One of my more controversial articles that I have written is the one called Why Graphics Really Do Not Matter. The reason it brews controversy is that I will then call out a game for not being poor visually. So it's easy to understand why I'm wincing as I type this, because I'm sure I'm about to get called out again. It's all because of the new computer. You see, because of my budgeting, I usually only get a new computer when the old one is minutes away from completely failing to function, and the computer I get is usually minutes away from being obsolete. Therefore, any game that I run is likely to be either very old, or on the minimum settings. This year, however, I got a computer for Christmas. And it is great. And it has breathed new life into some of my older games. The best example of this is when I loaded Unreal Tournament 2004 for the first time. I was able to crank up the graphics all of the way, and I was blown away. In all honesty, the difference was so great that it took me about 5 minutes to recognize the level I was playing on. Now, has that made a bad game good? No, I loved Unreal 2004 even when it didn't look good (and even when I lagged), and I love it now. I'm just trying to say that sometimes if a game seems stale, maybe you just need to give it a fresh look.
