5 Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings on max settings will still give your processor a run for its money today, which makes you feel slightly sorry for anybody back in 2011 that wasn’t using a top of the line rig. The biggest takeaway, though, is how utterly gorgeous it appears when everything is dialed up, running on a good TV or monitor.

The detail on Geralt’s clothes highlight quality textures that you won’t find even in the base PS4 version of the game’s sequel, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The lighting is equally superb, too, which we certainly see the lineage of in the sequel title. Even facial animations really aren’t that different between the second and third game, either.

Of course, there are details and graphical nuances that you’ll see in The Witcher 3 that aren’t present in the predecessor, and the physics of character animations also look better, overall –particularly impressive considering we’re comparing an open world game to a largely linear one. But there’s no doubt that The Witcher 2 holds up remarkably today and is a completely different league than titles like Skyrim, that appear comparatively old-fashioned despite launching in the same year.

Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

Crysis 3

Quite honestly, you could include any Crysis game on this list –even the original game could still fool unsuspecting gamers into thinking it was current gen with everything dialed to max. But if you want a game to truly put your new graphics card to the test, there’s every chance Crysis 3 will melt all but the best GPUs despite its five-year-old shooter age. The game was downright unfair on the 2013 technology that was supposed to run it.

Crysis games have, of course, always been stunningly good-looking, but each has also been almost stupidly ambitious for their time. So much so, in fact, the infamous “But can it run Crysis” meme can still be found in YouTube comment sections to this day.

Funnily enough, last year, PCGamer tried to run the original game at max settings in 4K and struggled, proving that the game is still more than a match for current generation shooters. Indeed, games such as DOOM, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and Battlefield 1 might have superior physics and material effects, benefitting from more efficient graphical engines, but Crysis 3 has many qualities to its graphical composition that still match or better them, such as volumetric lighting and complex shading models.

Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

Metro Last Light

Metro Exodus promises to be one of the best-looking shooters ever made when it launches next year, especially on the souped-up Xbox One X and PS4 Pro consoles, and, of course, on PC. And given just how much graphics have been a hallmark of the series from the very first game, it’s little wonder 4A Games is putting such an emphasis on impressive visuals. Even to this day, the series’ second game, Metro Last Light, wouldn’t look out of place next to console shooters when run on PC with settings dialed up to the maximum.

The atmosphere of Moscow’s dank subway systems really comes to life thanks to the material and particular effects in the game. The air is thick with dust and smoking powder in the most claustrophobic scenes and the constant use of breathing apparatus sees condensation fog up your monitor in a way that really transports you. That level of immersion is created by techniques such as tessellation and supersampling, which are only available on the PC version and never made their way to console, even in the reduxed PS4 and Xbox One versions.

Of course, performance and motion-capture aren’t quite up to scratch compared to today’s games, but you’d be amazed by just how close they get; the last-ditch seventh-generation games really weren’t too far behind. But what we certainly can say is that Metro Last Light running on PC at max settings still glimmers with an extra sheen, boasting textures that look just that little bit sharper than even today’s most cutting-edge console titles.

Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

BioShock

It’s hard to believe that a game from 2007 could possibly stand shoulder to shoulder with current generation console titles, but it’s true.

The BioShock Collection was recently released for the current generation, in fact, updating particle effects, lighting, and textures to something more akin to the original PC version. Both the PS4 and Xbox One versions achieve 60fps, though almost unbelievably aren’t able to maintain it during intense action scenes. Considering the game uses a modified version of the ancient Unreal Engine, that’s actually quite shocking. There are all sorts of screen tearing issues, too.

The PC version, of course, doesn’t have the same problems, as long as you’ve got a half decent rig. PC owners of the game actually got the remastered upgrade for free, which adds the new textures and effects and new character models the console versions benefit from, except here there’s the option to dial the up resolution, texture filtering, and eliminate framerate drops.

Funnily enough, Digital Foundry found that many of the supposed upgrades to the collection actually spoiled the look of the original somewhat, with the 2007 PC version often producing better reflections and water effects.

Of course, we’re comparing old games to current ones here, rather than remasters, but the purpose of highlighting the shortcomings of the remaster is to reinforce just how great old games can look on max settings. Again, character models and physics are never going to be quite as nuanced, but parts of Rapture still look every bit as sharp as modern games.

Old PC Games That Still Compete With Current Gen Graphics

Tomb Raider

The first of the rebooted Lara Croft games, 2013’s Tomb Raider was astonishingly good-looking when it launched, even on console. A subsequent remaster for current generation improved the lighting, textures, and framerate. Yet the true definitive edition is still obviously the original PC release with settings dialed right up to max.

Even next to this year’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the five-year-old game still looks brilliant, and you can see quite plainly the lineage of the first game in the most recent. In fact, the PC version of Tomb Raider stacks up very favorably with console versions of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The exception are notable improvements to character models, post-process anti-aliasing, and lighting in the more modern game.

But the first Tomb Raider was absolutely a technical showcase at launch and still looks sublime running on a good rig. Fun fact: the original PC release of the game was among the first to use TressFX, a technology that created realistic dynamic hair movements. They were subsequently added to the definitive edition of the game on consoles with the roll-out of the next generation.