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Forums - Gaming Discussion - When was the last time the graphics of a game surprised you?

CaptainExplosion said:
Wyrdness said:
Define surprised.

Well, I mean when they defied my expectations of what could be done on certain game systems, like when I first saw Donkey Kong Country as a kid. :)

I see if going by what could be done on a system I'll put down the the last several times, note to everyone I'm going purely by visual output.

Switch - Doom
PS3 - Last of Us
PS3 - Killzone 2
360 - Gears of War
PC - Crysis
PS2 - Black
PS2 - GOW
GC - Metroid Prime
GC - RE4



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I've had several of these moments. I remember being in awe of the opening mission in Call of Duty 2 (360 launch title). After that, it was Heavenly Sword. The facial animations and graphical quality were great. After that, Valkyria Chronicles and Uncharted 2.

There wasn't much in between, but the next would be God of War?



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

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Uncharted 4



Forza Horizon 4. The different season in that game look spectacular. The Fall season is my favorite. This is me playing on the original Xbox One. I would love to see it on the Xbox One X or PC. 



I'll take the question as all time. One of the only times I was truly just floored by the graphics was CoD 4: Modern Warfare. I couldn't believe what I was seeing!



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I was stunned by Octopath Traveler.



Going back further than just "the last time"...

"Wow, I can't believe a video game can look like this!"

- Donkey Kong Country

- Mario 64

- Rogue Squadron II

- Gears of War

- Crysis

- Uncharted 2

- Metro Exodus (Maxed out and raytraced on PC)

Honourable mentions/Extremely impressive for the hardware they're running on:

- DKC 2 & 3 (SNES)

- Banjo Kazooie (N64)

- Starfox 64 (N64)

- Resident Evil 4 (GC/PS2)

- F-Zero GX (GC)

- Rogue Squadron III (GC)

- Doom 3 (Xbox)

- Conker Live & Reloaded (Xbox)

- God of War 1 & 2 (PS2)

- Gears 2/3/Judgement (360)

- Halo 4 (360)

- God of War 3/Ascension (PS3)

- Uncharted 3 (PS3)

- TLOU (PS3)

- Killzone 3 (PS3)

- Doom 2016 (Switch)

- Hellblade (Switch)

Last edited by curl-6 - on 15 May 2019

Hellblade Senua's sacrifice. Playing it now.

Character detail and facial animations... Amazing. Only playing on the one S with hdr.

Even more impressive given the size of the team... At the time.



IkePoR said:
TranceformerFX said:

Huh? Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey?

Not Red Dead 2?

Not Horizon Zero Dawn?

Not GTAV?

Not Witcher 3?

Not Fallout 4?

C'mon man... Take off your Nintendo glasses... Breath of the Wild/Mario was not "surprising" on either rendering OR visual fidelity... Least of all when you compare them to the games above...

Pixels aren't everything, friend.  

Thread Title: When Was The Last Time The Graphics Of A Game Surprised Title

Then what the f**k are we talking about? Graphically speaking, all of the games I've mentioned are better than Zelda/Mario.

Now, if you prefer Zelda's/Mario's "artistic" style - then more power to you. But preference doesn't trump fact. Now, if he had said "Coming from Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild was what surprised me the most". But he didn't, so I only have assumptions at to what he's comparing Breath of the Wild/Odyssey to - which is why I named that list of games.



TranceformerFX said:
IkePoR said:

Pixels aren't everything, friend.  

Thread Title: When Was The Last Time The Graphics Of A Game Surprised Title

Then what the f**k are we talking about? Graphically speaking, all of the games I've mentioned are better than Zelda/Mario.

Now, if you prefer Zelda's/Mario's "artistic" style - then more power to you. But preference doesn't trump fact. Now, if he had said "Coming from Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild was what surprised me the most". But he didn't, so I only have assumptions at to what he's comparing Breath of the Wild/Odyssey to - which is why I named that list of games.

In addition to what Mzuzek said, "what surprised you the most" is fundamentally a question dependent on an individual's subjective perception. A game having more polygons and pixels may not necessarily mean it evoked a stronger response.