For me the graphics are also a gestalt. And it wasn't just about graphics... the title says "best-looking" not "most graphically advanced" I'm sorry... I can be a bastard for semantics
It's not always about what graphical techniques are used, it is the images coming out. How well does the artistry behind them translate through those means? It's just like any drawing or painting medium. I don't care if you used a #2 pencil on notepaper or had a full set of oils and brushes on canvas. What did you make with it? In what ways did you capitalize on that means to convey a stronger impression? Did you know the limitations well enough to downplay them effectively? You know? That last part can be argued. You could say that if you can see the limitations easily, they didn't do a good job. But I might question if you're seeing them because they truly are obvious, or just because you have more intimate knowledge of them? I fight with myself on that point... when it comes to what is actually good/bad and what is actually just totally on me.
Point is... that all says more about the skill of the artist and what really brings the depth and meaning. You can pretty much take the graphical techniques of any game and boil the whole image down to just those, but to me that's not saying much at all. You could say "That's just __ and __ " for the most graphically advanced thing ever and not be wrong. I think it's just overly reductionist to do so. I notice these things, too. I said that about metro back when it first came out... that for the most part, it actually wasn't all that technically impressive. But I also said that the attention to detail and the way everything was constructed elevated it to a different level.
That's why it has to be metro for me. The imagery in itself did something for me that other games don't. And the techniques used were out-of-the-way enough for me to forget about them. I can just look at that game and have pretty much full suspension of disbelief. For me, it wasn't the story that drew me into the visuals. It was the other way around. Look around and I'm there. And from that point I can look at how different techniques were applied to make it work on my mind in that way. Again... it's not about precisely which ones were used, all of the time... though the GI is definitely flat-out impressive and worth seeing on its own. The weathers are awesome... especially when you get to NG+ holy crap. But yeah, a lot of it is kinda classic rendering techniques. It's almost more impressive to me because I HAVE seen a lot of post-apocalyptic games using those same techniques and somehow metro still looked totally fresh to me.
I think it says something that people by large saw that game and thought it was actually the most graphically revolutionary game to come out in a long time. Because in many ways, it actually wasn't. Yet they somehow managed to get that perception across and stun a whole lot of people with all of these 'dated' means. Very few people who've seen it would say it wasn't visually impressive, even if how graphically impressive it actually is can go up for debate. I suppose it's a matter of how you conceptualize graphics and what counts with them. Room for a whole mixing bowl of subjectivity batter to that.
Control is pretty close for me too, though. It really is on its own technical level. And it has the art to compliment. I loved the choices of color, the brutualist architecture contrasting the mysterious surrealist aspects of the world, and the sprawling, looping labyrinths of government-run bureaucracy hell. The visuals themselves were like a big metaphor for the ideas the game is leading you to as you move through the world and the story. And the platform they built with the engine they used to make it real was really pretty marvelous. I can totally see why it's many people's pick. Just solid as hell. Some state-of-the art stuff with substance to match. I still can't get over how plausible a lot of the materials are. I dunno how to explain it... it's like objects and features have real 'meat' to them... like they're not just empty polygons with spray-foam and paint over top. Funnily enough... the spray foam looks good too
The sounds really compliment it well, too. Like when you open one of those big safe room doors and you have that heavy, clunky gear rolling along those deep tracks with it's big blunt teeth. You can feel the weight and it's just like mmmm... CHUNKY. So satisfying. A lot of different things like that in the game.
But the reason I don't choose control is that I sometimes lose the amaazing images to the techniques underneath... they always jump out at me... not in a bad way. More just in a way where what I'm seeing ends up having more to do with the graphics than the images. It dazzles and leaves big impressions all over the place, but I find myself being lost to that in a way I can't place... like somewhere in my head I'm always more aware of the attention-grabbing graphics than the actual images underneath (which are also very good and as I'd argue, more important!)
EDIT: I seem to be not actually typing words I think I'm typing a lot today