Art, design and graphics

With many other games, realism would not be one of the first things criticized but with sports titles, it is essential. The nearness of the in-game characters to the real-life sports stars they try to mimic is critical to their success. Yet, graphics and design don’t always have to be realistic to be engaging and a big example of this is the borderlands series and its cartoon-inspired Cel shading. However, with every FIFA/Borderlands, there’s always Minecraft.

The important thing with graphics then maybe that the game’s art style should fit the objective it pursues and the story it tells.