Best Technical Achievement games ever

[jezzace]

Of course Doom & Mario 64 sit up there for me.

But also Outrun: Its just so fast with an incredible number of sprites on screen. Playing the rom recently and comparing it to Outrun 2 it hasn't aged a day!

I also think Deus Ex was a good technical achievement. The feeling that your actions actually have a consequence hasn't never been done to that degree and it showed that characters and story can succesfully be put into a bog standard sci-fi FPS and revolutionise the whole genre.

[olly]

Shadow of the Beast.
It was and to it's credit, still is gobsmackingly beautiful with some great music too and crazy levels of parallax scrolling.

Such a brilliant game! And what Tom Salter said about the atmosphere created I can attest to - the way the sun set as you travelled far across the plains created a real sense of journey and exploration, the whole atmosphere created, for me at least, a palpable sense of both wonder and fear. I never got far, because I wasn't old at the time and I found it a very difficult game. But memories of it remain sketched indelibly on my mind.

[Concept]

Here are my five. You'll have to forgive the simplistic reasoning because I'm tired and my brain hasn't woken up yet.

Panzer Dragoon Saga (Amongst many things, for the beautifully composed 3D combat sequences and application of artistry. I find the changing colours of Uru's lake completely jaw dropping)
NiGHTS (For the speed, variation, and sheer on-screen activity)
Ridge Racer Type 4 (For some of the best lighting I can remember on the PS)
Soul Reaver (The first 3D console game to convcingly use real-time streaming and landscape morphing)
Shenmue II (I find it remarkable this game could be pulled off when you consider the immense amount of data the Dreamcast must be having to handle to stay on top of everything)

[Treble]

Well, MD Sonic stunned me. As impressive technically as SMW is/was, the speed and consistency of the Sonic levels was overwhelming in comparison. Rarely has art direction been married so successfully to technology. I also think SCUD Race was amazing for the same reasons: speed married to art - match made in heaven. The course designs were almost peerless. For some reason, the excellent Rallisport 2 on XB reminds me of it, in places :S

Street Fighter II had a sophistication coupled with a flair for the ridiculous that is rarely seen. Not only was it a massive evolution in gameplay, it had beautifully crafter sprites, and is a joy to look at to this day. Nothing really comes close, though, to when I first played Space Harrier, aged about 7, I think. Although it used the same tech as Outrun, Afterburner, Thunderblade et al. it was just so much more exciting to me being set in the 'Fantasy Zone' with huge Mecha and gigantic dragons flying about. The skill and style with which this tech was applied to 'Harrier was amazing, and kind of directed my taste in games from that point on.

Oh, and excellent choices, Concept (as ever ^_^ )

[112]

The Secret of Monkey Island 2

i never played the original but the second on was my first encounter of a point an click game. The humour was so funny and engrossing i could never forget such a classic!

112

[bangaio]

Pilot wings - n64 The pad, the flying sensation , that mountain, the waterfall, everything about it was technically excellent.

Ridge Racer - PS The cover of the arcade in Edge 5 blew me away and the build up was the most exciting period im gaming ever then I saw it running on games master and i could not believe this would be running on my tv and as soon as the ps was launched I was. Class

Doom - Free cover disk on pc gamer - awsome, never seen anything like it.

Day of the tenticle - pc cd no wait a cartoon on my computer it talks all the way through

Wing comander - just impressed the hell out of me.

[Concept]

Treble - My first play of Space Harrier actually came through Shenmue, but I have to admit, even in this day and age it's exquisitely beautiful. The speed, and stripped down retro-future style reminds me of a 2D Rez (particularly its fourth level) in parts .

[Madbury]

God there are so many to choose from, but here are some of the ones that really stick out.

MDK runing on my P120 it looked bloody fantastic. Level 2 iirc with the reflective surfaces nearly gave me a heart attack it was so beautiful.

Grand Prix 2 Thought it was a video of an actual race the first time I layed eyes on this master piece. Utterly stunning GFX for the day

Panzer Dragoon Zwei MY GOD Simply stunning even draws my attention to this day.

Nights

Shenmue Better than real life. Sooo much better. If only the real world looked this good.

[Concept]

Remember the water effects during the caverns on level four of Zwei?

As lush as lush could be.

[Madbury]

Oh god yes. A truly beautiful effect. Possibly my top graphics pick tbh.

The fact the water was all rippled on the surface, but still transparent was just awesome.

[hankwangford]

Defender of the Crown (C64) - OK, so the game could hardly be considered a masterpiece in gameplay, but this is the first game I can recall that really went all out to provide a cinematic like experience. It really sucked you in with a great premise and some gorgeous graphics, and the thought that it was being done on an 8-bit machine with just 64K of memory is rather sobering.

Virtua Racing (Megadrive) - Never in my wildest dreams, even with the custom chip, did I ever expect a conversion so impressive and accurate. Everything that made the arcade game fantastic appeared right here with minimal detail loss. The only affirmation needed that AM2 were all seeing and all doing during that era.

Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) - Of course, you could also use this even better example. Although it didn't make the mass market sit up and listen, it did leave a lasting taste in the mouths of everyone who saw it. An unparralled resolution, incredible refinement and even room for the gameplay too.

Shenmue (Dreamcast) - Everyone's already said it but it can't be left out at all. Maybe not as impressive as Virtua Fighter 2 in terms of getting what you can out of a system, but the fact that every character had an agenda, and every location had a behaviour... must have been painstaking to code, that's all I'll say.

Rogue Leader (Gamecube) - Well, it was fun for the first few months, then got rather dull, but the presentation, visuals and audio is almost unfaultable. The detail on and in every single piece of machinary, every object and every environment was obscene considering the game went from no lines of code to a finished product in, like, 9 months.

Ironic how 2 of the 5 here have little in the way of gameplay achievement. There are many more I can think of such as Panzer Zwei, NiGHTS and Dance Dance Revolution (for being the first game to offer an peripheral with insane penetration potential), but those are my 5 most impressive.

[Tom Salter]

for being the first game to offer an peripheral with insane penetration potential

Like the Onimusha 3 sword?

[gizmo1990]

The Secret of Monkey Island 2

i never played the original but the second on was my first encounter of a point an click game. The humour was so funny and engrossing i could never forget such a classic!

112

Erm... Best Technical Achievement!??? I think you may be mixing this thread up with 'best game' or most 'fondly remembered one!?'

[jezzace]

No I think he has a point. The monkey islands games were the first (or best) example of proper humour in a game, which was, and still is difficult to pull off successfully. It may have more to do with scriptwriting then development but its still a part of the game making process.

[DjSatansfury]

Morrowind

At the time i cacked my pants