2022 brought some big technical hits and some big technical messes on PC. Here’s the best and worst PC releases we saw this year from a technical perspective.
2022 was a big year for PC game releases, for better and worse. We saw remarkable achievements in fidelity in titles like Dying Light 2, but also fundamentally broken PC ports like Gotham Knights. As 2022 closes out, I wanted to take a look back at the best and worst PC games we saw in the past year.
Keep in mind that ReSpec is a technical column — I’m focused on the technical aspects of PC releases, not necessarily my favorite games overall. Elden Ring, for example, won our best games of 2022 roundup, and it’s a personal favorite. But it doesn’t show up in this list in quite the same light.
Portal RTX is an insanely demanding game, and I debated putting it on this list due to how few people can actually play it. But if nothing else, Portal RTX is a wonderful showcase of Nvidia’s RTX Remix modding toolkit and how ray tracing can work to redefine the look and feel of the game.
We’re far past the days of Quake II RTX where some over-saturated lighting and distracting reflections were the best showcases of ray tracing we had. Physically-based materials, more efficient path tracing techniques, upscaling, and frame generation all worked into bringing more realistic lighting into games, and Portal RTX is our first showcase of the power those techniques can have.
I’m particularly excited about what it means for RTX Remix in the future. Modders have already put out versions of Max Payne, Half-Life, and SWAT 4 revitalized through RTX Remix, and they all look incredible. I’ll be taking a closer look at these games (and hopefully more) in the future.
Gotham Knights is on the opposite end — it’s an ugly look into the past. In the vein of the infamous Arkham Knight PC port, Gotham Knights shipped on PC with massive stuttering issues paired with lackluster ray-tracing options. Even with a bevy of upscaling features on tap, Gotham Knights can’t maintain a stable frame rate.
It doesn’t help that the game looks dated, as well. It was originally designed with last-gen consoles in mind before the publisher decided to pull the plug, but it fails to live up to even that standard. Shortly after launch, a flood of images comparing the graphical fidelity of the game to 2015’s Arkham Knight started flowing out (and spoiler: Arkham Knight won that battle).
Personally, this one hit hard. Even with some issues that you can read about in our Gotham Knights review, I was excited to play the game.
