“What has changed in video games in the last 13 years?” Gaming YouTuber Boomstick Gaming asks at the beginning of this video. “Well, let’s take a look Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare 2.”
This two-minute game development case study assesses how glossy graphics were in 2009, how glossy graphics are today, so it’s not scientific. It’s fun side-by-side, but I haven’t set an academic standard for my slideshows yet, so it will work for our purposes.
My main takeaway is that games from 2009 probably looked better than die-hard next-gen players want us to remember, but admittedly I’m not exactly a framerate snob.
Second, I think glass is more convincingly shattered MW2but that MII has much more impressive watermelon explosion physics and almost everything else. Even though MW2 looks good, the technology has had 13 years to improve and it’s not really a fair review.
My verdict: Is that real life or is it MII?
The comments section: “It’s insane how little discernible progress has been made in most AAA games over the last decade,” reads a popular comment, “ever new graphics cards and increasing speed demands for ever-decreasing returns.” Uh, right, that meant I.
