You guys are so awesome. No annoying youtuber voices. No ads being shoved in our face. No clickbait. Nobody is trying to be the coolest person on the screen. No begging for likes or subs. Just dudes talking video games. I love it. You guys are a diamond in the rough in terms of gaming TH-cam channels.
DF best graphics video is always a highlight of end of the year festivities. Fun fact, DF honored this years games longer than the 3.5 hr game awards did 😂
I can't stand that guy. Heavily biased, doesn't hesitate to push his political agenda when no one asked (Stellar Blade) and him ignoring the best gaming system right now is just the icing on the cake.
I hear your point of view and that makes sense. But Alex is my favorite. Like me, he tends to be most interested in the computer science side of things so his focus is less often on switch. Though I agree Switch does have some S tier games from a gameplay perspective.@@Eedorian
@@grzegorzkubicki9411I have what I have only just discovered is a genuine disorder. I can’t stand listening to a lisp, it goes through me like nails on a chalkboard. I don’t know why and I feel bad about it, but it actually makes me skip his parts.
Hard agree with you on that. Releasing polished games is something that should definitely be praised nowadays. Outside of flagship first-party games, it is disappointingly rare.
I was blown away by Alan Wake II on how it managed to make the worlds look realistic in a game focused on horror, that's a real challenge because most horror games make the environment look too dark and unsaturated to add more suspense to scenes but AW2 does it different
@@applehazeva2739 High-quality animation, probably. They even went out of their way to animate characters in 24fps during cutscenes which feels so right. Much more right than regular 30fps cutscenes in games like Sonic Frontiers.
@@applehazeva2739 A lot of those other anime looking games try to simulate that 24 fps look throughout gameplay, which Hi-Fi rush smartly avoids. The characters aren't overly boxy or boldly outlined during gameplay either, so it looks way more fluid & blends everything together. Then in cutscenes, it commits to that anime look a lot more, which probably comes across as very natural to average anime watchers.
Just proof that "graphics" don't necessarily mean "most realistic". What they achieved was difficult and deserves the attention. I just don't agree with the Metroid nod when it's hardly what I would call "great graphics". I get the feeling it's getting too much attention from pure nostalgia vs a purely graphical standpoint. It looks good, but not OMG I NEED NEW HARDWARE FOR THIS GAME amazing. It's not CP2077 and shouldn't even be in the same discussion when you're talking graphics.
The most impressive thing about Avatar for me is when I saw that amount of detail on screen, I almost expected streaming related stutters to hit but they never did. Its an open world game that runs better than many recent games with a much smaller scope. Similarly, hoping UE5 solves the CPU problems UE4 had.
This video is a real highlight of the year for DF content. I love the appreciation for technical know-how as well as great art direction. Happy holidays DF Crew!!
After playing Avatar I cannot wait for the new Star Wars Outlaws game because it seems Ubisoft Massive have a lot more engaging A.I. to play against and this is a big reason Avatar did not feel like another Far Cry game.
Yes I love how they flank around and actively go LOOKING for you. Reminds me of an evolution of the Ai behavior from the division 2. Having gotten to all 3 regions of Avatar, has got me way more excited for the Star Wars Outlaws game, I had wondered if the retail would stand up against the reveal trailer but now I know it definitely will.
Isn't that the description of DF Retro vids? Joking aside, I'd love to see some (I believe John does DF Retro off his own bat, but will happily corrected).
I think I agree with the order of the top two. Avatar is proof of Massive Entertainment's technical achievement. Alan Wake II is proof of Remedy's artistic craft. Also, I enjoy this new format where you have a transparent debate of the top three.
And that's why Alan Wake 2 should be #1 in my opinion, it mixes technical brilliance with a precise artistic vision, while Avatar may be brilliant as well on the technical side, but it's missing a style, to me, it looks fairly bland and not as visually striking. Especially the lighting in Avatar looks really flat compared to AW2 and Cyberpunk with PT enabled.
@@albanier8426 The material quality is also pretty poor in Avatar. Rocks, cloth, dirt and characters materials really look like they are from early ps4/xb1 era The material response to lighting is just so realistic in AW2 as Oliver said
@@Chocapic_13I agree. I'm playing through both games right now and Avatar can be incredible in some areas, but the visuals break down all the time, there are polygonal shapes everywhere, the GI shimmers and blotches, the sky isn't very great. I'm constantly seeing a video game. Alan Wake 2 is just so cohesive visually.
@@albanier8426 AW2 is #1 just by the fact that remedy is dedicated small studio (contrast to Ubi) to put out the quality and technical art. compared to Ubisoft, just throwing many codevs to make Avatar frontiers. As with many ubisoft games so inconsistent of quality ,given so many hands touching the game during its production
The fact that CP2077 is still in the Top 3 best-looking games 3 years after its release is a testament to the devs at CDPR and their willingness to be the early adopters of gaming technology. But I agree Alan Wake 2 and Avatar are Top 2 as well.
@@CrackedTubeGamer Keeping a game in active development so long after release is a choice not many companies make though. Especially for pure single player games.
@@MrVoland44 It's really the only place that matters, to be perfectly honest. Console owners know what they're buying when they purchase a PC. And it's not power or fidelity.
UE5 is going to be a game changer for studios who actually know the tool set well like ninja theory and the coalition. It is really cool though to see other engines coming along and actually matching or even beating it.
UE5 hasn't really been that impressive with actual games. Lots of nice looking static environments, but not a lot of finished games. We will see with Hellblade 2 and Stalker 2 if it lives up to what has been expected. I wonder how the Witcher 1 UE5 remake is coming along.
The issue with Unreal Engine (it doesn't matter 4 or 5) games is that the development studios need the time, budget, and a C++ specialized team to customize and adapt the engine source code to the needs and requirements of the game project. Using stock/default Unreal Engine will probably lead to severe hitching, stuttering, or streaming issues.
A note about Avatar that's easy to forget is that 2019's The Division 2 is still a BEAUTIFUL game with lush vegetation, amazing looking structures and really impressive lighting for an older version of the Snowdrop engine. Can't wait to see The Division 3 with an even more advanced Snowdrop.
It's Avatar to me. Alan Wake 2 is an amazing looking game but I literally had to stand up from the desk a few times when I first saw sheer amount of detail Avatar throws at you. It's unbelievable, especially if you also consider how well it runs.
@@zenful7487also played on a 4090 and had those experiences. I will say though, the whole thing falls apart when you're on the Ikran. Yes it's fun to fly, but the Snowdrop engine, and maybe just 3d rendering more broadly, has seriously distracting pop in and lod switching. It goes from looking like a modern crysis when you're on foot to basically a switch game in the air. Very immersion breaking
I just picked up Avatar and it's insanely good looking. the audio is also unreal, i'm constantly turning around and looking voer my shoulder and what not , very realistic audio.
Yeah Avatar it is for me, too. Besides the gorgeous visuals you can play it at 4k max Details at locked 120 fps without any stutter using FSR3 Quality +FG or even better with DLSS Quality +FG (With mod) with a 4090.
No one has really shown it for spoiler reasons, but some of the later areas of Avatar are very different from the jungle areas and are equally impressive.
I thought the first two main areas were stunning and unique but the third basically felt like a worse version of Kinglor Forest. Same general aesthetic but significantly less detail and interesting things to look at it
Kinglor is also the place they clearly put the most work in in terms of traversal mechanics. It's significantly more entertaining to traverse on foot for that reason at least.
Can’t believe I actually watched the entire 1 hour 34 min of this DF video. Thanks for compiling all the beautiful games of this year! I’ve played Jedi survivor, Hifi rush, cyberpunk, super mario bro wonder but haven’t completed any of these yet 😅. Need to find some time or motivation or discipline or maybe all of those to at least finish one 😂
This IS bigger than the Game Awards. I'm watching people with credibility have a productive conversation and not an embarrassing corporate shill gushing over his famous friends. "Hey everybody, I know Hideo Kojima! Welcome to the Game Awards."
Amazing job as usual DF Gents! Congrats to Ubi Massive! Trying to curb my expectations for Starwars Outlaws and The Division 3, finding it very difficult after such an impressive showcase of capability with Avatar. So I'll be honest with myself...'I AM STOKED!' Happy Holidays and looking forward to more of some of the best content for gaming in the New Year!
Love your videos! I think this one might have been a little bit better if you showed more footage of the games though; this one seemed like it spent 50% on footage and 50% on the team, but on a graphics-focused video, I think the ratio could easily be 80/20 or even more. :)
Avatar is genuinely the most impressive game I've ever seen. I feel like I'm in Pandora and I have almost no notes for the visuals. Both as a consumer and a developer.
It makes sense that Massive, Remedy and CDPR round up the top 3. These developers have always been very solid in terms of graphical fidelity making these gorgeous future-proof games. Great video!
@@scytobit's an absolutely stunning game and definitely worth trying out. What's most amazing is that it has virtually no textures, everything is just polygons and lighting. It uses lumen and nanite so well that even all the small vegetation on screen is polygon-based and not sprites and every one of them is lit and shadowed impeccably without pop-in. Most demos just show the first level or two of the game, but the graphics get significantly better in the latter levels of the game.
It's a good balance with olie always bringing console in the conversation when the two other ones are so focused on pc. So cool for us console gamers ❤
I was most impressed by Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. I've never been so blown away by a virtual jungle like that, and I really hope someone makes a VR mod for it.
Top 3 for me: Alan Wake 2, Avatar, and Jedi Survivor. Robocop is my #4 best looking game this year. Teyon have really levelled up. I'd love if they took their new UE5 skills and revisited Terminator or even got a crack at Aliens.
Lords of the Fallen and Lies of P needed to be called out for excellence. I know Lords of the Fallen especially had performance problems but they are both amazing looking games
cyberpunks 2.1 update cleared up a lot of the problems with ray reconstruction little to no more smearing on moving objects anymore, they also gave the HDR a huge rework and looks a ton better now
@@George-um2vc running on my 4080 on my odyssey neo g8 in 4k i get around 60-70fps path tracing on with DLSS at balanced, looks unreal, with frame gen of course haha
Loved the format of the video, really enjoyed that. Actually went and bought Jusant after the positive words on it. Oh and love Oliver in the videos he's a great addition to the team.
I'm so happy you acknowledged Avatar with best graphic of the year. It deserves it a lot. I hope Ubi will use it in more of their games but start to employ real artistes with imagination, like these who created Elden Ring. We also need open world version of Armored Core.
I said it and I'm going to repeat it again: Avatar Frontiers of Pandora will become in the years to follow the biggest gem of this game's generation... when people will go beyond the "Far Cry" prejudice. You are not ready for its dlc regions
Great clip. Very nice listening to these 3 dudes and their tech talk. Really like that you explain why these games stand out, makes me appreciate some of them even more.
So happy to see Oliver here for this! It's been an absolute joy seeing him more involved with these videos and being on camera more with the DF Directs this year! He adds so much to the DF team!
With Avatar they try to strike a balance and push everything forward, the consoles don't suffer too much in IQ as a result and that's something you can't say about most "next gen" presentations
I love how DF brings attention to the little things, I don't appreciate them until they point them out, and then I feel bad lol. Once you notice whatever they point out. It's like... How did I not see this? You don't appreciate something/someone until they are gone. Thank you DF.
I seriously feel this is one of the best channels on TH-cam, if we are talking about in terms of how informative the gaming content can be, easily the greatest to ever exist.
yeah they have really done a miracle here and its also a very fun game. its funny watching all the cringe bot sheeple spamming its just another lame farcy in the comments sections of many videos when its actually good for once.
Great video, guys. Thanks for it. To me something that called my attention is that the top 3 games all used proprietary engines. Congrats to the winner. I fully agree.
If I told you A Ubisoft game and Alan Wake would be next years Graphics powerhouses last year I don't think you'd believe it. And 3rd place for 2023 came out in 2020? Odd lot for sure but well-debated and i agree 👍 💯
Alan Wake 2 is ahead of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora when it comes to visual quality. Because it is consistent, every aspect of the game is on the same, high, level ("aus einem Guss"). Whereas Avatar has some weaker elements, like the interiors, the materials of the creatures, the Navi are a little plasticy too. Raytraced jungle is a great technical achievement, but Alan Wake 2 is a work of art and will age much better, visually. You will change your mind on this one ;)
Loved all of your content this year, so thank you so much for that. Oliver is such a great addition to your now-trio. I feel like I'm just hanging with my best buds, having a cold one in the meantime. Here's to another amazing year at DF!
Recently finished AW2, obviously looks amazing. Only now started Jedi Survivor and was surprised how impressive it is graphically, looks so polished at that, amazing lighting, and the physics in the game are next level.
@@adrianaguilar96I am 90% of way through on PC and the perf issues were minor, the RT crash issues seem to have been resolved in latest patch. I am using 4090.
Thank you John soo much for giving AC6 a shout out! It’s been such a fun game to play and the overall quality and stability has been excellent. Sad it’s been totally snubbed in a lot of rankings for the year and awards but it’s been one of my most satisfying purchases with a little over 120hrs that has been very satisfying.
Personally I have to just barely give the edge to Avatar as well because it feels like something new --- we just haven't seen such a huge jungle environment with such gorgeous lighting, particularly the bioluminescent plants in dark areas where their light bounces around
I've completed the Resident Evil 4 Remake twice. The first run was on PS4 Pro with unofficial 30fps cap patch ;) The second time recently on PSVR2. Great Game, especially in VR!
Just finished Jedi Survivor on PS5 in performance. Switching to quality had a profound lighting improvement especially on Coruscant. I would have loved to have played it with RT at 60fps and less FSR artifacting (TAA instead).
Next year we have Senua and Wukong ! Two games that look visually stunning both on UE 5. Wonder what game will come along and challenge like Avatar did. Great year of DF content and for DF.
I am a fairly casual viewer of your channel, but it seems to me that Oliver has really grown over the past year and now confidently holds his own in front of the camera. Also, I think that Avatar with the Snowdrop engine has really thrown down the gauntlet to Decima. I am really curious to see what Guerrilla manage to do in response.
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is clearly the most visually stunning game of the year and probably of the past 10 years. The last game to make my jaw drop from seeing its visuals for the first time was the original Crysis.
Awesome seeing Hi-Fi Rush & Metroid Prime Remaster get some love here! Seen too many people casually dismiss Hi-Fi Rush since it wasn't hyped up to be this major thing before releasing, acting as if that somehow negates how great it was. And Prime Remaster was the 3rd highest rated game on Metacritic this year (over everything but BG3 & TotK), yet no mention of it for any awards or end of year accolades. Maybe having "Remaster" in the title signaled it wasn't as impressive as a full remake, but anyone who's played it knows that's not true.
Personally I don't think remakes should even be nominated. They should just have their own category. I think it's so disrespectful to new games to pretend like remakes should be able to take their slot. And I love remakes and remasters but they each should have a category. If they have dumbass esports categories no one cares about and influencer categories, there's no reason they shouldn't have categories for remakes, remasters, graphics, racing and sports (instead of combining them)
Avatar came out of nowhere and it's been blowing me away as I've been playing it. Alongside the DLSS3 mod (FSR3 is fine, but the VRR not working with it currently is a bummer), I keep just stopping mid-game to just...look at the insane detail on screen. With high settings, in general gameplay, it almost looks like the films...which is insane, those things are CGI masterpieces that took months of computer rendering time...and it's happening in live rendering! As a fan of The Division games (mostly the first one, second one was a bit of a mess in design imo), I'm incredibly excited to see Division 3 with Snowdrop.
It's like poetry that Way of Water is one of the best looking CGI in the movie industry, and then Frontiers of Pandora is the best in the games department. Ubisoft Massive understood the Avatar name and people's expectation on how it should look. But what's more praiseworthy is how it runs. Because some games (talking about you Jedi Survivor) are just broken.
I make a Case for The Last of Us on PC. It suffered from technical issues as well but these got fixed with several patches. Runs super smooth on my 4070ti and 7600x. Detailed Textures, beautiful and athmospheric lighting. And some of the best animated facial expressions I've ever Seen 👍
I agree, I love the look of The Last of Us. But I have a beast PC with a 4090 but couldn't get to run it completely stutter free even after several patches. Gave up and didn't play it through, even tried the framegen mod. Games have to run with zero traversal stutters locked all the time at 120 fps or I won't play.
@@NorbertGanslmeier Used the FG-Mod myself. Would run super smooth most of the Times but Sometimes the Performance would drop immensly. Without the Mod I didn't have these issues. But weird that you experienced more issues with more powerful Hardware 🤔
thanks for this episode guys - like to hear your opinions on these games. It would be lovely to hear you talk about most interactive/ emergent games, e.g. with destructive environments, I think the more we focus on and mention that aspect of gaming, it’ll be more appealing for devs and gamers alike. Happy holidays all!
Regarding professional criticism of all the mentioned titles, these 3 simply do it right and they each point out unique angles about each of the titles, which makes Digital Foundry, so professional, and worth watching.
Hey DF, do any of you guys know what Fumito Ueda is up to these days. I loved The Last Guardian but it definitely had some performance issues and a Bluepoint remake could make it the masterpiece it was always meant to be 😊
Fantastic video! It's amazing quality content like this (and somehow ad-free) which demonstrates the exceptionally high level of quality the DF team brings with every video! Thank you so much for fantastic content like this. ❤
![[#SHORTS CLIP] ใช้ของของตัวเองไปเลยสิคะ l ซานิเบาได้เบา l One Playground](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ea_mTywx2p4/mqdefault.jpg)
You guys are so awesome. No annoying youtuber voices. No ads being shoved in our face. No clickbait. Nobody is trying to be the coolest person on the screen. No begging for likes or subs. Just dudes talking video games. I love it. You guys are a diamond in the rough in terms of gaming TH-cam channels.
Right on. They are truly something els. Their knowledge holds weight.
they have quite a few sponsored videos but sure carry on
@@ThunderingRoar You really put me in my place dude.
Bro your the definition of everything you said😂😂😂
I got a FORTY-FIVE second ad before the Avatar bit. 😒
DF best graphics video is always a highlight of end of the year festivities. Fun fact, DF honored this years games longer than the 3.5 hr game awards did 😂
Crazy how it was as long as this year's COD Campaign yet they still messed it up.
Why is the comment saying 4 days ago when it's uploaded 2hrs ago 🤨
No shit, its a youtube channel with longform content versus a show produced with a strict schedule and time limit
a specular highlight, if you will
@@JessSmithlynn
I think this was released to the Members first. And to everyone else today.
I just love watching Alex sit in strained silence while John and Oli gush over switch games. Peak entertainment.
That's his loss. Switch had the best game this year hands down and it's not the first time it's had some of the best games of the year.
@@hugostiglitzracing866 Agreed. I had more fun with Mario Wonder than any other game this year
I think Metroid Prime is the only game in my entire collection that is still at version 1.0. I think that is worth something as well.
I can't stand that guy. Heavily biased, doesn't hesitate to push his political agenda when no one asked (Stellar Blade) and him ignoring the best gaming system right now is just the icing on the cake.
I hear your point of view and that makes sense. But Alex is my favorite. Like me, he tends to be most interested in the computer science side of things so his focus is less often on switch. Though I agree Switch does have some S tier games from a gameplay perspective.@@Eedorian
Oliver is such a great enrichment to the team.
Very bespoke addition to the team.
In the here and now, though, we can safely say that this is a top-tier cast.
I disagree, dont like the dude. Too much tongue and it sounds too, it annoy me cant watch videos with him on
@@grzegorzkubicki9411Wrong, Oliver is definitely cromulent
@@grzegorzkubicki9411I have what I have only just discovered is a genuine disorder. I can’t stand listening to a lisp, it goes through me like nails on a chalkboard. I don’t know why and I feel bad about it, but it actually makes me skip his parts.
Avatar is a standout for me. Not only it has almost zero fanfare, but it also came out smooth with near zero bugs. Great content as always DF team.
With an Engine that I thought went dead, still is way more scalable and with way better hardware usage than Unreal Engine games…
Hard agree with you on that. Releasing polished games is something that should definitely be praised nowadays. Outside of flagship first-party games, it is disappointingly rare.
Movie more good
Looks like just another boring Far Cry game to me..
@@Broformist Far Cry has ruined the open world genre
I was blown away by Alan Wake II on how it managed to make the worlds look realistic in a game focused on horror, that's a real challenge because most horror games make the environment look too dark and unsaturated to add more suspense to scenes but AW2 does it different
I’m enjoying it a lot atm, half way through I think 🤩 it goes under 60 on my 4070 but it’s beautiful
So glad that Hi-Fi Rush actually takes one of the top 10 spots. Games don't have to emulate realism to be insanely cool looking
Hi-Fi Rush unironically looks better than most Anime Style Games out there. I don't know what it is.
Maybe that it isn't so plasticy looking?
@@applehazeva2739 High-quality animation, probably. They even went out of their way to animate characters in 24fps during cutscenes which feels so right. Much more right than regular 30fps cutscenes in games like Sonic Frontiers.
I agree style can go a long way
@@applehazeva2739 A lot of those other anime looking games try to simulate that 24 fps look throughout gameplay, which Hi-Fi rush smartly avoids. The characters aren't overly boxy or boldly outlined during gameplay either, so it looks way more fluid & blends everything together.
Then in cutscenes, it commits to that anime look a lot more, which probably comes across as very natural to average anime watchers.
Just proof that "graphics" don't necessarily mean "most realistic". What they achieved was difficult and deserves the attention. I just don't agree with the Metroid nod when it's hardly what I would call "great graphics". I get the feeling it's getting too much attention from pure nostalgia vs a purely graphical standpoint. It looks good, but not OMG I NEED NEW HARDWARE FOR THIS GAME amazing. It's not CP2077 and shouldn't even be in the same discussion when you're talking graphics.
The most impressive thing about Avatar for me is when I saw that amount of detail on screen, I almost expected streaming related stutters to hit but they never did. Its an open world game that runs better than many recent games with a much smaller scope. Similarly, hoping UE5 solves the CPU problems UE4 had.
None of the top 3 really stutters in a way that detracts from the experience. Coincidentally, none of them are unreal engine.
UBI mark bxg again
@@mag3slay4🤔
Oliver has been a great addition to the team. Thank you all for the consistently great content this year!
This video is a real highlight of the year for DF content. I love the appreciation for technical know-how as well as great art direction. Happy holidays DF Crew!!
After playing Avatar I cannot wait for the new Star Wars Outlaws game because it seems Ubisoft Massive have a lot more engaging A.I. to play against and this is a big reason Avatar did not feel like another Far Cry game.
Yes I love how they flank around and actively go LOOKING for you. Reminds me of an evolution of the Ai behavior from the division 2. Having gotten to all 3 regions of Avatar, has got me way more excited for the Star Wars Outlaws game, I had wondered if the retail would stand up against the reveal trailer but now I know it definitely will.
Sorry, my friend. Lol.
Didn't age well
@@vem4ikxbox360 I have about 20 hours in the game and like it so far
Would be great if DF Retro could do a 'best graphics' of years gone by. Merry Christmas all at DF
That sounds interesting but I think it would be a ton of effort for videos that not many people would watch.
Best graphics of the year for every year since gaming began. Just one game per year.
Isn't that the description of DF Retro vids? Joking aside, I'd love to see some (I believe John does DF Retro off his own bat, but will happily corrected).
It would probably be Sega arcade domination from the mid-80s to the late '90s.
Just watch previous years videos instead 😂
I think I agree with the order of the top two. Avatar is proof of Massive Entertainment's technical achievement. Alan Wake II is proof of Remedy's artistic craft.
Also, I enjoy this new format where you have a transparent debate of the top three.
And that's why Alan Wake 2 should be #1 in my opinion, it mixes technical brilliance with a precise artistic vision, while Avatar may be brilliant as well on the technical side, but it's missing a style, to me, it looks fairly bland and not as visually striking. Especially the lighting in Avatar looks really flat compared to AW2 and Cyberpunk with PT enabled.
@@albanier8426 The material quality is also pretty poor in Avatar. Rocks, cloth, dirt and characters materials really look like they are from early ps4/xb1 era
The material response to lighting is just so realistic in AW2 as Oliver said
@@albanier8426 If Avatar more or less matches the movies' artstyle, that's good in my books
@@Chocapic_13I agree. I'm playing through both games right now and Avatar can be incredible in some areas, but the visuals break down all the time, there are polygonal shapes everywhere, the GI shimmers and blotches, the sky isn't very great. I'm constantly seeing a video game.
Alan Wake 2 is just so cohesive visually.
@@albanier8426 AW2 is #1 just by the fact that remedy is dedicated small studio (contrast to Ubi) to put out the quality and technical art. compared to Ubisoft, just throwing many codevs to make Avatar frontiers. As with many ubisoft games so inconsistent of quality ,given so many hands touching the game during its production
The fact that CP2077 is still in the Top 3 best-looking games 3 years after its release is a testament to the devs at CDPR and their willingness to be the early adopters of gaming technology. But I agree Alan Wake 2 and Avatar are Top 2 as well.
Yeah it is still one of the best looking games of all time.
only on PC though
True, but I'm sure we would all count CP77 as in active development.
@@CrackedTubeGamer Keeping a game in active development so long after release is a choice not many companies make though. Especially for pure single player games.
@@MrVoland44 It's really the only place that matters, to be perfectly honest. Console owners know what they're buying when they purchase a PC. And it's not power or fidelity.
As great as UE5 is, it's interesting that the top 3 best graphics in 2023 were all using bespoke engines.
UE5 is going to be a game changer for studios who actually know the tool set well like ninja theory and the coalition. It is really cool though to see other engines coming along and actually matching or even beating it.
UE5 hasn't really been that impressive with actual games. Lots of nice looking static environments, but not a lot of finished games. We will see with Hellblade 2 and Stalker 2 if it lives up to what has been expected. I wonder how the Witcher 1 UE5 remake is coming along.
The issue with Unreal Engine (it doesn't matter 4 or 5) games is that the development studios need the time, budget, and a C++ specialized team to customize and adapt the engine source code to the needs and requirements of the game project. Using stock/default Unreal Engine will probably lead to severe hitching, stuttering, or streaming issues.
@@rodrog2915 In UE5 stuttering has been fixed, so you are wrong.
@@OverJumpRallythat's an overstatement. There's mitigations in 5.1 and 5.2 that make things easier, but it still requires developer care.
A note about Avatar that's easy to forget is that 2019's The Division 2 is still a BEAUTIFUL game with lush vegetation, amazing looking structures and really impressive lighting for an older version of the Snowdrop engine. Can't wait to see The Division 3 with an even more advanced Snowdrop.
This!
It's Avatar to me. Alan Wake 2 is an amazing looking game but I literally had to stand up from the desk a few times when I first saw sheer amount of detail Avatar throws at you. It's unbelievable, especially if you also consider how well it runs.
Agreed, played on a RTX 4090. Multiple moments made me pause and just stare in awe at some of the views
Waiting for the crack to try it
@@Airbender131090Probably a year or 2
@@Airbender131090🔔 🔚
@@zenful7487also played on a 4090 and had those experiences. I will say though, the whole thing falls apart when you're on the Ikran. Yes it's fun to fly, but the Snowdrop engine, and maybe just 3d rendering more broadly, has seriously distracting pop in and lod switching. It goes from looking like a modern crysis when you're on foot to basically a switch game in the air. Very immersion breaking
I just picked up Avatar and it's insanely good looking. the audio is also unreal, i'm constantly turning around and looking voer my shoulder and what not , very realistic audio.
Yeah Avatar it is for me, too. Besides the gorgeous visuals you can play it at 4k max Details at locked 120 fps without any stutter using FSR3 Quality +FG or even better with DLSS Quality +FG (With mod) with a 4090.
No one has really shown it for spoiler reasons, but some of the later areas of Avatar are very different from the jungle areas and are equally impressive.
I thought the first two main areas were stunning and unique but the third basically felt like a worse version of Kinglor Forest. Same general aesthetic but significantly less detail and interesting things to look at it
The season pass areas gonna look neat
Kinglor is also the place they clearly put the most work in in terms of traversal mechanics. It's significantly more entertaining to traverse on foot for that reason at least.
@@Kira-qc4qiI prefer coniferous forests to deciduous ones so for me the Clouded forest feels and looks amazing
@@user-le2hu1ct4tUE5? Avatar isn't built on UE5. Idk if I misunderstood your comment or you genuinely didn't know.
Can’t believe I actually watched the entire 1 hour 34 min of this DF video. Thanks for compiling all the beautiful games of this year! I’ve played Jedi survivor, Hifi rush, cyberpunk, super mario bro wonder but haven’t completed any of these yet 😅. Need to find some time or motivation or discipline or maybe all of those to at least finish one 😂
I'd give Dead Island 2 an honourable mention. That game was popping visually
Love that the more in house game engines made the top 3. It’s amazing what can be done without needing to use Unreal Engine.
Honourable Mentions:
Dead Space Remake 2:08
Horizon Forbidden West DLC
4:47
Jusant 7:12
Armoured Core VI 10:15
Metroid Prime Remastered 13:20
I love that DF has well over a million subscribers. For a tech channel it's impressive but they're certainly one of if not the best there is.
You should add a best HDR implementation. award.
Top 3 are in house engines, not UE5. Just saying
This IS bigger than the Game Awards. I'm watching people with credibility have a productive conversation and not an embarrassing corporate shill gushing over his famous friends. "Hey everybody, I know Hideo Kojima! Welcome to the Game Awards."
Amazing job as usual DF Gents! Congrats to Ubi Massive! Trying to curb my expectations for Starwars Outlaws and The Division 3, finding it very difficult after such an impressive showcase of capability with Avatar. So I'll be honest with myself...'I AM STOKED!' Happy Holidays and looking forward to more of some of the best content for gaming in the New Year!
Love your videos! I think this one might have been a little bit better if you showed more footage of the games though; this one seemed like it spent 50% on footage and 50% on the team, but on a graphics-focused video, I think the ratio could easily be 80/20 or even more. :)
Best graphics on console is Horizon forbidden west. A marvel from a technical perspective. And jaw-droppibg art-design as well as storytelling.
Always nice to see Hi Fi Rush mentioned, truly an underrated gen.
Avatar is genuinely the most impressive game I've ever seen. I feel like I'm in Pandora and I have almost no notes for the visuals. Both as a consumer and a developer.
best graphics this year for me is avatar .. Alan wake and cyberpunk are very good but the world in avatar is jaw dropping.
I was surprised to see Alan Wake 2 not win. Then I played Frontiers of Pandora for the first time today. Wow, just wow.
It makes sense that Massive, Remedy and CDPR round up the top 3. These developers have always been very solid in terms of graphical fidelity making these gorgeous future-proof games. Great video!
Excellent year in review ! I agree on the top 3 ranking.
Thanks to all 3 of you guys and have a happy Christmas holidays. God bless you all ! :)
Glad Jusant got a mention. Its a gorgeous game to look at, play and, even more so, hear! Best audio game this year imo
Thank you for spelling out jusant, I had never heard of it, now I was able to wish list it :-)
@@scytobit's an absolutely stunning game and definitely worth trying out. What's most amazing is that it has virtually no textures, everything is just polygons and lighting. It uses lumen and nanite so well that even all the small vegetation on screen is polygon-based and not sprites and every one of them is lit and shadowed impeccably without pop-in. Most demos just show the first level or two of the game, but the graphics get significantly better in the latter levels of the game.
Loved the Debate Format. Thank you
It's a good balance with olie always bringing console in the conversation when the two other ones are so focused on pc. So cool for us console gamers ❤
I was most impressed by Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. I've never been so blown away by a virtual jungle like that, and I really hope someone makes a VR mod for it.
The body movement and facial expressions in Alan Wake 2 were insane for me, and it's something that I haven't seen being highlighted as much.
They did in one place. But in my opinion, TLoU2 is still better in this.
@@gronkymug2590I’d say TLOU is still the best I’ve seen of this, but Alan Wake II has fantastic animations, definitely above the standard
Top 3 for me: Alan Wake 2, Avatar, and Jedi Survivor.
Robocop is my #4 best looking game this year. Teyon have really levelled up. I'd love if they took their new UE5 skills and revisited Terminator or even got a crack at Aliens.
Lords of the Fallen and Lies of P needed to be called out for excellence. I know Lords of the Fallen especially had performance problems but they are both amazing looking games
Alan wake 2 is the best looking game I’ve ever seen. On my PC maxed out its insanity.
You haven’t played Avatar then
you clearly need to play more games LMFAO
It looks good but avatar is jaw dropping.
@@hugostiglitzracing866bro has an Alan wake hateboner
@@ImGonnaFudgeThatFish Cope. I love remedy. You guys just need to have your eyes checked.
As a pc graphics snob i was consistently BLOWN AWAY by how good Mario wonder looked. It was definitely bringing out some child like joy in me.
cyberpunks 2.1 update cleared up a lot of the problems with ray reconstruction little to no more smearing on moving objects anymore, they also gave the HDR a huge rework and looks a ton better now
I’m just waiting for those incoming 4K 240hz OLED 32 inch monitors to drop, only then will I buy a 4090
@@George-um2vc running on my 4080 on my odyssey neo g8 in 4k i get around 60-70fps path tracing on with DLSS at balanced, looks unreal, with frame gen of course haha
A love letter to video games with astounding technical achievements. Loved the show
I enjoyed this and appreciate the professional opinions from the team at DF I'm glad AFOP got 1st.Well done Ubi Massive.
Loved the format of the video, really enjoyed that. Actually went and bought Jusant after the positive words on it. Oh and love Oliver in the videos he's a great addition to the team.
I'm so happy you acknowledged Avatar with best graphic of the year. It deserves it a lot. I hope Ubi will use it in more of their games but start to employ real artistes with imagination, like these who created Elden Ring. We also need open world version of Armored Core.
I said it and I'm going to repeat it again: Avatar Frontiers of Pandora will become in the years to follow the biggest gem of this game's generation... when people will go beyond the "Far Cry" prejudice. You are not ready for its dlc regions
Loved this format, loved the analysis and I think the top 3 was spot on! Excited to see what 2024 brings in gaming.
Great clip. Very nice listening to these 3 dudes and their tech talk. Really like that you explain why these games stand out, makes me appreciate some of them even more.
Very much enjoyed the debate format. Would love to see it return next year. Also Oliver is such a great addition to the team it cannot be understated.
The quality of these videos is amazing. All the way down to how each host speaks. Very clear, precise and articulate. Very good audio quality also.
Olie really is a great addition to DF. Passion and knowledge are absolutely there! Keep it up!!
So happy to see Oliver here for this! It's been an absolute joy seeing him more involved with these videos and being on camera more with the DF Directs this year! He adds so much to the DF team!
With Avatar they try to strike a balance and push everything forward, the consoles don't suffer too much in IQ as a result and that's something you can't say about most "next gen" presentations
I love how DF brings attention to the little things, I don't appreciate them until they point them out, and then I feel bad lol. Once you notice whatever they point out. It's like... How did I not see this? You don't appreciate something/someone until they are gone. Thank you DF.
I seriously feel this is one of the best channels on TH-cam, if we are talking about in terms of how informative the gaming content can be, easily the greatest to ever exist.
I can't believe a product from Ubisoft it's within the best game graphics titles. Usually it's always stuff pulled together in a rush.
yeah they have really done a miracle here and its also a very fun game. its funny watching all the cringe bot sheeple spamming its just another lame farcy in the comments sections of many videos when its actually good for once.
The Division 2 by the same team still looks amazing!
Great video, guys. Thanks for it. To me something that called my attention is that the top 3 games all used proprietary engines.
Congrats to the winner. I fully agree.
If I told you A Ubisoft game and Alan Wake would be next years Graphics powerhouses last year I don't think you'd believe it. And 3rd place for 2023 came out in 2020? Odd lot for sure but well-debated and i agree 👍 💯
Alan Wake 2 is ahead of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora when it comes to visual quality.
Because it is consistent, every aspect of the game is on the same, high, level ("aus einem Guss").
Whereas Avatar has some weaker elements, like the interiors, the materials of the creatures, the Navi are a little plasticy too. Raytraced jungle is a great technical achievement, but Alan Wake 2 is a work of art and will age much better, visually. You will change your mind on this one ;)
Much smaller scope though which they acknowledged
Great technical roundtable discussion as always. I agree with all the picks of these great games. Thanks John, Alex and Ollie!
My top pic would be Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores. It was beautiful.
I thought you were an Xbox fan. Surprising to read you also like PS games.
Loved all of your content this year, so thank you so much for that.
Oliver is such a great addition to your now-trio. I feel like I'm just hanging with my best buds, having a cold one in the meantime.
Here's to another amazing year at DF!
Recently finished AW2, obviously looks amazing. Only now started Jedi Survivor and was surprised how impressive it is graphically, looks so polished at that, amazing lighting, and the physics in the game are next level.
On PC or console? If PC, are you experiencing the PC performance issues?
PS5 @@adrianaguilar96
@@adrianaguilar96I am 90% of way through on PC and the perf issues were minor, the RT crash issues seem to have been resolved in latest patch. I am using 4090.
Alex’s laugh at the announcement of #10 was priceless, given his history with the game
It's funny because this video came out so long ago but you all make videos so easy to rewatch
Shoutout to Alex for knowing about the black hairstyles LMAO! Great video as always from the team overall tho!
Thank you John soo much for giving AC6 a shout out! It’s been such a fun game to play and the overall quality and stability has been excellent. Sad it’s been totally snubbed in a lot of rankings for the year and awards but it’s been one of my most satisfying purchases with a little over 120hrs that has been very satisfying.
I love that you included Metroid Prime Remastered - this game looks and runs unbelievable on the Switch and is a perfect remaster.
yea that is awesome. Such a brilliant game and it did look amazing for Switch.
And it's still at version 1.0.
Looks good but not so fun for fps gamer
It's not an FPS and it's absolute fun.@@Graphichorizon
very much enjoyed the debate format. you guys gave us a good list of games to play for, probably, the next 6 years :P
Personally I have to just barely give the edge to Avatar as well because it feels like something new --- we just haven't seen such a huge jungle environment with such gorgeous lighting, particularly the bioluminescent plants in dark areas where their light bounces around
It looks good but I wasn't wowed
I've completed the Resident Evil 4 Remake twice. The first run was on PS4 Pro with unofficial 30fps cap patch ;) The second time recently on PSVR2. Great Game, especially in VR!
Oliver has been doing amazing work this year, relay happy his videos go so well.
Dead Island 2 environments were the most photoreal for me.
1. Avatar Frottiers of Pandora, 2. Cyberpunk 2077, 3. Star Wars Jedi Survivor. That was my guess
LOOOOOOL, Jedi Survivor is one of the worst PC ports of the year, a stuttery mess.
@@fh5kskalfalright, calm down 😂
Cyberpunk? You guys are out of mind. The game is so low detail I don't know...
@@pedro.alcatra what are you playing it on?
@@gavinderulo12 i7-12700 RTX 2080ti, gigabyte M32U
Just finished Jedi Survivor on PS5 in performance. Switching to quality had a profound lighting improvement especially on Coruscant. I would have loved to have played it with RT at 60fps and less FSR artifacting (TAA instead).
Next year we have Senua and Wukong ! Two games that look visually stunning both on UE 5. Wonder what game will come along and challenge like Avatar did. Great year of DF content and for DF.
STALKER 2 will obliterate every other photorealistic game and any other UE5 game as well.
I am a fairly casual viewer of your channel, but it seems to me that Oliver has really grown over the past year and now confidently holds his own in front of the camera.
Also, I think that Avatar with the Snowdrop engine has really thrown down the gauntlet to Decima. I am really curious to see what Guerrilla manage to do in response.
Dude, i feel something in my eyes the first time riding that horse on upper plains in Avatar, it's incredible.
It's called pop-in, sadly there's no fix right now.
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is clearly the most visually stunning game of the year and probably of the past 10 years. The last game to make my jaw drop from seeing its visuals for the first time was the original Crysis.
Awesome seeing Hi-Fi Rush & Metroid Prime Remaster get some love here!
Seen too many people casually dismiss Hi-Fi Rush since it wasn't hyped up to be this major thing before releasing, acting as if that somehow negates how great it was.
And Prime Remaster was the 3rd highest rated game on Metacritic this year (over everything but BG3 & TotK), yet no mention of it for any awards or end of year accolades. Maybe having "Remaster" in the title signaled it wasn't as impressive as a full remake, but anyone who's played it knows that's not true.
Personally I don't think remakes should even be nominated. They should just have their own category. I think it's so disrespectful to new games to pretend like remakes should be able to take their slot. And I love remakes and remasters but they each should have a category.
If they have dumbass esports categories no one cares about and influencer categories, there's no reason they shouldn't have categories for remakes, remasters, graphics, racing and sports (instead of combining them)
While I'd say it would be debatable when making a best-games kind of list, I don't see why they should be excluded from receiving a graphics award.
Avatar came out of nowhere and it's been blowing me away as I've been playing it. Alongside the DLSS3 mod (FSR3 is fine, but the VRR not working with it currently is a bummer), I keep just stopping mid-game to just...look at the insane detail on screen. With high settings, in general gameplay, it almost looks like the films...which is insane, those things are CGI masterpieces that took months of computer rendering time...and it's happening in live rendering! As a fan of The Division games (mostly the first one, second one was a bit of a mess in design imo), I'm incredibly excited to see Division 3 with Snowdrop.
Maybe just me but I feel like Atomic Heart was really underlooked this year in the graphics department, the visuals in that game are phenomenal.
maybe DF just disliked game, idk
Yep. Much better looking than the miserable washed-out grey that was Armored Core 6.
Crap game though.
It's like poetry that Way of Water is one of the best looking CGI in the movie industry, and then Frontiers of Pandora is the best in the games department. Ubisoft Massive understood the Avatar name and people's expectation on how it should look. But what's more praiseworthy is how it runs. Because some games (talking about you Jedi Survivor) are just broken.
This is the only game awards that matter. Thanks DF.
For graphics yes but not for more important things as story, sound and gameplay😉
Glad to see Hi-Fi Rush on the list.
It's not photorealistic, but it looks so amazing.
I make a Case for The Last of Us on PC. It suffered from technical issues as well but these got fixed with several patches. Runs super smooth on my 4070ti and 7600x.
Detailed Textures, beautiful and athmospheric lighting. And some of the best animated facial expressions I've ever Seen 👍
I agree, I love the look of The Last of Us. But I have a beast PC with a 4090 but couldn't get to run it completely stutter free even after several patches. Gave up and didn't play it through, even tried the framegen mod. Games have to run with zero traversal stutters locked all the time at 120 fps or I won't play.
@@NorbertGanslmeier Used the FG-Mod myself. Would run super smooth most of the Times but Sometimes the Performance would drop immensly.
Without the Mod I didn't have these issues.
But weird that you experienced more issues with more powerful Hardware 🤔
thanks for this episode guys - like to hear your opinions on these games. It would be lovely to hear you talk about most interactive/ emergent games, e.g. with destructive environments, I think the more we focus on and mention that aspect of gaming, it’ll be more appealing for devs and gamers alike.
Happy holidays all!
Regarding professional criticism of all the mentioned titles, these 3 simply do it right and they each point out unique angles about each of the titles, which makes Digital Foundry, so professional, and worth watching.
Hey DF, do any of you guys know what Fumito Ueda is up to these days. I loved The Last Guardian but it definitely had some performance issues and a Bluepoint remake could make it the masterpiece it was always meant to be 😊
Funny enough the whole time I was playing Alan Wake I felt like it would be a great mini series or TV series. Wonderful looking game.
Fantastic video! It's amazing quality content like this (and somehow ad-free) which demonstrates the exceptionally high level of quality the DF team brings with every video! Thank you so much for fantastic content like this. ❤
Oliver is so well spoken, he really adds in that shine to DF videos! Thanks for the video!
Enjoyed this one! Currently playing Avatar on my PS5, that foliage though, been a while since I've seen graphics this good!
Alan Wake 2 imo.
Not only are the max graphics settings insane but the rasterized image is top tier.
But all that falls off hard on consoles.
It still looks good, even at PC Low Settings, but it's not as consistent across PC & consoles as Avatar is.
@@corey2232 Yea I always thought best gfx should account for all platform minus Switch and other handhelds
hell no LOL doesn't even look better than Jedi or FF16 let alone avatar
@@corey2232 This is true. For me Avatar is a close second
@@hugostiglitzracing866 It looks better imo and is not plagued with nearly as many visual pr performance issues associated with those 2 titles.