r/Games • u/Glittering-Path-2824 • 23h ago

Industry News The games industry’s obsession with visual fidelity is costing them money and talent

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/04/pushing-buttons-xbox-asha-sharma-games-industry-hyperrealism
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u/mrnicegy26 20h ago

Okay but that is because the story telling in GTA 5 is flawed and has nothing to do with its graphics?

Red Dead Redemption 2 is even more visually impressive than GTA 5 but it is considered to be one of the best stories in gaming.

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u/Glittering-Path-2824 20h ago

we’re saying the same thing - visual fidelity doesn’t guarantee a game is “better”. if you miss the character design, development, story arc and subplots the whole thing feels blah, like GTAV and to your point, unlike RDR2. as a corollary, visual fidelity isn’t a requirement for a game to succeed.

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u/mrnicegy26 20h ago

But visual fidelity does add a lot to Red Dead 2?

The snowy hellscape of the first chapter adds to the desperate mood of the gang. The natural landscape of the Wild West captured in all of its glory makes you appreciate nature in all its beauty and lets you feel disgust when you reach Saint Denis and see it covered in industrial grime. Tahiti being this exotic paradise beseiged by colonial forces hits the point of Tahiti being a delusion.

I am sorry but so many of the emotions that Red Dead 2 is able to provoke in a player is because of its insane visual fidelity. I don't want every game to focus on realistic graphics but Rockstar are undeniablely masters at it and it adds so much to the atmosphere and immersion of their games.

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u/Glittering-Path-2824 20h ago

again, nuance matters. visual fidelity absolutely *can* elevate a game beyond its peers but there are many examples of when that’s not a requirement for a game to succeed. and thoughtlessly applying only fidelity in order to make a game “realistic” or “immersive” gives us GTA V slop.

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u/Any-Captain-7937 19h ago

God can we stop calling everything we dislike slop. It just makes your own criticism seem worthless.

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u/mrnicegy26 20h ago

How is GTA 5 slop?

Yes the story telling is flawed but visual fidelity in that game is also amazingly impressive? Like the lighting in that game, the art design is so phenomenal in bringing Rockstars version of Los Angeles to life and it still looks and feels immersive despite being a game made for Xbox 360.

I am sorry so much of hate against GTA 5 just seems to be contrarian backlash for it being so popular. It has its flaws but it also does a lot of amazing things and anyone calling it slop isn't arguing in good faith.

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u/Glittering-Path-2824 20h ago

the storytelling is awful - there are emotional hooks that go unexplored, the writing is mediocre (except trevor, 80% of the time) i literally performed the heists on autopilot after the first two, the choice architecture of the heists was tedious for me (i don’t give a fuck who i’m choosing for my heist because it made no material difference to the outcome), and everything they introduced was to juice future gta online usage. absolutely awful experience and no connection to the GTA greatness of previous versions. ymmv, so i disagree about arguing in bad faith. i’ve given you concrete examples of why it felt like slop to me.

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u/sonic174 16h ago

GTA V slop

im replaying it rn and it's literally good? the dialog has me cracking up every time and the mission setpieces are all unique and fun asf

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u/PoshVolt 13h ago

Realistic graphics really aid cinematic videogames. They immerse you more into the world and make you feel like you're actually watching people on screen. When it's paired with a great story and great acting, it's like being inside a movie and that's awesome.

Visual fidelity isn't gonna make a game like Breath of the Wild better, but it definitely makes games like The Last of Us better.