Ever had a case of graphics awe?

[Feylynn]

Final Fantasy 8,9,10,12,13,14
I need to mention 13 again.
I likely need to mention 13 a third time (For graphics of course not overall quality).
Moment of mention here is the frozen lake.


Folklore. Wonderful charm, great colors, imaginative. Better graphics then Uncharted 2 IMO.
Mirror's Edge. Very nice style. Rare to see color used that well.
Valkyria. Chronicles. The pastel tones and pencil line aesthetic are just beautiful.
Bioshock 1/2. Rapture really is just great. Moment of mention though is Bioshock 2.

Spoiler: Real spoiler

When you take control of the little sister and stumble around the heavenly environment awestruck with not only the art but it's implications about how the sisters perceive things.

Mass Effect 2, specifically Lair of the Shadow Broker. You'll know it when you see it, look around and think "Ho...lee... fu-"

Spoiler: Also real spoiler

On the Shadow Broker's ship, looking out to the storm around you with it's wrathful clouds and blinding light. It's as enthralling as it is terrifying a vortex.

Wind Waker. I'm apparently in the minority here. Moment of note: Your first storm in the middle of the ocean.
Majora's Mask. Inside the moon, not necessarily graphically impressive, but artistically shocking.
Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy. And the Prince of Persia (reboot) even more then them.
Fatal Frame 3. The atmosphere here isn't all in the graphics but they are the foundation.

I can't think of more of the top of my head so sorry to everything I missed.

Edit: Needed to add it!
Minecraft. It's shocking how amazing some of the terrain can look.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Modern Warfare 2

I know it's hypocritical of me considering all the hatred of mainstream FPS's I have pent up.
but while I was playing MW2 the Sheer outstanding-ness of the graphics combined with glorious visuials,

Spoiler

like hanging off an ice wall, or battling through nuked Washington DC, or getting washed up on shore and stumbling around a helicopter wreck to get in a knife fight whit an evil general, only to have to pull the fucking knife out of my chest and throw it back at him in order to save the fucking day.

just blew my fucking mind

it made me completely forget that I had only started playing 6 hours ago

I agree with this.
But nothing can top the feeling of awe, joy and just stunning visuals that was the moment I stepped out of Vault 101 in Fallout 3.

were you playing on the PC version?
I can only Imagine how much better it would be than the console version.

I have played both Fallout 3 and MW2 on max settings on a friends comp.
My reaction was something like "...Oh shit, that looks gorgeous!"

I only ever played on the 360
they both still look great.

 

[EeveeElectro]

FFXIII on HD made me sex wee a little...

Well now I have a new saying for orgasm. Thank you mysterious stranger.

OT:Oblivion was gorgeous.
Kingdom Hearts I was extremely good looking in my eyes, at least compared to the year it was released.

Hahahaha, it was something me and my friends used to say in our school days.
Agree with those choices too, Square has aleways been really good for graphics. Playing through FFIX now and it's so good to say it came out early 2000 or so.

 

[FightThePower]

When I first walked into Phendrana Drifts in Metroid Prime. 8 years on and it still looks beautiful, gotta love Retro Studios' art department.

 

[RanD00M]

Playing through FFIX now and it's so good to say it came out early 2000 or so.

Yeah, FFIX was stunning at its time. I was like 7 when I first tried it. And I was awestruck. The best graphics I had seen at the time were in Rouge Trip: Vacation 2012. And while those were good, they din't really seems as beautiful and magical as FFIX's.

 

[The Hero Killer]

Final Fantasy XIII blurred the line between CGI and in game graphics. I also thought Resident Evil 5 had great graphics also.

 

[Good morning blues]

In a move that may date me compared to the average guy on these forums, Half-Life 2 had this effect on me.

 

[superbatranger]

Just Cause 2. I finally, had no mission to concentrate on, and I felt like messing around and seeing what happened, so I jumped in a helicopter, went as high as I could, jumped out and...
http://www.xbox360freaks.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/justcause2.JPG
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_Expert_Reviews/dir_263/er_photo_131563_52.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XG5QcQ8n238/SiXBGzAtaUI/AAAAAAAAASE/iG5Nn7nYhnk/01.jpg

...Bloody hell.

I thought the same thing. Sometimes I just spend hours driving through the islands taking in the scenery.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

The fire in Farcry 2 distracted me enough to kill me on a number of occasions.

 

[auronvi]

Oblivion did the same to me. First game I played on my PS3. Red Dead Redemption more recently. Crysis' graphics are by far still some of the best I have seen with Killzone 2 a close second. Just Cause 2 was nice but the game was a little bit of a let down for me.

I am a graphics whore and will play pretty looking games even if the story or gameplay aren't up to par. Tis why I am getting Final Fantasy XIV tuesday! Oh... and Final Fantasy XIV! lol

 

[Corpse XxX]

Fallout 3, uncharted 2 and also i found Mafia 2 to be very nice graphics.. On full on my super awesome pc made of win that is..

 

[tikalal]

Starcraft II is the game I bought my first gaming PC for, and coming from the Xbox 360 I have to say the game gives me major graphics awe.

 

[vf501]

Just Cause 2. Hands down

This a laptop with settings turned down and it still looks awesome.

Spoiler

Fallout 3- Modded of course

Spoiler

Splinter Cell-Conviction. Modified Unreal Engine 2. Runs like ass but looks good.

Spoiler

 

[cerebus23]

crysis the first rebel camp you come to as the sun is rising over the bay and the suns rays filtering down thru the palm tress glinting off the water below, was just stunning period.

mgs5 the desert openings scenes, yea the game suffered in other areas lack of texture resolution and etc but the desert scenes looks like out of a movie they looked so good.

oblivion there were a few times, on pc with mods, that you could just sit and take in the land and think wow i wish i had a real house here.

 

[Evil sausage]

Empire total war, everything on ultra settings, I made a custom sea battle and when I saw thoose rockets hit the enemy ship, putting it on fire and then finnaly blowing it up me and my friends went DAAAMMMMNNN!

 

[kioko9959]

Graphical awe is being taken in different opinions by most people.

That being said, my moment of awe was in Crysis, Not because of its fantastic graphics but how they were used.

It's there mission were you just jacked a tank and were speeding down a mountain slope at high speeds shooting at others, when suddenly the MASSIVE cliff in front of you explodes and starts raining down, it was so tense it just made that moment fantastic for me

Too me, Graphical Awe is graphics used correctly with the style the game was in and the setting at the time. Take FF13 for example, it had fantastic graphics yeah, but it rarely used them to help a scene work. Uh, i'm probably not making much sense, sorry...

 

[Dana22]

No i didnt.

Because I dont care about graphics, so I dont keep my hardware up to date.

 

[Deathlord665]

yes, yes and yes, you my friend speak the words that are on many minds(mostly mine lol)

 

[Pegghead]

Graphical awe is being taken in different opinions by most people.

That being said, my moment of awe was in Crysis, Not because of its fantastic graphics but how they were used.

It's there mission were you just jacked a tank and were speeding down a mountain slope at high speeds shooting at others, when suddenly the MASSIVE cliff in front of you explodes and starts raining down, it was so tense it just made that moment fantastic for me

Too me, Graphical Awe is graphics used correctly with the style the game was in and the setting at the time. Take FF13 for example, it had fantastic graphics yeah, but it rarely used them to help a scene work. Uh, i'm probably not making much sense, sorry...

Good point, I mean you wouldn't have a highly detailed, dark and gritty environment for the next Mario game would you?