E3 is all about the latest and greatest in the videogame industry. Often, the latest and greatest happens to be the new tech developers are implementing within their games to make them look really, really pretty. Which PlayStation games caught our eye at E3 2008? Here are our nominees.
Resistance: Fall of Man was a landmark title when it launched alongside the PlayStation 3 in November 2006. While its sequel, Resistance 2, looks to be shaping up quite nicely on the graphical front, Resistance: Retribution’s visual fidelity blew us away upon its reveal at the Sony Press Conference. We thought God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII pushed the PSP to its absolute limits, but we were mistaken, as Resistance: Retribution manages to set the bar even higher.
There’s no denying it – Flower is beautiful. Coming from the flOw developers at thatgamecompany, Flower’s serene presentation entranced us from first time we saw it in motion, encompassing a peaceful tranquility otherwise eschewed in videogames. Even though it’s a PlayStation Network title, Flower makes no visual compromises, with thousands of 3D blades of grass swaying softly in a lush rural environment. It must be witnessed in motion to be fully understood.
Riding high off its successful re-reveal at E3 2007, Killzone 2 has continued to evolve in the visual department over the past year. Featuring high polygonal models, massive (and destructible) set pieces, and gorgeous lighting, motion blur and particle effects, Killzone 2 is a technical masterpiece. We can’t forget the explosions either – never have exploding barrels looked so, well, explosive.
When it was announced that Prince of Persia would be edging away from photorealism and vying for a more stylized cel-shaded look, we were rather pessimistic about the whole affair. The game wouldn’t use the true power of the current generation consoles that way, right? Boy, were we wrong. While we aren’t exactly sure how much raw horsepower this game needs to run, we do know one thing – it looks fantastic. Prince of Persia’s cel-shading helps streamline the game’s overall feel, rather than muddle it like we had previously imagined. To be quite honest, this game exceeded our visual expectations by leaps and bounds as large as those the Prince performs himself.
And ‘Best Graphics of E3 2008’ goes to…
This award was actually a little closer than expected, but Killzone 2 still won out in the end with its sheer mastery of the PlayStation 3 hardware. Nobody expected the game to live up to the E3 2005 CGI trailer, and look at it today; with a few minor exceptions, it’s nearly indistinguishable. It’s a technical powerhouse that arguably has the best graphics of any console game to date, and it certainly had the best graphics on display at E3 2008.