No.1516
Ok, I guess I am just gonna drop some of my hot takes about graphics:
AoE2, an RTS from the 1999's, looks better than than every single other RTS up to basically Starcraft 2. Even Dawn of War 2, which came out a whole decade later, looks like shit in comparison when you look from the modern day. The lesson? If you can't use 3D competantly, or if it doesn't add anything, don't do it.
Le realism meme is a fucking waste of time. First, it never did and most likely never will look real. RDR3, the single most over-designed game probably ever tried its damnedest, but the characters still unmistakably aren't real humans, not even close. And the worst part is if you fuck up at this goal, which seems pretty common, you'll create uncanny valley abominations (ME:A, to some slight extent Control come to mind). While it is nice to see graphical fidelity improve over time, this does not mean that you need to bend over backwards for perfect realism.
WoW is the single best looking 3D game right now, and basically was for as long as it existed. This relates back to the previous point. 3D is not a good method for realism, so why not scrap the idea and embrace the strengths of such graphics? WoW, through the use of highly stylized and cartooney graphical design shows this.
Don't do graphics for graphics sake. Pretty obvious point I believe. Does anyone remember "Rise: Son of Rome" or "Order [19th century date]"? Not really, because they were only there to show ebin new tech. However, let's then look at the previously mentioned Control. At first glance it might seem that it too is only a glorified graphical presentation, however here the tech doesn't come as a detriment to the other content of the game, and comes as a nice complement to it.
The "let's just don't care about graphics" argument is pretty stupid. While there is validity to the point, primarily that a ton of modern games are golden graphics-glazed turds, it doesn't change the fact that Dwarf Fortress, the game adhering to this philosophy, is pretty fucking unplayable without modded tilesets, and even then, due to how even these are pretty rough, have it's over-simplistic graphics hurt the over all enjoyability.