A wide range of graphical options including point light sSpecular, parallax mapping, and fog/particle upsampling allowed for a high graphical ceiling, affording the lucky few with high end graphics cards to see something that was a monumental step above the console versions. Mad Max's environments were given a tremendous amount of attention by the studio's artists, resulting in a post-apocalyptic world that is kind on the eyes. The team that made Just Cause 2 was tasked with making a Mad Max game to coincide with this year's film release. At higher resolution it's capable of producing screenshots that mimic real-life when taken at the right angles. It uses a few technologies such as percentage closer soft shadows and TXAA, along with a wide range of graphical options to produce stunning image quality despite the massive size of its world.

Grand Theft Auto V's PC port was a home run for Rockstar, and is one of the best showcases for how quickly PC hardware is advancing. It might be cheating for this two year old game to be earning a spot in a list such as this, but it deserves it. Nonetheless, the game is a serious looker, which is impressive given that it's an open-world zombie apocalypse game. Its only major weakness is abusive use of chromatic aberration and lens flare which causes bleeding on object edges. Changeable weather conditions, a physical lighting model, spherical harmonics, and atmospheric ccattering make it a progressive game visually. It started 2015 off right with a strong showing from a new and improved Chrome Engine. Dying Light was the first big budget game to be released this year.

Popular pc games 2015 list