DF Direct Weekly #214: No Switch 2 Launch Reviews? Next-Gen Xbox Using ARM + The "Forced RT" Debate!

A big week of news to discuss, with Oliver, Rich and Alex talking about Starfield's latest announcement and 'delay', plus the story that Suicide Squad will be pushed back in order to address the negative reaction to its State of Play gameplay reveal. Meanwhile, the COD war between Microsoft and Sony continues - and Halo Infinite on PC receives RT support. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:52 News 01: Starfield gets a release date, Suicide Squad delayed 00:11:18 News 02: The Last of Us Part 1 PC features detailed! 00:22:46 News 03: Sony-Microsoft feud escalates with dueling Call of Duty claims 00:36:50 News 04: Halo Infinite PC gets ray tracing! 00:44:14 Supporter Q1: Are in-house game engines becoming no longer feasible? 00:52:10 Supporter Q2: Would DF be interested in producing PC build videos? 00:57:41 Supporter Q3: With Moore’s Law slowing down, will PCs or consoles need to switch to ARM for performance gains? 01:03:33 Supporter Q4: Would Alex consider making a new “do you really need ultra settings” video, given the advent of new PC technologies like DLSS? 01:05:49 Supporter Q5: Where has Alex’s Crysis Shrine gone? Has it been destroyed by Alex’s rage over #StutterStruggle? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Mars 20231h 9min

Baldur's Gate 3 isn't exclusive to any particular console, but right now, the Xbox versions are facing a unique problem that could impact the future of Series S. Meanwhile, John, Rich and Tom discuss the latest FF16 footage, the fate of Luminous Productions, Nvidia's new video AI upscaler and the impressive Humanity demo on PS5. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:45 News 01: Baldur’s Gate 3 hits Series S snag 00:16:27 News 02: Nvidia AI video upscaling tested! 00:24:06 News 03: Humanity demo impresses 00:30:12 News 04: Final Fantasy 16 gameplay footage showcased! 00:41:10 News 05: Luminous Productions merged into Square Enix 00:46:56 Supporter Q1: Do the new Pokémon and Chrono Cross patches fix those games? 00:50:39 Supporter Q2: Is there a database of Alex’s optimised settings for PC? 00:51:46 Supporter Q3: With more games launching in troubled form, do you think consumers will start holding off day one purchases? 00:58:00 Supporter Q4: Is this the best time to remake demanding 7th gen titles, now that console hardware has caught up to their ambitions? 01:03:25 Supporter Q5: Will this console generation last longer than 7 years? 01:08:43 Supporter Q6: If you could banish one gaming-related object or concept, what would it be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Mars 20231h 16min

In a massive 100th Special Edition, DF Direct Weekly delivers the biggest show to date, with all current serving members of Digital Foundry at the mics. John, Alex, Rich and Audi take point on the main news stories of the week, joined by Tom, Will and Oliver for a gigantic supporter Q+A 'AMA' special. Thanks for watching and listening to the show over the last couple of years! 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:00 News 01: State of Play impressions! 00:32:15 News 02: Microsoft makes Nintendo, Nvidia game deals 00:41:07 News 03: Half-Life gets ray tracing upgrade 00:45:15 Supporter Q1: If Audi is being held in Rich’s basement, wouldn’t he still be living overseas? 00:47:02 Supporter Q2: Could we see a performance difference between different Switch models in Tears of the Kingdom? 00:48:48 Supporter Q3: Series X has been performing worse than PS5 in some major recent titles - what’s the explanation? 00:54:51 Supporter Q4: Would you rather wait to do coverage on a game until major technical faults have been addressed, or run the risk of needing to redo big parts of the coverage as updates come in? 01:04:33 Supporter Q5: Alex, if you could pick a studio to develop a new Turok, who would you choose? 01:07:32 Supporter Q6: Tom, what do you think of the Suspira remake? And what dream film director plus game combination would you put together if you could? 01:10:23 Supporter Q7: John, what cars would you own if money was no object? And what’s your favourite factory car colour? 01:12:39 Supporter Q8: Will, what type of coffee roast do you prefer? Which country has the best coffee? 01:14:25 Supporter Q9: Oliver, what is your favourite part of the content creation process? 01:15:37 Supporter Q10: Rich, would you like to expand DF significantly or keep it as a smaller group? 01:17:37 Supporter Q11: What do you enjoy the most about each other’s videos? 01:25:11 Supporter Q12: John, how’s the racing wheel going? And does anyone else on the team enjoy some large sim gear? 01:30:05 Supporter Q13: Is Alex the only person who still uses the correct vertical orientation on controllers? 01:31:26 Supporter Q14: What are your favourite DF game benchmarks? 01:39:01 Supporter Q15: Tom, has anyone pointed out that you look like the lead singer from the band Nothing More? 01:39:52 Supporter Q16: Tom, can you give us a thorough walkthrough of your haircare routine? 01:42:27 Supporter Q17: Which hardware release have you been most excited for? 01:49:30 Supporter Q18: Have recent struggles with PC games made any of you play more on consoles? 01:56:13 Supporter Q19: I’ve watched nearly 6 days of DF Direct! Are there any fun DF stats you can share? 02:00:44 Supporter Q20: John, how did you meet the guys from My Life in Gaming? 02:02:48 Supporter Q21: Oliver, what did you think of the time the BBC quoted you on Mario Kart 8? 02:03:56 Supporter Q22: Alex, are you a German native? If not, how did your German language skills get so good? 02:06:22 Supporter Q23: What have you learned about DF supporters that has surprised you? 02:09:13 Supporter Q24: Rich, what do you look for when hiring for DF? 02:11:05 Supporter Q25: No question, but thanks for making amazing videos! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 Feb 20232h 22min

We join John, Rich and Alex in the immediate wake of the PSVR2 review period, further discussing the hardware, talking games and answering supporter questions. Rich and Alex investigate a tip-off that DLSS is accessible on select Nvidia non-RTX GPUs in Cyberpunk 2077, while John and Rich discuss issues with games they looked at outside of work hours - Wild Hearts on PC and the new Tales of Symphonia remaster. Spoilers: there's disappointment. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:11 News 01: PSVR2 Post Mortem 00:28:38 News 02: Cyberpunk exposes DLSS support on Nvidia Turing GTX cards - but is it the real deal? 00:36:01 News 03: Wild Hearts suffers PC performance woes 00:46:32 News 04: Tales of Symphonia remastered disappoints 00:51:10 News 05: Nuon DVD player console gets new lease on life with controller adapters 00:55:52 DF Supporter Q1: Can DF still capture direct-feed footage off an undocked Switch? 00:59:51 DF Supporter Q2: Why do PC games do a poor job of optimizing settings for your specific hardware? 01:06:53 DF Supporter Q3: Could frame generation technology be used to offload game animation onto the GPU? 01:08:36 DF Supporter Q4: Could DLSS 3 double the frame-rates of emulated retro games? 01:10:54 DF Supporter Q5: Would FSR 1 style upscaling work for backwards compatible titles on consoles? 01:12:51 DF Supporter Q6: The RTX 2000 series had a bit of a slow start with few RT titles, so should the RTX 3000 series have been the first to support RT instead? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Feb 20231h 25min

A big week for news as the first phase of Sony's PlayStation VR2 embargo decloaks, meaning we can take the hardware out of its box and offer first impressions on the headset and controllers! Meanwhile. the latest Nintendo Direct turns out to be a bit of a banger - Pikmin 4 takes centrestage, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gets a new trailer and the brilliant Metroid Prime Remastered gets a surprise 'shadow drop'. Also: why are PC VRAM requirements becoming so bloated? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:07 News 01: PS VR2 hands-on impressions! 00:14:25 News 02: Nintendo Direct reactions: Pikmin, Zelda, Metroid Prime 00:41:46 News 03: Hogwarts Legacy coverage plans 00:45:57 DF Supporter Q1: Avatar 2 mixes 24fps and 48fps footage - is this a good idea? 00:50:37 DF Supporter Q2: What can we expect in terms of timing for a Switch successor? 00:55:08 DF Supporter Q3/4: CPU performance is bottlenecking modern games - can developers work around this? Plus, ninth-gen games haven’t shown the expected bump in simulation complexity, so are the additional CPU resources just going towards draw calls and RT? 01:02:58 DF Supporter Q5: Will PC VRAM requirements continue to steeply increase throughout this generation, or is this a short-term phenomenon? 01:09:25 DF Supporter Q6: Why don’t console games support 50Hz output, given that nearly all TVs support it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Feb 20231h 13min

It's time for another round of Digital Foundry Direct Weekly, on this occasion featuring the technical stylings of Sam Machkovech, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia. On the docket this week: layoffs at Halo developer 343 Industries amid a rumoured switch to Unreal Engine 5, a new PS5 beta firmware and is it 'safe' to move to Windows 11 on a gaming rig? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:53 News 01: Halo developer suffers layoffs, switching to UE5 00:17:37 News 02: Major live service games canceled 00:27:11 News 03: DLSS 3 added to Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light 2 00:36:21 News 04: The Witcher 3 gets RT performance boosts 00:43:11 News 05: Goldeneye launches on Xbox, Switch 00:53:56 News 06: PS5 beta firmware adds 1440p VRR support 01:05:04 DF Supporter Q1: Sam, you called the RTX 4090 a bargain. What other bargains do you recommend? 01:09:04 DF Supporter Q2: Have you tested copying the shader cache from one PC to another to eliminate shader stutter? 01:10:08 DF Supporter Q3: Could Square Enix be in financial trouble after Forspoken’s poor reception? 01:13:51 DF Supporter Q4: With PS VR2 pre-orders reportedly lower than expected, could the VR2 go the way of the Vita? 01:18:58 DF Supporter Q5: Do you think that it is safe to move to Windows 11 on a gaming rig? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Feb 20231h 23min

At Digital Foundry, we've been complaining about gaming events - and the way games are shown - for years... but you know what? Microsoft's Developer_Direct cracks it, with only one more aspect required to make the format almost perfect. But what's not perfect? The release of Forspoken, especially on PC. John, Rich and Alex are at the mics to discuss all of this - and more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:44 News 01: Microsoft "Developer_Direct" reactions! 00:41:50 News 02: Forspoken released- and there are issues 00:58:12 News 03: Dead Space: our early impressions 01:06:03 DF Supporter Q1: Will you be covering the RTX 4050 at launch? What are your pricing expectations? 01:08:55 DF Supporter Q2: Could generative AI power an “auto-remaster” feature to upgrade game graphics in real time? 01:14:08 DF Supporter Q3: What kind of performance leap should we expect from a Switch sequel? 01:20:10 DF Supporter Q4: When will DirectStorage support become the norm for PC developers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 Jan 20231h 24min

A packed week of news as John, Rich and Alex discuss the elevated min specs for the PC versions of Forspoken and Returnal, which beg the question: ARE MIN SPECS OUT OF CONTROL?!11 Meanwhile, Stadia finally dies, while GeForce Now 4080 arrives to demonstrate that high-end cloud gaming can actually work.   00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:58 News 01: Forspoken and Returnal PC requirements detailed 00:21:55 News 02: Layoffs at Microsoft: 343 and Bethesda affected 00:29:20 News 03: PSVR2 launch titles announced 00:38:16 News 04: Stadia dead, RTX 4080 Geforce Now launches 00:49:11 News 05: Suicide Squad leak reveals games as a service components 00:56:24 News 06: The Callisto Protocol falls short of sales expectations 01:01:08 DF Supporter Q1: Why did Unreal Engine 3 games have that ‘wet’ look? 01:05:57 DF Supporter Q2: What are your CPU recommendations for demanding games? 01:09:05 DF Supporter Q3: How do your computers and consoles affect your home heating and cooling? 01:12:23 DF Supporter Q4: If you have a 120Hz screen running 60fps content, what is the best way to get a good experience? 01:15:29 DF Supporter Q5: What is the most memorable show you’ve attended? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Jan 20231h 29min