I vividly recall playing the original Unreal back in the day. My impressions were pretty much "nice coloured lighting, but why is the environment made of about 12 polygons?". I was pretty unimpressed in all honestly, and I happily went back to playing Quake engine games, and the likes of those amazing looking Splinter Cell games on the original Xbox. I pretty much forgot Unreal existed.
There was a moment in gaming history years later, when the UE3 powered Gears of War came out that the engine really caught my eye and I thought it might be the future, but it didn't last. We were soon deluged with blurry, spluttery, ugly third party UE3 games.
Then we had the infamous UE4 era, the era of the stutter and glow in the dark lighting. Truly a dark time for the game industry.
I'd like to think better days were ahead but so far the UE5 era has been absolutely grim. Lighting is barely any better, stutters are apocalyptically bad, system requirements are far too high, and everything looks like mush.
Can we please go back to getting third party games in id Tech and CryEngine please? Pretty please? When I see the Unreal Engine logo appear when I boot up a new game I know I'm in for a bad time.
@SteamyDeck Sure, talking about retro tech is fine, but just reviewing retro inspired games as IGN etc would seems a bit pointless. There are countless game review sites and they all blend together. DF stands out because of the tech focus.
But it's Rich's call, if he's fine with DF basically becoming Eurogamer that's for him to decide.
A mixed bag this year. Doom and AC Shadows were the obvious standouts. For me, Shadows takes it due to its massive scale and sheer amount of world detail, but both are great.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is certainly interesting too. Runs great, zero stutters, and is certainly much prettier than anything on UE5 this year. But it's undeniably old school tech. Still, it does show that CryEngine is still perfectly viable and it should be used more widely. And it was just nice to not suffer through another game saddled with ugly, splodgy, glow in the dark lumen "lighting" and horrible performance.
Looking forward to the next Resident Evil. Path traced RE sounds rather nice.
I like John's stuff and I often agree with him, but he's so retro focussed now I wonder for how much longer he'll stay with DF. The sole purpose of DF is analysing and explaining cutting edge tech, which doesn't really include pixel art games made in Unity or new games for a 1980s console.
Not that I want him to go, but I think he's very much heading in that direction.
@JustMK Have you played Hades? As Absolum is very, very, VERY heavily inspired by it. And by inspired, I mean they've basically copied Hades in many ways, and that includes getting some largely meaningless new perk or skill every minute or so.
Earthion is a fun little MD game with a great soundtrack, but honestly to me the art in it is pretty middling. It's a long way from the likes of Thunderforce IV.
The big standout to me this year was AC Shadows, which I think is the closest Ubi has got to Unity so far. Not in crowd density of course, or in city detail and clutter, but as an overall package it's truly beautiful. Unity is a game crying out for a re-master, come on Ubi, do it!
Double Fine's Keeper was a fine looking game too, with some lovely art. UE5 of course so stutters, but the game is so slow it didn't break it.
I know that John loves retro, I do too, but this isn't really Digital Foundry content. It's a review of a couple of indie titles, which is what I would go to Eurogamer, IGN etc for. I go to DF for tech analysis.
I guess the big question is - is this a bubble? Will AI, which at present I believe makes no money at all, continue apace, or will the novelty wear off and the bubble will pop?
I very much enjoyed Geometry Wars back in the day so after DF recommended this I grabbed it straight away. It was refunded very quickly.
Not because of the game, which is basically a perfectly competent geometry wars derivative, but because of the music. As John has said many times in his videos, music is a critical part of any media, and Sekitori's choice of head banging atonal techno was about as appealing as a trip to the dentist. A good shooter (see pretty much anything by Technosoft) needs some catchy tunes. Sekitori failed completely in this front so for me at least it was a deal breaker. I realise music of all things is subjective, so for some I imagine this will be a non issue, or maybe I'm just too old school. But I'd take the soundtrack to Thunderforce 4, Hyper Duel, Ikaruga, or Axelay over whatever it was in Sekitori in a heartbeat.
Very polished but also very last gen and clearly designed around the Switch 1. I would have expected Retro to have implemented some more geometric density on Switch 2, covering those ground surfaces with foliage instead of raw, flat textures. I would have expected volumetrics added into the lighting engine, and I would have expected more movement in the lighting. It's all very baked, very static.
As John said performance is of course rock solid, but still, this feels like a game which spent 95% of its dev time on Switch 1 hardware.
@Stauf1515 I know the N64 has its fans. I imported one from Japan at launch and thought Mario 64 was the future of gaming as it made PSX stuff look so bad. Then I got Pilotwings and thought, okay, it's a blurry mess and the frame rate is catastrauphic. Then I got Wace Race and thought it plays well but oh boy, that frame rate.
And so it went on. A console with image quality and frame rates so bad it made even the PSX look good.
It's a shame really as from a hardware standpoint it's an interesting piece of kit. Perspective correct texturing, mip mapping, a proper alpha channel and a z-buffer. Way ahead of its competition. But also a terrible fill rate and a microscopic amount of RAM, and then of course, the tiny little cartridges in an era of CDs.
At the time I was super into J-RPGs so the PSX was my go-to. I do wish I had bought a JP Saturn at the time too as I'm sure I'd have liked it. I did try a UK Saturn and thought it was a joke, but that's what playing the likes of Daytona and Virtua Fighter does to you when you've been used to Ridge Racer and Tekken. Had I seen the Saturn's library of 2D arcade ports things would have been different.
As for the N64. it sat there gathering dust throughout that generation for me. I bought the ocassional game but nothing impressed me. I just saw blur, awful frame rates, and I had to endure the N64's farty sound chip's attempt at music. I'd struggle to think of a console that has aged more badly than the N64.
Looks like another lovely bit of kit, it's too bad it's "emulating" a console with so few good games you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Sorry N64 fans, it's a bad console. Yes it had Mario 64, Wave Race, and Ocarina (although that ran absolutely horribly), but not much else.
I'd love to see Analogue revisit their previous consoles, the NES, SNES, and MD and give them the 4K CRT goodness. The MD would also very much benefit from a CD drive and added Mega CD support. (dare I say it, there are more good MCD games than good N64 games)
Next I really hope they target the Saturn. I doubt they will, as it's another niche system, but it's one with a far better library than the N4.
Comments 15
Re: 1998's Unreal: Past, Present And A Path-Traced Future
I vividly recall playing the original Unreal back in the day. My impressions were pretty much "nice coloured lighting, but why is the environment made of about 12 polygons?". I was pretty unimpressed in all honestly, and I happily went back to playing Quake engine games, and the likes of those amazing looking Splinter Cell games on the original Xbox. I pretty much forgot Unreal existed.
There was a moment in gaming history years later, when the UE3 powered Gears of War came out that the engine really caught my eye and I thought it might be the future, but it didn't last. We were soon deluged with blurry, spluttery, ugly third party UE3 games.
Then we had the infamous UE4 era, the era of the stutter and glow in the dark lighting. Truly a dark time for the game industry.
I'd like to think better days were ahead but so far the UE5 era has been absolutely grim. Lighting is barely any better, stutters are apocalyptically bad, system requirements are far too high, and everything looks like mush.
Can we please go back to getting third party games in id Tech and CryEngine please? Pretty please? When I see the Unreal Engine logo appear when I boot up a new game I know I'm in for a bad time.
Re: DF Games of the Year: The Oliver Mackenzie 'Switch 2 Edition'
Metroid is certainly a divisive one, Edge Magazine gave it just 4/10.
Re: Games of the Year 2025: The John Linneman Collection
@SteamyDeck Sure, talking about retro tech is fine, but just reviewing retro inspired games as IGN etc would seems a bit pointless. There are countless game review sites and they all blend together. DF stands out because of the tech focus.
But it's Rich's call, if he's fine with DF basically becoming Eurogamer that's for him to decide.
Re: The Best and Worst PC Ports of 2025
A mixed bag this year. Doom and AC Shadows were the obvious standouts. For me, Shadows takes it due to its massive scale and sheer amount of world detail, but both are great.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is certainly interesting too. Runs great, zero stutters, and is certainly much prettier than anything on UE5 this year. But it's undeniably old school tech. Still, it does show that CryEngine is still perfectly viable and it should be used more widely. And it was just nice to not suffer through another game saddled with ugly, splodgy, glow in the dark lumen "lighting" and horrible performance.
Looking forward to the next Resident Evil. Path traced RE sounds rather nice.
Re: Games of the Year 2025: The John Linneman Collection
I like John's stuff and I often agree with him, but he's so retro focussed now I wonder for how much longer he'll stay with DF. The sole purpose of DF is analysing and explaining cutting edge tech, which doesn't really include pixel art games made in Unity or new games for a 1980s console.
Not that I want him to go, but I think he's very much heading in that direction.
Re: Games of the Year 2025: The John Linneman Collection
@JustMK Have you played Hades? As Absolum is very, very, VERY heavily inspired by it. And by inspired, I mean they've basically copied Hades in many ways, and that includes getting some largely meaningless new perk or skill every minute or so.
Re: Digital Foundry's 2025 Community Awards
That only 9 (9!!!) people are excited for HL3 is something. To me that will be the new game release of the decade, assuming it ever comes out.
As for GTA 6, honestly, I have next to zero interest. It'll be GTA 5 with better graphics.
Re: Digital Foundry's 2025 Graphics of the Year Awards
@Granadico
It's very specifically a list of best visuals, not best games. If you want best games, I'm sure IGN etc will have you covered.
Re: Digital Foundry's 2025 Graphics of the Year Awards
Earthion is a fun little MD game with a great soundtrack, but honestly to me the art in it is pretty middling. It's a long way from the likes of Thunderforce IV.
The big standout to me this year was AC Shadows, which I think is the closest Ubi has got to Unity so far. Not in crowd density of course, or in city detail and clutter, but as an overall package it's truly beautiful. Unity is a game crying out for a re-master, come on Ubi, do it!
Double Fine's Keeper was a fine looking game too, with some lovely art. UE5 of course so stutters, but the game is so slow it didn't break it.
Re: Review: Terminator 2D: No Fate And Neon Inferno - The 90s-Style Side-Scroller Redefined
I know that John loves retro, I do too, but this isn't really Digital Foundry content. It's a review of a couple of indie titles, which is what I would go to Eurogamer, IGN etc for. I go to DF for tech analysis.
Re: The AI Tech Crunch: Are We Looking At A "Dark Age" For Gaming Hardware?
I guess the big question is - is this a bubble? Will AI, which at present I believe makes no money at all, continue apace, or will the novelty wear off and the bubble will pop?
Re: Interview: Sektori's sole dev on Housemarque past, tuning Unity to 60fps
I very much enjoyed Geometry Wars back in the day so after DF recommended this I grabbed it straight away. It was refunded very quickly.
Not because of the game, which is basically a perfectly competent geometry wars derivative, but because of the music. As John has said many times in his videos, music is a critical part of any media, and Sekitori's choice of head banging atonal techno was about as appealing as a trip to the dentist. A good shooter (see pretty much anything by Technosoft) needs some catchy tunes. Sekitori failed completely in this front so for me at least it was a deal breaker. I realise music of all things is subjective, so for some I imagine this will be a non issue, or maybe I'm just too old school. But I'd take the soundtrack to Thunderforce 4, Hyper Duel, Ikaruga, or Axelay over whatever it was in Sekitori in a heartbeat.
Re: Review: Metroid Prime 4 Proves Retro Studios' Prowess On Switch 2
Very polished but also very last gen and clearly designed around the Switch 1. I would have expected Retro to have implemented some more geometric density on Switch 2, covering those ground surfaces with foliage instead of raw, flat textures. I would have expected volumetrics added into the lighting engine, and I would have expected more movement in the lighting. It's all very baked, very static.
As John said performance is of course rock solid, but still, this feels like a game which spent 95% of its dev time on Switch 1 hardware.
Re: Review: Analogue 3D overclocks the N64 in stellar fashion
@Stauf1515 I know the N64 has its fans. I imported one from Japan at launch and thought Mario 64 was the future of gaming as it made PSX stuff look so bad. Then I got Pilotwings and thought, okay, it's a blurry mess and the frame rate is catastrauphic. Then I got Wace Race and thought it plays well but oh boy, that frame rate.
And so it went on. A console with image quality and frame rates so bad it made even the PSX look good.
It's a shame really as from a hardware standpoint it's an interesting piece of kit. Perspective correct texturing, mip mapping, a proper alpha channel and a z-buffer. Way ahead of its competition. But also a terrible fill rate and a microscopic amount of RAM, and then of course, the tiny little cartridges in an era of CDs.
At the time I was super into J-RPGs so the PSX was my go-to. I do wish I had bought a JP Saturn at the time too as I'm sure I'd have liked it. I did try a UK Saturn and thought it was a joke, but that's what playing the likes of Daytona and Virtua Fighter does to you when you've been used to Ridge Racer and Tekken. Had I seen the Saturn's library of 2D arcade ports things would have been different.
As for the N64. it sat there gathering dust throughout that generation for me. I bought the ocassional game but nothing impressed me. I just saw blur, awful frame rates, and I had to endure the N64's farty sound chip's attempt at music. I'd struggle to think of a console that has aged more badly than the N64.
Re: Review: Analogue 3D overclocks the N64 in stellar fashion
Looks like another lovely bit of kit, it's too bad it's "emulating" a console with so few good games you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Sorry N64 fans, it's a bad console. Yes it had Mario 64, Wave Race, and Ocarina (although that ran absolutely horribly), but not much else.
I'd love to see Analogue revisit their previous consoles, the NES, SNES, and MD and give them the 4K CRT goodness. The MD would also very much benefit from a CD drive and added Mega CD support. (dare I say it, there are more good MCD games than good N64 games)
Next I really hope they target the Saturn. I doubt they will, as it's another niche system, but it's one with a far better library than the N4.