Some of 2017's best games were ugly, and that's a good thing

The start of a new year is a good time for reflection, and as we head into 2018 I think it's time to take on a big one: How much do a game's graphics actually matter? Around the time of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launch I remember a lot of discussion about whether we needed new, more powerful consoles. That was four years ago and even then the conversation was old. And as a PC gamer primarily, I can understand the counterpoints--there's a thrill to good-looking games, to those "Can it run Crysis?" But 2017 marked the confluence of two opposing trends coming to a head, and as such is a uniquely appropriate moment to resurface the discussion. On the one hand, you had the industry's giants resorting to underhanded monetization tactics (mostly loot boxes) to ostensibly offset the ballooning costs of development.