Can't really argue with any of these choices (as much as Ion Fury getting praise irks me) on a technical level.
I'm waiting for Death Stranding on PC, but it blows me away every time I see it on DF.
My top three would be as follows:
3. Gears 5. As much as I'd love to sneak RE2 into my top three, it's hard to argue any individual effect that Gears 5 doesn't do better. Both look and run great. Both have good HDR support (I know a lot of people don't like the *art* choices in RE2's HDR implementation, but I do). It's been the year of ray tracing but the SSR in Gears (on Insane) is almost as good, and brings so much to the look of the game, that I tweaked all my settings around achieving that above all else.
2. Metro Exodus. There isn't much between my number 1 and my number 2. The RT GI in Exodus is probably the most impressive *single* use of ray tracing we've seen so far. The difference between having it on and off is often stark, and while some people may prefer the 'gamier' look in certain areas, the RT GI brings such consistent uniformity to everything that it's *fundamentally superior*. When you look at something like RE2 which has some weird effects that show up sporadically, that sort of thing pulls you out of the game whenever it happens. Metro's RT GI never looks bad or wrong in any circumstance. Some technical issues with trying to use RT, DLSS and HDR at the same time push this down to my number 2, which may seem unfair given my number 1, but which still leaves a little technical bugbear in my mind whenever I think about the game graphically.
1. Control. Yes, it doesn't have HDR and I wish it did. There were some amazing HDR implementations this year, even if we're still seeing a lot of games not even supporting it, or supporting it really badly. But what Control had, was by far the most next gen looking presentation of any game I played this year. Sure, that comes partly down to the mostly enclosed and tightly controlled environments, however, I've always loved an engine with a focus on the game it's delivering. So while Control may not have the impressive (and impressively dynamic) open environments of Death Stranding, it has amazingly detailed and destructive interiors. Control is the first game where ray tracing didn't feel like an impressive extra visual effect, and perhaps that stems from how much the engine does with it. When I look at Control's concept art, there is no doubt in my mind that the game looks closer to it with ray tracing on than with it off. With those fantastic materials, with the way ray tracing just ties everything together so much better, with how dynamic the whole game is, seeing all those physical simulations effecting the environment's visuals exactly as they should was mind blowing at times. For how big a step up in *new* visual detail (like, not new effects per se, but details in the lighting that would normally be missing that are suddenly present) the game was, even without HDR, I can't really pick anything else as my number one. Control's engine and technology perfectly serves its gameplay and its art. It's something you often get in a Remedy title, where the game design pushes the technology in specific ways (think Alan Wake with it's volumetric lighting and large open areas with lots of things that can be effected by environmental effects). It's also the best game released this year, which doesn't hurt one bit.
Special shout out to Crackdown 3. The HDR in this game is amazing. With it off, it's completely meh visually. With it on... it absolutely shines. If you've got an HDR display and haven't checked it out, you absolutely should.
