2015 is almost over and it’s time for our annual article, announcing the top 10 most optimized games of 2015 for the PC platform. For this list, we are focusing on how the games work in their 2015 final version (final patched version), whether they scale on multiple CPU and GPU cores, their graphical options and overall visual quality, as well as whether they justified their system requirements.
But what do we consider great examples of optimized PC games? Let’s clarify on this before continuing. In our opinion, a game that has been optimized for the PC is one that can scale on multiple CPUs cores and multi GPUs, that is not plagued by ‘console-ish’ side effects (like really low FOV, controller only on-screen indicators and mouse acceleration/smoothing issues), that packs a respectable amount of graphics options to adjust, and that also looks and runs great.
In short, we’re examining a game’s technical aspect, meaning that not only must the engine scale well on modern-day hardware, but also that the developer must ensure that things like PC specific graphical features, PC technologies (like SLI and Crossfire) and PC controls are properly implemented.
Project CARS is easily the most impressive – visually – racing game on the PC. Not only that, but it’s one of the few titles that saw noticeable improvements thanks to numerous patches, Slightly Mad Studios has managed to implement various performance improvements, slightly resolve the game’s CPU issues, and add some new rain effects that come a bit closer to those found in Driveclub. The game packs a lot of graphics options to tweak, supports a wide variety of wheels and scales well on multiple CPU cores.
“Project CARS packs incredible car models (on Ultra details each car is made of 200-300K triangles), sports detailed deformation and destruction systems, has an amazing lighting system, and most of the stages are packed with high resolution textures. There are some LOD issues even on Ultra settings – we did notice some distant pop-ins – but that’s a really small gripe.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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