-Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
-High Quality HDR Motion Blur
-Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra
-Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field
-Parallax Occlusion Mapping
-Particles Motion Blur, Shadows and Art Updates
-Water Rendering improvements and using Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
-Realtime Local Reflections (DX9)
-Contact Shadows (DX9)
-Improved Tone Mapping (DX9)
 

The game looks amazing on DX11, check out the screens below:
 

 
Thanks Neogaf.

1. Codename: Kingdoms:

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli: “I think when we put Crysis 2 out we will show a level that is, multiplatform-wise, maxing out, but we will look into with Microsoft how Kingdoms can push the Xbox 360 110 percent, to its limits.
 
 

 
 

“When you’re spending a multimillion budget only on the Xbox 360, that team will be able to crank out the last two or three percent left in the console. But I think that two or three percent will make the difference potentially between day and night that you cannot afford if you go multiplatform.”
 

2. Battlefield 3:
 

We all know that PC gamers are in for a treat. But what about the consoles version:
 

DICE executive producer Patrick Bach on Battlefield 3 “if not the best-looking console game this year, up there with the competition.”
 
 

3. Gears of War 3:
 

Cliffy.B: “I assure you that when you see the realtime gameplay of Gears 3, it looks very very great and even better than Gears of War 2, yeah we’re pushing it (Xbox 360).”
 
 

We already knew from the beta that Gears 3 is leaps and bounds over its predecessors considering visuals. A look at the latest campaign trailer for the game tell us that we haven’t see anything yet. This game is pushing the Xbox360 to its limits.
 

4. Uncharted 3:
 

Uncharted 2 is still one of the most beautiful games of this generation. Naughty Dog have claimed that they pushed the PS3 to its limit “We have to be uncomfortable. Three weeks before shipping Uncharted 2, we couldn’t even fit the game in memory.” So how can Naughty Dog up the ante this time?
 
 

Uncharted 1 used just two SPUs, Uncharted 2, all six but only at a street car level, Uncharted 3, however, will use all six just like a Formula 1 racer.
 

“We’re at full speed, optimizing code specifically for the SPUs, It’s a great resource because [SPUs] are extremely fast, and if you optimize they get faster than you ever thought they could be. That’s where the quality of our images comes from.”

5. Rage:
 

Rage is the first game to use Id Software’s new tech (id Tech5). John Carmack the legendary coder created id Tech5 to deliver a game with impressive visuals running at 60FPS on consoles.
 
 

John Carmack: “The great thing in this generation [is that] the fidelity of what we deliver now is beyond what my personal imagination delivers, and I see this quite clearly when I develop the tech. I have a picture in my mind of how you won’t see repeated texture tiling here, you’ll be able to put dirt in the cracks on this and I’ve got this vague sense of that. But when you look at the muddy shot scenes in Rage, you’re just like ‘this looks fabulous!’ It looks better than I imagined it would and that’s just great, to be able to say that.”

6. Forza 4:
 

Forza 3 is the best racing sim to date. But the folks at Turn 10 weren’t fully satisfied with the high praise Forza 3 got. Turn 10 promise “Unmatched graphics” and “the best looking game in 2011″ when Forza 4 arrive this year.
 
 

7. Skyrim:
 

Todd howard: “Do we wait for a new console cycle, because you know, with Elder Scrolls we usually like to start over, but we felt we had a real big laundry list of things that we knew we could do on the current generation of consoles.”
 
 

“We just felt that there was so much we could do with this current generation so we rewrote the entire renderer; we have full shadows and everything now; we rewrote all the caching; the AI systems; the quest systems; the dialogue; the interface; the animation system, we’re using Havoks behaviour system, which is one of the most advanced animation systems out there.”
 

Can’t wait to see more of this game.
 

8. Metal Gear Solid: Rising:
 

KP podcast host Sean Eyestone: “We’re redoing the engine from scratch, and it’s going to look amazing, it’s going to be a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4. The entire team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform.”
 
 

I’m a huge fan of the Metal Gear franchise and I’m pretty sure that Rising is going to be a stunner.
 

9. Bioshock: Infinite:
 

Chris Kline tech director of Irrational Games: “All major FPS engines (CryEngine 3, UE3, id Tech 5) are designed and optimized for static environments that the player moves through, which is a reasonable choice because, even if there are trees moving in the wind, the ground under the player’s feet isn’t going anywhere. Unfortunately for our tech team (but good for you) everything in Columbia is capable of moving.”
 
 

 
 

On top of that Irrational Games have developed a proprietary per-pixel dynamic relighting scheme that allows characters and dynamic objects to receive global illumination. It’s a shame that Infinite is not going to be released this year, but at least we are going to see more of this amazing title at the upcoming E3.

10. The Last Guardian:
 

Team Ico’s previous games have had some of the best artistic designs in the industry. Now with the technical prowess of the PS3 and Team Ico’s fantastic art will finally collide to create a game that will leave you speechless.

The point I want to clarify here is, Mass Effect 2, which is the best looking game on Xbox360 is running on the Unreal Engine 3 (multiplatform engine). Most of all Xbox360 games (exclusives and multiplatform) do run on multiplatform engines. With most of the biggest exclusives on Xbox360 are powered by the Unreal Engine 3 (Mass Effect 2, Gears of War 2, Lost Odyssey and etc). Multiplatform engines are designed to run on multiple platforms, which means they aren’t created to take full advantage of a specific console/platform. Yes, we see games such as Mass Effect 2 look better than an average Unreal Engine 3 game. But that because of the developers who are creating the game. With better art design and better optimization, a game can look better than another even if they are running on the same engine.
 

This year, we are seeing Xbox360 exclusives running on new engines or to be more accurate, engines that created to take full advantage of Microsoft’s console. Halo: Reach looks so much better than Halo 3 and ODST, but the real star that showed what the Xbox360 is capable of is Remedy’s upcoming Psychological thriller, Alan Wake.
 

Alan Wake not just raising the bar for Xbox360 in term of visuals, it’s raising the bar for this whole generation. Technically and artistically, Alan Wake is shaping up to be the best looking game of this generation. From the real-time projected shadows produced by the essential flashlight, the total absence of aliasing, the breathtaking realistic lighting effects (the best I have ever seen), the epic scale of the environments, SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion), the atmospheric effects to the vegetation which interacts with characters and wind. Truly impressive stuff.
 
 

The best thing Sony did this gen is they let their first party devs to create games with one thing in mind: Taking full advantage of the PS3 power. That’s why we have been seeing PS3 exclusives looking better than Xbox360 games. Things are about to change now, as we are seeing games such as Alan Wake equaling or surpassing PS3 exclusives in term of visuals. And the most impressive thing is: Alan Wake is running on a $199 console with limited storage capacity (DVD9). It will be interesting to see what does Sony have up their sleeve at the upcoming E3.
 

10. Shenmue:
Release Date: 2000.
Console: Dreamcast.
 
 

 
 

It was the game that showcased what the Dreamcast was capable of. A huge amount of resources were spent in order to make the game’s visuals reach the highest standards. In fact, there was nothing like Shenmue at that time; as the game had great looking environments, detailed character models and some of the most realistic facial expressions in a game, real time shadowing, impressive lighting effects, amazing Weather System, and much more.
 

Shenmue pioneered how games should look like in the future. Shenmue is easily one of the best looking games of this decade. We are hoping to see a fitting conclusion to this magnificent series, maybe in the next decade? We hope so.
 

9. Metal Gear Solid 2:
Release date: 2001.
Console: PS2, and Xbox.
 
 

 
 

When Sony launched the PS2 console at the beginning of this decade, there wasn’t a single game that offered something out of the competition at that time. But all of that had changed when Hideo Kojima released the next iteration of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Metal Gear Solid 2: The Sons of Liberty.
 

Do you remember the amazing rain effect from the Tanker chapter of this game? Do you remember the huge amount of little details the game had? Do you remember the great looking cut scenes? If you have played this game, I don’t think that you can forget how good MGS 2 graphics were. The game was like a long hollywood movie with the best visual effects. Metal Gear Solid 2 was a stunner.
 

8. Metroid Prime:
Release date: 2002.
Console: Gamecube, and Wii.
 
 

 
 

Metroid Prime beauty came from two major components: the amazing art direction and a technologically impressive engine at that time. The game visuals were too sharp and ahead of their time. The game’s environments were varied and had lots of great visual details. Also, it was the first 3D game in the Metroid series, isn’t that enough?
 

7. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time:
Release date: 2003.
Console: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC.
 
 

 
 

Another great franchise that entered the 3D world this decade. The prince’s acrobatic moves were fantastically animated that made Lara Croft movements look awkward in comparison. The amazing artistic design of this game and the extraordinary visual effects the game had at that time make The Sands of Time one of the best looking games of the decade.
 

6. Far Cry:
Release date: 2004.
Console: PC, and Xbox.
 
 

 
 

The game was born out of a technology demo called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island made by Crytek to showcase the capabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce 3. Crytek the creators of CryEngine developed Far Cry which was one of the first FPS games to take place in a massive/seamless environment. Far Cry was one of the first games to use HDR technique along side Half Life 2 and other games. Also, the game’s huge and lavish environments, the game’s ability to render long draw distance, and the breathtaking water effect at that time puts this game on our list of the most visually impressive games of the past decade.
 

5. Resident Evil 4:
Release date: 2005.
Console: Gamecube, PS2, Wii and PC.

Before this game was released, there were a lot of gamers who feared the fact that Capcom is revamping the Resident Evil formula in this game. Were they wrong? Absolutely yes. Capcom created one of the finest games ever made in Resident Evil 4. The game was gorgeous, lengthy, and had a lot of unique ideas that pioneered some of the greatest games of this generation.
 

This game pushed the graphical capabilities of the Gamecube hardware to its limits. The game had some of the most detailed character/monster models at that time. Add to this one of the most dazzling fire effect we have ever seen, and you will get a recipe for one of the most impressive games to hit us this decade.

4. Gears of War:
Release date: 2006.
Console: Xbox 360, and PC.
 
 

 
 

The HD revolution started with this game. And if you don’t agree with me, then you are fooling yourself. Gears was the first game to raise the bar visually this generation. The game had great textures, amazing visual effects, detailed character models, and lots of blood.
 

Gears showed what next generation of consoles are capable of, and made Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 the most used engine this generation. Can’t wait to see what Epic games will do with the third game of the series, Gears of War 3.
 

3. Crysis:
Release date: 2007.
Console: PC.
 
 

 
 

A list about the most visually impressive games without mentioning Crysis would be insane. The game runs on CryEngine 2 that is the successor to Far Cry’s CryEngine. Crysis was among the first games to use the Direct3D 10. How many gamers bought the latest graphic cards just to play the game in the highest settings?
 

If you want to put your computer to the test, you have no other choice than: Crysis. What will Crytek improves in the sequel is yet to be seen, but we know that it will blow us away.
 

2. Metal Gear Solid 4:
Release Date: 2008.
Console: PS3.
 
 

 
 

Hideo Kojima is a perfectionist. That’s why we love him. At the beginning of each console generation cycle, you hear him expose his disappointment of the consoles limitations. But don’t take him seriously though because his games speak the opposite.
 

How the game blended its cut senses with the gameplay so seamlessly is a feat in its self. The game is gorgeous technically and artistically. Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorites franchises because it always pushes the videogames industry forward. Keep it up Kojima san.
 

1. Uncharted 2:
Release date: 2009.
Console: PS3.
 
 

 
 

It’s boils down to this: Uncharted 2 is the best looking game of the decade. This game is a piece of art. Seriously.
 

This is our list. If you have another opinion, feel free to share it with us in the comment section.

The sequel begins immediately after the events of Assassin’s Creed with Desmond staring at cryptic messages on his bedroom wall. Desmond and a fellow assassin Lucy Stillman escape from the lab to a nearby warehouse where Lucy reveals she and a new team have been working on a new device. Soon, you will find that this new device is an upgraded version of the Animus (Animus 2.0). Once you jump on the Animus 2.0, you will be sent to Italy during the Renaissance. From here, you will see the birth of Ezio, the protagonist of the game.
 
 

The purpose of the first couple of missions in the game is to familiarize the player with the basic gameplay elements and to introduce the player to Ezio’s family. After completing some errand missions for Ezio’s father, an unfortunate plot twist happens. As Ezio will witness the execution of his father and his bothers in front of his eyes. After that, Ezio plans to escort his sister and his mother to safety and to avenge his family loss. From here, the story gets more and more complicated, as you will see more plot twists and you will meet with new characters throughout the course of the game. When everything is said and done, the game’s story is more fleshed out than the original and very exciting to follow.
 

The game plays exactly like the first one, but with more things to do. The developers seems to have listened carefully to the community feedbacks. The huge selection of the missions and the variety of things you can do in the game is a huge improvement over the original. As an example, the new Assassin Tomb areas, which plays like Prince of Persia games are challenging and fun to play. The side quests are more varied with some old (from the original) and new mission types. Also, there is treasure chests to open, codex pages to collect, assassin crests to obtain and much more.
 

Another new feature in Assassin’s Creed II is the economy system which allows players to use an in-game currency to purchase items such as smoke bombs, healing potion, poison bottles, armors, swords and much more. Players may also hire mercenaries and women to distract guards. Further in the game, you will meet with uncle Mario who will introduce you to your new home, a small villa which will act as a home space, but can be upgraded to include doctors, shops and brothels. The more money you spend on the Villa, the more people will come to visit, and consequence to that more income to your pocket. While the investment system is not very deep, it’s a welcome addition to the series. Also, Leonardo da Vinci the infamous Italian figure plays a big role in the game, as he will supply Ezio with new tools and skill techniques to use in his journey.
 

Another new feature in the game is the notoriety system. A rounded meter at the top-left of the screen will show you how notorious you are. The less this notoriety meter is filled, the harder the task for enemies to spot you from the crowd. You can cool down the meter by performing various task such as removing wanted posters, bribing heralds, and killing officials.
 

What does make the game even a better experience are the great voice acting and the amazing soundtrack. The graphics in the game has improved from the original, and some locations such as the beautiful city of Venice will make you stop just to admire the views. But what has disappointed me regarding the game’s visuals are the character models. As you will see some characters lacking some facial expressions, in which it could lessen your immersion in the game.
 
 

Since Assassin’s Creed 2 gameplay focus too much on stealth, I think enemies A.I is an important segment I have discuss. While the developers of the game did a good job in implementing the enemies A.I in the game, I have witnessed some weird A.I behaviors from the enemies and some bugs in the game. I saw an enemy soldier walking on the edge of a house rooftop, then he suddenly fall of by himself and died. In another scene, I was chased by some soldiers and I climbed up a ladder, one of those soldiers climbed the same ladder, but he continued climbing up while he is floating in mid air.

Ubisoft did a very good job in delivering a better experience this time around. I played this game non stop and I have never felt bored while playing the game. If you liked the first one, then you will enjoy the sequel even more. But for anyone who didn’t like the original, the developers made a lot of changes that could change your mind. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a very enjoyable action-adventure game. The game’s great story, beautiful environments, great gameplay and the variety of things you can do in the game makes this game a must have title for anyone looking for an amazing action adventure experience. My advice to you: Get this game.
 
 

Score: (9.5/10)
 
 

Modern Warfare 2 is set five years after the conclusion of Call of Duty 4. The game begins in Afghanistan, where US Army Ranger Private Joseph Allen helps take an Afghan city from an army of militants. Impressed, General Shepherd recruits Allen as a CIA operative and places him in Makarov’s organization as an undercover operative. The game story does have some plot twists, some are predictable, some aren’t. But I found the story to be there only to keep you playing until the end. You won’t care much about the characters or the story. In fact, the only thing you will care about is the action, and that’s where Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t disappoint. The campaign delivers an intense experience with some great action sequences you shouldn’t miss. The whole campaign mode is split up into 18 missions, with each one lasting between 15-20 minutes. But if you play the game on higher difficulty settings, it will result into longer play time.
 
 

When you finish the campaign mode, there are two options that will make you coming back for more. The first one is the addictive cooperative mode, Special Ops. These independent missions (not related to the main story of the game) will take place in a variety of locations from the campaign mode and from the original Modern Warfare. Such missions will include snowmobile races, killing waves of enemies, moving from point A to point B stealthily, one player providing air support from an AC-130 with the other player conducting operations on the ground, capturing an enemy compound, and much more. The Special Ops mode may be played alone, but supports two player cooperative play; offline (Split screen) or online with your friends. When you finish one of those missions, you will get stars. To get more stars (the maximum number is three) you have to complete a certain condition such as finishing the same mission in a shorter period of time or to play the mission in higher difficulty settings. When you unlock enough stars, more and higher difficulty missions will be available to finish.
 

The second option is where millions of gamers will play non stop for the next couple of years. The online multiplayer mode of Modern Warfare 2 retains the same experience points and unlockable reward system as that of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but with exciting new improvements to the core system. The game multiplayer has improved in many aspects, as there are more weapons to use, more perks, and more kill streak rewards. Perks can now be upgraded through use and will eventually grant a secondary ability. Kill streaks rewards are now Customizable, which means that you can equip them as you see fit. Spec Ops and the online multilayer modes are addictive and lots of fun, and you will find yourself unable to stop playing.
 
 

The game graphics has improved since the original, as it uses an upgraded version of the engine that powered the first Modern Warfare. Better lighting, more realistic particle effects, and the amazing weather effects are some of these improvements. But the game does have some problem with shadowing, as you will see some pixelated shadows here and there. Especially for the game’s characters. The game runs at a sub HD resolution on consoles, but at the same time it maintains a stable frame rate throughout the whole game. Modern Warfare 2 is one of the best looking games this generation, and maybe the best looking multiplatform game thus far, but it falls behind some games such as Gears of War 2, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2.
 

Hans Zimmer, the famed Hollywood composer has replaced another infamous musician Harry Gregson Williams (Metal Gear Solid fame) to produce the soundtrack for the game. As you would expect from him, the results are utterly amazing, as you will hear some epic pieces throughout the game.
 
 

Aside from the short campaign mode, the game is absolutely amazing. The intense campaign mode, the entertaining Special Ops missions, and the addictive multiplayer modes make this game one of the best games in 2009 and possibly the best FPS of this whole generation.
 

Score: (9.5/10)
 

Great graphics don’t always make a great game. But if a certain game has good gameplay with bad graphics, it undoubtedly will lessen the experience as a whole.
 

Take a note that Uncharted 2 will not be on this list, that’s because the game is already out. One more thing, this list is in no particular order, here we go:
 

- Final Fantasy XIII:
 
 

Final Fantasy series is one of the most known series in videogames history. Each game in this very popular series has been able in raising the bar regarding visuals and attention to details, and this latest entry will be no exception.
 

Final Fantasy XIII is the first game of the main series of Final Fantasy in high definition. The game uses a new engine (Crystal Tools), which will be used for the first time this generation. The impressive Characters models, detailed environment, and the amazing artistic design of the game world will make this game a stunner.
 

- God of War 3:
 
 

The first two games in the series had pushed the PS2 hardware to its limits so don’t be surprised if God of War 3 has been able to push the PS3 spec to its limit when it arrives early next year. The folks at Santa Monica are working hard to present Kratos to this generation of gamers in a visually striking way.
 

Kratos in GOW 3 will comprise four times more polygons than his PS2 model. Add to this some amazing particle effects, moving titans in the background and you will get a game that will put a lot of blockbuster movies to shame.
 

- MGS: Rising:
 
 

While we haven’t seen any footage for this game, Kojima Productions assistant producer Sean Eyestone, has said that the team is remaking Rising’s engine “from scratch” to make it look better than MGS4. Look better than MGS 4? bring it on.
 

- Crysis 2:
 
 

 
 

Crysis 2 is an upcoming video game developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts, due for release on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be the first game to use the new CryEngine 3, which will bring the most advanced visuals for all platforms.
 

The first game on PC is one of the most visually stunning games ever made, and the new engine will undoubtedly make the pretty even prettier.
 

- Alan Wake:
 
 

Remedy Entertainment stirred the hype when they announced Alan Wake in 2005 as an exclusive for XBox 360, Since then, the game has undergone numerous delays and re-workings in both the main character’s appearance and the overall art-style of the game. But fear no more, the game will be released in spring next year.
 

Remedy managing director Matias Myllyrinne has said that Alan Wake is “all done, we’re just polishing at this point.” The game is already looking amazing with photo realistic environments, great lightning effects, and well crafted and animated character models.
 

- Heavy Rain
 
 

The first thing that comes to mind when someone speaks of this game are the graphics. The game look so realistic with lots of details in the environment and possibly the best looking character models in the business. what can I say more about this game? Stunning.
 

- Assassin Creed 2:
 
 

Ubisoft has been working hard on this title and believe me, you will be totally impressed this time around. The game renders some of the most beautiful places (Venice and Florence) on earth accurately and with lots of care and love.
 

The game engine has improved from the first game with Features added include a full night and day cycle, enhanced draw distance, the same vegetation technology used in Far Cry 2, improved lighting, reflection and special effects.
 

- Lost Planet 2:
 
 

Lost Planet 2 will be running on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in Resident Evil 5. Lost Planet 2 will be better, bigger and more visually impressive than the original game. Also, the game varied environments and the huge Akrid bosses will make the game nicer to the eye.
 

- Mass Effect 2:
 
 

 
 

Although the first game does have a lot of technical issues such as texture pop up/in and the unstable frame rate, it’s still one of the best looking games on the Xbox 360. But now, those problems are something of the past, as Bioware seems to have addressed all of those problems in the sequel.
 

The characters in Mass Effect 2 will be more detailed not only graphically, but technically. In the original Mass Effect, Commander Shepard only had 20 animations for cover, while in Mass Effect 2, the character has over 200. The world will also be more open-ended in this installment; with beautiful vistas to explore and ugly aliens to kill.
 

-Splinter Cell: Conviction:
 
 

Sam Fisher next adventure could be his best. The game is screaming quality, with new gameplay elements like the ‘Mark and Execute’ which makes the game more cinematic and faster paced.
 

The game presentation look sleek with Dynamically-tilting camera angles make the game feel like it’s a shakycam film during the game’s most poignant moments, while its new “projected objective” system shows your current goals on walls, mirrors, buildings, and floors. The visuals are great, the environment is much closer, more confined. Ubisoft you have a winner here.
 

- The Last Guardian:
 
 

The Last Guardian is Fumito Ueda latest invention, the man behind two of the most creative games ever made, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. What makes Ueda games so impressive graphically isn’t the technical aspect only, it’s the phenomenal artistic design that makes his games stand out from the crowd of games.
 

The great animation of the feathery creature, the attention to details in the game world, and the great atmosphere will make this game an experience like no other.
 

So, which game will have the most impressive visuals? Vote then discuss in the comment section.
 
 
 

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