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[Psychoward]

My personal pick would be Alien Isolation.

As a big fan of the first movie especially, being able to explore in that game was a treat.

 

[Black_Stride]

I just played through the prologue mission of Battlefield 1 the other day, game looks amazing.

Pretty much takes the cake.

Tell me you go more BF1 gifs, cuz i think none battlefield players arent even gonna give BF1 a chance while it really is current king of the hill.

 

[Jonneh3003]

I'm currently playing Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush

I think it holds it's own against most games in this thread

 

[Timu]

Thread needs more Star Wars Battlefront love in the graphics department.

 

[Vipu]

LOL

Sup?
I prefer to play VIDEOgames, not slide shows.

 

[LordKano]

I already posted here but I forgot another beautiful game released this gen that hasn't been mentionned yet : Hyper Light Drifter

HLD is probably one of the best looking pixel-art games ever made. Look at these colors !

 

[TheMoon]

I'm currently playing Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush


I think it holds it's own against most games in this thread

Been thinking this whole time I forgot something super obvious. Thanks for reminding me. Visually it's the PM: Color Splash of its year. Just gorgeous.

 

[icecold1983]

Assassin's Creed Unity and Syndicate look consistently rough because of their poor image quality.

Ac unity on pc can have great IQ as they eventually fixed the gameworks effects. Syndicate tho they are still broken so yes IQ is a shimmery mess

 

[Skab]

To steal from the BF1 thread

Battlefield 1 is the answer

 

[TheMoon]

Battlefield 1 is the answer

It's not, because there's more than one

Thread is not about THE best looking game.

Personally I think it's also super boring looking because it looks like an actual photo. Snooze.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

It's not, because there's more than one

Thread is not about THE best looking game.

Personally I think it's also super boring looking because it looks like an actual photo. Snooze.

It's quite beautiful. I just hope they fixed building looking like they're made out of cardboard. The one major issue I have with BF games and frostbite

 

[tusken77]

The Order: 1886
DriveClub
Uncharted 4

 

[Wolfgang Jr]

Driveclub

Credit: SunhiLegend

Rain doesn't always come from in front of you.

 

[Apoleptica]

Sunset Overdrive

 

[Host Samurai]

MGS V

Final Fantasy 15 looks like it will take the crown once it's released. Game looks ridiculous

 

[jett]

I think this year alone has been just fantastic for games with perfectly crafted and original art design.

Inside

The Witness

Thumper

Firewatch

Hyper Light Drifter

Lately I feel like I don't give two fucks about the AAA space to be honest. Oh, you managed to make a photorealistic forest. That's nice, I guess.

 

[Lazy Lemmy]

For me it is probably The Order, it took a lot of negativity but most agreed it was a cracking looking game

 

[Lazy Lemmy]

Rain doesn't always come from in front of you.

Agreed, Driveclub nailed it after a slightly rocky start

 

[rackham]

They've all been posted. I think as far as pixel art games go
Shovel Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, and Super Time Force Ultra really exemplify how to make beautiful retro style games.

Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 are two great fantasy games with different styles.


I think, and I haven't even played this cause I didn't have a PS4 at the time, that PT is an excellent photorealistic game.

 

[DMTripper]

My daughter has been playing Rise Of The Tombraider and man that game on PC looks fantastic!

Also loved Alien Isolation and Bloodborne.

 

[Biggzy]

I think on evidence of this thread it is safe to say that are getting really spoilt with how good games are starting to look this gen.

Having just finished the game, I can safely say that Gears of War 4 can be considered one of the best looking this gen; it is a really stunning looking game, yet at the same time can be quite reserved.

 

[grandwizard]

BF1 is setting a new standard. Game looks incredible.

AC Unity was far ahead of it's time and the current hardware could barely support it. It's still a popular choice for screenshots in the PC screenshot thread because of how good it can look (and that screenshots don't have framerates )

I'm going to suggest ROTR as one of the best looking games. It can be inconsistent but some areas are just amazing:

Taken from the PC version:

 

[Jawbreaker]

Tearaway Unfolded is a joy to look at with its super clean IQ.

Gravity Rush 2 is also a real looker.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Ryse and The Order still stand alone as the two best looking and consistently best looking games this generation.

You simply can't take an ugly screen of either of them.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Sup?
I prefer to play VIDEOgames, not slide shows.

Can we not with the hyperbole?

 

[J-Rzez]

Drive Club
The Order
Ratchet and Clank
And of course Uncharted 4.

But after my experience in the beta and screen caps people have from early access, BF1 is probably the prettiest this "gen" to me (PC of course). And its really well optimized.

 

[supernormal]

Inside is pretty much the best 3D game I've ever seen. It's not very complex and that frees it from the shackles of all the other artefacts that plague other more complex 3D games. It's a game that doesn't try anything it can't nail a 100% and while that may sound like a detriment to some, results in a cohesive look that is never brought down by any element not up to par.

The Order 1886 is to me this generations Killzone 2. A game which I regard stull as one of the best looking games ever, even over it's own sequels. The use of post processing and very specific approach to it's graphics gives it a look that you can't get just by pushing more polys. Which is why this game can compete with most of the top PC games at the highest settings.

Until Dawn was one that really surprised me. I didn't think it look particularly special in any of the gameplay videos shown prior to release, but the hype here on Gaf made go out and try this game. Absolutely gorgeous. It felt reminiscent of playing Resident Evil back in the day and just exploring those beautiful environments with cinematic camera angles.

 

[Brerlappin]

As far as technical excellence goes:

Rise of the Tomb Raider
Gears 4
Quantum Break
Ryse

Are some of the best looking recent games I can think of. Gears in particular is gorgeous, especially at 60fps on PC. Quantum Break however I think is probably THE best looking game currently available.

 

[MarkV]

This thread shows that there are a lot of great looking games around, good times.

I want to give another vote to Inside, it's almost artifacts free and under the hood there is a lot going on. The final result is very clean and solid, it's a pleasure to watch from the beginning to the end.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

Of the games I've played, I've been most impressed with:

DOOM
Battlefield 1
Mario Kart 8
Splatoon
Pikmin 3
Overwatch
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Gears of War 4

And from what I've seen but haven't played:

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Bloodborne
Driveclub

Lots of amazing looking titles out there.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

DriveClub, easily one of the best looking games this gen. The weather effects are still some of the best in any game. Driving fast cars in a rain storm has never looked so awesome before.

Also The Witcher 3 looks so impressive for an open world game, especially an open world the size of this one, with its 4 massive maps and a couple of smaller ones too.

Nearly forgot Uncharted 4, simply awesome graphics. Naughty Dog really know how to make the PS4 shine way more than should be possible.

Could be here quite a while, there have been loads of amazing looking games when you think about it.

The Order 1886
Until Dawn
Infamous: Second Son / First Light
Bloodborne
Batman Arkham Knight
Killzone Shadow Fall
Gears 4
Forza games
Doom

 

[bigace33]

Arkham knight looks absolutely amazing on PS4. The Order looks incredible as well. I guess those two games look the best to me.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Bloodborne
Ass Creed Unity

 

[EscapeArtist]

The games that I remember thinking "holy shit, look at that" when I first played them were probably The Order 1886 and Battlefront. (Battlefront has amazing sound as well)

 

[Anno]

Hyper Light Drifter and Firewatch are my standouts for this year so far. Total War: Warhammer, too, in it's own way with the insane way it does scale and epic clashes.

 

[thelastword]

Assassin's Creed: Unity looks stunning in some parts but then has so many rough edges, horrific instances of pop in, crowds changing model before your eyes, and parts that look not so great. I can't really give it the crown there.

Yeah much too inconsistent, almost jarring at times. Perhaps the most inconsistent visuals in a game this gen.

The Order: 1886 goes to a lot of effort to nail that filmic look, but honestly the aspect ratio just ends up annoying me. A lot of good technical stuff on display but its hard to separate my appreciation of the visuals from my utter loathing of the game itself.

It went for a filmic aesthetic, so the black bars complemented that imo.

Uncharted 4 probably looks the most consistently good, but unsurprisingly it sacrificed the 60hz target during development to get there.

Not just the visuals but the IQ as well. Amazing IQ. I don't think I would have it any other way. The other option would probably be a worse looking game at 900p 60ffps.

Batman: Arkham Knight is probably my pick for best looking large, open world game. I don't think it's much of a contest there. The rain looks phenomenal and the main drawback is that it's still a little wonky on the framerate and framepacing consistency on PC. Which is a damn shame because when it does work smoothly it's a real looker.

Absolutely, 100% agreed. This is probably the most detailed and highly consistent open world game I've seen on a visual level. A complete opposite to Unity.

Alien: Isolation has a phenomenal visual style, recreating the look and feel of Alien to a remarkable degree. The main flaw in the visuals is the terrible shader aliasing (I think that's what it is anyway, my technical terminology is a bit wonky here) that doesn't fully go away even when you supersample it. It's a big sore thumb sticking out the side of an otherwise perfect looking game.

Absolutely awful IQ, too much CA. Geometry is not that impressive, but it would look much better without the shader aliasing which ruins the picture.

Star Wars: Battlefront has some amazing material shaders and nails the authentic Star Wars look and feel. Sounds are really good too. Performs beautifully on my PC.

Not a fan of photogrammetry, same texture is looped too much in any one environment. Sound quality is good, actual models without the masks and suits are not impressive. I just find it took a lot of shortcuts on a technical level to look as good as it did. I look at the game and it's the (equivalent) of prerendered games in the modern era. Photgrammetry, too many lod issues/switches, instances of low-res grey geometry like pods/ship parts etc..in the environment. My biggest takeaway is that the visuals are not varied enough in any particular location.

Doom looks really damn clean, has a heap of high quality effects and textures, while also performing flawlessly. This is probably my overall winner.

Amazing looking game, filled with atmosphere and effects. I think the effects work makes doom mighty impressive along with the smooth moving 60fps and the animation work. It's a game that looks consistently good and on all levels (preset wise) and also performs just the same. Kudos to ID on this one. Looking forward to QUAKE. Hope they do a QUAKE5 campaign on this engine.

Honourable Mention to Quantum Break because it impressed me in places but has that weird fucking reconstruction thing going on that made everything look worse than it needed to especially on PC.

QB looks ok. In-game, models look worse than in cutscenes a fair bit, textures are nothing to shout about. Effects are nice, but the reconstruction had to be used to make framerate somewhat decent in tandem. Even a 970 struggled to keep 30fps on ultra at 1080p under windows 10. I imagine it's a bit better under steam with DX11, surely it should be?



Two games I think should get mentioned not listed by you or the OP.

Infamous SS/FL. Probably the most impressive looking openworld games outside of AK, better performance than AK, better IQ, amazing particle effects and no stuttering. So I guess you can rate which one is better based on these differences.

MGS5 TPP 60fps, nice lighting, great looking sandbox, nice presets all around, good character models. Framerate meets visuals with a nice balance. It's a 60fps openworld game where you don't see too many technical shortcuts.

 

[Lulubop]

Bf1 taking the crown rn

 

[HvySky]

I just started playing through Broken Age for the first time, and I'm pretty much in love so far.

 

[Falchion]

I came in here thinking it was Uncharted 4 no contest but after going through all the images and gif's, I'm completely undecided. There are so many beautiful games this gen.

 

[Head.spawn]

Life is Strange
Inside
Doom
Gears of War 4
Ori and the Blind Forest
Quantum Break

It's very cool to see developers taking an artistic approach to their games this generation, probably more than any one before it. There are a lot of stunning and striking moments in all of those games; I feel like an ass stopping every other minute to snap a shot, but I can't help it.

 

[Bladenic]

Just started Ratchet and Clank, and wow. I'm in awe. This game is stunning. The lighting effects in the cave on the second planet. I feel like this game shows the capabilities of this gen, it's a massive leap from Crack in Time which itself was great looking.

 

[darthkarki]

So far this gen, these are the games that had me going "Woah..." the most just from the way they look:

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
The characters in particular are just astounding. So many of the environments as well make you stop and stare. The game has such a beautifully dreamy, almost painterly aesthetic. Here's a few (crappy jpg) pics I took:

Driveclub
This is one of those rare games that often looks better in motion than in screenshots - although, with the awesome photo mode, there are of course many incredible screenshots. I don't have any good shots of my own, so here's a gif shameless stolen from the internet:

The Order: 1886
This game was pretty disappointing, but there's no doubt it's an absolute technical masterpiece.

Ryse: Son of Rome
It's pretty remarkable that a console launch title still manages to be so impressive so far into the generation, but I think this is still one of the best looking games out there. One of mine, plus a few more from Steam:

Assassin's Creed Unity
I'm surprised to see so many people nitpicking this one, as it's astoundingly beautiful. In my opinion the biggest technical issue that mars the visuals is the NPC popping which can definitely be distracting, but that really doesn't detract from what an impressive spectacle it is overall.

Batman: Arkham Knight
It's almost unbelievable that this is actually running on Unreal Engine 3.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Amazing thread to look at. Man, gaming has come a long way, both in realistic and highly stylized and abstract graphics.

 

[jdstorm]

There really should be 2 categories. Console and PC.

Some games are really being held back on console vs PC that can run the same games in 4k and even 8K

Assasins Creed Unity, Mirrors Edge Catalyst and No Mans Sky have probably recieved the biggest PC Bump.

On Console. INFAMOUS SS and Kilzone Shadowfall deserve honerable mentions. How well they hold up despite being launch titles is a credit to all the talented people that made them.

DKC Tropical Freeze also deserves a mention. What it lacks in AA and Shadows it makes up for in Art Style. The African world is still one of my favourite places to revisit this gen.

 

[IceDoesntHelp]

bloodborne has a nice artstyle, but from a technical standpoint, its not very pretty imo.

Battlefront looks amazing, and I'm sure Battlefield 1 will as well.

 

[ethomaz]

Uncharted 4

 

[PaulloDEC]

I came in here thinking it was Uncharted 4 no contest but after going through all the images and gif's, I'm completely undecided. There are so many beautiful games this gen.

Honestly, I think the days of "no contest" are behind us now. Tech in the triple-A space has become so advanced that "incredibly beautiful" is basically the default state, and indie devs have sufficient tools to realise just about whatever they want in terms of wild and diverse art.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Ryse and The Order still stand alone as the two best looking and consistently best looking games this generation.

You simply can't take an ugly screen of either of them.

Ryse has such a boring art style though. I really don't think it looks all that great

 

[How About No]

Can't pick a favorite but must say this gen has been great across the board when it comes to graphics, fidelity, and style. Even Nintendo can get some great-looking games on their underpowered hardware

 

[Peterthumpa]

Horizon 3 is up there, at least on PC. All shots are basically the same thing druing gameplay, minus DoF.