sh0ck3r on 28/10/2008 at 00:52
What are the best graphics you have ever witnessed in a game? I was stunned by Far Cry when it was first released and recently played the Crysis demo on 2 different beastly computers only to be very underwhelmed by the graphics (not to mention the performance). What games have the best graphics?
Scots Taffer on 28/10/2008 at 01:03
At differing points in my life and in differing respects I've found a level of graphics to far surpass all that have come before it.
I remember playing the HL2 alpha and being positively agape at the water effects and landscape/locational detail. Absolutely stunned.
While Crysis is technically impressive, I wasn't sucked in the same way - in fact, I found BioShock's opening far more graphically impressive but then gave way to garish, cartoonish excess.
So I guess the technical graphical brute force only matters to me if it gels with the game experience, if it stands in isolation as singular effects disjoint from atmosphere or game-style then I don't give a shit.
STALKER is visually impressive at night but looks like shit during the day.
I'd probably say my favourite graphics for representing the world that are aesthetically pleasing, technically intensive and mesh with the gameplay and atmosphere is probably the Source Engine and products using it.
in before aja and okami
Aja on 28/10/2008 at 01:07
The only game I can think of where my jaw actually dropped upon first seeing is Okami. Technically it's not especially impressive, but artistically it has no competition. Actually, I was also really excited the first time I saw Metal Gear Solid 2 -- that level on the boat -- though it doesn't look quite so incredible nowadays.
Other technical contenders include Gears of War (whatever guys, the architecture and details are incredible), Bioshock, Viva Pinata, and Mario Galaxy.
edit - fuck you scots taffer
Briareos H on 28/10/2008 at 01:20
* StarFox
* Star Wars : Rebel Assault 2
* WipeOut 2097, since I never had the opportunity to try the PlayStation until this game
* Half-Life 1 as a preview in gaming mags one year before it came out
* Morrowind's water
* Crysis, honestly
heywood on 28/10/2008 at 01:50
I'm impressed by a lot of modern games, but Far Cry was the last game to really blow me away graphically. Too bad the game was rubbish. Before that, the last time I was in awe over a game was playing Unreal at 1024x768 on a Voodoo 2 SLI setup.
Some other games I recall impressing me over the years include Tron 2.0, the original Links, Flight Simulator 4.0, Wolfenstein 3D, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for Sega 32x, the Dragon's Lair arcade game, Test Drive II, World Games for C64.
Garrettwannabe on 28/10/2008 at 03:25
Unreal one and two were good when they came out..
Far Cry was really the first to blow me away - but the new Far Cry 2 is flat out amazing - especially in very high settings and DX10. :eek:
Morrowind
Doom 3 was beautiful (and Id5/Rage looks like it will be great as well)
and Crysis/Warhead were amazing and loved the wide open maps...
edit: Forgot Half Life 2 which was a beautiful engine that ran very well IMO and especially Episode 2 of the series
pdenton on 28/10/2008 at 03:47
Oh! Oh! Operation Flashpoint.
EvaUnit02 on 28/10/2008 at 03:52
* 1998: Unreal when it was first released. I was in awe of the graphics on the second level (once you've left the Vortex Rikers). My brother's PC was running Voodoo2 12MB SLI @ 1024x768.
The coloured lighting and reflections were very nice too. Who can forget the scripted sequence where you first encounter a Skaarj? All the lights go out one by one and then our Predator wannabe pops out in an explosion of flickering lights and a heart-pounding piece of Unreal's fabulous score.
* 1999: Quake 3's curved surfaces and realistic flame + smoke + explosion effects. These were a huge improvement over Q2's hideous polygonal explosions.
* 2001: When I initially played Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore on PS2, I recall being really impressed by the graphics and fluidity of the animation.
* 2001: The track textures in Gran Turismo 3 (PS2).
* 2001: Silent Hill 2 (PS2) absolutely blew me away at the time. SH2&3 still are the most graphically impressive games on PS2 to date, IMO.
* 2002: The outdoor levels of Halo (Xbox), until the monotony of the Library. Particularly the grass textures on the 2nd level and the colour depth in general.
* 2007 January: My long sabbatical in console land (2002-2006) finally came to end when I received my first decent PC in years. It was time to play catch-up on all the blockbuster PC titles that I had missed. First up was replaying Doom 3 - it was night and day compared with Xbox version. Next up was FEAR and that looked even better than D3. What really got to me with these two games was the dramatic increase in texture quality over the console games that I'd been playing over the years (except Silent Hill 2 & 3).
EDIT:- Ohhhh, you meant at this point in time? The alien ship interior level in Crysis then.
demagogue on 28/10/2008 at 03:53
If we can count games in development, I've been taken aback by the Rage trailers ... in the verisimilitude and in the sheer scale -- detail down to the grass blade across square miles of space, chock full of detail and objects, and no dent on performance, plus a return to some of the Source tricks to make outside lighting look great. And there's rumblings that Doom 4 is going to look even better.
heretic on 28/10/2008 at 05:54
'Giants' still looks amazing after all these years. The color palettes in most of Shiny's games were breathtaking years back, many still are IMO.
'Outcast' still has a lot of appeal graphically, despite the low res textures. The visuals remind me of a particularly surreal oil painting.
'Max Payne' was quite a feat at one point, as was the allready mentioned 'Unreal'.
Some of the cityscapes in 'Omikron' impressed me quite a bit when it first came out, but the game hasn't aged well.
I still love the hand painted backgrounds of the various infinity engine games. (Icewind Dale ETC.)
