), you'll see that this is a game where the sequel isn't just graphically improved, but gameplay, story, music and actually everything's better than the first one.

-Kon-Tiki-

I just recently bought UT from a budget range and to be fair, the gameplay was pretty good to start with. Compared with Quake 3, it was much easier to use and a lot more maps and game types to play around with. I could tell they put a lot of thought to the interface.

id HAD to release a new version of Quake 3 (Team Arena) to keep up with UT. UT2003 only needed to fix the graphics.

- Nick

my graphics card is out of date. The most advanced direct3d supported games I have are heavy gear, moto racer and hexen 2. Full versions at least...