Yearly, the Digital Foundry crew share their notes about probably the most technologically spectacular video games of the 12 months – and in a wide-ranging 108-minute dialogue, John Linneman, Alex Battaglia and Oliver Mackenzie share their honorable mentions and a prime ten listing of titles that caught their consideration. Nonetheless, identical to final 12 months, it is the highest three video games that actually stand aside and as soon as once more, deciding which recreation takes champion standing was the topic of intense debate.
The place there may be unanimous settlement is within the putting of Star Wars Outlaws within the quantity three place. The sport is lauded for bringing the ‘lived in’ Star Wars aesthetic to gaming in a merely sensible method, powered by Ubisoft Large’s state-of-the-art Snowdrop engine. From a technological standpoint, using RT reflections, diffuse world illumination and RT shadows is a exceptional achievement making an allowance for the comparatively restricted ray tracing {hardware} accessible on consoles. The truth that the PC model additionally has a path tracing different (RTXDI) for higher-end {hardware} is the cherry on prime.
It is a gorgeous achievement general, let down solely by its cutscenes the place animation really appears to look sub-par in comparison with in-game animation.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:01:58 Honourable mentions: STALKER 2, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor ReFantazio, Nightdive Studios, Tiny Glade, FF7 Rebirth, Energy Rangers
- 0:20:46 Dragon’s Dogma 2
- 0:26:35 Riven
- 0:30:32 Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- 0:37:24 Silent Hill 2
- 0:48:50 Astro Bot
- 0:54:32 Penny’s Massive Breakaway
- 0:58:05 Black Fable: Wukong
- 1:08:49 Star Wars Outlaws vs Hellblade 2 vs Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle
The place opinion is split is within the putting of the highest two video games: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle. Clearly, from a gameplay perspective, MachinesGames’ epic is a transparent winner – however that is clearly not the main focus of a Digital Foundry ‘Greatest Graphics of 2024’ dialogue. Hellblade 2 was lauded for its astonishing character work and digital digital camera, to the purpose the place some environments look nearly indistinguishable from real-life footage.
The scope is way extra restricted than Indiana Jones nevertheless it additionally makes for a good, commendable stage of constant high quality throughout the expertise. It is a heavy recreation, but in addition surprisingly scalable – Hellblade 2 can run on Steam Deck, whereas the 30fps restrict on consoles is well surpassed on extra succesful PCs.
The crew finally agreed that Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle ought to take the coveted ‘graphics of the 12 months’ accolade. The sheer high quality and amount of its objects, environments are exceptional, whereas the utilisation of excellent high quality RT world illumination on all console variations – and at a excessive decision on Xbox Sequence X – cannot be ignored.
The truth that the sport is successfully locked at an ideal 60fps is one other feather within the cap for MachineGames’ epic, whereas the PC model operating unlocked is a remarkably constant expertise with no stutter. We had been additionally impressed by how far the PC model scales past the console variations due to the inclusion of path tracing – and that is finally why the panel gave the nod to Indy: whereas Hellblade 2 barely places a pixel incorrect in what Ninja Concept got down to obtain, there are onerous limits there – no help for hardware-accelerated RT, for instance. Indiana Jones gives that in spectacular fashion, whereas taking it to the subsequent stage with the ‘full RT’ improve… and whereas that’s computationally costly, it’s nonetheless accessible even to {hardware} like an RTX 4070.
In fact, because the chapter listing above strongly suggests, there’s much more to this dialogue than simply the highest three alone, so in case you have some spare time, do try the complete video (or podcast) the place the crew talk about a superb many video games!
