Digital Foundry rounded up the year by highlighting the game with the strongest visuals, naming Horizon Forbidden West the standout PlayStation exclusive for its graphical prowess. The analysis gave high marks to character rendering, expressive facial animations, and a thoughtfully crafted open world that invites players to explore every corner with a sense of awe. The title’s artistry was praised for how it translates the game world into a living, believable space, where lighting, texture work, and environmental detail come together in a cohesive, immersive experience.
Horror entered the conversation in second place with The Callisto Protocol, a title that showcases highly realistic graphics and finely detailed character models. When the technical side holds steady, it has the potential to compete for the top spot, offering a polished visual presentation and a strong sense of atmosphere that helps sell its sci‑fi horror vibe. In third place sits the RTX-enhanced version of the original Portal, whose ray tracing overhaul reshapes lighting, shadows, and reflections to transform the familiar puzzle universe into a new, visually rich edition that rewards careful observation and clever use of lighting.
Beyond the top three, Digital Foundry identified several other notable contenders that pushed graphical fidelity in various ways. Gran Turismo 7 was recognized for its lighting engine and meticulous car modeling, The Last of Us Part I for a near‑from‑the‑ground‑up rebuild that emphasizes environmental storytelling, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide for its expansive locales and atmospheric illumination, A Plague Tale: Requiem for its painterly visuals and detailed textures, Fortnite on Unreal Engine 5.1 for its ambitious real‑time lighting and effects, Need for Speed Unbound for its dynamic image quality and open‑world aesthetics, and Dying Light 2 for its refined shadow work and lighting nuances that heighten tension in dark environments.
A broad gallery of Horizon Forbidden West screenshots is available for viewing, offering fans an extended look at the game’s visual storytelling and technical achievements. Earlier in the year, Steam hosted a poll inviting players to vote on the best games of 2022, highlighting how audience engagement and critical discussion intersect to shape perceptions of graphical quality across platforms and genres. This year’s discussions reflect a shared emphasis on how lighting, texture complexity, model detail, and ray tracing come together to create memorable digital worlds. These analyses underscore the ongoing evolution of game visuals, where even established genres receive fresh, convincing interpretations through technological advances and artistic direction.
The ongoing dialogue around graphical fidelity often intersects with platform capabilities, engine choices, and optimization strategies that influence how a title finally lands in a given state on release and over time through patches. In this context, the results from Digital Foundry illustrate a landscape whereShader quality, environmental design, and performance considerations are weighed in tandem with artistic direction. The conversation continues as developers push forward with new hardware, evolving engines, and ever more ambitious creative visions. (VG Times)