>>11822757
>good graphics, better gameplay, better ideas
Tomb Raider was 96, two years earlier and even then it looked like dogshit. everyone knew better looking textures were possible because Quake was showcasing where 3d games could go and they were a small team of developers. so if small fish like id software could do something like Quake there was no excuse anymore

studios like Core placed way to much emphasis on engine building instead of artists. they rebuilt a brand new engine for Ninja Shadow of Darkness and well the game was underwhelming in all regards.

Capcom made the decision most rational people would and said "yeh fuck fully 3d environments we're not ready for that", so they were able to make way better enemies and player models with better textures and still have room for FMV scenes. Their artist teams could just focus on making great assets basically.

MGS by comparison was straight up black magic, as much as Kojima and Konami got praise, the dev team behind them were working at an unprecedented level. They got all the tooling good enough to the point that artist teams could pick them up but they also managed to get everything, including some FMV onto the discs.
>fully 3d environments
>good resolution textures in those environments, pictures on walls etc
>effects (Otacon pissing himself, alpha effects like steam, blood spray, gun smoke etc)
>rudimentary physics (grenades, magazine casings, shell casings)
>world physics (moving doors etc)
>environment mutations and texture swaps (snake leaving footprints in the snow, damaged walls, walking in water puddles)
>fully realized lighting and movie effects (too many to list and go through)
>fully realized combat system and movement system

Yuji Korekado and Makoto Sonoyama are two particular unsung heroes of the MGS series that built an insane engine and integrated tooling for making the games. By comparison Tomb Raider looked like it was made a decade ago at the time.