Best Game Graphics of 2022- Another Great Year for State-of-the-Art Visuals

polonyc2

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Digital Foundry presents its picks for the best gaming graphics of 2022...offering up their views on how visuals have progressed over the last year- and which titles in particular demonstrate the state of the art...

 
Digital Foundry presents its picks for the best gaming graphics of 2022...offering up their views on how visuals have progressed over the last year- and which titles in particular demonstrate the state of the art...

in case people don't want to watch the whole 50+ minute video, here are their selections...only the Top 3 are ranked...the other 8 are placed in random order...

1) Horizon Forbidden West...huge difference between the PS4 and PS5 versions...I can't wait for the PC release
2) The Callisto Protocol...while the game is made with Unreal Engine 4, the developers also added some minor UE5 elements (though not Lumen or Nanite) to their custom version of the engine
3) Portal RTX

Gran Turismo 7
The Last of Us: Part 1...Naughty Dog did a poor job showcasing the differences from the PS4 version but the game is much better looking now and should look even better when the PC version comes out
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Fortnite with UE5 patch (Lumen + Nanite enabled)
Need for Speed Unbound- Frostbite engine
Dying Light 2
Witcher 3
 
in case people don't want to watch the whole 50+ minute video, here are their selections...only the Top 3 are ranked...the other 8 are placed in random order...

1) Horizon Forbidden West...huge difference between the PS4 and PS5 versions...I can't wait for the PC release
2) The Callisto Protocol...while the game is made with Unreal Engine 4, the developers also added some minor UE5 elements (though not Lumen or Nanite) to their custom version of the engine
3) Portal RTX

Gran Turismo 7
The Last of Us: Part 1...Naughty Dog did a poor job showcasing the differences from the PS4 version but the game is much better looking now and should look even better when the PC version comes out
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Fortnite with UE5 patch (Lumen + Nanite enabled)
Need for Speed Unbound- Frostbite engine
Dying Light 2
Witcher 3
Good choices, in my opinion. I feel it's important to point out that The Callisto Protocol used AI-generated assets for things like the walls and floors. I am kind of neutral on the idea in this case since the environments still had an artistic touch with the objects and the fleshy elements. I don't know if AI-generated assets would work as well in an environment that isn't artificial like a futuristic prison on an alien moon. I guess it would depend on how the AI algorithm is trained.
 
Good choices, in my opinion. I feel it's important to point out that The Callisto Protocol used AI-generated assets for things like the walls and floors. I am kind of neutral on the idea in this case since the environments still had an artistic touch with the objects and the fleshy elements. I don't know if AI-generated assets would work as well in an environment that isn't artificial like a futuristic prison on an alien moon. I guess it would depend on how the AI algorithm is trained.
I think it would not just work, but work better. It takes a zillion man hours to do just a few concepts for something. While the ai can churn out 50 iterations on one subject in minutes, and the human can choose the best one from those and fine tune it further. So using AI doesn't mean there is no human touch.

I'm surprised Horizon Forbidden West is the first, it didn't look that impressive to me in trailers and streams I saw. But I'm not making the same mistake I made with HZD, this time I'm waiting for the PC release.
 
it's interesting that the two biggest games of 2022 (and most people's favorites) are both not on the list- Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok...just goes to show that gameplay is king and trumps graphics every time...
 
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