I think the original Unreal had the most groundbreaking graphics ever for it's time, and it was ran really smooth on most higher-end gaming PCs systems of it's time, which was impressive.
If you want to talk about truly groundbreaking graphics, then Ultima Underworld is the obvious answer. It featured smooth-scrolling 3D graphics that allowed for true 3D movement.
Realistically speaking, it's all been a smooth progression since Wolfenstein and Doom. Oblicion had some nice graphics for an open game, Crysis was pretty damn good when it came out, and I think I remember Half-Life and Unreal being pretty big also.
ooh Age of Empires looked incredibly good for an RTS game when it came out.
What about Ultima Underworld? An early tech demo of its engine was what motivated the folks at id software to make FPSs, though they used simple raycasting engines with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom because the more robust UU engine was rather system-intensive at the time. (Hell, even when System Shock 1, based on that very same UU engine, was released, it was quite a system crusher, much like what Crysis is today.) I'd bring up Magic Carpet, but it's not so much the graphics as much as it was the real-time terrain deformation back in 1994. (To think that modern games like Fracture are making a big deal out of such an old feature...) I'd also bring up Trespasser, but again, it's not so much the graphics as it was something else-in this case, physics. (Most games from 1998 and a few years later had pathetic physics in comparison until Half-Life 2 rolled around...)
My vote goes to quake 2, the first game that made good use of a gfx card (I know q1 did too but that was just horrible) and could be seen as the game that launched opengl.
I think I'll have to go with Grand Theft Auto 3. It was one of the first 3d free-roaming sandbox games, and it did it extremely well. And I know Driver 2 went 3d before it, but Driver 2's free-roaming wasn't that great.
I think the original Unreal had the most groundbreaking graphics ever for it's time, and it was ran really smooth on most higher-end gaming PCs systems of it's time, which was impressive.Timberwolf5578
agreed, it was far and away the best on release.
First time you left the crashed ship you were in awe back then...amazing. Bet it still looks decent in some ways.
Crysis may have jaw dropping graphics, but I wouldn't qualify it to be "groundbreaking". What groundbreaking means to be in a game is that the graphics are ahead of it's time. Crysis looks awesome, but to me it's not a game I'd play and say "This is revolutionary graphics..." That doesn't mean no one else should think differently, that's just how I feel. With that said, here's what I would pick for groundbreaking games"
There was a period of time where Crysis graphics couldn't be maxed out by any home-owned PC. If that doesn't fall under the category of "ahead of its time", then pretty much nothing does.
Starcraft definitely didn't have graphics that you could call groundbreaking, by any stretch of the imagination, btw.
There was a period of time where Crysis graphics couldn't be maxed out by any home-owned PC. If that doesn't fall under the category of "ahead of its time", then pretty much nothing does.
Starcraft definitely didn't have graphics that you could call groundbreaking, by any stretch of the imagination, btw.
F1_2004
I'm more than positive that Crysis could be maxed when it came out, you just had to shell out $3,000+ for a computer that could handle it... No, Crysis is not ahead of its time.
There was a period of time where Crysis graphics couldn't be maxed out by any home-owned PC. If that doesn't fall under the category of "ahead of its time", then pretty much nothing does.
Starcraft definitely didn't have graphics that you could call groundbreaking, by any stretch of the imagination, btw.
Digital_DJ_00
I'm more than positive that Crysis could be maxed when it came out, you just had to shell out $3,000+ for a computer that could handle it... No, Crysis is not ahead of its time.
Crysis was ahead of its time and still is. Saying it isn't is really ridiculous. We won't have a better looking game for a really long time. And the Crysis we are playing is still toned down. With a patch, Crysis will look better than anything else whenever that comes out too. Hell, that's not even the end of it. The CryEngine2 is capable of rendering maps that are 458 times the size of earth.
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