On a side note, much has been said about certain games and their "fake" vistas. But you know what? Who gives a shit. I think sometimes devs try too hard to appease visuals fanboys and in doing so sacrifice artistic integrity or the greater look. Some of these Halo 4 vistas are absolutely gorgeous, and it doesn't matter one iota whether they're pre rendered or 2d or whatever or not. As long as it looks real and emphasises scale.
Similarly, I actually liked the blur and softness of KZ2, gave it that hyper cgi look which has sort of been lost in KZ3. Yes everything is much more detailed in no 3, but it also doesn't look as cinematic. And then there's the KZ engine in general, I actually much prefer this faked lighting engine to any version of actual HDR I've seen implemented. Even Crysis 2. For some reason HDR, no matter how well implemented, always comes off as too harsh and contrasty to me. KZ's lighting is far more artsy and atmospheric.
If you take movies for example, how often do you see the harsh glare or prominence of bled out sunlight or glare? Generally you don't, because things are colour graded or the scene is filmed with an ND filter to begin with. At least with longer scenes anyway. In this sense, HDR imo is sometimes a little over the top in it's implementation in most games.
