Originally posted by: zakee00
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A couple nice shots... but is it me, or does nothing cast any shadows? Should look nice if they can make it run at playable framerates...
Obviously, newer games have much more sophisticated and detailed graphics than older ones. However, here is a list of games I personally thought were graphically impressive or made a big leap forwards in graphics at the time (note that many of these are very dated by today's standards):
DOOM (first near-3D game)
Prince Of Persia (great game, one of the first to use rotoscoped animation -- 'Out of This World' and 'Flashback' followed up this trend)
System Shock (a great game all around, with one of the first real 3D engines; one of the first games to introduce a real 'enemy' for you to fight against)
Quake (um, it's Quake, the first truly 3D shooter. What more is there to say?)
Descent (first 3D game with six degrees of freedom)
Wing Commander 3 (one of the first really 'cinematic' games, with a big-budget Hollywood-style production -- and Mark Hamill!)
EverQuest (first game to have a REALLY huge world, even if the graphics weren't that impressive at launch)
Max Payne (a very solid engine, with a lot of style in the game; first use of slow-mo 'bullet time')
Descent: Freespace 1/2 (one of the best space combat sims ever made; really gives a great sense of scale when you're flying around the big ships, and the second has some great special effects)
Shogun: Total War (the first really impressive -- and good -- 3D-rendered RTS game. Newer "Total War" games look even better.)
Battlezone 1/2 (some very nice graphical effects, and interesting if slightly odd first-person RTS gameplay)
Sinistar: Unleashed (little-known remake of an old 80s arcade classic; some really cool graphics, though, and it's incredibly frantic)
Homeworld (the first fully-3D RTS; just a great style and design to the whole game)
Diablo 2 (gameplay gets real boring after a while, but the graphics and cutscenes were very well-done)
Starcraft (great RTS gameplay, great style and design, high Blizzard production values)
Black and White (interesting gameplay, subtle but detailed graphics; the way your creatures develop visually is pretty cool)
Simcity 4 (incredibly detailed graphics, although gameplay can be a bit frustrating at times)
This is, of course, just a partial list; I'm sure I'm forgetting a number of games I've been impressed by. And that's not even getting into console games!
If you get G4TV, you might want to check out their show "Cinematech". It's a half-hour of video game cutscenes, gameplay, and graphics, showing off the prettiest stuff out there.