The Hot Topic Returns

[one-armed dwarf]

Breath of the wild for best.

 

Crappy launch games I dont know as I dont usually buy launch stuff. Resistance on ps3 maybe. Didnt really sell me on how powerful the system was supposed to be.

[OCH]

Soul Calibur (Dreamcast) for best. Such a huge leap forward from Soul Blade/Edge and one of the first true 3D Fighters I ever played.

 

Can't really think of a bad one, that I've played at least.

 

 

[Rikzilla]

Knack

[shinymcshine]

Best launch game for any console has to be Tetris, bundled with the Gameboy.

 

It took a game originally developed back in 1984, which had already been around on popular formats for a couple of years, but became a massive smash on Nintendo's new handheld. Even made use of the link cable for local multiplayer.

 

Simply perfect.

[DANGERMAN]

I'm not going to pretend I had a Mega Drive at launch, but Last Battle has to be up there for worst. it was a rebranding of a Fist of the North Star game, it's terrible. I have 2 copies ?‍♂️

 

best, Wii Sports maybe?

[OCH]

19 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

I'm not going to pretend I had a Mega Drive at launch,

 

That was part of my problem thinking on this topic. I think we only ever had the NES and Dreamcast at launch, when we were kids. Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt were very fun but I've played so many titles of the former and never played the latter since, I can't really rate how I felt about them back then. I did buy the Wii at launch but only really recall Twilight Princess. Which wasn't really a Wii game exclusively.

[Maryokutai]

I'd probably go with Breath of the Wild as well even though it was a bit cheating on Nintendo's part.

If we're talking a game that wasn't in development for half a decade for another system beforehand I'd have to say the original F-Zero. Still playing that regularly to this day.

 

It's hard to pick the worst one since you usually don't buy those. I remember the PS2 and the 3DS launching with a lot of rubbish but I can't name a specific game.

[Rikzilla]

The Bouncer

[Jimboxy]

Wipeout on PS1 is a pretty solid choice for best launch game that hasn't been mentioned. Looked amazing, showed off the machine and was a good (albeit punishing) racing game.

 

Mario 64 (I think that was launch?) is one of my favourite games of all time, so I guess that as well? 

[Maf]

One of the best is definitely Mario 64 on the N64. I mean it was so good it made me unable to like Playstation games for a very long time. It was like why can none of these Playstation characters move and change direction at the same time what is happening. Mario 64 was the new way to play a video game. 

 

But then weirdly I think maybe one of the worst launch titles for a console was Mario 64 for the DS. It was like ooh this is exactly the way not to play a video game. Trying to control a 3D platformer with a mix of D-pad and touch screen might be one of the worst ideas ever. 

[Maryokutai]

That's a good point. Putting Mario 64 on DS was such an untypical move for Nintendo, they normally put playability first.

[Nag]

 

Quote

GameCentral readers discuss the most impressive video game graphics they’ve ever seen, from God Of War to Zelda: The Wind Waker.

 

The question for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Ishi, who asked what’s the most impressed you’ve been with a video game’s graphics? Was it purely because of the technical achievement or did the art design and camera work play a part as well?

 

Most of the answers we had were from this generation, particularly Rockstar and Sony games, but also some older games with more unique visuals, especially cel-shaded graphics, that stand the test of time better than most attempts at photorealism

 

[OCH]

The two that immediately came to mind would be XIII and Shadow of The Colossus.

 

XIII for how fantastically stylised it was. SoTC, just the scope and scale of it was unprecedented at the time. A graphically mature "Zelda", with such a visually interesting aesthetic for the titular monsters.

 

Honourable mention to God of War 2 and Transformers (PS2).

[Jimboxy]

Mostly for me they have come at those generational leaps. Moving from a Master System to getting a snes and playing Mario All Stars was pretty big, then moving from a SNES to seeing Wipeout and Ridge Racer on the PlayStation, moving from a PS2 and Game Cube after seeing Oblivion running on the 360. Each time felt like a leap forward both in terms of visuals as well as scope of what was possible. 

 

I also remember but amazed by Zelda Links Awakening and Mario Land 2 on the original Game Boy. Up to that point, Game Boy games always looked a little bit like the poor cousin of their counterparts, but both of those games looked fantastic, and still look great 30 years on.

[shinymcshine]

Most impressive video game graphics:

 

Probably Sam Fox Strip Poker on the ZX Spectrum

[spatular]

Yeah as mentioned in the question, wind waker looks amazing, other stuff that really holds up well for me is Rez, and similarly cell shaded jet set radio. More recently I remember being really impressed with the snowy forza horizon 3 dlc when I first got an Xbox x too. And the shiny pipes and stuff do look nice in control. Also recently but at the same time old, PS4 port of a 20 year old arcade game ESP ra.de. Has some really nice pixel art in the background, it’s quite distracting though so maybe why they toned it down for later games.

 

for the previous question I think twilight princess and breath of the wild. I didn’t have an n64 on launch but wave race and mario were amazing when I got them much later.

[one-armed dwarf]

It's probably something like Oblivion on 360. It was the first game where I really noticed draw distance. Up to that point you'd kind of accepted you'd either have a bunch of mist and fog obscuring far away details or it would be a pre-rendered backdrop. But Oblivion actually drew stuff you could run up to.

 

Now unfortunately you play that game now on 360 and it runs like shit. Get a big enough game save* (100 hours or so) and go near an Oblivion gate and you get a sexy 4 frames per second. But it was a pretty great experience until then.

 

*Bethesda's gamebryo stuff seems to tank in performance as you complete more quests. Doesn't seem to be a big thing on modern machines but it ruined these games on last gen, especially Skyrim on PS3

[mfnick]

For me it’s God of War 3. When that came out I just honestly couldn’t believe it, I never thought it’d look as good as the preview stuff but it did, even better if anything. & the sheer scale was just breathtaking. Even now I think the Remaster version on PS4 is still up there even though it was just a spit and polish job. 
 

More recently it’s been Cuphead, Horizon 4 (especially Lego dlc), UC4, Gears 5 and the God of War reboot.

[radiofloyd]

The most blown away i’ve been is by far The Witcher 3, with the level of activity on the screen and the weather effects.

 

Recently, i was blown away by FF7R which while very static compared to The Witcher 3 is one of the prettiest games i’ve played, certainly one of the most impressive Japanese games.

 

Going back further, i remember being blown away by the graphics of the first Jak  and Daxter on the PS2.

 

I could probably do a whole separate post on indie games but i remember The Vanishing of Ethan Carter looked stunning.

[Jimboxy]

@radiofloyd's post just reminded me of getting Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on ps2. I'd been hammering THPS2 on the ps1 as it was the last game I was playing before upgrading to a PS2, which I got with THPS3, and the leap forward between those two games, both in terms of visuals, size of levels and new mechanics was pretty amazing. It was probably more noticeable as I'd gone directly from 2 to 3 with nothing on between, but it was still very impressive.