Video game journalism is an utter joke, the awards it recieved are meaningless. That being said, I don't feel like providing laundry lists of games that look better than MGS4 but I will list one, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction.

@pezus

lol at screen shot 3, the low res shadows and textures look terrible. As it is we can get a glimpse but if viewed from a slightly different angle it would be impossible to ignore the muddle textures on the metal beams to the right.

Everyone here is talking about how MGS4 was the graphics king of 08, but no one is even mentioning GTA IV or Gears of War 2.

Video game journalism is sort of.. kinda' what the topic is about :<.

From a technical standpoint though, MGS4 did some pretty nifty stuff. Bike scene, Metal gears omg xD and fairly big levels when compared to todays uber linear ones. Yes its not perfect, far from it, but in 2008; I and I seem to not be alone, think it was the best.

To bad all those nice graphics only resulted in a seven and a half hour single player game with a multiplayer I could not care less for. It was a great seven and a half hours don't get me wrong, but waiting all year for a game to beat in three days was kinda lame.

That was 2007 bro'
I think Drakes character model in UC1 is really really lacking in comparison to Old Snake in MGS4. But otherwise.. yeah, that jungle X_X

I don't remember the drive through lush forest being gray in the slightest. Also, what about MotorStorm? Did it not have phenominal, if not flawless graphics?

Thing is, it comes down to technical achievement also. MGS4, UC2, UC3, GoW3 had that in common. Those ..big scenes when you're like: Whoa I am actually.. oh right damn im doing this. Wether its Titan, a Metal Gear, a Plane/Train gameplay and so forth. But the thing with MGS4 was how well Snake was portrayed and the character model somehow.. is extremly convincing to the point where its movie material and you are sitting, bawling when he's going through that microwave chamber and getting fried alive.

I think people or well game journalists like you said, play these games, go like jesus christ this was out of the top and instantly go: GRAPHICS GOTY XD. Yes it probably has flaws, they all do somehow. Don't really think there is a 100% perfect game, but like I said, in 2008, MGS4 was mindblowing for what it did. Its still my second favourite game of all time, but the achievement with the game was just awesome.

GTA IV was also great as hell, but it was a sandbox and does anyone remember the driving in a car so the city wouldn't load because you were going too fast? It was quite notice-able :<. Gears 2 and MGS4, there were a lot of talk on both counter-parts, but it seems MGS4 had the edge and then the discussion was dropped because in February, a whole new step was made by Killzone 2.

Alot does indeed come down to opinions like Twestern so beautifully said early on :P, but this is about the media as biased as you might think they are or just plain bad.

I think that both the original and Pacific Rift looked better personally. I never saw any jarring technical issues with the graphics in either title, although it would be easier to miss them in a racing game.

nothing against mgs but talking about the colorless gow2 is funny defending a mgs game with this. i mean for me mgs is nothing more than always green, or always green-brown
 just look at all posted pictures one site before. they are all only green (or yellow). not much color there.