TechRadar
17 best 4K games: the must-play titles to penalize your PC
Best 4K games
Update: Our latest entry is the gripping depiction of warfare in sweeping 4K by Battlefield one at #17.
The 4K revolution has arrived on PC, and if your eyes haven’t yet dined at the table of Ultra HD gaming, we’ve tracked down the best 4K games sure to give them a visual feast.
Packing four times as many pixels as common 1080p displays, Trio,840 x Two,160 pixel-resolution “4K” monitors can make newer games breathtakingly immersive, and those extra pixels can even help pump life back into older titles using high-resolution texture packs and mods.
Of course, in addition to a 4K monitor, you’ll need a bulky gaming equipment with a powerful graphics card (or three) to do them justice – because even gorgeous visuals soon wear lean if your framework rate matches your shoe size.
Whether you’ve already made the leap or are about to, click on to view our best 4K games screenshot gallery. We’ll be adding to it as we go along, so drop us a comment below if you’d like to see a particular game make the grade.
1. The Witcher Trio
While console gamers are still arguing over whether the latest Witcher three patch dialled down the game’s graphics, members of the PC elite have been firing up CD Projekt’s epic third-person venture in a blaze of 4K glory.
Rendered natively, The Witcher Trio’s highly-detailed environments look nothing brief of incredible in 4K – from Novigrad’s sprawling architecture to its crimson sunlit fields, not to mention its spiny Echinops, grotesque Bloedzuigers and wiry Cemetaurs. Having your face ripped off has never looked so beautiful.
Nitpickers may point out that Wild Hunt’s backgrounds and foliage don’t match up to what was shown in pre-release promo shots, something that’s increasingly becoming par for the course for PC gamers, but even so it’s still one of the best-looking games out there.
Two. Mud: Showdown
It may be creaking a bit in the tyres, but Filth Showdown is still one of the best-looking arcade racers out there and its Destruction Derby-style thrills are even more heart-pumping on a 4K monitor. While fans of Codemasters’ racing series may point to Mess three as the all-round meatier title, Showdown’s over-the-top treatment – from the flame jets that light up indoor tracks to its spectacular chassis-contorting crashes and colorful art style – make it the more visually appealing title.
Three. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
The latest entry into the Call Of Duty franchise, Advanced Warfare aims to banish all memory of the muddy textures that plagued its scarily ugly predecessor, Ghosts. After three years in development it emerges to have succeeded: Warfare’s high-octane firefights are nothing brief of stunning in 4K thanks to its acute visuals, Exo-llent (sorry) character models and very detailed weapons. Another nice effect of playing in 4K is having an eye-poppingly crisp HUD, which is the closest you’ll get to wearing an Exo Suit (brief of strapping on an Oculus Rift, anyway).
Four. Dishonored
Nominated for several ‘Best Graphics’ and ‘Best Art Style’ industry awards upon release, Dishonored wasn’t exactly a bad-looking game in 2012. Crank up the pixels, however, and Dunwall’s retro-future-industrial aesthetic is elevated to a entire fresh level of dystopian beauty.
Taking time to admire its wooing water effects, Orwellian-era buildings like the Hound Pits Pub, and bizarre Pandyssian wildlife, ogling Dishonored’s visuals in 4K can prove a welcome distraction to clearing your name of murder.
Five. Dying Light
A penalizing title that requests serious GPU power for the best practice (especially if you want to ramp up the draw distance), Dying Light in 4K has you smelling the breath of the Zombie hordes while watching blood trickle from their rotten, bashed-in craniums.
The level of detail is phenomenal – from the game’s leafy suburbs to its blood-splattered weapons and NPCs’ facial expressions. Standing on a roof watching flames eat the rubber hood of a searing car while plotting your escape from the army of undead never has never felt so real.
6. BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite came out in two thousand thirteen and wasn’t designed for 4K monitors, but you wouldn’t know it. Irrational Games’ third shooter in the BioShock series, Infinite looks still jaw-dropping in Ultra HD thanks to its highly-detailed textures, illuminating lighting effects and Columbia’s neoclassical-styled architecture.
When not stopping to admire its buildings, you’ll likely be checking out Booker’s shining weaponry or staring into the vacant eyes of Monument Island’s many enemies. Infinite’s high-speed firefights up in the Sky-Lines are particularly engaging in 4K, not to mention its four weird and wonderful boss fights.
7. Metro: Last Light Redux
While the Redux version of Metro: Last Light features slightly tweaked graphics compared to the original (it goes in slightly stronger on smoke and lighting effects), both games feature some of the best visuals around with the resolution dialled up to 4K. Skulking from shadow to shadow in Last Light’s post-apocalyptic Russia in a bid to avoid the Vichukha is even more tense in Ultra HD, and if you’ve got sufficient graphical grunt, its weapon and particle effects give firefights an extra dose of pretty.
8. Tomb Raider
If you’re waiting patiently to ogle Rise of the Tomb Raider’s gorgeous visuals, maxing out the current game in the series isn’t a bad way to pass the time. Cranking up the resolution along with texture, anti-aliasing and high precision settings unlocks a ton of hidden detail in Tomb Raider, which boasts atmospheric lighting, dancing shadows and hair textures that wouldn’t be out of place in a shampoo commercial. (Not when Lara’s caked in mud, mind.) Thick draw distances and polygon-smoothing tessellation effects all help the fictional island of Yamatai shine in 4K.
9. Assetto Corsa
Leave behind attempting to drive well during your very first few Assetto Corsa races – it just won’t happen. The driving simulator’s graphics are so tasty in 4K/Ultra that you’ll be too busy ogling the sun’s reflection on your car’s bonnet from five different camera angles. The racing activity looks best in the game’s first-person in-car view. If you’re not fixated on the creases in the driver’s gloves, you’ll be mentally running your fingers over the rubber-coated dashboard’s dimples and smelling the freshly-cut grass outside. If you’re pining for a realistic racer to showcase off your fresh 4K monitor, leave behind Project Cars – Assetto Corsa is the real deal.
More screenshots (click to enhance)
Ten. Starlet Wars: Battlefront
Whether you agree that Starlet Wars: Battlefront is a war simulator with no heart, or not, it’s unquestionable that EA’s online shooter is a visual feast fit for a wookie. From the forest of Endor’s leafy vegetation to Hoth’s snow-capped mountains and Tatooine’s sunlit rock faces, Starlet Wars has never looked so good.
More screenshots (click to increase)
11. Fifa 16
Ever desired to peer up Gareth Bale’s nostrils rendered in pixel-perfect 4K? Now’s your chance, you oddball. Graphics haven’t traditionally been Fifa’s strongest suit, which means that EA’s latest footy sim particularly benefits from the extra pixels afforded by Ultra HD. While we still get the feeling that EA could make the beautiful game even more beautiful (in the graphics, rather than free-following-attacking-football sense), Fifa sixteen is lightly the best-looking installment in the series to date.
More screenshots (click to enhance)
12. Fallout Four
The most anticipated game of the year isn’t the prettiest out of the box, which is forgivable given Fallout Four’s sheer size and scope. Still, even without loading up on of the many beautifying mods out there – such as the Wasteland graphics mod and the Texture Optimization Project – Fallout four is still a view to behold. Cranking up the resolution and notching up the settings to Ultra results in some particularly hypnotizing outdoor environments as the sun’s rays flicker through the trees.
More screenshots (click to enhance)
13. Mortal Kombat X
The best-looking brawler around bar none, Mortal Kombat X’s gore-some visuals make you wince at every ribcage-snapping, skull-crushing-eye gouging stir. MKX gives you a broad ranging, but not extensive selection of tweakable graphics settings – ranging from anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, shadow quality and texture quality to bloom, depth of field, motility blur, ambient occlusion and particle density. You’ll need a high-end graphics card to whack everything up to 11.