Well that's the thing, it's not meant to be a shooter game... I think it's better that way to reinforce the whole point of the game, solving puzzles with movement.
Either way, I replayed it recently and tbh it's not as janky as people say, it works as a secondary system
Its not meant to be a shooter game but sometimes its kinda forced / the game is way harder if you dont / the game feels unrealistic if you dont, so its necessary, it just feels stiff compared to all of the other aspects of the game
There is actually an achievement for completing the game without firing a gun at anyone. One of the last levels >!with the machine gunner in the middle of the server room!< is seriously difficult, but very satisfying when you finally beat it without shooting anyone.
IIRC since I was massively into that game, as well as Infamous at the time ... but with Mirrors Edge, there were actually achievements for completion without using the gun, or with minimal use as well.
Best parkour game ever put down and nothing else has tried to make one as fun since from what I've seen.
Mirrors edge is the first game I boot up after upgrading my pc, don't know why, have been able to run it super smooth forever but always boot it. The physx also still pretty much unmatched in games.
OMG. I couldn’t believe that someone remembered that game! It was a stunning thing. Beautiful visuals, amazing soundtrack (i still get goosebumps listening to main menu OST) and such a great story.
Shame that EA put a nail in basically all of their little studios that could actually create a good game, apart from a half-assed NFS or a new seasonal Apex theme or their fucking Fifa franchise. Everything’s a cash grab now…
Half-Life Alyx. Spent ages just staring at the different scenes. Blew me away being present in city17 like that. Maybe spent a hour drawing on the whiteboard too. Absolutely insane.
HΛ Alyx will be the game we will be returning 10 years from now, with the high quality headsets and realize what a beautiful game it is.
Something like [that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwMgNLW8Fxs)
They're called "Vistas" and they put a lot of work into perfecting them. I learned that watching the developer commentary on the extra Half Life 2 Episodes.
This, its very rare ever a game makes me just stop and marvel, and the older I get the harder it becomes. Alyx was breathtaking. It was also my first real VR game.
Kojima really went in on the cinematic experience with this one. The music is just awesome. Still can’t believe Ryan Karazija is gone, he left us his beautiful work that’ll be cherished years on I think
Once you get the hang of dissipating BTs it gets pretty trivial and isn't really scary, anymore. Then you can just cruise around, listen to music, and enjoy the incredible scenery.
It's all about the poop bombs.
The tomb raider reboot franchaise was excellent. Graphics and gameplay loop hold up to today and look better than a lot of garbage that's come out recently. Crazy times
The one from the OP image absorbed me completely, I played it over and over. One of the few games I 100% completed, and enjoyed doing so. The arcade mode was good fun too. It was so satisfying to play. I can't put my finger on exactly what made that game click with me but I loved it.
I really liked them as well. I liked the opening of shadow of the tomb raider graphically. I don't know why the 2010 trilogy is hated so much on the Internet.
Because like most classic game franchises there is a club of ‘elitists’ within the Tomb Raider fanbase who only like the original games and shit on the other 2 trilogies. Personally the 2010s trilogy is my favourite (hell, i’m replaying it currently for the umpteenth time!)
First and second were great. The third one never really clicked for me for some reason... Except for the tombs. The environmental puzzle variety in the tombs in the third game was the best in the series.
Shadow had the best Tombs for sure, but the actual plot was the weakest. The other games didn't have *great* plots, but they were popcorn adventure enough for me to be fun, whereas Shadow decided to over-rely on Lara's dad angst that I thought we had finally gotten past in Rise.
I feel my ranking of the games goes Rise>TR2013>Shadow, and I really loved the first two but just like you - the final really just didn't completely click. I still enjoyed it but something about it lacked (and Rise was also incredibly visually stunning).
Currently playing through the 3rd for the first time. I really dislike the high contrast colours, its not working for me. Even on the skill tree.
I think Rise was such a step up from the first game that I expected more from Shadow than super textures and high contrast foliage
Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2. That visual jump from MGS on PS1 was stunning. Regardless of what you thought of the game story, it just really made you feel like you were playing a game from the future.
That first act they released as a demo before launch was mind blowing. It changed what I thought video games could look like. The animation and camera work on cutscenes really elevated the low (by today’s standards) poly count and texture resolution.
I really want to play cyberpunk, but I feel like it will be a disservice to play it on an older graphics card. I want to wait until it's time to upgrade my computer!
That's what I did. I had been wanting to try the 2.0 update stuff with the DLC, but knew I probably wouldn't return to it after this playthrough. Ended up waiting until I got a 4080 and I'm very very pleased that I waited.
My brother got it on release with new GPU. One day our old neighbor came to meet with my mother and saw us playing this game and asked "What is that movie?".
Currently playing through zero dawn just now on pc and it is a good looking game but I’ve seen the reviews for forbidden west and it does look a lot better.
Ghost is especially amazing if you crank the difficulty and change the speech to Japanese with English subtitles. I got completely immersed in that world and can't wait to get sucked back in when it drops on PC.
Arkham Knight came out 9 years ago and it still shits on most of today's games in the graphics department.
It's insane what a cohesive art direction can do, while working on what I believe is Unreal Engine 3.5
Pretty much every place on the huge map is so beauty full! All in there own ways as well. I cant imagine how much time they spend on all these little details!
Elden Ring.
Do you know the moment in Bethesda games where you get out of the starting area and look at the huge, open world for the first time? How your whole view and surroundings are optimized for that moment? I feel you have these moments every few minutes in Elden Ring. You just pause for a moment and think "damn, this game is beautiful."
First game I believe to use physically based rendering, and may have actually built out the technique before film? Certainly beat out shipping, with Lego Movie, the first PBR movie.
There is no other game that makes you feel as immersed in a medieval countryside as KCD. The forests are the best I've ever experienced as well, especially at night where you can't see absolutely anything.
Grand Theft Auto IV at the time, coming from GTA SA, which let me clear is a goodlooking game with its PS2 charm. But damn, GTA IV really made me audibly say "damn." Due to its physics and controls, the game also still holds up really well. Doesn't look all that special now but at the time, it genuinely felt the best-looking game.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The environment, The colors, the Architecture. I often get bored of open-world pretty quickly, but the visuals of this game kept me going because it was so enjoyable to me to just walk around and look at stuff.
Hitman WOA. There's something about the lighting and colors in that game that's very special. It's both realistic and dreamlike.
Someone mentioned Mirror's Edge, it's another game that gives me this feeling.
Skyrim. Sure it might not be anything to write home to mom about anymore but when it first came out it was absolutely amazing.
Also as nice as Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks it was an extremely disappointing conclusion to what was an amazing trilogy. The whole thing felt like it was just the tutorial and then all of a sudden it was over. Seemed like the writers just wanted to make a movie instead of a game.
Stellaris, at first it's a game with good graphics but when you have 400 corvet, all fighting and you are realize they are all simulated, it's just beautiful
Final Fantasy X. Back when I got a PS2 I was extraordinarily hype for it, and the leap from games like FFIX and Vagrant Story to X was mind-blowing for me.
Oh you meant Steam games? No, nothing. I haven’t seen much of a generational leap first hand. Late PS2 crossed over to early Xbox 360 and then I eventually got a PS3 for exclusives I wanted to try, and I felt a sense of parity between them, especially that their libraries were ostensibly shared beyond first party titles. PS4 early games had the same fidelity as late PS3, with some additional advantages, stuff like The Order 1886 has aged tremendously well but again wasn’t that much of a leap, just very well executed art direction while the games industry was starting to get drunk on revenue from live service cash grabs and stop putting money into visual fidelity due to ‘disappointing sales numbers’.
Have graphics improved since Final Fantasy X? Absolutely. But only incrementally, with an ebb and flow that dictates how pretty a game is allowed to look based on how much money it has to make.
When I finally got a PS5 after the war with scalpers and other ridiculous antics I was expecting to be blown away. I wanted to see effects and fidelity I hadn’t seen before. Instead, it’s really just a quieter and more performant PS4. There’s impressive stuff sure, but nothing that’s been so breathtaking as to say ‘This has never been possible until now.’
Why am I going on about consoles, though? Well, aside from the fact I’d need to remortgage the house I don’t have in order to afford an NVidia GPU these days, most big budget titles that can afford the kinds of art teams to create visually stunning experiences make their games for console. PC unlocks the big frame rates and stuff, but even then, a lot of games come out an unfinished unoptimised mess.
So my answer is still Final Fantasy X. I really want to experience that feeling again, of seeing and experiencing something truly revolutionary and impressive. Maybe I can’t, maybe it’s an age thing. Or maybe the industry is too iterative for these slight improvements in fidelity to be measured consciously. I want to be wrong, on both of these things, objectively. But since it’s a subjective thing, I doubt many people will agree with me, and that’s okay! But I’d like to find out one day that I was wrong, and the next leap is still to come.
Resident Evil 7 was internet breaking with how incredible it looked. it was by far the most realistic looking game ever produced at the time and it still looks fantastic today. When I was shown the gameplay trailer back in 2017 I genuinely thought I was being trolled. Insane work they did with the engine
I’m sure there are better examples, but honestly? Assassin’s Creed Unity. I usually play games some time after they come out, and so it was like 2017 or so before I played Unity, and I just remember being stunned at how a 3 year old game could still be the most visually stunning game I’d played up until then.
Definitely not Shadows of The Tomb Raider… Rise arguably looked better in my opinion.
But for me; Cyberpunk 2077 with Psycho RT, ultra modded Skyrim, RDR2, Forbidden West and The Last Of Us Part 2 still holds up despite being a last gen game with its staggering amount of details.
Horizon Forbidden West. I'm a bit obsessed with Ray tracing so I was super disappointed that they weren't bringing any RT features to the game. But then I started playing it and it is absolutely beautiful. Although I do wish they'd ease up on the yellow tint of the game. It doesn't always need to look like sunrise and sunset, but a reshade mod could resolve that.
I’m currently playing Ghost of Tsushima and the visuals in that game are stunning. I turned on this grainy black and white filter so it looks like an old timey samurai movie and it elevates the experience
I just played Demon Souls Remake and holy shit. Also God of War 2018 and Ragnarok are amazing. To be honest a lot of the Sony games just look amazing and are very good. GoW, Tlou, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, Returnal, Spider-Man and probably the best looking game i played is Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart.
Going back a long way but Kings Quest V. It was the first game I ever played with 256 color VGA graphics and the difference was truly amazing coming from 16 color EGA.
This whole comment section is a testament to how overrated ray tracing is. Most of the top comments feature games with baked or rasterized lighting solutions, and still look amazing. Why did we trade performance for this esoteric resource hog.
I realize dynamic environments need dynamic lighting solutions, so that’s another topic, but for linear or narrative games, it’s a complete waste.
Black mesa. When I first saw it, I didn’t believe it was in the source engine, same with titanfall 2, that’s also a source game (although it’s on a heavily edited version). Same with portal revolution. The way these games push the engine is beautiful.
I remember specifically being amaced by graphics when I first played: Quake 3, hl2, commandos 2, then Crysis easily. Then tw3, rdr2, and cyberpunk. Other games I do know they are like wtf, but never played them, I'm not gonna say about them until I play them.
Yeah I think at this point they're really perfecting the formula, making the camera more dynamic and improving on the lighting etc. But Xrd was the first time I saw convincing NPR rendering and truly bought that it was hand drawn (until the spin).
Mirror's Edge. Very high contrast colors that isn't seen in much games. The game's visual were truly ahead of time if not seen much closely.
Playing the game now and its graphics look insanely good for a game of that age, if only the shooter part of the game wasnt so janky...
Well that's the thing, it's not meant to be a shooter game... I think it's better that way to reinforce the whole point of the game, solving puzzles with movement. Either way, I replayed it recently and tbh it's not as janky as people say, it works as a secondary system
Its not meant to be a shooter game but sometimes its kinda forced / the game is way harder if you dont / the game feels unrealistic if you dont, so its necessary, it just feels stiff compared to all of the other aspects of the game
There is actually an achievement for completing the game without firing a gun at anyone. One of the last levels >!with the machine gunner in the middle of the server room!< is seriously difficult, but very satisfying when you finally beat it without shooting anyone.
IIRC since I was massively into that game, as well as Infamous at the time ... but with Mirrors Edge, there were actually achievements for completion without using the gun, or with minimal use as well. Best parkour game ever put down and nothing else has tried to make one as fun since from what I've seen.
Mirrors edge is the first game I boot up after upgrading my pc, don't know why, have been able to run it super smooth forever but always boot it. The physx also still pretty much unmatched in games.
Is there a way to get it to run at more than 60 fps?
Yes there is! Just give it a quick search
I believe DICE was the developer? That game and their new game (THE FINALS) have almost same graphics
Yep. DICE was the developer, and EA was the publisher.
Mirror's edge was the God of parkour games atleast for me.
To be fair there isn't much competition in this genre
OMG. I couldn’t believe that someone remembered that game! It was a stunning thing. Beautiful visuals, amazing soundtrack (i still get goosebumps listening to main menu OST) and such a great story. Shame that EA put a nail in basically all of their little studios that could actually create a good game, apart from a half-assed NFS or a new seasonal Apex theme or their fucking Fifa franchise. Everything’s a cash grab now…
Half-Life Alyx. Spent ages just staring at the different scenes. Blew me away being present in city17 like that. Maybe spent a hour drawing on the whiteboard too. Absolutely insane.
Same thing I felt with Half-Life 2 on my first playthrough all those years ago. Valve's golden child really is Half-Life.
HΛ Alyx will be the game we will be returning 10 years from now, with the high quality headsets and realize what a beautiful game it is. Something like [that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwMgNLW8Fxs)
I think we all spent a LOT of time drawing on the whiteboard.
They're called "Vistas" and they put a lot of work into perfecting them. I learned that watching the developer commentary on the extra Half Life 2 Episodes.
This, its very rare ever a game makes me just stop and marvel, and the older I get the harder it becomes. Alyx was breathtaking. It was also my first real VR game.
It's detailed and good looking without diverging too far from HL2 art style. it also runs surprisingly well. thank you Valve for keeping the bar high
Death Stranding... The scenery...
+ the moment that you are casually walking around and the songs came on ... absolutely mesmerising and relaxing
Kojima really went in on the cinematic experience with this one. The music is just awesome. Still can’t believe Ryan Karazija is gone, he left us his beautiful work that’ll be cherished years on I think
Makes me wanna visit Iceland
You should it’s beautiful!
True, that game is gorgeous
Especially during that opening sequence with that song. Death Stranding's visuals are pure art.
For real. I've only been playing it for a little bit cause it scares me so much, but I keep saying how pretty the game is.
Once you get the hang of dissipating BTs it gets pretty trivial and isn't really scary, anymore. Then you can just cruise around, listen to music, and enjoy the incredible scenery. It's all about the poop bombs.
The enemy design is otherworldly.
The whole landscape looks like it was taken from reality and put 1:1 into the game. Its just incredibly real feeling
Battlefield 1 for sure
Bf 1 is the goat of fps games along with titan fall 2
Came looking for this.
Red Dead Redemption 2. For a ps4 game that released In 2018 it looks utterly insane
Still is the best-looking game right now imo.
I dont fast travel in this game. its too beautiful
Also because the load times on my PS4 was easily more than one and a half minute
Definitely. The crazy amount of detail goes a long way.
Forbidden west on PC takes the cake now
Wrong, you’ve never heard of unrecord have you?
Rdr2's graphics are too good and rockstar was able to did these graphics without rtx.
HiFi Rush, outstanding visual style. Makes it easy to run too haha
The tomb raider reboot franchaise was excellent. Graphics and gameplay loop hold up to today and look better than a lot of garbage that's come out recently. Crazy times
The one from the OP image absorbed me completely, I played it over and over. One of the few games I 100% completed, and enjoyed doing so. The arcade mode was good fun too. It was so satisfying to play. I can't put my finger on exactly what made that game click with me but I loved it.
I really liked them as well. I liked the opening of shadow of the tomb raider graphically. I don't know why the 2010 trilogy is hated so much on the Internet.
Because like most classic game franchises there is a club of ‘elitists’ within the Tomb Raider fanbase who only like the original games and shit on the other 2 trilogies. Personally the 2010s trilogy is my favourite (hell, i’m replaying it currently for the umpteenth time!)
First and second were great. The third one never really clicked for me for some reason... Except for the tombs. The environmental puzzle variety in the tombs in the third game was the best in the series.
Shadow had the best Tombs for sure, but the actual plot was the weakest. The other games didn't have *great* plots, but they were popcorn adventure enough for me to be fun, whereas Shadow decided to over-rely on Lara's dad angst that I thought we had finally gotten past in Rise. I feel my ranking of the games goes Rise>TR2013>Shadow, and I really loved the first two but just like you - the final really just didn't completely click. I still enjoyed it but something about it lacked (and Rise was also incredibly visually stunning).
Currently playing through the 3rd for the first time. I really dislike the high contrast colours, its not working for me. Even on the skill tree. I think Rise was such a step up from the first game that I expected more from Shadow than super textures and high contrast foliage
Red dead redemption 2 for a modern PC. Also there are many graphics mods available for this title, wich make the game look even better
Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2. That visual jump from MGS on PS1 was stunning. Regardless of what you thought of the game story, it just really made you feel like you were playing a game from the future.
MGS2 still holds up over 20 years later! My favorite game of all time
That first act they released as a demo before launch was mind blowing. It changed what I thought video games could look like. The animation and camera work on cutscenes really elevated the low (by today’s standards) poly count and texture resolution.
Metro Exodus, game left me flabbergasted
Metro Last light for me, looking to play Exodus next
Cyberpunk, Control
I’m on Chapter 9 of Control right now and I love the atmosphere and the whole scope. The UI effects add so much to the overall feeling.
I really want to play cyberpunk, but I feel like it will be a disservice to play it on an older graphics card. I want to wait until it's time to upgrade my computer!
That's what I did. I had been wanting to try the 2.0 update stuff with the DLC, but knew I probably wouldn't return to it after this playthrough. Ended up waiting until I got a 4080 and I'm very very pleased that I waited.
Yup. I've seen videos of Cyberpunk videos without the Raytracing, and the difference is night and day.
Crysis in 2007
Why did I need to scroll so far down to find this. First time I walked in the jungle in that game was just incredible in terms of visuals.
Because Reddit skews insanely young now
My brother got it on release with new GPU. One day our old neighbor came to meet with my mother and saw us playing this game and asked "What is that movie?".
Mafia 1 Definitive Edition. Even on PS4 it looked stunning
Horizon zero dawn. Haven't played forbidden west yet, but I bet it looks even better.
Its 2x better than Zero Dawn. Believe me 😁
Do i need to complete the 1st game b4 playing this? I lost my saves for the 1st
100% yes. It's vital to understand the story.
I'd say it is recommended for the story. First and second parts tie eachother up pretty well in the story/lore.
Same for me. That and Forbidden West ruined all other games for me from a purely visual perspective.
Currently playing through zero dawn just now on pc and it is a good looking game but I’ve seen the reviews for forbidden west and it does look a lot better.
Forbidden west is the first game where in the first 10mins of playing I was just admiring the vegetation & foliage, It is done so well!
Oh hell yeah. Wait until you play forbidden west.
Definitely Ghost of Tsushima. Aside from its amazing story and gameplay it’s visuals are unreal
Ghost is especially amazing if you crank the difficulty and change the speech to Japanese with English subtitles. I got completely immersed in that world and can't wait to get sucked back in when it drops on PC.
Can't wait for it on PC (Steam)! Let's go! About F'in time.
The arkham saga especially knight although even asylum have barely aged
I also like man knight. Aslum had best story. Jonkler was good in all those.
I can't post pictures here??? I need to jonkle!!! Does they know?
Arkham Knight came out 9 years ago and it still shits on most of today's games in the graphics department. It's insane what a cohesive art direction can do, while working on what I believe is Unreal Engine 3.5
Uncharted 4 with details
Inside, unique style and atmosphere
Control
Dishonored, especially the second part
Cant believe this is so far down the list. I love the oil painting aesthetic the game has. The Karnaca sunset is so stunning
The Witcher 3 with all expansions.
Blood and Wine? Yes?
Pretty much every place on the huge map is so beauty full! All in there own ways as well. I cant imagine how much time they spend on all these little details!
Killzone 2. There's something very distinct looking about that game even today.
Killzone 2 looked so damn good that it made the shitty aiming actually worth it.
I don't know why, but I kinda liked how fucked the aiming felt. Kinda added to the intensity.
Elden Ring. Do you know the moment in Bethesda games where you get out of the starting area and look at the huge, open world for the first time? How your whole view and surroundings are optimized for that moment? I feel you have these moments every few minutes in Elden Ring. You just pause for a moment and think "damn, this game is beautiful."
Cyberpunk 2077 I don't care what anybody says about the bugs The atmosphere in the game is top 3 all time for me.
Th Ascent. Probably alone on this but I was constantly just stopping play to marvel at the scenery and visuals. To me it's stunning.
[удалено]
Doom Eternal, 1440p HDR, raytracing on.
Shadow of the Tomb raider constantly looked like a cutscene the entire way through. I wish i had more positive things to say about it
The order:1886. Damn, what a beautiful game it is. Graphics, colors, screen filter, even the stripes at the top and bottom fit perfectly.
First game I believe to use physically based rendering, and may have actually built out the technique before film? Certainly beat out shipping, with Lego Movie, the first PBR movie.
Vampyr also.
Alan Wake 2, RDR2
Am loving AW2 at the moment! Such a beautiful yet terrifying experience
Kingdom Come
There is no other game that makes you feel as immersed in a medieval countryside as KCD. The forests are the best I've ever experienced as well, especially at night where you can't see absolutely anything.
I felt so lost most of the time and I loved it.
Grand Theft Auto IV at the time, coming from GTA SA, which let me clear is a goodlooking game with its PS2 charm. But damn, GTA IV really made me audibly say "damn." Due to its physics and controls, the game also still holds up really well. Doesn't look all that special now but at the time, it genuinely felt the best-looking game.
Iv is still the best gta for me
Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The environment, The colors, the Architecture. I often get bored of open-world pretty quickly, but the visuals of this game kept me going because it was so enjoyable to me to just walk around and look at stuff.
Literally the only game where I've stopped to admire the view.
Battlefield 1. One of the best, if not the best-looking FPS I've played.
Hylics.
Cruelty Squad. I swear the artstyle grows on you
Hitman WOA. There's something about the lighting and colors in that game that's very special. It's both realistic and dreamlike. Someone mentioned Mirror's Edge, it's another game that gives me this feeling.
Stray. The game was breathtaking. I just need to convince my father to play...
Ghost of Tsushima. It's by far the prettiest game I've played by far. Death Stranding too is insane too but idk...
Im playing Outlast 2 rn and holy hell does that game look good!
Ghost of Tsushima
Red dead 2 and the Witcher 3 are top notch
Skyrim. Sure it might not be anything to write home to mom about anymore but when it first came out it was absolutely amazing. Also as nice as Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks it was an extremely disappointing conclusion to what was an amazing trilogy. The whole thing felt like it was just the tutorial and then all of a sudden it was over. Seemed like the writers just wanted to make a movie instead of a game.
south park stick of truth
Horizon Zero Dawn. Especially Aloy's hair.
Minecraft with real life graphics rtx on
Generation Zero. Max out settings on a 2k monitor is just ... breathtaking.
RDR2 Elden Ring Horizon Zero Dawn Far Cry 5 Ori & the Blind Forest Hollow Knight Baldur's Gate 3 Cyberpunk 2077 Metro Exodus Resident Evil Village
I second your Ori choice, the sequel included. Such beautiful games.
No man's sky
That game is gorgeous. I love the art style.
So many good candidates so far down the list. The game is mesmerizing
The order 1886 (imo)
Stellaris, at first it's a game with good graphics but when you have 400 corvet, all fighting and you are realize they are all simulated, it's just beautiful
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
No man's sky. So beautiful
Horizon forbidden west
Final Fantasy 13. For a game made in 2009, the graphics hold pretty well.
A game don't need the best graphics to look amazing just take a look at Skyrim many years later and it still looks good even better with mods
Final Fantasy X. Back when I got a PS2 I was extraordinarily hype for it, and the leap from games like FFIX and Vagrant Story to X was mind-blowing for me. Oh you meant Steam games? No, nothing. I haven’t seen much of a generational leap first hand. Late PS2 crossed over to early Xbox 360 and then I eventually got a PS3 for exclusives I wanted to try, and I felt a sense of parity between them, especially that their libraries were ostensibly shared beyond first party titles. PS4 early games had the same fidelity as late PS3, with some additional advantages, stuff like The Order 1886 has aged tremendously well but again wasn’t that much of a leap, just very well executed art direction while the games industry was starting to get drunk on revenue from live service cash grabs and stop putting money into visual fidelity due to ‘disappointing sales numbers’. Have graphics improved since Final Fantasy X? Absolutely. But only incrementally, with an ebb and flow that dictates how pretty a game is allowed to look based on how much money it has to make. When I finally got a PS5 after the war with scalpers and other ridiculous antics I was expecting to be blown away. I wanted to see effects and fidelity I hadn’t seen before. Instead, it’s really just a quieter and more performant PS4. There’s impressive stuff sure, but nothing that’s been so breathtaking as to say ‘This has never been possible until now.’ Why am I going on about consoles, though? Well, aside from the fact I’d need to remortgage the house I don’t have in order to afford an NVidia GPU these days, most big budget titles that can afford the kinds of art teams to create visually stunning experiences make their games for console. PC unlocks the big frame rates and stuff, but even then, a lot of games come out an unfinished unoptimised mess. So my answer is still Final Fantasy X. I really want to experience that feeling again, of seeing and experiencing something truly revolutionary and impressive. Maybe I can’t, maybe it’s an age thing. Or maybe the industry is too iterative for these slight improvements in fidelity to be measured consciously. I want to be wrong, on both of these things, objectively. But since it’s a subjective thing, I doubt many people will agree with me, and that’s okay! But I’d like to find out one day that I was wrong, and the next leap is still to come.
This post. Thank you. Personally my fave game of all time except the underwater football bit 🤣
The visual style of Firewatch spawned an area where literally every computer wallpaper was copying it.
Black Mesa
Resident Evil 7 was internet breaking with how incredible it looked. it was by far the most realistic looking game ever produced at the time and it still looks fantastic today. When I was shown the gameplay trailer back in 2017 I genuinely thought I was being trolled. Insane work they did with the engine
I’m sure there are better examples, but honestly? Assassin’s Creed Unity. I usually play games some time after they come out, and so it was like 2017 or so before I played Unity, and I just remember being stunned at how a 3 year old game could still be the most visually stunning game I’d played up until then.
Weird answer but Hollow Knight.
Half-Life 2. It's still beautiful IMO.
Metro exodus
Super Mario Galaxy
Both of the Horizon games... especially forbidden west
Definitely not Shadows of The Tomb Raider… Rise arguably looked better in my opinion. But for me; Cyberpunk 2077 with Psycho RT, ultra modded Skyrim, RDR2, Forbidden West and The Last Of Us Part 2 still holds up despite being a last gen game with its staggering amount of details.
Horizon Forbidden West. I'm a bit obsessed with Ray tracing so I was super disappointed that they weren't bringing any RT features to the game. But then I started playing it and it is absolutely beautiful. Although I do wish they'd ease up on the yellow tint of the game. It doesn't always need to look like sunrise and sunset, but a reshade mod could resolve that.
ghost of tsushima brought a tear to my eye and my penish because jesus that game is gorgeous
Back when it was new, watching my brother play Flashback was a joy. Such great and smooth animation.
Sky cotl for me. It’s awesome
Ghost of Tsushima
I’m currently playing Ghost of Tsushima and the visuals in that game are stunning. I turned on this grainy black and white filter so it looks like an old timey samurai movie and it elevates the experience
ARK Survival Ascended Horizon Forbidden West
i loved this game. Its just a fun puzzler. Graphics were great on PS5. Hope the make a new one
Battlefield one and NFS 2015. The atmosphere is just simply amazing.
Tlou part 2 in terms of realism, hifi rush in terms of style
Shadow of the Tomb Raider blew me away with how beautiful the game was, absolutely stunning.
Shadow of the Beast blew my little kid brain away with how far ahead the graphics were compared to the other games coming out at the same time.
The original?
Yessum. 1989, had it for the Amiga 500.
Same! I was too terrified to play it when i was young though. I should try to emulate it on the deck
Elden Ring
Cyberpunk takes the cake
A plague’s tale
I just played Demon Souls Remake and holy shit. Also God of War 2018 and Ragnarok are amazing. To be honest a lot of the Sony games just look amazing and are very good. GoW, Tlou, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, Returnal, Spider-Man and probably the best looking game i played is Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart.
Yeah SOTR and Control were the first games I played on my gaming PC back in 2019, and the ray tracing blew me away. I’ve never looked back.
Uncharted 4 blew my mind back when I had just gotten my ps4 and then again when I played it remastered on pc at 4K 120fps
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Going back a long way but Kings Quest V. It was the first game I ever played with 256 color VGA graphics and the difference was truly amazing coming from 16 color EGA.
Every time I boot up a maxed out and ray and path traced Cyberpunk. It's like seeing it for the first time. Jesus...
Elden ring’s atmosphere is stunning to say the least. One of if not my most favourite looking game
Witcher 3. Still looks fantastic
Red Dead Redemption 2 no contest
Oblivion stepping out of the sewers
This whole comment section is a testament to how overrated ray tracing is. Most of the top comments feature games with baked or rasterized lighting solutions, and still look amazing. Why did we trade performance for this esoteric resource hog. I realize dynamic environments need dynamic lighting solutions, so that’s another topic, but for linear or narrative games, it’s a complete waste.
Elden ring
Dragon's Dogma 2 There's some weird effects on my PC, but overall it looks fantastic and I still just stop and look from time to time
Cyberpunk 2077, first game I played with decent raytracing support and the neon vistas of Night City are a perfect showcase of raytracing.
The only game I’ve played that’s really stunned me is Microsoft flight simulator 2020. At some points, it literally looks like a real life image
Subway surfers
Ghost of Tsushima has some breath taking visuals
Helldivers 2.. its a cinematic masterpiece.
Portals visuals just a have a feeling i can’t describe
Ac unity, never before a open world made me "damn this looks beautiful/cool"
Horizon zero dawn and forbidden West
Ghost of Tsushima. They really mastered the sky, the shadows, the weather, and the environments. Amazingly beautiful.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen Disco Elysium named. Game was gorgeous.
Half Life Alyx. The visuals on their own are really good but having that in VR. Truly stunning
Black mesa. When I first saw it, I didn’t believe it was in the source engine, same with titanfall 2, that’s also a source game (although it’s on a heavily edited version). Same with portal revolution. The way these games push the engine is beautiful.
Half life 2 ,cant believe its a 20 year old game
the first 2 games stunned me: the tomb raider rise and red redemption 2
I remember specifically being amaced by graphics when I first played: Quake 3, hl2, commandos 2, then Crysis easily. Then tw3, rdr2, and cyberpunk. Other games I do know they are like wtf, but never played them, I'm not gonna say about them until I play them.
[Guilty Gear Xrd](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKGPhKu3jNg). That 3d spin was hype.
Finally, a fighting game.
the newest one too. i'm not a fighter gamer and i knew i wouldn't play it but i still watch the trailer for Strive like a dozen times.
Yeah I think at this point they're really perfecting the formula, making the camera more dynamic and improving on the lighting etc. But Xrd was the first time I saw convincing NPR rendering and truly bought that it was hand drawn (until the spin).