What happens when graphics are so good they almost look realistic. Well this is what happened.
So I went to my local mall and they just put in a Microsoft Store. Being the fan of windows that I am, I decided I'd check it out. It was pretty cool, and they had on display an XBOX ONE demo on a 60 inch TV. Love them or hate them, admit it, you'd try out any console or PC if it was on a 60 inch TV. I have to say, the graphics are stunning. In fact, they're so good, they're absolutely terrible and hurt my eyes. So what do I mean by that? I'm talking about "The Uncanny Valley."
For those of you who don't know, the uncanny valley is "when human features look and move almost, but not exactly, like natural human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers;" according to wikipedia. Basically, it means that, in terms of graphics, things look so good but since it isn't an actual video shot on a video camera, it looks terrible. You brain wants to think that it's real, but since there's subtle nuances that don't look real, you perceive it as ugly.
Now how does this relate to the XBOX ONE? Well as I said earlier, the graphics are amazing. These were like 1080p 60 FPS, or whatever. Everything moved so smoothly. Everything had such detail. However, because it still looked enough like a video game, the "hyper realistic" graphics confused my brain and I concluded that it looked terrible.
Now you PC gamers might be thinking "ha, console peasant, that's what you get for not using PC quality graphics." Well ya know what, I'd probably say the same thing about your precious PC graphics. My guess, they're even further down in the valley. "But...the resolution, the frame rate, the textures, they just look so amazing." Yes, and that's the point. They do look amazing, but the more amazing they look, the more off put I am because it still doesn't look like I'm playing real life. Keep your amazing graphics, I'll stick to "it looks so fake that it doesn't look bad."
Now wait, maybe I'm just being to hard on it. I mean I liked The Last of Us and that looked pretty real right? Well...not quite. With Last of Us, they were going for "realistic physics and animations," not "realistic looking visuals." The visuals, though striking with how well they captured human emotions and movements, wasn't trying to make Joel or Ellie look like actual humans, if you get what I'm saying. It looked like a really well done animated movie with a realistic art style, not an animated movie that put so much emphasis on trying to look like live action that it looked bad. It's hard to explain. Basically, it felt real without trying to look real.
I may just be old fashioned. Really, at the time of writing this, I only started gaming on an HDTV 2 years prior. Before then, I played on a 26 inch, 4:3 aspect ratio, tube TV. I still do when I play old school because the old consoles look bad on my HDTV, but that's a ramble for another day. It could have also been the TV. I know when I go to stores like Costco or Sears, they have a movie playing and the TV has a smoothing effect that like adds more frames or something. I don't really know how it works, but I know it makes the movie look like the foreground is completely separate from the back ground and things don't move right. More uncanny valley right there. But it really could be that 1080p 60 fps just looks bad. Well this has been happy gamer and you can keep your ugly 60 frames per second, 1080p resolution. I'll stick with 720p 30 fps where things aren't in the uncanny valley.
PS: As for the rest of the XBOX, I'm very meh. The controller does feel really nice. The interface kind of sucks. They didn't have the Kinect on, but that things just looks terrible. I wouldn't be caught dead with that sitting on my TV stand simply because it looks bad. The UI felt very gimped without the Kinect. I played Forza 5, did not like the physics. The game was in manual. Turning was way to complicated I kept hitting the wall. I am not impressed.
