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What was the first HD game you played, and what was your reaction?

Ckoerner

Ckoerner

Member
Aug 7, 2019
785
KodaRuss said:
This, the game was incredible when it came out.
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Same here. So much happening on the screen at the same time. That and Resistance: Fall of Man were the first two HD games I played. At a friends house hooked up to a (at the time) super expensive HD projector borrowed from work. Melted my little brain.
 
Vertpin

Vertpin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,884
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction on PS3. I was just coming off of loving the original PS2 games, and I wanted a PS3 so bad that Christmas. Then, I saw the game demo in GameStop, and I couldn't get over how good it looked and played. The demo was the metropolis stage, a great opener.

I got the game and the PS3 that Christmas (2007) :)
 
c0Zm1c

c0Zm1c

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,200
Not sure really. Something on PC but I don't remember what. Resolutions were, in my experience, kind of all over the place on PC back then thanks probably to CRT displays still being a thing, where lower resolutions didn't necessarily mean lower clarity like it does these days. 3D accelerated hardware was the PC's big jump and I do remember the first game I experienced with that: POD. Pretty startling how phenomenally smooth it looked compared to the old software rendering.

The jump from SD to HD was more clearly defined on consoles and so more easily remembered: it was PGR3. I was really impressed by the quality of the lighting and motion blur in that game (I think it was one of the first games to do per-pixel motion blur?) but those are nothing to do with "HD".
 
ShaggyLobo

ShaggyLobo

Member
Jan 25, 2021
254
probably COD 4 splitscreen at a friend's house, which wasn't the most mind blowing first impression visually. fun game, though.

uncharted 2 was the first i played to really surprise me. great tech and great art direction. (i bought a ps3 in 2010 and that was the first game i got)
 
The Praiseworthy

The Praiseworthy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
9,200
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I was blown away by how CLEAN the graphics were, my first game ever in my HD gaming collection... I so want NG4 :"-(
 
redrohX

redrohX

Member
Nov 26, 2017
195
The Netherlands
I'm sure it was Dead Rising and/or Geometry Wars on Xbox 360. Maybe Oblivion and Project Gotham Racing 3 too, not sure if I got those at the same time as well.
 
mookie1515

mookie1515

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,309
Dead Rising. Bought a PC monitor and a component cable to VGA convertor specifically to do so. Absolutely worth it!
 
Ra

Ra

Rap Genius
Moderator
Oct 27, 2017
12,201
Dark Space
PC gamers, when did 1280x1024 come out? I can't begin to remember the first game I played in an "HD" resolution.

Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War maybe?
 
chatsquared

chatsquared

Member
Nov 19, 2020
497
I think technically it would have been Halo 3 back in 2007, except it was on a CRT. I didn't actually start playing HD games on an HDTV until like 2015 and my first "woah" moment didn't actually hit me until uh

call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-review-fun-now-forgettable-soon-495958-2.jpg


I remember seeing this while being on Skype with some friends and asking when console graphics got "THIS good," to which they were audibly confused.
 
Cactuarman

Cactuarman

Member
Jul 10, 2018
23
It's been said a few times in this thread but I'm going to also vote Fight Night Round 3 on Xbox 360. My friends and I had 0 interest in these types of games but we ended up playing a lot of this one simply because of how amazing it looked.

Also, shoutout to God of War II which let you switch from 480i to 480p if you had a component cable. I used to show this off too. It looked so good.

 
Gunny T Highway

Gunny T Highway

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,997
Canada
Call of Duty 2 & Perfect Dark Zero. My reaction was not totally blown away since late PS2 to early 360 graphics was not that much different.
 
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Raysoul

Raysoul

Fat4All Ruined My Rug
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,016
There was this Anime convention, and there is a booth of local Xbox 360 community. They ran a casual single elimination Soul Calibur 4 tournament, which I joined. The game is played on a 32 inch HDTV which is big for me at that time. Due to luck and lack of good players, I reached 2nd place (I played SC2-3 before so my skills helped).
 
radiogra

radiogra

Member
Jun 27, 2020
238
i think dead rising.

but i remember having a way to upscale the original chronicles of riddick game to a friends' early-ass HDTV on OG xbox. it wasn't true HD, but that kinda blew my mind in 2005 or whatever coming from a 27" CRT. (i may be misremembering things though).
 

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
Kameo in 2005. Wasn't all that impressed.

I haven't been wowed by new graphics tech since the GCN era (though I do get a kick out of stereoscopic 3D!). Those levels of visuals are still good enough for me.

I'm much more impressed by seeing weaker and older hardware get pushed far beyond what was ever thought possible.
 
Agni Kai

Agni Kai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,853
GTA V in 2015. Does that count?
I couldn't afford consoles during my time in college, so it wasn't until 2015 that I finally got to experience hd (or full hd, particularly) games.
 
FinalArcadia

FinalArcadia

Member
Nov 4, 2020
1,793
USA
As far as game made for HD consoles with HD output, it was... Sonic 2006 on Xbox 360 lol. Which legitimately I loved at the time and I still am fond of it. I think at the time I even thought the graphics were good (yes, laugh at me), especially the character models, though I did not have an actual HD TV to play it on.

So the actual first game I played in HD though was I think Soulcalibur V on PS3. Yeah, I personally didn't have an HD capable TV for that long. It was nice finally being able to read text in games again, and I always thought the game looked nice even in standard def, so it was the game I decided to try first with the HDMI cable plugged in finally. I was like, "wow, yeah, this is much better, I get what people have been saying now."
 
Kraid

Kraid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,246
Cuck Zone
I genuinely cannot remember what the first thing I played on my 360 (which was my first HD console). I know playing Deadrising was the first time that I realized I needed to upgrade to an HDTV. I think that Ninja Gaiden Sigma was the first thing I played on my HDTV when I got that.
 
spad3

spad3

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,122
California
Cactuarman said:
It's been said a few times in this thread but I'm going to also vote Fight Night Round 3 on Xbox 360. My friends and I had 0 interest in these types of games but we ended up playing a lot of this one simply because of how amazing it looked.

Also, shoutout to God of War II which let you switch from 480i to 480p if you had a component cable. I used to show this off too. It looked so good.

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This was also my first one. I remember reading about it and then finally ended up getting a TV that supported the component cable and saw GoW2 in its full glory.
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
Enchanted Arms. I thought it was very pretty at the time. I still think the 360 version looks pretty good but the environments are dreadfully barren.

The PS3 version is a complete eyesore, though. I sold that version very quickly
 
Symphony

Symphony

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,361
Sonic 2006 on a CRT. Yeah that wasn't much of an improvement haha. On an actual HD TV though? Fable 3 I guess, I can't say I was particularly blown away by it.
 
Huey

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,178
Would have been Virtua Fighter 5 shortly after the PS3 launch, February 2007. Great times, man.
 
Strat

Strat

Member
Apr 8, 2018
13,329
I guess technically it would have been Amped 2 or Enter the Matrix (nasty) on the OG Xbox. The first one I remember really being blown away by was Gears of War.
 
toilet_sandpaper

toilet_sandpaper

Member
Aug 31, 2019
420
Mine was probably GTA IV. I doubt that it was really running at 720p or more since it was on PC and it destroyed my friend's PC at launch. However, I still thought it was incredible.
 
AaronMT

AaronMT

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,530
Toronto
It must have been COD4 in 720p on PS3. Actually, I don't even remember if it was 1080i. Am I correct in that the early original base ps3 didn't output 1080p, but 1080i?
 
Why would you do that?

Why would you do that?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,792
New York City
Probably Duke 3D on PC. I was a dumb kid who didn't know about graphics settings, so I didn't really care about the extra resolution or even know why all the text was so small in the level editor. The original Duke 3D supported up to 800x600, but source ports like eDuke32 supported higher resolutions. I was most likely playing at 1280x1024 at the time (higher than 720p).

In college I had roommates with high end PCs and 1080p displays, and I played Half-Life 2 and Quake 4 on one of them. It was really good looking, but only because the screen was so big.

I got my own higher end PC and a 1080p TV a little later, and I played Left 4 Dead 2 on it, it looked very nice in that fire area.
 
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QuigleyMcShine

Member
Jan 29, 2018
9,387
God, the first dozen or so PS3/360 games I played were on an SD TV. The generational difference was probably all in my head when played that way.

One of the earliest ones I know I played on an HDTV was Dead Space, and that shit was slick as hell.
 
Pyccko

Pyccko

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,868
uhhhhh the Resistance 1 demo on ps3, but I still had an old CRT tv so it wasn't that striking. First game I played on an HDTV was Mass Effect 2 and my reaction was "hooray, I can read the text now"
 
Japanmanx3

Japanmanx3

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
5,907
Atlanta, GA
I went from playing FFXIII in standard def to 1080p and I couldn't be believe how incredible it looked. Uncharted 2 further awed me as well.
 
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