There are different styles imo. FEAR for its different effects heat haze, blur etc. HL2 for its texture quality, normal and spec maps etc. And Q4 looks excellent on PC imo, with great textures, bump mapping and glowy bits (technical term!)
CoD was pretty impressive too, with its soft particles (the smoke effects), and NFS Most Wanted for nice looking cars. Most detailed cars inside and out goes to GT Legends however.
What else, best looking space sim = X3 or that EVE mmog. And surprisingly the engine used in Trackmania Sunrise + Nations is really impressive with motion blur, dynamic contrast and colours etc.
Oh and I also missed out Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, very nice looking game.
Simple question - annoyingly complicated answer unlike Majik' s hehe.
< Message edited by choupolo -- 14 Feb 06 16:27:46 >