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[Agent X]

Black, Burnout Revenge, and God of War 2 were mighty impressive. All of these games could stand toe-to-toe with early PS3 games.

I got Black when it first came out in early 2006, played about 2/3 of the way through, then put it aside for a while. When I finally went back to finish the game in 2011 on my PS3, it didn't feel like an aging five-year-old PS2 game.

 

[i-Lo]

Don't you mean "eke out" not "irk" OP?

 

[GrayChild]

Another vote for Silent Hill 3. The character models and animations look stunning even to this day.

 

[SoulUnison]

Most have already been mentioned.

I also remember being really impressed with Genji: Dawn of the Samurai when I played it. But it looks better than motion than in SD screenshots

It helped that animation were pretty fluid

That game was such a hidden gem, and then the PS3 launch title sequel was just terrible.
I never even finished it.

 

[MajorTom]

I always thought mgs2 looked great, still do. I actually prefer the look of it over mgs3.

 

[AmyS]

I'm probably the only one voting for this game but Ace Combat 5 impressed me the most, with its lighting and 60 FPS.

 

[KidB]

Okami, easily. Its HD version is probably my favourite game visually.

 

[Contra11]

Nothing come close to Fatal Frame 2 IMO

 

[Manmademan]

This.

Don't get me wrong, VP2 is a stunner and is capable of some jaw-dropping moments, even now - but in this day and age, I'd argue that Silent Hill 3 and the oldman.gif still gets people mixed up in their generations.

Agree. I own both games. even though VP2 is 480p (one of the few games to pull this off) Silent Hill 3 is completely untouchable.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

No MGS3 love?

 

[Vire]

FF12 and God of War 2 still look awesome.

 

[Kazuhira]

MGS3/2,God of War 2,RE4,Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory,Okami,Odin Sphere.

 

[JordanN]

No MGS3 love?

Best animation.

 

[Manmademan]

So are any of you going to post oldman.gif for those of us who don't know?

here's another shot of Vincent, who might be more impressive than oldman.gif in terms of detail. and no, this wasn't an emulator shot.

 

[dab0ne]

black was on ps2 lol?? i thought that was an xbox exclusive.


they need to make a sequel to this game...

Wasn't Body Count kind of a spiritual successor or something?

 

[HeartlessNobody213]

Okami
KH 2
GOW 2

Onimusha 4 is up there as well I think.

 

[Fbh]

That game was such a hidden gem, and then the PS3 launch title sequel was just terrible.
I never even finished it.

Yeah.
But the sequel gave us THIS so all is forgiven

 

[Parappa_the_Fapper]

Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII.

.

 

[pixelbox]

Transformers (2004) has a huge draw distance and lush foliage.

For best artstyle, Auto Modellista. It literally looks like anime.

Yes! and it runs at 60 fps.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Gotta give it to Silent Hill 3. However the hell they pushed some of those character models, facial expressions, number of effects, lighting and shadow, is a mystery to me.

(first part of this gif, second half is to show how bad the HD Edition was to the PS2 version, PS2 one is the one with all the fog and darkness, HD version is the flat looking one):

 

[Creamium]

God of War 2 wins this. I remember getting component cables for ps2 just for that game, and it was worth it see the 480p glory.

 

[Manmademan]

Gotta give it to Silent Hill 3. However the hell they pushed some of those character models, facial expressions, number of effects, and the like, is a mystery to me.

(first part of this gif, second half is to show how bad the HD Edition was to the PS2 version, PS2 one is the one with all the fog and darkness, HD version is the flat looking one):

I knew someone would deliver. SH3 looks like a PS3 game.

 

[Ame]

MGS3, ZOE2, GoWII and Tekken 5.

 

[cerulily]

Valkyrie profile 2 also had some fantastic looking environments. So much detail and texture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4vAQgf7ZJ0

I think it is definitely my favourite of the bunch, maybe not the technical best. but it's really pushing it.

 

[NoFaceNico]

The Ape Escape games looked pretty good and ran at a consistent frame rate.

 

[Zoned]

God of war 2 easily.

 

[Piston Hyundai]

Rollercoaster Tycoon World

 

[GrayChild]

Gotta give it to Silent Hill 3. However the hell they pushed some of those character models, facial expressions, number of effects, lighting and shadow, is a mystery to me.

(first part of this gif, second half is to show how bad the HD Edition was to the PS2 version, PS2 one is the one with all the fog and darkness, HD version is the flat looking one):

I'm so glad that according to the recent data, all character modellers and animators from Silent Hill 2-4 (Shingo Yuri, Minako Asano, Sachiko Sugawara etc.) are still in Kojima Productions and will probably be involved with Silent Hills. If these guys managed to do this on PS2, I don't want to imagine what they can achieve on PS4 or high end PCs.

 

[SpookyFries]

FFXI was pretty damn impressive. My brother played on PC and I played on PS2. Huge zones, large draw distance, awesome character models, cities full of other players. It was pretty great

 

[pixelbox]

My vote goes to Ghost Hunter:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvBXvMeS4k

Volumetric Lights (God Rays)
Dynamic lighting plus shadow generation
Soft body physics for water and cloth
Deformation of meshes
Individual, interactive grass
Multiple texture work for surfaces: faces that wrinkles with movement, shiny surfaces, wet pants
Large environments
No loadtimes.

 

[Spieler Eins]

That's because Team Silent were wizards.

And now they are gone.

 

[Cachuli]

dq8 was really good

 

[Seyavesh]

i'd like to submit every single later era SRW game as per usual
i would post a gif but it'd be like 30 mb or something insane

they're not 3d but the animation and spritework is fucking bonkers and it carried over so well into the ps3 generation

random examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84XCSpc4IY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGPocMrRIf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPPkrSFQVvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyBB8wbW7eQ

unforunately there's not a lot of good footage of the ps2 era ones. most of the HD quality stuff is choppy for some bizarre reason despite the game running smooth as butter

 

[Yiazmat]

Gran Turismo 4 looks fantastic.

Yep, and it's 60fps too.

Also, the photomode still looks amazing today.

 

[v1ncelis]

God of War II - completely maxed PS2

Resident Evil 4 - great port which holds very well compared to amazing looking GC version.

Black - I was blown away by this game graphics first time I played this game esp by gun models and their animations and explosions.

WRC 4 - great looking car models at the time. Not sure how it holds now since I haven't played any Evo past WRC games but I remembered it as a great looking rally game.

Ghost Hunter - very clean and crisp looking game.

Also Gran Turismo 4, Final Fantasy XII, Silent Hill 3 and MGS 3

 

[RiverBed]

Zone of the Enders 2 is up there.

Best use of particles of its generation. The game looks INSANE. And it runs at 60fps.

Not to mention the best 3 axis flying robot control ever made hands down.

 

[dr.rocktopus]

Gran Turismo 4, photo mode shots. It doesn't look this good in motion, but this kind of IQ on PS2!!

(the resolution makes me think bullshot, but....)

That Transformers game looks absolutely insane though.

 

[disappeared]

Yeah it's Silent Hill 3.

 

[Brhoom]

Haunting Ground, can't find good pictures online

 

[SargerusBR]

MGS3
SH3
GOW 2

 

[Correctomundo]

You know, the PS2 is my least favorite console of that generation, but I do own almost every one of these games being mentioned here, and the likes of these games make me glad I own one.

That being said, I do have to go with Valkyrie Profile 2. The game just oozes beauty out of every screen. It isn't my favorite (that'd be a toss up between God of War 2 and Final Fantasy 12), but I've always thought that when it came to drop dead "there's no way the PS2 is pumping this out" visuals, it was always my go-to game.

It's really kind of nucking futs. It's so powerful to me that I quickly become numb to it's beauty, and only when I pop in another game does it really become apparent.

 

[Conduit]

Primal was good :

 

[MagnoSauce]

lol wut. What kind of Resident Evil 4 is that? What's with the lighting? I really don't think that's the PS2 version either.

 

[rjc571]

The Ape Escape games looked pretty good and ran at a consistent frame rate.

Ape Escape 3's framerate was anything but consistent. The game would often drop from 60 fps to 30 for no apparent reason. Which was weird, because it looks more or less identical to AE2, which ran at a perfect 60 fps at all times. Neither game was a technical powerhouse, either.

 

[dr.rocktopus]

lol wut. What kind of Resident Evil 4 is that? What's with the lighting? I really don't think that's the PS2 version either.

Probably Wii version? Image hosted on Nintendojo...The part that hangs on Leon's hair looks more solid on the PS2, but that's all I remember..

 

[Miguel81]

Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII.

Those are the ones that I came to post. Really beautiful games that came at the tail end of the PS2 generation. DQ VIII really blew me away with it's visuals at the time, and it looks drop dead gorgeous even now on an emulator like PCSX2.

 

[Host Samurai]

MGS3

 

[sublimit]

Jesus Christ those gifs killed my laptop.-_-

Anyway from a technical point of view it's Gran Turismo 4.
From an art style point of view it's Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

Didn't GT4 support 1080i too? I don't understand how that is even possible on a PS2. That thing was one hell of a technical achievement.

 

[calcetinvolador]

Onimusha 3 looked stunning and ran at 60fps, i was really impressed by that game graphically.