Generally, when we talk about what games have aged the best visually, the conversation is dominated by highly stylized, cartoony, and pixel art games, for obvious reasons.

But what about 3D games that attempted realism or semi-realism? What games in this category (from last gen or older) do you think hold up the best graphically today?

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 come to mind. As for some newer games, Uncharted 2 and 3 also hold up quite well, possibly because they're both realistic and somewhat stylized. Oh, and I think it's impossible to ignore Doom 3! And Titan Quest! It shows some obvious signs of aging, yet it's still quite nice to look at.

...I think lots of games have aged fairly well, actually. Obviously not all: for example, Final Fantasy X, which I just love, hasn't aged too well. It's still not terrible and for its age, it has actually aged pretty decently, but you can't even compare it to Metal Gear Solid 2 from the same year.

REmake on GC.

FarCry. 2004. - 15 years old.


Crysis. 2007. - 12 years old.


Splintercell Chaos Theory. 2005. 14 years old.

Yup. Those pre-rendered backgrounds are still phenomenal honestly. They could have made it pass for a game on the 7th Gen and nobody would have asked questions.

Some great picks here already!

Some that come to mind first for me:

7th Gen) Halo 4, Gears 3 & Judgement, God of War Ascension, Uncharted 2 & 3, Forza Horizon, Resident Evil 5, Crysis.

6th Gen) Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime 2, God of War 2, Silent Hill 3, Ninja Gaiden Black

The first game that comes to mind is Myst.  Released in 1993, it is older than every PS1 game, and probably looks better than every PS1 game going for realistic 3D graphics.  In general though, I think games from a 1st person perspective age better (and I hate FPS games).  It's just that when you look at people, that is when our eyes get picky, but environments can still look pretty good even many years later.

REmake, and nothing comes even close in consoles, except perhaps for FFXII-FXIII.

In the PC you have Half-Life 2 and Crysis which still look pretty good.

Dead Space.

The older you go the less polygons you get so it most of it will never hold up. The oldest game I can think of that still holds up would have to be silent hill 2, and ff8 the pc version