OXCGN – Xbox Gaming News Reviews Views

by AXIS of Reality

©2009 Alex Baldwin

In the never-ending battle for technical graphical supremacy, there aren’t any winners.

While we can compare spec sheets, polygons, parallax mapping resolution and pixel counts, in the end it doesn’t mean a thing.

What’s important is how it artistically appeals to you as you are immersed in the carefully crafted virtual world.

So with that in mind, it’s time for an artistic look at the Top 10 Best Graphics This Generation.

#10 Crysis

Starting at #10 is a game that could actually win some of the spec sheet arguments. Crysis was unleashed onto our PC screens in the crowded release period of Christmas 2007.

Having been teased with numerous videos of photo-realistic beaches and tropical jungles, it was with dismay that when many gamers hit play for the first time they were presented with what appeared to be a tropical island slideshow.

Yes, Crysis was known for making even the most overclocked beast of a machine cry as it threw around DirectX 10 effects without a care for your poor wheezing PC, but a few PC hardware generations later and most gamers can get it running along happily.

And what a sight it is – sun streaming through the leaves as bullets go whizzing by (with object-specific motion blur naturally) that created the illusion of reality so well it was truly beautiful for it.

While some may argue that mimicking reality isn’t artistic in the usual sense, the detail and care taken in crafting the environments was striking as many natural effects we take for granted in real life were suddenly apparent in a game that made the beaches and forests (and ice eventually) so convincing it was hard not to just sit and stare in wonder.

#9 Prince of Persia

Ok, no surprises here (unless you were thinking of The Sands of Time, in which case get up to date!). Prince of Persia’s 2008 revival was a great success with a new ‘illustrative’ art style to mark the occasion.

They have mixed hand-painted textures with selective cell-shading (though don’t say that to Ubisoft – they don’t like anyone saying it’s cell-shaded) to create a visual feast where at any one time the scene could look like an image straight out of a graphic novel.

It also helped that the animation was silky-smooth as the Prince and Elika leaped and bounded through a variety of landscapes that once at the end of each level would be transformed into a lush paradise.

The use of thin black outlines only on the characters contrasted brilliantly with the washed-out more painted-looking environments to really make them seem to jump out of the screen.

#8 Viva Pinata

This is one most people would forget about when doing a list like this. Rare’s new IP for the 360 was a critical success (if not commercial), and the first sign that the magic Rare’s games used to have was back.

The visual stylings were taken directly from the theme – taking care of pinatas in a garden.

Everything looked like it was made from the same paper the pinatas were, fully 3D with oversaturated colours but avoiding the ‘kiddy’ look by giving everything a soft velvety glow.

While the pinata designs and animation were fantastic, it’s some of the more subtle effects that help give the game its trademark look.

Slight variations in colour between adjacent paper ‘leaves’ on pinatas and the grass prevent any appearance of repetition, while when viewed from up close it has a more organic look.

Most games with set land areas such as RTS and city-builders appear very tiled and predetermined but Viva Pinata neatly sidestepped this trap so that no matter what angle it was viewed from, it always looked appealing and less ‘gamey’ with no visible polygon edges or imperfections.

#7 Assassin’s Creed

The game itself may have disappointed some buyers after the massive hype, but it can’t be denied that it was a fantastic visual experience.

The highlight was of course the animation, providing smooth freerunning across rooftops and scaling walls.

The procedural animation engine ensured that no matter what angle a wall was climbed at or how far a jump was, Altair’s hands and feet would always connect with the most natural points. No simple cycle animations here.

The colour palettes and city architecture were also a treat, giving each of the 3 major cities a unique look and feel through building details and colour filters.

Everything blended perfectly, with little of the flaws some other games have where certain objects will stick out like a sore thumb or have a strange appearance such as the ever-common physics objects lacking the same lighting everything else has.

#6 Mirror’s Edge

Again, a staple inclusion for the utterly unique imagery on show here. Despite underwhelming sales, absolutely every gamer on the planet has at least seen screenshots of this.

Rendering every surface in pure, over-exposed white, key objects and naviagtion markers are coloured a single bright standard colour such as red, blue, orange and green.

This is in stark contrast (literally) to the hyper-detailed world many current games are spalshing on our screens.

The purpose of this unusual visual choice is to remove all unneccessary ‘clutter’ from the player’s first-person view as they run and leap across rooftops following the coloured cues.

The feel and identity of the game is a result of the styling, and worked great even if some other aspects of the game could have used the same care. DICE are definitely to be commended on this brave move, especially with a more rigid history of games primarily in the Battlefield series.

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Part 2 Coming Soon

In the next part, I’ll be covering the top 5 most beautiful games of this generation. For any of the titles you aren’t familiar with, a quick Google (or ‘Bing’) for screenshots and videos should get you up to speed.

After all, while gameplay is incredibly important in a game, the visual identity is also a major contributing factor to your experience. So much so, that one of the top 5 games I actually may not have even enjoyed if it wasn’t for the art…

So did you agree with the list so far? Disagree with any? Thinking of any I missed? Feel free to voice your thoughts in the comments, and you’ll need to see if the top 5 matches what you would put there or not in part 2.

©2009 Alex Baldwin

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