Over the years, games such as Killzone 2, Call of Duty, Halo, and Gears of War, to name a few, have been defined by having superior graphics to most other games. Of course, games such as FF13, Uncharted 2, MGS4, GT5 (likely) etc. have challanged these games for graphical superiority, but as a whole, the FPS genre has the best graphics overall. Now, with Killzone 3, Crysis 2, Halo Reach each besting industry standards, I have come to question why this is the case?

Theory #1: Competition

As the FPS has become the most successful genre on the HD consoles, publishers/developers have had to try to outdue their predecessors. This has led to more money spent on developing the games graphically.

Theory #2: More Linear games

Most FPS games have a set path to travel, with few other path options available. Red Dead Redemption, which is very open world, has great graphics, but nowhere near as great as Killzone 2 (and RDR reportedly cost between $80-$100 million).

What do you guys think?

CoD = No, Halo = No, Kz is the only one that had "best graphics". Gears is TPS same as UC. And racing games are the best graphics IMO.

^ I dunno man, Halo 3 has some pretty nice post processing effects + motion blur and explosions.

It could have something to do with the fact that first person shooters sell best on the HD consoles.

Because games are becoming more and more reliant on pretty graphics to put themselves above the competition.

This is most evident with FPS's because the core mechanics across the genre are almost identical, really it is the only way to tell them apart. Because of this, selling as an FPS depends on graphics for moreso than any other genre, hence the pretty graphics war we have going on at the moment.

I suspect it is more a matter of FPS games getting more hype about their good graphics, rather than them actually having better graphics

Also, I hope the game pictured was not meant to be an example of how good fps games look

Whoa whoa whoa.


Slow down newbie!


To me, it all comes down to style. That screenshot you posted doesn't look all that impressive to me, but if you showed me a screenshot of Mario Galaxy 2 with some crazy lighting or all those other kinds of elements, I would say it looks better. It all just comes down to taste.

Looking at U2, GoW3, Gears 1/2, Alan Wake, etc. I'd say TPS have the best graphics on consoles IMO...

But thats just me, theres also the topic of artistic style, which another genres take the crown too...

The Call of Duty and Halo franchise are the two best selling of the genre by a large margin and they also look very unimpressive compared to Killzone 2, Bioshock, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Metro 2033 and Crysis, all these game's have only sold under 3 million copies each (except Crysis, can't find any data). I'd take a guess that FPS fan's want decent graphics's and just different styles of gameplay, anyone that tell's you that any of the FPS's that I mentioned play the same then they are wrong. 

I'd argue that TPS's have best graphic's.

FPSs have always been known for having amazing graphics. Just read a review of an older acclaimed FPS, and youll see the reviewer praising its graphics. Ask someone who played Doom, Quake and Half-Life when the first came out and thezll definatelz saz how blown awaz thez were bz the graphics. This is not a new trend for FPS.