>>725139726
Mix of oldschool skill and passion + the desire to push the limits. Crysis 1 unironically coined many still actively used visual tricks, while not being made during the AI / RTX meme days.

People also always rave about the "muh graphix!!" but often forget to mention the absolutely impressive levels of PHYSICS and world interaction they packed into the game was well. They literally had real-time wind simulations going in a 2007 game.