fluffydelusions
Member
yup
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Old games with "photorealistic" graphics
- Thread starter RoombaDance
- Start date
yup
My first ever HOLY SHIT moment with a game was the original Dark Forces. I thought that game looked fucking incredible. Pure gaming nirvana
Crysis in many respects still holds up today. Game was the biggest jump I've ever seen in graphical fidelity. I remember running it at 640x480 on low, trudging along at 5 FPS and thinking "it doesn't get any better than this".
Max Payne, as others have said, was a huge jump. That 3D Mark Matrix bank scene benchmark will always live on in my mind.
NFL/NBA 2k looked photorealistic, for the time. They were also incredible games.
Crysis in many respects still holds up today. Game was the biggest jump I've ever seen in graphical fidelity. I remember running it at 640x480 on low, trudging along at 5 FPS and thinking "it doesn't get any better than this".
Max Payne, as others have said, was a huge jump. That 3D Mark Matrix bank scene benchmark will always live on in my mind.
NFL/NBA 2k looked photorealistic, for the time. They were also incredible games.
NESpowerhouse
Perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.
I'm appalled by the lack Ace Combat in this thread. I mean AC4 even mentioned photorealistic environments on the back of the box.
AC5 looked even better:
AC5 looked even better:
pete_clarf
Member
I remember being blown away by the intro in Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen.
I don't think it was even impressive for the time, but it was the first game that I bought for the PS1 after being out of gaming for a few years (I think Earthbound was the last game I had played prior to Blood Omen).
I don't think it was even impressive for the time, but it was the first game that I bought for the PS1 after being out of gaming for a few years (I think Earthbound was the last game I had played prior to Blood Omen).
KonradLaw
Member
Dark Eye is a pure masterpiece, Whenever somebody asks "can games be art", there's still no better answer than "yes, play Dark Eye"
Marius gameplay face is the GOAT
First 100 hours of Gran Turismo 3, I was sure a game could NEVER look any better:
I miss the Seattle track.
In 1996 Bad Mojo did something interesting, scanning and digitizing actual locations, items, insects and animals in 640x480 resolution. Most photorealistic game of the decade
One question though: You were playing as that cockroach, right? xD
Cross-Section
Member
The rebel assault games blew me away back then.
I remember just being floored by that opening dogfight as a kid:
Technical masterpiece alongside Soul Calibur... But not exactly photorealistic. :/First time my jaw dropped on the ground :
Dead or Alive 2, on Dreamcast.
Riven:
Looks good even today. Imagine how it was back in 1997
Riven is a great example. Myst was a lot more exaggerated and cartoonish in its style, whereas Riven still holds up well aside from things like dithering issues.
I didn't play Riven until later though, so my pick is Myst 3: Exile.
The fact that you could freely pan the camera instead of static stills was a huge factor in it feeling so lifelike. The only thing that doesn't really hold up now is the SD compositing of the live action characters.
MagnaderAlpha
Member
I think hologram Time Traveler, Pit Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were my first "photorealistic" games.
And this is just me, but I never thought once that the characters in, say, Soul Caliber or Shenmue looked "realistic". They always looked like stylized "doll people" to me, even back then. It is like the CG of Squall and crew in FFVIII, sure they look more "realistic" as far as they were able to make, but not photorealistic. I feel similar to many of the Musou games, where a lot of the characters still have a fakey-realistic look to them. I guess it is similar to when people talk about stylized realism in games, but I think that stylization keeps it from attaining a photorealistic look, at least in my eyes.
And this is just me, but I never thought once that the characters in, say, Soul Caliber or Shenmue looked "realistic". They always looked like stylized "doll people" to me, even back then. It is like the CG of Squall and crew in FFVIII, sure they look more "realistic" as far as they were able to make, but not photorealistic. I feel similar to many of the Musou games, where a lot of the characters still have a fakey-realistic look to them. I guess it is similar to when people talk about stylized realism in games, but I think that stylization keeps it from attaining a photorealistic look, at least in my eyes.
Love the face-tear death scene. How they shot it and the SFX, damn, that is brutal.
Giftofgab24
Member
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
Damn, that looks great. It's just a texture map though isn't it? You can't actually fly down into the buildings can you?
ScientificPizza
Banned
I specifically remember thinking that the water looked exactly like real water. That game blew me away
MemoryHumanity
Member
Echoing all the Gran Turismo 3 comments. Nothing since has impressed me as much as when I first saw GT3.
xDUMPWEEDx
Banned
This was setup in I believe it was Sears circa '94/early '95. I was completely blown away at the graphics and the speed of the game.
I literally thought to myself, this is the best gaming graphics will ever get.
I literally thought to myself, this is the best gaming graphics will ever get.
harrisk954
Member
Came in here to post Myst! First game I remember being amazed by... On my Packard Bell 486DX computer with my first CD Rom drive!
The first time i in a magazine saw a picture from a driving game, where u with the new Hercules Prophet card could see the licenseplate numbers and letters.
I did read that article multiple times
Good times.
I havent really been impressed with something else. I just expect it now.
I did read that article multiple times
Good times.
I havent really been impressed with something else. I just expect it now.
yea when you had the graphic card that could turn on the pretty water and not just the flat texture
starchild excalibur
Member
I remember thinking Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions looking downright amazing and filmic when I first saw it:
velociraptor
Junior Member
First 100 hours of Gran Turismo 3, I was sure a game could NEVER look any better:
Wow, that shot looks a lot worse than I remembered. This used to be my wallpaper in 2001 and I don't remember it looking that bad!
GT3 still looks very good for a PS2 game however.
Kurt Angle
Member
Fight night round 3 made me get a 360 in early 2006 -
but it was Fifa 98 that made my mom and uncle think i was watching real soccer -
but it was Fifa 98 that made my mom and uncle think i was watching real soccer -
Diablohead
Member
Not sure how people can label vice city as photoreal, it's always had a style to it and was far from photo real at release.
OriginofHysteria
Banned
First Splinter Cell comes to mind. What a beautiful game when it came out.
Alter_Fridge
Member
Mortal Kombat in 1991 definitely looked like photo-realistic graphics
Fatalities were a draw-card, but it was the realistic graphics first and foremost that drew me towards it
Fatalities were a draw-card, but it was the realistic graphics first and foremost that drew me towards it
petran79
Banned
Yes. At one point in the game you even carried a baby roach on your back to help it escape from some sticky burned fat in an oven.
You even stepped on blood, sticky surfaces or glitchery surfaces on the bathroom and you even walked on the bar tenants face while he was sleeping. Walking SFX were unforgettable.
Hadnt seen a game focusing on such detail before.
ElephantShell
Banned
The first few Madden games on PS3/360 looked amazing at the time and in screenshots still look pretty good. Too bad they looked and played like trash in motion. Graphics were good but animation was trash.
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
Same for me. Flight.
Flight Unlimited was a good one.
Destruction Derby 1:
If you squint a little, that actually looks like a pixelated real photograph, damn
veryslowhand
Banned
I remember getting mind mind blown by hearth of china
1991
1991
Crayon
Member
It was a good effect at the time. That game was there for the us launch of ps1 and it was often described as photorealistic. It's stablemate Wipeout was considered the real graphical showcase, but Destruction Derby's realistic style and the physics and collision and number of cars on screen made it at least as impressive showcase of the new playstation.
Maybe AmyS has scans of Edge/NextGen issue 7 where you can read about the upcoming destruction derby from a 1995 point of view.
Edit: issue 7 has wipeout on the cover and I think a small preview of dd. A freeissues later- 9 I think - there was a cover story on dd with a big gushing preview. It explained that the tracks are flat because the physics are constrained to 2d to keep everything running fast enough with 20 cars.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Klappdrachen
Member
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.
Oh god, I remember this scene vivdly. Such a cool game, I should watch a playthrough of this sometime.