Whats the best graphics you have seen in a game.

[mjs warlord]

I began pc gaming in 2002 so you can imagine i have seen big improvements in both the action that takes place during a game and just how realistic the cut scenes have become.
The end sequence in mass effect 3 was so good that when it finished i went back to my last save point so i could watch it again. I am currently playing Horizon zero dawn and the quality and length of some of the cut scenes are so good its like watching a mini movie.

So what games graphics have impressed you the most and what are the best cut scene sequence's you have ever seen.

 

[Brian Boru]

Check out these threads for more on this:

Beautiful Game Appreciation

Let's appreciate beautiful games. From the obvious picks like Witcher 3 to less obvious picks like Divinity Original Sin 2 Or perhaps more stylized games like Darkest Dungeon All is free to post as long as it tickles one of your aesthetic senses. So go ahead and show us good looking...

forums.pcgamer.com

Weekend Question: What's the last game whose graphics wowed you?

I ask the PCG staff a regular Weekend Question and post the answers on the site. If you'd like to throw in an answer here, I'll squeeze the best into the finished article! This week's question is: What's the last game whose graphics wowed you? Maybe the ray tracing in Control, Metro Exodus...

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what games graphics have impressed you the most

My answer in the latter thread:

Far Cry Primal.

Ubisoft make great Far Cry & other worlds and wildlife, but Primal is special. The lighting, the human & animal expressive animations, the immersive gorgeous world—the most beautiful game I've played… and the bar is pretty high these days.

Adding:
In its day, Half Life 2 had some exceptional scenes:
"We Don't Go To Ravenholm"—the combo of audio and video created a truly exceptional atmosphere and beautifully scary location in this zombie mission.

Same with Crysis, especially the iconic sunrise scene in the first mission.

Of course I haven't played any with ray tracing, no doubt some of those will raise the bar further.

what are the best cut scene sequence's you have ever seen

For its time, the game loading sequence in Command and Conquer was brilliant and groundbreaking.

Crysis again, the whole intro sequence was a jaw dropper back then—the character models were so far ahead of anything I'd seen before.

While the unskippable intro sequence to Far Cry 4 is a major disincentive to starting a replay, it certainly fits the mini movie category—very well done.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think Red Dead Redemption 2 has great graphics. The game that I was most blown away by was Eastshade. It doesn't try to be photorealistic, but I found its art style extremely beautiful. Here's a screenshot:

I think--and a lot of people will disagree with this--that we've reached a point in graphics where art direction is the key. Photorealism is here, but it's how you interpret that and what you choose as your subject that matters. For instance, I find a lot of the Yakuza games to be beautiful even though they don't have particularly realistic graphics because I love the neon Tokyo setting.

An upcoming game that I'm really looking forward to is Forza Horizon 5. Mexico looks absolutely stunning in the trailers.

As far as cutscenes, I don't really know. RDR2 cutscenes are very good. I haven't really played a lot of AAA games lately. I can remember back to the 90's and even earlier when cutscenes were very grainy, low resolution stuff, but they still amazed me. I used to love the opening cutscenes of the RPG's I played, which usually showed these great battles.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think Final Fantasy 8 was one of the first games I played with pre-rendered cutscenes that looked far better than the actual game. I still remember this cutscene in particular:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_tyPrx9Xs

 

[ZedClampet]

While the unskippable intro sequence to Far Cry 4 is a major disincentive to starting a replay, it certainly fits the mini movie category—very well done.

You're even more impatient than I am. I just replayed that a month or so ago, and that sequence isn't that long. Plus, I love the end of it when the music starts playing and Pagan says, "You and I, we're gonna tear sh*t up!"

 

[Alm]

Sorry, I know we are PC Gamer but there was a PS5 game covered recently that impressed me a lot (Ride 4):

Viral PS5 motorcycle race looks so real it's giving people anxiety

Video games have gotten there, at least in the right circumstances

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Brian Boru]

You're even more impatient than I am

I don't often get long play times, a half hour here, an hour there—so 20 minutes of FC4 intro is bad RoI for me

ETA
You gotta be kidding me! I should've checked much earlier, the magical modders have done it again—Far Cry 4 - No Intro Mod!!

Woo of the proverbial hoo

And guess what? FC3 No Intro Mod!!

This changes the game

 

[ZedClampet]

I don't often get long play times, a half hour here, an hour there—so 20 minutes of FC4 intro is bad RoI for me

It's 9 minutes. You're experiencing time dilation. Please review E = mc2 and take appropriate steps.

Congrats on finding those mods, though. Probably took more than 9 minutes to find them and install them

 

[Brian Boru]

Please review E = mc2

I raise ein Stein in your honor! 🍺

It's 9 minutes. You're experiencing time dilation

No, no, it's 20—clearly you suffer from ADD:
Zed launches new FC4 game;
One minute in, remembers that Indie which looked interesting, Alt-Tabs to Steam, reads a couple of reviews, looks at a few pretty pics, and clicks 'Buy' after only 5 minutes;
Happy feeling, checks FC4, still going, must be only 2 minutes, right?
Checks Steam launcher, clicks Install on Indie;
Nice, that was quick, only took 10 minutes—and look, FC4 is nearly done after only 4 minutes!

Probably took more than 9 minutes to find them and install

Indeed it did, but that's the beauty of the RoI I mentioned—an hour today saves 20 minutes on each future launch, so I'll be out of the red within a year. Then there are all the other goodies in the mods… so basically I'm already ahead!

Lemme know if you ever solve the ADD, and I'll do a quick RoI 101 course with you

 

[Zloth]

This could be many topics! Amazing graphics for its time, amazing graphics all time, beautiful graphics, cut scenes that were emotionally impressive, cut scenes that were technically impressive, cut scenes that are still technically impressive, funny cut scenes, imposing boss entrances... where to begin??

Eh, it's late, better punt and do a proper entry later.

I think--and a lot of people will disagree with this--that we've reached a point in graphics where art direction is the key. Photorealism is here, but it's how you interpret that and what you choose as your subject that matters.

I don't agree that photorealism is here yet, but I do definitely agree that the art direction is getting to be far more important than the tech. If you can't evoke the emotions you want with today's graphics, improving the tech isn't going to help much. (Well, OK, VR will literally add a whole new dimension, but that's another story.)

 

[ZedClampet]

No, no, it's 20—clearly you suffer from ADD:

Whatever, Mr. Impatient. I bet when Pagan told you to relax and enjoy the crab rangoons that you got bored and left.

 

[Brian Boru]

Mr. Imp

No need to be formal, Imp is fine.

I bet when Pagan told you to relax and enjoy the crab rangoons that you got bored and left

Oh man… I was so cheesed off when I came back after spending a Weekend At Bernie's to discover that what happens when you let the whole thing 'run itself out' had happened—if you know what I mean

Aargh, foiled again

 

[ZedClampet]

No need to be formal, Imp is fine.


Oh man… I was so cheesed off when I came back after spending a Weekend At Bernie's to discover that what happens when you let the whole thing 'run itself out' had happened—if you know what I mean

Aargh, foiled again

Actually if you count the crab rangoons and fleeing as part of the intro, it's probably about 20 minutes. I was just talking about the cutscene.

 

[LiamBeran]

Probably Horizon

 

[Colif]

I wish we could get to photo realistic and stop making games prettier and actually make them fun to play as well.

Last 30 years its been thee same, make games prettier than last gen but underneath they are the same engines. Bethesda want to use same engine for how long? Maybe Microsoft need to slap Todd or fire him (lol). Innovation is dead, all games are the same buttons so people don't have to think, just drown in pretty pictures, and pay full price for repeats.

I don't get impressed by graphics anymore. Need more than pretty pictures.

 

[Frindis]

Some of the best graphics would have to be in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. The sky especially looks absolutely stunning with all the different weather effects. I would also say that it is tied with Metro Exodus, which looks insanely good. That game also got top-notch weather effects and different locations that all have something beautiful to offer, Volga being my personal favorite. Red Dead Redemption 2 is also quite high up there and it is a real treat moving from the different biomes, whether it is mud, snow, or grassy fields.

As for one of my best memories graphics-wise, I would have to say Oblivion. After spending ALL that time in the sewers, getting outside for the first time, and seeing just how beautiful the game looked, that was an experience I will not easily forget.

As for the best cutscene, sooo many to choose from! Ok, I'm choosing Bioshock elevator cutscene and Bioshock Infinite "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" cutscene. Both are amazing and jaw-dropping at the same time.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGnBoS95SU

 

[mainer]

As for one of my best memories graphics-wise, I would have to say Oblivion. After spending ALL that time in the sewers, getting outside for the first time, and seeing just how beautiful the game looked, that was an experience I will not easily forget.

That will forever be one of my favorite gaming experience memories, just standing looking at that landscape. The first time playing Skyrim was a similar feeling; crawling out of that cave and seeing the stars in the night sky, the mountains and snow covered trees.

 

[Zloth]

Here's a classic from Oblivion. My brain had no clue what was going on for the first second or two. It was so unexpected, I flat out couldn't parse what my retina were telling me!

 

[MrShadow]

i dont understand what the best graphics means as such, as it coud be taken in different ways.

there are certain graphic styles like okami HD which make me put them at the top of the list-originaly started out on the playstation 2, the graphics engine actualy started out as an average common boring 3D style-definetly woudnt have won any awards but they adapted it to a cel shaded style as the playstation 2 was unable to handle the game in pure 3D,partly due to the discs data size if i remember correctly.
with cel shading, instead of messing it up developers created an amazing gorgeus environment,and the PC HD version was kept true to the original in a sleek upgraded package.this to me shoud be up there with the best for graphics.

another game i woud highly rate the graphics of (and gameplay to if on rails shooters are your thing) is the remade version of the original 'panzer dragoon' on the PC,wow such an improvment!. it looks absolutely stunning but still stays true to the original characters,surroundings and dragons (which as a sega saturn geek gives me hope panzer dragoon saga will eventualy get remade),everything from the textures to the dragons and characters or even fire and explosions is mind blowingly amazing in my eyes.

 

[ZedClampet]

I wish we could get to photo realistic and stop making games prettier and actually make them fun to play as well.

Last 30 years its been thee same, make games prettier than last gen but underneath they are the same engines. Bethesda want to use same engine for how long? Maybe Microsoft need to slap Todd or fire him (lol). Innovation is dead, all games are the same buttons so people don't have to think, just drown in pretty pictures, and pay full price for repeats.

I don't get impressed by graphics anymore. Need more than pretty pictures.

Here's some graphics that are absolutely photo realistic: https://www.pcgamer.com/ride-4-gameplay-real/

But, see, they had to make those graphics worse to make them look like that.

 

[Zloth]

Absolutely not photorealistic. That's messing with you by going super fast. Play the video until it displays at high rez, then jump ahead to about 3:47 where the rider wipes out near a tunnel. That tunnel doesn't look so good - you can even count the sides in the arch. The train and houses don't look all that great, either, now that you've slowed down. The grass is growing 90 degrees to the hill slope, which looks crazy.

The wet road sure looks sweet, though!

 

[Sarafan]

I really like the ray tracing effects, so my pick when it comes to best graphics would be Cyberpunk 2077 or Quake 2 RTX, although the latter suffers from outdated animations and character models.

As for cut-scenes, are we talking about cut-scenes made on game engines or cinematics in overall? If the latter, then most newer Blizzard games have extremely good videos (D2 Resurrected, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2). If we're talking about cut-scenes made on game engines, it's harder to pick one as none of them offer the pre-rendered cinemetics quality. I'd go with Witcher 3 for example though. There's some great motion capture there.

 

[mainer]

As for cut-scenes, are we talking about cut-scenes made on game engines or cinematics in overall? If the latter, then most newer Blizzard games have extremely good videos (D2 Resurrected

I thought the change Blizzard did to the cinematics in D2 Resurrected was pretty amazing (as well as the game itself).

 

[Sarafan]

...

It is, especially if you compare the new cinematics with the legacy ones. Blizzard was always ahead of its time when it comes to in-game videos. I remember what an impression they made on me with the cinematics in Warcraft 3.

 

[Pr0udCh0sen1]

I dont care for Cyberpunk 2077, but if you play in 4k on ultra... the game look incredible. I can't maintain 60fps constant in 4k on ultra, but it is up there on best looking graphics thus far, in my opinion...