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E3 2006 Best Graphics: Gods & Heroes, Perpetual Entertainment / SOE

Gods & Heroes has still pictures as good as anyone on the market. A few weeks ago, News Editor Jon Wood had to verify with me that a recent batch of screenshots were in fact in-game images and not Photoshop wallpapers. Then, we hit E3 and saw it all in action. One Perpetual staffer claimed a fan lamented "if only games actually looked like that" as they motioned to the overhead video. Little did they know, that video was almost entirely in-game footage.

As a special treat, you can download an high-resolution version of their E3 trailer here (warning, large file!)

The characters interact with each other and monsters in such a way that it makes you think the game is a cinematic, not an interactive MMORPG. In the video, two gladiators knock each other over, stomp on each other's chests and much more. It's downright amazing what these characters can do.

Perpetual has animated it so that every creature in the game can have special moves down to them (based on size) and has special moves of their own. No more swing and blank stare, the characters truly look like they are fighting.

Then you factor in the actual look and style of the title. For a mythological Roman game, they've captured it dead on. The characters look Roman and the look heroic. For a game called Gods & Heroes, what more can someone ask?

The only downside is the user interface, which is extremely functional, but not quite as sleek as some others. Nonetheless, the overall quality of every other aspect of the game secured it the award in this most hotly contested category.

Good work Perpetual on taking home Best Graphics. Now take a look at who else nearly grabbed the hardware.

The following titles also captured our imagination and deserved consideration.

AION, NCSoft

If the image to the left doesn't say it all, I don't know what does. This game looks amazing. This was the toughest category and any of the games could have won. It got edged on animations.

EVE Online, CCP Games

This game won the MMORPG.com 2005 Reader's Choice Award for Best Graphics. It's three years old and now in Path to Kali they're redoing everything. Just watching the light play against the ships was amazing. It's hard to compare a ship in space to animated characters though and Kali only redoes the ships.

Fury, Auran

Again, where did this game come from? This PvP game has animations to die for. Literally. The characters look great and interact beautifully. The only thing holding this back is a slight bit of a plastic to the look.

Pirates of the Burning Sea, FlyingLab Software

The defending champ doesn't manage to repeat, but that's more in what others did than anything they did wrong. The game looks even better than it did last year. It's stunning. Like EVE though, it is tough to compare the ships to the characters. Luckily, this game has characters too. While hardly slouching, they're not quite as stunning as the sea.

SUN, Webzen

Last year, the graphics were pretty good. This year, they were stunning. They win the Best from Webzen award, edging out Huxley by a nose, but they're still not quite the best on the market.

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