So EA announced the "umpteenth" release of a FIFA game this year along with the above screenshot for the Xbox 360 version. Great for Soccer, er, I mean football fans, but that's not the point of this post. What stood out most to me, crowds withstanding, was the attention to detail found in Ronaldinho's soccer cleats. Sure, some form of cleat action has been highly demonstrated before in other sport sims, especially on the Xbox 360. But something about this shot reminded me of another graphically memory from my gaming past (see above right of image).
This shot is from Taito's 1987 arcade classic, Double Dragon. After the "baddies" punch your girlfriend in the stomach, they pick her up, slinging her over their shoulders while revealing... wait for it... panties! When I first saw this as a young boy, I thought the game was rated "M" for mature, but I also thought: "Wow! Check out those graphics and attention to detail."
That said, what other instances in the evolution of gaming graphics come to your mind? And while three-pixel panties are one thing, do you really want to see digital armpit hair in a future game?
