Video game hot takes

Hey guys. *looking at you like a Youtuber* Here are some "hot takes" (or maybe just "takes"?) from me about video games:

1. The main appeal of video games specifically isn't playing a game (like rolling dice, solving puzzles, competing and stuff), it's the immersion. Talking about Super Mario 64 and chess in the same sentence is nuts to me.

2. Realism isn't the point of any art. 3D animated movies understand this, so they don't try to make their characters and environments look 99% photorealistic but instead make them look funny and likeable. They do what's functional for cartoon movies. Games don't understand this and that's why we graphically peaked in the Playstation 2 era. Video games should have doubled down on the "video game:y" style that looks wonky but is functional for interacting in fun ways with the game (like Minecraft, Doom, and late 90s / early 2000s console games).

3. Controller "rumble" is extremely overrated. Bumped slightly into something? Brrr. Brutally crashed with your car? Brrr. Got killed by a demon? Brrr. Made a menu choice? Brrr. It breaks immersion more than the opposite.

4. Remade versions of old games for newer consoles never look or feel even nearly as good as the original. The original game's idea was designed with the console and its hardware specifications/limitations in mind, and you can't just replace graphics and ideas here and there and think the game will keep its original feeling. All those quirks you polished away for the remake had a reason for being there, they were necessary at the time and the rest of the game was then built around those quirks. A newer remake may look "objectively better", but not actually better. It may have more pixels, polygons and polish but it won't have the summarized feeling and immersion as the original had.

Signed, kbrecordzz

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