#gamedazzled

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As we walked into a air-conditioned trailer, we were greeted by Petri Jarvilehto and his crew from Remedy. On two large, flat-screen monitors was the face of none other than Max Payne. It was the now-famous picture of him holding his 9mm Beretta with a "Go ahead, make my day" look on his face. What happened next absolutely floored us. Jarvilehto touched the mouse and the screen moved. The picture was no piece of rendered wallpaper it was live, real time! We looked on with our jaws hanging open as he zoomed into the gun to the point where you could read the serial number etched into the slide. He then panned around Max, Matrix-style. Next, he un-paused the game, fired off a shot, and then paused it again. He showed us the ejected brass casing, zoomed around it, and then moved the camera toward the space in front of the gun. We saw the 9mm slug floating just inches from the barrel. He zoomed into the bullet and we could see the imperfections in its metal jacket. And this was just the beginning.

PC Gamer - Max Payne Preview (2000)

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One striking instance of the employment of atmospheric lighting is the opening intro sequence. (Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you want to be left in the dark.) While Link is riding his horse (Epona, who debuted in Ocarina of Time) in the forest, two playful fairies cause Epona to throw Link from its back. The eerie moonlight works wonderfully with the freezing fog to create the feeling of actually being there, in a cold forest at 3 a.m. Then Star Kid, a naove freak of a creature, confronts Link and makes away with Epona. In a desperate bid, Link dives and grabs onto Epona's leg. As the tempo is upped, and Link is dragged along, the camera cuts to a closeup of the action, displaying gorgeously detailed animation at a very smooth rate. The overall feeling of a living, breathing world is expertly replicated. Residents putter about, stray dogs chase you down back alleys, and everyone has something to say. To an even greater extent than Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask conveys this sense of immersion.

Jonti Davies - Majora Mask Review (2000)

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We have reached the point, here at the end of 2001, where a 3D polygon world can look as good as a pre-rendered, fully raytraced world does. [Silent Hill 2] has no betraying angularity or overrepeated textures. It looks right. The technology of Doom has finally caught up with the technology of Myst. Now don't get me wrong; these are still different technologies, with different strengths. Pre-rendered images can far exceed 3D engines with curves, intricate models, reflected images and refracted light. We cannot do Myst 3 as a walkthrough world, not yet. My point is this: a 3D world can now sustain the illusion. The world designer must still choose his subjects carefully, to avoid hitting the limitations of the technology; but he can succeed.

Andrew Plotkin - Silent Hill 2 review (2001)

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No, id's games are about motion. A game like Myst may be a gorgeous slide show that preserves its beauty at the expense of speed. A game like Doom sacrifices almost everything for action. But the eye soon adjusts: the degree of detail more than adequately conveys infinite claustrophobic labyrinths populated by howling monsters. For the sake of a good scare, the brain becomes a willing partner in the illusion. The trade-off between speed and image quality is a key constraint of first-person action games, and the job of developing a workable engine involves constantly optimizing both elements. Gamers dream of the day they'll be able to haul their arsenals through three-dimensional environments of photographic clarity, playing Myst with a meat ax. It's all a question of greater processing power and better, cleverer programming.

Marc Laidlaw (1996)

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And there's the light. I don't know how they managed that, either. Some rooms are shadowy; sunlight filters in, turning the dimness to a dusty haze. Some rooms are open to the sky, and the light burns on the stone. The grass in the courtyard glows like a summer afternoon. Sunlight shimmers across the leaves of the trees, and when you look up into the sun, you are dazzled blind. I am not making any of this up, that's what happens on the screen.

Andrew Plotkin - Ico Review (2001)

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After an hour with this latest installment, any lingering fears of mine are assuaged. It runs beautifully, improves subtly on the mechanics and navigation, and perhaps most surprising to me, feels eerily realistic. It's hard to pinpoint why, but it appears to be a savvy combination of art design, architecture, lighting, and uncompromising attention to detail. It's not quite the cloud of flies buzzing around the garbage can in a random back alley, the dappled glare of the sun falling on faded concrete, or the way a passing pedestrian drops his cup in the street when you walk brusquely by him. It's everything. Sure, most every individual aesthetic quality has probably been done better here or there in other games, but I've never seen them all the same place, and their coherence is astounding. It feels like a real place, comfortingly familiar at times, and simply novel to exist in.

Nick Suttner - Grand Theft Auto IV preview (2008)