Graphics aren't everything, but man they sure can make a difference. Anyone whose spent a stack of cash building a PC knows the satisfaction that comes when you finally get it running and put a game on max settings and it doesn't chug a bit. If you're looking for some games to test your rig, or maybe just some good games that also happen to look fantastic, then we at IGN present the following games for your consideration.
Regardless of whether you enjoyed Ubisoft’s latest assassin adventure game, Assassin’s Creed 3 blew a lot of us away with its PC visuals. Traipsing across snowy trees and exploring a dingy colonial America has never looked so sweet.
While we weren’t all that impressed with the campaign, and it had more than a couple of bugs when it launched, Battlefield 3 has always looked great. Sure, it doesn’t have all the same level of destructible terrain as some of developer DICE’s past efforts, but the character models, vistas, and effects blew us away, and helped get us hooked on its multiplayer.
Metro 2033 had a hard time running on computers when it released. A few years later, this post-apocalyptic shooter still looks great with the settings maxed out. Play it and get pumped for the upcoming sequel, Metro: Last Light.
Monsters, dragons, and bloody combat have rarely looked as good as they do on a high-end PC playing The Witcher 2. You might not want to live the life of series protagonist Geralt, but damn if the graphics don’t make you want to visit that world.
It might not have the lighting effects of Crysis, or quite as high-res graphics as some of the other games on the list, but it’s a striking looking MMO. The very fact that it looks so damn good and manages to put swarms of characters on screen at once – complete with all kinds of spell effects – sets a visual standard no other MMO has quite managed to match.
When you’re talking about PC graphics, you’d be foolish not to mention Crysis 3. The entire franchise has been built around how far Crytek can push the graphical envelope, and the third game in the series never fails to impress in this regard.
Few open-world games look as good as Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3. Lush jungles teeming with wildlife give way to bandit camps just begging you to blow them up so you can see a series of awesome explosions. Regardless of how you felt about its story, the world itself looked so good it was hard not to get sucked in.
Rockstar’s made a bunch of pretty games, but Max Payne 3 stands a cut above the rest. Destructible environments, tons of particle effects, and some incredible character animation made it easy to get lost in the alcohol-ravaged world of Max Payne 3.
OK, sure, if you look at the units up close some of them look a little dated, but Company of Heroes is still the best looking RTS out right now. The explosions and physics make it look far more realistic than any other games in the genre, and the intricately detailed environments -- that you can totally destroy -- really nail the WW2 setting. War is hell, but in the case of Company of Heroes hell is really, really pretty.
Anthony Gallegos writes about PC games for IGN. Follow him on Twitter for random ramblings, as well as on IGN.
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