So you just bought a new TV, and you really want to check out what it can do. The fact of the matter is that most streaming content, even when it supports 4K resolution and high-end audio like Dolby Atmos, isn’t going to take full advantage of a new TV’s most advanced technical assets. (Streaming video quality is inherently limited by a number of factors, including the stability of your internet connection and server-side issues, among other things.)

If you have a 4K Blu-Ray player, you could throw on a visually stunning film, but I think the best way to kick the tires on a new screen is a video game. In the last five years, many brands have added gaming-focused upgrades to mid-tier and top-of-the-line TVs like higher, 120 Hertz refresh rates, higher NIT counts for brighter displays that enhance HDR performance, and “gaming modes” that reduce input latency. These features all complement specs and features found in modern game consoles, so the most visually stunning games on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2 are going to look better than ever when you upgrade to a modern, gaming-forward tv.

Over the years, a number of games have surfaced as common testbeds for visual fidelity — I’ve seen developers use games Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, and Control to demo hardware a lot recently. These are great games – all top picks if you haven’t played them before. But I expect a lot of you have, and while older games help reviewers like me see subtle differences in hardware performance from screen to screen, they aren’t going to blow your hair back like something you’ve never played before.

So you need a new game. Something that really looks great. Though you could say I’ve “retired” as a video game critic — I’m still out here writing about the tech, but no longer write game reviews — I still play most of the year’s big releases and have come across some true stunners this year. If you bought a new TV and have a console, these are some of the 2025 video games that will unlock its new potential.

Ghost of Yōtei

An Engrossing Samurai Epic

Ghost of Yōtei

Key Specs

Platforms
PS5

Sony specializes in single-player narrative epics, and its latest PlayStation exclusive is both entertaining to play and stunning to behold. A loosely tied follow-up to 2020 samurai stealth-action game Ghost of Tsushima — also an excellent time — Yotei remixes and refines this playable homage to samurai cinema, which serves up a visual feast of sweeping landscapes, artfully shot story scenes, and beautifully detailed combat.

As Atsu, a wandering warrior hell-bent on killing the men who murdered her family, you’ll climb mountains, ride across sweeping plains criss-crossed with flower paths, and duel rival samurai under blossoming trees. Though it is an open world, every moment feels meticulously crafted, and the result is a world that you’ll spend hours and hours exploring to see and experience every little moment.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Courtesy Mike Epstein

For The Nintendo Fans

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Key Specs

Platforms
Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch

After nearly eight years with the Switch, a console that was considered underpowered when it launched, the visual leap we’ve seen in Nintendo’s post Switch 2 exclusives feels like a breath of fresh air. The leap to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, which is what you’ll see on any of the games made for the Switch 2 when you play them on your TV in docked mode, gives every whimsical character and moment a sharper, more detailed look.

It was hard to choose which game to highlight here. Mario Kart World sold me on the Switch as an upgrade: Mario Kart will always be Mario Kart, and familiar gameplay made it easy to see all the little visual improvements that the new hardware brings to the table. Then again, my favorite Nintendo game of the year was definitely Donkey Kong Bananza, which instills that pure, child-like joy I get from playing Mario games, but in a world that encourages you to crack it open and smash every rock to find its secrets. But in the end, I think the best looking Switch 2 game, after just a couple of hours playing it, is Metroid Prime 4: Echoes. The long-awaited return of the first-person Metroid series has a beautifully fantastical sci-fi world full of inventive flora and fauna to check out… and scan… and shoot. In general, the Metroid series has always encouraged exploration and rewarded outside-the-box thinking, both of which lend themselves well to seeing just what your new hardware, both screen and console, can do.

Battlefield 6

Courtesy Mike Epstein

Aiming Bigger

Battlefield 6

Key Specs

Platforms
PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Windows PC (Steam, Epic)

Modern-day shooters, especially long-running series Call of Duty and Battlefield, always feature a tremendous amount of detail. If you look closely, you will see every switch, slide, and spring on every meticulously designed weapon you come across. (And you absolutely can. These games allow you to customize and test your guns outside of multiplayer.)

Both series return this year in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6, and both feature new spectacles within a very familiar, modern shooter context. I would recommend Battlefield over Call of Duty as a visual showpiece for two reasons. First, Call of Duty remains an annual franchise, and, while the game always looks good, it’s been many years since I’ve been impressed by it. Battlefield, on the other hand, comes out every few years, and manages to change things up from entry to entry so it generally feels a bit more fresh.

Second, Battlefield 6, like its predecessors, puts a lot of effort into creating epic scale. In the campaign, you travel the world, control tanks and boats, blow up walls, blow up buildings, and team up with dozens of troops. Multiplayer gets similar epic: every match has up to 64 players attacking and defending territory, often on multiple fronts. Every contest feels like an epic battle, and you’re going to feel that scale more intensely with a bigger, more feature-rich TV.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Courtesy Mike Epstein

There Are Lots of Ways to Make a Great-Looking Game

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Now 20% Off

Platforms
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC (Steam)

Visually impressive doesn’t always have to mean “realistic” or “the most detailed.” A reboot of the 16-bit-era action-platformer series, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance employs a cel-shaded art style that makes its highly technical action look like a movable painting. Much like developer LizardCube’s previous work on Streets of Rage 4, another classic reboot, the new Shinobi features complex controls that demand skill and practice to master. When you put in that work, though, you can cut down a room full of bad guys like a whirlwind, and you’ll look damn good doing it.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Courtesy Mike Epstein

A Strange But Beautiful Journey

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Platforms
PS5

The latest from legendary developer Hideo Kojima, and a sequel to his eclectic 2019 game about a post-apocalyptic “porter” — basically a FedEx guy — who wanders a haunted countryside, delivering packages and reconnecting a United States that has gone into hiding.

Like the original Death Stranding, *On The Beach *is… well, to be honest it’s pretty strange. You still spend your time wandering from place to place, delivering packages and reconnecting remote pockets of people to civilization. The experience is a bit more action-packed, though: There’s more combat, some optional and some not, and environmental hazards like earthquakes that stand to knock over all of the precariously balanced packages on your person.

Like Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2 is a PS5 exclusive, and offers a similarly cinematic experience. You’ll spend a lot of time looking out over large canyons and vistas, figuring out how to navigate the landscape but also drinking the sights. It really does feel like a digital backpacking trip.

Mike Epstein is a Senior Commerce Editor at Hearst Enthusiast Group, producing reviews for buying guides Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World, Bicycling, and *Best Products. *Prior to joining Hearst, he was a video game and technology critic for over 10 years, with bylines at IGN, Gamespot, Variety, Lifehacker, Kotaku, GamesRadar, Flavorwire and Digital Trends, among others. Now, he’s a jack of all trades, helping reviewers share everything they know about all kinds of technical gear, from snowblowers, to running shoes and bicycles, and every kind of gadget imaginable.