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most graphically impressive 5th gen games?

Shoutout to

220px-Star-wars-rogue-squadron.jpg


I thought it really looked great. Hell, the game just nailed the Star Wars theme in general.

My problem with MM is that it feels rushed (because it was), OoT graphics look way more polished

Other than the unique art attributed to each game, I'd be hard press to tell the difference in graphical quality between Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time.
 
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PS1-N64-Sat

1- Perfect Dark
2- Jet Force Gemini
3- Conker's Bad Fur Day
4- WDC
5- Star war BFN
6- Zelda Majora's Mask

1- Crash Bandicoot 3
2- Spyro
3- Tobal N2
4- Ehrgeiz
5- Vagrant Story
6- Tomb Raider Chronicles
7- Soul Reaver
8- Colin McRae Rally 2
9- Tony Hawk 2
10- Omega Boost
11- MGS
12- Driver 2
13- Wipeout 3

1- Street Fighter vs X-men
2- Dead or Alive
3- Guardian Heroes
4- Radiant Silvergun
5- Panzer Dragoon Zwei
6- Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru
7- Last Bronx

Full

Most advanced FPS Perfect Dark
Most advanced 2D Fighting- Street Fighter vs X-men
Most advanced 3D Fighting - Ehrgeiz/Tobal N2/ Last Bronx
Most advanced 3D Action game- Driver 2
Most advanced 2D Action game Guardian Heroes
Most advanced NFL ?
Most advanced 3D Racing - RR Type 4/Wipeout 3
Most advanced Pre Rendered- Chrono Cross
 
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The Dreamcast shouldn't be included in these 5th gen comparisons, its a substantial step up from 5th gen and Sega already has the Saturn to represent it for that generation. Its tough finding screenshots/videos of games that haven't been enhanced using emulator features. I will also stick to 3D games without pre-rendered backgrounds or 2D games, as those look better than most of the other choices. Here are some that I thought looked great:

Mega Man Legends 2 - I fucking love the art style of this game, and its quite the looker for the system. The draw distance is also pretty good for games of this era.

Mega Man Legends 2 impressive, it is among the most beautiful of that generation. Whether someone chooses one game or another will be a matter of taste and perception. I organized my list based on resolution, frame rate and the feeling the game gives but in fact many games are or can be placed at the top.
 

Crayon

Member
They came in steps and it really did get better every year. What a great time that was. I hope I always remember it as clearly as I do now.
 
Zelda OoT and banjo are technically and graphically by any measure the most advanced games of that gen, nothing in the PS1 came close to those
Zelda ? 320x240 17~20fps
Soul Reaver runs 512×240 30fps Ambitious worlds great lighting effects

Don't get me wrong, the average games on the PS1 are inferior to those exclusive to the N64, just as the average games on the Saturn are inferior to those on the PS1, however these 3 consoles have different strengths and weaknesses, allowing each of them to have great games independently of theoretical capabilities, neither is particularly superior to the other.
 
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Sojiro

Member
And the pinnacle that could have been.


Folks should really stop posting emulator screens and videos though, that's not what things looked like. And ideally no screenshots at all, polygon/texture warping and other artifacts were a thing that heavily affected how games looked too, not to mention pop in and other such necessities on top.​

Yeah, while I don't know if people are posting those intentionally, it's really apparent on some of those videos that they are not what the games originally looked like on their respective hardware. On another note, crazy Shenmue looked that good on the Saturn! Its good Sega held off and released it on the DC, but cool to see where it originally was going to be.
Ace combat 3


Another solid choice that I am ashamed of myself for not mentioning. I bought this at release and was floored by how good it looked back then. The game still looks great, even though your video doesn't show it 😝
 
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coffinbirth

Member
I hate when people posts upresed screenshots from older consoles to prove they didn't look that bad.
Yeah, was looking for someone else to say this so I didn't have to. Using DuckStation for screencaps is not exactly an honest representation of those warbly things. It's doing even more than just upressing.
 
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PS1 have so many crazy thing

Tobal 2 (Hi-Res and 60fps)

nC7vY7A.gif
jNltZ2l.gif


Dino Crisis (Full 3D)

dino-crisis-rebecca.gif


Dr.Slump

psx-dr-slump.gif


Hokuto no Ken

tumblr_nvjwz4yF3R1qd4q8ao1_500.gif


Koudelka

koudelka-shadow-hearts.gif


Vagrant Story

VS4.gif
96E4F25BD7BAA3F0628A7D250A2C5A31B284C84A


Megaman Legends 2

tron-bonne-mega-man-legends.gif


Breath of Fire 4

tumblr_ogsxys7JgZ1r7sijxo1_500.gif


Mizuna Falls

b8331de722674b7a38f5611b5d7a70800497acea.gif
bf99b376efca1b249f803896ae1930b009650c3e.gif
865231c11f8b89384c72c5eb0afb515afd8a3ab0.gif


Parasite Eve 2

tumblr_pbxxfknNGp1u9fgido1_500.gif
ayashootingburner.gif


Final Fantasy IX

final-fantasy-ix-ff9.gif
Mgg8.gif


Chrono Cross

28-FATE86.jpg
13-sky23.jpg


Spyro Trilogy

1f68a084c3b21a3e36a7f3c5dc154f66.gif
tumblr_mjnm685kHs1rs3i2ko1_500.gif


Wipeout 3 :

55d310f8bc53d7897d3ea8e4fdd8a56237545b0e.gif
f77466e21ed939748eb781d81183a39d9cc59d5f.gifv
For the record non of these games looked this crisp when they released in the mid to late 90s, from someone that was there and over the age of 18 at the time. It was very much of different texture soups (which I love) with the exception of whatever is “cell shaded” or just plain gouraud shaded

But at the time playing on a CRTV…. It was the fucking bees knees. Now mind you, I’ve played plenty of the 3do and Saturn before the release of the PSX in NA. But whe it released in September of 95 me and buddy would rent one from the local video store called Video Cupbard. This dude had 4 PSX’s to rent with Toshinden. At that point I knew it was gonna be a blessed Generation.

We all knew Sony was gonna steam roll that Generation around that time and the fact that Nintendo was still a year behind at that point.

What a glorious time to be a gamer, that transition from 2D to 3D it was the Wild West….. I feel nothing like that will happen again in my life time in this industry.

Sorry for those that didn’t get to experience this, instead you gotta read happened and fill in the blanks…
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
the Nintendo 64 had much better graphics than PS1. I remember being blown away by Goldeneye back then.
eh. Not always. No poly wobbling and superior lighting in most games, but the smudged textures is a major detractor and make 2D elements/games on the system not a fun time
 

nkarafo

Member
eh. Not always. No poly wobbling and superior lighting in most games, but the smudged textures is a major detractor and make 2D elements/games on the system not a fun time
True, but the games that did not have that texture issue, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye, DOOM 64, etc, were technically above any PS1 game.

It wasn't hard to circumvent the texture cache bottleneck, but it did require some extra work from the developer part and not everyone was willing to do it.
 

Nvzman

Member
Zelda OoT and banjo are technically and graphically by any measure the most advanced games of that gen, nothing in the PS1 came close to those
Conker was much more technically impressive than Banjo dude:
220px-CBFD-graphics.jpg

Actual lighting system + much more complex environments and voice acting with lip syncing, imo it's probably the most impressive 5th Gen game and it's not even close.
 
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Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Conker was much more technically impressive than Banjo dude:
220px-CBFD-graphics.jpg

Actual lighting system + much more complex environments and voice acting with lip syncing, imo it's probably the most impressive 5th Gen game and it's not even close.
Super inconsistent framerate though. Got no problem with OoT's stable 20fps, Conker is painful at 15-30. Probably often goes lower than 15 if not single digit even.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Zelda OoT and banjo are technically and graphically by any measure the most advanced games of that gen, nothing in the PS1 came close to those
Except MM and Conker both look better...

Also, no love for Pokémon Stadium? The mons and effects were incredible. It looked like an early 6th gen game.

large.jpg

large.jpg
 
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PanzerCute

Member
Radiant Silvergun definitely. I discovered the game in 2011, and it still blew me away.

Even today I find the game impressive.

Best shmup ever, too, imo.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
eh. Not always. No poly wobbling and superior lighting in most games, but the smudged textures is a major detractor and make 2D elements/games on the system not a fun time
It could have some pretty sweet 2D. And plenty games look good, if textures were made with the filtering in mind they're fine, of course if textures were made to be like pixel art primarily for systems that didn't have any filtering and they didn't disable it for the N64 version, then they looked wrong.

Sin & Punishment looks and plays great & smooth, no clue what reviewers back then were on to bash the game's controls and graphics. Similar to later bashing F-Zero GX for looking plain (maybe because if you pause/take a screen you see some low fi elements but in motion it's INSANELY GOOD).

It's not like the systems without texture filtering always had amazing textures or anything, not every developer was Square to put skilled 2D artists to work for some brilliant results in 3D like Vagrant Story, quite often they just looked like a complete mess too, sharp rather than blurry wasn't good...​
 
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True, but the games that did not have that texture issue, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye, DOOM 64, etc, were technically above any PS1 game.

It wasn't hard to circumvent the texture cache bottleneck, but it did require some extra work from the developer part and not everyone was willing to do it.
I find these statements too radical. Were Golden Eye technically above any PS1 game?
honestly few fps on the N64 are or can be considered superior to Quake 2 which IMO is 'technically' above at least Golden Eye.
Regarding textures, in general 4 or 5 maybe 10 max N64 games have Playstation-level textures
 

Shut0wen

Member
l spent so many quarters on this game in the arcade.

Back then I remember the arcades still smoking shit for a while on a graphics tip, but the most graphically impressive title was the Soul Calibur port on the Dreamcast.
Pretty much every dreamcast game were amazing compared to ps1 and nintendo 64
 
What a glorious time to be a gamer, that transition from 2D to 3D it was the Wild West….. I feel nothing like that will happen again in my life time in this industry.

Sorry for those that didn’t get to experience this, instead you gotta read happened and fill in the blanks…
The only similar "system" shock experience I've had since the transition from 2D to 3D was Half-Life: Alyx. But I agree, it was a unique time to be a gamer as it was the wild west. Seeing Mario 64 running was genuinely one of the coolest tech experiences a kid could have had, especially having played so much Super Mario Bros. 3.
 
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nkarafo

Member
Conker was much more technically impressive than Banjo dude:
220px-CBFD-graphics.jpg

Actual lighting system + much more complex environments and voice acting with lip syncing, imo it's probably the most impressive 5th Gen game and it's not even close.

Plus a real time shadow for Conker.

But not as good frame rate. Banjo is a much more balanced looking/performing game for this particular system. It's probably the best looking game the N64 could handle smoothly.
 

Nvzman

Member
Super inconsistent framerate though. Got no problem with OoT's stable 20fps, Conker is painful at 15-30. Probably often goes lower than 15 if not single digit even.

Plus a real time shadow for Conker.

But not as good frame rate. Banjo is a much more balanced looking/performing game for this particular system. It's probably the best looking game the N64 could handle smoothly.
Yes the frame rate is not quite as good as BK, it is still miles better than Tooie and Perfect Dark without even using the expansion pak which imo makes it even more impressive. I never found the framerate in Conker that terrible except for one or two areas of the War chapter (and 4 player split screen lol).
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Conker was much more technically impressive than Banjo dude:
220px-CBFD-graphics.jpg

Actual lighting system + much more complex environments and voice acting with lip syncing, imo it's probably the most impressive 5th Gen game and it's not even close.
My problem with appreciating conker is that I never saw running in an actual N64 but only emulated years after. My point still stands tho, I can't any PS1 looking like the best rare put in N64
 

squarealex

Member
Folks should really stop posting emulator screens and videos though
This is what it (almost) look on CRT.
Emulator does not improve lightining system, shadow, color, art direction, polygon count, animation, etc...

Just some bilinear shit on textures and resolution. And warping texture for PS1 is less visible on 240p than 4k.
 
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