Pre-release screenshots that blew your god damn mind

[Phediuk]

In this thread we post specific screenshots from before a game's release that made you "holy fuck". Many of these will by necessity be bullshots; that's okay.

I submit the first batch of Oblivion screens from 2004:

Click to shrink...

I legit thought gaming visuals had peaked with this. There was no way things could get better, it would be too expensive, too much work. That's how far ahead this looked back then. I mean, holy shit, individual blades of grass!!!

 

[Khanimus]

Oblivion is the first thing that came to mind. All that foliage. I mean it looks pretty bad now, but god, back in 2004 or whatever, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

 

[tadale]

Waiting for someone to post wall guy...

Hard to disagree with Oblivion. The combination of scale and detail was unprecedented.

 

[Umbrella Carp]

Yeah when it comes to "Omgwtf these graphics tho!" breakthroughs, games like Oblivion and Crysis are the most prominent.

 

[Coolsambob]

For me, it was the first shots of this bad boy:

This is the only picture I can find that I explicitly remember from previews of the game.

 

[Edgar]

Oblivion /Crysis / witcher 3 the trifecta of holy shit it looks incredible

 

[Lokimaster]

For me, it was the first shots of this bad boy:

This is the only picture I can find that I explicitly remember from previews of the game.

Click to shrink...

Best part about it, the game looked exactly like this or even better when it released.

 

[Landawng]

Dammit i can't find any screenshots but seeing the original Gears of War pre-release screens blew my fucking mind indeed

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Chrono Trigger pre-release is something else... literally

 

[ss_lemonade]

The Getaway

Brute Force

I don't even remember if Brute Force looked this good lol, but I remember being impressed looking at magazine previews

 

[Xavi]

Pokémon XY. Now I hate the 3DS era though.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

Extremely tiny pictures of Shenmue from early issues of the NA Official Dreamcast Magazine had me fucked up. I can't find them exactly but they were like this:

 

[jotun?]

Everquest

just the idea of having something like UO but in a full 3D world was crazy

 

[Deleted member 1635]

Everquest

just the idea of having something like UO but in a full 3D world was crazy

Click to shrink...

Yep! And EQ certainly delivered on that promise in spades.

Most recently, while perhaps not "mind blowing," I remember being extremely impressed by the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer.

 

[MindofKB]

For me, it was the first shots of this bad boy:

This is the only picture I can find that I explicitly remember from previews of the game.

Click to shrink...

The graphical leap from MGS1 to MGS2 was a LOT for my teenage brain to handle.

 

[Zok310]

Basically any prerelease images of any GT game from PSX-PS4

 

[Deleted member 44371]

 

[John Rabbit]

I thought this was going to be like a Sega CD game because of how it looked (i.e.- pre-rendered video). I didn't think a game system could do something like this real-time.

 

[Iori Fuyusaka]

Not necessarily from before the game's release, but I was convinced we had reach photo-realism:

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I can run... anywhere??

It looked to be the Sonic game of my dreams.

Still waiting.

 

[dpanim]

This screen that was printed in OPM from a Silent Hill 3 preview made me so giddy to experience the fucked up-ness of the game. Disturbed me as a kid.

 

[maximumzero]

The textures in Sonic Adventure blew my goddamn mind.

Special mention of the launch trailer:

 

[ASilentProtagonist]

back in 2003

 

[spookyduzt]

 

[Hucast]

Gotta go with shenmue

 

[Big G]

Yeah, the grass/foliage in Oblivion at the time was insane.

A bunch of the early RE4 screenshots really blew my mind back in 2004:

 

[Salty Catfish]

Videos of Soulcalibur or this PC Gamer cover:

 

[Gacha Santa Alter]

Took me about a week to pick my jaw off the floor after my first look at Soul Calibur.

 

[Kuro]

 

[Foot]

Wow, can't wait to play this Parasite Eve game!!

 

[OrionsNebula]

More recent than a lot of the other posts here, but this still blew me away when I saw all of that grass and the details to the horizon.

 

[Deleted member 864]

For me, it was the first shots of this bad boy:

This is the only picture I can find that I explicitly remember from previews of the game.

Click to shrink...

This for me as well.

 

[Aaron D.]

The leap from FS13 to FS15 was gd incredible.

The dev Giants really broke out with FS13 and reached a wider audience, giving them the capital to reinvest and overhaul the game engine for the sequel.

Man, I was utterly blown away.

 

[Neil98]

My pick is Uncharted 4. I could not believe my eyes with what they showed at PSX 2014.

 

[MysticGon]

Lies and deception but they got pretty close.

 

[Kapryov]

I can run... anywhere??

It looked to be the Sonic game of my dreams.

Still waiting.

Click to shrink...

This used to be my PC background -_-
It kinda hurts to look at now.

 

[nekkid]

This PGR3 screenshot:

It was actually referred to as a "3D screenshot" that you could download and rotate.

 

[ghostcrew]

I remember very specifically where I was when I saw this pre-release Half Life 2 screenshot. It was the most real looking game screenshot I'd ever seen. It blew my mind.

 

[Astronut325]

Halo 2 on OG XBOX

I was soooooooooo disappointed with the released game graphics.

 

[msdstc]

In this thread we post specific screenshots from before a game's release that made you "holy fuck". Many of these will by necessity be bullshots; that's okay.

I submit the first batch of Oblivion screens from 2004:



I legit thought gaming visuals had peaked with this. There was no way things could get better, it would be too expensive, too much work. That's how far ahead this looked back then. I mean, holy shit, individual blades of grass!!!

Click to shrink...

so this is what bothers me about "the visuals are there, let's just focus on features and frame rate now", because games actually have a long way to go and can look far far better.

 

[GrandeDp]

Bullshot for sure but I was on the ps3 hype train after e3 2005

 

[XaviConcept]

Lies and deception but they got pretty close.

Click to shrink...

 

[Deleted member 35204]

Lies and deception but they got pretty close.

Click to shrink...

I think they released those as target renders not as in game screenshot, i know because i fell in love with those when they were released too.
Used the Sasuke one as computer wallpaper for a while.

 

[master15]

Shenmue

I remember pouring over various magazines during development blown away by the size, scale and realism presented in the images.

 

[Deleted member 18379]

I remember being blown away by Hunter the Reckoning and Dead Rising

 

[Canucked]

I can't find a pic or gif of it, but in the original preview of the division they walk beside a car door and gently close it in stealth and I thought, damn, that's detail.

 

[KainXVIII]

Kinda

And Fable too

 

[AfropunkNyc]

Click to shrink...

Wonder if it looks like this in 4k res on PC. have to find out one day.

 

[Galkinator]

Lies and deception but they got pretty close.

Click to shrink...

Lmao I remember those.
I don't think they got close at all, not even the UNS games come close tbh (well maybe just the story QTE scenes)

 

[Hidden One]

As a huge fan of the Ultimate Ninja PS2 games as a teen...When I seen these screenshots of what would become Ultimate Ninja Storm on PS3 I was absolutely mind blown.

edit: OFC someone already posted these lmao