by jeffmd » Jul 2, 2002 @ 1:03pm
while I hate to drag non PC games in here too, I dont think any game released has the complexity and motion of the fighters in tecmos DoA series (and incidently, their upcoming beach volyball game which is escentialy the same models), VF4 also haveing some good looking character models.
And as for environments, I have to hand that off to final fantasy X for PS, square is as good at makeing realtime 3d environments as they are pre rendered back in the days of ff7-9. No one could beat out the number of high quality scens they had to pump out. And while most of FFX's scenes rarly have any realtime interaction (trees and grass that move when brushed against, same with water), trees still had animation, water was extreamly well animated (Amazing looking water falls in some of the first few scenes outside of zanarkin) and deascent other particle effects.
Btw while I must say I allways loved the skies in unreal from an artistic point of view as technical (heck, everyone else was useing a solid bitmap or hacked in effect, unreal was one of the first to do a portal sky allowing for a real 3d sub scene to be used)they are no longer the only ones useing it, and while games still come out that have really crappy looking skies, there are games out there with awsome looking skies, so many infact that chooseing just one is more of an artistical value. I know of many skies in FFX that looks real good (often a staged sky with sunset and stuff), I also liked some of the skys in tribes2. Heck, Alice has one of my fav skies, in the chess board levels it had a checkard cieling almost (Alice used alot of portal skies, AND encironments all together, the chess levels used a brick cage that was renderd around the entire level (well, it looked like it, of course it was actually only renderd aroudn the character at all times), and teh school level had a combination portal and optical illusion to simulate endless stacks of books. Alice btw is still one of my fav graphicaly impressive games. The artwork, high res teaxtures, level layouts, and effects are stunning)
btw if I had to pick a dominant effect all games need to shoot for.. particle effects. you can't do ANYTHING without good particle effects! smoke, fire, water, animation, so much relies on a good looking particle effect engine.
Prettiest Looking Graphical Elements in a Game
