AV1 when available for everything other than 3d content which is ideally x265.

Honestly it blows my mind that x264 is still as popular as it is.

Do you have access to a computer that could either play ports of those games or is strong enough to emulate those games?

This would be my answer to that question

In fact I’d come up with a list of all the exclusives that you’re interested in playing and use that in your reasoning as well.