Feature Navigation
Best Graphics, Technical
Video games are inherently a visual medium--it even has "video" in the name! And in the years since the industry began, significant progress has been made in offering visuals that can almost rival Hollywood blockbusters. It's hard to believe that in just a few short decades, we've progressed from the crude, barely recognizable shapes used in early Atari 2600 games to fully rendered 3D worlds that can finally offer a staggering realization of a game director's artistic vision. 2008 proved this to be the case with some of the most technologically impressive environments we've seen yet. Whether it's the war-torn cities of Metal Gear Solid 4, the bustling streets of Burnout, the lively jungles of Crysis, Far Cry's African savannas, or the dank interiors of Dead Space's deep-space freighters, this year proved to be exceptionally diverse in its scope and amazingly consistent in its visual prowess.
-
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Kojima Productions
- Konami
- Review score: 10.0
Metal Gear Solid 4 offers even more of the stealth-based action gameplay and grand stories that...
Watch the review » -
Burnout Paradise
- Criterion Games
- Electronic Arts
- Review score: 9.0
Burnout Paradise gives racers an open world to drive, race and crash through.
Watch the review » -
Crysis Warhead
- Crytek
- Electronic Arts
- Review score: 9.0
Don the nanosuit of Sergeant Sykes, aka 'Psycho,' and experience a storyline parallel to the...
-
Dead Space
- EA Redwood Shores
- Electronic Arts
- Review score: 9.0
Dead Space is a survival-horror game in which players take on the role of Engineer Isaac Clarke...
Watch the review » -
Far Cry 2
- Ubisoft Montreal
- Ubisoft
- Review score: 8.5
Far Cry 2 takes place in a huge territory in South Africa and features day-night cycles, mercenary...
Watch the review »
Voting Results:
Best Graphics Technical| Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots | 42% | 8,223 |
| Burnout Paradise | 4% | 773 |
| Crysis Warhead | 33% | 6,515 |
| Dead Space | 11% | 2,128 |
| Far Cry 2 | 10% | 2,065 |
Readers' Choice Winner
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Publisher: Konami
- Developer: Kojima Productions
GameSpot's Best Games of 2008 Readers' Choice Winner
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features an aging and exhausted Solid Snake in the middle of a futuristic battlefield. In spite of his failing body, Snake is equipped with a crucial new device tentatively known as "OctoCamo," a high-tech suit that dynamically transforms its texture based on Snake's surroundings. This revolutionary new gameplay mechanic allows him to seamlessly blend into the environment, providing him with the means to stalk his enemies like never before. This latest chapter in Hideo Kojima's legendary tactical espionage action series marks the return of several characters from previous Metal Gear Solid games including Revolver Ocelot, Meryl Silverburgh, Naomi Hunter and Raiden, and features an unforgettable story that depicts the desperate state of the future as seen through the eyes of an older Solid Snake.
- Watch the video review: HD | SD
- Read the review »
Best Graphics, Technical
673 comments
1 Like =D this is not funny, nor idiotic, this is MORONIC!!! I mean COME ON!!! Both Crysis and Far Cry 2 (for the pc) have better graphics than MGS4 by faaaaaaar. That said, this category is TECHINCAL, not ARTISTIC, so without being bias there is no possible way MGS4 could win over Crysis, Far Cry 2...or even Dead Space. Now if there was a MGS4 edition for the pc, things might be different, but there IS NOT, so MGS4 shouldn't even be on this list, only pc games.
@gll25 You're played too much Gears 2. Take a break, and check out the games on the list, they blow Gears 2 away. Crysis Warhead blow everyone away, even MGS4 doesn't come close to Crysis Warhead. However, Crysis Warhead uses the same engine as the first Crysis, and the first one won best graphic before. It won't make any sense if Crysis win again with the same engine, the improvement from Crysis to Crysis Warhead was not much while the improvement of MGS3 to MGS4 was a lot.
Gears 2 has much better graphics then Far Cry 2 and Burnout Paradise, and even better then all on this list.
Since I never played Dead Space and MGS4 on a 1080p hdtv, so I don't get to see their full potential. However, MGS4 does have the slight edge but sometimes it feels like Dead Space looked better.
The graphics in Dead Space enhance the gameplay extremely, and the game wouldn't be the same without it. The character models are, IMO, slightly more realistic in how they move, and even though MGS4 has awesome graphics, the experience would have been almost the same with MGS3 graphics. Dead Space looks clearer and sharper than MGS4, at least for me. I played both on a CRT-TV, which is indeed not HD, but I'm looking for the game with best graphics regardless of what TV is used. Overall, I like MGS4 more than Dead Space, but in the graphics department, I can't deny Dead Space's slight superiority.
if u think u r being realistic, than i dont think u played mgs4 on a 1080p hdtv and dead space for that matter, just look at the explosions and the character models on snake and you will see mgs 4 blows dead space, far cry 2 out of the water
and not only that mgs4 graphics enhances its gameplay which cannot be said about dead space...... get real, mgs4 blows every game on this list because its graphics enhances its gameplay
@calvinsora anybody with eyes can tell you that mgs4 has better graphics than dead space in every conceivable area
@SuperSnake667 Though MGS4 is more detailed in regards to the small stuff (objects and such), which Dead Space doesn't exactly offer much flexibilty in, but we're looking at technical graphics here and to that extent, Dead Space excels ever so slightly. Also, the mouth animations in Dead Space, though rare, are surprisingly realistic. Please don't think I'm bashing MGS4, I love it and I've recently given it a 10 in my review, while Dead Space gets a 9.0. Still...I think I'm being realistic here.
Well at first I thought Crysis Warhead will win. But after I played Crysis and Crysis Warhead, I realized that the award should go to MGS4 and it did.
Even though I love MGS4, it doesn't have the best graphics. However, best TECHNICAL graphics means the best graphics regarding the computer or console you play on. Nonetheless, in that regard, Dead Space is more realistic, darker and sharper than MGS4.
No matter how good a console game looks. I don't think anything even comes close to Crysis. This is just rediculous...
GS and their horribly misleading wording *sigh* From now on "Best Technical Graphics" from GS will be "Best Audio/Visual Experience" for me and I'll no longer have problems understanding their choices :D To be honest now that I think about it having an award for best graphics is odd since determining which game has the best 'technical graphics' is fairly easy (especially with Crysis out there :P). Maybe it's there for the majority of us who can't play every single game out there.
MGS4 is the second-best looking game (second to Crysis) and has the best Character Animation so far. Yet an overwhelming majority of readers and editors across many sites give MGS4 the Best Graphics of 2008. Thats because of the way the game blends graphics with drama and story-telling. Its one thing to have mind-blowing graphics like Crysis, but its another thing to actually use that to amazingly enhance the game. Just watch the Raiden-Vamp fight (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=R61cCBUWNQM&fmt=18. So if we're talking about "Technical Graphics", a console game has no hold over a PC game. But the way GS explained their choice, it makes perfect sense to choose MGS4. They just worded it wrongly. Like 1up, they gave MGS4 "Best AudioVisual Experience". Now thats a perfect way to describe MGS4.
The only one I haven't played is Far Cry 2, and in my opinion MGS4 probably has the second best graphics of the selection.
I really can't say who's the best in this one. I know MGS4 has great graphics, but I don't have the other 4 games, so... no comment.
So...fanboys like to vote... What kind of computer were you running crysis on? one that only accepts floppy disks? Crysis is obviously graphically beast on a nice system, and the others aren't bad, but MGS4? Did you just want to add another award to MGS4? I believe that whoever rated MGS4 over crysis has not played crysis on Max settings or maybe they are dislexic and clicke the wrong button...
crysis is a shat game but to be fair it takes a dump on MGS4 in the graphics department
Hahahahahaha! MGS4?!? Really? Seriously, nothing against MGS4 but its visuals are not even remotely close to Crysis. The first one.
Clouse666: NO. I have both and MGS4 doesn't look even remotely close to Warhead in the technical department. The size and resolution of the textures, the resolution, the shders used to represent the ice, metal surfaces, weapons, the huge landscape in the maps, the amazing fx and particles effects, the support up to 32 players and vehicles in Crysis Wars multiplayer... Sorry but even the KZ2 beta clearly beats MGS4 in the technical department. Killswich88 nails the thing: technically Crysis & Crysis Warhead is the most complex and advanced performance of software at the moment no matters what system you have, and you can belive that his mark will be not surpased in this generation of 512 MB consoles. GS choice is a disrespect to any player except the ones that shows a flat cerebral waves test. Is like discussing that a Audi R8 isn't faster than a Honda Civic; nobody cares if the Civic is cheaper or if the Type-R performace is great, the R8 is faster.
I think GS is giving back to all the fanboys by giving MGS all the wins....Oh and whoever said to put Gears of War up there really needs to get their eyes checked. That game looked like mud and ran like dirt.
@newgames128 hmm you might have point there, but a part from making graphics better what other techniques would fall into this category and not the artistic one? Also I must have missed the sections in MGS4 where they did something with graphics I hadn't seen before.....and the part where it became more graphically entertaining. I would like to point out the MGS4 in my opinion is a good looking game and is impressive (especially for a console); all I'm saying is Crysis is impressive. GS, if you're reading this can we get an explanation? That's all some of us want; people like me are having a hard time wrapping our minds around how MGS4 looks better then Crysis to you.
The reason MGS4 won best technical graphics over Crysis: Warhead is not because of hi res textures or particle effects. It won because it used graphical techniques not seen before, and it was all polished to a degree that made the other nominees seem generically pieced together by comparison. It would take a strong level of bias to play through each game and say there was nothing technically impressive about MGS 4, just because it was on a console. Hell I don't even own a console anymore, only a gaming PC and I have to admit MGS 4 was a more graphically entertaining game to see in motion than Crysis: Warhead, because it did new things, and did them flawlessly.
[quote]Technical should take into account not just how the game looks but also how well it runs[/quote] With proper hardware (stuff that was out last year) Crysis will play with better graphics then MGS4 without glitches and at good FPS. [quote]What you people are complaining about is which graphical style you prefer, not how technically impressive either game is![/quote] No, the problem is Crysis is more technically advanced graphically then MGS4. This category is Best Technical Graphics which refers to how real the game looks, not its style. Best Artistic Graphics is where the water muddies as opinions and style preference are considered. @IAMTHEJOKER88 I don't think anyone cares which game was voted best technical graphics, it's the fact that GS choose MGS4 instead of Crysis. Yes the average gamer* doesn't have a PC capable of playing Crysis, but GS should so there is no excuse for them. *the average gamer doesn't have a PS3 either
Warhead or Clear Sky both have better graphics than MGS4. I have a PS3 and a Q6600 OCED TO 3.0 Ghz and a 8800 GT 512 PC and even the multiplayer (Crysis Wars) in Warhead is much better in graphics than MGS. I'm talking about shaders effects, textures, particles, wireframe, number of players in the game, resolution... Warhead is better in almost ANY aspect except cinematic scenes, which are more part from the artistic award than in the technical one. I like a lot my PS3, but in this award MGS4 claerly doesn't deserve the prize. Graphic in Crysis Warhead are almost 8 times better, and the key components to run Warhead in Gamer over 30 fps aren't prized over a 400 ? PS3.
Maybe cause the average casual gamer who plays Crisis doesn't have a great computer to run it... probably why they voted for MGS4. Stop whining...
this the only award where I was against the readers and GS, I mean, how could MGS 4 have better graphics then Crysis. I know Crysis needs a hell strong PC but when you have it then you will see what rocks :D but again nice choice ;)
lol how an earth does mgs 4 have better graphics than crysis? this is madness, crysis is miles better, cant understand why gears of war 2 aint on there, it has better graphics than metal gear
Err, because Metal Gear Solid looks better than Crysis? Remember, Crysis still needs a mad-crazy PC to run, and Best Graphics, Technical should take into account not just how the game looks but also how well it runs, graphical glitches (not that either game had many of those) etc. MGS4 is the more technically proficient game, so it won. What you people are complaining about is which graphical style you prefer, not how technically impressive either game is! As someone inadvertently pointed out before while ranting about why Crysis should win, Best Technical Graphics belongs to the game that combines impressive visuals and the framerate to back it up. Running slowly does not a technically impressive game make.
1 Like This is the worst choice, I was pretty certain it was an easy decision, and that was for Crysis. You failed big time Gamespot, as well as all the fanboy readers.
Well, I just dont understand what has happened here. I am not trying to be a fanboy here. I am just curious. I beg any of you to just explain me...please....I am not hurting anyone's feelings here....please!!! can anyone tell me why crysis dint win. GS, please just answer this one...
OK, COMPARE THESE SHOTS: : -http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/134/926596_20080514_screen001.jpg HOW could you possibly think MGS4 has the better visuals?? They may be or have more style, BUT THEY SIMPLY AREN'T AS GOOD. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!? Maybe it's just that warhead was a PC game...
@rj3560 Why does it deserve this award for technically superior graphics? Please explain.
@SuperChink316 I think GS forgot get PC hardware made in the last half decade... @rj3560 That may be your opinion, but before choosing a winner and being condescending to others it may be wise to at least take a look (literally lol) at what you're talking about.
Superchink, you really are desperate for attention, aren't you? I'm not even gonna argue. I've never played MGS4, but it looks really good, and i think it deserves this award
Conversation powered by Livefyre
