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[RoombaDance]

So I'm blown away by the graphics in the new Far Cry. I feel like we've crossed some kind of threshold where humans and nature can finally be fully depicted without looking unnatural. Going forward I can imagine soon we will simply have games which look entirely real and games which chose not to.

The thing is... we've kind of been here before. We've been talking about games with photorealistic graphics for generations, and a lot of it is pretty funny to look back at now.

For me racing games have always seemed to push the graphics to the edge. And the one that first amazed me with it's photorealistic graphics was Formula One Grand Prix on DOS. Those must be real cars we're looking at, right?

So what was the first game you considered "photorealistic"? Bonus points if you can find old reviews claiming life-like graphics.

Edit: Pics will really enhance the thread.

 

[blame space]

Nfl 2k looked Fucking real

 

[warheat]

So I'm blown away by the graphics in the new Far Cry.

You shouldn't

 

[Steiner]

Shenmue. The hair... The faces... The weather. So much of that game and the way it looked and played communicated "real world" to me.

 

[Alebrije]

Myst the thread.

 

[KonradLaw]

Flight sims were always the titles that pushed this the most for me. The first time I thought a game was photorealistic was when I saw Flight Unlimited in 1995

 

[Gnilres]

Mortal Kombat

 

[Rain City Gamer]

Bladerunner on PC comes to mind.

 

[lvl99 Pixel]

I used to think Prince of Persia (original) was realistic

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

Half life 2, but maybe it's too early to say it's ridiculous.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

First 100 hours of Gran Turismo 3, I was sure a game could NEVER look any better:

 

[13ruce]

Gta vice city/san andreas or Zelda Twilight Princess at the time it looked awesome sure it looks ugly now but at the time it was great.

The best is MGS games jeez 2 and 3 looked freaking good.

 

[Psychoward]

You shouldn't

nah they're pretty good assuming they don't get downgraded on PC

 

[MutFox]

In all my years of gaming, I never felt those old experiences were close.
So those "realistic" graphics games always seemed would age poorly to me.
Always liked games with an art style designed around the weakness of the hardware.

Though we're starting to get close now.

 

[Omni]

I remember thinking this was amazing back in the day

 

[PuppetMaster]

First time I saw Daytona USA in arcade.

I was like... how!? going from sprites or very simple flat polys to seeing that.

 

[franknbeans]

the getaway

 

[Sinatar]

nah they're pretty good assuming they don't get downgraded on PC

Getting worked by pre-release Ubisoft footage in 2017.

lol

EDIT: To actually contribute something useful to the thread. Max Payne 1 blew me away when it first came out. One of the first games I can recall that actually used photographs for the textures.

 

[ISee]

The rebel assault games blew me away back then.

 

[Finaika]

Mortal Kombat

The animations tho

 

[zeshakag]

First 100 hours of Gran Turismo 3, I was sure a game could NEVER look any better:

Is that Seattle?

I played so damn much GT3. That and MGS2 blew my mind.

Edit: Found it.

 

[RoombaDance]

The rebel assault games blew me away back then.

Did they use photos of real stormtroopers as sprites?

 

[Sinatar]

Did they use photos of real stormtroopers as sprites?

It was FMV.

 

[Correctomundo]

Did they use photos of real stormtroopers as sprites?

No. Real Stormtroopers are too costly. They paid actors to dress up in costumes and filmed them.

 

[CloudyTuba]

I remember that the first time I was truly impressed by a games graphics was when I saw a cutscene in Cyberia. 1994. I dreamed of a day when gameplay would look as amazing as that cutscene.

The company behind that game later made Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and even later merged with Treyarch to work on COD.

 

[BocoDragon]

Aged well....?

 

[Not Drake]

Max Payne for me. I remember playing the first level and being crazy impressed by the faces, art direction and overall texture quality. I don't know if I considered that "realistic", but it was probably the first game that blew my away because of it's graphics.

 

[oneils]

Hologram time traveller https://youtu.be/ZI6h0Sg73yw

I must have spent a couple hundred dollars of my chore money on this in the arcade. Blew me away.

 

[ISee]

Did they use photos of real stormtroopers as sprites?

Pretty much. The games used digitized footage from the movies, full speech and CGI full motion video.

 

[M.W.]

Metropolis Street Racer blew me away

 

[ambar_hitman]

Crysis
GT 5

 

[Stormhammer]

gran turismo 1 as a kid felt like nothing could be better

 

[SenkiDala]

Aged well....?

Yeah, Silent Hill 3 was just unbelievable for its time. A pure madness.

Fuck, what are doing the devs of that game now?

 

[Ploid 3.0]

I remember that the first time I was truly impressed by a games graphics was when I saw a cutscene in Cyberia. 1994. I dreamed of a day when gameplay would look as amazing as that cutscene.

The company behind that game later made Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and even later merged with Treyarch to work on COD.

I remember this game, seeing that screen alone had memories flooding back to me. It was a bit clunky to control, but I still played it.

 

[Gxgear]

Gran Turismo always seemed to be ahead of the pack.

Aside from that, Splinter Cell. Now it looks like a smudgey mess...

 

[Kevtones]

It took 26 posts for SH3 dude to be posted? What's happening to GAF?

 

[TheInternetNomad]

Shadow of the Cololosus

 

[disappeared]

Yeah, Silent Hill 3 was just unbelievable for its time. A pure madness.

Fuck, what are doing the devs of that game now?

Disbanded and likely never to regroup, unfortunately.

 

[Stiler]

Can hardly tell it's a game.

 

[SenkiDala]

Disbanded and likely never to regroup, unfortunately.

Yeah... It's what I heard. :/

I thought it might have changed.

It's unbelievable, they created one of the most inspiring universe in video games, even succeeded to be the best of the best in almost every level (scenario, graphics, design, etc etc), which happens almost never. And now they're doing nothing "big". Well Toyama is on Gravity Rush I know but...

Those are really legendary games, I'm very happy I was able to play all of them (I mean at least 1/2/3/4) when they released.

 

[Mahonay]

The rebel assault games blew me away back then.

Yeah, this for me too.

 

[Shambalakan]

Mortal Kombat was the first photorealistic game for me!
MDK was really good too:

And Mafia:

 

[HideyoshiJP]

First 100 hours of Gran Turismo 3, I was sure a game could NEVER look any better:

What's funny is that it still looks damn good on a CRT.

 

[n0razi]

Gran Turismo for PS1 blew my mind when it came out. It was the first home console game that I honestly felt beat what you saw in the arcades at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZbBvrqcQA

 

[TokiDoki]

It took 26 posts for SH3 dude to be posted? What's happening to GAF?

Because the rest of the game doesn't strive to be photorealistic , in respect to the thread .

 

[Jimrpg]

GT3 is a good shout.

It wasn't the backgrounds or anything like that - but the cars looked ridiculously good.

The dust in the rally stages were godlike.

It was a huge leap over everything at the time.

 

[A-V-B]

Disbanded and likely never to regroup, unfortunately.

Imagine if the Beatles were broken up by Parlephone right after Rubber Soul.

 

[SenkiDala]

Because the rest of the game doesn't strive to be photorealistic , in respect to the thread .

Honestly, at least in the in real time cinematics, it does!

Another game I remember playing and feeling "wow, it looks so REAL!", was Need for Speed on 3DO (played in a shop, I stayed all day long there playing...).

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Mortal Kombat was the first photorealistic game for me!
MDK was really good too:

Man... I remember all the previews for that game and how being able to zoom in and snipe things at a distance was like a pretty new, groundbreaking thing. The MDK games were cool af, I love the world premise they had with the giant harvesting mobile citadels steamrolling the earth, the kind of humorously ogreish aliens, and then the sequel went bonkers with some cool, comic book-ish style on Dreamcast. Halo jumoing in through all the lazer fire was sick. Such a unique main character design too.

Shiny was a dope studio. They could bring MDK back hardcore with the right idea if there was any money and demand there.

 

[Masterspeed]

Going from racing games in the previous gens, playing PGR3 blew my mind and that was the last time I was so impressed about a games graphics that I even showed people pictures of it on my phone and compared it to real life... god, I was such a fucking dork.