The best thing about upgrading or buying a shiny new gaming PC is loading up games that have been in your library for years, but that you could never run in all their maxed-out glory. The question used to be “Can it run Crysis?”, but now even my Nintendo Switch can do a decent job of that, so what are some other hardware-crushing titles from yesteryear?
1 Kingdom Come: Deliverance
With a sequel on the way in 2024, the time has never been better to give Kingdom Come: Deliverance a go. While the console version looks fine, on PC this game was and remains a hardware torture test for PC. Without the benefit of modern technologies like DLSS and frame generation, you’ll need a monstrous GPU to run this game at its highest settings at anything above 1080p. However, it’s well worth it because the end result is still impressive, with the games more grounded and semi-realistic approach to the RPG genre.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is also well worth playing in its own right, despite its learning curve. Trying to survive as a 15th-century Bohemian peasant has never looked this good.
2 Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition
Released in early 2021, this updated version of Metro Exodus brought us one of the first examples of a triple-A modern game that offers a required fully ray-traced mode. It also managed to offer pure ray-traced lighting without the massive hit to performance that you’d expect, but it still wasn’t great on mid-range GPUs. Now that you have something a little more modern, especially with additional generations of ray-tracing hardware advancements, it’s the perfect time to see what Metro Exodus can really do if you provide enough horsepower.
3 Control
Control, from the legendary developer Remedy Entertainment, was the first ray-tracing game I ever played. In fact, my copy was included for free with my RTX 2060, the first ray-tracing GPU I bought. Unfortunately, the 2060 was a little too under-powered to really enjoy any of those sweet RT effects, but things have moved on significantly, and my current RTX 4060 laptop runs Control with all the RT eye-candy switched on at playable frame rates.
In some ways, Control has aged quite well in the sense that only now can you really see the game as it was intended without low frame rates, and it’s still absolutely worth it to play this strange and amazing cross of The X-files and an episode of TheTwilight Zone.
4 Witcher 3 (Classic Version)
While I’ve loved the Witcher games since the original PC-only release, it wasn’t until the third installment that the game series received widespread mainstream acclaim. Now it’s a media empire, with TV shows, and the original Polish novels making inroads into the English-speaking world.
The Witcher 3 has been remastered for “next-generation” consoles and modern PCs with ray-tracing and all sorts of other enhancements that can really upgrade the look of the game. However, despite multiple patches, this version of the game just doesn’t run that well, even on high-end systems.
The classic version of the game, however, still looks amazing, and on a modern computer you can max everything out at high-resolutions and still get butter-smooth frame rates. Classic Witcher 3 is still a looker and will still make use of whatever performance your current PC offers. Classic Witcher 3 on a modern PC is still the ultimate Witcher experience in my opinion. Amazing for a game that first came out in 2015!
5 Red Dead Redemption 2
I loved the first Red Dead Redemption, but wasn’t a fan of Red Dead Redemption 2, with its focus on “realism” and snore-inducing pace, and lack of gameplay. However, even I can’t deny that this game is a visual triumph, even on PlayStation 4, where I played it first. You’d think that a game ported from the PS4 would be no problem for any modern PC, but the PC version of the game can scale to heights no console can reach.
All but the most powerful current gaming PCs will struggle to offer a completely smooth experience with all of RDR2’s options cranked as high as they will go, especially if you want to play at 1440p or higher, or with an ultrawide monitor.
6 A Plague Tale: Innocence
Released in 2019 for PC, Asobo’s A Plague Tale: Innocence was an absolute widowmaker of a game. If you wanted to play at anything faster than 30fps, you needed a truly beefy system. Thanks to the “flood of rats” mechanic, this is quite a workout for CPUs as well. Play this on a decent modern computer and the game’s potential really shines.
7 The Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy
Yes, I’m cheating a little here since this is a trilogy of games, but each of the Tomb Raider reboot games are still 100% worth loading up on modern systems. The later games, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider offer more modern features such as ray-traced shadows and DLSS, but they all look pretty spectacular maxed-out and at higher resolutions.
8 Grand Theft Auto V
Like Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V offers fidelity settings that are practically from outer space compared to the original Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases. Push all the sliders to the right, and even current high-end systems will choke. Especially if you’re aiming for 4K. While it doesn’t look anywhere as good as Rockstar’s slavish cowboy sim, GTA V is still jaw-dropping in the complexity of its urban sprawl and myriad little systems and simulations, all working together like some sort of sleazy clockwork diorama.
9 Quake II RTX
This is a bit of a strange one on the list, I’ll admit. This version of Quake II was overhauled to show off the potential of ray-traced graphics, and it was also something I first played on my RTX 2060. Despite being a new lick of paint on a very old game, Quake II RTX is gob-smackingly pretty to look at. On that old 2060 GPU, I had to really crank the upscaling slider, and fine-tune the RTX options, but on a good modern card you can have it all with only a touch of upscaling to keep those frame rates above 60.
It’s funny, because when I bought my first proper 3D accelerator, the 3Dfx Voodo 3 2000, it was specifically to play Quake II. I guess not that much has changed over the decades.
10 Batman: Arkham Knight
The last one on this list had a rough start on PC, but Batman: Arkham Knight isn’t just in great shape on a technical level today, it looks like it could be a current-generation release. Clearly, the mad geniuses at Rocksteady were a little ahead of their time, but with modern PC hardware you can play Arkham Knight the way it was meant to be experienced. It doesn’t hurt that this is the last truly great Batman game either!
