Low Settings

After waiting patiently... well, actually, quite impatiently, the new GPU's have arrived! AMD & Nvidia have both come out swinging with beefy high performance cards at both mid and high-tier, and the winners are consumers, whether they're buying a top of the line 6900, or a last-generation card finally at a low price.

Previously, I wouldn't have justified a high-end card but since doing Youtube, I wanna future proof them as much as a possible, and having prettied up games like the Mass Effect Trilogy, I want that quality to carry over to more modern titles.

However, what is frequently impressive these days is actually, what many games consider "Low."

I joked about this on Twitter back when DOOM Eternal released, and having completed its DLC, I couldn't help but be reminded just how gorgeous that game is on its lowest settings. Granted, that's assisted by a 1440p display, but even so.

Not everything is as optimally presented, the Call of Duty franchise comes to mind. Black Ops Cold War & Modern Warfare don't look all that flattering when you stop to observe what's in front of you for more than a second. However, Modern Warfare's movement, animation, and gunplay is so good, that it manages to engage even its textures are that of two generations ago.

Ghostrunner's also a feast for the eyes even when turning everything low to get the most frames possible. Same goes for Indie Games like Due Process. While low settings do sometimes result in an image that's akin to an original Xbox, it seems to be more and more frequently impressive.

I can't pin down a particular reason, but I suspect its to do with how widespread games are these days in-terms of platforms.

Ghostrunner is coming out for the Nintendo Switch, DOOM Eternal's available for it too. You can play Breathe of the Weebs (Genshin Impact) on your phone as well as Desktop PC. Cyberpunk's delayed was blamed on having troubles with the game on last-gen systems, juggling 7 separate systems from day one.

It always seemed silly for developers to devote so much energy and time making these gorgeous graphics that for the majority of people, would be invisible on an underpowered console running 1080p30 with lowered graphics. So the solution seems to be, simply raise the bar for that entry level.

Every engine is different, most games in the same engine are different, so this isn't a one size fits all situation, but with more and more time, I imagine there'll be more of an effort to assure that a game's visually pleasing to the eye, whether it's for the rich, or the poor.