Video Game Graphics that made you catch your breath

[Deset Gled]

Both the extreme zoom outs in Shadow of the Colossus and the first time I jumped from the top of a building in Assassin's Creed 1 were breathtaking, primarily because of the sense of scale.

The scrolling 3d towers in the background of Kirby's Adventure were amazing because of how far they managed to push the capabilities of an 8-bit system.

The flashing backgound in the Gemini Man stage of Mega Man 3 is very litterally hypnotic.

 

[Karak]

Outcast for PC.
Has been and probably always will be my own personal high mark for GFX surprises.

 

[jonesy]

Outcast for PC.
Has been and probably always will be my own personal high mark for GFX surprises.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that game. Still looks good, and the scale of the world is huge. I don't know if the GoG version is an improved version, or if voxels really do scale that well for modern computers.

On that note I was really amazed by the original Delta Force for PC when it came out. The graphics weren't that good even for the time, but for sheer scale of the multiplayer maps it was unrivalled. I think even Tribes had smaller maps (of course in Tribes you had a jetpack and way faster movement so it's hard to compare the sizes now).

 

[stevelabny]

The first time I played Super Mario 64 was a wow experience.

But the prettiest games to walk around in are Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, and Assassin's Creed.

Not every bit of graphics is great but you can find some really nice views, especially in RDR.

The original Bioshock's atmosphere set by creepy darkness and broken junk mixed with neon lights was also fun to look at.