The importance of image quality or, “How the hell did I play games like that 20 years ago!”

I plugged a Mega Drive into my mum’s TV a few days ago. I had been going through the quality goods (crap) I’d stored in her loft and stumbled across a Mega Drive II I didn’t know was up there. Along with two controllers was a copy of Brian Lara Cricket – a game I spent far too long playing as a kid, which demonstrates just how cool I was and explains how I grew up to be the adult human equivalent of Rude Dog (‘and the Dweebs’ fame). Anyway, I don’t know why I expected better but Brian Lara does not look good on a 32 inch HD TV.

Back when I was just a boy, of course, we didn’t have HD TVs. In fact, we still used a black and white TV for a while (sounds cliche, but I really did struggle to watch snooker on it). Playing on the 14 inch monster my nan bought my brother and I from the Littlewoods catalogue (thanks Nan, you bought amazing Christmas presents), that low res RF feed looked pretty good – and we didn’t know any better. I guess we were just amazed by what we had, even though what we had was a Master System and a string of not-as-good-as-the-Mega-Drive-version games.

I remember being so wowed by FIFA on the Mega Drive a few years later that I beckoned my mum into the room to take a look. I expect she said something along the lines of, “Nooo, that’s not a game, that looks like real football,” which I gleefully accepted as her real thoughts when in fact she may well have been acting up for my benefit. I’ll never know if she did indeed think a load of pixel men looked like real football, but I think I know the answer. Play that version of FIFA now and not only are the visuals simplistic, but the image quality is dire. But we simply didn’t care, or notice, as the limitations of TVs at the time hid the ugliness – kind of like how I wear large jumpers in the winter.

Generally TV tech has moved alongside gaming tech, but for the first time I can remember we’re now being tempted into buying a technology that gaming isn’t quite ready for. 4K TVs can look incredible. I’ve used one a lot in the office and seen numerous demos in stores. There is something of a “wow” moment when you see what they can do for the first time on a giant display. The PS4 Pro does a decent job at offering that 4K gaming experience, but it feels slightly compromised and in some instances not as incredible as I expected. HDR, to my eyes, seems to make a bigger difference, but this isn’t even enabled in all PS4 Pro titles.

Yet the Pro is showing what good 1080p displays are capable of thanks to supersampling. Even though a lot of PS4 Pro titles have been enhanced for 4K TVs, offering little more than a high resolution in some instances, that increased resolution can have a significant impact on image quality when you’re playing on your old-tech 1080p HD TV. I saw a screenshot of Shadow of Mordor posted on popular gaming ‘insider’ hangout NeoGAF and immediately signalled to Dave (via means of talking) that he should take a look. It looks smashing, and he agreed. We bonded, although there was some confusion when he started to get out of his chair to look at the image on my monitor, only for me to say I’d sent him a link. The awkwardness of nerds.

I realised I had bought a copy of Mordor in a PSN sale many months ago but hadn’t played it (no doubt I’d scream if I worked out how much money I’d have saved in my life if I only bought games I was going to play immediately). I booted it up, made sure the high resolution option was selected in the options menu (there is a high quality visual setting too, FYI), and that is one fine looking game. The same is true of other Pro enhanced games, but for some reason Mordor really comes to life with the extra level of clarity. It’s a game I never thought much of visually, but it really pops on Pro.

Don’t get me wrong, I can still play standard PS4 and Xbox One games on my TV without my eyes melting, but there’s a nice sense of relief to know that my aging TV isn’t ready for the scrapheap yet. I’ll get a 4K TV, but only when I’m good and ready, when games are created for 4K from the get go. Perhaps then my mum might actually think FIFA is indistinguishable from real football.