Digital Foundry's Best Game Graphics of 2024 - PC/PS5/Xbox - Another Phenomenal Year

As another year comes to a close, Digital Foundry unleashes its traditional holiday video, celebrating the best game graphics of the year. Outside of some highly honourable mentions, ten games are lauded for their phenomenal visuals. John, Alex and Oliver share their thoughts in a massive 108-minute long celebration!

[PrinceOfAnger]

Top 3:

3. Star Wars: Outlaws
2. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
1. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2

congrats to microsoft / bethesda & ninja theory

[PrinceOfAnger]

Sorry indy at #1

But john did say " in terms of pure visuals Hellblade 2 would probably be at number 1 for me " . but overall he choose indy jones"

[PrinceOfAnger]

one of them said at the end of the video ,
if it wasn't for Path tracing on Indiana jones PC, he would have picked HB2

[GamerRN]

I think Indy looks good, but what it lacks for me is cloth physics on the clothing. If you can add that, then the models would look much more realistic to me. For now they look great detail wise but when moving look stiff and boxy.

[Fishy Fingers]

Well deserved. I hope we get to see more ID Tech games over the next few years (a welcome bit of compitition for UE5) and Indy only has me more excited for Doom.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

Congratulations to Machine Games for getting the most out of the ID Tech engine and running
at 60fps .

[YourMommySpoils]

Another joke article I see. Star Wars Outlaws best graphics contender??? O.o

The game has some of the worst lighting and bugged textures I've seen on any game this year!

[isarai]

Honestly DF has weird opinions on some things and really likes to try and convince everyone to subscribe to their opinions. Problem is they're good at getting people to do so, lot of gaslighting imo

[YourMommySpoils]

I can actually see what you mean and never realized this till now. Good call.

[ElaBosak]

wtf are you talking about? That game has some of the best lighting ever made. They even showcase it by making a whole city lit by indirect lighting which is the weak point of the vast majority of games out there.

[H9]

It's heavily inconsistent, especially in camps and cities, it takes seconds for it to turn from really good to ugly back to good back to ugly

[YourMommySpoils]

well you're laughable. Some of the besting lighting?! hahaha

[LoveSpuds]

Tell me you didn't watch the video without telling me you didn't watch the video!

[YourMommySpoils]

Tell me you haven't played the games without telling me you haven't played those games.

[Workshyskiver]

The graphics on PC are insane, the console version isn't as impressive but still a good looking game.

[YourMommySpoils]

No matter the settings, there's nothing good about those graphics. Animation is none existent, making Lego Star wars games even better than this. Ubisoft has also never been great with modelling and textures. So don't go raving about Outlaws.

[PrinceOfAnger]

surprised that Flight sim 24 is not in top 3!

[PrinceOfAnger]

Honourable mentions:
STALKER 2, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor ReFantazio, Nightdive Studios, Tiny Glade, FF7 Rebirth, Power Rangers.

[PrinceOfAnger]

In no particular order:
Dragon's Dogma 2
Riven Remake
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Astro Bot
Penny's Big Breakaway
Black Myth: Wukong

[PrinceOfAnger]

Ninja theory is indeed a graphical power-house studio up there with the best.

[P_Bomb]

I just don’t care for the visual palette in Hellblade 2. It’s just poorly lit cave after cave. I’m FINALLY outside again as the game draws to a close, but too little too late. Prefer Indiana Jones.

[RaiderNation]

How is Black Myth Wukong not on this list??? Also Warhammer 40K SM2.

[Fishy Fingers]

Bro, theres a 15 minute segment discussing Wukong. Its even in the thumbnail.

:\

[RaiderNation]

I'm talking about the top 3

[I_am_Batman]

Technical issues especially on PS5 bring Wukong down. Capped 40 fps mode just got added though, so that's a big upgrade potentially.

[jwillj2k4]

Some parts of Indiana look good other parts like garbage, Like mountains in the distance, some of the assets close up, some of the sides of mountains

[Demetrius]

I had so much fun on star wars outlaws, hopefully inidiana Jones comes out on ps5 sometime next year, its so messed up that Sony won't sunset overdrive ported over been wanting to play that game for sooo long

[LoveSpuds]

Indy has been announced as releasing on PS5 in the spring dude. You have no chance of Sunset Overdrive getting released in my opinion, it just wouldn't be worth the financial risk given the general lack of interest.

[DivineHand125]

I bought an Xbox partly to try Sunset overdrive and believe me when I tell you, you are not missing anything over there on playstation. The game feels dated, and the story makes very little sense. There is a reason you don't see many Xbox gamers boasting about Sunset overdrive.

If you really want to try it, you can get gamepass or if you have a PC, you can get it on Steam for $5 right now. Here are the minimum specs.

System Requirements
Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS *: Windows 8 or higher
Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.0hz || AMD-FX-6300
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Geforce 750 Ti || AMD Radeon R7 260X
Storage: 30 GB available space

Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5 4690 @ 3.5hz || AMD-FX-8350
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Geforce 970 or Geforce GTX 1060 || AMD Radeon R9 290x or Radeon RX 480
Storage: 30 GB available space

[LoveSpuds]

I played it on Xbox back on release and enjoyed it well enough, my biggest criticism was that it got quite repetitive by the time you get 3/4 of the way through. In general though, I'd agree that folks who missed it aren't missing something 'essential'!

[Npugz7]

Star Wars outlaws are you kidding me???

[Tacoboto]

It builds off the amazing tech from last year's Avatar. Gameplay quality is a different subject and console compromises don't take away from what it's capable of on PC.