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Best Graphical Showcases of this gen?

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2. God Of War 3
3. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Ratchet And Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
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Fuck yeah.

Kabouter said:
Anno 1404
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Oh yes Dawn of Discovery looks wonderful and runs rock solid too.
 
I hope next gen devs remember to use anisotropic filtering.

I don't understand the point of creating all these high-resolution textures if you're just going to blur them to hell with trilinear filtering.
 
GoW III impresses me the most, it's just a shame you can't freely control the camera to take it all in. U2 and KZ2 are close behind.

30uspyh.jpg
 
To add to the OP list. Wipeout HD is a really great looking game. Very clean. Flower is beautiful as well.
Jigsaw said:
cant believe no one mentioned assassins creed 2,far cry 2 or lost planet 2 yet :P
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Just finished Far Cry 2. Played on PS3 and the game is really impressive and does look very nice. Lighting and shadows all looked nice, the way things burn and the wind moving the grass also looked great. Aside from some framerate issues and tearing, I'd say its one of the better looking games I've played this gen.

I remember hearing Far Cry 3 was confirmed to be happening, but haven't heard anything since. I'd buy a sequel Day 1.
 
2006 -> Late 2007: Gears of War
Late 2007 -> Late 2008: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Late 2008-> Early 2009: Gears of War 2
Early 2009 -> Late 2009: Killzone 2
Late 2009-> Current: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Honourable mentions: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008) and God of War III (2010)

Yoboman said:
So is Uncharted 2 still the bar? Doesn't seem like that'll really change before Uncharted 3 at this rate
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Uncharted 2 or God of War 3 at this point. You'll get a different answer depending on who you ask (some may even say Killzone 2). For me, it's still Uncharted 2. God of War III's AA is absolutely fucking bonkers, though. It's great Sony's first-party stable is sharing around the method (MLAA). At the very least, we know it's being used in LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3. Don't know about Gran Turismo 5 or "second-party" exclusives such as inFamous 2 and Twisted Metal.
 
Branduil said:
I hope next gen devs remember to use anisotropic filtering.

I don't understand the point of creating all these high-resolution textures if you're just going to blur them to hell with trilinear filtering.
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Pretty much my biggest complaint about games this console gen. I'd rather have AF over AA anyday of the week.
 
GOW III.


I went through a time when I thought Uncharted 2 looked better(mainly because of the beautiful colorful vistas) but no definitely not. GOW3 beats it because it's AA is second to none.
 
minority opinion: Little King's Story

Kirby's Epic Yarn : Nikolai Serebriakov :: Little King's Story : Aleksandr Petrov (the greatest animator in history)
 
Going with GT5(which I haven't played) and Mario Galaxy. I want to say Uncharted and Killzone, but I'm just not impressed by 30fps anymore unless something utterly ridiculous is going on in the background or the world is "alive".

I've never played the Metro game on pc, but the pics certainly are detailed.
 
brain_stew said:
You know they say opinions can't be wrong but this sure pushes the boundaries of that to the very limit.

You say that Crysis doesn't hold up and "lacks vibrancy" in one sentence and then go on to praise the dull, shadowless world of Fallout 3 in the next!? :lol
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When was the last time you played Crysis? I'm playing with settings almost maxed, I made sure to check, and it's just dull. The fact that it's packed with stuff doesn't make it seem any less dull. Though maybe something is messed up about the lighting settings someplace.

Fallout 3 with the ruin and wreckage of the world is anything but dull in stock form. Add in the texture packs, tweak the lighting, and it becomes awe inspiring. Though I suppose this comparison isn't at all fair since it's against a stock Crysis. Is there an art direction mod for the game?

Though my opinions must be crazy since I think every God of War 3 shot that's been posted looks like gleaming wet shit.
 
Branduil said:
That's a bullshot. At least as far as antialiasing goes.
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it has 4xMLAA and really looks like that,MLAA can look as good as 16xAA or something like that,google the eurogamer article about it,it was first used in the saboteur
 
Jigsaw said:
it has 4xMLAA and really looks like that,MLAA can look as good as 16xAA or something like that,google the eurogamer article about it,it was first used in the saboteur
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God of War III utilises MLAA in the final game. It was 2xMSAA beforehand. Also, Sony Santa Monica's tech. head got in touch with Richard Leadbetter and profusely explained that The Saboteur wasn't using MLAA as Leadbetter first thought, but rather a similar edge-detect blurring method also done via the SPUs.
 
i like that you have Resident Evil 5 at the top of the list.

RE5 having real time cut scenes and kicking the shit out of anything that's been pre-rendered thus far still blows my mind.
 
JaseC said:
God of War III utilises MLAA in the final game. It was 2xMSAA beforehand. Also, Sony Santa Monica's tech. head got in touch with Richard Leadbetter and profusely explained that The Saboteur wasn't using MLAA as Leadbetter first thought, but rather a similar edge-detect blurring method also done via the SPUs.
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ah thanks for the info,im playing sab right now and the image quality is almost as good as gow3,too bad it has heavy framedrops and tearing
 
Jigsaw said:
ah thanks for the info,im playing sab right now and the image quality is almost as good as gow3,too bad it has heavy framedrops and tearing
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Yeah, while Pandemic's particular AA method isn't quite on par with MLAA, it's still impressive, particularly coming from a third-party studio.

Edit: Fixed what was a shocking sentence. :lol
 
My personal faves

Uncharted 2
Killzone 2
God of War 3
FFXIII
Red Dead Redemption
Just Cause 2

And I know it's not out yet, but Marvel vs Capcom 3 really makes my eyes pop.
 
Relix said:
I thought it was unlocked 60FPS? Or am I wrong again :lol
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It can reach 60fps. I think some people may have misunderstood your statement, thinking you were implying it was most of the time? I don't know.


whitehawk said:
Wait... I think this is the first time that I would have though that was real if you didn't tell me.

edit: The smoke is the only thing that really gives it away.
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Could be compression? Either way, what gave it away to me is the lack of rubber :p Still looks mind-numbing, and easily mistaken for video upon initial inspection.


Jigsaw said:
it even has some sort of semi 1080p mode,running in native 960x1080p
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Trickster said:
That sounds like a really pointless resolution to run at imo. :lol
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It's not all that uncommon in PS3 games, and is definitely not pointless. It exists to combat one of the biggest early complaints against the PS3 - lack of 1080i support for people with non-digital HDTV's.

In early 2007, Sony updated the SDK to support access to dedicated horizontal scaling via RSX. Since actually rendering something interlaced is silly (and usually has pretty terrible side-effects), you need to generate a 1080p image and then throw on an interlace filter at output. Obviously rendering natively at 1920x1080 is resource intensive - which was especially problematic in that era of PS3 dev. Once horizontal scaling was available, 960x1080 was the logical choice since the frame buffer size is only negligibly larger than 720p.

http://www.dailytech.com/PlayStation+3+SDK+Reveals+Hardware+Upscaler+Kinda/article5881.htm


Note: The SDK has since granted access to vertical scaling as well.
 
Sony 1st party titles.

Uncharted 2, GoW 3, Killzone 2, GT5: Holy fucks.


Resident Evil 5 isn't too impressive minus the gameplay character models. All I can remember is the village/hut section with the crocks in the water. Looked like RE4.
 
The obvious ones have already been mentioned (GOWIII, Uncharted 2, Banjo, RE5, Gears, RDR, etc).

When considering it was a launch title, and a rushed launch title at that, Kameo looks phenomenally good even now. Wonderful textures, fantastic lighting and particle effects up the wazoo.

kameo_34.jpg


Seeing Forest Glade, Thorn's Pass and the Enchanted Kingdom in motion is an experience.
 
I'll just list all the games that impressed me:

Gears of War
Bioshock
Final Fantasy XIII
Alan Wake
Red Dead Redemption
Uncharted 2
Killzone 2
Metal Gear Solid 4

Also, MGS Peace Walker impresses the hell out of me, especially for a PSP game. And certain hand drawn games like Muramasa and A Boy and His Blob is more impressive than some of the best 3D console games. Beautiful illustrations go a long way.
 
TacticalFox88 said:
I think this is the first time when the consoles get tapped out in the early years rather than the later years. :lol
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I am sure some more juice is still available. The 360 shouldn't have been topped yet, but as I said tech development for the 360 seems to be at a standstill. Sony is moving forward with that. Also, correct me if I am wrong but this is the basic rule for the console this gen:

360: Slower CPU, Better GPU, better Memory Architecture. DVD
PS3: Fastest CPU, slower GPU, not best Mem Arch but it has 256MB of very fast video ram which I totally forgot the name for. Blu ray

They can juggle around that. I still think first party Sony games blow everything out of the water on the 360 and Microsoft is not doing anything to counter it. I am sure the PS3 will surprise us a lot more while the 360 will sightly get better. Though with Kinect eating a nice chunk of CPU then probbaly we will see 360Kinect games at a worst level than early gen.

I just wish Rare did Perfect Dark 2. With the tech knowledge they have the could make a game that rivals any of Sony's best. Oh well.
 
Relix said:
I am sure some more juice is still available. The 360 shouldn't have been topped yet, but as I said tech development for the 360 seems to be at a standstill. Sony is moving forward with that. Also, correct me if I am wrong but this is the basic rule for the console this gen:

360: Slower CPU, Better GPU, better Memory Architecture. DVD
PS3: Fastest CPU, slower GPU, not best Mem Arch but it has 256MB of very fast video ram which I totally forgot the name for. Blu ray

They can juggle around that. I still think first party Sony games blow everything out of the water on the 360 and Microsoft is not doing anything to counter it. I am sure the PS3 will surprise us a lot more while the 360 will sightly get better. Though with Kinect eating a nice chunk of CPU then probbaly we will see 360Kinect games at a worst level than early gen.

I just wish Rare did Perfect Dark 2. With the tech knowledge they have the could make a game that rivals any of Sony's best. Oh well.
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Perfect Dark Zero, despite its god-awful art design, still has some phenomenal textures that look almost photo-realistic. Some of the bricks in Nightclub: Stakeout and Subway: Retrieval simply look ridiculous. And this is a rushed launch title that was barely finished before it had to go to production. Says a lot about Rare's ability. Just a shame that, for now at least, they won't be able to push the envelope once more. Banjo looked fantastic.
 
Red Dead Redemption.

Nothing comes close to its graphical fidelity considering the open world nature and vastness of the environments.

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So beautiful.
 
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the awesome textures (name a Wii game that has done them better), and beautiful, gorgeous art direction.
 
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