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  1. Home
  2. Features
  3. Alien: Isolation

The year in fancy graphics: 2014's most beautiful screenshots

By Tyler Wilde
published 28 December 2014

  • Comments
Virtual photography

Virtual photography

2014 was a nice year for pretty games. The new consoles mean the homogenized cross-platform look has improved a lot, and when full attention is paid to the PC, we get fancier technology and unlimited resolutions to toy with. With a bit of effort, we can do some pretty mad stuff, like take 8K screenshots which, when downsampled, look brilliant.

To celebrate all these pixels, we've collected our favorite screenshots from our weekly Pixel Boost column—and taken some new ones—in this gallery of 2014's most graphics-ey games. Yes, some great looking games have been left out (there just isn't enough time in the year, is there?) but watch our Pixel Boost column throughout 2015 for more. Also note that the focus here is on games we can tinker with (high resolutions, HUD removal, free cameras), so while Transistor is beautiful, for instance, there's no particular value to our screenshots over any others.

I also encourage you to check out Dead End Thrills—a repository for gorgeous screens—and our own Andy Kelly's Other Places series, in which he composes striking video tours of beautiful game worlds.

Page 1 of 18
Page 1 of 18
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by Monolith | 7680x4320

As he usually does, James created a free camera mode with Cheat Engine. He took the screenshots with the built-in hudless screenshot capture.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from Shadow of Mordor here.

Page 2 of 18
Page 2 of 18
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by Monolith | 7680x3586

As he usually does, James created a free camera mode with Cheat Engine. He took the screenshots with the built-in hudless screenshot capture.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from Shadow of Mordor here.

Page 3 of 18
Page 3 of 18
Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation

Screenshot by Tyler Wilde | Game by Creative Assembly | 7680x4320

Resolution achieved by editing the engine config file to add arbitrary windowed resolutions, screenshot taken with MSI Afterburner. Because I had the updated version of Alien, this cheat table didn't work for HUD removal and free camera. To get rid of the health bar, I used the sloppy method: hit escape to enter the menu and grab the screen just after the HUD disappears.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 4 of 18
Page 4 of 18
Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation

Screenshot by Tyler Wilde | Game by Creative Assembly | 7680x4320

Resolution achieved by editing the engine config file to add arbitrary windowed resolutions, screenshot taken with MSI Afterburner. Because I had the updated version of Alien, this cheat table didn't work for HUD removal and free camera. To get rid of the health bar, I used the sloppy method: hit escape to enter the menu and grab the screen just after the HUD disappears.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 5 of 18
Page 5 of 18
NBA 2K15

NBA 2K15

Screenshot by Tyler Wilde | Game by Visual Concepts | 5120x2880

Resolution thanks to Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution, screenshot taken with MSI Afterburner. The built-in replay and free camera is finicky, but it was possible to get some nice screens of my Golden State Warriors anyway.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 6 of 18
Page 6 of 18
Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4

Screenshot by: Tyler Wilde | Game by: Ubisoft Montreal | 5120x2880

Far Cry 4 easily accepts custom resolutions, and the built in camera (press Z) made it easy to get hudless screenshots. I also unpacked the game settings file (details in this thread), turned on God Mode, and told everything to ignore me. I messed with a few graphics defaults as well.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 7 of 18
Page 7 of 18
Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4

Screenshot by: Tyler Wilde | Game by: Ubisoft Montreal | 5120x2880

Far Cry 4 easily accepts custom resolutions, and the built in camera (press Z) made it easy to get hudless screenshots. I also unpacked the game settings file (details in this thread), turned on God Mode, and told everything to ignore me. I messed with a few graphics defaults as well.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 8 of 18
Page 8 of 18
Lords of the Fallen

Lords of the Fallen

Screenshot by: James Snook | Game by: CI Games, Deck 13 | 7680x4320

James made a Cheat Engine table and used SweetFX with SMAA injection. He removed the HUD by adding "gui_area_size = 2" to the game's settings file. More here.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from Lords of the Fallen here.

Page 9 of 18
Page 9 of 18
Lords of the Fallen

Lords of the Fallen

Screenshot by: James Snook | Game by: CI Games, Deck 13 | 7680x3840

James made a Cheat Engine table and used SweetFX with SMAA injection. He removed the HUD by adding "gui_area_size = 2" to the game's settings file. More here.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from Lords of the Fallen here.

Page 10 of 18
Page 10 of 18
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by The Astronauts | 7680x3241

James created a Cheat Engine table for the free camera, used SweetFX, and grabbed screens with MSI Afterburner. More here.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter here.

Page 11 of 18
Page 11 of 18
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by The Astronauts | 7680x3241

James created a Cheat Engine table for the free camera, used SweetFX, and grabbed screens with MSI Afterburner. More here.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more screenshots from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter here.

Page 12 of 18
Page 12 of 18
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Screenshot by Tyler Wilde | Game by Sledgehammer | 5120x2880

I upped the resolution with Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution and took the screenshot with MSI Afterburner. That's about it!

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 13 of 18
Page 13 of 18
Elite: Dangerous

Elite: Dangerous

Screenshot by Tyler Wilde | Game by Frontier Developments | 7680x4320

This isn't a very exciting screenshot, but I just love the HUD design in Elite. Screenshot taken with the built-in high-res screenshot function, which is Alt-F10 in solo mode.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab.

Page 14 of 18
Page 14 of 18
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by BioWare | 5120x2560

James describes a few ways to downsample Dragon Age: Inquisition here, and used the Cinematic Tools to achieve a free camera.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more Dragon Age: Inquisition screenshots here.

Page 15 of 18
Page 15 of 18
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by BioWare | 5120x2560

James describes a few ways to downsample Dragon Age: Inquisition here, and used the Cinematic Tools to achieve a free camera.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more Dragon Age: Inquisition screenshots here.

Page 16 of 18
Page 16 of 18
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood DLC

Watch Dogs: Bad Blood DLC

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by Ubisoft Montreal | 5760x2880

James used Cheat Engine (grab the cheat table here) for the free camera and other tools, and SweetFX to grab the screens.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more Watch Dogs screenshots here.

Page 17 of 18
Page 17 of 18
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood DLC

Watch Dogs: Bad Blood DLC

Screenshot by James Snook | Game by Ubisoft Montreal | 5760x2880

James used Cheat Engine (grab the cheat table here) for the free camera and other tools, and SweetFX to grab the screens.

Click the icon in the upper-right corner of the image to enlarge, or open it in a new tab. Find more Watch Dogs screenshots here.

Page 18 of 18
Page 18 of 18
  • Comments
Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
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Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the rise of personal computers, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early PCs his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Bushido Blade (yeah, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He thought it was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

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