We all have our quirks, even when playing. MeinMMO author Andreas Bertits has to try first whether the game runs with ultra details and puts his graphics card to the test.
That’s why graphics aren’t everything, but still important: Graphics are not everything, but they are part of a game. Even though I grew up with stick figures in the Ultima games and I celebrate titles like Valheim for sparking my imagination again, because it doesn’t rely on high-end graphics, the visuals in modern games are still important to me.
When a new game is released, I basically want to experience it as the developers intended. I just assume that a team doesn’t see the lowest detail level as how their latest work should be experienced.
No game launch without cranking up the detail levels
This is my quirk: Before I can even start a game, I always first go to the game menu. There, in the options, I set all graphics settings to ultra, as I want to enjoy the new adventure in full graphical glory.
So when I start The Elder Scrolls Online or Black Desert Online, I first head to the game menu and set all details to the highest possible level.
Now I have to see how the title runs. If the game lags heavily, then my mood drops. It disappoints me if I have to decrease the quality settings to enjoy my new game comfortably. And comfortably means for me simply being able to play with all details set to maximum. Even if the graphics card’s fan is screaming. Then I just turn up the sound or use a headset.
If that doesn’t work, it’s not a disaster, and I still play. However, it annoys me when I can’t play with ultra details. I still have fun because at some point the annoyance fades away, and I don’t think about tweaking the settings here and there to push the graphics a little more.
It’s not that games with moderate or high details look much worse. Ultra means often being able to enjoy some extra effects. Shadows are a bit softer, reflections in the water are more realistic, and the textures up close are more detailed. That’s not something that would significantly enhance the gaming experience.
Wing Commander is to blame
This is where this quirk comes from: In the 1990s, the developer studio Origin set the bar extremely high for graphics and presentation in games. Basically, a new PC was needed for every new game in the Ultima or Wing Commander series.
The first Wing Commander from 1990 used so-called expanded memory. At that time, PCs usually only had 640 KB of RAM and could only manage that without issues. However, those who had more RAM could access this as extended memory (XMS) or expanded memory (EMS), which benefited some games.
In Wing Commander, this led to better graphics. In the cockpits of the spaceships, the pilot’s hand with the joystick and the faces of the wingmen were visible on the display during conversations. Even explosions looked more spectacular, and more debris flew through space when a foe was destroyed.
To use EMS in the game, the file EMM386.exe had to be loaded, which only worked on a computer with an Intel 386 CPU – absolute high-end gaming PCs at the beginning of the 1990s.
At that time, I still had the predecessor model, a 286. My friend, on the other hand, was already playing with a 386, and I simply could not enjoy Wing Commander properly because I could not see the pilot’s hand and the faces of the wingmen. I only played the space game when I could switch to a 386.
Somehow, it has become a habit for me to first go into the menu of a game and crank all the graphics options up before I even think about starting to play.
I am particularly looking forward to the role-playing game Crimson Desert, which is currently planned to be released in 2021. The developers at Pearl Abyss have already shown that they can create games with fantastic graphics with Black Desert Online. In my opinion, the first trailer of Crimson Desert looks even better. I simply have to explore this detailed world with ultra graphics settings.
So I already know that I will crank up the graphic details as soon as I start the role-playing game for the first time. My graphics card already feels sorry for me…
Cortyn from the MeinMMO editorial team also has a gaming quirk. It even steals real life.”>
