FIRST time I was blown away was with Wolfenstein 3D.

Next after that was Mario 64, then Ocarina of Time, then Goldeneye 007. I was amazed at how you could recognize the character models as the actual actors/characters. So much detail!

I don't remember anything in particular blowing me away for a long time after that. I feel like my expectations became awfully high for a while.

Next that I remember, I played The Last of Us and was actually quite disappointed in its visuals - thoroughly unimpressed. It was hailed as very advanced and I felt that it did not live up to the hype at all. A week after TLoU, I picked up Tomb Raider and THAT blew me away. Its sequel didn't impress me, though. Looked a bit better, yeah, but at the cost of a LOT of bugs and that detracted from it, visually, for me a lot.

I agree entirely with the sentiment about the various Switch games. Of course they're not as high quality as their PS4/Xbone counterparts, but for what's expected vs what you're actually getting, there's no reason you shouldn't be impressed.

I haven't played anything on PS4 or Xbone really, and my PC is aging, getting fairly outdated, so it's been a while since I've played anything particularly groundbreaking.

thetonestarr said: FIRST time I was blown away was with Wolfenstein 3D. Next after that was Mario 64, then Ocarina of Time, then Goldeneye 007. I was amazed at how you could recognize the character models as the actual actors/characters. So much detail! I don't remember anything in particular blowing me away for a long time after that. I feel like my expectations became awfully high for a while. Next that I remember, I played The Last of Us and was actually quite disappointed in its visuals - thoroughly unimpressed. It was hailed as very advanced and I felt that it did not live up to the hype at all. A week after TLoU, I picked up Tomb Raider and THAT blew me away. Its sequel didn't impress me, though. Looked a bit better, yeah, but at the cost of a LOT of bugs and that detracted from it, visually, for me a lot. I agree entirely with the sentiment about the various Switch games. Of course they're not as high quality as their PS4/Xbone counterparts, but for what's expected vs what you're actually getting, there's no reason you shouldn't be impressed. I haven't played anything on PS4 or Xbone really, and my PC is aging, getting fairly outdated, so it's been a while since I've played anything particularly groundbreaking.

if we can talk about our first time, mine was doom 2, i guess, and DKC3, and soon after it was mario 64.

Forgot to mention Wolfenstein II on Switch.

At launch it was very blurry, but the performance patch it got a few months later has improved that a bit; its still quite soft but the worst res drops have been ironed out.

I wouldn't call it one of the prettiest games on Switch, but the fact that it runs on a mobile device at all is a remarkable achievement given that it's a high end PS4/Xbone game that challenges even those systems.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Aside from the kinda weird facial animations, this game just looked amazing. The whole robot-dino aethetic just sold it. One of the first games that really used light well on an open landscape.

Mass Effect 2: The character models, and art direction were just on point. The original ME looked good for it's time, but has aged hilariously. This on the other hand still looks good when running on a proper PC.

Ninja Gaiden Black: First game I ever played that legit had bumpmaps. Nuff said.

Resident Evil 4: I don't know what else to say other than, this game made the GameCube look like it had the power of an Xbox under the hood.

Metroid Prime: Fucking environmental effects on your fucking visor! That and Samus' model just looked amazing with the shiny chrome texture applied.

Halo Combat Evolved: Biggest leap in graphics ever was going from Perfect Dark in 2000 to this in 2001.

Ocarina of Time: This is the game that made PS1 look last gen. Facial animations, and you could actually make out facial features! Unlike that pixel soup that was Metal Gear Solid on the PS1!

Super Mario 64: I don't need to explain this.

Mortal Kombat II: This is the closest a game has come to looking photorealistic at any given time for me. Sure, by today's standards it's pixelated, but in the 90's it looked like real people fighting. You had to squint to tell it was a video game. When's the last time you had to do that?

Last edited by Cerebralbore101 - on 18 May 2019

Resident Evil 4 and Star Wars Rogue Squadron III, both back in the GameCube days.

Since then, I think when I first played Crysis, The Witcher III and Resident Evil 2, I was sort of impressed, but not surprised I'd say.

There have been many times that I was impressed with the graphics of a game, but few that I recall absolutely blowing me away.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive), after playing C64 and NES games I couldn't believe a game could look so good with all that parallax giving a sense of an actual 3D world stretching into the distance.

2. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) This looked like it was on a different console generation to me at the time. The graphics were detailed and almost looked like 3D models, I was ready for graphics to reach perfection (or close to it) with the Ultra 64 until....

3. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) I vividly remember watching Shun Di stumble about as shots of other fighters cut in all while the camera moved about in full 3D (something that Tekken 3 copied quite well) and completely forgetting that I was expecting Toy Story graphics on next gen. I fully embraced this 3D wonder with it's detailed character models and fluid animation. I think the frame rate was a huge part of it, though I didn't recognise that at the time.

4. Shenmue (Dreamcast) Playing Shenmue at release was special and made me feel like the Dreamcast was going to stand up to the PS2 and later consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft. Putting aside the gameplay, the graphics had such a high level of detail, the textures seemed like they'd been ripped from photos of real objects and locations. There were such a lot of objects cluttering the streets and the interiors of buildings. Ryo's facial detail seemed like it could have only been some kind of tech demo, not just one part of a game, one I could actually play. The future was now (or then) and if games could look this good then I couldn't imagine how they'd look on the next gen consoles. I did notice some glaring flaws such as how NPCs often just had block hands with painted on lines for fingers, while Ryo had well modelled hands (at least in closeups), but overall I was awestruck by the attention to detail in the world.

5. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (PS2) Now I was getting my perfect CG graphics. The TV ad just showed a car sitting and looking at the sunset in one of the courses and my mind was made up, I was going to buy that game and a PS2 (I was going to get a PS2 anyway but I thought it would be later). I got the game and played it for countless hours, sure I could see some of the shortcomings such as reflections not always matching the trackside banners) but I actually enjoyed the game as well as being bowled over by the graphics. I'd played Metropolis Street Racer on DC and thought that looked nice and it was cool to see real life cities in a game, but GT3 just looked so much better. Once again, 60fps was an important part of making it look so good and this time I realised that.

6. Uncharted 2 (PS3) The early 360 and PS3 games looked nice to me (including Uncharted 1) but they didn't really blow me away. That changed with Uncharted 2, I first saw it in the official UK PS mag where it obviously got about 500 pages dedicated to it's E3 showing. It looked incredible in screenshots but it was when I actually played the game that I was floored. Everything looked so much better in motion, the depth of field effect when aiming seemed like some kind of magic, the animation was mind blowing and the textures and effects were eye popping (like the DKC boxes always used to say).

7. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) This might be the best looking game of all time in my opinion. I'm impressed that an open world game can look so damn good. Not the last game I have been impressed by but the last one to truly take me by surprise with how good it looked.

Even though VR isn't perfect this gen, I'd still have to say Resident Evil 7 on PSVR. After finishing that game, I seriously felt I was in that that creepy ass house. Also, I never had the balls to finish the Kitchen demo...

SvennoJ said: Moss. Can't believe it looks so good on the low res psvr. That game was a visual treat from start to finish. So awesome you can walk through the sets and literally take a peak behind the curtains.

Looks like I know what my next purchase is gonna be! I haven't touched my PS4 since Astrobot. (Haven't played my Xbox One in ages, either aside from watching videos and downloading new "free" games).

Cerebralbore101 said: Horizon Zero Dawn: Aside from the kinda weird facial animations, this game just looked amazing. The whole robot-dino aethetic just sold it. One of the first games that really used light well on an open landscape. Mass Effect 2: The character models, and art direction were just on point. The original ME looked good for it's time, but has aged hilariously. This on the other hand still looks good when running on a proper PC. Ninja Gaiden Black: First game I ever played that legit had bumpmaps. Nuff said. Resident Evil 4: I don't know what else to say other than, this game made the GameCube look like it had the power of an Xbox under the hood. Metroid Prime: Fucking environmental effects on your fucking visor! That and Samus' model just looked amazing with the shiny chrome texture applied. Halo Combat Evolved: Biggest leap in graphics ever was going from Perfect Dark in 2000 to this in 2001. Ocarina of Time: This is the game that made PS1 look last gen. Facial animations, and you could actually make out facial features! Unlike that pixel soup that was Metal Gear Solid on the PS1! Super Mario 64: I don't need to explain this. Mortal Kombat II: This is the closest a game has come to looking photorealistic at any given time for me. Sure, by today's standards it's pixelated, but in the 90's it looked like real people fighting. You had to squint to tell it was a video game. When's the last time you had to do that?

Great post, but did you play Halo Combat Evolved back when it came out? Cos that had bumpmapping years before Ninja Gaiden Black.

So did games like Rogue Squadron II, Luigi's Mansion, and Starfox Adventures on the Gamecube if you played any of those.

Not to downplay Ninja Gaiden Black's visuals of course, it's a beautiful game to this day and definitely one of the best looking of its generation.

curl-6 said: Cerebralbore101 said: Horizon Zero Dawn: Aside from the kinda weird facial animations, this game just looked amazing. The whole robot-dino aethetic just sold it. One of the first games that really used light well on an open landscape. Mass Effect 2: The character models, and art direction were just on point. The original ME looked good for it's time, but has aged hilariously. This on the other hand still looks good when running on a proper PC. Ninja Gaiden Black: First game I ever played that legit had bumpmaps. Nuff said. Resident Evil 4: I don't know what else to say other than, this game made the GameCube look like it had the power of an Xbox under the hood. Metroid Prime: Fucking environmental effects on your fucking visor! That and Samus' model just looked amazing with the shiny chrome texture applied. Halo Combat Evolved: Biggest leap in graphics ever was going from Perfect Dark in 2000 to this in 2001. Ocarina of Time: This is the game that made PS1 look last gen. Facial animations, and you could actually make out facial features! Unlike that pixel soup that was Metal Gear Solid on the PS1! Super Mario 64: I don't need to explain this. Mortal Kombat II: This is the closest a game has come to looking photorealistic at any given time for me. Sure, by today's standards it's pixelated, but in the 90's it looked like real people fighting. You had to squint to tell it was a video game. When's the last time you had to do that? Great post, but did you play Halo Combat Evolved back when it came out? Cos that had bumpmapping years before Ninja Gaiden Black. So did games like Rogue Squadron II, Luigi's Mansion, and Starfox Adventures on the Gamecube if you played any of those. Not to downplay Ninja Gaiden Black's visuals of course, it's a beautiful game to this day and definitely one of the best looking of its generation.

Yeah I did play Halo when it came out. I think I am misremembering though, on the first game with bumpmapping. I guess I never noticed the bumpmapping in all those GC games, even though I played all of them. Maybe it was because Ninja Gaiden took the bumpmapping to a whole other level?