Tightened graphics

It's kind of a given: If you give game developers faster hardware, they'll build more graphically impressive games. With great horsepower comes great responsibility to make a great first impression, and practically every next-gen game we saw had more compelling visuals than the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 equivalent. Mind you, we're not necessarily talking about better art — though that's sometimes true — but often simply the resolution and smoothness.

"the worlds are just bigger, there's more going on, the draw distance is deeper, these are all just subtle things that make your overall experience more believable."

Your HDTV can almost certainly display finely detailed 1080p images at 60 frames a second, but most PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games didn't even come close to 1080p. Intensive games like Halo 4 and Heavy Rain ran at 720p or below, and many a title didn't offer antialiasing to smooth out the jagged edges you'd see all around the world.

But at E3 2013, the demos we saw were almost all crisp and smooth. Battlefield 4 publisher Electronic Arts is making a big deal of how its game can run at 60 frames per second on console, and Quantum Break looked unbelievably silky in a quick demonstration. Textures, models, and lighting also looked fantastic, and the insanely detailed virtual automobiles of Forza Motorsport 5 did perhaps the best job of showing that off. The way light and shadow play across the finely textured carbon fiber and glossy painted surfaces of a McLaren P1 is incredible.

The new consoles' power also allows for many more objects and characters on screen at the same time, and the ability to see more of the world at once. Ryse: Son of Rome has you leading an army of detailed soldiers at an enemy fortress, to say nothing of the hordes of walking dead you'll dodge in Dead Rising 3. Pods of dolphins, flocks of birds, and groves of distinct trees populate the Caribbean in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. Games feel more alive than those from previous generations.

"To see a person disintegrated into a thousand particles and blown away in real time, that's cool and I just haven't seen that before."

As far as the consoles have come in the graphics department, though, PCs are still on top. Games like The Witcher 3 and Splinter Cell: Blacklist looked better on Windows computers than any game we saw running on an alleged Xbox One or PS4. We say "alleged" because even a number of those titles were actually running on PCs, and some of the demos we saw on stage seemed uncannily smooth compared to games we saw actually demoed right in front of us. Either way, it's clear that with the power of a modern dedicated graphics card, you can experience an even crisper, smoother experience on PC than the consoles have shown so far.