The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Released: 2015 — API: DirectX 11 — Engine: REDengine 3

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was one of the action-RPG highlights in 2015. You are Geralt, the Witcher, who is on a quest to find his lost friend Ciri, and you will explore the huge in-game world in the process. The game is filled with side stories that do not feel like tacked on quests as they make you feel as though something else is really happening in the world you are a part of as Geralt.

The Witcher 3 sees the introduction of the REDengine 3 game engine, which is specifically designed for open-world RPG environments. It takes advantage of DirectX 11 with tessellation and some post-processing effects. In the interest of neutrality, we ran the game with HairWorks disabled.

Wolfenstein II

Released: 2017 — API: Vulkan — Engine: id Tech 6

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is the continuation of the alt-history classic in which the Nazis win World War II. The story is advanced by decades, into a time where our protagonist BJ Blazkowicz finds himself part of a resistance cell fighting off the Nazis in occupied USA. It's a refreshing change from other WWII-inspired stories. Over time, Nazis have also perfected technology, which adds a retro-futuristic and cyberpunk feel to the game.

Based on id Tech 6, Wolfenstein II is probably the first AAA game that supports no other API than Vulkan (no OpenGL fallbacks, either). It's reasonably taxing on the machine, and uses virtual texturing, tessellated surfaces and physically based rendering.