Last time graphics/design impressed me:
blah blah AMALUR: the blah
I got it on PC the moment I learned that I could use my non-upside-down gamepads with it, and the design of both the world and the monsters blew me away. Sure, there are gripes with some design choices, such as the camera hovering behind and above your character, making discovering things other than the floor somewhat tedious and annoying, or the camera opting to crash through the floor during battle - and staying there just to troll you to death.
But the gameplay and monster design was splendid. That's MONSTER design, not necessarily AVERAGE ELF DUDE CLONE design. After finishing it, I also wouldn't so much consider it to be an RPG, more like random loot bonanza (akin to Borderlands) cross-dressing in a pink RPG tutu frock and pimped up Legend of Link stilettos. But the graphics and effects look sweet, be it on a proper 16:10 (smaller) computer screen or a silly vertically deficient 16:9 'TV' panel, where the whole camera issue seems to be significantly more prominent (and annoying).
RAGE also did impress me lots on PC, after I was utterly underwhelmed by the PS3 version with its delayed texture buildups. You cannot unsee the overall grey texture-less versions of things, they look too much like PSX vistas of days long gone by, on a quite modern machine much more powerful (and expensive) than the granddaddy of optical-disc-reading gaming consoles.
The last time I properly forgot about the game and spent way too much time tinkering with and tweaking the graphics settings was CRYSIS. That was a proper amazing piece of artistry, wizardry and work there.
Since I've been fumbling around with emulators a lot lately, mainly because soldering wires with custom plugs and repairing consoles with custom screws gets frustrating and old eventually, I noticed that the much-loved games of old need some severe help looking 'proper' (fake aperture grille overlays, fake scanlines, fake everything to make the games look as they were intended on 4:3 CRT screens), I noticed that a lot of the games of old were what can legally be considered 'fugly' nowadays, but we still just got hooked for hours on end on Wipeout XL, Rollcage 2, a bunch of Street Fighter 2 'whatevers' and even Yoshi Story last weekend. The sheer blow of fun to the face, fingers and synapses from those dusty titles is amazing. Now, if only we would find proper ways of connecting our NeGcons to the dedicated Windows gaming box and making them work in all their analog perfection.
I think I understand what OP says about Rez, Shadow of the Colossus, Parappa the Rapper and Katamari Damacy for their unique and artsy nature (while still being splendid fun games) but I totally do not feel any sympathy for Halo, Battlefront II or Mass Effect (whichever). Yes, I did finish ME3 and I think I understand what the outrage is about, but I plain didn't really expect any better. Way too many folks involved, no coherent vision, too many brains and brainstorms and hands involved, and some folks were clearly more playing poker, dazzling folks and trying to live their dreams well out of their line of work, in professions they had either no experience in or no clue about what to do and how to do it. Back in the days, when proper games were made by one to maybe half a dozen folks, that could constitute an expensive death blow to a developer, a team and/or a publisher. These days, where hundreds of professionals from all schools, from the mundane to the arcane arts are involved, something like the ME3 ending controversy are the equivalent of Nuclear War and the Ice Age rolled into one. Heads must roll, history must be rewritten, the Men in Black must zap the fan base hive-mind into blissful forgetfulness.
Oh, to second the notion of Dexter111: Aye, once you go Dolphin you absolutely must dump all your Wii titles onto the PC. There's no going back. The Wii still serves good purpose as a family gaming wart hooked up to some non-expensive TV the kids might break eventually, but for serious one-player experiences, it's got to be Dolphin all the way, plus sensor bar and original input devices for the proper feel. Without Dolphin, we'd have bought an average two controller sets, but thanks to Dolphin, we go about eight now. I do hope Nintendo eventually sees the sheer ingenuity and beauty of it. It makes Wii games so pretty and impressive I really hope at least they themselves know what they're rambling on about that Wii U project of theirs.
