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What were the most impressive games technically last generation?

Graphics whores, what games' graphics amazed you considering your consoles' hardware limitations?

My picks:

Dreamcast: Dead or Alive 2
GameCube: Resident Evil 4
Playstation 2: Final Fantasy XII
Xbox: Ninja Gaiden Black
 
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Shadow of the Colossus: HDR, self-shadowing, fur rendering, motion blur, progressive scan, seamless world, great partner AI, amazing character design and art direction mixed with the tech, etc. The framerate suffered all the time, but it didn't break the game to me.

I've seen developers being impressed by God of War 2, as it moves a lot of polygons. I found MGS3 amazing, mostly the cutscenes. Black quite pushed the PS2 a lot as well, and so did Burnout Revenge with the crazy physics, streaming tracks, 60 fps, etc.
 
Odin Sphere is fantastic until it slows down to 25% speed.

Dragon Quest 8 is just all-around gorgeous.

Wind Waker has outstanding animation.
 
Dreamcast - Shenmue (not a massive fan of the game itself, it's ok, but fuck me great graphics)

PS2 - God of War 1/2 no contest

Xbox - Halo 2 or Riddick

Cube - Resident Evil 4


Black should get an honourable mention. Game still looks great today.
 
God of War 2 - it probably is the best looking game of the three platforms in opinion. It even runs at 60 FPS.

MGS3 looks great too.
 
silent hill 3
metroid prime
wind waker
resident evil 4
ninja gaiden
REmake

too many to name that were great looking...tekken5 still looks and animates awesome
 
jiggle said:
For shure
still looks good

As the first true console MMO, and being on PS2 of all consoles, it is one of the most technically impressive games I've ever played. Granted, the game as a whole suffers a little in some departments from the PS2's limited memory, but it remains a fantastic experience 6 years later.

Also, F-Zero GX. I completely agree and can't believe I forgot about it.
 
Metal Gear Solid 2 showed me how big of a graphical leap the PS2 had from the PS1. Game ran at 60fps and still looks good even now.
 
Luigi's Mansion because it was my first "128-bit" game.

But if we are talking about truly amazing graphics Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, Wind Waker, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War 2 [even if it has horrible screen-tearing... oh well] and Halo 2.
 
Riddick.

That bit when you pop up into the shower area, I was like :-O, the tiles in that area look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, even now.
 
kamorra said:
It would be technically impressive if all the effects they tried to put in actually worked flawlessly. But in the end it is a wonderful game with a very bad framerate and various other technical problems.

The framerate isn't "very bad". No, it's not consistent and it deserves to be criticized for that. But you agreed with GoW2 which has screen tearing. So it's not perfect either. SoTC is impressive because it's doing things that the PS2 shouldn't be doing.
 
SolidSnakex said:
The framerate isn't "very bad". No, it's not consistent and it deserves to be criticized for that. But you agreed with GoW2 which has screen tearing. So it's not perfect either. SoTC is impressive because it's doing things that the PS2 shouldn't be doing.

Pai Pai Master said:
Seriously. SotC may not run at a stable framerate but it is a technical marvel.

Absolutely. I don't like the inconsistent framerate, but the game is a major technical accomplishment in a variety of ways. It's amazing what they were able to do with the PS2 hardware.
 
SolidSnakex said:
The framerate isn't "very bad". No, it's not consistent and it deserves to be criticized for that. But you agreed with GoW2 which has screen tearing. So it's not perfect either. SoTC is impressive because it's doing things that the PS2 shouldn't be doing.

Since the question was which game was the most impressive technically I can't choose SoTC because the faults it had were technical ones. The framerate goes down to 15fps, in my book this is very bad. Yes, the draw distance was great but, beside from some mountains and a bridge, there was not much to see.
You are right about GoW2 screen tearing and it may sound like a contradiction but I think the whole package is technical more impressive.
 
SolidSnakex said:
The framerate isn't "very bad". No, it's not consistent and it deserves to be criticized for that. But you agreed with GoW2 which has screen tearing. So it's not perfect either. SoTC is impressive because it's doing things that the PS2 shouldn't be doing.

The PAL versions of GOW have virtually no screen tearing.
 
God of War 2, this was in my backlog and I just beat it recenty. Game is amazing looking. I kept saying "this is a ps2 game??!!" God damn they squeezed every once out of the Ps2. Fucking epic scale too.
 
After buying BLACK off of the XBLM I'd have to say that it's up there with the amazing looking games of last gen. It looks amazing.
 
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