The Ultimate Graphics Poll (End of 2020 Edition)

[Linus815]

Sill RDR 2. rockstar does consistency in a big open world better than anyone. And their art direction is incredible.

From purely a technical standpoints its CP77 but honestly the poor LoD, even on max settings is just way too distracting IMO. And there's way too many visual glitches at the moment that just chips away from the overall presentation.

 

[Linus815]

Then you look at a character speaking and emoting in Cyberpunk and it looks like a generation behind TLOU2.

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Maybe if we are talking about regular civilians. The main quest npc's are easily the best animated characters in any open world game yet.

 

[HMD]

Cyberpunk and Flight Sim are unparalleled. TLOUII and RDR2 are technical feats for what they managed to achieve on old-ass hardware, but they just don't compare to CP2077 and Flight Sim on a high end PC.

 

[Tagyhag]

If we are talking about 100% realism, it is Microsoft Flight Simulator, no one can say otherwise. It is objectively the most realistic looking game on that list.

If we are adding everything else to the mix, it's a tough fight between TLOU 2, Demon's Souls, and RDR 2 for me. I'm going for RDR 2 purely because the PC version reaches an IQ and detail that is simply not available on consoles.

If we are talking about consoles only I gotta go with TLOU 2.

 

[Lyng]

It's TLOU2. The amount of polish and craftsmanship in that game's production is mindboggling. The animation is absolutely ridiculous, a standard has been set that most studios will probably never reach.




Then you look at a character speaking and emoting in Cyberpunk and it looks like a generation behind TLOU2.

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Main quest NPC's have more natural animation and emotion in cyberpunk.

 

[Azurik]

For me it's definitely CP2077. Fully maxed on PC it's something I haven't seen before and a great start to next gen graphics.

 

[correojon]

I don't like how all nominees are realistic. Videogames allow for the impossible to take place yet all we want is for them to look more and more like everyday stuff :/

 

[Wackamole]

TLoU2 for me.

 

[Lyng]

I don't like how all nominees are realistic. Videogames allow for the impossible to take place yet all we want is for them to look more and more like everyday stuff :/

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I kind of agree. If you made a "most beautiful game" poll instead it would be more interesting, since there are a ton of indie games that artistically look fantastic.

 

[jett]

Maybe if we are talking about regular civilians. The main quest npc's are easily the best animated characters in any open world game yet.

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Even if that was true, which is not, (RDR2 features much better animation than Cyberpunk) it still looks leagues behind TLOU2. Cyberpunk uses automated facial animation and lip syncing. It's never, in a million years, going to compare to RDR2 or TLOU2.

Main quest NPC's have more natural animation and emotion in cyberpunk.

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lol

 

[Martinski]

Flight Sim is basically the new Crysis

 

[Lyng]

Even if that was true, which is not, (RDR2 features much better animation than Cyberpunk) it still looks leagues behind TLOU2. Cyberpunk uses automated facial animation and lip syncing. It's never, in a million years, going to compare to RDR2 or TLOU2.


lol

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They use a new mocap technology that simply yields a more natural result. Play it on a high end PC

 

[Stacey]

FS is just a pretty sky (ground) box with a perfectly rendered plane and great lighting. All smoke and mirrors. Get close to the ground and it all starts to come apart drastically.

Cyberpunk is too inconsistent, at times it looks exquisite but overall it's a pretty average looking game.

RDR is beautiful from top to bottom with the exception of character models, they don't look like they're part of the scene, green screen esque.

My vote goes to TLOU2. The entire game is perfectly crafted from start to finish.

 

[Linus815]

Even if that was true, which is not, (RDR2 features much better animation than Cyberpunk) it still looks leagues behind TLOU2. Cyberpunk uses automated facial animation and lip syncing. It's never, in a million years, going to compare to RDR2 or TLOU2.

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Well, I voted RDR 2 in the poll and I can tell you with confidence that the animation work in CP77's main quests are better than the ones in RDR2. They are incredibly natural. I'd honestly put it on the level of TLOU 2.

 

[Rodrigues solitaire]

FS is just a pretty sky (ground) box with a perfectly rendered plane and great lighting. All smoke and mirrors. Get close to the ground and it all starts to come apart drastically.

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😂😂😂

 

[MrCibb]

It's between TLOU2 and RDR2 for me. I'd say that TLOU has got the better graphic detail, but if you look in the distance at times you can see there's not too much detail out there, I noticed it at places like the stadium. Whereas if you stand on top of a mountain and look out across RDR2's map there's a fucking lot of detail.

I'd personally still say RDR2 just because I do think it's more impressive as a big open-world game, the dynamic weather looks insane, and unlike TLOU2 it's on PC. Which might be a bit unfair, but cranking it to max on a beefy PC makes it look unreal. I bet we'll see some next-gen games still not able to match RDR2 on PC.

 

[Radium217]

It's between The Last of Us 2 and RDR2. Cyberpunk had a shot but in all honesty the graphical bugs really pull you out of that experience. Flight Sim is good but doesn't stir anything in me personally. Most of the others don't belong on this list. Demon's looks great but tbh nothing stellar or made my jaw drop.

 

[Cugel]

Demon Souls

 

[Byron Hinson]

God of War is gorgeous, but it's two years old. Ghosts of Tsushima is lush and for some reason the whole look makes me relaxed.

 

[MrKlaw]

Voted TLOU2. Many honourable mentions (GoT, Demons Souls, Miles Morales) but TLOU has that combination of lighting, animation, modelling just so damn strong I can't not vote for it. They don't even go for photoreal. Maybe that helps sell things, that slight unreality of the characters helps sell the illusion as your brain isn't fighting the uncanny valley.

 

[Deleted member 20471]

Demon's Souls, hands down.

 

[gabdeg]

It was Demon's Souls in res mode for me for the last while. The tessellation in that game is insane and almost reminded me of that UE5 demo in spots. It's also all affected by the lighting which is great.
But with the release of Cyberpunk I have to give it to that game, specifically the PC version with raytracing enabled. Most of these other games are all GPU, rendering impressive graphical effects, but Cyberpunk also delivers on scope and density. I've never played an open world game where the detail and and level of "activity" is this high and consistent wherever you go. Seems like open world games have finally busted out of the box defined by the Jaguar cores on last-gen consoles and we can finally move on. Part of this consistency however is the RT lighting specifically, fixing a lot of the lighting issues that come inherent with dynamic time of day open-world games and rasterized rendering. Without it it can look fairly flat and wrong.
The game itself has a ton of issues, the dev is highly problematic and the base console versions are a scam, but the graphical makeup is the one part of Cyberpunk I have to praise.

 

[Deleted member 45130]

RDR2 easily, I can't believe they managed to make the game look that good with all of the gameplay systems in place and it being open world.

 

[Ahti]

Easily CP2077 on PC. Second place goes to (the still beautiful) RDR2 on One X/PC.

 

[martincrimson87]

Flight simulator
Cyberpunk
RDR 2
Honorable mention: Modded witcher 3

 

[Martinski]

FS is just a pretty sky (ground) box with a perfectly rendered plane and great lighting. All smoke and mirrors. Get close to the ground and it all starts to come apart drastically.

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No It doesn't, even on my old rig there's even foliage and so on. And I can't even play it on high - ultra settings.

It was true for Flight Sim X but not the new one, even in areas with less photogrammetry there are pretty good detail and effects added.

 

[The Shape]

The Last of Us Part II. I only truly realized how amazing the graphics were when I finished playing and started another game. The difference is absurd.

 

[CasuallyDressed]

It's MS Flight Sim.

 

[Techno]

Overall it's still RDR2 (PC) for me because of the level of detail in that world and the polish, but I think Cyberpunk comes very close and in some cases might be better visually.

Flight Sim and Star Citizen still exist as well.

 

[PlayerOne]

Only listing the games I have played.
1. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - incredible art direction combined with top class hdr and iq out of this world.
2.RDR2 - Endless draw distances with no popin, incredible lightning and animation. Scope above most games.
3. Gears5/Tlou2 - gears has insane hdr, models and effects. Tlou has very beautiful lightning amd animation with stellar art direction.
Honestly Its kinda impossible to choose given how good games look nowdays, Im constantly blown away so my list is probably affected by recency bias.

 

[plow]

TLOU Fans, activate! As a bonus for every vote you cast for The Last Of Us Part II, a hater loses their caps lock :*

Spoiler

inb4 RDR2 takes over now

 

[Yes]

All I can say RDR2 looks amazing even on the base Xbox One.

 

[nelsonroyale]

This is a tough one...!

I would say:

1. Demon Souls: This game just has great rendering and amazing geometric detail.

2. Cyberpunk 2077: This has insane geometry and the lighting is fantastic. When you put in animations, polish and attention to detail, I can understand people placing RDR2 over this, but in graphics this is clearly above RDR2 on PC.

3. Spider-man MM: In combat with all the effects going on this just looks amazing. Character models are maybe the best I have seen, and the effects and animation are great. Just need to up the local geometry of the environments.

4. The Last of Us 2: Just insanely polished across the board. Best animations, incredible presentation, attention to detail...Most impressive current gen game.

5. Ghost of Tsushima: Most beautiful current gen game. The environmental art and lighting is just breath taking

6. Assassins Creed Valhalla: Despite initial impressions, this is really a big step up from the previous game on next gen hardware and PC. Lighting is really nice, character models have great texturing and the shadow draw distance makes a big difference.

7. RDR2: Scale, polish, attention to detail, animations, though they negatively impact gameplay.

8. Horizon Frozen Wilds: great local detail considering it is open world. Interiors impressed me a lot.

9. Final Fantasy VII R: Intro, Shinra building and ending looked amazing. If this was consistent it would be up there beside TLoU2, but it is very inconsisent.

10. MS Flight Sim: Super impressive scale and real feeling of the locations it depicts.

"I Don't Really Play Microsoft Games: The Thread"

This is a screenshot of Flight Simulator - not some promo image designed to look as good as possible. This is a picture a reviewer took, just playing the sim:

Here's another couple user screenshots from last week:




TLOU2 is a beautiful console game, but please... in terms of pure "graphics", the above images would melt a PS4 Pro.

MSFS and CP2077 at their best are in another galaxy compared to any other games listed here.

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I have MS Flight Sim and I don't quite agree. They are doing different things. MS Flight sim does scope fantastically well, and considering that scope, local detail is not bad. But it is not that good when you get up close. TLoU2 has fantastic presentation, animation, attention to detail, and great rendering given the platform. Impressed me more.

 

[Spoit]

Wait, why is dad of war and RDR2 on this list? Even the PC release of RDR2 was last year

 

[Flex1212]

Demon's Souls

 

[Kemono]

TLoU2 is a few steps ahead imo.

Demon's Souls looks unbelievable at times.

RDR2, CB2077 and SM:MM are great contenders also.

 

[orava]

Cyberpunk 2077 PC, RDR2 PC, FS PC >>>>> whatever consoles have.

 

[JudgmentJay]

From a purely technical viewpoint it's obviously Cyberpunk.

 

[Onebadlion]

Red Dead 2 is my pick, but CyberPunk at the highest settings is probably more impressive technically, especially with ray tracing set to psycho. I'd personally give RDR2 the edge because I prefer the art style.

 

[Rover_]

TLOU2 and it's not exactly close to RDR2, the second best. ND really knocked outta park in every department from animations to almost none repeated asset.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Voted Cyberpunk. Nothing comes close on a maxed-out machine.

PC:
1. Cyberpunk - even not maxed out, it still is a stunner from what I've seen.
2. Red Dead 2
3. Metro

Console:
1. Red Dead 2
2: Gears 5: Hivebusters XSX
3. Demon's Souls

 

[JahIthBer]

I think Demons Souls is a bit ahead of everything else right now, including Cyberpunk, you can tell it's geometry & generally very high triangle count is something that couldn't be done on PS4, but it also shows how much diminishing returns is kicking in, it's getting harder to get excited about visuals.

 

[YuriLowell]

Demons Souls for me.

 

[camac002]

Main quest NPC's have more natural animation and emotion in cyberpunk.

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lol what? I am playing this on PC, and my vote for best graphics in a general sense would go to Cyberpunk but it's obvious that it uses that automated facial tech in the bulk of cases as detailed in the video: (And it's a pretty good solution.)




You can every now and then also notice slight jank in the motion captured body movement too. And yes, this is on main NPC characters. The game environment/city is the best ever made but the animations....no. (Still excellent for an open-world game though.)

 

[Deleted member 10612]

Last of us II, simply because there is so much unique stuff, sensless amounts of it even, in the game. The Remaster is going to be bonkers.

 

[Deleted member 76797]

Cyberpunk > RDR2 PC > Flight Sim

 

[DJKippling]

this poll is pretty pointless, just like any "best of" poll. Inevitably people are voting for their favourite game / platform and not the actual best graphics.

 

[Shark]

The Last of Us Part 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I hate Cyberpunk's art direction and the attention to detail is just not there. I think you see every advertisement in the entire game within 5 minutes of access to the open world.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

this poll is pretty pointless, just like any "best of" poll. Inevitably people are voting for their favourite game / platform and not the actual best graphics.

Click to shrink...

I agree. Hardly anyone has played other games that are getting the vote.

 

[Winnie]

On PC (these shots aren't even at 4k, it would be thousand times better at 4k):

1 - MS Flight Simulator
2 - Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p)

3 - Red Dead Redemption 2 (1080p)