My favourites for the year, graphically:
Resident Evil 5 - amazing an unsurpassed character models, in my opinion. Some awesome bosses too.
Uncharted 2 - overall does everything well. it's pretty hard to find any kind of fault with any of the visuals. And the frame rate is great. Probably my favourite overall visual package this year.
Modern Warfare 2 - scale and 60fps. There are some big fights with a lot of enemies and a lot of particles on screen and the framerate stays smooth the whole way. it may not maintain 60, but it is much higher than your average game. Plus, there's a lot of detail, despite the low res and low res textures. The game succeeds because of the sum of its parts, where some of those parts may not stand out on their own.
Trials HD - just has a great overall look to it.
Interesting that Alstrong mentioned Fight Night Round 4. That was a really solid title, graphically. I played it a ton, and I almost can't remember how it looked, which is weird. Smooth frame rate, and detailed characters. Plus you have the flashing cameras, and the crowd and the stadiums done so well. The deformation and the physics add a lot to the visual presentation. Would I put it on my list? I'd have to see it again.
I left Killzone 2 off my list because I have everything about that game with a passion. Motion blur, depth of field, smoke, fog, and quincunx AA all combine to make a game that looks terribly washed out and out of focus. I've never seen a game defeated by a sum of its parts like Killzone2 was, which is exactly why you can't make check lists to evaluate visuals. The muted colour palette didn't help either. Throw in an extremely narrow field of view and it drops way down on my list of favourite visuals, below everything on my list and below many other games that are not on my list.
Resident Evil 5 - amazing an unsurpassed character models, in my opinion. Some awesome bosses too.
Uncharted 2 - overall does everything well. it's pretty hard to find any kind of fault with any of the visuals. And the frame rate is great. Probably my favourite overall visual package this year.
Modern Warfare 2 - scale and 60fps. There are some big fights with a lot of enemies and a lot of particles on screen and the framerate stays smooth the whole way. it may not maintain 60, but it is much higher than your average game. Plus, there's a lot of detail, despite the low res and low res textures. The game succeeds because of the sum of its parts, where some of those parts may not stand out on their own.
Trials HD - just has a great overall look to it.
Interesting that Alstrong mentioned Fight Night Round 4. That was a really solid title, graphically. I played it a ton, and I almost can't remember how it looked, which is weird. Smooth frame rate, and detailed characters. Plus you have the flashing cameras, and the crowd and the stadiums done so well. The deformation and the physics add a lot to the visual presentation. Would I put it on my list? I'd have to see it again.
I left Killzone 2 off my list because I have everything about that game with a passion. Motion blur, depth of field, smoke, fog, and quincunx AA all combine to make a game that looks terribly washed out and out of focus. I've never seen a game defeated by a sum of its parts like Killzone2 was, which is exactly why you can't make check lists to evaluate visuals. The muted colour palette didn't help either. Throw in an extremely narrow field of view and it drops way down on my list of favourite visuals, below everything on my list and below many other games that are not on my list.
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