Out of PC gaming for a couple years now...Current games with the best graphics?

H

Headbust

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 10, 2003
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Gamed heavily since the release of half life 1 then i pretty muched fizzled out in or around 2004 when HL2 was released, so my last round of games was pretty much HL2/Doom3 era of games. What games out there are now setting the standard for graphics?(other than crysis of course)

Just looking to try out a few games since my 8800GTS is on its way :)
 
COD4 is pretty much where it's at IMO.


I wouldn't say it's setting the standard but UT3 has some killer graphics. Whether or not you'll like the gameplay is totally up to you, some people like it some people hate it. Other games using the UE3 engine are Bioshock and Gears Of War, not sure which others but they also look good. Some people like the way those games look, some don't.
 
i played GOW on our 360 but it really didnt impress me, the world did, the characters did not. My buddy got C0D4 for the PS3 and in my opinion it looked like crap(I only base this on what i saw which was the night scene on the boat when its sinking and raining and all that crap)

maybe im just a pc snob, but those jaggies are just horrible on consoles, i miss my AA and AF tweakability :)
 
GoW on the PC looks much better personally, give it a shot if you can. Looks great. As others have mentioned COD4 is a great game as well, runs great and looks great. Also Assassin's Creed looks wonderful on the PC. Crysis looks OK but it doesn't run that great, if you have a powerful enough machine to run it, its a nice eye-treat.
 
I'd have to agree COD4 & GOW. TF2 is great as well, it has the cell shaded look, very nice none the less.
 
Gears of War for sure, it performs great and looks really damn good. Some people don't like the art style of the game, but it's hard to deny its insane normal mapping. Not to mention the gameplay is addictive too.
 
I myself was out of the loop pretty much all through college (finished last year) and just built my new PC about a month ago. Through all of college I only played WoW and Source Engine games (HL2, CS:S, DoD:S, mods).

I picked up CoD 4 and TF2 and I've enjoyed both alot. I'm also in the process of hunting for a new library and just found STALKER and the full BF2 pack for less than $20 each.

I've heard UT3 is no better (maybe worse) than UT2K4 and I'm currently poking around a bit trying to find a copy of UT2K4 for ~$10 even if just to play for an hour here and there. Any opinions on UT3/2K4?
 
COD4 and GOW are console ports, I don't know why they are being put in here for the best looking, where games such a crysis, stalker, world in conflict are being ignored.

CoD4 doesn't look bad, but for pc standards, it could of been better. I have no opinion of GoW because I uninstalled it after all the BS it took for me to get it to work, the game wasn't that great, and couldn't play more than 10 minutes.

UT3 looks pretty good, too bad I can't max it out.
 
Crysis is undoubtedly the best looking game out. I also really like the look of World in Conflict.
 
I enjoyed the gritty graphics of STALKER, and the lightning storms are phenomenal. Clear Skys is only going to up the ante.
 
I have just installed Bio-Shock. Hardly played it, but the graphics seem real purty.... one of the of the few games that DX10 makes much of a difference in at the moment.

Don't know how your graphics card will fair with that one.....
 
Other than Crysis?

I'd say Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (with the Float32 mod), World in Conflict, Company of Heroes, and Lost Planet.
 
Simpson5774 said:
COD4 and GOW are console ports, I don't know why they are being put in here for the best looking, where games such a crysis, stalker, world in conflict are being ignored.

CoD4 doesn't look bad, but for pc standards, it could of been better. I have no opinion of GoW because I uninstalled it after all the BS it took for me to get it to work, the game wasn't that great, and couldn't play more than 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

Gears looks amazing maxed out on DX10/AA. I would say that in terms of performance to looks, Gears beats Crysis.
 
Definitely crysis, very fun game. On the other hand I got bored and quickly uninstalled cod4.
UT3 looks good, but I shit you not, there's only like 1 or so servers with any amount of people on playing at any one time. :(
 
if the question is what is the best graphics it is by far Crysis..

Crysis on Medium is still better than other games on their high settings..

if you want racing with great graphics, DiRT probably tops that list pretty easily.

For RTSs its either Company of Heroes of World in Conflict (Although Medeivel TW2 is graphically not bad either)..
 
A list off the top of my head, in no particular order...

The Witcher
Crysis
World in Conflict
Oblivion + mods for even better graphics
GOW
Battlefield 2 (a bit dated but still looks decent with the settings cranked)
Bioshock
Stalker
COD4 (I don't think it looks as good as some that I listed but it's not bad)
UT3
Company of Heroes
Half-life 2, TF2, Episode 1+ 2, etc.
Doom 3 and games based on that engine (Quake 4, Prey)
Dark Messiah (pretty good for the time, IMO)
 
H-street said:
Crysis on Medium is still better than other games on their high settings..
Click to expand...

Not true at all.

Here's a shot of Crysis on medium.

17339_Crysis-02.jpg
 
Everytime I log into Vanguard there is a graphic moment that knocks my socks off. Beautiful game
 
Smoke a bowl and tell me that Unreal Tournament 3 with everything jacked up on a big widescreen with some serious hardware behind it doesnt look AWESOME. If you actually pay attention to what you're actually seeing and think about it. Its pretty nuts. The design of it and the crazy sci-fi levels with all the blown out colors and contrast. It doenst look like anything else.

So, UT3 is my favorite engine right now.
 
And it looks nowhere close to other games (Gears, COD, WIC, etc.) in the thread on their best settings.
 
Einhanderkiller said:
And here's a shot of Crysis (vanilla; no mods) on medium on my computer.
Click to expand...

And you're probably getting 40fps tops right there (with no one around you). I just don't think it looks all that great to have to play at such a low frame rate. The Crysis videos look awesome with all the settings maxed, but other than that its pretty lackluster in terms of graphics. I haven't actually played the retail version.
 
Cousin Patty said:
Smoke a bowl and tell me that Unreal Tournament 3 with everything jacked up on a big widescreen with some serious hardware behind it doesnt look AWESOME.
Click to expand...

ROTFL!

I don't do that anymore, but back in the day I probably would have been in a hazy heaven...:p
 
Headbust said:
i played GOW on our 360 but it really didnt impress me, the world did, the characters did not. My buddy got C0D4 for the PS3 and in my opinion it looked like crap(I only base this on what i saw which was the night scene on the boat when its sinking and raining and all that crap)

maybe im just a pc snob, but those jaggies are just horrible on consoles, i miss my AA and AF tweakability :)
Click to expand...

The 360 runs some seriously wicked AA and AF on COD4 :D It looks SO much better on 360 and PC.
 
0mega said:
The 360 runs some seriously wicked AA and AF on COD4 :D It looks SO much better on 360 and PC.
Click to expand...

I finally got the chance to see the x360 version of COD4, on a 1080p LCD, and I thought it looked like junk compared to a pc, like it needed more AA and AF, that and I wasn't seeing the motion blur.
 
^ COD4 is best played on PC, if your machine can handle maxing out the details. No question about it.
 
S3th13 said:
And you're probably getting 40fps tops right there (with no one around you). I just don't think it looks all that great to have to play at such a low frame rate. The Crysis videos look awesome with all the settings maxed, but other than that its pretty lackluster in terms of graphics. I haven't actually played the retail version.
Click to expand...
Actually, FRAPS was reporting 60+ FPS.
 
H-street said:
if the question is what is the best graphics it is by far Crysis..

Crysis on Medium is still better than other games on their high settings..

if you want racing with great graphics, DiRT probably tops that list pretty easily....
Click to expand...
So true. Anyone that says Crysis is the prettyest thing out there is just being a trash talker.

COD4 deserves props.

But TF2 and Bioshock have the best art direction.
 
Simpson5774 said:
I finally got the chance to see the x360 version of COD4, on a 1080p LCD, and I thought it looked like junk compared to a pc, like it needed more AA and AF, that and I wasn't seeing the motion blur.
Click to expand...

CoD4 is running at a low resolution on the 360. It's only running at 1024x600.
 
Bioshock for story, Crysis for graphics, Witcher for both.
Although Stalker is the best all round shooter. wOOt for Clear Sky
 
Im getting the witcher with the card for free, always wanted to play another RPG since FF7:)
 
Im probably a little behind now, but anything Ive seen of Oblivion with a bunch of graphic mods does it for me. Even without, it can be quite breathtaking at times.
 
Headbust said:
Gamed heavily since the release of half life 1 then i pretty muched fizzled out in or around 2004 when HL2 was released, so my last round of games was pretty much HL2/Doom3 era of games. What games out there are now setting the standard for graphics?(other than crysis of course)

Just looking to try out a few games since my 8800GTS is on its way :)
Click to expand...

I can only comment on games I did play, so here goes:

Standard for graphics ?
Well, you already mentioned Crysis. In terms of graphics, it can't get higher than that right now. No other game comes close, so that's definitely what you should try with your new card, even if you can't max it out. Even if you set everything to medium and texture and shader quality to high, you are in for a treat of eye-candy.

Oblivion is still quite beautiful, especially with all the texture mods around.

STALKER has great graphics, especially in-door. The out-door graphics are not as impressive, but still quite good. The only complaint I have is with the character models, that could be much better.

Company of Heroes has amazing graphics, considering the type of game it is.

CoD4 does look nice at a distance, but if you get close to any object, it looks like crap (as an example, try looking at tree trunks up close). It's probably a good compromise, in terms of how it performs, but if you want good graphics, CoD4 is definitely not a very good example.

I'm not fond of UE3 based games (UT3, GoW, Bioshock). Sure they look nice, but UE3 has a washed out look, which, to put it mildly, I simply hate. Epic certainly did it to please consoles and nothing else, so it comes with no surprise that it doesn't look that good on the PC IMO.
 
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