Another treasure trove is this list: tfpsly.free.fr/bookmarks.html although by now maybe a 4th of these links lead to defunct sites.

even simply walking in the forests feels great, they have a believable scale that I've never seen in an other game. it's the opposite of the "theme park" level design of Witcher/Skyrim/RDR

I'm beginning to think UE5 isn't an actual game engine, more of a pretty 3D viewer for compressed video demos for investors. it occupies so much CPU/GPU by default, even without any gameplay systems. like STALKER 2 is apparently missing features compared to 1 because of performance.

what a totally normal thing to say

what flavor?

I rarely ever hear about 6. is it because it's stuck on Xbox?

some studios do that for textures. that's called photogrammetry. it was used for Metal Gear Solid V and the newer Star Wars Battlefront, for example. apparently it's cheaper, faster and gets more realistic results, as long as they have the equipment.