Graphics Advances in Games

• F.E.A.R. Combat, 2005, Sierra (free registration required to install)  (wikipedia)
  
• Uses parallax maps for wall damage craters.
• Several weapons use readback-displacement effects.
• Doom3, 2004, Id Software (wikipedia)
  
• Pioneered use of shadow volumes in real games.
• Note that only two light sources are active at once in most areas.
  
• Far Cry, 2004, Crytek (wikipedia)
  
• Uses alpha-test "impostor" textures to speed up rendering of distant foliage; uses Aliaga geometry distortion to morph geometry to match impostors.
• Interesting readback effects for water refraction and reflection.
• Half-Life 2, 2004, Valve (wikipedia)
• Interesting physics system; physics crucial to gameplay.
• Water reflection and refraction.
• Perhaps the most involved storyline presented entirely indirectly of any modern game.
  
• Halo, 2003 (PC version), Bungee/Microsoft Games (wikipedia)
• Excellent atmosphere rendering and multi-layer rendering.
  
• Liberal use of alpha-added glowing objects.
  
• Max Payne 2, 2003, Rockstar Games, (wikipedia)
• Interesting "bullet time" animation speed control.
  
• Best human skin and hair rendering for a game of its era.
  
• Third-person combat.
• Quake 2, 1997, Id Software (wikipedia)
• Actual OpenGL rendering.
• Lighting, including a precomputed "lightmap" texture.
  
• Diablo, 1997, Blizzard (wikipedia)
• Not even a 3D game; a 2D isometric projection sprite-based game.
• Levels (dungeons) are generated procedurally--they're different for every character that plays them!
  
• Duke Nukem 3D, 1996, 3D Realms (wikipedia)
• Interaction with the world beyond button switches (some destructable objects)
• Still 8-bit color, and sprite-based.
  
• Doom, 1993, Id Software (wikipedia)
• 8-bit VGA mode software rendering (no graphics hardware!)
• Walls and ceiling must be perpendicular to each other and aligned with the camera.
• Monsters are just 2D alpha-test images called "sprites".