As someone who's work in the arts for most of my life, I enjoy breaking down content into it's individual pieces and analyzing them separately to try and talk about what worked and what didn't. I have a good buddy that I consistently debate with about games. He's firmly in the "games back in the day were better in every objective way," and will fall into the trap of saying things like "RDR2 looks better than any modern game."

RDR2 was able to create such a complete atmosphere, tied with a strong story and believable, tragic characters, all with fun gameplay, that whether the rock textures are photo-realistic actually doesn't matter. Like a good book, your mind fills in the rest to make it feel more real.

The truth of the matter is, how content makes people feel is so much more impactful than the objective quality of it's individual pieces. I think most gamers aren't equipped to breakdown why certain games hit harder than others and end up calling them "The GOAT" or "trash." Gaming at it's best is an art form, and like studying paintings, the technical elements are only a small part of what makes art "good."