Half-Life 2 - "the best graphics ever"?

[Nfritzappa]

It could be argued that Yoshi's Island has the best graphics ever. It just depends on how you look at it.

Are they good because they look realistic?
or are they good because they just look really appealing and colorful?

Graphics can be really good because of art direction and graphics like that age very well.

As far as the overall thing, concept, execution, and realism...
Uncharted 2 looks the best.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

HL2 hardly has the best graphics, but I would honestly be content if that level of detail could be the norm for modern games. I don't want photorealism, I want a fun game. HL2 delivered that, all while looking incredible for its time. Screw graphics, it's the gameplay and storytelling that's important...

 

[Silver Patriot]

The best? Well they were back when HL2 was first released, but obviously they're relatively outdated by now. That said, the Source engine can still produce some pretty nice looking games; L4D/L4D2, TF2, Portal. Sure, they're not Crysis, but are still up to standards.

RDR's graphics are the best I've seen. They make me just want to camp out and watch the sun go down. HL2's were way ahead of their time but the Source engine as a whole looks pretty outdated now.

On the 360 perhaps, but on the PS3 it's pretty dang "ew" at times. The sunsets and rises are indeed magical, but oh boy...I was once just looking out over Bonnie's ranch and...yúck. Horses even in medium distances were véry blocky and moved like wooden puppets.

It's worth pointing out that the PS3 port was pretty broken.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Hell, HL2 doesn't even have a lean function.

It isn't balanced for lean...

Everyone saying the facial animations etc are "the best" clearly hasn't played any modern FPS.

Umm no. I've played plenty of FPSes and for the most part ValVe's facial animation still tops all of the competition.

As for the graphics, improved resolutions show low texture sizes and polygon counts so much more clearly, that's why it looks less realistic.

 

[KSarty]

No, the graphics are not the best. The best still belong to Crysis. HL2 ages well though, the graphics are perfectly acceptable even 6 years later.

However, Source physics are THE BEST. Every game I've played so far simply pales in comparison to Source physics.

I don't understand why everyone feels this way. HL2 uses the same 3rd party physics engine that dozens of other games use, Havok. It was probably the first and the physics were incredibly impressive at the time, but I don't see how it was any better than any other Havok-powered game. It still has the same problems/glitches and it still has the same limitations.

OT: While I greatly enjoyed HL2 at the time, I have never found myself that immersed within the game even when it was new. Personally, I still find games like the old Wing Commander more immersive to me than the HL series.

I highly doubt it is "the same", since other games have inferior physics. Wikipedia says it is a heavily modified version of Havok, and I'm inclined to believe that since HL2's physics are still the most "lifelike"
TES Oblivion also uses Havok, but it's physics are rather lackluster. You can't seriously say that all physics are the same because it uses HAVOK.

Heavily modified still means Havok, and what they mean by modified is probably just to suit the unusual needs of things like the gravity gun. I don't know what physics engine the first FEAR game uses, but the first time I saw a paint can start bouncing around for absolutely no reason, I instantly thought of Half-Life 2 because I saw that all the time. It's not perfect. Personally, the best physics I've seen implemented in a game was in Company of Heroes.

 

[Projo]

They were amazing for their time, I guess.


Graphics don't mean much though.

 

[craddoke]

I think photo-realism/immersion is the wrong yardstick for judging a game's graphics - instead, critics should concentrate on what should be termed "artistic vision". There are plenty of games that make no pretense of visual realism that are stunning, age much better than old attempts at photo-realism, and deserve far more accolades than the newest water effects.

For instance, Morrowind has a stronger artistic vision than Oblivion.
Planescape:Torment has a strong artistic vision.
The Longest Journey/Dreamfall have strong artistic visions.
Braid (and many indie games) have strong artistic visions.

Sometimes the newest/shiniest technology and artistic vision converge, but sometimes not. It depends on whether the game calls for a photograph or a painting.

 

[GundamSentinel]

HL2 doesn't have the best graphics ever, but what has always surprised me is how Valve managed to make the game look splendid even on crappy computers (like mine).

 

[AlphaOmega]

Don't feed the Mazty Troll.

Just a note to people that missed page 1, the topic was not about best in pure poly count, texture resolution but about immersion and how it ages.

 

[Tdc2182]

Yeah-no. I cant even go into the list of games that surpassed it in graphics.

Also, this doesnt make much sense to me. Are we talking about graphics or what game looked the best? Because Mirrors edge is a toughy to beat.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Half Life 2 and the episodes look great, in fact I don't feel like games need any better graphics.

EDIT: Unless of course we're gonna connect the computers directly to our brains to deliver the visual output directly to the brain and input were to come directly from our brain.

 

[Abedeus]

personally, id say that oblivion has better graphics than HL2.

Human faces.

OH NO I DIDN'T!

Battlefield BC2 has better both terrain and characters. So does Crysis, Warhead and coming soon Crysis 2.

No, the graphics are not the best. The best still belong to Crysis. HL2 ages well though, the graphics are perfectly acceptable even 6 years later.

However, Source physics are THE BEST. Every game I've played so far simply pales in comparison to Source physics.

I don't understand why everyone feels this way. HL2 uses the same 3rd party physics engine that dozens of other games use, Havok. It was probably the first and the physics were incredibly impressive at the time, but I don't see how it was any better than any other Havok-powered game. It still has the same problems/glitches and it still has the same limitations.

OT: While I greatly enjoyed HL2 at the time, I have never found myself that immersed within the game even when it was new. Personally, I still find games like the old Wing Commander more immersive to me than the HL series.

Uhm, what? How is PHYSICS ENGINE relevant to GRAPHICS ENGINE? Two different things.

 

[ScRaT_the_destroyer]

the only game i thought does facial animations better than HL2 was Vampire: The Masquerade (which ironically uses the same engine as said game, only in a more basic form)

 

[KSarty]

personally, id say that oblivion has better graphics than HL2.

Human faces.

OH NO I DIDN'T!

Battlefield BC2 has better both terrain and characters. So does Crysis, Warhead and coming soon Crysis 2.

No, the graphics are not the best. The best still belong to Crysis. HL2 ages well though, the graphics are perfectly acceptable even 6 years later.

However, Source physics are THE BEST. Every game I've played so far simply pales in comparison to Source physics.

I don't understand why everyone feels this way. HL2 uses the same 3rd party physics engine that dozens of other games use, Havok. It was probably the first and the physics were incredibly impressive at the time, but I don't see how it was any better than any other Havok-powered game. It still has the same problems/glitches and it still has the same limitations.

OT: While I greatly enjoyed HL2 at the time, I have never found myself that immersed within the game even when it was new. Personally, I still find games like the old Wing Commander more immersive to me than the HL series.

Uhm, what? How is PHYSICS ENGINE relevant to GRAPHICS ENGINE? Two different things.

Read the post that I quoted. He specifically mentions the physics, which is what I was responding to.

 

[Zannah]

The HL:2 Graphics are just as mediocre as the rest of the game. They were nice at the time, but pretty much everything that comes out nowadays and isn't released by Zynga, hast better graphics (and finding a more immersive game than Half Life REALLY isn't hard).

 

[EHKOS]

I still haven't beaten HL2 on the count that I hate it but even when I wasn't biased about this I still felt like the graphics were WAY too gritty. And I mean that literally, like someone threw gravel on the screen it just looks off. And the enviroments didn't help much either. Plus I don't really think too highly of graphics. Yes I want to see crysis run on a super rig but I'm still content and immersed by ps1 games.

 

[Woodsey]

Facial animations are still some of the very best I've seen in a game (although nothing can match Crysis these days) as are the physics (again, Crysis is the only real thing I've seen "beat" it at).

Environments and textures are aging pretty well, but it's 6 years old - it angers me when people say that HL2 isn't that good looking, as if it was just released.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I actually think RDR has the best graphics I've ever seen.

.

Yeah, either that or Assasin's Creed 2 in my opinion.