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Digital Foundry Direct Special: The Best Game Graphics of the Year 2023

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?



As is DF tradition, we round off the year with a look at the team's personal picks for the best game graphics of 2023. Covering off the very best in both PC and console rendering, Alex Battaglia, John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie share their thoughts on the most impressive visuals of the year, leading to an open debate on which title did it best: Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora or Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive?


0:00:00 Overview
0:01:55 Honourable Mentions
0:16:14 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
0:21:28 Final Fantasy 16
0:27:10 Robocop: Rogue City
0:32:56 Resident Evil 4
0:40:33 Hi-Fi Rush
0:45:45 Super Mario Bros. Wonder
0:49:45 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
0:55:50 Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive
1:02:57 Alan Wake 2
1:12:29 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
1:22:43 Top Three Debate




Top 3:


1. Avatar
2. Alan Wake 2
3. Cyberpunk RT Overdrive
 
Last edited:

mansoor1980

Gold Member
all top 3 games have ray-tracing , lord battaglia has spoken , PC crushes consoles

E4k52L8XMAQ9eUj.jpg
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
FF16 looking sexy :pie_smiling_hearts:
Should win or be 2nd to pl.
aw2 is the biggest piece of tech dogshit if you play on console. Worst image quality this gen and bad performance. Pc sure. But console not even fallback for lack of rt. Just broken ssr that’s only grain

And I am not impressed by avatar at all. Forspoken looks more impressive to me. Why is not on the list at all btw. Looks great at times
 
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TxKnight7

Member
a multiplatform game at num one again?


2Ont25h.gif



John, Alex, Oliver said Avatar wins

I thought they will pick Alan wake 2 for sure after they said this but then Avatar came

" Alan Wake 2 is the best looking game released so far this generation " Whether you're playing on PlayStation 5 in either of its quality modes, or on a PC without hardware-accelerated ray tracing features active, you're still getting a frankly incredible-looking game"


Crazy that Cyberpunk enter the list again this year!
In 2020 the game did win
best graphics

1. Cyberpunk
2. Spiderman Miles Morales
3. Microsoft flight simulator
4. Half life Alyx
5. The last of us part 2
6. Demons souls
7. Doom eternal
 
Last edited:

ungalo

Member
Another boycott for Hogwarts and Atomic Heart, just for that 0 credibility whatsoever.

Besides that it seems that because a game succeeded in a way you have to put it in every top even when it's irrelevant. And on the contrary because a game is considered a flop it doesn't deserve to be in any ranking regardless of what we're talking about. It's a whole other level of conformist thinking.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Avatar top 1?

giphy.gif
I think they are fooled by vegetation. Even in their video rocksides are flat and lack geometry. Same with rt gi. Ends up looking flat.
Where is immortals? Looks stunning. At least better than avatar.
And horizon dlc shits on avatar

read again. I edited.
Looks more impressive to me. I posted many shots and I still launch that game to look at it.

WTF IS HOGWARTS
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
I agree with their choices. This generation is about raytraced lighting and mesh shaders. Remedy and Ubisoft's in house engines have been modernized and are equal to UE5. CD Projekt Red are abandoning their engine. Hopefully they don't struggle with UE like Respawn. Jedi Survivor is a beautiful game marred by inconsistent performance.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
all top 3 games have ray-tracing , lord battaglia has spoken , PC crushes consoles

E4k52L8XMAQ9eUj.jpg
Most AAA games ship with a degree of RT now, don't they? Avatar, Alan Wake, Spider-Man 2, RE4, Jedi Survivor, Dead Space Remake. I think Rogue City also uses Lumen for software RT? It's not AAA but still.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Most AAA games ship with a degree of RT now, don't they? Avatar, Alan Wake, Spider-Man 2, RE4, Jedi Survivor, Dead Space Remake. I think Rogue City also uses Lumen for software RT? It's not AAA but still.
The fact that aw2 is so far away on pc it’s not pc strength. Or lack of care by remedy. Console versions of aw2 look worse than other console games. That game is static. They could figure something out but it’s just pc on low.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
The fact that aw2 is so far away on pc it’s not pc strength. Or lack of care by remedy. Console versions of aw2 look worse than other console games. That game is static. They could figure something out but it’s just pc on low.
Doesn't the 30fps mode look fine on console? It's the 60fps mode that suffers.
 
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