With the 2025 on the verge, too Digital Foundry wanted to sum up the video games released this year, proposing a selection of three best and three worst PC versions analyzed over the months. According to the tech enthusiasts in the editorial team, it hasn’t been a particularly bad year for PC players: many companies seem to have taken this platform more seriously, aiming to launch refined and high-performance conversions. This does not mean, however, that there have been no slip-ups, even high-profile ones.
The PC versions awarded by Digital Foundry
Among the best PC conversions for Digital Foundry, Doom: The Dark Ages stands out, which almost represents a manifesto of what a modern conversion should be. Net of the initial doubts due to the forced presence of Ray Tracing, the game on PC offers solid performance even on low-end configurations, and it’s even Verified for Steam Deck. Thanks to impeccable optimization work and a graphics engine capable of adapting without problems to a wide range of configurations.
For similar reasons, among the promoted there is also Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which positively surprised tech enthusiasts. The Warhorse title, while offering a vast and complex game world, guarantees a stuttering-free experience and it is scalable with a large number of configurations, stably reaching 60fps even on low-end configurations. Assassin’s Creed Shadows was also passed with flying colors for its excellent scalability, combined with high-level technical care: global illumination with credible specular reflections, support for multiple upscaling and frame generation technologies, dynamic resolution scaling and top-level atmospheric effects.
The failed ones: from the Oblivion remaster to Monster Hunter
On the opposite front we find The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which brings back the historical stuttering problem already present in the original PC version of 2006. On modern hardware the phenomenon is even more evident, thanks to the interaction between Unreal Engine 5 and the old critical issues of the game, making outdoor movements surprisingly compromised. To make the situation worse, there is the almost total absence of patches after launch, which does not bode well for the future.
Monster Hunter Wilds performance on PC improves by up to 20% with TU4, but not without compromises
The Outer Worlds 2 also disappoints, plagued by framerate drops and erratic frame-time even on high-end configurations. Ray tracing (required at launch and now optional) presents visual artifacts and remains heavy or unconvincing. Upscalers degrade the image due to interaction with Lumen and VSM, while asynchronous loading results in first shots with missing textures and geometry, compromising immersion.
Closing the list of the worst Monster Hunter Wilds, one of the most problematic ports of the year. Capcom released a late patch that only fixed some of the issues, with a second update expected in February, but that doesn’t erase the months in which the game was sold in terrible condition. Even today, textures are too compressed even on an 8GB GPU, performance drops for no reason even with ray tracing disabled and some technical choices, such as RT reflections in a desert, are difficult to justify. The forced use of community patches to work around the problems highlights a less than brilliant management of the RE Engine.
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