Over a hilariously short period of time computers have suddenly become so ridiculously powerful it's not even funny, and it's still going on. As a result games companies and it has to be said, the very creators of all that computer technology, are still developing new ways of utilising this inhuman amount of technology to chase a 'holy grail' of virtual environment creation, with photorealistic graphics and fully realistic physics out the wazoo. There's no point whining about the almost singleminded rush to fill out this sudden void of untapped capability.

Meanwhile AI technology, for example, is still professors making little robots that astonishingly manage to negotiate the peculiarities of moving about a room without bumping into things.

So of course graphics are a main concern. Why? Because it's the most advanced part of the whole shebang. Great graphics can help immerse a player in the game, and you can try to tell me otherwise but people do prefer to be looking at something pretty. There's billions in various aesthetically driven industries that call you a filthy liar on that count.

And frankly....I'd like to know when this supposed golden age of fantastic gameplay was. Because I've been here since my Amstrad CPC 464 and I can't pin down the exact date for the life of me. For the past fifteen God damn years I've been able to pick up a completely random game and been able to guarantee that it's one of the vast herd of total dross that gets spewed out for every single gaming platform in history. There wasn't ever some gameplay golden age, it was exactly the same as today, a massive outpouring of utter crap and bad cash-in sequals interspersed with a few real shiners and middling hit-and-missers.

But in the very least I get to look at pretty crap now, as opposed to crap dressed up like crap.