Santa (or his equivalents) has already delivered gifts to good boys and girls. Digital Foundry also compiled a list of well-behaved and naughty entries, but among PC ports released in 2025. Which ones would experts reward with sweet treats, and which would get lumps of coal? Read below.
Overall Assessment
According to John Linneman, one of DF's experts, this year's PC port situation isn't particularly grim. While they compiled a list, many games launched on PC in decent condition in 2025 — unlike some previous years.
The hosts formed two lists: one with three good ports, and another with three versions distinguished by particularly disappointing states.
The Naughty List
The 2025 bad ports include:
- The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remaster — The main complaint is terrible and omnipresent stutters present in the original 2006 Oblivion. Bethesda and Virtuos haven't resolved this issue even with post-release patches, the latest arriving in July.
- The Outer Worlds 2 — During DF testing on Xbox Series, the sequel performed well, but the PC situation is far from ideal. The game suffers from frame time issues causing lost smoothness, plus poorly implemented hardware ray tracing. Stuttering problems are also present.
- Monster Hunter Wilds — At launch, the project ran horribly on both PC and consoles with visual artifacts, stutters, low texture quality, and more. Capcom continues battling optimization and many problematic moments have been fixed, but much work remains. DF expert Alex Battaglia commented: "I look at all these desert locations in the game and still don't understand where the performance goes."
The Nice List
Outstanding 2025 PC ports highlighted by Digital Foundry:
- Assassin's Creed Shadows — Several things impressed hosts: excellent lighting, convincing real-time reflections, incredible weather effects, and more. All seasoned with beautiful art direction and in-engine cutscenes executed so well they seem pre-rendered.
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 — While Warhorse Studios' creation didn't make Digital Foundry's best graphics of 2025 list, the title earned recognition for its performance. KC:D 2 became one of few open-world games this year without slowdowns. Regardless of how densely populated a town is or how many invisible loading boundaries players cross, KC:D 2 firmly holds 60 fps.
- DOOM: The Dark Ages — Many felt uneasy learning the new DOOM won't allow disabling ray tracing. However, id Software implemented everything so well that visuals proved incredible while game stability doesn't suffer.
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