Overall Red Dead 2 on PC are the best graphics so far IMO, but through the years then I would say the transition from sprites to polygons in general blew me away, the PS1/N64 era was insane with what felt like constant innovations in the majority of game releases… GTA3 had me in awe and then of course Crysis was beautiful in its time too.
It's been a great trip so far :D from a C64 to a 2080 and PS4, with a new generation around the corner!
DiRT rally I think
because everywhere I look in that game, I can see things that look legit.
I'm enjoying Battle Front 2 at the moment, I think it's pretty good despite other games on the market. I suppose the fact that it's starwars helps it.
Halo when it first came out and Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox and Halo 3 was pretty impressive too I thought. The Gran Turismo games on the PlayStation and GTA 3. Half Life 2, Far Cry 2, I also remember being blown away by Oblivion. Crysis obviously but I could barely run it and my friend's PC chugged too so I feel like I didn't get the full experience!
Right now I'm playing Forza Horizon 4 and it does look good!
Halo 4 was very pretty. I enjoyed the differing terrains of Fallout 4 also.
Uncharted series in general look great but the wow factor for me is the second game when you are up high on the city rooftops swinging from flagpole to flagpole and get am amazing view.
Mafia also also astounds me on the PC even though it is starting to look a little dated, the different areas of the city all have their individual look and capture the era perfectly.
But for amazing looking games the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy are truly fantastic pieces of work, I loved all 3 games in the series and they look amazing with so much detail put into everything.
Most recently I do have to say that Jedi : Fallen Order on the XBox 1X looks the part and captures the atmosphere perfectly as well as looking amazing. The sky boxes loo great and the different planets you visit are all vivid with long view distances
Difficult to pick “A” single title as it depends on the era tbh. Personally, the mid to late 90s were the most exciting thanks to 3d accelerators.
So with that in mind, I chose Unreal, which definitely wow'd me back in the day. Such a beautiful, atmospheric game with a great sound track as well.
Obviously, seeing games like Quake run with a 3D accelerator for the first time was also pretty mega.
1. GhostR Breakpoint
2. The Division2
3. Gears 5
4. Forza H4
5. Jedi Fallen Order
In recent times (mostly at 4k)…
Abzu
Hellblade
Rise / Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Forza Horizon 3 / 4
Ori and the Blind Forest
Red Dead Redemption 2
Far Cry 5 / New Dawn
COD Modern Warfare 2019 (great and fluid at 4K)
Gears of War 5
Older Favourites from Mid/Late 90's (3DFX Voodoo era)…
Unreal / Unreal Tournament
Descent / FreeSpace / FreeSpace 2
Scorched Planet
Mech Warrior 2
Tomb Raider 1996-ish (Original Core Design version running on Voodoo Glide was a joy to behold)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
MDK / MDK2
BattleZone (1999)
Incoming
Vintage DOS games…
Star Wars X-Wing / Tie Fighter series
Tyrian 2000
Duke Nukem 3D
Amiga Era…
Everything by the Bitmap Brothers (Xenon, Speedball, etc)
Star glider 1 / 2
Shadow of the Beast
Silkworm
SWIV
Eye of the Beholder
Turrican
Defender of the Crown
It Came from the Desert
Too many others to list that were ground-breaking
C64 Era…
International Karate +
Drop zone
The Forbidden Forest (Blocky but amazing parallax scrolling for its' time)
Uridium
Sanxion
Ghosts & Goblins
Scarabeus
Rescue on Fractalus
Koronis Rift
The Last Ninja.Wizball
Bounder
Elite
ZX81…
3D Monster Maze
Rocket Man
Forty Niner
Red Dead 2 is astonishing.
The Division was ground breaking.
Tuff one this. As I only ever play Solitaire I've got to say Solitaire. It ain't pretty though!
Crysis, when it first launched.
Spreadie
Crysis, when it first launched.
I'd agree if my PC at the time didn't have a hernia trying to run it.
Crysis, Skyrim and the division
Zak33
DiRT rally I think
because everywhere I look in that game, I can see things that look legit.
Specially in VR I think. Kept crashing at first from looking out the side windows at the view, not recommended on a mountain pass :D
Some great suggestions in here and nice to think back about how new graphics wowed me as a kid!
Uncharted
Mafia
The Division
Skyrim
Abzu
Ori and the Blind Forest
COD Modern Warfare 2019 (don't own but from what I played in beta)
Gran Turismo
Unreal Tournament
Tomb Raider
When it was new-ish, I remember Outcast being amazing. On account of it being a game with huge crowds, dynamic shadows, reflections in water that distorted as the water was disturbed. I know a lot of this is pretty common nowadays, but in 1998 this was breathtaking.
Similar thing can be said of Witcher 2 when it came out.
Sega 32X - Doom
Sega - Sonic The hedgehog games, Jurassic Park, Ecco
PC - All doom games, RDR2, Skyrim, StarPoint Gemini 3, Destiny 2, Arkham Knight, Ass Creed: Origins and Odyssey, Alien Isolation, C&C3: Tiberium Wars, C&C:Tiberian Sun, Dishonored 2, Morrowind, GTA 5, Just Cause 4, Mafia 3, Metro: Last Light, Metro: Exodus, Portal 2, Shadow Warrior 2, Sniper Elite 3&4, Talos Principle, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Torchlight series, X3: Terran Conflict, X3: Albion Prelude, X4: Foundations, Trine series, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux, Eidos games: Thief, Jedi: Fallen Order, Sekiro: SDT, Saint's Row 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 6, Rage 2, Bioshock series, DeadSpace 2 and 3
Most of the game I thought were beautiful for it's time.
Oh man… so many games from so many eras.
Chrono Trigger on the SNES blew me away with how amazing the sprites were. And the pseudo 3D they achieved with Mode 7 was something that I thought was out of this world.
As for early PC, I think Ravensoft's Soldier of Fortune was really great (especially in the gore front). No One Lives Forever also comes to mind with how great it looks.
On Xbox, Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden Black and Chronicles of Riddick : Escape from Butcher Bay were quite simply visual tour de forces if you ask me.
On PS2, there were games like Final Fantasy XII, Jak 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami that blew me away. Okami still looks beautiful to this day and really captures the canvas coming to life feel.
On PS3, we had games like Uncharted 2 and 3, God of War 3 and Ascension, Red Dead Redemption, Valkyria Chronicles.
I'm stopping now because all this reminiscing is making me tear up. So many awesome memories… Ah…
This will likely be an unpopular choice, because haters.
Star Citizen.
adidan
I'd agree if my PC at the time didn't have a hernia trying to run it.
But it was probably still a very pretty slideshow! :laugh:
Spreadie
But it was probably still a very pretty slideshow! :laugh:
:)
True, although the screaming of the components took a bit of the shine off.
It would be too easy to just name a more recent title due to the way technology has progressed up until this point, so I'll just go with the one that I think had the biggest impact on me as it changed the dynamic compared to its previous iterations (rather than being cool but ultimately not a big deal for gameplay like it could easily be considered for numerous other games).
Grand Theft Auto III.
Gran Turismo: Sport. The photo mode in that is literally photo-realistic, you could easily trick someone into believing that it's a real photo.
I never played a game for the looks, so while i have had GFX up as high as i have been able to in single player, then it have always been the multiplayer i remember, and those was played with GFX turned well down for max FPS.
The newer games i have played ( for free ) to test the 5700 XT have all looked nice, and been able to run with the MAX settings applied as i am just on a 1080p screen.
Alien Isolation the atmosphere seemed exactly like the movie with the graphics. Played at 1080P so playing at 4K when I have then time will be awesome.
Porject cars and Doom 2016.
Crysis 3 (when it came out),
Metro 2033 Exodus,
Witcher 3,
Destiny 2
The latest Tomb Raider trilogy, I find myself just stopping and looking at the architecture. It's also the same with the Uncharted series on the PS4.
Bladerunner. Intro cinematics went straight into the game. Was confused why the video had seemed to stop, before realising that it was now ingame and you could move around!
And Far Cry looked awesome and incredibly realistic.
Some good suggestions here. I agree GTA 3 was ground-breaking, I remember my jaw dropping when my friend showed me how you could get out of your car and walk around. That was a huge deal at the time!
Crysis, which still looks pretty damn good today, considering it's what, 10-11 years old? The water and caustic effects in particular are stunning.
Other than that, Witcher 3, GTA 5, and the current top dog which is obviously RDR2. Say what you want about the gameplay, but I find the latter's open world a joy to just aimlessly explore.
Honestly am most into gameplay here, some modern games seem more like to be getting a downgrade compared to previous versions than upgrade today.
ALOT of Game Companies forget about it is all about gameplay first and preserving the ways their titles is supposed to be hehave with seequals and such…. and instead just make some kind of new game system to it and try and sell it on eye candy instead….
HOWEVER a few titles always baffles me on all fields, but going to stay modern as it is more rare to find actual treats here.. Elderscrolls Oblivion and Skyrim, GTA IV and V is some really good examples of both gameplay, GFX and story put into one.
Quake and Half-life is also up on that list… and games like the Thief games ( The Dark Project & The Metal Age ) Flight Unlimited and more… they all showed had it all in each their niche… but one thing they remembered was gameplay fitting for the catagories… Lucas Arts games like the Xwing series and their unforgetable adventure games such as Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacly is not to forget either… Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights, not the MMO but the actual game was awesome too when looked at the Aurora Toolset side of it….
· Wing Commander IV: it was the cut scenes CGI that wow'd me
· Quake II: got a Voodoo graphics card that did texture blending, and lighting, blew me away.
· All of the DiD games (Eurofighter Typhoon, Wargasm)
· GTA 3: I ran a GTA site back in the day and broke a leak about the next GTA being 3D perspective, we couldn't really believe it would be possible)
· Half-Life 2: Remember the E3 tech demo, with the transparent and fire based textures? Wow.
· Doom 3: I mean, those lights, wow.
Those were probably the moments of “wow, graphics are amazing”, but a completely different list from “wow, this game looks good”. Ones that come to mind are
· Operation Flashpoint, whilst not good graphics they had nice sunsets and things
· Skyrim, artistic landscapes
· Firewatch (probably *the* best looking game)
· Limbo
· Mirror's Edge
Unreal is probably the best graphics i have ever seen. And it still looks great today.
But Monkey Island and the other SCUMMVM games had the best animations/design.
Lord of the Rings Online - The scenery is breathtaking. The first visit to Rivendel , Wow!
You see night and day, rain and sun. It has only gotten better with more detail.
Fallout 76 is excellent also. Not so grey as the other versions!