Best looking era of videogames. Photo sourced textures, no shader overuse besides some normal maps then and there, fog, maybe throw in a dynamic light. No DOF, no motion blur. Just what you see. Focus on realistic-ish yet stylized graphics. Shines the brightest when they were pushing the PS2 to its limits, Silent Hill 3 being the gold standard.

Starts sometime around 1998 on the PC. Right after sprite animations, pixelated art styles, and vertex jitter (which is the reason MGS1 doesn't make it into the list but MGS2 does; or why Quake doesn't make it in but Doom 3 does). Ends around 2006 when Gears of War made everyone obsessed with sepia and 7th-gen consoles allowed for heavier shader use. This latter limit is a bit blurrier so some games from 2006 and 2007 that don't look too grey and sludgy will still make it in; for example, I'm on the fence about Black but whatever, it's a really pretty game, it can stay. Or, why is Half-Life 2 in but not Portal when they literally use the same engine? Well... I guess Portal looks too modern? Maybe HL2 is too ahead of its time and should also not be on the list? I don't know, it's just that including HL2 and not Portal ~feels~ right and after all this is a list about vibes.

Also note that some games might have had a late final release such as Cry of Fear which is a Half-Life mod that took several years to complete (and, yes, mods will be included if they meet the criteria and most of their assets are custom-made such as Escape from Woomera or Gunman Chronicles).

Feel free to suggest additions (or even removals! As I said, some things are up for debate). Also don't hesitate to correct me on the description about shaders and stuff, I'm not a technician and it'd be great to really understand this look/era.

Missing:
- Killer Tank (2000)
- Resurrection (2000)
- Soldier (2000)
- Secret Service: Security Breach (2003)
- Dark Vampires: The Shadows of Dust (2006)