QOTW: Which is the most visually stunning computer game?

[Kevsta]

Probably the first time that I play Quake2 on a Voodoo1. Really was stunned with at the time high resolution 3D rendering.

[shaithis]

Farcry for me. Never been as impressed as I was the first time I crept under branches along the edge of the beach.

[crossy]

Half Life 2 with the HDR upgrade is the one that sticks out in my mind. Mainly because of the huge jump in quality from the normal version on my 8800GTX.

Crysis series I suppose should get an "honourable mention" but that always struck me like having a supermodel as a mistress - undoubtedly very pretty but with massive support costs.

I tend to find aspects of games impressive rather than a whole game. So, for example, I was quite impressed with the highlights in Bioshock Infinite. And on the other end of the scale, Sleeping Dogs looks pretty lush at night.

These days I tend to focus more on gameplay than graphics - mainly because the "entry costs" are astronomical, folks talking about £1000's to do 4K at high frame rates with all the "eye candy" turned on.

[DanceswithUnix]

Probably the first time that I play Quake2 on a Voodoo1. Really was stunned with at the time high resolution 3D rendering.

It was Hexen (possibly Hexen II, it was a while back now ) that I used to fire up when people said I was crazy to spend all that money on a Voodoo 1.


Another contender for me would be Xenon II on the Atari ST.

[Rad77]

Right now it has to be Witcher 3, but the biggest visual impacts I got from Morrowind and Oblivion. Morrowind because it was so utterly different from anything and everything else and Oblivion because the scenery was of a whole different league at the time.

Agree, Morrowind seemed stunning at the time - although the particle effects on the original Everquest looked fantastic to me when that came out and I think it was the first game that used the hardware T&L on my new GeForce 2 MX - shiny water, woot!

[Barkotron]

Unreal
Homeworld
The original reveal of Unreal Engine 3 was just astonishing at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7T5ay_8DI
The faces in the first Mass Effect
Oblivion

All of these I spent a long, long time just wandering around watching, looking at the scenery etc.

[OilSheikh]

Crysis1 for me has to be THE best looking game ever. That game single-handedly demonstrated the powerful DirectX capabilities of Microsoft.

Other games I feel I have to mention are :
Final Fantasy XIIII onwards - Square Enix really pay attention to the environment and the characters
Mirror's Edge - what a game. Beauty is so simplistic!
Uncharted 3 - Do you remember those brilliant desert scenes?
H A L O 2 - Single-handedly appealed the XBOX360 to the masses. MasterChief's glittering armour and the covenant ships!
Watch Dogs - Loved how rain was so realistic - your jacket actually did get wet when it rained, all those puddles on the streets and rain splashes. The steam coming out of the vents on the road... the bloom effect when you looked at the sun and actually saw the concentric circles of light... just wow!

[go4brendon]

Alien Isolation hands down. Beautifully optimized and wasnt a resource hog like GTA V.

[sameloop]

Max Payne I remember looking far too good for the time it came out and the hardware available. Probably looks poo now, but then so does Horace Goes Skiing.

[evs]

Crysis and FarCry were superb at the time. Serious Sam 1 (and the crytek demo that preceeded) was jaw dropping. Metro 2033 was also incredibly good looking on initial release. Skyrim has to be up there as well for 'wow look at it and look how it runs!' - arcade wise I remember on the first mortal kombat and also killer instinct how taken aback everyone was who saw them at the time.
I also have a soft spot for bulletstorm a few years later which had some truly 'holy mother of...' moments.

[Barkotron]

I also have a soft spot for bulletstorm a few years later which had some truly 'holy mother of...' moments.

Bulletstorm was a cracking game, and you're right, it looked great as well. Actual colours that weren't mud brown or mud grey or mud muddy green! In an FPS! This was nearly a revelation at the time as I remember. The Call of Duty pisstake game was spot on too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goiMExAZCko