#games #newgames #newgamesdemo #newgamestrailers #gameplay #funnygamemoments #randomgamemoments
#gamefails
#gamefails
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Guys, have you ever looked at one of these new releases and thought,
00:04okay, it looks good, but is it really that much better than what we already had?
00:09Well, in this video, we're diving into some visually stunning games that have aged like fine wine
00:15and still absolutely humiliate a lot of games being made today.
00:221. Red Dead Redemption
00:24Alright, let's kick things off with a heavy hitter that still blows my mind.
00:29I'm talking about the original Red Dead Redemption.
00:32Look, I know the sequel is a technical beast, but there is something about the atmosphere
00:37of this first game that just hits different. I remember booting this up back in the day and
00:42just staring at the sunset over the Mexican border for what felt like hours. The orange hue hitting
00:49the dust. Man, it was pure poetry. Even today, if you're playing the 4K version, the art direction
00:56holds up so well, it's actually scary. It has this gritty, spaghetti western soul that a lot of
01:03modern open worlds completely miss because they're too busy filling the map with icons and checklist
01:09chores. John Marston is such a legendary protagonist, right? He's got that weary, I've seen too much
01:16energy that feels incredibly authentic. When you're riding through a sudden thunderstorm in New Austin,
01:22the way the lightning flashes illuminate the sagebrush isn't just a flashy effect. It feels oppressive and
01:29wild. I honestly think the physics, the way your horse reacts to the terrain, and the weight of the
01:35gunplay feels more satisfying than half the shooters hitting the shelves this year. It's not about how many
01:41polygons are on the screen. It's about how the world breathes. Playing this again makes me realize
01:47that we don't need fancy ray tracing to feel truly immersed in a world. We just need developers who
01:53know how to set a mood. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple, and it still puts modern westerns to
02:00absolute shame.
02:062. Rai's Son of Rome. Next up is a game that I'm convinced was made using some kind of alien tech
02:13or black magic. Rai's Son of Rome was a launch title for the Xbox One. Let that sink in. We are talking
02:21about a game from 2013. I replayed this recently and my jaw was literally on the floor. The facial
02:28animations on Marius Titus during the cutscenes are straight up better than 90% of the massive RPGs
02:34I've played in the last two years. You can see the individual pores, the beads of sweat, and that raw,
02:41burning revenge in his eyes. It's insane. Now, I'll be the first to admit the gameplay is a bit
02:48one-note. It's basically a high-budget quick-time event, and it can get a little repetitive after a
02:54few hours of hacking through barbarians. But as a visual showcase, it's a total juggernaut. The way
03:01the sunlight glints off the golden Roman armor, and the sheer scale of the forest battles, it feels
03:07like you're actually playing through a Ridley Scott epic like Gladiator. It honestly makes me frustrated
03:13with the state of optimization today. If Crytek could pull off this level of crispness and detail over a
03:19decade ago on way weaker hardware, what's the excuse for these blurry, poorly optimized games we're getting
03:26now? It's a gorgeous, brutal ride that every graphics nut needs to experience at least once.
03:373. Assassin's Creed Unity
03:40Okay, we have to talk about the problematic favorite of the bunch. Assassin's Creed Unity had
03:46a legendary disaster of a launch. We've all seen the memes of the faceless NPCs. But if you play it
03:53today with the latest patches, it's arguably the most stunning game in the entire series. I'll die on
03:59this hill. The crowd density in Paris is something Ubisoft hasn't even tried to do again. Walking through a
04:06mob of literally thousands of NPCs makes the world feel alive, messy, and revolutionary in a way that
04:13the newer, empty landscapes of Valhalla just can't touch. The lighting inside those French palaces? Pure
04:20insanity. Even though it's baked in and not real-time, it looks more natural and soft than most modern
04:27lighting setups I see. Arno might be a bit of a polarizing lead. He's definitely a bit of a simp for
04:34a lease. But the parkour system here is the peak of the franchise. It's smooth, heavy, and looks like
04:40a choreographed movie. Every time I parkour over the rooftops of Paris, I just get annoyed because it
04:47feels like the series actually took a massive step backward in terms of physics and environmental detail
04:53just to make the maps bigger. It's proof that a dense, handcrafted city will always beat a giant,
05:00empty map. It's a visual triumph that was just way too ahead of its time for its own good.
05:104. Uncharted 4 A Thief's End
05:13Finally, for this first group, we've got the absolute king of Naughty Dog's catalog,
05:19Uncharted 4. I remember watching the reveal trailer and calling BS, thinking there's no way a console
05:26game looks like that. But then I got my hands on it, and it actually did. The level of detail here
05:33is borderline obsessive. I'm talking about the tiny things, like the way Nate's shirt gets realistically
05:39soaked with sweat and mud, or how the wind actually rustles individual blades of grass and leaves in the
05:46Madagascar wilderness. It's that lived-in feeling that you just can't fake. The chemistry between Nate and
05:53his brother Sam is so grounded, and the motion capture is so precise that you can read their
05:59emotions just by looking at a slight squint of the eyes. It's storytelling through detail. When you're
06:06sliding down a gravel slope and you see every little rock crumble and bounce realistically,
06:11it creates a sense of presence that most AAA games today trade for skins and battle passes.
06:18The villains, Rafe and Nadine, feel like genuine threats because the cinematic presentation is so
06:25flawless. It's a master class in putting art direction over raw power. Even without a fancy
06:31modern remake, this game looks like it could have been released yesterday and it would still be the
06:36best looking thing on the market. It's honestly a bit embarrassing for everyone else.
06:48Number 5. Batman Arkham Knight. Man, we really need to stop and tip our hats to what Rocksteady pulled
06:56off here. Batman Arkham Knight came out in 2015, and if you told me it launched this morning,
07:03I'd believe you. The rain in this game is on another level. The way the droplets run down Batman's leather
07:09cape and how Gotham's asphalt shines with neon reflections is absolutely hypnotic. The noir atmosphere
07:17is so thick and well-crafted that you can almost smell the smoke and oil of the city. I remember
07:24gliding around the map just to watch the cape react to the wind. This is a level of polish that has
07:29pretty much vanished from the industry. A lot of people complain about the Batmobile, and yeah,
07:35I agree they went a bit overboard with the tank combat, but the design of that machine? It's brutal in
07:41the best way. Scarecrow as the main villain brought a horror vibe that perfectly matched the ultra-realistic
07:48visuals. The Joker's face appearing in Batman's hallucinations has a level of detail in the skin
07:54and teeth that straight up humiliates a lot of so-called next-gen games. And it's wild to think
08:00this game runs on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3. It just proves that when an art team is talented and
08:07given time, they can work miracles. This is the definitive Batman game, and nothing else has come
08:13close to this visual benchmark since.
08:20Six. Crisis. But can it run Crisis? That phrase became a meme for a reason. The original Crisis came
08:28out in 2007, and the fact that it still shows up on lists of games that humiliate modern titles nearly
08:3520 years later is pure insanity. Back then, I didn't even have a PC capable of running it. I had to
08:42watch it at a friend's house, and we just stood there in awe, staring at palm leaves snapping and
08:48bending under gunfire. The global illumination in this game was something we only saw in Pixar movies
08:54at the time. You walk through the jungle and the sunlight pours through the trees in a way that feels like
08:59raw realism, without any fake-looking filters. The freedom you get with the nano-suit is what keeps
09:05the gameplay addictive even today. Maximum armor, maximum strength. You feel like a predator. The
09:12enemy isn't just the opposing soldiers or the aliens, but the environment itself, which is almost
09:18entirely destructible. Watching a wooden shack explode into pieces after you throw a soldier into it
09:24is still more satisfying than most scripted explosions we see today. This was a game that demanded powerful
09:31hardware, because it refused to cut corners. It delivered full-on simulation. If you've never
09:37played the original version, or even the remaster, do yourself a favor. This is a historic landmark that
09:42still goes toe-to-toe with any modern shooter.
09:477. Infamous Second Son
09:55This one is a case study in how to do particle effects right. Infamous Second Son was one of the
10:01early PS4 exclusives, and man, Sucker Punch did not mess around. Delson's powers, smoke, neon, video,
10:09are a visual spectacle that I honestly haven't seen topped. When you absorb neon from a sign in Seattle and
10:16start running up walls leaving that glowing trail of light behind you, it's jaw-dropping. The reflections
10:23and puddles on the ground and the neon lights bouncing off Delson's denim jacket create a unique
10:29aesthetic that feels vibrant and alive. Seattle is portrayed in this rainy, slightly melancholic way
10:36that I absolutely love, and moving through the city with that level of fluidity is incredibly satisfying.
10:42Delson is that kind of rebellious-with-a-cause protagonist you can't help but like, and the
10:49story about the government hunting down conduits adds some real weight to the experience. But what
10:55really hooks me is the combat. Every smoke explosion feels like thousands of individual ash particles
11:02flying across the screen without the game ever stuttering. It's the kind of optimization we really
11:08miss today, where everything seems to need a 50 gigabyte day one patch just to work. It's stylish,
11:15fast, and absurdly beautiful, even by 2026 standards.
11:268. The Order 1886
11:29Closing out this section, we have the game that might be the closest video games have ever come to feeling
11:34like a movie. The Order 1886 is controversial, I know. It's short, packed with cutscenes,
11:41and the black bars on the screen annoyed a lot of people at the time. But visually? My friends,
11:47this game is downright unfair. The recreation of Victorian London with a steampunk twist is immaculate.
11:54Material quality is where it truly shines. You can feel the weight of the fabric in the clothing,
11:59the sheen of metal on the experimental weapons, and the texture of aged wood inside the taverns.
12:05The visual fidelity here genuinely makes you question whether time has even passed.
12:10The story of the Knights of the Round Table hunting werewolves with Tesla-powered weapons is an
12:15incredible premise. Galahad is a stoic, grounded protagonist, and the enemies lurking in London's
12:21fog are genuinely unsettling. The combat is a fairly standard cover-based shooter. It doesn't reinvent the
12:28wheel, but every shot feels powerful thanks to the sound design and environmental destruction effects.
12:34Yes, it's a short experience, but it's so dense and visually rich that I'd take these six hours of
12:40pure visual indulgence over 100 hours in a generic, lifeless open world any day. If you want to see
12:46what a console can do when it focuses 100% on fidelity, this is the game.
12:589. Sleeping Dogs. Man, if there's one game that deserves a massive apology from the gaming world,
13:05it's Sleeping Dogs. I remember picking this up thinking it was just a GTA clone in Hong Kong,
13:11but I was so wrong. The atmosphere in this game is absolutely thick. When night falls and the rain
13:17starts pouring, the neon signs reflect off the wet pavement in a way that honestly puts some modern
13:23ray-traced games to shame. It's got this gritty, cinematic martial arts movie vibe that feels so
13:30visceral. Walking through the night markets, hearing the sizzle of the street food and the chatter of the
13:36NPCs, it's pure immersion. Wei Shen is such a badass, tortured protagonist, caught between his
13:44duty as a cop and his loyalty to the sun on Yi. The combat isn't just mindless shooting, it's brutal,
13:51crunching kung fu, where you're slamming heads into AC units and using the environment in ways that feel
13:57way more interactive than most open worlds today. Even the driving has this arcade-like weight that makes
14:04chasing down rival gangs through narrow alleys a total blast. It's a tragedy we never got a sequel,
14:10because the level of detail Square Enix packed into this version of Hong Kong is legendary. It's a game
14:16with a heartbeat, and visually it still holds its own against any modern urban sandbox.
14:2610. Dying Light
14:27I still remember the first time the sun went down in dying light and that terrifying,
14:33good night, good luck message popped up. My heart was actually racing. Techland did something magical
14:40here. They created a world that feels decaying and beautiful all at once. The lighting system as the day
14:47transitions to night is some of the best I've ever seen. The way the long shadows stretch across the
14:53rooftops of Haran makes every parkour jump feel 10 times more intense. The textures on the zombies,
14:59seeing the rotting skin and the tattered clothes up close, is still genuinely unsettling even years
15:06later. Kyle Crane might start off as a generic mercenary, but the way you grow with his parkour
15:12skills makes the gameplay loop so addictive. There's a weight to the movement that most first-person
15:17games fail to capture. You really feel the impact when you dropkick a zombie off a building. The
15:23villains, like Raze, are just pure, chaotic evil, which fits the desperate vibe of the city perfectly.
15:30When you look at the sequel, a lot of fans, including me, felt like the original actually
15:35had a more consistent and realistic art style. It doesn't rely on flashy colours. It relies on grit,
15:41blood, and a terrifyingly realistic atmosphere that still makes me look over my shoulder when I'm
15:46playing in the dark. 11 Far Cry 4. Everyone always talks about the third game, but for me, Far Cry 4 is
16:00the visual peak of that classic Ubisoft era. The setting of Kairat is just breathtaking. I remember
16:06the first time I climbed a radio tower and just looked out over the Himalayas. The draw distance was
16:12insane for its time. You've got these lush green valleys clashing against the harsh snowy peaks of
16:18the mountains. And the fur tech on the animals? Man, the honey badgers and tigers look better than some
16:24creatures in games that came out last month. It's a vibrant, colorful world that feels dangerous at every
16:31turn. Pagan Men is easily one of my favorite villains of all time. He's charismatic, stylish, and
16:39absolutely unhinged, and the game's presentation makes every interaction with him feel like a
16:44scene from a high-end thriller. The gameplay didn't try to reinvent the wheel, but it perfected the
16:49formula. Flying a buzzer over a fortress while your buddy snipes from a hillside is peak gaming fun.
16:56There's a certain crispness to the image quality in Far Cry 4 that I feel got lost in the later entries.
17:03It doesn't have that weird blurriness or heavy film grain a lot of modern titles use to hide low
17:08resolutions. It's sharp, it's grand, and it still feels like a true next-gen experience.
17:2012. Quantum Break. Now this is a game that I feel like people completely slept on. Remedy Entertainment
17:27are masters of tech, and Quantum Break was basically them flexing their muscles. The stutters in time,
17:33where the whole world just freezes or starts looping in a glitchy mess, are some of the most impressive
17:39visual effects I've ever witnessed. Seeing a ship crash into a bridge and then just pause in mid-air with
17:45thousands of pieces of debris floating around, it's a technical marvel. The way light bends and distorts
17:52around Jack Joyce's time powers is something that still looks futuristic today. The facial capture here
17:58is next level too. Since they use real actors like Sean Ashmore and Lance Reddick, RIP to a legend,
18:05the cutscenes look incredibly lifelike. It's a weird mix of a TV show and a game, and while that was
18:11controversial, you can't deny the production value. The story is a mind-bending time travel trip that actually
18:18rewards you for paying attention to the details. I think the reason it humbles modern games is the
18:23sheer ambition of its physics engine. Everything in a room reacts when time breaks down. It's a heavy
18:30cinematic experience that pushes the hardware to its absolute limit, and it still looks better than
18:36most of the stuff we see on Game Pass today. Number 13. Metro Exodus. If you want to talk about a game
18:49that makes your graphics card sweat and your heart sink, it's Metro Exodus. I remember stepping out of
18:56the tunnels of Moscow for the first time and seeing that frozen wasteland. It was breathtaking and terrifying
19:04all at once. 4A games are absolute wizards when it comes to lighting. Even without the enhanced
19:11addition, the way the sunlight hits the rusted metal of the aurora or how the glow of your lighter
19:17illuminates a dark, spider-infested corner is just peak immersion. It's got this tactile feel where
19:24everything feels heavy and dangerous. You're not just playing a game, you're surviving in a world that
19:31feels like it's actually rotting around you. Artyom's journey across Russia is so personal and grounded,
19:38and the chemistry with Anna and the rest of the crew makes the stakes feel real. The villains aren't
19:44just the mutants, it's the environment itself and the desperate humans clinging to power in the ruins.
19:51I love how the game forces you to actually look at your physical map and check your gear. There's no
19:57cluttered HUD breaking the magic. When you're creeping through the Caspian desert during a sandstorm
20:03and the dust starts caked onto your gas mask, it's a level of detail that puts most modern survival
20:09shooters to shame. It's a gritty, beautiful, and haunting masterpiece that proves art direction and
20:16technical lighting go hand in hand. Number 14. The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Come on, we couldn't have a
20:28list like this without the GOAT, right? The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt came out in 2015 and it basically redefined
20:36what an open world should look like. I've spent hundreds of hours in this world and I still find
20:41myself stopping Roach on a hilltop just to watch the wind blow through the trees in Velen. The way the
20:48foliage reacts to storms is something I still haven't seen done better in 2024. It's not just about
20:54pretty graphics, it's about a world that feels lived in, ancient, and full of secrets. Every swamp,
21:01every crowded street in Novigrad, and every peak in Skellige feels like it has a thousand years of history
21:08behind it. Geralt is probably the most iconic protagonist of the last decade, and the way CD
21:14Project Red captured his subtle expressions during those deep, branching conversations is just
21:20incredible. The villains, like the Krones or Aroden, are designed with such a distinct, creepy aesthetic
21:27that they stay burned in your brain. Even before the next-gen update, the game had a scale and a sense of
21:34atmosphere that modern RPGs are still trying to replicate. It's a game where the sunsets feel warm
21:40and the monsters feel truly grotesque. It's the gold standard for how to build a world that stays
21:46beautiful no matter how many years pass, and it honestly makes a lot of current-gen RPGs look a bit
21:52generic and empty by comparison.
22:0115. Killzone Shadowfall
22:04And finally, we're closing out with a game that was literally a PS4 launch title, which is mind-blowing
22:11when you look at it. Killzone Shadowfall is over a decade old, yet it still has some of the cleanest,
22:17most impressive lighting and material effects I've ever seen. I remember the opening mission in the
22:23city of Vekta, the lens flares, the clean futuristic architecture, and the sheer amount of detail on the
22:29Helghast armor. It was the first time I felt like next-gen had truly arrived. It has this crisp,
22:37high-contrast look that feels incredibly premium, even today. Guerrilla Games always pushes the hardware
22:44to its breaking point, and it shows. The gameplay is a bit more open than the older Killzone games,
22:50giving you this Owl's Roan that adds a cool tactical layer to the combat. While the story
22:56might not be as legendary as some others on this list, the world-building between the Vektons and
23:01the Helghast is super interesting, and the protagonist, Lucas Kellen, gets caught in a really gray,
23:07messy conflict. The way the shadows cast in real-time as you move through the neon-lit slums
23:13is something I still see modern games struggling to do without major performance hits. It's a visual
23:20powerhouse that reminds us that launch titles used to be absolute benchmarks. If you want to see a game
23:25that still looks like it's from the future, this is the one. So there you have it guys, 15 games that
23:34prove newer doesn't always mean better. It's honestly a bit of a wake-up call, right? Seeing games from 2013
23:42or 2015 hold their own, and sometimes even stomp on titles coming out right now, makes you realize
23:49how much art direction and optimization actually matter. It's not just about throwing more power
23:55at the screen, it's about that passion and attention to detail that makes a world feel real. But look,
24:02I want to hear from you. Which one of these games do you think aged the best? Is there a game I missed
24:09that still makes your jaw drop every time you boot it up?
Be the first to comment