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[SlimySnake]

Spoiler Top 8.

Spoiler

8. Horizon Burning Shores
7. Avatar
6. Star Wars
5. FF16
4. Cyberpunk
3. Hogwarts
2. Spiderman 2
1. Alan Wake 2

Avatar bit too low, Hogwarts way too high but other than that, decent list. He does explain that he looked at everything from cinematics to animations instead of just graphics rendering. I am big on Avatar but those first person cutscenes really sucked, and definitely hurt the presentation when compared to other games on this list.

Also like this format way more than DF's podcast style awards. This is far more interesting to watch. Some great looking footage too.

 

[Senua]

Spiderman 2 ahead of Avatar is interesting, but hell yea my boy Alan Wake is a good looking mother fucker.

 

[analog_future]

Better list than DFs for sure. Alan Wake II earned that #1.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Cyberpunk’s graphics are rough in a good way I want to stop to see every detail in that game. Occasionally I was wow’d with spiderman 2’s graphics, I expected the city landscapes, the aura from the super heroes powers etc.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Alan wake is really confined.

Horizon should be #1 or 2

 

[Senua]

Alan wake is really confined.

It has large open areas, especially in the forest. Not that it matters anyway, it's best graphics not largest game world.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

It has large open areas, especially in the forest. Not that it matters anyway, it's best graphics not largest game world.

Horizon has amazing scale and visual fidelity that put it above imo

 

[clarky]

Toss up between Alan Wake and Cyberpunk for me. (PC).

 

[Senua]

Horizon has amazing scale and visual fidelity that put it above imo

Horizon indeed has amazing scale, but the visuals are not on the level of Alan Wake 2 or Avatar. Games just keep getting better lookin!

 

[SlimySnake]

Alan wake is really confined.

Horizon should be #1 or 2

Have you played it? It has some massive open areas. Not to the extent of Horizon, but its crazy that they were able to put in that level of fidelity in a non-corridor shooter.

HFW was already number 1 for him and DF last year and rightfully so. the DLC just doesnt add much beyond clouds.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Have you played it? It has some massive open areas. Not to the extent of Horizon, but its crazy that they were able to put in that level of fidelity in a non-corridor shooter.

HFW was already number 1 for him and DF last year and rightfully so. the DLC just doesnt add much beyond clouds.

Not yet, just going by footage it didn’t wow me like horizon

Also I hear the console versions of Alan Wake have poor IQ?

 

[Fbh]

Don't know how F16 is on a list like this.
Specially in a better position than Horizon and Avatar.

The cutsenes look really good and there's some specific cool looking locations but overall I didn't find the presentation very impressive. It also runs like crap.

Maybe once it's out on Pc and you can get it to run at proper 60fps and good resolutions (not upscaled 720p) it might really shine.

 

[adamsapple]

FF16 above Avatar.

C'mon son.

 

[Senua]

FF16 above Avatar.

C'mon son.

*Rofif intensifies*

But yea that's another interesting one lol

Not yet, just going by footage it didn’t wow me like horizon

Also I hear the console versions of Alan Wake have poor IQ?

I think the IQ is okay on quality mode? I don't know I played the PC version and it was fucking stunning.

 

[jm89]

Horizon should be way higher.

Suprised to see hogwarts and ff16 above it.

 

[SlimySnake]

Not yet, just going by footage it didn’t wow me like horizon

Also I hear the console versions of Alan Wake have poor IQ?

I think the IQ is okay on quality mode? I don't know I played the PC version and it was fucking stunning.

It has shimmering and really poor aliasing when turning the camera. You can see it in DF's game of the year video which uses a lot of PS5 footage. it is really bad and distracting. Basically the same as HFW's performance mode at launch. shimmering everywhere. And that was in the quality mode in AW2 which ran at FSR2 4k balanced mode. performance mode is even worse.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

The Top 2!

 

[SlimySnake]

Don't know how F16 is on a list like this.
Specially in a better position than Horizon and Avatar.

The cutsenes look really good and there's some specific cool looking locations but overall I didn't find the presentation very impressive. It also runs like crap.

Maybe once it's out on Pc and you can get it to run at proper 60fps and good resolutions (not upscaled 720p) it might really shine.

He starts off the video by saying he is looking at the overall picture. Setpieces, animations, production values, as well as graphics fidelity. I would personally never put Avatar behind FF16 but at least his reasoning is solid. FF16 and Spiderman do a lot more next gen stuff than just render some fancy world with lots of foliage. The games feel next gen in scope thanks to the massive setpieces, beautiful cutscenes and fantastic animation work. Same goes for Star Wars which easily looks worse than Avatar but those cutscenes he posted in the video look a generation ahead of what Massive produced in Avatar.

Hopefully star wars outlaws being third person and cinematic works in their favor. It has the setpieces, the cutscenes and the scale that Avatar simply failed to capture.

 

[acm2000]

hard to argue with number 1 spot, stunning game especially maxed on PC

 

[xrnzaaas]

Spiderman is probably too high, I feel the immersion starts to break apart too much when you land and start moving slower, even if it's not the intended way of playing the game.
Both Horizon & Avatar should be higher. I was surprised how good Pandora looked in the game, not like your typical copy-pasted Ubi environments.

 

[cormack12]

I thought Hogwarts was way more impressive than Spidey 2 but Spidey 2 did have great IQ

 

[Gaiff]

Avatar and Alan Wake 2 are top 2 without a doubt.

Spider-Man 2 above avatar.

 

[Kings Field]

Super Mario Wonder

 

[SlimySnake]

hard to argue with number 1 spot, stunning game especially maxed on PC

 

[rodrigolfp]

Imagine putting path traced CP2077 behind SM2 and HL.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Hogwarts

 

[BennyBlanco]

Alan wake is really confined.

Horizon should be #1 or 2

So I can assume you played Alan Wake 2 on PC? It’s next level

 

[The Cockatrice]

Alan Wake 2 is mostly linear, ofc they can pull some good visuals, I think Cyberpunk is still the king on PC and Horizon on consoles considering their scope and how large the maps are filled with so many details. Everyone who puts Alan Wake 2 above these two should not be doing tech videos. Lol at Spider-man 2. Nice architectural design and distance rendering but everything else is below average. K peace out fools.

 

[Senua]

Alan Wake 2 is mostly linear, ofc they can pull some good visuals, I think Cyberpunk is still the king on PC and Horizon on consoles considering their scope and how large the maps are filled with so many details. Everyone who puts Alan Wake 2 above these two should not be doing tech videos. Lol at Spider-man 2. Nice architectural design and distance rendering but everything else is below average. K peace out fools.

So only open world games are allowed best graphics now? Why are you making these arbitrary rules?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

He starts off the video by saying he is looking at the overall picture. Setpieces, animations, production values, as well as graphics fidelity. I would personally never put Avatar behind FF16 but at least his reasoning is solid. FF16 and Spiderman do a lot more next gen stuff than just render some fancy world with lots of foliage. The games feel next gen in scope thanks to the massive setpieces, beautiful cutscenes and fantastic animation work. Same goes for Star Wars which easily looks worse than Avatar but those cutscenes he posted in the video look a generation ahead of what Massive produced in Avatar.

Hopefully star wars outlaws being third person and cinematic works in their favor. It has the setpieces, the cutscenes and the scale that Avatar simply failed to capture.

FF16 has the most impressive cinematic set pieces I’ve seen

Its highs are really high

 

[adamsapple]

So only open world games are allowed best graphics now? Why are you making these arbitrary rules?

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall still continues to be the undisputed king.

 

[analog_future]

Alan Wake 2 is mostly linear, ofc they can pull some good visuals, I think Cyberpunk is still the king on PC and Horizon on consoles considering their scope and how large the maps are filled with so many details. Everyone who puts Alan Wake 2 above these two should not be doing tech videos. Lol at Spider-man 2. Nice architectural design and distance rendering but everything else is below average. K peace out fools.

Alan Wake 2 isn't all that linear at all. There's several huge explorable areas.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

Is this console only? Because Cyberpunk with pathtracing is incredible.

 

[Portugeezer]

Hogwarts

Fire him IGN!

 

[Esppiral]

Alan Wake 2, no contest.

 

[SlimySnake]

So only open world games are allowed best graphics now? Why are you making these arbitrary rules?

So far I have noted down these rules for best graphics on Gaf:

- No Ray tracing? GTFO.
- No open world? No bueno.
- Path Tracing = Default #1 Spot. Of course this means Portal PT is GOTY every year.

Feel free to update the list with more ridiculous qualifiers.

 

[Little Mac]

Bought the Spider-man 2 PS5 Slim bundle during the holidays and currently playing through the Spider-man 1 Remaster that I got with the Miles Morales Ultimate Edition.

How much of a difference is it going from SM1 to MM or SM2?

 

[Heisenberg007]

It has large open areas, especially in the forest. Not that it matters anyway, it's best graphics not largest game world.

The scope and everything else matters. Otherwise, you could make a "game" with the best graphics ever by confining the player into a very small empty room.

If a game has other stuff -- such as particle effects, open-world landscape, numerous assets simultaneously being rendered on the screen, super fast traversal, gigantic boss fights, etc. -- all those should be taken into account for these lists.

 

[Senua]

The scope and everything else matters. Otherwise, you could make a "game" with the best graphics ever by confining the player into a very small empty room.

If a game has other stuff -- such as particle effects, open-world landscape, numerous assets simultaneously being rendered on the screen, super fast traversal, gigantic boss fights, etc. -- all those should be taken into account for these lists.

Yes, but basically no games are like that, and Alan Wake 2 has vast open levels with dense forestry and simply stunning lighting. Just seems like an arbitrary way to minimise the games graphical prowess. Did people dunk on TLoU2s graphics because it wasn't open world? I don't remember it.

 

[adamsapple]

The scope and everything else matters. Otherwise, you could make a "game" with the best graphics ever by confining the player into a very small empty room.

If a game has other stuff -- such as particle effects, open-world landscape, numerous assets simultaneously being rendered on the screen, super fast traversal, gigantic boss fights, etc. -- all those should be taken into account for these lists.

Good thing AW2 isn't that game

 

[SlimySnake]

The scope and everything else matters. Otherwise, you could make a "game" with the best graphics ever by confining the player into a very small empty room.

If a game has other stuff -- such as particle effects, open-world landscape, numerous assets simultaneously being rendered on the screen, super fast traversal, gigantic boss fights, etc. -- all those should be taken into account for these lists.

NX Gamer literally did that and thats the reason why he placed Spiderman 2 so high. he also mentions why it isnt on the first spot because its basically running on a last gen engine and feels like it belongs in the same generation as spiderman 1 at times.

AW2 is not confined to a very small empty room. The levels are large and interconnected and the interiors are no different from the interior sections in both cyberpunk and HFW while looking a generation ahead in terms of lighting, level of detail and asset quality.


AW2 has the cutscenes, the animations, the graphics and that next gen flair that helped it get to the top. Not every game needs gigantic boss fights or fast traversal to qualify, horizon FW didnt have either last year and still won every single graphics award.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

People thinking FFXVI shouldn't be in here...every time Bahamut was on screen or a huge Titan boss fight was happening my mouth was on the floor tbh.
Some of the best graphics i've seen all year.

Burning Shores should be higher. Hogwarts should be lower.

 

[Gaiff]

So far I have noted down these rules for best graphics on Gaf:

- No Ray tracing? GTFO.
- No open world? No bueno.
- Path Tracing = Default #1 Spot. Of course this means Portal PT is GOTY every year.

Feel free to update the list with more ridiculous qualifiers.

Now that's just untrue. People cry in every thread about HFW not topping lists and it has no RT.

The most popular "rule" by far is that if it's made by Sony, then it automatically deserves a top spot, even if it looks incredibly underwhelming such as with Spider-Man 2.

 

[Dusktildawn48]

Spidey at #2 is hilarious, he's such a PlayStation fanboy.

 

[SlimySnake]

Yes, but basically no games are like that, and Alan Wake 2 has vast open levels with dense forestry and simply stunning lighting. Just seems like an arbitrary way to minimise the games graphical prowess. Did people dunk on TLoU2s graphics because it wasn't open world? I don't remember it.

Good thing AW2 isn't that game

I swear i wonder if people dunking on AW2 have even played it.

Corridor.

What people dont realize is that a lot of the interiors are actually part of the bigger semi open world levels with no loading like this cafe.

 

[adamsapple]

I swear i wonder if people dunking on AW2 have even played it.

Corridor.

What people dont realize is that a lot of the interiors are actually part of the bigger semi open world levels with no loading like this cafe.

What some users on GAF think AW2 is

What it actually is

 

[Hugare]

Spiderman 2 at 2nd place? Oh man ...

Traversal and draw distance were impressive. Everything else was very meh, imo.

Character models, materials, lighting ... nothing special. Not that it doesnt look good, but far from the best.

Hogwarts at 3 is also ... a choice

 

[rofif]

I dont agree with alan wake 2 (at least on consoles - console versions look awful)
but Glad someone is finally praising ff16 and hogwarts. Both look amazing

 

[rofif]

I swear i wonder if people dunking on AW2 have even played it.

Corridor.

What people dont realize is that a lot of the interiors are actually part of the bigger semi open world levels with no loading like this cafe.

The game has very few distinct areas and they are semi open corridors. not sure what you are trying to say here.
It's about as open as ff16.. so not much

 

[SlimySnake]

The game has very few distinct areas and they are semi open corridors. not sure what you are trying to say here.
It's about as open as ff16.. so not much

thats exactly what im saying. its not a corridor game. it has bigger open areas.