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Ok seriously.... IGN's Gamecube Best Graphics Top Ten

snapty00 said:
Viewtiful Joe? Hahaha. Yeah, the game looks neat for all of ten minutes I guess, but it doesn't belong in any top-anything graphics lists.

I also don't think Wind Waker should be up there, though. The entire game wasn't even cel-shaded. The characters looked neat, but most of the environments were simply low-polygonal structures with crappy textures, giving it somewhat of a cartoon look to some people. To me, it just looked like what it was: crappy models with crappy textures, with cel-shaded characters.

I disagree with the Wind Waker complaints. I think the main reason that Cel-shading seems to have been played out is the fact that most cel-shaded games don't do a great job of looking like anything other than video games. Wind Waker didn't have mind blowing textures nor hugely complex environments, but I think that was by designed. The flat look helped the game maintain a truly cartoonish look as oppossed to looking like moving graffitti like Viewtiful Joe and JSRF. If develpers are going to uses buzzword techniques, they should do it right, and personally I think EAD are largely the only ones to really pull off the look of a cartoon while using completely 3D assets.
 
Shin Johnpv said:
if you have a good set up for the controls facial animation isn't too bad to do by hand and if it's being done by a decent animator it looks LIGHT YEARS better than Mo-cap

I hate facial mo-cap animation, it never seems to really synch up right and it always feels so lifeless and dead

Agreed. I just think it's difficult because I can't seem to get it right myself :)

Hrm... for my personal list, I'd have to have RE4 at the top -- the game is just stunning. SFA as well, I remember staring at the grass shader for an hour or so watching it animate. I'm disappointed that RSIII didn't make it, I just bough it used with RE4 and Bloody Roar last week, and that game definitely has some jaw dropping moments.
 
The Abominable Snowman said:
Why shouldn't PoP be there? I'd definitely place it and Soul Calibur II On the list. It just seems that a lot of you want GC exclusives up there, though...

First of all, there's serious debate about whether one could consider PoP GC to be the worst looking of the console versions. It's nice, but I doesn't deserve a place when it gets trounced by some games that aren't even listed like Rebel Strike.

SCII is okay looking. After Tekken 5, DOA Ultimate, and even VF4 evo I have a hard time saying that it looks awesome.
 
IMO, RE4 should be number one, with Prime in second. Wind Waker should be bumped below the top 5 (somewhere between 6-10), and Paper Mario and the remake of RE should be slapped into the top 5.
 
I'm sure MP could look better than RE4 if they cut out 30% of the viewing screen too.

Starwars looked much better than Starwars 2 only because the hoverbikes and ground missions looked terrible.

BGE no 480p.
 
IGN has forgotten how REmake looked.

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acidviper said:
I'm sure MP could look better than RE4 if they cut out 30% of the viewing screen too.


What advantages would you get from cutting the frame? I think the only advantage is clipping. As I've said elsewhere, I suspect that the reall reason there wasn't true anamorphic mode was because they couldn't pull it off like a DVD does for widescreen material.

Now if MP framerate was cut in half, I can see an argument for it looking better.
 
El_Victor said:
I forgot how it looked, that was really, really beautiful. :)
Actually, so have I. I've been replaying it today, and I'm scared shitless. :lol
 
3pheMeraLmiX said:
Agreed. I just think it's difficult because I can't seem to get it right myself :)


IMHO for me getting facial animation right is about 3 things 1. really good easy to use controls, 2 Staring at yourself in the mirror a billion times making faces and things like that, 3. practice practice practice

but yeah good controls make such a difference
 
i'm mostly happy with the games on the list, just not the order...

top 3 for me would be...

3. metroid prime
2. the wind waker
1. RE4
 
Borys said:
F-Zero GX?
I loved this game (damn hard) but the graphics were awful. AWFUL. Only two tracks worth mentioning GFX-wise - Big Blue and The Green Plant (?, the one with all the trees), the rest is almost on PS1 level of visual complexity.

Art-wise the space track was pretty damn awesome.

Oh, the music was top-notch, especially pilot themes :)

I absolutely hate when ignorant comments like these are made. The casino level was also impressive, & no parts of it were "PS1 quality visuals," you obviously haven't played yours in an age. Nostalgia hardly compares to the reality of PS1 software, & its glaring technical limitations compared to this gen.
 
Pikmin 2 may have, what some may call, a few 'bad' textures .... but as a whole the game is just insane pretty.....

if you can't count Pikmin because of its optomized textures, then you can't count REmake because it has pre-rendered backdrops. ---- I for one think they both belong on the list --- great art-direction and technical art.

also JungleBeat is a lot nicer looking that people give it credit for --- JungleBeat in 480p, with hundreds of birds flocking from the grass, the great fur shading, and effects shooting everywhere .... I had such a nerd-gasm...
 
I think Pikmin 1 looks and feels more realistic than the second Pikmin.
It had perfect water, too. It's amazing to me how many sequels fuck up the graphics of the first title.

RSII looks better than RSIII
MP looks better than MP2:E
Pikmin 1 looks better than Pikmin 2

I just love the perfect water in Pikmin. How it's not reflective up close, but the further away you go the more reflective it seems. Also, the way it reacted when it hit the shore was very nice looking. I need to go play Pikmin...
 
olimario said:
I think Pikmin 1 looks and feels more realistic than the second Pikmin.
It had perfect water, too. It's amazing to me how many sequels fuck up the graphics of the first title.

RSII looks better than RSIII
MP looks better than MP2:E
Pikmin 1 looks better than Pikmin 2

I just love the perfect water in Pikmin. How it's not reflective up close, but the further away you go the more reflective it seems. Also, the way it reacted when it hit the shore was very nice looking. I need to go play Pikmin...


The first Pikmin hurt my eyes. Nothing to do with bad graphics. It's just the game was *too* blurry. The second one was a feast for the eyes, in terms of creature design, level art direction, and animation. Pikmin most certainly DOES NOT look better than Pikmin 2.

Pikmin 2

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Pikmin

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Lesser textures, fewer things going on, and a generally smaller, less varied, less animated world.
 
I didn't forget REmake, if I was doing the list I'd have RE4 & REmake 1-2 that is the degree to my obsession

I've never been much of a graphics hound, REmake was the first game to really impress me
 
olimario said:
I think Pikmin 1 looks and feels more realistic than the second Pikmin.
It had perfect water, too. It's amazing to me how many sequels fuck up the graphics of the first title.

RSII looks better than RSIII
MP looks better than MP2:E
Pikmin 1 looks better than Pikmin 2

I just love the perfect water in Pikmin. How it's not reflective up close, but the further away you go the more reflective it seems. Also, the way it reacted when it hit the shore was very nice looking. I need to go play Pikmin...

Man, what are you talking about. Pikmin 2 looks fucking incredible, better than Pikmin 1. It's most apparent when you're looking through your little Beastiary/Item viewer thing, and there's one or two scenes when the light comes through properly and it's zoomed the right way that it looks like some of the most impressive visuals ever. It's just phenomenal. And the water also looks unbelievable in Pikmin 2, you freakin' nutter.
 
Amir0x said:
Man, what are you talking about. Pikmin 2 looks fucking incredible, better than Pikmin 1. It's most apparent when you're looking through your little Beastiary/Item viewer thing, and there's one or two scenes when the light comes through properly and it's zoomed the right way that it looks like some of the most impressive visuals ever. It's just phenomenal. And the water also looks unbelievable in Pikmin 2, you freakin' nutter.

You're right that Pikmin 2 has a lot more going for it. It does look better.
But the water in the first was ruined in the second. It doesn't have the awesome reflection or shore detection of the first.
 
olimario said:
You're right that Pikmin 2 has a lot more going for it. It does look better.
But the water in the first was ruined in the second. It doesn't have the awesome reflection or shore detection of the first.

It's quite possible that the monumental improvement in quality from 1 to 2 is clouding to my memory of the visuals involved with the water, but hey if you can provide photographic evidence of this difference I'll kindly concede. I'm not about to pop in both copies of my games to see :P
 
Speevy said:
The first Pikmin hurt my eyes. Nothing to do with bad graphics. It's just the game was *too* blurry. The second one was a feast for the eyes, in terms of creature design, level art direction, and animation. Pikmin most certainly DOES NOT look better than Pikmin 2.

Pikmin 2

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Pikmin

pikminlast1.jpg


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Lesser textures, fewer things going on, and a generally smaller, less varied, less animated world.

My thougts exactly. EAD R&D2? had clearly come to a more thorough optmization of Pikmin's code, as well as the GC's architecture. Environmental variation & detail, texture image quality, level design, creature design, story, the Piklopedia, etc. So many little aspects that made it superior to Pikmin, even down to the title screen & the Pikmin singing.
 
I'll get a video of the original Pikmin tomorrow if I can.
I remember it being generally more realistic, too.

The only thing Pikmin 2's water does better is distoring what's beneath it.
 
Once you get into the top 5 or so...I think things start getting subjective. I think most people agree that the top 5 best looking games deserve to be in the top 5 (disregarding the order they were put in).
 
Top ten or no, these are some of teh Gamecube games that made me just go , "Wow."

Zelda: Not so much technically beautiful, but it simply is in many cases.
Resident Evil Remake: Enough said.
RE4: Now I don't think the graphics, at least in parts, are as good as most make it out to be, but the way it all comes together, models, environment, lighting, animation, it's all amazing.
Rogue Leader: Made me go wow, and then made me go wow again when rebel strike came out. Simply amazing in most of it.
Luigi's Mansion: Some of the ghosts nearly looks like sprites, they're so well rendered.
Metroid Prime and Echoes.
Pikmin1+2: The organic style is sometimes breathtaking.
Eternal Darkness: Despite what most think, I beleive the environments in many places looked absolutely stunning, particularly the cathedral. The character models and animation let it down, but the environments were great.
Soul Calibur 2: animation and high quality textures.
Super Smash Brothers: I may be alone, but I spent hours looking at the slow motion animation, and the general modelling of the characters. Maybe I was just spoilt from coming from N64.
 
Someone said F-Zero was a bad looking game? What the fuck?

The list isn't so bad, I don't really care enough to compile my own I'd pretty much just switch out SFA for FF:CC.
 
olimario said:
You're right that Pikmin 2 has a lot more going for it. It does look better.
But the water in the first was ruined in the second. It doesn't have the awesome reflection or shore detection of the first.
Heh, first it was Zelda's grass, now it's pikmin's water. :lol
 
Rogue Leader was definitely the better choice because of Rebel Strike's on-foot missions. I picked up Rebel Strike pretty cheap and I still haven't played the single player more than a mission, though the co-op was really fun.
 
If Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe are on here, Paper Mario should be also.

Luigi's Mansion should be on there, still holds up well for a launch title.

Rebel Strike's on-foot missions don't look that great, that's probably why Rouge Leader is on there instead.

Resident Evil 4 should be #1.
 
WTF is up with you Borys ?


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Wheew that track is absolutely gorgeous. You are in a futuristic city, with hover-cars and stuff...

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That is a genius one. Mostly you don't see anything but the lightning's light uncovers the dark.

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The space track is one of my favorites. The space ships are really nice modelled.

Of course the game looks like 100 times better in motion. And did you even see the Diamond cup tracks ?
 
You have not lived until you have played F-Zero GX on a movie theater screen with the surround sound blaring over the theater's sound system. :D
 
GaimeGuy said:
You have not lived until you have played F-Zero GX on a movie theater screen with the surround sound blaring over the theater's sound system. :D

The envy I feel^, & yes Borys is not firing upon all cylinders. F-Zero GX is simply stunning, visually & technically imo. FF:CC trumps both VJ & BG&E, what hallucinogens were they ingesting before they wrote this article?
 
TheTurtleTitan said:
If Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe are on here, Paper Mario should be also.

.

i think paper mario had too many visually boring areas. There were places where it was really impressive, but too many areas that where just bland..

also, i agree that Fzero GX definitly belongs. in still shots, it is obvious that it uses some graphical shortcuts, but the framerate and sense of speed help mask that and the overal effect combined with the art design make it one of the most visually impressive expieriences on current consoles.
 
Krowley said:
i think paper mario had too many visually boring areas. There were places where it was really impressive, but too many areas that where just bland..

also, i agree that Fzero GX definitly belongs. in still shots, it is obvious that it uses some graphical shortcuts, but the framerate and sense of speed help mask that and the overal effect combined with the art design make it one of the most visually impressive expieriences on current consoles.

I agree with you regarding PM2, but graphical shortcuts are used by nearly every developer for numerous reasons. Attempting to acheive an effect that is either 1.) beyond the system's normal capabilities 2.) not doing so would adversely affect the framerate 3.) major resources are being utilized by the software in other areas, etc.
 
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