Digital Foundry: Best Game Graphics of 2023 - Avatar!

Top 3 Ranked:

1. Avatar: Frontier of Pandora
2. Alan Wake II
3. Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive

The top three slots on our list this year went to Cyberpunk 2077 with RT Overdrive, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Alan Wake 2. All these games combine stylish and performant graphics with genuinely boundary-pushing ray tracing techniques, with two of the three supporting full path tracing on PC - essentially wholly replacing the faked lighting systems used for years in rasterised titles with a realistic alternative that "just works".

Rest of the Top 10 (no order):

• Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Resident Evil 4
• Robocop: Rogue City
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

Honorable Mentions:

• Dead Space Remake
• Horizon: Forbidden West Burning Shores
• Jusant
• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
• Metroid Prime Remastered

Thoughts? Any games you think are missing?

Not surprising. The few vids they did about the game, while watching them, all i could think off of is how incredible a fromsoft game could've been if they visuals crew were anywhere near this talented. Such a shame.

I haven't watched the vid but looks like a good list.

Avatar looks stunning and it's right to win: Credit to Ubisoft there. It's really the first game this gen where i'm looking at the specs, thinking "another unoptimised disappointment". Then i saw it and....wow. The first proper "NEW GENS HERE!!! BASK IN ITS GLORY!!!!!" moment this gen.

I saw the vid on the console versions too and it still looks great on the XSX and PS5. Hell even the XSS version is a dam fine build considering the spec of that system. So it's not just simple brute force. It's just generally a well developed game on the tech front and it shines all the better for it. Apparently the game itself is also quite good.

I may....actually buy a game from Ubisoft? Did i just type that? Actually I also just bought Immortals Fenyx Rising so I'm already guilty :P.

Nice to see Metroid Prime remastered get a mention too. Considering it's running on a switch, it looks great. Always interesting what good devs can squeeze out of limited hardware. Also just to note that everyone who has not played the game should play it as it's awesome.

Good looking pathetic game.

The game definitely looks amazing. Also looks quite fun. Wouldn’t mind playing it myself in the not too distant future.

🤢🤮

Great looking midness

Dang I was hoping Alan wake ins , but oh well

At the end of the video all of them John, Alex, Oliver agreed Avatar wins #1

Does look fantastic.

Yup, can confirm. Looks amazing. Intel 13th gen CPU with RTX 3080, 32 GB RAM for reference. Running at 1440p with a steady 60-80 fps, pretty much maxed out settings.

Snowdrop engine is incredible. After Valve's Source engine and Unreal Engine, Snowdrop might be my favorite.

Gameplay is even better, though! That's what really makes it so great.

They really capture the spirit of the film well. The section of the game where you go and get your ikran might actually be better than the scene in the film.

Sounds like the guy is just tired of open-world games and is taking out that sentiment on *gasp* an open-world game.

Get out of your echo chamber, dude. I get it, open-world games are overplayed (and Ubisoft makes too many of them for sure) but a good game is a good game.

Avatar is a more beautiful game, but it didn't blow me away like Alan Wake 2. When I first saw screenshots of that game, I thought it was a live-action movie! Alan Wake 2 is the closest thing to realism we've ever seen in a video game. I think that was a more deserving winner.

However, Avatar is a more beautiful game to look at, with the large, colourful environments. So I'm not too fussed about them picking Avatar over Alan Wake 2.

Digital Floundry + best graphics = 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Well, they said that CP2077 is more of a achievement on a technical level and the reason it isn't no.1 is because it's an old game that has already won best graphics in the past.

@daredevils2k: I'm about 6-8 hours into Alan Wake 2 on an RTX 4090. It looks phenomenal, but Avatar (on Unobtainium settings) definitely takes the crown.

I was so sure AW2 would win until I saw all the tech videos of Avatar. Then it became clear.

@pc_rocks: CP2077 has more advanced path tracing but looks mediocre in several aspects (texture work, asset quality, animations...) graphically. If it was brand new it still wouldn't beat Avatar.

Solid list a usual from the team at DF.

My personal top 3 would be this:

1) Avatar - Graphics king and next gen Crysis

2) Alan Wake 2

3) Robocop

Console graphics king: Spiderman 2

Best on-going game (aka dlc) that deserves a top 3 spot but disqualified: Cyberpunky 2077: Phantom Liberty

Ditto but for consoles: Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores - HFW with the new dlc is easily the best looking console game to date. But we'll give the console award to SM2 as HFW already won it (and overall) last year.

He plays all Ubisoft titles, and all of them are the same, so of course you notice the extreme similarities, and are tired of the same shit. Avatar truly is a pathetic game. An empty game with zero creativity. Typical Ubisoft release tbh.

Like imagine playing an open world game with TWO ENEMIES as your variety. TWO🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤡🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Metroid Prime Remastered looks better than all those games.

This post tells us nothing😑

What's the matter, you don't like DF?

Every fanboy lemming like our Aussie cannot stand them because they're constantly exposing his little Xbox.🤡

@fantasygamer: Because its facts. Avatar is the best looking game. Its truly the next Crysis. I honestly dont tihnk we have seen a Crysis 1 since... Crysis maybe. For around a decade after its always been a debate as to what looks best.

EDIT: not saying it is anywhere near as revoultionary as Crysis was. Nothing is.

@davillain: I don't care for them.

Real gamers don't care if in one part of a game it drops 1 frame for a millisecond or that when zoomed in 200% the shadow of the player on the ground has jaggies etc.

I find them nauseating, I can't imagine nick picking the shit out of a game to find whatever faults they can, and then make videos about them.

I get people like their videos, all i'm saying is that i'd rather play video games not watch someone else talk about them, especially the tech side.

I weep with sadness every time Massive is forced to put out more of Ubisoft's formulaic dreck. There is clearly still some talent in the studio making fantastic visuals, but we'll never get another game as good as World in Conflict from them again at this rate when they're stuck making looter shooters and Far Cry: Cat People Edition.

Looking at this game my only real interested is watching people benchmark the Ultra and Unobtanium settings, I have 0 interest in actually playing.

Great looking game,better looking than any playstation game in existence,not on par with FH5 and will be destroyed by hellblade 2 and Flight simulator 24 but bodes well for star wars ubisoft in 2024.

GS review got it about right,7-10 putting it on par with miles morales and ghost of tsunami

So much salt here

@saint-george: Avatar is also on par with S7arfield (the 73rd highest rated game of 2023)

Avatar in unobtainium settings on PC is the best looking game right now. Hellblade 2 and MSF24 won't come close to it. The PC versions on my RTX 4090 will be close, but your shitty xbox won't even be in the same stratosphere to what I will be seeing and playing. I'll be playing them at 120 fps too, while peansants like you have to play it in 30 fps mode.

The best looking console game is still Horizon Forbidden West followed by Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart. Those actually rival stuff like Avatar lol some how.

Also the most "who cares" game.

I still have my Collector's Edition of that gem, complete with its very own piece of the Berlin wall. Such a cool add-on for a collector's edition. I saw it was on sale on GoG and picked it up again, although for some reason I can't get the game to start. :(

A beautiful, breathtaking, visually stunning marvel of a boring ass game.

So basically 3 wins for PC in a row for 2023. Nice.

Deserved.

Great game, great looking game. Snowdrop engine is quickly becoming one of my favorites! Runs well, looks great.

Have an RTX 3080 and a 1440p monitor, was able to run it at ~60 fps with a mix of ultra and high settings.

Yeah and this was released at a point when RTS games had sort of fallen in popularity, or were quite niche.

World in Conflict is without a doubt one of the best games it seems like no one has ever played.

And who could forget the great Alec Baldwin narrating the story 😋

But yes, World in Conflict is without any doubt in my mind the best game of the 360/ps3/wii generation. It is beyond brilliant in basically every facet and it's only flaw was that it was cruelly cut short by the death of Sierra and acquisition by Ubisoft, who had no clue what they were sitting on and just killed it. And if I have to post in this bot bumped necro thread to gush about it then by god I will do just that.

@robertos: I mean technically PC could have won every year, but Digital Foundry judges consoles more favourably.

HFW (PS5) won in 2022, R&C:RA (PS5) won in 2021,

And the very fact that they even bother mentioning Switch games lol (even the worst looking PC game of 2023 looks better than the best Switch game)

@mesome713: Metroid Prime Remastered looks like Metroid Prime on the Game Cube.

lol sorry nothing switch is best graphics of the year.

I really hope the Star Wars requirements won't be much more than what Avatar was!

Can't imagine they will be. Only a year or so apart, and I imagine they reuse a lot of assets.

Also, and FYI not a developer so I'm probably wrong, but SW game probably has less trees 😋 so might be less demanding? Just a hunch.

@Vaasman said:

...And if I have to post in this bot bumped necro thread to gush about it then by god I will do just that.

haha woops.

But hey, look at the conversation we kickstarted!

@mrbojangles25: Sorry but the thread was bumped by a bot, and while the conversation is kicking off to a start, everyone had 3 months to do so, not now all of a sudden so this doesn't warrant a discussion not after 3 months.

Locking for necro thread.