@Starfox85 - It could be an option, better to have more choice of how to get rid of the dreaded shader stutter than just one badly implemented one in my opinion. Personally, I have no qualms about downloading 3 GB shader caches as required because I frequently update my graphics drivers for new games and that resets the shader cache anyway.
Am I worried about SSD wear and tear? Absolutely not because I have lots of internal NVMe and SATA3 SSDs from my 2022 setup and CrystalDiskInfo shows that they are still 99% Good. I even have the page and hibernation files enabled on my C drive. We're talking about downloading up to 3 GB every so often not every few minutes!
Since it isn't possible to have the shaders saved with the game code as a once-only deal when you first install it then that is the quickest option for me as I have a 1 Gb/sec fibre connection so downloading 3 GB of shaders would take seconds and would certainly be quicker for games like The Last of Us Part 1 that waiting 20+ minutes as I currently do. Direct shader delivery or whatever it is called does not have to be for every game anyway, just the ones that have larger shader caches.
This is what makes shader compilation so damn annoying on PC versus consoles; the fact that it isn't a one-time only deal for as long as the game is installed. Shaders can be deleted if you update your graphics drivers and even if you run out of space in the cache (in which case the oldest files are removed to make space for the new ones).
Shader compilation has become a real bane on PC gaming in my experience, since I play a LOT of games and often play many over months. All I want to see is for this process to become as inconspicuous and transparent to the user as it is on consoles. I'm sure that it is possible to do this. Pre-DirectX 12 shader compilation, and having to wait for them to be generated, was never an issue. So why has it become a big issue with DirectX 12?
Looks acceptable on Switch 2 given that the original was very heavy on current gen consoles and PC (the way NPCs literally fade in right in front of you in cities is proof that maybe RE Engine is the best fit for this type of game). I would not want to play it on that system though, what with those over aggressive LODs and that poor frame-pacing, which means the game never runs or feels smooth to play.
I managed to sell my PS VR2 headset last month for £200 but I pretty much got it for free anyway (don't ask, it's a long story!) so no great loss. It was fun for about 2 weeks and was my first experience with VR but it was just too bulky and uncomfortable for long-term use, and ultimately Sony killed it, like they did with PS Vita, by not supporting it properly.
Glad I got to experience VR but for me this is a fad and not something I'm interested in ever experiencing again unless Star Trek's holodecks actually become a thing!
I loved the original Xbox especially and the Xbox 360. The original Xbox was a very underrated console in my opinion and for me felt like a spiritual successor to Dreamcast with its exclusive SEGA games plus Microsoft were throwing everything at it and even had their own sports label. Awesome times.
However, having cancelled my Game Pass Ultimate subscription for PC due to getting fed up with the awful Xbox app breaking game installs with updates and then selling my Xbox Series X a few months back, I no longer see Xbox as a console brand, just as a publisher of a few decent games each year that I can, and do, buy on Steam.
I no longer have any interest in owning a Xbox console ever again when I already have a more PC that whatever Project Helix turns out to be. It is also looking like I'll be ditching PlayStation too with PS5 Pro being my last console, thanks to Sony's stupid decision to kill all physical media with the PS6. If there is one basket I definitely don't want to put all my 'digital' eggs into, its Sony's. I don't think I need to explain why.
There will always be PC though even though that platform is all doom and gloom these days due to component prices. Whatever money I save from not buying the consoles and their £70 games can go on a new graphics card and significantly cheaper PC games (I typically buy mine from third-party key sellers such as Loaded.com or pick them up dirt cheap in a Steam sale).
@Starfox85 - I meant that it wouldn't matter if the shader files were cached or not as they could just be redownloaded. This would allow the shader cache to be small as older files could be deleted automatically to make space for new ones without the user being aware.
Since you need to be online in some form to install and play most games on PC, I really do not object to shaders being delivered this way at all as it would be quick and seamless unlike the current system where I might have to wait upwards of 15 minutes to play a game while the shaders compile, such as with Gears of Wars: E-Day which has a very long shader compile on my 9850X3D.
And, yes, I am aware that consoles have the shaders included with the game install and these are updated as necessary via patches. This is possible because they use fixed graphics hardware that is the same for all versions of the console. That obviously is not possible on PC due to hardware variations but having the shaders download automatically as needed is basically the equivalent in my opinion.
Better for the environment too for a server to crunch these files for tens of thousands of users instead of tens of thousands of users crunching these files for 15-20 minutes each!
NVIDIA currently have an option to compile the shaders after a driver install but this is only a partial solution since it means the CPU is churning away in the background compiling them and it also fails to compile all the shaders. On my system, this process takes hours even on the Medium setting using a 9850X3D because I have dozens of games installed.
@Starfox85 - I don't see why as the consoles use this system and no-one complains about wasted bandwidth. PC games can and will likely still include code for creating shaders locally anyway even if downloading shader files becomes the primary option.
I think the download system is ideal for games with much longer shader compiles such as Gears of War: E-Day. Most games in my experience only take a few minutes at most so those are not really the issue for me.
In practice, having shaders download when required - they can still be cached for as long as you play them (so it would work no differently for you) and only redownloaded if they are missing, say, after a GPU driver update - is not going to be an issue for most as PC games are digital-only and so basically are dependent on having an internet connection in the first place.
More options for shader delivery is better than just having one in my opinion.
Any developer making a game with a 15-20 minute shader compilation needs to be hung, drawn and quartered in my opinion!!! That is just lousy coding in my opinion as no game should have take that long.
@StooMonster - I honestly don't know why the build quality is so bad on the Elite controllers when the quality of the standard controllers is generally so good in comparison. I've never had broken bumpers or even stick drift on the standard Xbox controllers yet I've had these issues on three of the Elites. Once is bad luck, twice is concerning and three is just poor design in my view.
Perhaps Microsoft are using sub-standard parts for the Elite to maximise their profits as the pricing of this controller means it must sell far fewer units than the standard one?
Whatever the reason they must address this for the Elite V3 otherwise people will stop buying them. The target audience for this controller is obviously going to be owners of the previous Elite controllers and if they've had a bad experience then they are less likely to buy this one.
The build quality needs to be exceptional in my opinion but reviews won't be enough as the issues will only become apparent over time as more people buy them and report issues with them. I'll definitely be sitting on the fence on this one and will wait a year or more post-release before even considering buying one.
The Microsoft Elite Xbox controllers are superb controllers in terms of feel and response but they have one glaring issue in my experience having owned four over the years (one V1 model and three V2 ones, including a white Core variant) and that is the poor build quality.
All of my previous ones except for the most recent Core controller have developed faults despite careful use and no-one but myself using them. They were never dropped or mishandled yet one had drift on the right analogue stick pretty much right out of the box and two developed wonky / sticky bumper buttons (RB / LB). One also had the rubber grip peeling away near the right trigger (RT) button.
Considering how much these cost, I've not been that impressed with the build quality. In my experience, the standard Xbox controllers tend to last far longer and have less issues as I own a few of those too.
If Microsoft can sort the build quality issue out for V3 and keep the price sensible - a big ask I know - then I may consider upgrading to this at some point for my PC. These controllers in every other way are pretty much my perfect and preferred controller for the vast majority of PC games.
Have Digital Foundry never played Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection, The Last of Us Part 1 (at launch) or Star Ocean: The Divine Force, all of which had extremely long shader compilations of 15+ minutes on my old i5-13600KF CPU, which had 14-cores and 20-threads? They were infuriating to the point where it put me off playing them on PC as every time I wanted to the shaders had been reset by a graphics driver update!!!
The latter is especially notable for having a 20 minute shader compile... for a game running on DirectX 11 and not 12 like the others.
I honestly cannot wait for the day when all PC games just download all the required shaders from the server like they are on console. This not only does away with the need to precompile them and the length of time needed to complete the process but it also does away with the need to store them in cache since they can just be redownloaded each time you start the game in a temporary cache and deleted once done to make space for the next game.
These files are rarely more than a few hundred megabytes at most so the process would pretty much be transparent for the vast majority of PC gamers.
Is this only for games bought on the (awful) Microsoft / Xbox Store or does it also apply to Gears of War: E-Day on Steam?
Having the game download the shaders as needed is by the far the best solution to a growing problem on PC in my experience as it is much quicker than having them compiled locally. It also means that you don't have to worry about shaders being reset after a graphics driver update. This could also save on drive space, if like me, you play lots of different games at any one time.
Games like Uncharted and The Last of Us Part 1 have 20+ minute shader compilations which make playing those games a pain as, every time I load them up for a quick go, it is after a new driver install so the shader cache has reset!
The need to compile shaders is a real bane on PC gaming in my experience and highlights a weakness compared with consoles where this process is unnecessary since the shaders ship with the game install and are updated via patches. This issue is also compounded by the fact that many developers do not compile the shaders properly or fully resulting in a stuttering experience the first time you play the game, e.g. such as the recent Silent Hill: Townfall which ran worse on PC than consoles.
Eurgh! IPS! I was glad to see the back of backlight glow when I switched over to a QD-OLED monitor about 3 or 4 years ago.
I get that these are aimed at competitive gamers wanting the fastest framerates for online shooters but given how your whole interaction with your PC is from looking at these screens, are these people really happy with washed out blacks during the night / in a dark room and backlight glow during the day?
QD-OLED isn't perfect but the 500 Hz 1440p display display I own is easily the best monitor I've ever owned for games as I only play games in a dark room never in bright daylight. VRR flicker is about the only issue I have with it but even that is less annoying / noticeable these days then it used to be.
P.S. Ace Combat 8, which I played last night on Steam, also has stuttering on PC. This is another Unreal Engine 5 game.
The stuttering occurs much less than in Silent Hill: Townfall though, and is more noticeable during the first-person cutscenes than the actual gameplay, which is a blessing, I guess.
A patch was released for the PC version, I think yesterday (or it might have been Tuesday), that specifically addresses the stuttering issue.
I tried the game briefly last night and the game compiled an additional 700 shaders after verifiying the others during the loading to the main menu.
Alas, the game still seems to have an odd frame pacing issue and some stutters even after this patch. It is hard to say if the game is running better or not since shader compilation hiccups typically occur once so those from the original run had already been compiled for the session I had last night. The game just does not feel smooth to play at all, unlike like, say, Control Resonance (I know, I know, different engine etc etc) with a capped and uncapped framerate. Just feels a bit off and jittery to me, and I'm using G-SYNC on a 500 Hz 1440p QD-QLED monitor.
However, there were still some stutters but these could be traversal related and likely will never be fixed since these occur in the console versions as well and are part of what I consider to be the flawed Unreal Engine 5 experience.
@ramu-chan - The need to pre-compile shaders is one of the PC's weaknesses compared with a console which can download the shaders with the game install and update them via patches due to having fixed hardware. Unreal Engine 4 and 5 just highlight this weakness in the worst possible way, plus you also get repeatable traversal stutters which happen on consoles and PC alike.
While I like a lot of things about Unreal Engine 5 such as Nanite to reduce obvious LOD switches and pop in and the ease at which it can be tweaked via the Engine.ini file, I do get nervous every time I buy a new PC game that uses the engine because I just never know what kind of performance I can expect on my own system. Any stutter is annoying but having both in a game just ruins it for me. Silent Hill: Townfall is just poorly optimised on all systems in my opinion but it is worst on PC due to developer oversights.
Compilation stutter also cannot be fixed via Engine.ini tweaks or even mods, it requires the developer to implement a full shader compile and, sadly, it seems like too many overlook this which is surprising considering how much negativity and bad press it gets from the likes of Digital Foundry etc. It really should be the first thing any developer looks at when creating a new game on this engine.
I got these speakers (in black) from Amazon last week for £140. They replaced a 13 year old Harman Kardon SoundSticks III 2.1 speaker setup that was perfectly fine but I wanted something more compact and modern without the need for a large odd-looking subwoofer (everyone who saw it asked what on earth it was).
The Creative XF1 speakers look and feel quite premium, I like the cork bases that orientate the sound up and toward my ears (though they'd have been better in black to match the speakers) and the sound quality is good overall for music and games.
The speakers do require the use of the Creative Nexus software though to set up properly with the Parametric equaliser otherwise the audio is hollow and tinny by default. The software can be installed on a phone, iPad or PC but the latter only works for bluetooth and USB but not the 3.5mm jack. The mobile/iPad app works with all three. Not sure why Creative have done this as surely it makes more sense to allow full control of the speakers on a PC when they are connected to a PC?
I initially tried it with Bluetooth which worked well enough using LDAC but is limited to 16 bit 24kHz (or whever Studio Quality is). This mode required me to keep having to manually reconnect the speakers on every PC reboot so I decided to order a 3.5mm audio lead (which oddly doesn't come with these speakers) and, while I waited for that to arrive, I briefly used the USB A to USB C cable. That worked fine but I wanted to free that USB port for other devices which is why I opted for the 3.5mm audio jack instead.
I am now using the 3.5mm audio lead which works great allowing me to switch to 24bit 48kHz for the audio. This also works fine with the speakers' auto-power off feature (which is enabled by default via a switch on the rear) meaning that I don't have to manually turn on the speakers and reconnect each time like I did with bluetooth.
This might be borderline acceptable for a slower paced strategy or turn-based RPG but I suspect it will be abused going forward by developers porting over games from Xbox Series X|S and PS5, just to make up for the lower framerate. Personally, I'd rather the games just ran at 30 fps and didn't have frame gen at all.
As pointed out in the video though, using frame gen increases latency slightly anyway so in a game like Stellar Blade it is pointless and it should be a toggleable option so the player can choose whether they want it or not. However, I suspect that Nintendo will consider this decision to be too complicated for their user base - I half suspect that is why most of their games have barebones options - and will just enforce it.
The whole point of having 60 fps in the first place is for a more responsive game with smoother motion being secondary. Frame gen should only be used at actual framerates above 50 fps in my experience and definitely not when the game is only running at 30 fps.
Wolverine is a visually excellent game on the PS5 Pro using the Fidelity Pro setting but with a few niggles such as some nasty specular aliasing on some surfaces when panning the camera and some odd-looking lighting around the eyes (white lines), presumably due to not using a more refined lighting system?
As for the game itself, it is fine/servicable and I'm enjoying it so far... mostly... in short bursts. However, this does feel a bit formulaic and uninspired, suggesting to me that Insomniac maybe need to jazz up the gameplay and take a few risks for their next game to avoid the format becoming stale.
In many ways, I actually prefer Raven's X-Men Origins: Wolverine game on PC from 15 years ago to this game despite the rough Unreal Engine 3 visuals. I remember playing that from start to finish and loved every second of it. I'm not getting that same vibe from this new Wolverine game.
@EvilRacer329 - The PC version runs mostly okay on my system (AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, 32 GB DDR5 6000, RTX 4080, Windows 11 Pro 26H2) on maxed out 1440p settings using DLSS Quality and frame gen (X2). I get over 110+ fps (actual framerate 55+ fps) with some traversal stutters and very rarely I get a huge 5-10 second hitch that looks like the game has crashed before carrying on as if nothing had happened. None of those are unusual for a typical Unreal Engine 5 game though although it doesn't tarnish the awesome atmosphere somewhat when they occur.
The biggest issue though is the frame pacing. I am using a 500 Hz VRR monitor but the framerate just feels like it isn't smooth. It's not stutter exactly, it just feels like the game isn't synced to the display properly which should not be an issue when using VRR (in my case it is NVIDIA's G-SYNC).
I've played about 40 hours of the game and keep hoping the developers will drop a big update to address this issue and some quest bugs (such as for Forge It Anew). Sadly, all we've had are few small hotfixes and nothing else since launch.
Game is still perfectly playable though and unlike the console version (I've played it on PS5 Pro as well), the cutscenes don't have an obvious split-second stutter during camera changes, although the game does have some cutscenes that cap at 30 fps (which doesn't look great with frame gen enabled!).
I got an email this morning from Amazon that my pre-order of Wolverine has been delayed for some reason, right on the day it was supposed to be delivered. It still shows as due for delivery on Tuesday for now... but which Tuesday is anyone's guess at this point. Normally it would say 'Arriving today'.
Can't help but wonder if this is an omen and that perhaps I should have cancelled it when I had the chance over the weekend.
The game looks fine visually but the negative reviews have somewhat put me off the game but I only stuck with it because I normally enjoy Insomniac's games and I absolutely loved the X-Men Origins: Wolverine game from a few years ago and that received mediocre review scores.
I own a RTX 4080 Founders Edition, that cost me an eye-watering £1,100 back in January 2023 but has at least offered me a fantastic experience in every game I've played since (and I play a LOT of games on PC) at maxed out 1440p settings. It might not be the best value GPU - that would probably go to the classic GTX 1080 Ti in my opinion - but it is still more than good enough that I don't feel compelled to upgrade any time soon. The longer I own it then the more value I get out of it.
The current pricing for the higher end cards is obscene in my opinion. NVIDIA advertise the RTX 5080 as starting at £990 on their own website - presumably for the Founders Edition which predictably isn't listed - but all the third-party cards linked are £1,350+. That's over 35% more than the MSRP. Then there's the RTX 5090 which costs £4,000+.
I've always bought higher end NVIDIA GPUs but I fear that the pricing is pushing it out of my reach. I just cannot justify spending more than £1,000 on a graphics card that will be superseded by something better within 2 years as was usually the case pre-AI boom.
A 24 GB RTX 5080 might be a nice upgrade for my RTX 4080, where I've seen some games max out the 16 GB VRAM when using pathtracing and framegen but how much will that cost if a standard 5080 right now costs £1,300+. £1,800 or more? That's how much the RTX 4090 launched at, right, and I doubt the 5080 will outperform that card?
DLSS5 seems to be a technology made for the future as it is way too heavy performance-wise to be used on current hardware now, even on the £4,000+ RTX 5090!
I would wager that people playing NBA 2K27 on PC will likely favour smooth performance at 60+ fps over lower performance with hitches just to see the DLSS5 during cutscenes (because let's face it you're not really going to notice it from the zoomed out camera angle while actually playing the game).
Interesting technology for sure but this is basically the equivalent of DLSS1 right now; ultimately interesting but flawed. Best to wait for the equivalent DLSS2/3 upgrade and performance tweaks as well as more powerful future GPUs before toggling the setting to on in games.
I guess you could use DLSS5 now for taking screenshots in games and then turn it off to get the better performance for the gameplay. I think NVIDIA need to get that rendering time of 8-10ms down to 4-5ms for the technology to be practical for hitting that 60+ fps sweetspot.
I'm curious as to how the PS6 will fare but I will not be buying one. My interest in PlayStation died when Sony announced the death of the physical disc for games and PS5 Pro will be my last Sony console.
I've decided to just move over mainly to PC for gaming with a bit of Switch 2 on the side. As for XBOX, that platform died a long time ago for me and I sold my 18 months unused XBOX Series X last week.
I don't even think a PS6 handheld will do much either as look what happened to the PS Vita, which was a fantastic handheld, albeit a horrible fingerprint magnet with super expensive proprietary storage cards, that failed to sell leading Sony to pretty much abandon it.
With PC handhelds like Steam Deck and Switch/Switch 2, what makes Sony think a PS6 handheld will fare any better? I think it'll be a flop personally as what would it offer that Steam Deck or Switch 2 don't now? A few exclusives that are few and far between these days? A digital library of PS4 and PS5 games that Sony can just remove on a whim? Yeah, sounds great!
Hmmm, 8-cores and 20 E-cores... are those E-cores really useful for gaming? I always viewed them as background Windows process cores based on my experiences with the i5-13600KF in my current build.
There are some games that don't play nice with E-cores and Control outright crashes with them enabled unless you use software such as CoreDirector to force the game to use the P-cores.
Anyway, I've switched from Intel to AMD for my next build with a Ryzen 7 9850x3D as my PC is purely for gaming so I want the best performance for gaming.
The problem as far as I am concerned is that is so easy to distort the true digital sales figures because there are many, many games - smaller indie and shovelware titles for example -plus content such as DLC that don't exist on physical discs. Also, supplies of physical discs are limited so once they run out then people will be pushed, whether they realise it or not, toward buying the game digitally.
I have noticed that Amazon PS5 games can quickly go out of stock if you don't pre-order before release, whereas in the PS4 era and early days of PS5 it was very easy to buy physical games many months after release and always for a lot less than the original asking price.
It is hard to know if the current physical disc situation is because the supplies are being limited to force people toward digital, or if the publishers are just being cautious by not manufacturing a surplus of discs that no-one wants because everyone else is buying digitally. I personally suspect it is the former myself.
But ultimately the disc, while offering some kind of ownership and resell value, it pretty much always has the version of the game on it that you don't want to play and once those servers go offline and assuming the disc will still install then all those patches, updates and DLC etc are gone forever.
I still buy movies and music on disc. In the case of music CDs, I rip them to my PC to listen to from there so the disc gives me nicely boxed product, a sense of ownership and acts as a backup. I also buy games as a collector and to have something to own. However, I still see the convenience of digital and think it would be great if I could install a game from a disc and then not need to keep inserting it in the drive everytime I want to play it, kind of like how it works for CDs.
I will not be buying a PS6 or indeed buying any games for my PS5 Pro after January 2028 because of the whole disc situation.
Why is it that so many developers struggle to implement proper framepacing at 30 fps on consoles?
It's a genuine question that has been baffling me as someone who notices bad framepacing but doesn't code personally.
On PC bad framepacing is as simple to fix as just forcing a 30 fps framerate cap in RivaTuner Statistics Server or the graphics driver control panel. I then see a perfect 16.67ms line on the on-screen display.
Why is it that this no developer does this on consoles. Surely it can't be that difficult if a PC tool can do this independent of the game engine? I personally don't mind 30 fps games on consoles so long as the framepacing is correct as this means the game feels smooth and looks smooth in motion.
What I cannot stand is poor framepacing as it just puts me off playing it. Bloodborne is an example of a great game tarnished by bad framepacing, something that FromSoftware became notorious for until they started to release 'up to 60 fps' games on current gen consoles. At least those games can be fixed using VRR so long as they keep north of 48 fps.
Disappointing isn't a word I'd use for why they shadow dropped a poorly performing games on PS5 and PC, pretty much abandoned it and only now, after the Switch 2 version has been released, are saying they are looking into fixing the game on other systems.
I'd call that utterly disgusting personally.
Do Bethesda really think that people are happy to either play a game with lousy performance or wait 15+ months for a patch? People buy games to play them not sit and wait for a patch that may or may not come so everyone who owns the remaster will have experienced the sub-optimal beta build of the game.
Remember they shadow dropped this game the day it was officially announced so no-one was crying out for it. What they should have done was waited, continued to optimise it until it was ready for release then released it.
Shadow dropping a broken game is just insulting in my opinion and only serves to enhance Bethesda's reputation for releasing unpolished, unoptimised games.
One thing that puzzled me is if Xbox One and Series X|S discs have always had the disc ID that will allow them to convert them to a digital licence, then why did the discs need to be in the drive to play them? Could they not have automatically associated the disc ID with the Xbox account and bypassed the need for disc verification years ago?
I love having games on disc for that sense of ownership and having something tangible of value but dislike having to swap discs. Microsoft could very easily have implemented the disc ID to user account thing years ago allowing people to build up a digital library without ever realising.
Since the disc ID transfers to the new user if it is sold then it prevents people from buying a game, installing it and then selling it on (although there would be a period between the sale and the new owner playing the game which would allow the previous owner to still play it).
I have no interest in either next-gen console at this point but I am curious as to what Sony has planned for transferring PS4/PS5 discs over to a digital licence. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if they have nothing planned and just expect players to rebuy the games again digitally.
I have over 150 PS4 and PS5 games on disc so the only way I would have even considered buying a PS6 is if those were accessible as discs on the new console. I can't see them making an optional disc drive just for legacy games somehow and I don't think the games discs have individual IDs like Xbox ones do either to easily transfer the licences over.
It is so great to read that Microsoft are bringing over Xbox 360 games over to PC via emulation as well as I found I owned two of the four initial Xbox releases they released last week and bought one of the other two, Conker Live & Reloaded (obviously, look at my avatar!) which I still own on disc. I also own a few 360 games digitally too, which I bought when I used my Xbox Series X.
It's just a shame that in order to access these games I have to use the lacklustre Xbox app, which has a tendency to break games with updates and throw up unhelpful messages like "Something went wrong, please try again later" and vague error codes that are no help whatsoever.
In fact, all three of the emulated Xbox games ended up getting broken on my Windows 11 PC and no amount of verification and resetting/reinstalling the Xbox app would fix it. I even moved them to another drive, which which triggered an "Unsupported 16-bit executable" warning! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded all three games and, lo and behold, they are working again... until the next update breaks them, I guess.
This is one of the reasons I cancelled my GamePass subscription back in May 2024 and now just buy Xbox games on Steam, where oddly enough I never experience any of these issues. Isn't that strange?
Anyway, rant over, this push for Xbox and 360 emulation on PC means that I can finally sell my unused Xbox Series X and ditch the console for good but still have access to the small library of classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
That is good because I am ditching consoles next generation, including the PS6, which no longer interests me due to Sony killing physical discs for games (that for me was one of the key reasons to own consoles).
Game looks really nice artistically, I think, and image quality wise it looks decent on my 55" OLED TV so no real complaints there.
I don't use my Switch 2 in handheld mode ever because I hate that LCD screen so much but it baffles me why Nintendo continue to exist in the dark ages when it comes to anti-aliasing techniques, often foregoing it completely in handheld mode like they have here.
I can hear the purists screaming that this is how it should be to keep the image crisp and sharp and clear for a small screen, where maybe they won't notice the jaggies and shimmering so much, but I personally find it tarnishes the presentation. I am just so thankful that they at least added some kind of anti-aliasing treatment for the docked experience and, even if it is extremely basic by modern standards, I think it works well enough.
It is a shame though that Nintendo's own in-house games are not making use of NVIDIA's DLSS which has been shown to work extremely well in other third-party games.
I've just bought a new custom built AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D PC with 32 GB of DDR5 6000 memory, to be delivered later this month, mostly because of the rising price of the components.
Otherwise, I would have just waited another 12-18 months before upgrading my PC but, at this rate, who knows how much more expensive all these components will cost.
Absolutely ridiculous how the AI boom is slowly killing both the PC and console gaming market. RAM, SSDs, GPUs and now motherboards!
Looks fine to me but like Xenoblade Chronicles the framerate is wildly inconsistent when played docked, feeling like it is switching between 60 fps and 30 fps.
It's like they only considered this for handheld mode which supports VRR but, of course, the docked mode doesn't so any framerate drops immediately manifest as judder.
Smooth performance is something I've become accustomed to on PS5 Pro and PC where VRR is supported so it is really disappointing that the Switch 2 still does not support this.
What on earth were Nintendo thinking when they designed the Switch 2 which has VRR but poor HDR in handheld mode and no VRR but great HDR when docked (and connected to a modern 4K TV)?
Looks like the Microsoft Store updated Crimson Skies, Conker and BLiNX yesterday but now I can no longer play any of these games as I get an application error 0xc0000005 for EmuMenu.exe when I try to launch them.
All three were working perfectly over the weekend and the only things that have changed since then on my Windows 11 Pro 25H2 PC is updating the graphics drivers for my RTX 4080 from 610.74 to 610.88, along with a cumulative Windows update to 26200.8973.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
By the way, these kind of vague errors are exactly why I abandoned GamePass and the awful Microsoft Store for just buying Xbox games on Steam, where they just work. I was always getting these kind of errors on the Xbox app and Microsoft Store, along with the insulting "Something went wrong, please try again later" messages, which are absolutely no help at all.
EDIT
Not joking here but I relocated the games to a different drive and got a different error, an unsupported 16-bit application error!!! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded the games to the same drive and now all three work. THIS is why I despise the Xbox app... you don't have to put up with this crap on Steam!
Seems the ghosting I was seeing in the cutscene FMVs is due to them being capped at 30 fps which doesn't play nice with frame gen. Thought I saw some weirdness with them but I wasn't sure exactly what it was I seeing because the ghosting isn't there all the time.
Definitely evokes memories of playing the original for the first time and visually it is easily the best that Halo has ever looked, although I remember being just as blown away by the original when I saw it running on that GAME pod.
Runs really well maxed out on the Ultra preset with DLAA at 1440p on my i5-13600KF / RTX 4080 with only a couple of minor hitches in the 3 hours I've played it so far. One was during a cutscene transition and the other was a 1 second freeze during a Covenant battle during the initial mission on the Halo ring where you have to locate the three life boats.
I also thought I saw some weirdness with the cutscenes at one point as if the FMV was displaying a double-image or blurring. Might have just been a hiccup as the game transitions from gameplay to cutscene but I thought it worth mentioning.
Only other issue is that the audio mix seems quiet on my PC where I'm using a 2.1 stereo speaker set up. Cortana's dialogue was loud but the music seemed very subdued in the mix. I'm wondering if this is a bug with the game outputting 5.1 surround sound to a 2.1 setup. Will be interested to see if anyone else reports this.
Otherwise, a really fantastic remake and easily the best Halo game from Microsoft/Xbox since Halo 3 in my opinion.
P.S. The game has skins for Master Chief but with this remake using FMV cutscenes it means that the only way to actually see them is if you play the game in co-op and someone else wears the skin. Otherwise, all you see in game are Master Chiefs legs and arms and a bit of the chest at certain angles!
I am really looking forward to playing this on my PC in a couple of hours.
Great news that they've finally got a modernised version of Halo: Combat Evolved right. It always was my favourite game in the franchise ever since I played the Xbox demo on a pod in GAME all those years ago...
Only complaint is the use of pre-rendered FMV, which is a bit of a disappointment (and likely adds to the install size?) considering the original had real-time cutscenes. I would have preferred to seen real-time ones in the remake, especially on Unreal Engine 5, but it seems to be an intentional choice with Microsoft remakes as Gears of War: Reloaded also used pre-rendered FMV when the original's cutscenes were real-time.
I absolutely loved three of those four games on Xbox (sorry Fusion Frenzy!) so I really like the idea of being able to play these on PC with some enhancements even if those don't extend to proper 16:9 widescreen support or a higher framerate.
I was extremely saddened when I found that I could no longer play gems like RalliSport Challenge 2 on Xbox 360 or PGR 3 and 4 on Xbox One. With those being licenced games though that are no longer available to buy digitally then chances are they will never be playable on PC.
I still own those on disc, but since they don't work on Xbox Series X, then there seems little to no chance of them ever coming to PC in my opinion.
Until all games can run on SteamOS and at a performance level that is the same or better than Windows (some games do run worse on SteamOS than Windows from what I've read/seen) then I personally would not risk switching from Windows to SteamOS for any future PC.
My experience with SteamOS is only on Steam Deck where it seems to work well enough but there are still incompatibility issues that take months to address and in the meantime you end up having to mess around with different versions of Proton (the emulation layer).
That is less of an issue on Steam Deck, where I am mostly playing older games anyway that tend to mostly work fine, but it would become a big deal for me on a PC if I bought a new triple A game and was unable to play it properly because it didn't work properly on SteamOS.
Also, there is the fact that currently SteamOS only works with AMD GPUs. Apart from a brief stint with AMD GPUs and their awful CrossFire (their version of NVIDIA's SLI) in the early 2000s, I've always bought NVIDIA GPU for their features, usually better drivers and so on. NVIDIA are just two steps ahead of AMD when it comes to RT, DLSS and frame gen in my experience so I would only use SteamOS in a PC if I could use a NVIDIA GPU.
For some reason, I thought this redesign meant that the joycons and the main Switch 2 unit would have a removeable battery compartment like other accessories such as remote controls to make it easy to swap batteries. At worst, I thought I thought it would just be a case of removing four small screws to reveal the battery.
Just goes to show how naïve I was in that assumption because this battery replacement process still looks fiddly as hell and maybe benefits Switch 2 repair businesses more than the end user?
The post-release support for this game has been astonishing in my opinion to the point where the current build is significantly improved over the launch version.
I enjoyed my time with this game but had two gripes with it. One, the story is underwhelming and lead character, Kliff, is utterly forgettable. Two, the game looks nice enough visually but it falls apart as soon as you start moving as the engine's draw distance is poor with lots of distracting LOD issues and pop in, even when you completely max out the PC version on its inappropriately named Cinematic setting (I don't recall the last time I saw trees and grass popping into view in a movie, just mere feet in front of the actors!).
Seriously though, it is a great game besides those issues and I look forward to a much-improved (and inevitable?) sequel.
I will buy a Switch 2 OLED but I only use my current Switch 2 docked because I just cannot stand the LCD screen, especially after owning a Switch OLED.
Everything about the screen is just lacklustre except when looking at it direct with nothing moving. Motion, HDR, black levels, all are awful on the LCD screen and it just reminded me of why I ditched LCD in the first place to replace all my TVs and monitors with OLED (and QD-OLED) displays, including my original Switch 1!
The Switch 2's screen definitely felt like taking two steps forward - a lovely crisp 1080p resolutions, VRR support, nicer looking games - and one step back - everything else about the screen. It makes me laugh that Nintendo even have the balls to claim the screen supports HDR.
The game is fantastic but adding what looks like £90 worth of DLC outfits and equipment to what is a remake of a 13 year old game that is already missing the expansion from the original is a really scummy move but one that Ubisoft have sadly become renowned for.
Yes, you don't have to buy it but it is a reminder that the game you are playing is not really complete and, certainly in the case of this remake, it should damn well have everything included for the £49.99 they are charging for it.
I don't know what miracles Ubisoft have pulled off for the PS5 Pro version but the 30 fps Fidelity mode feels and looks much smoother, particularly when panning the camera, that most other 30 fps games out there. I tried this as well after playing the 60 fps Performance mode, which is usually extremely jarring.
Not yet tried the 40 fps Balanced mode yet as I wanted to see what the graphical differences were between the highest and lowest of the available presets.
The 60 fps mode is fine but it does look visually a bit cutback in terms of RT; I especially noticed that on the faces of the characters which has that uncanny valley look around the eyes without full RT (Resident Evil Requiem also had this issue).
I found this distracting so opted for the 30 fps mode which I found to be perfectly playable. Cutscenes are locked to 30 fps, I believe, regardless of the mode and do not have this issue; it is only apparent during gameplay so most people will either not see it - since you control Edward from behind - or won't care for the sake of the higher framerate.
I still find it strange though how 30 fps on consoles can feel and look fine but 30 fps on PC usually looks horrendous and feels horribly laggy, and that is when both games are played with the same controller and both are on OLED displays. I don't think viewing distance is the whole reason for the difference here.
I know Ubisoft get a lot of criticism for formulaic releases and overcluttered open world designs but I've always been impressed with how polished most of their games are, running on their own custom engines, especially compared with your typical Unreal Engine 5 stutterfest release.
And despite the repetitve gameplay, I've always managed to get my money's worth out of their games, usually around 30-50 hours, before I get bored and end up not finishing them...
... although I did finish Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on PS4, believe it or not. I absolutely loved that game and it is funny looking back and being excited about the original disc version of the game getting a resolution bump from 900p to 1080p via a patch and beating the Xbox One version (which went from 720p to 900p, I believe). These days a mere 180p difference is nothing with dynamic resolution scaling and quality upscalers such as PSSR. Back then though it was a thing and it helped define the PS4 as the superior platform for third-party game releases,, much to Microsft's annoyance!
I bought Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced on Steam last night and look forward to playing it later today.
Comments 145
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
@Starfox85 - It could be an option, better to have more choice of how to get rid of the dreaded shader stutter than just one badly implemented one in my opinion. Personally, I have no qualms about downloading 3 GB shader caches as required because I frequently update my graphics drivers for new games and that resets the shader cache anyway.
Am I worried about SSD wear and tear? Absolutely not because I have lots of internal NVMe and SATA3 SSDs from my 2022 setup and CrystalDiskInfo shows that they are still 99% Good. I even have the page and hibernation files enabled on my C drive. We're talking about downloading up to 3 GB every so often not every few minutes!
Since it isn't possible to have the shaders saved with the game code as a once-only deal when you first install it then that is the quickest option for me as I have a 1 Gb/sec fibre connection so downloading 3 GB of shaders would take seconds and would certainly be quicker for games like The Last of Us Part 1 that waiting 20+ minutes as I currently do. Direct shader delivery or whatever it is called does not have to be for every game anyway, just the ones that have larger shader caches.
This is what makes shader compilation so damn annoying on PC versus consoles; the fact that it isn't a one-time only deal for as long as the game is installed. Shaders can be deleted if you update your graphics drivers and even if you run out of space in the cache (in which case the oldest files are removed to make space for the new ones).
Shader compilation has become a real bane on PC gaming in my experience, since I play a LOT of games and often play many over months. All I want to see is for this process to become as inconspicuous and transparent to the user as it is on consoles. I'm sure that it is possible to do this. Pre-DirectX 12 shader compilation, and having to wait for them to be generated, was never an issue. So why has it become a big issue with DirectX 12?
Re: Review: Dragon's Dogma 2 On Switch 2: The First "Impossible Port" for the New Generation?
Looks acceptable on Switch 2 given that the original was very heavy on current gen consoles and PC (the way NPCs literally fade in right in front of you in cities is proof that maybe RE Engine is the best fit for this type of game). I would not want to play it on that system though, what with those over aggressive LODs and that poor frame-pacing, which means the game never runs or feels smooth to play.
Re: Sony Sells Dozens of Patents to Meta, Seemingly Signifies End of VR Efforts
I managed to sell my PS VR2 headset last month for £200 but I pretty much got it for free anyway (don't ask, it's a long story!) so no great loss. It was fun for about 2 weeks and was my first experience with VR but it was just too bulky and uncomfortable for long-term use, and ultimately Sony killed it, like they did with PS Vita, by not supporting it properly.
Glad I got to experience VR but for me this is a fad and not something I'm interested in ever experiencing again unless Star Trek's holodecks actually become a thing!
Re: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Confirms "Family of Devices" for 10th Console Generation in Microsoft Town Hall Meeting
I loved the original Xbox especially and the Xbox 360. The original Xbox was a very underrated console in my opinion and for me felt like a spiritual successor to Dreamcast with its exclusive SEGA games plus Microsoft were throwing everything at it and even had their own sports label. Awesome times.
However, having cancelled my Game Pass Ultimate subscription for PC due to getting fed up with the awful Xbox app breaking game installs with updates and then selling my Xbox Series X a few months back, I no longer see Xbox as a console brand, just as a publisher of a few decent games each year that I can, and do, buy on Steam.
I no longer have any interest in owning a Xbox console ever again when I already have a more PC that whatever Project Helix turns out to be. It is also looking like I'll be ditching PlayStation too with PS5 Pro being my last console, thanks to Sony's stupid decision to kill all physical media with the PS6. If there is one basket I definitely don't want to put all my 'digital' eggs into, its Sony's. I don't think I need to explain why.
There will always be PC though even though that platform is all doom and gloom these days due to component prices. Whatever money I save from not buying the consoles and their £70 games can go on a new graphics card and significantly cheaper PC games (I typically buy mine from third-party key sellers such as Loaded.com or pick them up dirt cheap in a Steam sale).
Re: DF's STAR WARS: Galactic Racer Development Doc Is Now Live
Fabulous video. Really interesting to watch and made me appreciate this excellent game even more.
More like this, please!
Re: Xbox Elite Series 3 Controller Leaked Via Microsoft's Own Design Lab
@1040STF - Every product is a good experience until it isn't.
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
@Starfox85 - I meant that it wouldn't matter if the shader files were cached or not as they could just be redownloaded. This would allow the shader cache to be small as older files could be deleted automatically to make space for new ones without the user being aware.
Since you need to be online in some form to install and play most games on PC, I really do not object to shaders being delivered this way at all as it would be quick and seamless unlike the current system where I might have to wait upwards of 15 minutes to play a game while the shaders compile, such as with Gears of Wars: E-Day which has a very long shader compile on my 9850X3D.
And, yes, I am aware that consoles have the shaders included with the game install and these are updated as necessary via patches. This is possible because they use fixed graphics hardware that is the same for all versions of the console. That obviously is not possible on PC due to hardware variations but having the shaders download automatically as needed is basically the equivalent in my opinion.
Better for the environment too for a server to crunch these files for tens of thousands of users instead of tens of thousands of users crunching these files for 15-20 minutes each!
NVIDIA currently have an option to compile the shaders after a driver install but this is only a partial solution since it means the CPU is churning away in the background compiling them and it also fails to compile all the shaders. On my system, this process takes hours even on the Medium setting using a 9850X3D because I have dozens of games installed.
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
@Starfox85 - I don't see why as the consoles use this system and no-one complains about wasted bandwidth. PC games can and will likely still include code for creating shaders locally anyway even if downloading shader files becomes the primary option.
I think the download system is ideal for games with much longer shader compiles such as Gears of War: E-Day. Most games in my experience only take a few minutes at most so those are not really the issue for me.
In practice, having shaders download when required - they can still be cached for as long as you play them (so it would work no differently for you) and only redownloaded if they are missing, say, after a GPU driver update - is not going to be an issue for most as PC games are digital-only and so basically are dependent on having an internet connection in the first place.
More options for shader delivery is better than just having one in my opinion.
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
Any developer making a game with a 15-20 minute shader compilation needs to be hung, drawn and quartered in my opinion!!! That is just lousy coding in my opinion as no game should have take that long.
Re: Xbox Elite Series 3 Controller Leaked Via Microsoft's Own Design Lab
@StooMonster - I honestly don't know why the build quality is so bad on the Elite controllers when the quality of the standard controllers is generally so good in comparison. I've never had broken bumpers or even stick drift on the standard Xbox controllers yet I've had these issues on three of the Elites. Once is bad luck, twice is concerning and three is just poor design in my view.
Perhaps Microsoft are using sub-standard parts for the Elite to maximise their profits as the pricing of this controller means it must sell far fewer units than the standard one?
Whatever the reason they must address this for the Elite V3 otherwise people will stop buying them. The target audience for this controller is obviously going to be owners of the previous Elite controllers and if they've had a bad experience then they are less likely to buy this one.
The build quality needs to be exceptional in my opinion but reviews won't be enough as the issues will only become apparent over time as more people buy them and report issues with them. I'll definitely be sitting on the fence on this one and will wait a year or more post-release before even considering buying one.
Re: Xbox Elite Series 3 Controller Leaked Via Microsoft's Own Design Lab
The Microsoft Elite Xbox controllers are superb controllers in terms of feel and response but they have one glaring issue in my experience having owned four over the years (one V1 model and three V2 ones, including a white Core variant) and that is the poor build quality.
All of my previous ones except for the most recent Core controller have developed faults despite careful use and no-one but myself using them. They were never dropped or mishandled yet one had drift on the right analogue stick pretty much right out of the box and two developed wonky / sticky bumper buttons (RB / LB). One also had the rubber grip peeling away near the right trigger (RT) button.
Considering how much these cost, I've not been that impressed with the build quality. In my experience, the standard Xbox controllers tend to last far longer and have less issues as I own a few of those too.
If Microsoft can sort the build quality issue out for V3 and keep the price sensible - a big ask I know - then I may consider upgrading to this at some point for my PC. These controllers in every other way are pretty much my perfect and preferred controller for the vast majority of PC games.
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
Have Digital Foundry never played Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection, The Last of Us Part 1 (at launch) or Star Ocean: The Divine Force, all of which had extremely long shader compilations of 15+ minutes on my old i5-13600KF CPU, which had 14-cores and 20-threads? They were infuriating to the point where it put me off playing them on PC as every time I wanted to the shaders had been reset by a graphics driver update!!!
The latter is especially notable for having a 20 minute shader compile... for a game running on DirectX 11 and not 12 like the others.
I honestly cannot wait for the day when all PC games just download all the required shaders from the server like they are on console. This not only does away with the need to precompile them and the length of time needed to complete the process but it also does away with the need to store them in cache since they can just be redownloaded each time you start the game in a temporary cache and deleted once done to make space for the next game.
These files are rarely more than a few hundred megabytes at most so the process would pretty much be transparent for the vast majority of PC gamers.
Re: Advanced Shader Delivery Adds Nvidia GPU Support Later This Month To Banish Shader Compilation Stutter
Is this only for games bought on the (awful) Microsoft / Xbox Store or does it also apply to Gears of War: E-Day on Steam?
Having the game download the shaders as needed is by the far the best solution to a growing problem on PC in my experience as it is much quicker than having them compiled locally. It also means that you don't have to worry about shaders being reset after a graphics driver update. This could also save on drive space, if like me, you play lots of different games at any one time.
Games like Uncharted and The Last of Us Part 1 have 20+ minute shader compilations which make playing those games a pain as, every time I load them up for a quick go, it is after a new driver install so the shader cache has reset!
The need to compile shaders is a real bane on PC gaming in my experience and highlights a weakness compared with consoles where this process is unnecessary since the shaders ship with the game install and are updated via patches. This issue is also compounded by the fact that many developers do not compile the shaders properly or fully resulting in a stuttering experience the first time you play the game, e.g. such as the recent Silent Hill: Townfall which ran worse on PC than consoles.
Re: AOC's First 1050Hz Monitor Using "Oxide-Based" Fast IPS Panel Arrives in 2027
Eurgh! IPS! I was glad to see the back of backlight glow when I switched over to a QD-OLED monitor about 3 or 4 years ago.
I get that these are aimed at competitive gamers wanting the fastest framerates for online shooters but given how your whole interaction with your PC is from looking at these screens, are these people really happy with washed out blacks during the night / in a dark room and backlight glow during the day?
QD-OLED isn't perfect but the 500 Hz 1440p display display I own is easily the best monitor I've ever owned for games as I only play games in a dark room never in bright daylight. VRR flicker is about the only issue I have with it but even that is less annoying / noticeable these days then it used to be.
Re: Review: Silent Hill: Townfall Largely Delivers on PS5 and Pro, Falls Short on PC
P.S. Ace Combat 8, which I played last night on Steam, also has stuttering on PC. This is another Unreal Engine 5 game.
The stuttering occurs much less than in Silent Hill: Townfall though, and is more noticeable during the first-person cutscenes than the actual gameplay, which is a blessing, I guess.
Re: Review: Silent Hill: Townfall Largely Delivers on PS5 and Pro, Falls Short on PC
A patch was released for the PC version, I think yesterday (or it might have been Tuesday), that specifically addresses the stuttering issue.
I tried the game briefly last night and the game compiled an additional 700 shaders after verifiying the others during the loading to the main menu.
Alas, the game still seems to have an odd frame pacing issue and some stutters even after this patch. It is hard to say if the game is running better or not since shader compilation hiccups typically occur once so those from the original run had already been compiled for the session I had last night. The game just does not feel smooth to play at all, unlike like, say, Control Resonance (I know, I know, different engine etc etc) with a capped and uncapped framerate. Just feels a bit off and jittery to me, and I'm using G-SYNC on a 500 Hz 1440p QD-QLED monitor.
However, there were still some stutters but these could be traversal related and likely will never be fixed since these occur in the console versions as well and are part of what I consider to be the flawed Unreal Engine 5 experience.
Re: Review: Silent Hill: Townfall Largely Delivers on PS5 and Pro, Falls Short on PC
@ramu-chan - The need to pre-compile shaders is one of the PC's weaknesses compared with a console which can download the shaders with the game install and update them via patches due to having fixed hardware. Unreal Engine 4 and 5 just highlight this weakness in the worst possible way, plus you also get repeatable traversal stutters which happen on consoles and PC alike.
While I like a lot of things about Unreal Engine 5 such as Nanite to reduce obvious LOD switches and pop in and the ease at which it can be tweaked via the Engine.ini file, I do get nervous every time I buy a new PC game that uses the engine because I just never know what kind of performance I can expect on my own system. Any stutter is annoying but having both in a game just ruins it for me. Silent Hill: Townfall is just poorly optimised on all systems in my opinion but it is worst on PC due to developer oversights.
Compilation stutter also cannot be fixed via Engine.ini tweaks or even mods, it requires the developer to implement a full shader compile and, sadly, it seems like too many overlook this which is surprising considering how much negativity and bad press it gets from the likes of Digital Foundry etc. It really should be the first thing any developer looks at when creating a new game on this engine.
Re: Creative XF1 Review: Classy PC Speakers That Hit Harder Than You'd Expect
I got these speakers (in black) from Amazon last week for £140. They replaced a 13 year old Harman Kardon SoundSticks III 2.1 speaker setup that was perfectly fine but I wanted something more compact and modern without the need for a large odd-looking subwoofer (everyone who saw it asked what on earth it was).
The Creative XF1 speakers look and feel quite premium, I like the cork bases that orientate the sound up and toward my ears (though they'd have been better in black to match the speakers) and the sound quality is good overall for music and games.
The speakers do require the use of the Creative Nexus software though to set up properly with the Parametric equaliser otherwise the audio is hollow and tinny by default. The software can be installed on a phone, iPad or PC but the latter only works for bluetooth and USB but not the 3.5mm jack. The mobile/iPad app works with all three. Not sure why Creative have done this as surely it makes more sense to allow full control of the speakers on a PC when they are connected to a PC?
I initially tried it with Bluetooth which worked well enough using LDAC but is limited to 16 bit 24kHz (or whever Studio Quality is). This mode required me to keep having to manually reconnect the speakers on every PC reboot so I decided to order a 3.5mm audio lead (which oddly doesn't come with these speakers) and, while I waited for that to arrive, I briefly used the USB A to USB C cable. That worked fine but I wanted to free that USB port for other devices which is why I opted for the 3.5mm audio jack instead.
I am now using the 3.5mm audio lead which works great allowing me to switch to 24bit 48kHz for the audio. This also works fine with the speakers' auto-power off feature (which is enabled by default via a switch on the rear) meaning that I don't have to manually turn on the speakers and reconnect each time like I did with bluetooth.
Re: 30fps Frame Generation On Switch 2: Does Interpolating to 60fps Make Sense?
This might be borderline acceptable for a slower paced strategy or turn-based RPG but I suspect it will be abused going forward by developers porting over games from Xbox Series X|S and PS5, just to make up for the lower framerate. Personally, I'd rather the games just ran at 30 fps and didn't have frame gen at all.
As pointed out in the video though, using frame gen increases latency slightly anyway so in a game like Stellar Blade it is pointless and it should be a toggleable option so the player can choose whether they want it or not. However, I suspect that Nintendo will consider this decision to be too complicated for their user base - I half suspect that is why most of their games have barebones options - and will just enforce it.
The whole point of having 60 fps in the first place is for a more responsive game with smoother motion being secondary. Frame gen should only be used at actual framerates above 50 fps in my experience and definitely not when the game is only running at 30 fps.
Re: Marvel's Wolverine: Inside Insomniac's Blood and Destruction Tech on PS5 and PS5 Pro
Wolverine is a visually excellent game on the PS5 Pro using the Fidelity Pro setting but with a few niggles such as some nasty specular aliasing on some surfaces when panning the camera and some odd-looking lighting around the eyes (white lines), presumably due to not using a more refined lighting system?
As for the game itself, it is fine/servicable and I'm enjoying it so far... mostly... in short bursts. However, this does feel a bit formulaic and uninspired, suggesting to me that Insomniac maybe need to jazz up the gameplay and take a few risks for their next game to avoid the format becoming stale.
In many ways, I actually prefer Raven's X-Men Origins: Wolverine game on PC from 15 years ago to this game despite the rough Unreal Engine 3 visuals. I remember playing that from start to finish and loved every second of it. I'm not getting that same vibe from this new Wolverine game.
Re: The Blood of Dawnwalker Tech Review: Unfortunate Tech Issues Sour an Otherwise Masterful Game
@EvilRacer329 - The PC version runs mostly okay on my system (AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, 32 GB DDR5 6000, RTX 4080, Windows 11 Pro 26H2) on maxed out 1440p settings using DLSS Quality and frame gen (X2). I get over 110+ fps (actual framerate 55+ fps) with some traversal stutters and very rarely I get a huge 5-10 second hitch that looks like the game has crashed before carrying on as if nothing had happened. None of those are unusual for a typical Unreal Engine 5 game though although it doesn't tarnish the awesome atmosphere somewhat when they occur.
The biggest issue though is the frame pacing. I am using a 500 Hz VRR monitor but the framerate just feels like it isn't smooth. It's not stutter exactly, it just feels like the game isn't synced to the display properly which should not be an issue when using VRR (in my case it is NVIDIA's G-SYNC).
I've played about 40 hours of the game and keep hoping the developers will drop a big update to address this issue and some quest bugs (such as for Forge It Anew). Sadly, all we've had are few small hotfixes and nothing else since launch.
Game is still perfectly playable though and unlike the console version (I've played it on PS5 Pro as well), the cutscenes don't have an obvious split-second stutter during camera changes, although the game does have some cutscenes that cap at 30 fps (which doesn't look great with frame gen enabled!).
Re: Review: Marvel's Wolverine is a superbly crafted adventure that plays well on PS5, but best on PS5 Pro
I got an email this morning from Amazon that my pre-order of Wolverine has been delayed for some reason, right on the day it was supposed to be delivered. It still shows as due for delivery on Tuesday for now... but which Tuesday is anyone's guess at this point. Normally it would say 'Arriving today'.
Can't help but wonder if this is an omen and that perhaps I should have cancelled it when I had the chance over the weekend.
The game looks fine visually but the negative reviews have somewhat put me off the game but I only stuck with it because I normally enjoy Insomniac's games and I absolutely loved the X-Men Origins: Wolverine game from a few years ago and that received mediocre review scores.
Re: AMD's Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU Is Now Cheaper in the UK than the 9800X3D For Some Reason
I have just bought a new PC with a 9850X3D and it is a terrific CPU, regularly boosting to 5.4 to 5.6 GHz in many games I've been playing recently.
This is my first AMD CPU since the Athlon X2 one I had back in, I think, it was the mid-2000s.
Re: Next-Gen GPU Rumour Round-Up: AMD RDNA 5 and Nvidia 60-Series Delayed Until Mid-2027 or 2028, but RTX 50 Super Coming Sooner
I own a RTX 4080 Founders Edition, that cost me an eye-watering £1,100 back in January 2023 but has at least offered me a fantastic experience in every game I've played since (and I play a LOT of games on PC) at maxed out 1440p settings. It might not be the best value GPU - that would probably go to the classic GTX 1080 Ti in my opinion - but it is still more than good enough that I don't feel compelled to upgrade any time soon. The longer I own it then the more value I get out of it.
The current pricing for the higher end cards is obscene in my opinion. NVIDIA advertise the RTX 5080 as starting at £990 on their own website - presumably for the Founders Edition which predictably isn't listed - but all the third-party cards linked are £1,350+. That's over 35% more than the MSRP. Then there's the RTX 5090 which costs £4,000+.
I've always bought higher end NVIDIA GPUs but I fear that the pricing is pushing it out of my reach. I just cannot justify spending more than £1,000 on a graphics card that will be superseded by something better within 2 years as was usually the case pre-AI boom.
A 24 GB RTX 5080 might be a nice upgrade for my RTX 4080, where I've seen some games max out the 16 GB VRAM when using pathtracing and framegen but how much will that cost if a standard 5080 right now costs £1,300+. £1,800 or more? That's how much the RTX 4090 launched at, right, and I doubt the 5080 will outperform that card?
Re: DLSS 5 Mod Shifts Load to Second GPU, Doubling Frame-Rates and Latency
DLSS5 seems to be a technology made for the future as it is way too heavy performance-wise to be used on current hardware now, even on the £4,000+ RTX 5090!
I would wager that people playing NBA 2K27 on PC will likely favour smooth performance at 60+ fps over lower performance with hitches just to see the DLSS5 during cutscenes (because let's face it you're not really going to notice it from the zoomed out camera angle while actually playing the game).
Interesting technology for sure but this is basically the equivalent of DLSS1 right now; ultimately interesting but flawed. Best to wait for the equivalent DLSS2/3 upgrade and performance tweaks as well as more powerful future GPUs before toggling the setting to on in games.
I guess you could use DLSS5 now for taking screenshots in games and then turn it off to get the better performance for the gameplay. I think NVIDIA need to get that rendering time of 8-10ms down to 4-5ms for the technology to be practical for hitting that 60+ fps sweetspot.
Re: Sony Undecided on PS6 Price and Launch Date - but What Does It Mean for the Rumoured PS6 Handheld?
I'm curious as to how the PS6 will fare but I will not be buying one. My interest in PlayStation died when Sony announced the death of the physical disc for games and PS5 Pro will be my last Sony console.
I've decided to just move over mainly to PC for gaming with a bit of Switch 2 on the side. As for XBOX, that platform died a long time ago for me and I sold my 18 months unused XBOX Series X last week.
I don't even think a PS6 handheld will do much either as look what happened to the PS Vita, which was a fantastic handheld, albeit a horrible fingerprint magnet with super expensive proprietary storage cards, that failed to sell leading Sony to pretty much abandon it.
With PC handhelds like Steam Deck and Switch/Switch 2, what makes Sony think a PS6 handheld will fare any better? I think it'll be a flop personally as what would it offer that Steam Deck or Switch 2 don't now? A few exclusives that are few and far between these days? A digital library of PS4 and PS5 games that Sony can just remove on a whim? Yeah, sounds great!
Re: Intel may move back to four-digit CPU naming scheme, as impressive Core Ultra 9 4950K results leak
Hmmm, 8-cores and 20 E-cores... are those E-cores really useful for gaming? I always viewed them as background Windows process cores based on my experiences with the i5-13600KF in my current build.
There are some games that don't play nice with E-cores and Control outright crashes with them enabled unless you use software such as CoreDirector to force the game to use the P-cores.
Anyway, I've switched from Intel to AMD for my next build with a Ryzen 7 9850x3D as my PC is purely for gaming so I want the best performance for gaming.
Re: Do Resident Evil Requiem's Healthy Disc Sales Call Sony's All-Digital PS6 Strategy into Question?
The problem as far as I am concerned is that is so easy to distort the true digital sales figures because there are many, many games - smaller indie and shovelware titles for example -plus content such as DLC that don't exist on physical discs. Also, supplies of physical discs are limited so once they run out then people will be pushed, whether they realise it or not, toward buying the game digitally.
I have noticed that Amazon PS5 games can quickly go out of stock if you don't pre-order before release, whereas in the PS4 era and early days of PS5 it was very easy to buy physical games many months after release and always for a lot less than the original asking price.
It is hard to know if the current physical disc situation is because the supplies are being limited to force people toward digital, or if the publishers are just being cautious by not manufacturing a surplus of discs that no-one wants because everyone else is buying digitally. I personally suspect it is the former myself.
But ultimately the disc, while offering some kind of ownership and resell value, it pretty much always has the version of the game on it that you don't want to play and once those servers go offline and assuming the disc will still install then all those patches, updates and DLC etc are gone forever.
I still buy movies and music on disc. In the case of music CDs, I rip them to my PC to listen to from there so the disc gives me nicely boxed product, a sense of ownership and acts as a backup. I also buy games as a collector and to have something to own. However, I still see the convenience of digital and think it would be great if I could install a game from a disc and then not need to keep inserting it in the drive everytime I want to play it, kind of like how it works for CDs.
I will not be buying a PS6 or indeed buying any games for my PS5 Pro after January 2028 because of the whole disc situation.
Re: Review: Switch 2 Oblivion Remastered Frustrates as Much as It Impresses
Why is it that so many developers struggle to implement proper framepacing at 30 fps on consoles?
It's a genuine question that has been baffling me as someone who notices bad framepacing but doesn't code personally.
On PC bad framepacing is as simple to fix as just forcing a 30 fps framerate cap in RivaTuner Statistics Server or the graphics driver control panel. I then see a perfect 16.67ms line on the on-screen display.
Why is it that this no developer does this on consoles. Surely it can't be that difficult if a PC tool can do this independent of the game engine? I personally don't mind 30 fps games on consoles so long as the framepacing is correct as this means the game feels smooth and looks smooth in motion.
What I cannot stand is poor framepacing as it just puts me off playing it. Bloodborne is an example of a great game tarnished by bad framepacing, something that FromSoftware became notorious for until they started to release 'up to 60 fps' games on current gen consoles. At least those games can be fixed using VRR so long as they keep north of 48 fps.
Re: Bethesda Acknowledges Demand for Oblivion Remastered Patch, Calls for Calm
Disappointing isn't a word I'd use for why they shadow dropped a poorly performing games on PS5 and PC, pretty much abandoned it and only now, after the Switch 2 version has been released, are saying they are looking into fixing the game on other systems.
I'd call that utterly disgusting personally.
Do Bethesda really think that people are happy to either play a game with lousy performance or wait 15+ months for a patch? People buy games to play them not sit and wait for a patch that may or may not come so everyone who owns the remaster will have experienced the sub-optimal beta build of the game.
Remember they shadow dropped this game the day it was officially announced so no-one was crying out for it. What they should have done was waited, continued to optimise it until it was ready for release then released it.
Shadow dropping a broken game is just insulting in my opinion and only serves to enhance Bethesda's reputation for releasing unpolished, unoptimised games.
Re: Report: Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 games to "Xbox PCs", handhelds and Project Helix
One thing that puzzled me is if Xbox One and Series X|S discs have always had the disc ID that will allow them to convert them to a digital licence, then why did the discs need to be in the drive to play them? Could they not have automatically associated the disc ID with the Xbox account and bypassed the need for disc verification years ago?
I love having games on disc for that sense of ownership and having something tangible of value but dislike having to swap discs. Microsoft could very easily have implemented the disc ID to user account thing years ago allowing people to build up a digital library without ever realising.
Since the disc ID transfers to the new user if it is sold then it prevents people from buying a game, installing it and then selling it on (although there would be a period between the sale and the new owner playing the game which would allow the previous owner to still play it).
I have no interest in either next-gen console at this point but I am curious as to what Sony has planned for transferring PS4/PS5 discs over to a digital licence. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if they have nothing planned and just expect players to rebuy the games again digitally.
I have over 150 PS4 and PS5 games on disc so the only way I would have even considered buying a PS6 is if those were accessible as discs on the new console. I can't see them making an optional disc drive just for legacy games somehow and I don't think the games discs have individual IDs like Xbox ones do either to easily transfer the licences over.
Re: Report: Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 games to "Xbox PCs", handhelds and Project Helix
It is so great to read that Microsoft are bringing over Xbox 360 games over to PC via emulation as well as I found I owned two of the four initial Xbox releases they released last week and bought one of the other two, Conker Live & Reloaded (obviously, look at my avatar!) which I still own on disc. I also own a few 360 games digitally too, which I bought when I used my Xbox Series X.
It's just a shame that in order to access these games I have to use the lacklustre Xbox app, which has a tendency to break games with updates and throw up unhelpful messages like "Something went wrong, please try again later" and vague error codes that are no help whatsoever.
In fact, all three of the emulated Xbox games ended up getting broken on my Windows 11 PC and no amount of verification and resetting/reinstalling the Xbox app would fix it. I even moved them to another drive, which which triggered an "Unsupported 16-bit executable" warning! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded all three games and, lo and behold, they are working again... until the next update breaks them, I guess.
This is one of the reasons I cancelled my GamePass subscription back in May 2024 and now just buy Xbox games on Steam, where oddly enough I never experience any of these issues. Isn't that strange?
Anyway, rant over, this push for Xbox and 360 emulation on PC means that I can finally sell my unused Xbox Series X and ditch the console for good but still have access to the small library of classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
That is good because I am ditching consoles next generation, including the PS6, which no longer interests me due to Sony killing physical discs for games (that for me was one of the key reasons to own consoles).
Re: Review: Built for Switch 2, Splatoon Raiders Delivers a Safe but Satisfying Tech Upgrade
Game looks really nice artistically, I think, and image quality wise it looks decent on my 55" OLED TV so no real complaints there.
I don't use my Switch 2 in handheld mode ever because I hate that LCD screen so much but it baffles me why Nintendo continue to exist in the dark ages when it comes to anti-aliasing techniques, often foregoing it completely in handheld mode like they have here.
I can hear the purists screaming that this is how it should be to keep the image crisp and sharp and clear for a small screen, where maybe they won't notice the jaggies and shimmering so much, but I personally find it tarnishes the presentation. I am just so thankful that they at least added some kind of anti-aliasing treatment for the docked experience and, even if it is extremely basic by modern standards, I think it works well enough.
It is a shame though that Nintendo's own in-house games are not making use of NVIDIA's DLSS which has been shown to work extremely well in other third-party games.
Re: Motherboard Prices Set to Rise as AI-Fuelled PC Component Disruption Continues
I've just bought a new custom built AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D PC with 32 GB of DDR5 6000 memory, to be delivered later this month, mostly because of the rising price of the components.
Otherwise, I would have just waited another 12-18 months before upgrading my PC but, at this rate, who knows how much more expensive all these components will cost.
Absolutely ridiculous how the AI boom is slowly killing both the PC and console gaming market. RAM, SSDs, GPUs and now motherboards!
Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Does Switch 2's Power Finally Fix This Ambitious Open-World RPG?
Looks fine to me but like Xenoblade Chronicles the framerate is wildly inconsistent when played docked, feeling like it is switching between 60 fps and 30 fps.
It's like they only considered this for handheld mode which supports VRR but, of course, the docked mode doesn't so any framerate drops immediately manifest as judder.
Smooth performance is something I've become accustomed to on PS5 Pro and PC where VRR is supported so it is really disappointing that the Switch 2 still does not support this.
What on earth were Nintendo thinking when they designed the Switch 2 which has VRR but poor HDR in handheld mode and no VRR but great HDR when docked (and connected to a modern 4K TV)?
Re: Halo: Campaign Evolved PC Looks Stunning - But Requires Further Optimisation
Does anyone know why I have to manually sign in with a code every time I play the Steam version of this game on PC?
It is absolutely infuriating and actually putting me off playing it.
This issue does not happen with Forza Horizon 6 (also on Steam) by the way so I am not sure why the log in is broken for Halo: Campaign Evolved.
(And, yes, I clicked Yes to the Save Sign In Details prompt... I've done this three or four times now to no avail!)
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Update Brings Enhanced PSSR, Power-Saver Mode, Two Free New Suits
The PC version also got this update yesterday to add the two new costumes by the way so kudos to Insomniac for not ignoring that version.
Re: Xbox Back-Compat for PC: New Patch Fixes Most Issues - but Frame Pacing Problems and Other Limitations Remain
Looks like the Microsoft Store updated Crimson Skies, Conker and BLiNX yesterday but now I can no longer play any of these games as I get an application error 0xc0000005 for EmuMenu.exe when I try to launch them.
All three were working perfectly over the weekend and the only things that have changed since then on my Windows 11 Pro 25H2 PC is updating the graphics drivers for my RTX 4080 from 610.74 to 610.88, along with a cumulative Windows update to 26200.8973.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
By the way, these kind of vague errors are exactly why I abandoned GamePass and the awful Microsoft Store for just buying Xbox games on Steam, where they just work. I was always getting these kind of errors on the Xbox app and Microsoft Store, along with the insulting "Something went wrong, please try again later" messages, which are absolutely no help at all.
EDIT
Not joking here but I relocated the games to a different drive and got a different error, an unsupported 16-bit application error!!! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded the games to the same drive and now all three work. THIS is why I despise the Xbox app... you don't have to put up with this crap on Steam!
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
Seems the ghosting I was seeing in the cutscene FMVs is due to them being capped at 30 fps which doesn't play nice with frame gen. Thought I saw some weirdness with them but I wasn't sure exactly what it was I seeing because the ghosting isn't there all the time.
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
The game is absolutely excellent.
Definitely evokes memories of playing the original for the first time and visually it is easily the best that Halo has ever looked, although I remember being just as blown away by the original when I saw it running on that GAME pod.
Runs really well maxed out on the Ultra preset with DLAA at 1440p on my i5-13600KF / RTX 4080 with only a couple of minor hitches in the 3 hours I've played it so far. One was during a cutscene transition and the other was a 1 second freeze during a Covenant battle during the initial mission on the Halo ring where you have to locate the three life boats.
I also thought I saw some weirdness with the cutscenes at one point as if the FMV was displaying a double-image or blurring. Might have just been a hiccup as the game transitions from gameplay to cutscene but I thought it worth mentioning.
Only other issue is that the audio mix seems quiet on my PC where I'm using a 2.1 stereo speaker set up. Cortana's dialogue was loud but the music seemed very subdued in the mix. I'm wondering if this is a bug with the game outputting 5.1 surround sound to a 2.1 setup. Will be interested to see if anyone else reports this.
Otherwise, a really fantastic remake and easily the best Halo game from Microsoft/Xbox since Halo 3 in my opinion.
P.S. The game has skins for Master Chief but with this remake using FMV cutscenes it means that the only way to actually see them is if you play the game in co-op and someone else wears the skin. Otherwise, all you see in game are Master Chiefs legs and arms and a bit of the chest at certain angles!
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
I am really looking forward to playing this on my PC in a couple of hours.
Great news that they've finally got a modernised version of Halo: Combat Evolved right. It always was my favourite game in the franchise ever since I played the Xbox demo on a pod in GAME all those years ago...
Only complaint is the use of pre-rendered FMV, which is a bit of a disappointment (and likely adds to the install size?) considering the original had real-time cutscenes. I would have preferred to seen real-time ones in the remake, especially on Unreal Engine 5, but it seems to be an intentional choice with Microsoft remakes as Gears of War: Reloaded also used pre-rendered FMV when the original's cutscenes were real-time.
Re: Hands On with Xbox Back-Compat for PC - a New Initiative That Begins with Four Classic Games
I absolutely loved three of those four games on Xbox (sorry Fusion Frenzy!) so I really like the idea of being able to play these on PC with some enhancements even if those don't extend to proper 16:9 widescreen support or a higher framerate.
I was extremely saddened when I found that I could no longer play gems like RalliSport Challenge 2 on Xbox 360 or PGR 3 and 4 on Xbox One. With those being licenced games though that are no longer available to buy digitally then chances are they will never be playable on PC.
I still own those on disc, but since they don't work on Xbox Series X, then there seems little to no chance of them ever coming to PC in my opinion.
Re: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: Our Optimised Settings For A Terrific PC Release
What are the PC equivalent settings for the PS5 Pro then, oddly omitted from this article?
Re: AMD's Ryzen 7 7700X3D is the heart of my new SteamOS gaming PC
Until all games can run on SteamOS and at a performance level that is the same or better than Windows (some games do run worse on SteamOS than Windows from what I've read/seen) then I personally would not risk switching from Windows to SteamOS for any future PC.
My experience with SteamOS is only on Steam Deck where it seems to work well enough but there are still incompatibility issues that take months to address and in the meantime you end up having to mess around with different versions of Proton (the emulation layer).
That is less of an issue on Steam Deck, where I am mostly playing older games anyway that tend to mostly work fine, but it would become a big deal for me on a PC if I bought a new triple A game and was unable to play it properly because it didn't work properly on SteamOS.
Also, there is the fact that currently SteamOS only works with AMD GPUs. Apart from a brief stint with AMD GPUs and their awful CrossFire (their version of NVIDIA's SLI) in the early 2000s, I've always bought NVIDIA GPU for their features, usually better drivers and so on. NVIDIA are just two steps ahead of AMD when it comes to RT, DLSS and frame gen in my experience so I would only use SteamOS in a PC if I could use a NVIDIA GPU.
Re: Nintendo Explains How to Replace Its New User-Serviceable Joy-Con Batteries in 12 (or 13) Easy Steps
For some reason, I thought this redesign meant that the joycons and the main Switch 2 unit would have a removeable battery compartment like other accessories such as remote controls to make it easy to swap batteries. At worst, I thought I thought it would just be a case of removing four small screws to reveal the battery.
Just goes to show how naïve I was in that assumption because this battery replacement process still looks fiddly as hell and maybe benefits Switch 2 repair businesses more than the end user?
Re: Crimson Desert Adds Cross-Save Support Between PS5, Series X/S and PC, Wins Technical Innovation Award at Develop
The post-release support for this game has been astonishing in my opinion to the point where the current build is significantly improved over the launch version.
I enjoyed my time with this game but had two gripes with it. One, the story is underwhelming and lead character, Kliff, is utterly forgettable. Two, the game looks nice enough visually but it falls apart as soon as you start moving as the engine's draw distance is poor with lots of distracting LOD issues and pop in, even when you completely max out the PC version on its inappropriately named Cinematic setting (I don't recall the last time I saw trees and grass popping into view in a movie, just mere feet in front of the actors!).
Seriously though, it is a great game besides those issues and I look forward to a much-improved (and inevitable?) sequel.
Re: Report: Nintendo mulling Switch 2 OLED with Samsung Display panel
I will buy a Switch 2 OLED but I only use my current Switch 2 docked because I just cannot stand the LCD screen, especially after owning a Switch OLED.
Everything about the screen is just lacklustre except when looking at it direct with nothing moving. Motion, HDR, black levels, all are awful on the LCD screen and it just reminded me of why I ditched LCD in the first place to replace all my TVs and monitors with OLED (and QD-OLED) displays, including my original Switch 1!
The Switch 2's screen definitely felt like taking two steps forward - a lovely crisp 1080p resolutions, VRR support, nicer looking games - and one step back - everything else about the screen. It makes me laugh that Nintendo even have the balls to claim the screen supports HDR.
Re: "We really squeezed the PS5 as much as we could": Ubisoft talks tech on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced
The game is fantastic but adding what looks like £90 worth of DLC outfits and equipment to what is a remake of a 13 year old game that is already missing the expansion from the original is a really scummy move but one that Ubisoft have sadly become renowned for.
Yes, you don't have to buy it but it is a reminder that the game you are playing is not really complete and, certainly in the case of this remake, it should damn well have everything included for the £49.99 they are charging for it.
Re: Review: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: One of the Most Effective Remakes We've Ever Seen
I don't know what miracles Ubisoft have pulled off for the PS5 Pro version but the 30 fps Fidelity mode feels and looks much smoother, particularly when panning the camera, that most other 30 fps games out there. I tried this as well after playing the 60 fps Performance mode, which is usually extremely jarring.
Not yet tried the 40 fps Balanced mode yet as I wanted to see what the graphical differences were between the highest and lowest of the available presets.
The 60 fps mode is fine but it does look visually a bit cutback in terms of RT; I especially noticed that on the faces of the characters which has that uncanny valley look around the eyes without full RT (Resident Evil Requiem also had this issue).
I found this distracting so opted for the 30 fps mode which I found to be perfectly playable. Cutscenes are locked to 30 fps, I believe, regardless of the mode and do not have this issue; it is only apparent during gameplay so most people will either not see it - since you control Edward from behind - or won't care for the sake of the higher framerate.
I still find it strange though how 30 fps on consoles can feel and look fine but 30 fps on PC usually looks horrendous and feels horribly laggy, and that is when both games are played with the same controller and both are on OLED displays. I don't think viewing distance is the whole reason for the difference here.
Re: Review: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: One of the Most Effective Remakes We've Ever Seen
I know Ubisoft get a lot of criticism for formulaic releases and overcluttered open world designs but I've always been impressed with how polished most of their games are, running on their own custom engines, especially compared with your typical Unreal Engine 5 stutterfest release.
And despite the repetitve gameplay, I've always managed to get my money's worth out of their games, usually around 30-50 hours, before I get bored and end up not finishing them...
... although I did finish Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on PS4, believe it or not. I absolutely loved that game and it is funny looking back and being excited about the original disc version of the game getting a resolution bump from 900p to 1080p via a patch and beating the Xbox One version (which went from 720p to 900p, I believe). These days a mere 180p difference is nothing with dynamic resolution scaling and quality upscalers such as PSSR. Back then though it was a thing and it helped define the PS4 as the superior platform for third-party game releases,, much to Microsft's annoyance!
I bought Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced on Steam last night and look forward to playing it later today.