Star Wars Battlefront - made by DICE and published by EA
This is the first AAA game I played, and it blew me away with the visual when I first launched it in 2015, the motion capture animations, the VFX of explosions, blaster bolts, the sound design, the soundtrack, the art direction, it was all brand new to me and looked stunning.
The team at DICE had put out an amazing work of art and a true homage to the original trilogy of Star Wars.
This is the first EA title that featured PBR Textures, which were a massive jump in visual fidelity.
Even to this day, I go back to it as my inspiration for getting into game development, it is a perfect example of how you can make a visually stunning game that is well optimized and fun to play.
The photorealistic environments of each map are breathtaking, and the visual effects really make you feel like you're in the movies, when playing in the large 64 player modes the atmosphere really came to life, with thermal imploders, blaster bolts flying, AT-ATs, X-wings, lightsabers, all put to use by players in iconic game modes like walker assault, heroes vs villains, supremacy, and fighter squadron.
This 10 year old game is a standout example of what could be achieved then and now, developers and players alike should be able to go back and learn from it.
It would be nice to implement a server browser and server hosting solution for the community to keep breathing life into this game indefinitely, ideally with EA's cooperation.
I really hope to see this game preserved at all cost, both for how much it means to me, and how it can be a solid benchmark of game development excellence.
This is my story, this is why game preservation matters.