Totally agree and maybe one day Halo devs will listen to you but i doubt it lol I feel i must give a mention to RUSE. While it's not the ultra high textures and models that we've come to expect from modern games (although far from bad looking) i simply found the smoothness with which you can go from the furthest view with nothing but unit counters on show down to seeing indiviual soldiers in detail even with grass being flattened as tanks roll over it; all from a simple move of the scroll wheel with no lag whatsoever in the middle of a colossal artillery exchange. Sorry but it impressed me, i've not seen an RTS manage it quite so smoothly before.
Supreme commander did in a big way, although it can be very taxing on even a high end system with some of the mods on and a 2000 unit cap... Amazing to watch waves of units get decimated by arty though...
personally i believe graphics are all down to personal preference. Do you prefer realistic, gritty/dirty/cartoony graphics?
I'm going to vote for Dirt 2 and BFBC2. Lighting is the key! ARMA II has tons of detail but the lighting is hideously flat.
See a few people saying otherwise but I thought GTA IV looked fantastic. BC2 is another of my favourites and I really love the Source engine and the whole post processing effects and overall art style it has. Metro 2033 is stunning too
Ah, it just goes to show how subjective this whole thing is. I think the graphics in GTA IV are very good - for a GTA game. The graphics in BF:BC2 are a weird mix. Some of the modelling and textures look great, while some of the backgrounds look like they've come from Hexen II or Quake. It's also pretty poor that few of the buildings have any sort of interior details, but I suppose these are concessions to boosting framerates and online play. My fave is probably Dirt 2, which looks gorgeous and plays blindingly well.
Ohhh I just got this for a few quid.....it looks so old, everything looks square and the textures are very low quality. The only up side is it's the only game I can run with 'ambient occlusion on' in the Nvidia control panel and still get 55 fps on a stock 8800 gts. Certainly don't think it should be in this thread.
Gettin all retro for a sec one honourable mention should be Soccer Brawl on the Neo-Geo. When takin the hardware capabilities into account the visuals were incredible.
Totally agree, a thing of beauty. I've only played the demo but I found it really refreshing even on the lowest settings it looks good too.
Yeah, and I think that Codemasters must have bought a job lot of it too as all there games seem to have the same look. They even put it in Formula 1 2010 - just didn't look quite right for me. Best graphics for me will probably have to go to BFBC:Vietnam - especially the fire. Although I have to say that I love the graphics in Lord Of The Rings Online - they just seem to have caputured the essence of Tolkien's world for me.
minecrafts sunrise and sunsets are quite beautiful same goes for il2 braid is like being in a painting
Completely agree with this. Still one of the best looking MMO's out there as well as doing a great service to Tolkiens world (until some more recent updates at least lol)