Why do Counter Strike games notoriously have bad graphics?

[Carnivean]

It's a legendary franchise, so why does each game lag behind the new graphics standard? I watched videos of CS GO and its not really an impressive improvement over the previous games. It's not even as good as any of the CoD games' graphics. It looks like a cheap FPS that people on budget and have crappy laptop wanna buy. It's putting me off from buying it, honestly.

[Terraria ~ summoner ~ Rawrr]

gameplay > graphics

[z;(]

Originally posted by Tryharder:

gameplay > graphics

[F1st Br34k3r]

Originally posted by Tryharder:

gameplay > graphics

[Kaladin]

What do you mean with good graphics? Bloom, depth of field, lighting, FXAA, AA? Most of the things I just listed actually hinder your performance in games, I don't mean the pc performance, your screen gets shiny and you can't see the stuff properly.

[z;(]

The guy is all about graphics, he probably has no knowledge of CS back in the day of how the mechanics of a game works deliciously.

[BizzLe]

Originally posted by Tryharder:

gameplay > graphics

This. I just recently stopped playing cs 1.6.

[CraftBeer]

I think it holds up visually to this day. I have a feeling they'll comeout with an updated source CS in a few years.

[Erik]

It's all about framerate.

For this game you need at least 60 fps, but most player will demand even higer framerates. There's no poiht in giving a game like this 'crysis-like graphics'. Give smooth framerates and we are more then happy.

[Wowee]

Originally posted by Carnivean:

It's a legendary franchise, so why does each game lag behind the new graphics standard? I watched videos of CS GO and its not really an impressive improvement over the previous games. It's not even as good as any of the CoD games' graphics. It looks like a cheap FPS that people on budget and have crappy laptop wanna buy. It's putting me off from buying it, honestly.

Have you ever played CS? If you have, you would understand why CS is not about graphics.

[Duke]

I play Battlefield BC2 from time to time, and I am amazed how many times I cant see a s-h-i-t because of bloom and whatnot. And then just got killed out of nowhere. So CSGO all the way for me.

[Coffeecup]

I still play CS 1.6 and enjoy it as much as when I play Black Ops 2.
13 year old graphics vs. todays, but CS 1.6 still kicks ass. Last week I think 1.6 is still played more than CSS and CSGO.

And when I play Black Ops 2, I turn down/off the graphics stuff anyway to get framerate.

Gameplay above everything else.

[XaXa]

I've played source, but not this one, and i would deeply love if someone could buy this for me i will gladly pay you back with another game of some sort in august-september, so if someone could help me out and gift me this i would be truely gratefull.

[Coffeecup]

Originally posted by EzIo03:

I've played source, but not this one, and i would deeply love if someone could buy this for me i will gladly pay you back with another game of some sort in august-september, so if someone could help me out and gift me this i would be truely gratefull.

Its only $5.09 now...grab it.

[MrP123]

I don't think the graphics are that bad, but it's great for your performance that way

[Jack Pipsam]

The graphics aren't bad.

However to answer your question, it's because Valve uses the source engine which amazing at the time, is now showing some age.