Introduction
Technology keeps getting better, and one of the most dramatic ways we can see advancements is through video games. We've been playing video games for a long time, and games just keep advancing in ways nobody would've expected 20 years ago or even more. So we do this every once in a while. We like to revisit old games to compare and contrast just how much technology has changed, an old version of a game and the newest version of it, just to marvel at how far we've come.
Indiana Jones
Everyone's favorite archaeologist, Indiana Jones, has been appearing in video games since 1982 on the Atari 2600, but graphics back then were so bad on home consoles, you'd have to really use your imagination to compare the two. If we're going to compare the most recent "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" to something, it has to be "Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb."
"The Great Circle," of course, is the latest big-budget release. They really nailed the Indiana Jones thing. It animates Indy and his iconic weapons with so much detail. If you were to squint, you might think this is the real thing. The animation quality on recent games is what sets it apart. Also, Harrison Ford's face here is something that games can only achieve on the latest hardware. Going back to "The Emperor's Tomb," you get a stiff-faced Indiana Jones. He might have all the right sound effects, but his revolver feels weaker somehow, his whip doesn't have the same crack, and "Emperor's Tomb" is a cavalcade of everything "Indiana Jones." "Great Circle" plays the classics too. Both games take Indy to the Middle East, feature a lot of Nazis, and have plenty of meaty fist fights between some shoot-outs.
Weirdly, "Emperor's Tomb" actually plays fast and loose with history in a way that "The Great Circle" corrects. "The Great Circle" has period-appropriate weaponry, while the movies and "Emperor's Tomb" throw around MP 40s before they actually showed up. In a weird way, "The Great Circle" is historically accurate. It's a tiny bit less accurate to the history-bending universe of Indiana Jones games, but both games start with an extended visit to a South American temple. "Emperor's Tomb" follows a similar but different approach, while "Great Circle" directly copies the iconic sequence from "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It's a recreation, a beautiful homage to an incredible scene. It's impeccable, and "Emperor's Tomb" is the best an original Xbox in 2003 can do.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Who would've thought we would've gotten another "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine"? "Space Marine 2" is such a retro throwback. It feels like an Xbox 360 era third-person shooter in all the best ways. Comparing the original versus the shockingly great sequel, we can see the level of ambition has gone way up. There are two things we all care about in a "Space Marine" game: how many enemies can appear on screen and how violently you can destroy them with the chainsaw sword.
Looking at the original "Space Marine," it's a small technical marvel that it runs so well on console or PC with many enemies running around in big environments. It's still impressive, and it still has that visceral thrill when you blast through a swarm of angry Orks. This is a game made by the creators of "Dawn of War," an RTS game, and this game has RTS energy with all the cartoony Orks stomping around. But technology has changed everything in "Space Marine 2." There are scenes of full-blown "Warhammer 40,000" warfare with thousands of enemies pouring across unbelievably detailed and beautiful vistas. There are battles in mud and dirt, and in gigantic cities across suspended bridges with hundreds of soldiers shooting down incalculable numbers of these bug monsters.
The Tyranids are a more faceless foe than the Orks. They're less silly, but they've got numbers, and in a game like this, all we care about is the insane numbers.
Harry Potter
Graphics are important for one reason above all: immersion. The right level of detail can make you feel like you're actually there, and if you want to feel like a real wizard in any Harry Potter game, you need a really good, detailed, authentic Hogwarts. The wizarding school is depicted in the films as a sprawling castle, and the 2002 video game "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" gave us our first chance to explore the grounds of Hogwarts.
This is a nostalgia trip. Just looking at this game again, I used to love this thing, and now it looks rough, especially in 2025. There's a charm to the early Unreal Engine 1 graphics. The castle is generically castle-like and the magic has silly floating particle effects that maybe impressed some people 20 years ago. But "Hogwarts Legacy," it's like whiplash when you look at one and the other. It does Hogwarts justice. The wizard school is depicted in full, and you're allowed to explore right away. There are dozens of Easter eggs in every little nook and cranny. It's a different time period, and Harry Potter, the man himself, isn't running around, but they really nail the feel here.
Tekken
"Tekken" is the longest-running 3D fighting game series in the world. If we're going back to the first game in the series, you might not understand why that is. The first game in the Tekken series is pretty slow. It's not good-looking and it's barely functional. The models are janky, the hit detection is all over the place, and the movement speed is like everyone is stuck underwater.
This PS1 classic hasn't aged well, but it was a viable 3D fighting game at the time, and apparently, that's all you needed to be a big hit in 1994. At least the games got better fast. The first big smash hit was "Tekken 3." The characters started to look more fleshed out. Their models were more complete instead of jagged polygons and textures. Movement speeds caught up so it was more fun to play. What's funny about replaying the oldest versions of Tekken is seeing everything that hasn't changed in the many years this series has been going strong.
Now, look at "Tekken 8," and the graphics are so smooth, but some of those animations are literally the same for some characters, with the developers purposefully making their animations as stiff and weird and iconic as the old games. Characters like Paul Phoenix finally got a slight update to their janky animations in "Tekken 8," but goofballs like Jack-8 still scoot around awkwardly and look completely ridiculous.
The proportions are still the same. The over-the-top, silly attacks are the same. They've just got more tech behind them. They've got way higher frame rates, more particle effects, a lot more work put into all the animations, and a thousand more shaders than the old bare-bones PS1 game, but "Tekken 8" still shares DNA with those old games. If anything, they're leaning into the bad CGI aesthetic even harder now with the endings. We'll always be thankful for those silly Tekken endings.
Final Fantasy
"Final Fantasy Rebirth" faithfully recreates scenes from the original "Final Fantasy VII" and expands on them with glorious, beautiful detail. We could talk about all the updated locations between "Final Fantasy VII" and the remake, but one location we need to compare is the little town of Kalm. In the original game, this is a tiny, sparsely-decorated town your party rests at after the climactic events in the main city. It's the first town you'll visit in the wider world of the game. It's when the game gets much larger, and "Rebirth" gives this area the glow-up to end all glow-ups.
Kalm in "Rebirth" is like visiting the real thing. Instead of a crummy little square with tiny representations of buildings, we're in a bustling, high-class village with peaked roofs and a unique object in the center of town drawing your attention. Everything here is recreated to perfection, but Kalm in "Rebirth" is also so much more. You can explore the clock tower, check out a concert with live music, and play cards with locals. This is genuinely one of the most impressive open-world towns we've seen in a video game in a long time. Everything in "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" is expanded and fancied up. Even the goofy march sequence in Junon now has an orchestral choir singing the evil Shinra theme as the villain gives a speech. It's a little too inspiring for a bad guy.
It's weird. There's something almost comical about how much they've glided with this one, and we're excited to see what they can do for the final part of the "Final Fantasy VII" remake.
Prince of Persia
The classic "Prince of Persia" took over PC monitors in 1989 when it was first released because of its brutal difficulty and smooth, unique animation. More than three decades ago, the graphics in "Prince of Persia" were considered impressive. Most games didn't have that rotoscope look that made the jumping, climbing, or falling into spikes look so real. The latest release of the series goes back to those roots, not with rotoscoped animation, but being a 2D platformer side-scroller.
"Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown" and the original "Prince of Persia" are difficult to compare because they are so wildly different. This is a series that has morphed and evolved many times. What makes a Prince of Persia game feel like a Prince of Persia game has kind of changed. Most modern gamers of a certain age will remember Prince more for "Sands of Time" than the original game, but "Lost Crown" still has those freaking spikes. Exploration is another important part of "Lost Crown," much like the original game, but the game is split into Metroidvania zones instead of distinct levels, and you're not forced into a sweat-inducing time limit before you can beat the game.
For being a throwback, "Lost Crown" also has some extremely cool modern features like the ability to save screenshots to your map to look at later. That's a feature we wish we had for many old-school games like the original "Prince of Persia." We had to settle for pencil and paper for these things, but still, when you look at "Lost Crown" and that original "Prince of Persia," and either way, you see a cool adventurous guy jumping over spiky pits, it just really hits us emotionally. It's like, wow, we have come a long way.
Armored Core
The long-running Armored Core series made a surprising return in 2024. It was awesome, but the mech combat games first appeared back in 1997. The original "Armored Core" is from a time before the developers FromSoftware were really known. They weren't the "Dark Souls" guys yet, so "Armored Core" comes from a very different point in the company's history when they were kind of throwing different genres at the wall to see what really sticks. "Armored Core" latched on because it had that slick mech combat, and replaying the game today, it's surprising how similar they are.
While the graphics have improved greatly since the original "Armored Core," "Armored Core 6" retains this bleak dark ruins aesthetic that was even present in that original game. The menus where you select arms for your mech, the disembodied voices, and the detached nature of the story all shine through in that original game. It's primitive in comparison to the incredible action, particle effects, crazy weapons, and somber vistas and beauty of "Armored Core 6," but it's surprising how much the aesthetic of these games was locked in from the start. That's just focus.
The only thing that really jumps out is the blaring techno music in the original "Armored Core." It was the '90s. Every game needed this type of music, but "Armored Core 6" doesn't have it like that.
Baldur's Gate
"Baldur's Gate 3" is a miracle of a video game. We've talked about it a million times at this point. It's one of the most dense, richly-detailed RPGs in recent memory, and it's an incredible graphical achievement too. Every line is voiced and mo-capped to feel unique. The game is third-person and a top-down perspective, but you can freely move the camera around and see how detailed everything is, especially the city of Baldur's Gate. It's insane.
It's almost hard to go back to the original "Baldur's Gate," which was more of a traditional CRPG when it released back in 1998. "Baldur's Gate" is exactly what you'd expect from an RPG at that time. You'd command a party of colorful characters, fighting tactical battles, and completing side quests while working through an engaging main story. "Baldur's Gate 1" did the standard CRPG formula extremely well, and many games followed in its footsteps. We wouldn't have "Planescape: Torment" without "Baldur's Gate." Like other 2D RPGs, you're locked into a god-like perspective in "Baldur's Gate," with each conversation just presented in text boxes. That's one difference some purists may prefer. The conversations and dialogue trees in "Baldur's Gate" are longer, more elaborate, and more writerly than the shorter, quippier conversations in "Baldur's Gate 3."
There's just a lot more reading to do in the original games. Even if you're comparing graphics side by side, there's a ton of text boxes. The combination of written explanations and simple graphics lets us more freely imagine. "Baldur's Gate 3" shows us everything. Instead of imagining the results of a skill check, we get to see our characters jump around, smash the environment, or talk to a weird creature. Seeing it all in lavish detail is everything we ever wanted, and we don't take it for granted.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
"Black Ops" has become the marquee series for "Call of Duty." These are the best we can hope for from a "Call of Duty" adventure, and the Black Ops games really push the limits of what a "Call of Duty" game can be. The original "Black Ops" still looks great for an Xbox 360 era game, with awesome, big set pieces and infamous scenes like, you know, remembering the numbers, Mason.
It's the kind of dialogue we'll never stop shouting, and the twisty mind control plot suddenly made "Call of Duty" storylines more interesting. "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" is everything the original game was, but more. It's surprising how similar these two games are. The only thing that's changed is the scope. "Black Ops 6" gives you sprawling, huge missions with stealth and vehicle sequences, mini-games, and more to break up the monotony of just shooting a bunch of dudes.
The original "Black Ops" did the same thing, but look at the insane detail on "Black Ops 6." The escape from the cops at the end of a tense infiltration mission in D.C. is one of the most impressive moments in the game, and later, you'll have to explore a vast, desert, open-world map that would've been impossible to implement in the older games. One thing worth comparing is the infamous zombie maps. In "Black Ops 6," we've got more zombies, more colorful locations, more weirdness. Zombies are important to the "Black Ops" series. There's a full single-player mission that's actually full of Zombies mode and bosses. The games just keep getting weird, and we love that. That weirdness started in "Black Ops 1."
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
We never thought we'd see a true sequel to "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl," one of the most hardcore, open-ended shooters we all struggled to play on our PCs back in 2007. This is a game we can't call stable. Honestly, the game was messy with weird bugs, but that's part of the charm. That was the whole appeal, and in a fun twist, the sequel also has some of those things. But really, it's the graphics we're talking about here, and there's one useful location we can use to compare.
The opening area appears in both games. It's a totally optional area in "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2," but you can return to visit the Rookie Village and sell stuff to the merchant in the bunker. He's just as stingy as ever, and there's something nostalgic about recreating a full area from the original game in the sequel. We can partially see why modern graphics don't always make for a better game.
In "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2," the wasteland is a dense shrub of overgrown plants, trees, fog, and gray skies. It's all gray, making spotting a patrol of enemies surprisingly difficult on most standard settings. That one little change, and depending on your PC and set-up, maybe an inconsistent frame rate, makes things a little more difficult to play than the original. Exploring the starting area with fresh, cutting-edge graphics also has this weird feeling of deja vu. The Cordon looks exactly how we remembered it, even if the original game didn't look anything like it. That's the power of modern games. They're starting to look as good as we imagined them to be, and "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2" harnesses the power of modern machines to stream an enormous environment. The map is one of the biggest and most difficult to cross in video games, and one of the most impressive locations to compare is the city of Pripyat. In the original game, the city is just a prop to run through. In "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2," you can explore huge sections of the city, enter all the tall apartment blocks and hotels, and all the memorable monuments, making the world feel much more alive. Graphics aren't just about fidelity. Sometimes, they make gameplay a lot more interesting. Instead of segmented maps with loading screens, "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2" lets us live that full "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." exploration wasteland experience.
Bonus: Test Drive
If you want to see how far graphics have come, just look at a few seconds of "Test Drive Unlimited" versus the original "Test Drive" from 1987. We've got photorealistic graphics during races, where the cars look real, versus little cartoon representations of cars as you drive on a mountain road. The original "Test Drive" doesn't have 3D graphics at all. Look at it. Just animated backgrounds that aren't really impressing anyone now. The monotonous engine sounds don't help either.
Better graphics don't always make a better game, but we don't think anyone is clamoring for a return of racing games that don't have 3D graphics. We wanted to throw this one in last minute because, honestly, when you hold up a new racing game versus an old racing game, they always manage to continue to push things further. For the human eye, the frame of reference of just looking at a vehicle, a car, we see them all the time in real life. It's the perfect way to really compare.
Conclusion
And those are the modern games compared with their older counterparts. Like I said, we've done this video a lot, but we want to hear more examples in the comments. Some games you'd love to see put up next to one another. It's just graphical navel-gazing, but it can be fun to look at how far we've come. Graphics aren't everything in a video game, yes, but they're a big part, and this is fun. So let us know in the comments what you think, any more examples that come to mind for you.So, with that, thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time.
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