S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHORNOBYL

Here’s a recent and obvious one to kick things off. Every step of the way, it feels like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is trying to kill you. The game takes a lot of pride in how brutally demanding it is, to the point where it can feel actively hostile to the player. Terrifying mutant monstrosities, a constant dearth of weapons and ammo, radiation and extreme weather, or the plain and simple fact that you’re incredibly easy to kill- plenty of factors come together to ensure that you never feel at ease in the Exclusion Zone.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice on Xbox Series X runs at a dynamic 4K with a framerate target of 60 fps in the FPS Resolution mode. The enriched visuals mode targets dynamic 4K with a frame cap of 30 fps with ray-tracing reflections. Both modes stick pretty close to the performance targets in our suite of tests. This is a stark difference from the Xbox One X version, which remains locked to a 30 fps target regardless of FPS Resolution or Enriched Visuals mode.

There are improvements to the load times as well. In our tests, the Xbox Series X was able to load into the game in just over 10 seconds, while the Xbox One X took 26 seconds for the same. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice still looks gorgeous with all of its graphical bells and whistles, and we can only imagine the level of visual fidelity that Ninja Theory could achieve with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.