Thief designer Randy Smith Evergreen, whose credits also include System Shock 2 and Dark Messiah: Might and Magic, thinks we need to chill out a bit when it comes to the graphics arms race. Specifically, he reckons the race should have stopped 16 years ago with Remedy's original Alan Wake, which was quite a looker back in the day.
"The fidelity curve has become outrageous," he tells us. "It's become a spectacle. I remember it was back when Alan Wake came out that I was like, 'OK, this is relatively photoreal. I know 100% that I'm on a ferry. I see that I'm going to an island in the Pacific Northwest. Why do we need more graphics? Because they just cost a ton.' Like, I 100% get it. I've got the vibe. It feels right. What else are we doing with this graphics arms race, right?"
Quite a lot, it turns out. We had high-fidelity graphics that started to look photorealistic, but then it was decided that we needed lighting and reflections that looked better than real. None of these things serve any practical purpose, but now most games that fall into the AA or AAA categories feature ray tracing and a level of fidelity that's not possible to enjoy—for most people—without DLSS trickery.
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