NWN2 has beautiful graphics, and is one of my favourites for modern games. I found the graphics of Oblivion to be a little over-hyped - in particular, the way the scenery turns to green mush in the distance seemed to have been given a free pass by reviewers and commentators.

 

I think the graphics for Baldur's Gate 2 still stand up, not in terms of 3D or resolution, but in terms of craft, attention to detail, and attractiveness.

 

Syberia and Syberia 2 had excellent graphics and were creepily atmospheric in places. Fahrenheit won me over to motion capture and body language as a worthwhile addition to graphics quality. But the first prize has to go to Dreamfall. It's breathtakingly beautiful in most locations.

 

Nice commentary. I completely agree as regards Farenheit. I don't know if I'd call the graphics stellar, but it did have a real coolness factor.

Icewind Dale or at least Planescape Torment.

 

I love PS:T. Favorite all time game out of many, many games. On one hand, I disagree with you because there was a lot of ugly in PST's graphics. On the other, I completely agree because the atmosphere was great.

I measure on how good a graphics is for a game not based on actual beauty but how much it fits within the structure and setting in which the game is in. Substance over style and whatnot.

How do you measure that?

2D

Infinity Engine games. Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate series.

 

3D

Source Engine games. Vampire Bloodlines and Half Life 2.

How do you measure that?

Subjectively.

FEAR for its intesnity of graphics and the brilliant use of shadows.

 

Dead Rising for rotting zombies

 

And I think that Dead or alive gets props for schoolgirls.

The first time I fired up Far Cry I almost didn't believe what I was seeing. At least not on my rig. It was so beautiful, haunting and technically impressive, all at once.

 

The first time I saw Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube. Man, I had no idea that little cube thingie could produce such wonderful graphics. Still one of the most atmospheric use of graphics I've ever seen.

 

Lately, I've been very impressed by Test Drive Unlimited. Not just because of its serene beauty (it looks absolutely fantastic) but more because it's so smooth and seamless all the way through.

The first time I fired up Far Cry I almost didn't believe what I was seeing. At least not on my rig. It was so beautiful, haunting and technically impressive, all at once.

Great choice! The graphics in this game still look amazing! I really want to get my hands on the new one.

Kotor 1. I liked the graphics enough that I started to buy 3D games.

Bloodlines is just awesome. I love the graphics in that game.

Far Cry does look great. Best nature I've seen and the inside levels aren't half bad either. Especially the old tanker was impressive.

 

 

I have to mention Wind Waker for it's grandiouse use of lighting and saturated colors. All of the boss fights especially, they were superbly executed(excecuted?) graphically.

For its time:

Descent, because of the dizzying up/down all around aspect. It never really caught on, tho, probably because it was too disorienting.

Myst had me thinking "Wow, this is awesome". But so did Doom at the time. And the first time I played the original Age of Empires I thought "Look at those deer and crocs and stuff, and I can hunt them, those guys walk around with mini-steaks, and ..."

Heck, back then, almost anything seemed marvelous and fresh.

 

First time I played Half-Life I was mighty impressed, too.

 

More currently:

Oblivion was very pretty, but there was something about it that threw me off - and I'm not talking about the funky faces. I'm not sure exactly what it was - maybe those pastel colors, again. Or the fact I felt like everything was in soft-focus most of the time, even when I turned bloom off. Maybe that was more my video card.

 

WoW wins for in-game detail and imo, world immersion, even tho it's not the best in terms of "pretty" and also uses a lot of funky colors. Although if you have everything on high at 1600x1200 with 8AA etc. the quality goes up a few notches - plus I still get 60+ fps on my aging machine. Blizzard is so good with that.

 

Um...I guess I can't really pick a "best." There's a lot of games with good graphics for their times.

Now now, Lady. We all know you're far too young to think of Doom as something "marvelous and fresh" in comparison to anything. :D

So far, I've managed to avoid too many wrinkles.

 

Atari's blocky pac-man and breakout from the very early 80's was certainly the precursor to addicting gaming for me. Hours in my kiddie nightgown playing Breakout, hogging the TV for it. Sheesh. But my later teen years were more about boys then gaming.

Life (not the old board game)

 

It's not always fun, and scenes aren't always nice to look at, but the graphics are downright realistic and even surrealistic sometimes. It's also the ultimate in role-playing experiences. I spent some time playing it today and had a blast.

 

Life (not the old board game)

 

It's not always fun, and scenes aren't always nice to look at, but the graphics are downright realistic and even surrealistic sometimes. It's also the ultimate in role-playing experiences. I spent some time playing it today and had a blast.

 

 

I've got a review here. It's got a couple screenshots as well.

Awesome review, thanks.

I actually had to look at a screenshot to tell it was a joke.

 

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'm dumb.

I actually had to look at a screenshot to tell it was a joke.

 

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'm dumb.

 

I love the Doom 3 engine, especially the recent Prey and upcoming Quake Wars. Doom 3 is what motivated me to update my computer.

Rick Dangerous 2

Ultima Underworld

System Shock 1

GLQuake

NOLF2

F.E.A.R.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

i personally felt that oblivion, while rendered beautifully, went too far for "realism" in its attempt at capturing a fantasy game world. to me, the somewhat more "cartoonish" view delivered by NWN and NWN2 just "seemed" better. maybe it was the pastel-ish colors of oblivion (and somewhat, morrowind), dunno. from what i've seen of half-life2, however, it has done an amazing job of capturing the look and feel of that environment and game world.

 

taks

2D is owned by Guilty Gear X2 reloaded, awesome fluid and very well designed characters..

 

For its day (and even now) SHENMUE has some of the most awesome video game graphics, 7 year old graphics still hold up today.. the game was breath taking when I first played it.

SHENMUE is a joke of a game...

Yeah, but what about the graphics, mr. smartenheimer?