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See the original image at gamesradar.com —

Evolution of the Tree (and other objects) in Video Games

gamesradar.com — Over the next few pages we ’ll be looking at gaming’s unsung heroes – objects like rocks, puddles and, er, breasts – and how they’ve changed over the decades. After you’ve witnessed the horrors within, you’ll never complain about graphics again.

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  • Sornos, on 10/02/2008, -0/+39I would've gone with Mass Effect for the faces. It may not get hair right, but damn do the faces look real. Especially the non-humans.
    • ahawks, on 10/02/2008, -5/+30Just curious, how do you know when a non-human face looks real? Do you have any aliens to compare & contrast with? ;)
      • DBeta, on 10/02/2008, -2/+12Texture and lighting are a good clue.
      • Sornos, on 10/02/2008, -0/+35[nerd time]
        The reason why I and most humans see the non-human faces looking better is that we are programed to look for all the minutiae in human faces so that we can identify individual humans. So in virtual human faces, we can see more clearly all the faults that wouldn't be as obvious in not-so-human faces.
        [/nerd time]
        Also, yes, I do have non-human faces to compare.
        http://i35.tinypic.com/4uxi7r.jpg
    • OneLess, on 10/03/2008, -0/+7I think they should have gone with Goldeneye for faces at some point, perhaps in place of MGS. Wasn't it one of the first games to map real face images onto character models?
      • OneLess, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1Eh, never mind for some reason I didn't realize the whole face thing was the Metal Gear series...need more sleep.
    • telepwn, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Bioshock for water effects too.
      I dunno how they missed that one...
    • Asianwaste, on 10/03/2008, -0/+7This list is lame. Rather than aiming for the games that first reached the milestones they'd go for the first random game they can think of.
    • daridave, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Actually, it was a fun read but the examples used are actually pretty terrible... I would have changed a lot of things in there!
    • dommickey, on 10/04/2008, -0/+1As for faces its important to show what was and what we ended up with in the end it dosent matter the game really, but if you can stay with the same game all through the years u get a better effect overall. Everyone would of used their own versions of games this guy is clearly just using what he knows and has gone through his life with as examples no need to turn this into this game is better then that one.
  • psibladeZX, on 10/02/2008, -7/+20Trees in Mario 64 were hilarious... it was just a pole with a ball on the end...
  • AparoidX, on 10/02/2008, -2/+20Only from GamesRadar..
    • ICSU, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4"...the 8-bit graphics have clearly done their job. Still, this is the videogame equivalent of cave drawings."
      I can't be the only one who remembers even more primitive graphics than this example.
  • InfernoX, on 10/03/2008, -11/+60I don't understand why Crysis wasn't at the end of everything. It pretty much wins at everything.
    • zewm, on 10/03/2008, -2/+59Because it seemed like they were just advertising Uncharted.
      • chedabob, on 10/03/2008, -2/+32Why didn't they just title it "Lets point out all the pretty bits from PS3 games" ?
      • Narcowski, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9It IS GamesRadar....
    • Lendon2020, on 10/03/2008, -3/+12Because there's only 5 computers in the whole world who can run it at max graphical settings?

      /sarcasm
      • 1longtime, on 10/03/2008, -3/+2Nonono, you hook all 5 of them together to run one game.

        It's called "SLI," which is tech-speak for "don't just buy one piece of hardware [which will be obsolete in a year], buy at least 2 or more."
      • Stevethegreat, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3I bought my 8800GTX 2 years ago and it's still going strong and plays all of the games ('xcept crysis of course) at their highest setting.

        So much of your retarded theory that computer hardware goes obsolete every year. In fact due to the dominance of consoles the hardware cycle on PCs are about the same as consoles as far as consoles ports (the vast majority of new games) go. So buying a good PC now would be the rough equivalent of buying a good console with 2008 hardware, it would go you at least to 2012-2013. My "old" 8800 seems to have another 2 or 3 years of life and that's just a graphics card the MOST frequently upgradeable part of a PC, I'm not even talking about the CPU which you can hold it for more than half a decade w/t any significant problems (my first gen C2D has at least another 3 years of life).
    • ele1122, on 10/03/2008, -3/+2As amazing as the graphics were, I felt that the game itself was lacking. Honestly, it takes 30 rounds to kill one soldier?
      • dsmx, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Take the silencer of it then, or just use the shotgun.
      • InfernoX, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Only if you shoot them in their body armour. Aim for the head.
    • MeatyVitamin, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5They were really putting Playstation games in the spotlight.
      • InfernoX, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3I guess, while Uncharted was a great game I find it kind of silly how they referred to a pre-rendered cutscene when talking about the water effects.
    • Enlyth, on 10/04/2008, -1/+2Because no one can actually run Crysis.
  • voomfoo, on 10/03/2008, -3/+60http://www.gamesradar.com/f/evolution-of-the-tree/ ...

    Theres the page we all care about.
    • DreKor, on 10/03/2008, -1/+10boobies!
    • B3000, on 10/03/2008, -1/+10Look, I'm a Playstation fanboy all the way, but to not include a single DOA game - most notably extreme beach volleyball - on this list of breast graphics is a travesty and a sham.

      Not that I pay any attention to such purient and juvenile things. And shame on any of you who do.
      • JudgeMonkey, on 10/03/2008, -0/+7Dead or alive is on the list. Just not a recent one for some odd reason.
      • jidusnoot, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5I know you only looked at the pictures, but if you read the little snippets they had about the pictures, you'd see that one was for an early DOA game.

        Dead or Alive, PSone, 1998
        Contrary to popular belief, this wasn’t the first 3D fighter to feature boob jiggle – Soul Blade’s Taki certainly came beforehand. But none did it so brazenly. Boing. Boing. Boing. There was an option to turn off the bounce in the options menu. Arguably the most pointless option ever.
  • nrox653, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Virtual Racing's... erm, triangles... are very basic O_o
  • kinseyincanada, on 10/03/2008, -9/+4415 pages! yeah im not that interested.
    • jotate, on 10/03/2008, -2/+20Eh, it's 15 pages, but each page has a comprehensive list for the full timeline of the item in question. I'm okay with it.
    • MrApocalypse, on 10/04/2008, -0/+2Agreed, for once there's a decent reason for splitting it up.
  • ursername180, on 10/03/2008, -0/+106HL2 wasn't mentioned when it came to barrels? It's like barrel-mania.
    • crazycarlmar, on 10/03/2008, -1/+34It's not a playstation game. Notice how all of the examples were.
      • Krillin, on 10/03/2008, -2/+6yep, and drakes is not the best at water or barrels.. metal gear 4 for the barrels.. bioshock for the water.. easily..
      • staticneuron, on 10/03/2008, -2/+4The Orange box is on the PS3. What are you talking about?
      • Natetendo83, on 10/04/2008, -0/+3yea, 3 Gran Turismo games. Come on it doesn't take much research to go out and find other games that had good looking cars in them.
    • blippityblop, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7Or crates....it's crate-mania too. I don't know how many times I was relieved to see a crate.

      He seems to have a PS3 fetish too
    • lelux, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9Or faces - Half-life 2 had the best facial animation system out there at its time of release.
      • cankillar, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2TF2 must be mentioned as well in this thread.
    • Lunarbunny, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-06-24
      http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-06-27
    • ogloom, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6I was thinking Donkey Kong
      • smergs, on 10/05/2008, -0/+4Yes. DK Country for the snes would haev been a great mid level example of barrels in gaming. But then this article is complete ***** with ***** examples.
  • staffell, on 10/03/2008, -19/+3I'm gonna be honest, I was expecting breasts.

    Disappointed.
  • windandstorm, on 10/03/2008, -13/+7One page or bury.
    • cesclaveria, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4it would be a page of about 60 items, I think multiple pages was ok this time (may be not 15, 5 would have been good)
  • shibbz, on 10/03/2008, -5/+55Cool concept but the 15 pages are really obnoxious. Also the water picture from Uncharted is from a cinematic in the game, it's not an actual game play shot.
    • zaffir, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5Correct. Combine that with the numerous grammatical errors and..., well... way to suck, GamesRadar. That said, the water in Uncharted is still really, really good.
    • dsmx, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6Even yahtzee was impressed by the water in uncharted.
    • staticneuron, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Everything in uncharted was running using the ingame engine. That water was the weakest example they could have used. During gameplay you end up in the water many times. All at different speeds, shades of colors and transparency. Uncharted has the best looking water in console gaming period.
  • Doomsan, on 10/03/2008, -9/+8215 pages? ***** YOU gamesradar.
    • Roland1232, on 10/03/2008, -2/+15Yeah I'll wait for the movie.
    • colonelxc, on 10/04/2008, -4/+415 full pages of content. You've got 4+ pictures per page, each with descriptions. Each page describes a different object and its evolution in video games over the decades. They are in fact doing it right.
  • MaxMWood, on 10/03/2008, -0/+25Could have used a wider range of games..
  • MaxMWood, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5Im glad to see that Crash Bandicoot was included for crates. I ***** love Crash Bandicoot, that game will never get old no matter how old I get.
    • frepnog, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2it should have been in the "rain" and "water" segments too. at the time, Crash Bandicoot's effects were amazing. when i got to the level where it is raining and you are on the outside of the castle i had to call everyone i knew to come look at that *****. great game.
  • bxblox, on 10/03/2008, -7/+2815 pages? I wish I could bury it 15 times...
    • AuburnTigers, on 10/03/2008, -4/+4Wow, you people are sooo lazy, "wah wah 15 pages?! That's equal to 15 mouse clicks! Unacceptable, Buried."

      Just read it, if it were all on one page it would be unnecessarily long and unorganized. It's a great article.
      • bxblox, on 10/04/2008, -4/+2It's not 15 pages great. Fortunately i'm not too lazy to make the single click it takes to bury you.
  • MaxMWood, on 10/03/2008, -1/+66Atleast it wasn't 15 pages of just "Tree Evolution".
  • cruppel, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8It seemed interesting enough to click through a few pages, but I stopped reading when they didn't have HL2 in the list of games for the barrel. Seriously?
  • voyetra8, on 10/03/2008, -4/+2.
  • FlareHeart, on 10/03/2008, -11/+815 pages for 14 items...does anyone see the complete lack of logic in this article?

    Buried
    • Ymeg, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6More like 67~ images and text to go along with it.
    • namelessXsilent, on 10/03/2008, -1/+9im pretty sure it say trees and 14 other items... thats 15
    • AmazingSteve, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2It's all about the page impressions baby!!!
  • chrysrobyn, on 10/03/2008, -4/+80Breasts are on page 10.
    • ironhide, on 10/03/2008, -2/+27most useful comment in the whole thread
      • B3000, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7What about comment #5, which actually provided a link?
    • chewbie, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2dugg for breasts (the article I mean)
    • mrsammercer, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2Also of note is Cammy's ridiculous sideboob from SFII Turbo on page 4.
    • MrApocalypse, on 10/04/2008, -0/+2Thanks.
  • freshyill, on 10/03/2008, -1/+5When they say right in the Digg blurb "over the next few pages," they might as well say "don't bother clicking".
  • zerton, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3we've come a long way.
  • Guagloves, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6Speed Tree ftw!
    • bpoteat, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2I am actually pretty surprised that SpeedTree didn't get one mention in that article considering it was the middleware used for the "the finest examples in gaming to date" (Oblivion) and a few of the other examples of modern day game trees.
  • RustIndy, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6Wasn't going to Digg this because of the 15 pages and the 30 popups that result from reading them and clicking the "Next" link, then I almost changed my mind when the author used the word "honkboxes" on page 10 and I choked on my tea.
    • jerrycurley, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3yeah...I laughed at that word when I was 12 too.
  • thesilvershadow, on 10/03/2008, -1/+9How can they not include Waverace 64 in the evolution of water section? The physics in that game still stand up very well today.

    And as others have said already - did this really need 15 pages?
    • Bahamut240, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2Because clearly, Crash Bandicot Cart Racing had superior water graphics, having been released much later in time. Oh, or its because other than Mario 64 once, he only uses Genesis and PS games.
    • NathanielJ, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2Also, how can they not include Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance in the evolution of water section? Easily the best in-game water effects from the PS2/XBox/Gamecube generation.
  • cl2yp71c, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Meh....no technical descriptions or anything.
    This is why gamesradar should hire some tech-savy writers.
  • mooseofshadows, on 10/03/2008, -0/+24The clouds! The bushes! They're the same!
  • nesstheking1, on 10/03/2008, -0/+7Walls page-Bloodrayne
    "because blood wood stick to the walls."

    I can has spellcheck?
  • hydroplane, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9Why would they choose Sonic 3 for their 16 bit water example over Ecco the Dolphin. Not only did Ecco have the best graphics of the era, but the whole damn game took place in the ocean.
    • IndigoMoss, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6The same reason the didn't choose HL2 for barrels, Call of Duty 4 for guns, and Crysis for water/rocks/explosions/Koreans...because they are ***** retarded.
  • HypocriteDigg, on 10/03/2008, -2/+23Good idea for an article if it wasn't a fanboy ad for Sony. The first two for each item are either arcade and/or Sega, and the next 3 are PS1, PS2, and PS3. Water without mentioning Waverace 64? Cmon.
    • Chewie67, on 10/03/2008, -7/+3Hard to deny that the PS3 is state of the art in graphics right now.

      The 360 may equal it in many games, but the perception seems to be that the PS3 is pulling ahead. Maybe because they can pack more, larger, and less compressed textures on a Blu-Ray disc.

      All of this is moot, however. In 3 years we'll be talking about the amazing graphics on the PS4, Xbox 720 and Wii HD and how their breasts render much more realistically.
  • 1legend, on 10/03/2008, -2/+15Crysis definitely should have been at the end of a few of those lists.
    • fuzzynyanko, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8Crysis had excellent faces, water, particle effects, and trees. It's one of the few games that I have shown real photos, and they thought it was a screenshot.
  • aolshove, on 10/03/2008, -2/+7Do you damned kids SEE wtf we had to deal with back in the day!? We had 286's and were damned glad to have EGA!

    The real killer was the 10 minutes it took to D/L a 1MB porn GIF.

  • namelessXsilent, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6shoulda had Shenmue for the weather section
  • SneakyNinja, on 10/03/2008, -2/+38Was this a "how many times can I reference Uncharted" contest?
  • EmberToInferno, on 10/03/2008, -0/+23Where's Crysis?
    • PlayingGangsta, on 10/03/2008, -0/+23Obviously the website couldn't run it.
    • dukeochutney, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2they needed to have more than one game. crysis would have just been best looking for all of them. well ok except breasts. but they haven't tried to render any in crytek engine yet
    • Cov3rt, on 10/04/2008, -0/+3Crysis isn't on the PS3, that's why.
  • Shambla, on 10/03/2008, -1/+8"Crash is probably the first game most people would think of when crates are mentioned." Not HL?
    • cesclaveria, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2I was thinking:

      HL2, Crysis and sometimes Zelda on a few of those items, but I guess thid guy only has a Play Stations.
  • jeremyduffy, on 10/03/2008, -2/+6The second comment on the page:

    "interesante, muy bien, todos los fotos son estupendos, hay muchos paginas"

    Translation:

    "Interesting, very good, all the photos are great... there are a lot of pages"

    Lol.
    • colonelxc, on 10/04/2008, -0/+4crazy how the translation turned a comma into an ellipsis
  • wing05, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3http://www.gamesradar.com/f/evolution-of-the-tree/ ...

    He forgot Commodore Pet's Night Driving.
  • Zeag, on 10/03/2008, -2/+8Wow, I think that for every exemple, they ended up showing a PS3 game in the end. And they tried really hard to put exclusives in there as well. Feels a bit weird to me...
  • SkippyDoorknob, on 10/03/2008, -1/+6Technically not a tree, but what about the cactus from Atari 2600 Outlaw?
    Screen shot: http://i.cdn.turner.com/gametap/web30/games/120015 ...

  • idoliside, on 10/03/2008, -3/+11What the hell, this was blatent PS3 propoganda! Crysis had way better trees than Oblivion...
  • BlackKnight6, on 10/03/2008, -6/+39PlayStation biased much?

    HL2 barrels & crates?
    Duke Nukem 3D Hands?
    Red faction walls?
    PGR4 weather?
    Crysis Water, trees, faces, rocks, barrels, skies, guns, explosions?

    Pretty lame and simplistic list...
    • CoreyHalliwell, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6I agree.
    • IndigoMoss, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6I agree with everything in the Crysis section besides guns. Call of Duty 4 by far has some of the most realistic gun models I have ever seen.
      • BlackKnight6, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2Yea, they are more realistic definitely cause they are trying to be. I was evaluating all this stuff by graphics (basically left up to the rendering engine and model design) and functionality (gun customization, trees breaking, facial animation, physics, etc).
    • Cideu, on 10/03/2008, -2/+3Red Faction was released on Playstation before any other platforms.
      • BlackKnight6, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3The point I was making is that Red Faction and many other games that could have served as way better examples were NOT on the list. My second point was most were PlayStation games.
    • staticneuron, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3Red faction, duke nukem and HL2 have all graced playstation consoles. Maybe it was just personal preference.
      • BlackKnight6, on 10/03/2008, -1/+2You are arguing my point on them being mostly PlayStation games. It was HEAVILY personal preference to the point of exclusion of better examples.
      • staticneuron, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3I thought you made that list to imply that these weren't PS games.

        PGR4 isn't and crysis isn't so I thought you had some rhyme or reason to your list. And I don't think they had weather, they had skies. There is nothing wrong with thier choice for that.

        I will admit though the could have used crysis for most of the list.
    • charliemehrer, on 10/03/2008, -1/+2yeah, i didnt realize the evolution of gaming was based solely on Sony's consoles.
    • jblade, on 10/06/2008, -0/+1Gears of War Weather is pretty slick.

      As well as models.
  • ScionX, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Site is blocked for me, do they happen to mention clouds?

    ;)
    • BlackKnight6, on 10/03/2008, -1/+5They mention skies, and like the rest, pretty bad games used for examples...
  • internetcoward, on 10/03/2008, -2/+6wow that was a pretty uninformed list, all ps3/drake's, and bad example for a lot of them.
    • gamermatt89, on 10/04/2008, -0/+2terrible examples. drake's does not need to be listed three times and it should say playstation fanboy under author of article.
  • thefiendster, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7most of the games were for the playstation one, 2, or 3
    • wedges, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3the article is from a PS magazine in the UK
      • crimsonnblue, on 10/03/2008, -0/+2So... The article doesn't say evolution of the tree and other objects on Sony consoles. It says, in Video Games.
  • pitdog, on 10/03/2008, -3/+5There's not such thing as evolution! All those things were created by the good lord, or for some a game designer.
    • NJank, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3intelligent design, my friend. all intelligent design.
  • wedges, on 10/03/2008, -0/+12there's a big gap between Mario 64 trees and Elder Scrolls Oblivion... what gives?
  • Swarms, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Damn I loved Desert Strike/Nuclear Strike. Why isn't there an updated version for the new consoles?
  • raz98, on 10/03/2008, -2/+11This top sucks, there are mostly (if not all) console games. Games that look graphically worse compared to the same generation pc games. Let's see a console game that can beat Stalker sky effects or Crysis vegetation.
    • Narcowski, on 10/03/2008, -1/+2Or Quake3 gameplay.
    • IndigoMoss, on 10/03/2008, -1/+5Exactly. No Far Cry in water section for evolution, screams console fanboy.
      • frepnog, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1Far Cry has amazing water. When i play it sometimes i just stand on the shore and watch the waves lap the shore. amazing stuff.
  • ps3udov3ctor, on 10/03/2008, -1/+5did you say breasts?
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