Games that made you go WOW (graphically)

I echo the comments on original Unreal, I remember being blown away by that opening sequence running on my Voodoo 2 card :cool:

For me the only game that has really 'wowed' me in recent times is Killzone 2 on the PS3. The textures are nothing special, but the lighting and environmental effects just blow enything else I've seen recently right out of the water. Some truly epic level design too, some of it is just breathtaking.
 
Half Life 2 was very good, parts of Assassins Creed and bits of Farcry as well made me 'wow!'.
 
Another of my WOW moments was when I played unreal tournament on S3 metal rendering, seeing the earth spin by from that sniper tower looked amazing with high textures.

Pitty the S3 Savage 32mb card was garbage in general
 
Half Life - Playing it through for the first time, just a amazing moment.

Half Life 2 - Having such fun memories of the first one, Valve didn't let me down.

Far Cry - Looked stunning, played well, brilliant fun.

Crysis - Looked brilliant, really enjoyed the game, jumping out of the plane!

World of Warcraft - Amazing achievement, when I was walking down through towards Stormwind for the first time, this feeling of complete amazement, having no idea where I was going, and seeing the city, all the people, and feeling completely lost.

Shogun: Total War - Something a bit different that made me fall in love with the total war games.

Unreal - Amazed me, in the same way Half Life did.

Halo - Playing through that, when I should have being at school on the day the xbox came out, blew me away. Stunning game.
 
Stalker SOC. Not only are the graphical techniques and lighting superb, but for me the whole experience is massively amplified by the extreme quality of the models and environments to make it look so believable as a post apoloyptic industrial wasteland. Its one of those game which when I was playing it I could imagine myself there. I particularly impressed by the final level when you are out the outside of the NPP, the detail in the enviroment is amazing. Same thing applies to Crysis to an extent, its all in making the setting believable.
 
I do not think anyone has mentioned Morrowind which at the time was even more spectacular than Oblivion. The world design is also more interesting than Oblivions. It brought my PC to its knees and was one of the few games that forced me go out and buy a new graphics card. It may have been one of the first games to be shader intensive. I remember staring for hours at the water.

Far Cry, Half Life 2 & Unreal were also mind blowingly stunning. Cysis is graphically a technical masterpiece yet for some reason did not have the same impact as the above.

Recent games though not in the same league as the above are Far Cry 2 and the STALKER games. I would also like to add Everquest 2.

And how can I forget Mafia.
 
- Half Life 2: Water is amazing & still is. The reflections and dirty floaty bits look very realistic. I just installed over 9GB of Fakefactory add-ons and it looks better than most game today. Now it has real time lighting, HDR, way better textures & audio.....amazing what can be done to old games.

It must be said HL2 is one of the most linear games to date but does it with such polish, style & cinimatic moments its like being on a ride.
 
saguy said:
I do not think anyone has mentioned Morrowind which at the time was even more spectacular than Oblivion. The world design is also more interesting than Oblivions. It brought my PC to its knees and was one of the few games that forced me go out and buy a new graphics card. It may have been one of the first games to be shader intensive. I remember staring for hours at the water.
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Definitely. And the game was gorgeous. I was walking around for hours in awe at the scenery and environments. Which was helpful really, as the story in the ES games (at least the last 2) was never terribly gripping*, nor were the side quests too interesting (lots of running about and searching for irritably elusive flowers, doors, people etc...).

* In retrospect, Morrowind's main story was pretty decent, it was just protracted by more running around...
 
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Ali195 said:
- Half Life 2: Water is amazing & still is. The reflections and dirty floaty bits look very realistic. I just installed over 9GB of Fakefactory add-ons and it looks better than most game today. Now it has real time lighting, HDR, way better textures & audio.....amazing what can be done to old games.

It must be said HL2 is one of the most linear games to date but does it with such polish, style & cinimatic moments its like being on a ride.
Click to expand...

How do you install the Fakefactory mod? (and where)

I have Half life 2 and Team fortress 2 but not the orange box or episode 1/2.

Can i still install fakefactory mod?
 
saguy said:
I do not think anyone has mentioned Morrowind which at the time was even more spectacular than Oblivion. The world design is also more interesting than Oblivions. It brought my PC to its knees and was one of the few games that forced me go out and buy a new graphics card. It may have been one of the first games to be shader intensive. I remember staring for hours at the water.
Click to expand...

Graphically speaking Morrowind was very impressive (if not particularly elegant :p) however for me it never had such a 'wow' factor due to how completely static & dry it felt...Ultima VII was released in 1992 for example and even that had day/night cycles and people going about their daily business and just such an interactivity...I'd like to add those to my list actually :p I really need to dust them off and get them out again!

Scott C
 
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