Well, the screenshots are out in truckloads. Has Crysis finally been dethroned as the best in technical graphics?  

Hmm...maybe. But you know, Crisis 2 was just announced.

Those looks awesome, but I don't think so. The PC version of Crysis 2 will be spectacular.. I don't understand the notion that CryEngine 3 is held back by it's console versions, it hasn't been, the engines been improved and it will show on high end PC's

Personal preference? no, I like the colour in Crysis.

Not really, CryEngine 2 can pull off pretty much all the same effects as Metro 2033 does, but you'll definitely need a beast of a machine to make it possible.  The only things CE2 can't do are proper softbody physics/particles and screenspace particle renders at the same level as Metro 2033's engine (itself a derivative of XRAY I'm guessing), however I would be surprised if CE3 wouldn't have these features.

Don't think we're talking about games that haven't come out yet... 
 
Then again I lack the raw gpu power to take advantage of dx11 and tessellation.

It does look pretty awesome.

Dude..... Crysis has a few years until it's topped....  BY CRYSIS 2!!!!! 
 
nothing will surpass Crysis.... at least, not anytime soon.

 
Maybe,but Bioshock will always be the prince.

I'm only about ten minutes or so in and the game looks brilliant - the textures and smoke effects being the standout details. I have it the settings set to very high, on DX10, and it runs incredibly smooth. I don't know where people were getting their "bad optimisation" ideas from. So far the game seems incredibly well optimised, at least for me.

So far it's a nice looking game, I am at Anomaly with Khan ATM

if by "nice looking" you mean all the shades of brown and grey under the sun combined into semi-recognizable shapes, then yes.

For now...
Crysis 2 will be coming out...
 
for now, though... Metro 2033 reigns supreme... that lighting engine is fucking beautiful...

Low settings, here I come!

" if by "nice looking" you mean all the shades of brown and grey under the sun combined into semi-recognizable shapes, then yes. "

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

That's a pretty narrow-minded outlook. "Other people have used it, so it's bad". I can use the "overdone" argument against you, actually. Namely: calling a videogame out over being grey and brown is overdone and unoriginal that it's stupid.Grey has its place. When you live in an underground metro, surprise!, there is dust. "

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

I disagree.  It never looked stupid in my view.  It always looked thematic to me and even Red Faction : Guerrilla and MW/MW2 used it too.  Many great games use to good effect including Bioshock 1 and 2 as well. Colour grading is relevant to atmosphere but has become yet another bandwagon which people jump on as a means to snigger at art direction and technology they don't understand.   "

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

I disagree.  It never looked stupid in my view.  It always looked thematic to me and even Red Faction : Guerrilla and MW/MW2 used it too.  Many great games use to good effect including Bioshock 1 and 2 as well. Colour grading is relevant to atmosphere but has become yet another bandwagon which people jump on as a means to snigger at art direction and technology they don't understand.   "

The entire game doesn't look stupid. I think it could be good. I just think the color grading is pointless. It doesn't add to anything, it's just jumping on the "oh well our game's premise is gritty so we'll make everything look gritty as well so it's 'cohesive'" when in fact the game would look a lot better without it. I thought the graphics in red faction weren't good, and MW2 is probably the most generic looking shooter ever. "

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

I disagree.  It never looked stupid in my view.  It always looked thematic to me and even Red Faction : Guerrilla and MW/MW2 used it too.  Many great games use to good effect including Bioshock 1 and 2 as well. Colour grading is relevant to atmosphere but has become yet another bandwagon which people jump on as a means to snigger at art direction and technology they don't understand.   "

The entire game doesn't look stupid. I think it could be good. I just think the color grading is pointless. It doesn't add to anything, it's just jumping on the "oh well our game's premise is gritty so we'll make everything look gritty as well so it's 'cohesive'" when in fact the game would look a lot better without it. I thought the graphics in red faction weren't good, and MW2 is probably the most generic looking shooter ever. "

Dude, every modern game uses colour grading.  Every. Modern. Game.  Even on the DS and Wii. Get off that bandwagon because it's rickety and it's way out of date, more importantly, it's making you look stupid.  Drive a vehicle of opinion which relates to the modern world. "

Whether its the new "graphics king" or not, it looks damn great!

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

I disagree.  It never looked stupid in my view.  It always looked thematic to me and even Red Faction : Guerrilla and MW/MW2 used it too.  Many great games use to good effect including Bioshock 1 and 2 as well. Colour grading is relevant to atmosphere but has become yet another bandwagon which people jump on as a means to snigger at art direction and technology they don't understand.   "

The entire game doesn't look stupid. I think it could be good. I just think the color grading is pointless. It doesn't add to anything, it's just jumping on the "oh well our game's premise is gritty so we'll make everything look gritty as well so it's 'cohesive'" when in fact the game would look a lot better without it. I thought the graphics in red faction weren't good, and MW2 is probably the most generic looking shooter ever. "

Dude, every modern game uses colour grading.  Every. Modern. Game.  Even on the DS and Wii. Get off that bandwagon because it's rickety and it's way out of date, more importantly, it's making you look stupid.  Drive a vehicle of opinion which relates to the modern world. "

couple things: 1. not saying all color grading is bad. Just that the extreme shades of murkiness in this game ruins the graphics for me. 2. You keep saying this argument is stupid, but never explain why. so...why is it stupid? "

I have to agree with SeriouslyNow in the argument about colour gradations/palletes.  The game is based on a book, which envisions a post-apocalyptic world in the ruins of the Moscow subway.  How exactly would bright, colouful shades fit in with that world?  This isn't the tropical island where Crysis was set, for example.  I think it's silly to mark it as a negative against Metro 2033.
 
That being said, after having put a few hours into the game, I remember there being a kind of flashback moment as you lead your character through an outdoor playground; suddenly you are there before the blast, and bright colours are everywhere, as you would expect of clear summer day.  For the rest of the game, it is obvious to me the game designers want to evoke a feeling of sadness and despair, something which I believe they have done in spades. A bright palette just doesn't accomplish that.

The graphics in Metro surprised me actually. I was never in doubt the graphics would be good, but not THIS good! Still, there are some texturing that could have been improved. Or at lest, I've seen better. I'm thinking in particular of the ground textures "outside". But the texture on the walls and the detailed character models are impressive indeed. The whole visual style of the game is very interesting.

So far, the visuals indoors have blown me away. The lighting effects are outstanding, possibly the best I've seen in any game so far, and everything is extremely well detailed and rich. I'm playing in DX10, not 11, and DX11 visuals are probably even more stunning. That said, I've seen games with better art design, but technically, this is pretty fucking impressive. Better than Crysis? Well, it's different. Everything is more detailed, but it doesn't try for anywhere near the scope of Crysis- it's all indoor environments.   
 
Also, it's a bit Far-Cry 2-esque in how it handles the player's perspective. To see your objectives, you pull out a lighter and hold it up to a clipboard (you have to flick open the lighter). Putting on your gas mask, taking a drink of Vodka, it all feels very visceral.
 
As for the rest of the game, it's been excellent so far. The story is moving at a great pace, and the characters feel like people with developed personalities. Also, the sound design is AMAZING (soundtrack is insanely tense), and the action sequences are quite fun (although not particularly varied, yet). 
 
I'm a bit sad that the game is so hard on my computer, although it looks great even on low. I'm playing on a C2D and a 9800 GTX (1GB) with 4 GB of RAM, and the game is a bit slow at 1600x1024 on Very high. I wish I could get finer grain control over the graphics settings, because I would rather NOT have motion blur and adaptive AA, but I don't want to disable other settings. I'll have to mess about with some .ini I guess. 
 
I definitely recommend a buy.

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SeriouslyNow: because when it's been done by every game ever now it's just overdone. It doesn't make the game look more apocolypse-y, it doesn't make it look darker or scary, it just makes it look stupid. "

I disagree.  It never looked stupid in my view.  It always looked thematic to me and even Red Faction : Guerrilla and MW/MW2 used it too.  Many great games use to good effect including Bioshock 1 and 2 as well. Colour grading is relevant to atmosphere but has become yet another bandwagon which people jump on as a means to snigger at art direction and technology they don't understand.   "

The entire game doesn't look stupid. I think it could be good. I just think the color grading is pointless. It doesn't add to anything, it's just jumping on the "oh well our game's premise is gritty so we'll make everything look gritty as well so it's 'cohesive'" when in fact the game would look a lot better without it. I thought the graphics in red faction weren't good, and MW2 is probably the most generic looking shooter ever. "

Dude, every modern game uses colour grading.  Every. Modern. Game.  Even on the DS and Wii. Get off that bandwagon because it's rickety and it's way out of date, more importantly, it's making you look stupid.  Drive a vehicle of opinion which relates to the modern world. "

Not really, crysis looks more real than that. Ppl who thinks it looks better doesn't play crysis on very high, rather they use a bunch of configs and it's understandable if they think it looks better than their config settings, which it does, yet not very high.

I've been playing Metro on my PC (running ancient-ass XP and DX9, with a GTX 260) and it's got some of the best graphics I've ever seen. It blows Crysis out of the water, though we have to keep in mind that Metro is very "indoors" and doesn't render nearly as much as Crysis does. 

"

Not really, crysis looks more real than that. Ppl who thinks it looks better doesn't play crysis on very high, rather they use a bunch of configs and it's understandable if they think it looks better than their config settings, which it does, yet not very high.

"

" @HitmanAgent47 said:

"

Not really, crysis looks more real than that. Ppl who thinks it looks better doesn't play crysis on very high, rather they use a bunch of configs and it's understandable if they think it looks better than their config settings, which it does, yet not very high.

"

Sorry Hitman but most of the mods and configs out there actually provide higher res textures and better time of day lighting (which is very important); vanilla Crysis on very high is starting to show its age. Whether Metro looks better is debatable, but I think it's safe to say that the original Crysis is at least being challenged. Metro has tesselation, better normal mapping, pre-computed ambient occlusion, a better antialiasing method and in addition the shadows are of a higher resolution. What I'm wondering is if this actually looks better than Crysis to most of you.  "

(God Of War III.)

 
  @get2sammyb said:

" (God Of War III.) "

 Found this quote on VG247

  

THQ’s head of communications Huw Beynon has told VG247 that Metro 2033 will be setting a graphical standard on 360 that hasn’t been “done before”.

His quotes come as it was said recently by the company the game on 360 would reach a new graphical benchmark for consoles.

“The 4A Engine is a fabulous piece of tech,” said Beynon, “and you’ll see Metro 2033 doing things on the 360 that you haven’t seen done before. Personally, I think it looks incredible. But take a look, judge for yourself.

Speaking on the week of release for the 4A title, the exec said if you’re worried the PC version will be inferior to the 360 version, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, especially if the “Optimum” specs gave you a heart attack.

“PC is a another level again,” said Beynon. “I think we scared a few people when we suggested our ‘Optimum’ specs, but ‘Optimum’ means exactly that – the very best set-up for the very best quality and performance. Metro will run well and look great at the minimum spec, let alone ‘Recommended’ which is well within the reach of serious PC gamers.

“Then there’s 3D Vision implemented – Metro is currently NVIDIA’s poster child for their 3D tech, if you get the chance to see it you really should.”

Metro 2033 releases tomorrow in the US and Friday in the UK for PC and 360.

" @HitmanAgent47 said:

"

Not really, crysis looks more real than that. Ppl who thinks it looks better doesn't play crysis on very high, rather they use a bunch of configs and it's understandable if they think it looks better than their config settings, which it does, yet not very high.

"

Sorry Hitman but most of the mods and configs out there actually provide higher res textures and better time of day lighting (which is very important); vanilla Crysis on very high is starting to show its age. Whether Metro looks better is debatable, but I think it's safe to say that the original Crysis is at least being challenged. Metro has tesselation, better normal mapping, pre-computed ambient occlusion, a better antialiasing method and in addition the shadows are of a higher resolution. What I'm wondering is if this actually looks better than Crysis to most of you.  "

So far, the visuals indoors have blown me away. The lighting effects are outstanding, possibly the best I've seen in any game so far, and everything is e I'm playing on a C2D and a 9800 GTX (1GB) with 4 GB of RAM, and the game is a bit slow at 1600x1024 on Very high.

Graphically impressive, but the visual style is still very bleak and boring. I'm sure there's some eye-popping stuff in there, but nothing that can match the beauty of Cryengine 2, certainly not 3.

the cut scenes in FF13 are great, but cyrsis will still be the winner

Everything is just so detailed, including how the flame on the lighter sways as you move around.