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Digital Foundry's Best Game Graphics of 2022 - Another Great Year For State-of-the-Art Visuals!

remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
adamsapple said:
Everything here is someone's subjective opinion .. 🤷‍♂️

You're wondering why GoW isn't here, in Alex and John's opinions it didn't make the cut for the top 10.

I'm wondering why NFS Unbound is in that list, I wouldn't have put it in there personally.
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Correct. But we’re also talking about resource allocation in game development which isn’t really subjective
 
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OsirisBlack

OsirisBlack

Banned
Musilla said:
No surprises, it's a monster.

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ezgif-1-29fe304eda.gif
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I really hope they scale the Decima engine all the way up for the expansion. Really want to see what the engine is capable of when pushed hard.
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
remember_spinal said:
I think people need to go back and play 2018…there is definitively a significant jump in Ragnarok, although not as much as Horizon.

You can tell when look at their faces or some of the armore, especially Sindri’s character model
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I agree, to me Zero Dawn just needed more to improve on vs God of War 2018.

I think its just more noticeable with Zero Dawn vs Forbidden West compared to God of War 2018 vs Ragnarok.

For me, Zero Dawn vs God of War 2018, it was God of War as the better looking game.

Forbidden West vs Ragnarok? Its a closer contest this time.
 
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Fake

Fake

Member
NFS: Unbound should not be in that list, but as John mention, some of pick are mix of personal and to mad some folks mad as Alex keep telling to himself.


Anw, is a decent list. I would put Calisto ahead of Horizon, but HFW is indeed a graphic showcase.
 
O

Ozriel

M$FT
T0minator said:
From bigger more expensive ideas...it absolutely is.

You'll see by the end of this generation how much PS4 and Xbox one are holding back these machines
Click to expand...

I’m not sure how that’s supposed to tell you anything since late gen games always look better than early gen stuff.
 
F

Feel Like I'm On 42

Member
adamsapple said:
Everything here is someone's subjective opinion .. 🤷‍♂️

You're wondering why GoW isn't here, in Alex and John's opinions it didn't make the cut for the top 10.

I'm wondering why NFS Unbound is in that list, I wouldn't have put it in there personally.
Click to expand...
Came here to say this- Nfs Unbound is extremely last gen looking. Ragnarok looks SOOO much better. Unless the PC version is just that much better than SX version I played it on.
 
sncvsrtoip

sncvsrtoip

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
I can't for the life of me understand how Gran Turismo 7 is in this list. And where the hell is God of War: Ragnarok? It's more impressive than some of the things listed.
Click to expand...
Top notch car models + best dynamic lighting and hdr there is, people who didnt play it probably saw only selected by fanboys of other racing games screenshot of tracks environment details which are underwhelming
 
SenjutsuSage

SenjutsuSage

Banned
sncvsrtoip said:
Top notch car models + best dynamic lighting and hdr there is, people who didnt play it probably saw only selected by fanboys of other racing games screenshot of tracks environment details which are underwhelming
Click to expand...

I didn't buy it, but I played it on my PS5 for about a week, mostly other people playing it more than me, but I was present for all of that. It's far less impressive compared to a Forza Horizon 5. It's not even close on the HDR or dynamic lighting front. Forza Horizon 5 is in another league with its dolby vision implementation, and how that looks together with its dynamic lighting. And I certainly don't think GT compares on track environments. GT7 can look impressive in the interior views and replays, but that's when most of its imperfections are being papered over or hidden from view, but during real gameplay, especially the outside car views, the whole thing visually breaks down and looks pretty weak all around. And I say this as someone who isn't usually all that picky about game visuals. GT7 isn't a good looking game to me.

Car models are great, true, as are interiors, but that alone doesn't save it for me.
 
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SlimySnake

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
This shouldve been one of those years where DF shouldve grown a backbone and either simply refuse to do a Best graphics of 2022 or just have Horizon on there and called it a day.

None of the other games they had deserved to be on there. The title 'ANOTHER great year for state of art visuals' is hilarious because none of these games are state of the art. they are sub standard last gen looking games. Dying Light 2 made me laugh because its the ugliest game ive seen in years. With a downgrade so huge that it shouldve been easy to compare it pre downgrade and see just what this game wouldve looked like on next gen consoles. But no, it has ray tracing so Alex has to suck its dick. Portal RTX at #3 is flat out insulting. So what if they have new accurate RT lighting and some remodeled assets. it still looks like a PS3 game.

I feel like DF has lost their collective minds. TLOU Part 1 looks virtually identical to TLOU Part 2 but two years later, it is still state of the art? If HFW is state of the art, if demon souls was state of the art in 2020, how is TLOU Part 1 still state of the art? Especially when it looks worse than Demon Souls in every conceivable way.

GT7 also looks virtually identical to GT Sports which came out 5 years ago. Is 5 year old tech state of the art? They couldnt even get RT running during gameplay. 2 years after Miles shipped with RT on consoles. Hell, during that whole section, they showed gameplay and it looked so underwhelming they had to admit the environments look like crap.

These guys had Ratchet and Flight Sim to compare these games against. What game here has lighting as good as Flight sim? Not even HFW. What game here has that CG look of ratchet? Put Ratchet side by side with Fortnite and see just how much more Ratchet is doing.

Then there are the excuses. 'TLOU doesnt look that much better than TLOU1's cutscenes because they were prerendered'. Yeah, they were pre-rendered on 3 PS3s ducktaped together. we've seen their setup. the PS4 alone was 6-8x more powerful. the PS5 is literally 40x more powerful. Shouldnt we be expecting a bigger gap?

The excuses for GT7's environments were hilarious. Oh its realistic cities so they cant look as good as the fantastical setting of Forza Horizon. Forza Horizon is set on earth last I checked, not on James Cameron's Pandora. NFS is set in urban cities which look far better than GT7's urban cities which are track based not even open world.

Callisto is being number 2 just shows how weak this year was. Ten years ago, no one would even talk about this game it looks so generic. HFW takes a massive shit on every game on their list except maybe Plague's Tale which does look pretty in the scenes they showed, but every other game looks on par with games that came out years ago. They even say that NFS finally looks as good the NFS 2015 again. Yay?

Quite frankly, having Horizon share the spotlight with these games is insulting to Horizon and GG who went above and beyond despite having their hands tied to last gen hardware. The fact that they look so much better than other next gen only games is simply unacceptable. Just have Plagues Tale on there with HFW with NFS as an honorable mention and then spend the rest of the video criticizing how none of these games are state of the art.
 
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Dibils2k

Dibils2k

Member
//DEVIL// said:
I really don’t agree with the number 1 game.

Horizon artistically is a nice game. But imagine it being rendered with the same visuals as A Plague Tale: Requiem, then it would look impressive. I played the game on ps5 and it’s at the end of the day enhanced look ps4 game but it’s still a ps4 game.

The list of the rest is fine. Maybe portal shouldn’t get that mention either as it’s just an rtx showcase
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nah, level of detail and density is way higher on PS5 compared to PS4, it wasnt just a higher res and higher fps version of a PS4 game, sure dynamic elements and scale was likely limited by the fact it had to run on PS4 but interms of visual quality its next gen looking

something like Ragnarok was a proper crossgen in that PS5 mainly just got a res or fps bump with tiny improvements otherwise
 
kyliethicc

kyliethicc

Member
SlimySnake said:
This shouldve been one of those years where DF shouldve grown a backbone and either simply refuse to do a Best graphics of 2022 or just have Horizon on there and called it a day.

None of the other games they had deserved to be on there. The title 'ANOTHER great year for state of art visuals' is hilarious because none of these games are state of the art. they are sub standard last gen looking games. Dying Light 2 made me laugh because its the ugliest game ive seen in years. With a downgrade so huge that it shouldve been easy to compare it pre downgrade and see just what this game wouldve looked like on next gen consoles. But no, it has ray tracing so Alex has to suck its dick. Portal RTX at #3 is flat out insulting. So what if they have new accurate RT lighting and some remodeled assets. it still looks like a PS3 game.

I feel like DF has lost their collective minds. TLOU Part 1 looks virtually identical to TLOU Part 2 but two years later, it is still state of the art? If HFW is state of the art, if demon souls was state of the art in 2020, how is TLOU Part 1 still state of the art? Especially when it looks worse than Demon Souls in every conceivable way.

GT7 also looks virtually identical to GT Sports which came out 5 years ago. Is 5 year old tech state of the art? They couldnt even get RT running during gameplay. 2 years after Miles shipped with RT on consoles. Hell, during that whole section, they showed gameplay and it looked so underwhelming they had to admit the environments look like crap.

These guys had Ratchet and Flight Sim to compare these games against. What game here has lighting as good as Flight sim? Not even HFW. What game here has that CG look of ratchet? Put Ratchet side by side with Fortnite and see just how much more Ratchet is doing.

Then there are the excuses. 'TLOU doesnt look that much better than TLOU1's cutscenes because they were prerendered'. Yeah, they were pre-rendered on 3 PS3s ducktaped together. we've seen their setup. the PS4 alone was 6-8x more powerful. the PS5 is literally 40x more powerful. Shouldnt we be expecting a bigger gap?

The excuses for GT7's environments were hilarious. Oh its realistic cities so they cant look as good as the fantastical setting of Forza Horizon. Forza Horizon is set on earth last I checked, not on James Cameron's Pandora. NFS is set in urban cities which look far better than GT7's urban cities which are track based not even open world.

Callisto is being number 2 just shows how weak this year was. Ten years ago, no one would even talk about this game it looks so generic. HFW takes a massive shit on every game on their list except maybe Plague's Tale which does look pretty in the scenes they showed, but every other game looks on par with games that came out years ago. They even say that NFS finally looks as good the NFS 2015 again. Yay?

Quite frankly, having Horizon share the spotlight with these games is insulting to Horizon and GG who went above and beyond despite having their hands tied to last gen hardware. The fact that they look so much better than other next gen only games is simply unacceptable. Just have Plagues Tale on there with HFW with NFS as an honorable mention and then spend the rest of the video criticizing how none of these games are state of the art.
Click to expand...

2ugl4Fb.jpg
 
blue velvet

blue velvet

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
I can't for the life of me understand how Gran Turismo 7 is in this list. And where the hell is God of War: Ragnarok? It's more impressive than some of the things listed.
Click to expand...
what makes you think it doesn't deserve to be in this list?


GT7 is a technically and visually impressive game. It has real time procedural cloud formation, real time road surface simulations, puddles form and dry dynamically, you can also simulate the time and weather in real time on available tracks.



The only thing imo that is holding it back is the decade old jaguar architecture, they can do so much more if it was next gen exclusive
 
ChiefDada

ChiefDada

Gold Member
SlimySnake said:
This shouldve been one of those years where DF shouldve grown a backbone and either simply refuse to do a Best graphics of 2022 or just have Horizon on there and called it a day.

None of the other games they had deserved to be on there. The title 'ANOTHER great year for state of art visuals' is hilarious because none of these games are state of the art. they are sub standard last gen looking games. Dying Light 2 made me laugh because its the ugliest game ive seen in years. With a downgrade so huge that it shouldve been easy to compare it pre downgrade and see just what this game wouldve looked like on next gen consoles. But no, it has ray tracing so Alex has to suck its dick. Portal RTX at #3 is flat out insulting. So what if they have new accurate RT lighting and some remodeled assets. it still looks like a PS3 game.

I feel like DF has lost their collective minds. TLOU Part 1 looks virtually identical to TLOU Part 2 but two years later, it is still state of the art? If HFW is state of the art, if demon souls was state of the art in 2020, how is TLOU Part 1 still state of the art? Especially when it looks worse than Demon Souls in every conceivable way.

GT7 also looks virtually identical to GT Sports which came out 5 years ago. Is 5 year old tech state of the art? They couldnt even get RT running during gameplay. 2 years after Miles shipped with RT on consoles. Hell, during that whole section, they showed gameplay and it looked so underwhelming they had to admit the environments look like crap.

These guys had Ratchet and Flight Sim to compare these games against. What game here has lighting as good as Flight sim? Not even HFW. What game here has that CG look of ratchet? Put Ratchet side by side with Fortnite and see just how much more Ratchet is doing.

Then there are the excuses. 'TLOU doesnt look that much better than TLOU1's cutscenes because they were prerendered'. Yeah, they were pre-rendered on 3 PS3s ducktaped together. we've seen their setup. the PS4 alone was 6-8x more powerful. the PS5 is literally 40x more powerful. Shouldnt we be expecting a bigger gap?

The excuses for GT7's environments were hilarious. Oh its realistic cities so they cant look as good as the fantastical setting of Forza Horizon. Forza Horizon is set on earth last I checked, not on James Cameron's Pandora. NFS is set in urban cities which look far better than GT7's urban cities which are track based not even open world.

Callisto is being number 2 just shows how weak this year was. Ten years ago, no one would even talk about this game it looks so generic. HFW takes a massive shit on every game on their list except maybe Plague's Tale which does look pretty in the scenes they showed, but every other game looks on par with games that came out years ago. They even say that NFS finally looks as good the NFS 2015 again. Yay?

Quite frankly, having Horizon share the spotlight with these games is insulting to Horizon and GG who went above and beyond despite having their hands tied to last gen hardware. The fact that they look so much better than other next gen only games is simply unacceptable. Just have Plagues Tale on there with HFW with NFS as an honorable mention and then spend the rest of the video criticizing how none of these games are state of the art.
Click to expand...

Merry Christmas and thanks as always for the laughs.
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
sncvsrtoip said:
Top notch car models + best dynamic lighting and hdr there is, people who didnt play it probably saw only selected by fanboys of other racing games screenshot of tracks environment details which are underwhelming
Click to expand...

remember_spinal said:
Yep.

Its a great looking racing game, period.

o7MXog0.gif


Deserves to be on the list far more than some other games listed.
Click to expand...
Yup, very good looking game.

Scapes and replays really show it off too. It deserves to be on the list for the car models alone.
 
[Sigma]

[Sigma]

Member
I can see why GT7 is on the list. The lighting is phenomenal along with the car models. The only thing disappointing about it is the amount of pop-ins. There's way too much of it than I think should be in the PS5 version.
 
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remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
I’d be surprised if Spider-Man 2 doesn’t take it next year also.

Havent seen anything shown for 2023 that looks better than Horizon yet and insomanic already won it in 2021
 
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Hobbygaming

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Thebonehead said:
Having finally got around to it on PC....

They spaffed all the money on the Graphics and forgot to send some of the budget to the gameplay department
Click to expand...
I love the gameplay, the melee feels so satisfying and the GRP *chef's kiss*
 
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bender

bender

What time is it?
Interesting that Scorn wasn't on the list. I think it's the only game that I played this year that had me stopping and admiring the scenery. It's also interesting how few of those games I played:

-GT7: Really held back by flaws in the environment
-Plague Tale: The environments are outstanding and it's amazing how many areas aren't reused and that you don't spend a lot of time in.
-NFS: Tried it via the EA/GPU trial. Wasn't impressed at all.

I'd really like to try that Warhammer game but I wasn't the biggest fan of Vermintide. Not super interested in the rest but my next Portal replay will be a little fresher.
 
Msamy

Msamy

Member
I think hfw dlc will push decima engine much further , I hope we will see some ray tracing features in it, also I think that ds2 trailer give as a glimpse of what we can expect from decima engine in future sony titles that will using it.
 
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