Remedy pushed boundaries beyond belief with Quantum Break– while the final game itself may have been middling, there can be no doubt that it looked absolutely stellar, approaching near photorealism at times, and replete with amazing graphical effects and flourishes that make it stand out as the best looking game on the Xbox One. It has been years since Call of Duty impressed graphically, but this year, finally freed from the shackles of the Xbox 360 and PS3, Infinity Ward managed to deliver the most visually impressive Call of Duty game ever, and one of the best looking titles of the year. With DOOM, they returned to that heritage, delivering a game that looked slick and amazing, thanks to it deft mix of great tech and great art. Once upon a time, id Software used to be known for pushing the boundaries of gaming technology and delivering the ‘graphics kings’ of their time. Naughty Dog have utilized every trick and tool available to them to deliver what is indisputably the best looking console game ever made. Is it any surprise that a Naughty Dog game is on a Best Graphics list? While Uncharted 4 may not have quite lived up to all of its publicly stated ambitions, it ended up delivering a jaw dropping feast for the eyes, that is inarguably the best looking console game ever made. The technology powering it is truly impressive, but the game stands out as much as it does because of its extremely pretty art. Japanese developers aren’t usually renown for their technical mastery, but Square Enix have crafted a stunning, beautiful open world RPG with Final Fantasy 15. The game looks absolutely stunning, and the power of the Frostbite Engine is on full display- the fact that it looks as amazing as it does, no matter what system you play it on, is even more of a testament to it. In 2016, there were several games with standout graphics, whether because of their art, or their tech.ĭICE and EA have always been known for their incredible, boundary pushing graphics, and Battlefield 1 was no different. Advancement in graphics remains one of the easiest and most tangible ways to measure how far video games have come- so it’s no wonder that people get so passionate and heated when discussing game graphics.

Graphics remain an integral part of video gaming, and of video games discourse- yes, ultimately, the key word in ‘video games’ is the word games, but without the ‘video’ bit, there wouldn’t be any games to play.

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