Sen
02-11-2009, 04:48 PM
As technology evolves, we all know that the hardware we use to play our video games becomes more capable of producing higher quality imagery. Over the years, we’ve witnessed our interactive worlds become more detailed and realistic, as well as more wacky and stylized. This thread’s purpose is for us to point out those memorable moments in video games when you paused to simply look around at what the developers had set in front of you; when a game’s visuals captured your imagination. Any real gamer will tell you that graphics aren’t everything that makes a game great, but sometimes they truly are a real show-stopper. Here are a few games that quickly come to mind for me:
Resistance 2 (PlayStation 3)
Though I would claim this first-person shooter as only slightly above average, it is often times a visual feast, featuring several instances of brilliant eye candy I just had to consume. But for the purposes of this post, I’ll narrow down my favorite moments of optical wonder to just two. The first is shortly after the game begins, when you emerge from an underground bunker to behold San Francisco, California’s magnificently rendered destruction at the hands of a fleet of malevolent aliens. The colors in this scene are especially eye-popping. The other is right as the Chicago level begins, as you gain control of the character in the streets of the decimated city. Everything is destroyed, though the rubble is littered with so much detail, it’s easy to picture what the area would have looked like prior to attack. Unlike so many games with similar locales, here the environment truly suggests that at one time it was more than just a war-torn set piece.
Grandia III (PlayStation 2)
An average game in almost every way, and one I’ve actually never felt the need to replay, there’s an event that takes place later on in the story where lightning bolts instantly turn to gargantuan red veins as they flash. So while I was walking up some mountain, I just had to stop and behold those huge veins descending from the clouds. For a game that looked good, but not great, the developers did quite an admirable job of depicting such a spectacle. An ominous yet beautiful sight certainly worthy of remembrance.
Turok (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Just as good as any other game of its kind, like Resistance 2, it stood out to me because it had something to marvel at: the dinosaurs. Those lizards looked incredible, but the Tyrannosaurus Rex in particular was absolutely amazing. When it first arrived, I was met with a sensation similar to that felt when I first saw Jurassic Park, completely wide-eyed at seeing the extinct giant realized so realistically. Awestruck every single time it showed up, I probably would have tried to look at it even more if it wasn’t trying to eat me all the time. In truth, I really only recommend this game to see the dinosaurs (the T-rex especially), as so much care must have gone into modeling those beasts, and it really shows. The fact that it actually plays pretty competently is an added bonus.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. What about you guys?
Resistance 2 (PlayStation 3)
Though I would claim this first-person shooter as only slightly above average, it is often times a visual feast, featuring several instances of brilliant eye candy I just had to consume. But for the purposes of this post, I’ll narrow down my favorite moments of optical wonder to just two. The first is shortly after the game begins, when you emerge from an underground bunker to behold San Francisco, California’s magnificently rendered destruction at the hands of a fleet of malevolent aliens. The colors in this scene are especially eye-popping. The other is right as the Chicago level begins, as you gain control of the character in the streets of the decimated city. Everything is destroyed, though the rubble is littered with so much detail, it’s easy to picture what the area would have looked like prior to attack. Unlike so many games with similar locales, here the environment truly suggests that at one time it was more than just a war-torn set piece.
Grandia III (PlayStation 2)
An average game in almost every way, and one I’ve actually never felt the need to replay, there’s an event that takes place later on in the story where lightning bolts instantly turn to gargantuan red veins as they flash. So while I was walking up some mountain, I just had to stop and behold those huge veins descending from the clouds. For a game that looked good, but not great, the developers did quite an admirable job of depicting such a spectacle. An ominous yet beautiful sight certainly worthy of remembrance.
Turok (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Just as good as any other game of its kind, like Resistance 2, it stood out to me because it had something to marvel at: the dinosaurs. Those lizards looked incredible, but the Tyrannosaurus Rex in particular was absolutely amazing. When it first arrived, I was met with a sensation similar to that felt when I first saw Jurassic Park, completely wide-eyed at seeing the extinct giant realized so realistically. Awestruck every single time it showed up, I probably would have tried to look at it even more if it wasn’t trying to eat me all the time. In truth, I really only recommend this game to see the dinosaurs (the T-rex especially), as so much care must have gone into modeling those beasts, and it really shows. The fact that it actually plays pretty competently is an added bonus.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. What about you guys?