Every year, the Digital Foundry team share their notes about the most technologically impressive games of the year – and in a wide-ranging 108-minute discussion, John Linneman, Alex Battaglia and Oliver Mackenzie share their honorable mentions and a top ten list of titles that caught their attention. However, just like last year, it’s the top three games that truly stand apart and once again, deciding which game takes champion standing was the subject of intense debate.
Where there is unanimous agreement is in the placing of Star Wars Outlaws in the number three position. The game is lauded for bringing the ‘lived in’ Star Wars aesthetic to gaming in a simply brilliant manner, powered by Ubisoft Massive’s state-of-the-art Snowdrop engine. From a technological standpoint, the use of RT reflections, diffuse global illumination and RT shadows is a remarkable achievement bearing in mind the relatively limited ray tracing hardware available on consoles. The fact that the PC version also has a path tracing alternative (RTXDI) for higher-end hardware is the cherry on top.
It’s a stunning achievement overall, let down only by its cutscenes where animation actually seems to look sub-par compared to in-game animation.
0:00:00 Introduction0:01:58 Honourable mentions: STALKER 2, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor ReFantazio, Nightdive Studios, Tiny Glade, FF7 Rebirth, Power Rangers0:20:46 Dragon’s Dogma 20:26:35 Riven0:30:32 Dragon Age: The Veilguard0:37:24 Silent Hill 20:48:50 Astro Bot0:54:32 Penny’s Big Breakaway0:58:05 Black Myth: Wukong1:08:49 Star Wars Outlaws vs Hellblade 2 vs Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Where opinion is divided is in the placing of the top two games: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Obviously, from a gameplay perspective, MachinesGames’ epic is a clear winner – but that’s obviously not the focus of a Digital Foundry ‘Best Graphics of 2024’ discussion. Hellblade 2 was lauded for its astonishing character work and virtual camera, to the point where some environments look almost indistinguishable from real-life footage.