LOS ANGELES, USA – It’s hard to be impressed by graphics nowadays so whenever a game can make you go “daaamn, that looks good,” you know it’s visually special. A standout. 

Two games did that for me at E3 2018: Ghost of Tsushima, and Cyberpunk 2077. 

Ironically, they are polar opposites in terms of the worlds they’re set in. The latter is in the far future, obviously in the year 2077, while the former is Japan in 1274. One could quite easily call it Samurai 1274 if they think they’re funny. 

But one thing they do have in common is that they have spectacular visuals. Tsushima is practically a showcase for high-dynamic range (HDR) lighting, whose demo showed beautiful wheat fields basking in the glow of a setting sun, and thousands of falling autumn leaves framed by a temple being engulfed in flames.

There’s a stark contrast in Tsushima‘s visual language, the game’s creative director Nate Fox said in a media presentation: on the one hand, you’re witnessing the beauty of nature, the natural grandeur of Japan’s Tsushima island and on the other, steel blades cutting through flesh and veins, from which a meticulously rendered spray of blood spurts. A duality. Beauty and violence as counterweight to one another. History’s seen a ton of samurai games, but dare we say this might be the most visually arresting.

One thing that influenced Tsushima’s visuals is Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa, whose works also had this kind of contrast between natural beauty and violence, said Fox. These two things worked together to “create harmony and abrupt action,” he ended. 

Tsushima is an open-world title starring samurai Jin Sakai who must become what the island of Tsushima needs him to be to save the island from the Mongol invasion. He has to become the titular ghost of Tsushima, transforming from warrior to a ninja-like killer, feared by the enemy. Essentially: some parts Batman, some parts Witcher 3, and a few parts history lesson, all wrapped up in one gorgeous Kurosawa-inspired package. It’s also a PS4-exclusive, coming out in 2019. 

Tsushima is being developed by Sucker Punch Productions of Infamous fame. 

Not so surprisingly, the guys who made The Witcher 3, CDProjektRed, have made another game with a standout look: Cyberpunk 2077. They revealed this trailer for E3: 

What’s impressive is how alive and imaginative the world is, with aesthetics that seem to have been inspired by the likes of Ghost in the Shell and Daft Punk, as one industry partner described it. It’s an alien world, strange and unfamiliar, but at the same time, you get the sense that it’s a plausible world by 2077 – and that world isn’t entirely shiny and utopic but gritty and dirty and mired in the same politics as the present.

The font of the title is also very Daft Punk, cool and lacking any symmetry, in complete contrast to a high-tech future that in many minds, is supposed to be cold and emotionless. 

Not a lot has been revealed about the game, with the game tucked away in a room away from the main show floors, but the trailer, at the very least, has already shown its distinct visual signature. 

Ghost of Tsushima and Cyberpunk 2077 may be millennia apart but in terms of being able to immerse you in terms of visuals and aesthetics, they are by far some of the best at E3 2018. – Rappler.com

 (Disclosure: The trip to Los Angeles, site of the event, was sponsored by Sony.)