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[ToneyJ]

Considering how often PS games show up how many times they got first place, no?

There just hasn’t been anything graphically very impressive from Sony this year. Astro Bot is arguably the best looking game, but it’s not pushing any boundaries like Hellblade does with the characters or Indiana Jones does with the lighting. I’d personally have Astro Bot at 3-4 and kick Indiana Jones out, but I don’t value tech anywhere near as much as the DF crew.

yeah fair enough. Just strange to be though because Astro Bot literally looks and runs flawlessly. And Stellar Blade is arguably one of the best PS5 Pro games.

but i do recognize the "pushing tech" aspect of these awards.

 

[eNT1TY]

It's Wukong by a huge margin for me. Hellblade only impressed me in the beach and senua's char model and nowhere else, it has less actual navigable area/terrain in the entire game than Wukong's first level at comparable detail and often less than wukong as the game progresses. Indiana Jones path traced is majestic, some of the best looking indoors environments at spots.

 

[Balducci30]

Lol I’m sorry but Indiana Jones doesn’t look close to Hellblade from a graphics perspective

 

[ExtendEmbraceExtinguish]

"Phenomenal"

I’m in the middle of watching this list. Seeing your comment and having a mental ?, and then linderman says it.

 

[Fess]

It's kinda clinical.

It’s more like anti-clinical. Has some of the grittiest and most lived in game maps ever designed. That’s one of the real highlights of the visuals. There is stuff that breaks any symmetry everywhere, vegetation and branches and roots etc popping up through cracks in walls/ceiling/floor and broken things and stuff placed at an angle and rips and tear in textured wood and trash littered around every area etc, and almost every single asset is insanely detailed too. And with path tracing at max it’s just

 

[Stuart360]

I have no idea why Outlaws and Indiana are in the top 3, Dragon Age gets mentioned (lol) and something like Nobody Wants to Die is ignored. Nobody looked so good because they focused 80% on the graphics and 20% on the gameplay.

Not to mention Outlaws looks and runs like ass on the consoles (at least on the PS5). You need to have a good PC to extract its graphics.

Outlaws doesnt run great on PC either, not in that huge city imbedded in that massive mountain anyway, its so cpu intensive if you play at max graphics. The game does have the best implementation of FSR FG though, and it honestly saved the game for me. Locked 60fps on an aging 3700x.

Its also a great looking game, at least maxed out on PC.

As for this vid, i dont agree with Indiana Jones being no.1. Top 10 sure, but not over somehting like Hellblade. I cant run path tracing though on my 3070 due to the vram 12gb requirement, and i'm sure DF are judging the game with path tracing.

 

[Punished Miku]

If I took the time to make a graphics list, I'd have Harold Halibut in my honorable mentions. Such a unique and bizarre game. Definitely was invisible this year.

 

[FeralEcho]

Where the fuck is Stellar Blade? It's more impressive graphically than half that list.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

Like.. if next year someone released 40 minutes long(honestly how much real gameplay h2 has) game that controls JUST LIKE HELLBLADE and obviously looks like real life cgi, incredible... does that win?
Is it fair if it competes with 70-100h long games?!
if matrix demo was this year... would it win against hellblade? like what. where is that line

Hellblade 2 is around 8 hours long…

 

[Spukc]

Lol no black ops 6 on first spot??

Idiots that game is such a looker

 

[SlimySnake]

Outlaws doesnt run great on PC either, not in that huge city imbedded in that massive mountain anyway, its so cpu intensive if you play at max graphics. The game does have the best implementation of FSR FG though, and it honestly saved the game for me. Locked 60fps on an aging 3700x.

Its also a great looking game, at least maxed out on PC.

As for this vid, i dont agree with Indiana Jones being no.1. Top 10 sure, but not over somehting like Hellblade. I cant run path tracing though on my 3070 due to the vram 12gb requirement, and i'm sure DF are judging the game with path tracing.

they are not. they showed series x footage and fawned over the 60 fps target. they are just as impressed with the xsx version.

this is the worst goty pick they couldve gone with. they have completely lost their minds. especially in a year with hellblade 2, wukong, silent hill 2 and even outlaws.

 

[SlimySnake]

Yep, even digital foundry themselves said so in their commentary at the time of release:

Metaphor: ReFantazio - a sublime game let down by bizarre technical choices

Digital Foundry reviews Metaphor: ReFantazio - a truly superb RPG marred by older tech, odd technical choices and inconsistent performance.

www.eurogamer.net

But yet here it is, featuring in their "best graphics of 2024 discussion".

Frankly, these guys are jokers. Zero credibility.

Complete joke.

 

[Aguero9320]

Outlaws is a great looking game. As is Indy. Hellblade should be number one purely on graphics, but I didn’t care for the game itself. Good top 3 IMO.

 

[Miggytronz]

Hellblade is utterly insanity of a game.

 

[YCoCg]

Good list, anyone who watched the full video (which I doubt most people here did) you could tell the list was very tight, Indi only just got top spot because of the PC Pathtracing mode, Wukong just about missed Top 3 due to the odd choices on console (like the 45fps mode before being patched, etc). Honestly just having the list on its own feels pointless in this case so if any of you get the chance go and actually watch/listen to this, they have high praise for all the games and when it came to negatives it was a tough call that mostly was decided on stutter, weird choices for modes and such.

 

[Hugare]

I've played Indy without PT and it looks ... good. PT must do wonders, cause I dont see it. Character models are weak, imo.

Hellblade is much more impressive, imo. Very linear game, but looks damn photorealistic at times.

To me its Wukong. Its the whole package. Art and tech going bonkers. Animations are gorgeous. Animations in Indy, specially in third person are so mid.

 

[Calico345]

Will there be a video for Best Performance?

 

[Jesb]

No Space Marine 2 and BO6 is pretty weird. BO6 is ridiculously good looking at times. That deserves to be in the top 5 imo. No problem with their top 3 but some big omissions.

 

[rofif]

Argument: "Meh and nah". Predictable.

Fuck that. What else so you want.
I don’t find it impressive. It’s nothing special. Especially compared to wukong and such

 

[Fess]

Fuck that. What else so you want.
I don’t find it impressive. It’s nothing special. Especially compared to wukong and such

They talk about ”wukong and such”. If you want the tldr version Wukong basically bounced off the top 3 because of stutter and frame pacing issues, they obviously hate that.
Iirc from past talks on Bloodborne you might not be bothered by that so keep that in mind.
Then Indiana Jones essentially pushed ahead to #1 because of how it looks with path tracing on PC and Hellblade 2 stumbled down to #2 because it’s so linear.

 

[rofif]

I've been watching more of the vid and some of the claims are rather strange.
They describe H2 as first game to look like prerendered cgi... where were they last year? FF16 had prerendered look to some cinematics. it looked incredible but lost to AW2. Worst looking console game... because they awarded it's rt mode on pc.
Then they go on a tangent about Indiana jones having tons of different models... say what!? Capcom has been doing that for years. And it's not like stellar blade reuses all those statues and detail either.
What about wukong? A game with 100 unique bosses and tons of different environments? nothing?
All I see when looking at hellblade 2 is overdetail. They have 3 characters so obviously they overdetail them. Imo ff16 cinematics looked on par or better while not being overdetailed. Or this year, Wukong and stellar blade.

They talk about ”wukong and such”. If you want the tldr version Wukong basically bounced off the top 3 because of stutter and frame pacing issues, they obviously hate that.
Iirc from past talks on Bloodborne you might not be bothered by that so keep that in mind.
Then Indiana Jones essentially pushed ahead to #1 because of how it looks with path tracing on PC and Hellblade 2 stumbled down to #2 because it’s so linear.

So they talk about stutter and such but it's not on ps5. It's a problem on pc.
But then when they talk about Indiana, they praise 60fps on consoles... but reward it clearly for PT on pc which is an extreme feature.
This is so bizazare. They take best of what they want from each platform for the games they want to praise.

Again - H2 looks the best this year, obviously but it's really small and linear. But I agree - best looking.
But indiana jones was nothing special. It is deserved in top 10 or honorable mentions but top3? idk.... not with that water and poor looking jungle areas

 

[Astray]

I just got a PS5 pro and went to DF to see what games I should be trying. I'm actually staggered by their lack of detailed coverage for most games. Even their recent FF round up video is lacking in details. Smaller channels such as GamingTech (he usually only covers HDR settings) and Majorben have done a much better job in this regard even though they have far fewer resources.

I wish I could say the whole situation was odd, but at this stage it's very much on-brand for them.

If there's no console/pc warring angle for them, they won't do a video.

Honestly stunning how far they fell in 2023/2024.

 

[Mattyp]

I’m guessing most people here aren’t playing Indy maxed on 4K with path tracing?

1. Indy

Haven’t played Hellblade yet to compare, but totally different games in even my view.

 

[rofif]

OK I present to you the biggest category they forgot to include this year.
BOO... skin indentation technology caused by big boo... tightly worn clothing!
I don't thin either indiana or hellblade 2 got any of this.

Look closely arund the left chesticle area:

or in this close up with insane skin surface detail

On this example you see 2 indendations happenig at the same time. Insane physics around upper and under body of the main character of game Stellar blade
You can spot anatomical detail everywhere.

Spoiler: More examples + this hand looks really realistic?

Pants area graphical effects

Christmas area again for everyone to compare

 

[TrebleShot]

Laughable. Indy has its moments but has some horrible models and the game only looks great maxed out on rt mode.

 

[BigLee74]

I personally thought Indy looked fantastic, and at 60fps too. And that was only on the XSX.

But Hellblade 2 should be number one. Stunning looking game, albeit at a fraction of the fun.

Couldn’t comment fairly on any Sony game, but I can see the ‘regulars’ have their noses out of joint!

 

[rofif]

Some indiana screens I've taken too just so I am not a horny stellar blade poster alone. no pt.
It does look good.

Spoiler: ok ok one from stellar blade too so I am still horny

 

[Darsxx82]

If I took the time to make a graphics list, I'd have Harold Halibut in my honorable mentions. Such a unique and bizarre game. Definitely was invisible this year.

Yes, Harold Halibut would also be on my list of honorable mentions. It is very special visually and close to a playable clay animation movie. Definitely many absences and omissions of mentions of very special graphically games.

 

[Luipadre]

TWO of the the top 3 don't belong.

DF has a predictable heavy bs history.

You clearly havent played those then. Top 3 is a solid choice

 

[rofif]

What about dragons dogma 2?
I think it looked incredible and the world reacted to what you were doing.
Trees can be broken, grass moves and catches fire. Dynamic time of day. Feels very tactile
my ps5 launch version shots. not even pro

Spoiler: Few more

 

[Lootlord]

Hellblade is utterly insanity of a game.

Yep, the "gameplay" and "voices" almost drove me insane

 

[kruis]

reasonably solid list, though it’s baffling there’s no Flight Sim 2024 in there.
They also gushed a lot about Stellar Blade at launch and with the Pro patch, so surprising it isn’t in the list.

I’m not convinced about Penny’s big breakaway

That Penny game shouldn't have been included. It's cool to see devs making their own 3D engine and tools from scratch, gameplay and performance seems to be fine, but it's doing absolutely nothing special graphicswise. The art style could have been the game's saving grace but the art is incredibly bland.

 

[Ozriel]

Animation? It's a first person game. Animations are good but nothing better than ND is doing.

What’s the relevance of ‘what ND is doing’ in a discussion of visuals in 2024? Did ND release a game in 2024 that got bypassed?

Technical aspect? Path tracing? Sure... maybe.. for those who can enable it. There are many PT games.

if you’re happy to push for games that get uplifted by Pro patches, then nothing wrong in them talking up Path Traced games.

 

[Fess]

So they talk about stutter and such but it's not on ps5. It's a problem on pc.
But then when they talk about Indiana, they praise 60fps on consoles... but reward it clearly for PT on pc which is an extreme feature.

They talk about the stutter in Wukong on console and how the framerate was oddly placed below the vrr range creating a judder and all kinds of issues. Then they says it’s patched to an okayish level if you go with balanced mode 40. Not ideal obviously, they explain that well.

And yeah path tracing is an extreme feature in Indiana Jones but they praise it for that, for being able to scale down to console and stay at basically flat 60 and up and push even high end PCs and don’t stay at console level visuals.
I see nothing bizarre there, nothing is outside of what I expected for a video like this.

 

[Three]

What’s the relevance of ‘what ND is doing’ in a discussion of visuals in 2024? Did ND release a game in 2024 that got bypassed?

ND did release a game in 2024 with better animations but if it was compared to a 2020 game and had worse animations wouldn't that reinforce the point even more?

 

[adamsapple]

They talk about the stutter in Wukong on console and how the framerate was oddly placed below the vrr range creating a judder and all kinds of issues. Then they says it’s patched to an okayish level if you go with balanced mode 40. Not ideal obviously, they explain that well.

They gave all of their nominations sufficient enough time in the video to explain their reason behind it, feels like some users are just reacting on the numbers without watching the video itself.

 

[Fess]

They gave all of their nominations sufficient enough time in the video to explain their reason behind it, feels like some users are just reacting on the numbers without watching the video itself.

Yeah definitely, they were praising every game they talked about, but they had to choose a top 3 and they explained how they reasoned for like half an hour. Still not good enough apparently…
I agree on the top 2 btw. I just can’t say much about Outlaws because I haven’t played it. I’ll check it out when it’s on sale.

 

[Nafeken]

The game that impressed me the most visually was Hellblade 2

 

[rofif]

Some rebirth gameplay screenshots(base ps5).
The game was not all bad. I kinda want to replay it on pro

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

I've been watching more of the vid and some of the claims are rather strange.
They describe H2 as first game to look like prerendered cgi... where were they last year? FF16 had prerendered look to some cinematics. it looked incredible but lost to AW2. Worst looking console game... because they awarded it's rt mode on pc.
Then they go on a tangent about Indiana jones having tons of different models... say what!? Capcom has been doing that for years. And it's not like stellar blade reuses all those statues and detail either.
What about wukong? A game with 100 unique bosses and tons of different environments? nothing?
All I see when looking at hellblade 2 is overdetail. They have 3 characters so obviously they overdetail them. Imo ff16 cinematics looked on par or better while not being overdetailed. Or this year, Wukong and stellar blade.


So they talk about stutter and such but it's not on ps5. It's a problem on pc.
But then when they talk about Indiana, they praise 60fps on consoles... but reward it clearly for PT on pc which is an extreme feature.
This is so bizazare. They take best of what they want from each platform for the games they want to praise.

Again - H2 looks the best this year, obviously but it's really small and linear. But I agree - best looking.
But indiana jones was nothing special. It is deserved in top 10 or honorable mentions but top3? idk.... not with that water and poor looking jungle areas

What do you mean over detail?. It’s simple, BEST GRAPHICS. Not performance.

 

[rofif]

What do you mean over detail?. It’s simple, BEST GRAPHICS. Not performance.

They are talking about it

 

[adamsapple]

The game that impressed me the most visually was Hellblade 2

HB2 is the current console benchmark, IMO.

Indy is more impressive to DF as a combination of multiple things, but on a moment to moment basis, HB2 is the best this year, and might be next year too.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

You clearly havent played those then. Top 3 is a solid choice

Yes I have and no it isn't.
Indy and Outlaws are top 10 they aren't top 3.
HB2 is though.

 

[adamsapple]

What about dragons dogma 2?

It's in their top 10.

rofif are u ok ?

 

[rofif]

It's in their top 10.

rofif are u ok ?

I know it's there.
what do you think about it

 

[adamsapple]

I know it's there.
what do you think about it

I really liked it. Played the Xbox version so had that checker boarding issue that version had at launch.

But I think it's in a decent spot on the list. There's some notable issues with the game like massive NPC pop-in feet in front of you, the checker-boarding issue the Xbox had at launch and the generally uneven performance.

 

[xenosys]

Putting two PS3-era games in here in Metaphor and Persona 3 is honestly hilarious.

This is best graphics, not art direction. None of them have anything remotely close to having the best game graphics in 2024. If youre including those, you may as well include Infinity Nikki, Genshin Impact and all those anime gacha games as well.

 

[DanielG165]

No idea what Indiana jones is doing ahead of hellblade 2 but I have my suspicions. That game looks pretty bad in comparison especially on console.

As someone who is playing Indiana Jones on a Series X, I can confidently say that the bolded is false. Incredibly so.

In any case: I’d say DF’s list here is an accurate one, having played all 3 games on their top 3 list.

Outlaws is genuinely, genuinely a fantastic looking game with one of the best overall open worlds that I’ve personally ever seen. The only sore spot are the faces, but as a whole, it’s a stunning game that runs incredibly well despite having RTGI running in such a massive sandbox at all times.

Hellblade 2 on PC is the best looking game I’ve ever seen, full stop. There are several moments in that game where I truly believed that I was looking at an offline render, from the lighting, to the sheer detail on every surface, to the near film level faces. It is, genuinely, untouchable in the graphical department, and I don’t think it will be truly usurped until the next generation. The lighting and scenery genuinely looks like they were taken on location, on a film set, as do the character models on multiple occasions.

Indiana Jones is incredibly impressive not only for its visuals, but also for just how well the game runs, and how optimized it is. The fact that it runs at 60 fps locked, at 1800p, and with RTGI on the Series X is incredibly impressive. Seeing the game consistently with my OWN EYES, the notion that it looks bad on console is… Disingenuous imo. I’m sure I’ll be blown the hell away and back once I upgrade my GPU to take advantage of the game’s path tracing, but the premium console version is quite stunning still.


Honorable mentions for me would definitely go to Wukong on PC, Space Marine 2 on PC, and Stalker 2. The latter of the three is impressive in how it’s, I believe, the largest open world game in sheer scale (barring Flight Sim of course), is a UE5 title, utilizes lumen and nanite, with an ai system that actually works the way it should now… Yet runs very well on console, SX especially, looks as good as it does, and looks even better on PC. It’s a massive, utter monster of a game, but is quite the looker in-person, and is brilliant to actually play imo.

 

[Three]

As someone who is playing Indiana Jones on a Series X, I can confidently say that the bolded is false. Incredibly so.

The comparison of Indiana Jones on console vs Hellblade 2 on console? you can disagree but they look miles apart to me. especially the shit shadows of Indiana Jones on Xbox S/X, the skull you see through Indies hair. It looks poor in comparison in character models and enviroment. On PC maybe they are a little closer but on console no way would I agree with your opinion on that being "incredibly false".

 

[GymWolf]

Lol, lmao even.

And these clowns are supposed to be the graphic authority?!