Ace Combat 7

Released: 2019 — API: DirectX 11 — Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the latest entry to the long line of air combat simulators by Bandai Namco involving fictional political rivalries and planes, originally designed for the console and its thumb sticks. You play as fighter pilot "Trigger", leading a series of air force missions that include dogfights in patrol and bombing runs, with cutscenes between missions driving the story forward. The franchise's detachment from real-world politics and events makes it fun since it's entirely focused on the objective of air combat.

Ace Combat 7 is the first title in the franchise based on Unreal Engine 4 and takes advantage of DirectX 11. It's moderately taxing on your machine.

Anno 1800

Released: 2019 — API: DirectX 12 — Engine: Anno Engine

Ubisoft's smash-hit city-building RTS franchise Anno has visited various settings across ancient and medieval ages and even peeked into the future twice. It finally unpacks the fascinating period of the Industrial Revolution, starting with the beginning of the 19th century. The gameplay retains city building and ocean combat, but adds aspects such as blueprinting, the impact of industrial pollution, and tourism. Based on the in-house developed Anno engine, the game takes advantage of DirectX 12 and can be very taxing on your system with the details cranked up, especially at higher resolutions.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Released: 2018 — API: DirectX 11 — Engine: AnvilNext 2.0

Assassin's Creed Odyssey presents a beautiful imagining of 5th Century BC Ancient Greece on modern gaming hardware. Set 400 years prior to the events of Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey places you in the middle of the Peloponnesian War fought between Greek city states in which you piece together your warrior family that's torn apart after a tragedy. The game packs a rich collection of historical and mythical characters and places from Greece of that period.

Based on the same AnvilNext 2.0 engine by Ubisoft that powers Origins and Wildlands, Assassin's Creed Origins takes advantage of DirectX 11 and is highly taxing on your hardware. Faster hardware is rewarded with better visuals.

Battlefield V

Released: 2018 — API: DirectX 11 — Engine: Frostbite

Battlefield V is the latest chapter in EA's smash-hit online multiplayer shooter franchise. The series has come full circle since its debut "1942" and is set in World War II. The single-player campaign is broken up into bite-sized chunks called War Stories. Much like Battlefield 1, each depicts a different theater of war, a different protagonist, and a different mission. The multi-player builds on the franchise's core strengths with the addition of new game modes and room for a future mode rivaling battle royale.

Based on the Frostbite 3 engine by EA-DICE, Battlefield V supports both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, and newer technologies such as DirectX Raytracing. In this particular test, we used DirectX 11 as that's the API used by the majority of players.

Civilization VI

Released: 2016 — API: DirectX 12 — Engine: Civilization

The franchise that's synonymous with turn-based strategy, Civilization is an engaging "God-game" where you lead a nascent civilization all the way to the space age. Civilization VI is the latest entry to the smash-hit series and builds on the "4X" victory-condition approach. Improvements have been made to the game's technology tree system. The game also introduces unit stacking to help reduce on-screen clutter.

Based on the latest Firaxis engine, Civilization VI was updated with a patch to add support for DirectX 12. We tested the game in DirectX 12 mode.