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[nordique]

I thought Resident Evil 4 pushed the PS2 pretty hard, it looked great on the system

I also thought God of War 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 were fantastic graphics wise


ninja edit: I also remember Gran Turismo 4 and Soul Calibur 3 looking pretty good as well...

 

[batbeg]

I see some people mentioning Odin Sphere. Only game I ever stopped playing because of how bad the frame-rate was. If you're talking about the game that looks prettiest in pics then sure.

FYI the PAL version had significantly less slowdown and I believe the PSN version is the same.

 

[Ruruja]

Gran Turismo 4, especially considering the amount of content that game had.

 

[adamsapple]

There's a few that come to mind:

Black.

I remember playing Black on the PS2 and Half Life 2 on an 'adequate' gaming PC and finding Black more visually stunning.

God of War 2.

Despite tearing out of its ass, the scale, scope and seam lessness of the game is absolutely amazing even to this day

Resident Evil 4

A very good imitation of the GC counterpart.

Shadow of the Colossus

Just wow.

Final Fantasy XII

Character models were not as impressive as FFX, but the environments, the scale and the scope and real-time combat, .. the PS2 running this game is a miracle.

WHERE'S THE FUCKING FFXII HD REMASTER !!!! GOD

 

[Melchiah]

Silent Hill 3.

Without a doubt.

 

[RiZ III]

I recall Onimush Dawn of Dreams looking really good. Especially the last level. There were some pretty crazy post effects going on.

 

[DSix]

While Silent Hill 3 is the closest to perfection, FF12 impressed me more with it's scale and amazing immersion into its beautiful world.

 

[Suzzopher]

While Silent Hill 3 is the closest to perfection, FF12 impressed me more with it's scale and amazing immersion into its beautiful world.

207th post nails it.

 

[canedaddy]

God of War 2 is the correct answer.

 

[demisec]

207th post nails it.

Except the ps2 could not possibly render it this way.

The console scaled the resolution down significantly, making the image quality really blocky and jaggy.

 

[Villager]

For a horror title I admired Fatal Frame's look. Might be a little bias because of how spooked I was of it, however.

 

[bomblord1]

For a horror title I admired Fatal Frame's look. Might be a little bias because of how spooked I was of it, however.

Fatal Frame 2 and 3 looked significantly better than 1

2

3

 

[bigbaldwolf86]

Final Fantasy XII holds up very well and I really loved the style of Dark Cloud 2. I still hope for a third game.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

This webm isn't 60fps, but apparent;y the game was (Grand Prix Challenge, 2002/2003):

http://zippy.gfycat.com/ShinyMistyAlaskanmalamute.webm

 

[HTupolev]

Didn't GT4 support 1080i too? I don't understand how that is even possible on a PS2.

Windowboxing and extremely anamorphic field-rendering. The amount of work being done is about the same as 480p60.

 

[Marvel]

MGS3 without a doubt, I mean it still looks great to this day man... as does MGS2.

Edit: Wow SH3 looks great.

 

[mdzapeer]

Final Fantasy X

The 1st game i played on the PS2, setting the bar so high that every other game on the console (apart from MGS) looked bad.

 

[PulseONE]

I am torn between Shadow of the Colussus, Silent Hill 3 and Final Fantasy XII...

 

[Upinsmoke]

Stuck between GT4, GoW II and Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

The Getaway: Black Monday

 

[Gusy]

I'm no technical expert, but ZOE2 looks like a title that nearly melts the ¨Emotion engine¨. The models used for Jehuty and enemies don't look particularly detailed... But there is SO MUCH shit going on at any given time. I would bet that it maxes out PS2 fillrate in some battle scenarios. It's basically taking the MGS2 engine and pushing it to its very limits.

I wonder if this game its playable through emulation. I get the feeling that its a pain to run it well.

 

[Krusenstern]

I'm no technical expert, but ZOE2 looks like a title that nearly melts the ¨Emotion engine¨. The models used for Jehuty and enemies don't look particularly detailed... But there is SO MUCH shit going on at any given time. I would bet that it maxes out PS2 fillrate in some battle scenarios. It's basically taking the MGS2 engine and pushing it to its very limits.

I wonder if this game its playable through emulation. I get the feeling that its a pain to run it well.

Another game which goes batshit insane with particle effects is Ratchet Gladiator (Deadlocked in NA). The models in that game may not look all that hot either but the particle effects even rival the ones in ZOE2 in my opinion.
Equip the time bomb modification with the Hunter Mine Launcher or The Arbiter and fight an arena battle. Your whole damn screen is just one big seizure inducing parade of lightning bolts and blue-white pulsating explosions going off anywhere you look. Just looking at the action was addicting.

Unfortunately I can't find any good screens or videos (not to mention gifs) that show any of that crazy mess. Wish I could've recorded some of my gameplay. Spent an ungodly amount of hours with that game on PS2. PS3 port is a fuck-up and the game still can't be properly emulated unfortunately.

 

[warheat]

I'm no technical expert, but ZOE2 looks like a title that nearly melts the ¨Emotion engine¨. The models used for Jehuty and enemies don't look particularly detailed... But there is SO MUCH shit going on at any given time. I would bet that it maxes out PS2 fillrate in some battle scenarios. It's basically taking the MGS2 engine and pushing it to its very limits.

I wonder if this game its playable through emulation. I get the feeling that its a pain to run it well.

Agreed, especially the vector cannon

 

[bomblord1]

I'm no technical expert, but ZOE2 looks like a title that nearly melts the ¨Emotion engine¨. The models used for Jehuty and enemies don't look particularly detailed... But there is SO MUCH shit going on at any given time. I would bet that it maxes out PS2 fillrate in some battle scenarios. It's basically taking the MGS2 engine and pushing it to its very limits.

I wonder if this game its playable through emulation. I get the feeling that its a pain to run it well.

Seems to be playable
http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Zone_of_the_Enders:_The_2nd_Runner

 

[Elios83]

While Silent Hill 3 is the closest to perfection, FF12 impressed me more with it's scale and amazing immersion into its beautiful world.

FFXII is definetly among the best on the PS2 but those are emulators shots though.
They tell us more about how amazing a FFXII remaster would look than how it looked on PS2 where it had bad image quality unfortunately. You could choose to apply a form of anti aliasing but it make the image too blurred.

 

[HideyoshiJP]

Windowboxing and extremely anamorphic field-rendering. The amount of work being done is about the same as 480p60.

To me, it always looked like they dropped the color depth as well.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

God of War 2. that scene on the chain, when you're moving towards the Steeds of Time, is proof enough.

/thread

That made my jaw drop back in the day.

 

[aerts1js]

PS2 has some great looking games and in HD many of them look better than a lot of ps3 games.

Anyway, my picks are:

Zones of Enders 2, Silent Hill 3, Metal Gear Solid 3, God of War 2, FFXII, KH2, and SOTC.

A lot of Japanese games.. which made it weird that they had such a hard time grasping the ps3.

 

[rhophiehalul78]

FF12 and MGS 3 for me

 

[D-VoN]

This thread is like a scroll down memory lane for me. ... Man the PS2 had some great titles.

 

[professor denim]

Rez
Ico
Espgaluda
Outrun 2
Gungrave
Gradius V

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

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

I agree. This game and Ace Combat Zero looked amazing and they ran at 60fps. The planes looked great and the ground looked real, until you got really close at least.

I remember being blown away by the cut scenes in AC5, especially the last cut scene before the assault on the underground facility in South Belka.

 

[Corpsepyre]

/thread

That made my jaw drop back in the day.

Same. Blew my mind I was watching that on a PS2.

 

[Tadale]

I came in the vote for GoW 2 or Okami, but it's hard to argue with Silent Hill 3. The models are great, and the grit really suits the atmosphere.

 

[Recall]

Shots of games that are emulated are not the same as those from real hardware.

 

[rjc571]

Shots of games that are emulated are not the same as those from real hardware.

The only thing that emulation changes is the image quality. The actual technical details i.e. polygons, textures, effects, etc. are all exactly the same as they are on real hardware.

 

[televator]

I had no idea the PS2 could run games at 4k resolution and down sample them to 1080p + 16 x MSAA + 16 x AF. Whoah, truly a console far ahead of its time.

 

[bomblord1]

The only thing that emulation changes is the image quality. The actual technical details i.e. polygons, textures, effects, etc. are all exactly the same as they are on real hardware.

Not necessarily true due to AF.

 

[GIANKRATOS]

God of War 2

 

[irmas]

God of War II takes my vote. However, God of War I was pretty decent as well. These are some emulated shots with a few ReShade adjustments. I have posted lots more in the emulator screenshot thread here http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=963952

 

[nintendork666]

I wanna say R Type Final and Rogue Galaxy.

 

[Rean]

MGS 2, MGS3, and Shadow of the Colossus are up there.

 

[bomblord1]

I wanna say R Type Final and Rogue Galaxy.

I've never heard of R Type Final I'll have to google it now.

 

[Alpolio]

FFXII was the best looking. That's what Square can do when they concentrate on one system.

 

[The Artisan]

that I've played: Tekken 5

 

[cj_iwakura]

For sheer aesthetics,I'll always say SMT Nocturne.

 

[KaoteK]

Tricky one...

GOW2
Okami
sh3
San Andreas
Ico

Are all games that sprang immediately to mind, and I'd totally forgotten how fine Black looked too.

 

[KaoteK]

For a horror title I admired Fatal Frame's look. Might be a little bias because of how spooked I was of it, however.

How could I forget this? gorgeous game!

 

[Surfheart]

GT3

 

[kuroshiki]

Haunting Ground, can't find good pictures online

Haunting ground certainly pushed graphic of PS2 to its limit. Some cutscenes looked insane.