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Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #233 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-25 15:22:43
Imported:
2026-06

Content

What can I say?! Here we go again - another Thursday, another DF Direct Weekly Call For Questions post. It'll be Rich (ie me), Alex and Oliver at our respective microphones tomorrow, recording ourselves locally via OBS while at the same time communicating via a Discord call. Then all of our local feeds will be sent to Oliver and the editing magic shall commence! But what's on the docket?

We'll be leading with a bunch of stuff that caught our eye on the Sony State of Play. Well, specifically, three things: Marvel's Wolverine, Flight Simulator 2024 and Saros. On top of that, we'll be filling you in on Silent Hill f on Xbox consoles (we received code on Tuesday but don't have the resources for a full video) while discussing another couple of topics: Borderlands 4 being delayed on Switch 2, and possibly Square-Enix's comments on Switch 2 carts being too slow for high-end games.

Anything else you'd like us to discuss? Any comments on the above or questions for the team? Please let me know below. Deadline is Friday 8am BST. Thanks in advance for your valued inputs!

Files

43 Seconds of DigitalFoundry saying "What can I say?"

What can I say? All credit goes to @DigitalFoundry .

Comments

GreenSwede

Hello fellow gamers! With the release of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds this week I am a bit disappointed to find out that the PC version's max framerate is limited to 60 FPS despite being a seemingly modern UE5 title. I have heard some people on the interwebs argue that 120 FPS isn't supported because "of crossplay compatibility with consoles". Now I don't believe that to be the actual reason behind this, but what do you guys think? Could it be that the developers took a perhaps outdated and lazy decision of tying the game speed and physics calculations to the framerate? Should 60 FPS limits still be acceptable for PC ports in the year of our lord 2025 or am I asking for too much here? Cheers!

Bigmanupstairs

I listen to every podcast in my car, and I'm slowly turning into Richard with how I communicate with people in work. What can I say? I don't take issue with this.

Julian Shniter

Hello good sirs, I’m asking this in hope to bring about an “Alex vs Switch 2” segment. So Alex what were your biggest annoyances/nitpicks with your time using switch 2?

Buzz Bee Spoke

Barely a question. But am I going crazy? Do the faces in insomniac just look extremely off putting? They are so good at everything else for the most part. I know faces are hard to do but with that big of a budget it seriously confuses me and I am not even sure its an anination problem. The models just look extremely puffy.

Thomas Trala

Hey all! Has anyone from the team looked at Hades 2 yet on Switch 2 to see if it meets 120 fps claim?

Question Generated By JensenGPT

How does Ghost of Yotei's tech compare to Assassin's Creed Shadows? On top of both games seeming very similar on the surface level, it seems both use a lot of similar tech.

Joseph Caruso

Hello to the panel, I have a question about the video capture process. During his Ghost of Yotei review, John mentioned that, regarding the HDR experience, "the settings that I captured with here were adjusted for my TV specifically." Do the specific display settings that you use also translate to the capture output? I assume that the settings of the console or PC itself would also appear in the capture, but any calibration or settings of the display itself would not. Perhaps this is a silly question, but hopefully I'm not the only person that doesn't fully understand display settings when using a capture card since I've never used one myself. Thanks and keep up the great work!

Adam Holmberg

Oi lads, little over a month away from the PS5 Pro's birthday, are you agreeing with me that the Professional overall has been a huge flop in terms of it's ports? Besides the Sony exclusives and a few third party titles, it feels like us Pro owners are getting in a lot of ways inferior versions to the base games and we can only hope that they are fixed in time. Jedi Survivor is still a noisy mess and the latest Konami titles are, at the moment, at their worst on the Pro. The PS4 Pro was most often a clear upgrade unlike this PSSR denoise-flickering hell hole we are stuck with until 2026. How could this go so wrong?

Henry Clark

Has anyone received Final Fantasy Tactics remake review code? I dont expect a video will come from such a "basic" game (tech wise) but curious of any quick thoughts

Ian

Hello gents. Do you think Borderlands 4 will in say 6 months be quietly cancelled altogether on the switch 2? Looking at the issues on the Xbox and PS consoles I’m not exactly confident it will see the light of day.

Pomps

Hello maximally esteemed gentle gentleman! I am looking for your thoughts on this switch 2 RE9 footage. To my plebian console gamer eyes it looks like it is running at above 30fps. Might this be a case of unlocked framerate being smoothed out by VRR? Looking forward to your thoughts!! (this is the only video I was able to find that wasn't capped at 30fps, skip to around the 7 min mark): https://youtu.be/0uyGBAJ33kE?si=s6auZ-B0VF7t-2SQ

Mr Bespoke

Hi DF Crew! Does Olly miss the days when he was just a DF Patron keyboard warrior like us asking the question or does he prefer to answer them more in the "here and now"? Thanks and keep up the awesome work!!

Andrew Boies

Hello, Gentlemen, Congratulations on your independence, which is why I am now a Patreon subscriber. I have a quick question that I haven’t been able to get a clear answer to using the combined minds of the internet: I’m a devoted Steam Deck OLED user and there is one setting in the performance menu of the Steam Deck that I have always found confusing: the “Allow Tearing” setting. I’ve always left this set to “off,” as I hate screen tearing almost as much as Alex hates stutters. But what, exactly, is this setting actually doing? My understanding was that the entire point of Vsync or VRR was to avoid screen tearing issues, and the SD doesn’t have a VRR screen, so is this a stealth system-level Vsync? If not, what is it, and should I keep using it? Thanks for your expertise, Andrew from Denver

HelloItMeMort

Hey guys, I’m a big fan of the DualSense. The haptics are nice if unnecessary, but the adaptive triggers are completely game changing as someone with firearms experience. The state of support is not great though, some games support it on Steam but not Gamepass versions, while some support only wired and others wireless. Although devs need to utilize the PS SDK to support this feature, should other controller manufacturers come up with their own adaptive trigger implementation and have a more open standard like Streamline was for upscaling?

Aaron

Back in 2023, Rich theorized that the rumored Matrix Awakens demo on Switch 2 could have been significantly compromised from a technical perspective, similar to various “impossible” Switch 1 ports like Witcher 3. With the benefit of hindsight (and having now seen ports like SW Outlaws), do you have any updated thoughts on what the Matrix Awakens demo might have looked like on Switch 2 target hardware?

scud

Ahoy-hoy, chaps! Quick question. Based on what you've seen of Ghost of Yotei's performance, do you think there's hope for a base PS5 40FPS Balanced mode with raytracing at a later date? I'm holding out hope, possibly in vain.

RAVE_DAM0S

Hola Foundrymen, Could you break down the difference between an Xbox console game and an Xbox PC game ... specifically how each is compiled for their respective end point? I’m curious how much extra work or time it usually takes to compile a PC version once a native Xbox game is built (or vice versa). Also, as we move toward the next Xbox generation, I imagine some developers may already building with that future in mind. How challenging would it be to scale a next-gen Magnus game down to run on today’s Xbox Series consoles, given the differences in how games for those platforms are developed? And likely RAM differences? Cheers!

Pol Kallamata

At the State of Play showcase this week, Sony previewed two major 2026 tentpole titles from two studios that had shipped titles on the PlayStation 5 during the first few months of the console. When comparing Saros to Returnal, and Wolverine to Miles Morales, are there any obvious technological leaps from Housemarque and Insomniac that stick out to you as they've made the journey from launch title to late gen developers?

dark_bt

Hey guys, I just want to ask some more philosophical questions about the nature of Silent Hill f's PS5 pro edition. I only have a pro console at this point and this game was going to be a day one buy for me. I was definitely a bit panicked to see your initial analysis highlighting the pssr artifacting. However, despite having watched DF for 7 years, now jumping into the game myself, I have found the problem to be only minimally distracting and largely outweighed by the rest of positive visual/performance makeup. I have seen many people online deciding to cancel their pre-orders over this and I understand the principle of not wanting to accept a worse version on a pro console. But why do I feel that is an overreaction to what is an otherwise very polished game, worthy of support on day one? I guess this is just going to be subjective based on people's tolerance for this kind of issue, but I just wonder if there is a better way to contextualize it in your analysis to prevent so many people from calling it a complete deal breaker? Highlighting the issue with empirical evidence is obviously important, but why do I feel like only the most sensitive eyes are going to be completely turned off by this, and most gamers will be able to enjoy the game as it is? And yet I don't want to let Konami completely off the hook because they clearly missed something here in QA. It's a tricky balance indeed. What are your thoughts?

Marcus

Hello foundrymen! There’s always been talk about optimism being the secret in getting consoles to perform above their weight and maybe that’s being proved by the PS5 pro. It seems that for every good PS5 pro version, ghost of Yotei comes to mind, we get a number of bad ones like silent Hill f. Is the smaller market of the PS5 pro the reason for these lazy upgrades that often seemed like they bring with them some regressions? Do you think it’s time for Sony to allow PS5 pro users to play games using the PS5 profiles? Like some sort of a system level override give you the option of falling back to be PS5 profile of games. Hope you have a great week!

Ghu Ribun

Hi gentlemen, so UE5 is pretty lacking. Why don't we see more in-house game engines like Snowdrop or RE Engine used by other developers? I have no idea why, I'm a total ignorant as for what happens regarding developers. Bye!

Kirkland Spector

What’s up DF :) First time asker, long time fan (since pre VO on Youtube)! With the new Xbox Ally, I’m imagining what my htpc gaming machine will run in the next few years. Ideally I’d hope Steam OS but will Nvidia ever support Linux to make that dream come true? It saddens, but doesn’t surprise me, to hear DF’s description of the “Xbox Windows” on the Ally feels bolted on and not legit - classic MS. After decades of Windows being litter compared to the Mac experience, I lack faith in Microsoft sticking the landing on making a true console OS for htpcs. If you had to wager a guess, do you see Steam OS becoming a viable option vs “Xbox Windows” for “htpc pc consoles?” I love my 4090, but am dying using windows on the tv. Let us pray the almighty messiah Jenson brings us to the rapture with Linux/SteamOS support. Much love from San Francisco!

Natiq İsmayılzadə

Greetings from Baku! Do you think artificial intelligence will one day be used for game porting? For example, if we give AI all the information about a PS4 game and the device, can it port the game?

Eric Benoit

Can you do a Richard " right. Let's, move on" mix?

Tdot’s Finest82

Hello DF crew! Congratulations on your move to independence, there’s so many people and other gaming media outlets who seem really happy for you, which only speaks to your sterling reputation in the gaming community. Something to be proud of. On to my question: a few months back, Alex mentioned a conversation he had with an AC Shadows developer, who said that to render the full ray-tracing experience on the PS5 Pro would take up X amount of rendering time in milliseconds, which is why you only see it in the 30fps mode. It got me thinking about rendering times, as it pertains to the Pro, and what sorts of rendering times the full path tracing experience would cost in a game like Alan Wake and Cyberpunk? I know this is just a best guess from you all on this, but could a game like Cyberpunk implement a “modded” version of Path Tracing in their 30fps mode on the Pro, like the video you made of the altered PT mod for Cyberpunk?

Pierre-Alexandre Renou

Pre-compiling shaders on my Rog Ally X takes quite some time... is that duration affected by the TDP (13, 17, 25 or 30W) of the machine at the time of compile? What can you say?

NobleHeroine

Hello digital foundry! With Starwars Outlaws and Resident Evil Requiem, we've seen, or will see, based on preview footage, two really impressive games with extensive raytracing running on Switch 2. With compromises, yes, but with most of the critical graphical features intact. Yet with most of the unreal engine 5 games we've seen on the system, developers have had to cut practically everything, from lumen to nanite, just to make the games run. This wouldn't be too egregious if two of those games--Fortnite and Cronos--weren't targeting completely different framerate targets, yet both required similar levels of cutbacks. I understand there's more to this than just the engine, but still, it seems strange these games are able to run full hardware based raytraced global illumination, while Cronos and Fortnite had to cut software lumen out entirely, as well as every other advanced feature. Is there something specific about Switch 2's hardware that doesn't agree with Unreal Engine 5? Is there some fixed cost that Switch 2 is poorly equipped to overcome? Or is this just a casualty of the engines heavy performance requirements? For the record, I'm saying this as someone who beat Cronos on Switch 2, and enjoyed it. I think the game holds up well, and performs well too, but the scale of cuts required compared to something like Starwars Outlaws seems disproportionate, even accounting for the lower dev time available for the cronos switch 2 port.

kreskowaty

Greetings Founders! Is Borderlands 4 being delayed indefinitely on Switch 2 the closest we're going to get to Randy admitting that there may actually be some performance issues with the game? Or maybe Nintendo's latest console isn't premium enough to handle it? 😉 Cheers!

Lux

Hello DFounders, Why is it that in a lot of cases with games that drop frames both on PS5 and Series X the Microsoft console presents tearing? This has been happening throughout the whole generation being Borderlands 4 the last example. Cheers

regawdless

Dear Foundry People! Where are the physics? I had high hopes for this gen but there are still so many static games and I feel like there's not much progress happening. You can't even damage foliage in most games. Do you think this will change next gen or are we stuck with nicer looking PS3 game worlds? Cheers

Brent

Greetings Foundrymen! With the varying issues in the PS5 pro and PC versions of Silent Hill f, is there a best version you recommend in the end? Or is it just up to the individual on whether they think they will be more bothered by lower settings, stuttering and hoverdolls, or shimmering fog? Cheers!

Someguyperson

Rich, you mentioned in the Direct last week that you "Didn't get the economics" of the Nvidia & Intel deal and I can help out with that. Firstly, Nvidia bought a bunch of stock that has already greatly increased in value, so Nvidia has already improved on its investment (I refuse to say they "made money" until they actually sell those shares). To circle back onto the topic of what's holding Nvidia back from making more server chips, it's the capacity of advanced packaging at TSMC and the supply of HBM chips. Intel already has some fantastic advanced packaging that rivals TSMC and this way, Nvidia can push Intel to have all the features TSMC will have in the future, allowing them to dual-source their packaging requirements. If Intel's fabs are underutilized, Nvidia can push Intel to make HBM or other chips they don't typically make. It doesn't have to be GPUs or CPUs in this arrangement. Also, in terms of how the chips would be sold, to Nvidia, Intel would be no different that Asus, Gigabyte, or Sparkle. Nvidia would sell the chips, Intel would package them and they would potentially get sold on into the market. What Nvidia really wants to sell are complete server solutions and Intel could easily sell that completed & packaged SoC back to Nvidia where they make a ton of margin on selling a completed server. Yes, I know this is too long to read in the Direct, but it's more for your information than anything else.

DaJaCo (Dan)

The TDP preset will affect the CPU clocks, and shader precompilation is primarily a CPU translation task. Between the "Silent" and plugged-in "Turbo" TDP presets, you could see as much as a doubling in CPU clocks. So I would highly recommend plugging in and selecting the Turbo mode wherever possible. Its unlikely to be a linear relationship, but you should see some worthwhile time saving I would guess.

Brian Hoyt

Long time listener, recent patreon supporter, first time questioner. Congratulations on the independence! In regard to compilation stutter. Could Epic via the Unreal engine force a compilation step on game load if needed? I personally would prefer a few minutes on start for better performance of my session? Another option have shader comp done as background task almost like updates happen?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Its probably possible, but would require a lot of work for a fairly small audience. It makes more commercial sense for them to do it for the PS6 launch.. sell a "cyberpunk path traced edition" with all the DLCs - it would then be much a much simpler development task (much more horsepower and RT performance available), and also be available for all PS6 owners during a launch hype period. Similar to what they have done releasing it on the Switch 2..only a much easier porting job.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey chaps! Why is Strix Halo better in every way (hardware-wise) than the PS5 Pro, except for bandwidth? And why is bandwidth such a bottleneck on handhelds? Cheers!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hallo Leute! Could you please explain why texture filtering is still often way worse on consoles? I thought it was quite cheap on PC. Tschüss!

Kaveh PG

Hope you're all doing well. Do you think the president of the united states could deny the release of gta6? I thought Rockstar was Scottish, but I'm seeing it's British and American as well? I know they've always been quiet, but I'm worried. Are there parts of the world that might receive a heavily censored version, if at all?

10 Watts Raytracing

Hello gents, Why do you think we're not seeing frame generation implemented by major game engines? I'd imagine that the gameplay code could be great place to say how the frames are to be interpolated, beyond just motion vectors. Yet, nothing from unreal, snowdrop, id tech and the likes. Isn't that surprising?

AfreemTheDream

Greetings, Foundrymen! Why would Sony announce a 20th Anniversary God of War controller and then just jump straight into the Wolverine reveal? It felt very odd to me, like: that's it? That's all the 20th anniversary of God of War gets? Or do you think they're holding some things for TGS? Cheers!

SonOfFaith

I think it would be too much of an economic opportunity to ban, these games sell millions of copies. I don't think it will be censored either.

Someguyperson

With so many UE5 titles having technical performance issues, it seems to now cast a miasma over all new UE5 releases. The thing is, I would think that Epic would see this and take action to fix some of these things, since everyone seems to be throwing UE5 under the bus. What actions have Epic taken thus far to improve the longstanding issues and do you see Epic actually getting a handle on all the issues from the most recent crop of UE5 titles?

Someguyperson

I know they aren't the most graphically intense games, but do you think you guys would want to cover more indie games that everyone is talking about? Would you only cover games like Hades 2, Silksong, and Baby Steps in a DF Direct?

tod weitzel

I'm fascinated by the business arrangement of getting PSVR2 support into Flight Simulator 2024. Do you think Sony is subsidizing it as a last ditch attempt to move PSVR2 units, or is Microsoft funding it on their own prerogative?

Chicken Point

I think the team discussed a question related to this a while ago (somewhere around 6 months or a year ago). It was in response to someone (maybe Phil Spencer) suggesting what you are describing: using AI to create ports of old games. I vaguely remember the team being not particularly enthused by the idea. Sorry for my vagueness!

BespokeEP

I've been wondering this as well. Xbox had a tearing issue last gen as well. I also find that Xbox really over darkens everything. I can play the exact same game with the same settings on the same TV, but the Xbox version everything is so dark.

speedlemur

What can you say about a lack of timely game review codes? How is DF coping with this (or not)?

BespokeEP

There really aren't that many bad PS5Pro ports. Out of the 150 or so Pro Enhanced games there are around 5 that run worse. I think it stands out because you expect the much more powerful machine to always run better. But just like having an AMD GPU outperform Nvidia in some games, PS5 performing equal or better than SeriesX in most games.. each game is different, and optimized differently. Not all devs will spend the time properly optimizing for Pro. I do think when we get the PSSR update early next year, that the Pro will be substantially better in every game that uses PSSR, and I wonder if devs are holding off on Pro support until it drops.

ConcreteLlama

Why do games these days have wobbly mirrors? I'm no mirror expert, but I have a few mirrors in my house and none of them are wobbly. Except for the wobbly one, but we don't talk about that.

ConcreteLlama

It's great that Microsoft is taking steps to address shader compilation but presumably this will only affect future games. There are a lot of games out today that still have shader comp issues that will likely never be patched. Well we ever see a general solution for this that can be applied retroactively without input from the developer, or do we have to wait for CPUs to be many times more powerful?

ConcreteLlama

The perceived difference between console generations is getting smaller and smaller with diminishing returns as time goes on. Hypothetically, and ignoring the current and future state of technology, what do you think a generational leap with the same perceived difference as the jump from PS1 to PS2 would look like from the current gen consoles? I probably could have worded this better but coherence eludes me

Chicken Point

I have been wondering about the implications of the 2026 update to PSSR, where it gets "features" from FSR4. Will the update just make the upscaler better? Or will it make the upscaler easier for developers to use? I am more excited by the second possibility. My thought is that developers might be more familiar with FSR than they are with PSSR. And that is what I perceive to be the biggest problem with PSSR -- not the quality of the upscaler, but rather, developers being unfamiliar with it, or not having the time to make the best use of it.

Marcus

Sure, but five titles is five too many. Beyond that that some games are subjectively worse or better depending on opinion means that I do think there should be a fallback where someone can just use the non-pro version. Obviously, it would probably max out the DRS window and even out any small hitches in the frame rate so that would probably be a good option for people who really prefer a very consistent experience.

Jonathan Hamilton

Any thoughts on Sony's Pulse Elevate wireless speakers?

BespokeEP

Lol what are you talking about? Out of the 150 or so Pro Enhanced games.. only around 5 are worse. Every other game does exactly what was promised, having fidelity mode level graphics with performance mode performance. It's not Sony's fault that you expected next gen level performance on a mid gen upgrade.

Statistical Barista

Hey DF Crew, Do you think with the rise in mid-gen upgrades and cross generational games, it is time for consoles to allow for some PC like settings. I can't help but think that a lot of the PS5 Pro "issues" would be solved if users could pick settings closer to the base PS5. While PC's offer limitless customization and consoles traditionally offer no customization. Maybe a new happy medium could be reached with the PS6 and the new Xbox "console". It wasn't that long ago even picking between quality and a performance mode was unheard of.

(Don’t be a) Richard

Hey team! This week EB Games in AU and NZ appeared to have taken logos for Xbox from their homepage and directed all stores to remove the Xbox section at retail. Presumably this is in part response to MSs continued push to digital. Assuming this isn’t temporary (and it may well be), with Nintendo still having physical games and Sony rumoured to have optional disc drives for the PS6, do you think that a lack of physical retail presence or marketing would place future Xbox hardware at a disadvantage? While we’re on the topic…the US Xbox price rises were something, weren’t they.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight Gents! With rumours abound that there's a new model revision of the PS5 Pro in the pipeline, but no sign of changes to storage - what else is likely to have changed under the hood to save costs? Surely its too soon for a die shrink to allow a smaller heatsink etc. ?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight Lads! Do you think Ghost of Yotei would have an RTGI mode if Assassins Creed Shadows hadn't set the bar so high, especially on PS5 Pro, and could this explain why it seems to have been added so late?

goregutz

Yeeeeeees, DF gentlemen! Recent leaks are pointing towards an imminent release of Intel's own MFG solution. However, what troubles me is the slow adoption of XESS FG into games as opposed to DLSS or even FSR. Can XESS MFG convince more developers to adopt XESS and convince more consumers to buy Intel?

BespokeEP

It's a stylized choice, they are designed to look like what I call Cartoon realism. It's to create an almost comic book sense to it.

Eric Hurst

Hello Gentlemen. With the *checks notes* Asus Republic of Gamers Xbox Ally starting at $600, that puts it smack in the middle of the two Steam Deck OLED skus. I’ve heard you say multiple times before that Steam OS is what truly sets the Steam Deck apart from other PC Gaming handhelds. However, the new Xbox experience on the Xbox Ally seems quite promising based on early impressions from those on regular Allys (allies? allys?). With the price being what it is, and assuming that the Windows 11 handheld experience has truly improved (including not requiring me to plug in a keyboard), do you think the Xbox Ally could be an ideal mainstream competitor to the Steam Deck? Cheers

(Don’t be a) Richard

Looks like Costco (in many regions) and Sam’s Club is also delisting or doing clearance sales on Xbox.

Jackson Oberkirch

Hey DF long time viewer! With the rise of pc gaming handhelds like the ROG (rich voice) Xbox ally X and Legion go 2 targeting higher TDP’s like 35 watts, what power target do you suspect the rumored ps6 portal will target?

Sam Wall

I will ask each week 🤣 what are you guys playing at the moment in your free time?

LordRelix

Hey fine folk! Is there any reason why HDR is so troublesome in Unreal Engine 5? Most games have gamma issues and really unimpressive implementations. Even other games such as Silksong have these issues. Modders usually provide better results, shout outs to RenoXD. What gives? Is HDR that time consuming?

Samtallic

Salutations most esteemed foundrymen, With Microsoft's announcement that everyone's Xbox Series consoles are soon to be worth hundreds dollars more, are you proud of yourselves for getting in on the ground level in 2020? I'm so delighted that consoles are now more of an investment property than consumer electronic device. In all seriousness, do you think we've hit the ceiling of Microsoft's NFT-style consoles pricing scheme, or do you see further gains in these little investment boxes? Surely retailers have to be panicking about any floor space dedicated to this unsellable hardware at this point. 

Snorlax cat

Yeah! Do you think that with bowser retiring from Nintendo (the executive not the monster) will see Nintendo back to the Reggie philosophy that brought us big bangers like breath of the wild and Mario odyssey. I can’t help but to be underwhelmed by having a 40th Mario anniversary with a repackage of Mario galaxy and a port/emulated version of its sequel. Thanks gents without hats!

Adam Holmberg

Ehm, no? A bunch of game might say they offer a Quality mode at 60 but with PSSR it's often a trade-offs and issues. Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are flickering and boiling at their "Pro" modes, Assassin's Creed Mirage have artifacts on objects like trees in motion as the camera pans, Silent Hill 2's performance mode is poor and the Quality Mode with PSSR have noisy artifacts in it's reflections, Alan Wake is not a clear win either with each mode or upscaler having different pros and cons for image quality. PSSR in Dragon Age: Veilguard can make some indoor scenes sparkle with PSSR and the hair in motion have blocky artifacts in motion. Most PS5 Pro games I own aren't a clear win and an unquestionable upgrade. And also, let's take God of War: Ragnarok, where if I turn on PSSR Kratos' beard starta to crawl and volumetrics gets noticeable lower resolution, or Dragon's Dogma 2? It's a goddamn mess that's what it is, don't assume that I don't check and play the games I buy.

RL

I'm wondering about your thoughts on what Kojima productions showed. OD and Physint.

NobleHeroine

Okay, new question. We now have pricing for the Xbox Rog Ally. 600 USD for the base model, and a 1000 USD for the X model. That's. Not a low price. What's your take on the systems positioning within the market? And which market are they aiming for, exactly?

HarryB

Thoughts on Hades 2 on Switch 2: Performance and presentation?

digitalfoundry

Probably optimisations and cost reductions based on telemetry from the V1 units out there.

digitalfoundry

In terms of system level frame-rate caps with v-sync, I think it may be the case that Microsoft has an adaptive tear option for frames that are just slightly over budget and I'm not sure Sony has an equivalent.

digitalfoundry

well I ran The Matrix Awakens on the RTX 2050 and it could only do 30fps by running at 720p with DLSS perf mode (internal 360p) and by turning Lumen off. That was a later build compared to the one I used in the original T239 video. I also have a Chinese RTX 3050 with 8GB of RAM but it's not much better.

digitalfoundry

I think it's for external displays... but it doesn't seem to work at all for me.

digitalfoundry

Yes, the capture would have been using John's settings for his OLED screen.

digitalfoundry

Probably running unlocked. You can count the frames by pausing the video then using the > button to move forward a frame at a time

DaJaCo (Dan)

I wonder if they will elevate anyone's pulse

DaJaCo (Dan)

From what we've seen of the work being put in between Epic and CDPR for the Witcher 4, nanite for foliage etc. - I could see UE5 finally being fairly performant post Witcher 4 release.. by which time next gen consoles will be out and it won't be as critical. They should really optimize it for the Switch 2 though, other engines with far fewer development resources are putting it to shame (i.e. Snowdrop, RE Engine)

Buzz Bee Spoke

I mean if we were talking about rocksteady then yes absolutely. I am an avid comic book reader and dont see how the faces in Insomniac games represent that in any way. Comic book faces are mostly defined and sharp (depending on the artist of course) the game has a bunch of bloated looking uncanny faces. I dont see anything stylistic about it. Looks more like they missed the mark.

asecondduck

It seems that Switch 2 games may not support performance profile switching on the fly outside of switching between portable and docked. Trails in the Sky FC was supposed to launch with 1080p and 4K modes but didn’t, and while Hades II does support 4K60, it’ll only do 1080p120 unless you specify 4K in the S2 output settings. Have you looked into this at all? Performance profiles are a nice feature and it’s odd that S2 would have launched without it.

BespokeEP

No... Cause it is just a Steam Deck priced way more,, you can even get a Steam Deck OLED for less. Both models are priced way too high, cause if you are willing to spend $1000 on a handheld, why not just spend an extra $200 and get the Legion Go2 with far better specs and a screen that destroys anything currently on the market. Unfortunately Xbox has once again priced themselves out

WyteNight

Greetings Graphics Police, I've been a regular viewer of your content for years but am now a guilt-free supporter, congratulations on your independence. As a father of two young children, most of my gaming time has been spent on handheld devices. I love my Steamdeck OLED, however I've been feeling it's graphical pinch lately with more modern AAA releases. Because of this, along with my Game Pass Ultimate subscription, I've had my eye on the new ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. With the now announced cost of $1,495 (tax in) Canadian dollars, I'm wondering if it's worth the upgrade? How well do you think it will run bigger games like Borderlands 4, Star Wars Outlaws? We're not too far from budget gaming laptop prices, could that be the more powerful, somewhat less portable option?

Anthony

I'm the author of the linked video, it's on my list!

Nick Antrobus

Hi you lovely lot, on the performance of pc games issues touched on last week with regards to borderlands and unreal. Why don’t developers put a gfx test/evaluation mode, like hl2, which can then choose the settings for best performance for your pc. Just run that when the game loads up and it defaults the best settings for your setup. Ta

MittenFacedLass

Personally I think it would have to focus on a huge jump in simulation (physics, etc) across the board, in addition to graphics. Really pushing the limits of interactivity and interconnected systems and meaningful simulation of complex phenomena.

MittenFacedLass

Second this. I miss the physics focus of even 2000s era titles. Sometimes it feels like we've gone backwards in ways.

MittenFacedLass

Yotei is definitely less advanced, though not bad by any margin.

Remij

Damn, I'm too late, but I'd love for you guys to discuss the release of the Agility SDK with Advanced Shader Delivery support and the blog post MS released about it. Anyway, looking forward to the Direct gents! Cheers!

BespokeEP

I don't think you realize how the length of development effects things. When new leadership takes over they don't hit reset and start everything fresh, you typically spend the first 3-4 years seeing through everything that the previous leadership set in motion. This is one of the major reasons Jim Ryan retired when he did, so that his successor would get to have a fresh run in shaping the PS6. People love to blame Hermen Hulst for everything but let's not forget that most of the games that we are seeing were actually greenlit by Shawn and Shu. I mean Shu admitted that he was the one who wanted Concord, not Hermen. Should Hermen have cancelled it a few years ago? Probably, but I imagine the last thing you want to do is cancel a game that a legend like Shu saw potential in. I don't think we've really seen anything from Hermen yet, and Doug Bowsers has just been getting going. But I think you are also forgetting that it isn't his job to tell studios what game to make. You would get a lot of crappy games that way. A team has to be passionate about the game they are making, it's the leaderships job to make sure the team has what they need, and to make sure it is hitting it's target. It's not exactly easy to time a Mario game to release on the 40th, especially if the team is creativiely exhausted from Mario and couldn't come up with something worthy enough... Or maybe, they want it to be a surprise

BespokeEP

Also most of Sony's 1st party games allows you to damage foliage. I mean you can knock down full trees in Horizon Forbidden West

BespokeEP

This was one of the main reasons for the PS5Pro, (Cerny discusses this in his interview with Oliver) to get real game experience and training for the upscaler model and to get devs use to implementing it, working out the bugs. Can you imagine spending the first couple years of PS6 sorting out the bugs, and what if they discover that you need way more RAM then they had estimated? Can't add more RAM to the PS6 after its out, right? The Pro existing makes the PS6 way more exciting. I mean sure it sucks knowing that Pro owners are basically Guinea pigs for PS6, but the overwhelming majority of games still look and run way better. And it puts PS in a way better position than Xbox for next gen. PS will start the gen with 100's of games that are already patched with PSSR. Xbox will have 0, and will likely go through a lot of the initial headaches that the pro did

BespokeEP

Often would mean most games, and you didn't even list 5 out of the OVER 150 ENHANCED GAMES. And what does it matter if SSM's anti aliasing solution is better than PSSR? They have been using that solution for over a decade, they have perfected it, the game was built with it in mind. I would be more concerned if it wasn't better than the 1 year old PSSR. Just cause DLSS 4 exists doesn't mean Sony starts with Nvidias training model as a base for PSSR, they had to build it from scratch.. do you remember what DLSS 1 was like? lol. Saying the Pro is often worse is factually wrong. It's a couple UE5 games. Most issues have been fixed. Curious to why you are focusing on the couple negative examples instead of focusing on the overwhelming positives, FF7, Spiderman, Horizon, DS2, AC Shadows, FC, Madden, NBA, GT7... Pretty much every game with the exception of Metal Gear, and Silent Hill f, which will both be patched within the next week or 2. Do you even own a PS5? Let alone a Pro? If you did you would know that most games that had issues have been fixed. A game having a few graphical glitches does not make the overall experience worse. A ton of games have graphical abnormaties in the base versions as well, the Pro is still the best way to play every game, with the exception of 2, and give it a week or 2 and that number will be 0

Adam Holmberg

Ouff, it's been a while since I saw an online troll or a wlld fanboy, but okay, let's dance. No, what you are spewing is a anti-consumer lie. Not all PS5 Pro games have been fixed or run with that magical "Quality Mode but 60fps" and I don't care if DLSS 1 was bad at launch, because DLSS 1 was a setting, not what some games come packaged with out of the gate or the linch-pin for a "Pro" version to begin with. Jedi Survivor is still not fixed. They made it slightly better than before, but it's still more noisy than the base PS4 version. Avatar and Star Wars Outlaws let you turn off PSSR, but their Pro Modes still run at lower resolutions so they end up less refined than base Quality modes. Alan Wake 2 is still far from perfect, making it a scene by scene basis if PSSR or FSR is better in regards to motion clarity versus RT artifacts. Some partner games, and 1st party games, are some real winners in regards to settings and performance, but they aren't so much the norm for PS5 Pro as it's always this question of "what do I sacrifice with this version?" if the game runs RT or some effect that doesn't jive with PSSR. DLSS 1 sucked, but I'm not bying an RTX 20 series from a time traveler, I'm playing on a packaged console system in 2025. FSR4 was AMD's first hardware ML-based upscaler and that one is great, there is no reason for PSSR to not have so many issues with ray-tracing, the feature PS5 Pro was made to help push. The RT artefacts of Dragon Age: Veilguard is still there, Dragon's Dogma 2 is still there (though it can now be rediced but I have to aim for 30fps and set PSSR for Graphics to reduce boiling with RT), Silent Hill 2 is still there. The best PS5 Pro versions are simply some performance boosts. Gears of War: Reloaded simply runs faster (great!), Resident Evil 4 finally reaches 60 with hair and reflections on (no PSSR), Callisto Protocol seems to be a very good version, though I have only tested the first level and compared the graphical modes there, Astro Bot was a light upgrade to an already performant game, Baldur's Gate 3 is added resolution and some better shadows to it's modes. The less ambitious upgrades are some of the best from third party. But they are not the same leap as PS4 Pro was to the PS4. Most games that have impressive versions are Sony First party or partner games. The rest are flailing between cool upgrades, side-grades or sometimes a less pleasing experiences. It's not that the PS5 base versions are perfect, but some just are more preferable because they don't use PSSR or let's us choose modes that are temporally more stable instead of this failed idea that the machine automatically is "Quality in 60fps". That point it not even true for most games as they still offer graphical modes with different settings and it's not always Performance actually is the same resolution or quality as quality. PS5 Pro is a failure in what it promised to do. They said that it was to push ML-based upcaling, RT and Quality Mode at 60. So far it's a lot of ifs, buts and maybes. I'm hoping the FSR4/PSSR2 upgrade next year can be easily swapped and that devs who have moved on doesn't have to spend money having to validate and push new updates, or a lot of these games will continue on being flawed and complicated compared to base PS5. A game can be borked on base PS5 and that's that. on the Pro they can be borked BECAUSE they are on PS5. That's the big difference.

BespokeEP

If you search for Moore's Law is Dead, YouTube channel, the video is titled "PS6 Dockable Handheld Leak". Just remember that things can change, but as of just recently these are the target specs. And given Moore's Law 's track record, there is no reason not to believe it. Not sure if links work on here, but here's the link, or just search the title I mentioned https://youtu.be/x-A3Bl2hXoQ?si=lnX7KELQ2IhQlPkd

BespokeEP

I don't know if we can determine when Sucker Punch added the RT. Sony typically shows trailers on YouTube running in Quality mode, due to how awful YouTubes compression can make a game look, and 30fps is more noticeable when playing, not everyone can tell as easily when watching. But I would imagine they have been targetting the RT for quite a while cause it would have had to have been put into the game engine and if it was a last minute thing, performance would not be flawless like it is

BespokeEP

I mean Xbox literally tells people not to buy an actual Xbox, cause every thing is an Xbox so you already own several lol. Not exactly what a retailer wants to hear. And considering Xbox's and peripherals take up shelf space, don't sell, and remember, the retailer has to purchase the product from Microsoft, so it's the retailer that loses money, not MS. I have to imagine with a 2TB SeriesX costing $800... MS is definitely looking at charging $1200+ for Magnus... How many retailers do you think will want to try and sell that? Lol. But I think Best Buy and Target will be next to drop Xbox. I imagine these big retailers will want all the space they can give to PlayStation when GTA6 drops. The game will literally sell 25m copies on PlayStation with Pre-orders. And if we get word that the Pro will be the only console to do 60fps ... Hold on to your seat belt

BespokeEP

I know it's sort of weird to say but I don't think we will get a massive leap again until PS7, unless PlayStation's 1st party ditches PS5 immediately and a bunch of 3rd party follow suit. Zen 6 is such a massive leap from Zen 2. That it would fundamentally change a game completely, but the fact that cross gen will almost certainly be a thing, it will limit the CPU usage completely.

BespokeEP

"let's dance"?? Sorry you aren't my type 😘. And I especially love how you call me an "online troll" or "wild fanboy" and then begin to rage type a 50,000 word essay about how much of a, I assume Xbox fan boy you are? I don't know, I stopped reading after the first few sentences. I mean if you won't believe me, do you believe Oliver, cause he said the same thing. Blocking you now

BespokeEP

Bloated eh... Not everyone in the world is toothpick skinny, if you are crying about MJ, it's the exact same actress, she just gained a little weight 😘

Buzz Bee Spoke

Nope, not MJ at all. Wolverines face though. Mj is actually one of the few i dont mind. Also its not about being skinny more about the proportions. Ottos face is one of the few they got right imo and hes not skinny