Do graphics still play a major part in gaming?

Graphics used to be the headline act. For years, gaming’s biggest selling point was simple. How real can we make this look? Each new console generation arrived with a quiet sense of anticipation, bringing sharper textures, richer lighting, and more detailed worlds to explore. You could feel the progress, even in small moments. The release of the PlayStation 3 almost 20 years ago, that transition from the 480i standard definition era to 720p/1080p HD, was one of the most notable improvements to happen in one big jump.The way light hit a surface, the way a character moved, the way a landscape stretched out in the distance.Trailers leaned into that sense of discovery. They lingered on environments, on faces, on tiny details that showed how far things had come. There was a kind of fascination in seeing familiar ideas rendered with just a little more clarity, a little more depth.Playing a new game felt like stepping into something that had been carefully built to be seen as much as…