DF Direct Weekly #268: Ocarina of Time Remake, Nintendo Direct, Fable Gameplay, RTX 3060 Returns

[00:02] Hello there and a warm welcome of a sort

[00:04] to this the 268th

[00:07] edition of DF Direct Weekly. Kind of

[00:08] feels like we've done 268 in the last

[00:11] two weeks based on the amount of events

[00:13] we've had to cover, but here we are uh

[00:15] back to the regularly numbered direct

[00:17] but we are going to kick off by looking

[00:18] at Nintendo Direct. Um and joining me on

[00:22] the panel as usual now since Alex is

[00:25] still out still recovering John Linman.

[00:27] Hello.

[00:29] >> Hey Rich. Yeah, I I miss Alex a lot. I

[00:31] don't know if he'll hear this, but uh

[00:33] >> he's a great dude and uh it's been empty

[00:36] without him, but I'm glad to have you

[00:38] guys here with me today because there is

[00:39] a lot to talk about.

[00:40] >> Absolutely. And uh hello Oliver

[00:42] McKenzie.

[00:43] >> Yes. I also miss Alex and I also miss

[00:46] the days when we weren't doing five or

[00:48] six a week, but I think that's going to

[00:50] be over rather soon. I I expect.

[00:54] >> Yeah. Uh uh but before we kick off,

[00:55] first of all, I want to give a shout out

[00:56] to the amazing work that Will Jud is

[00:58] doing over at digitalfoundry.net, our

[01:00] website. If you're part of the supporter

[01:02] program, you'll get that completely

[01:04] adree just like our video downloads. Um

[01:07] lots of interesting stories happening

[01:08] there. ARM showing off its neural

[01:10] rendering suite on mobile, which is

[01:12] really really interesting stuff. Uh

[01:14] we'll actually check spoke to uh the

[01:17] developers about that. Do uh check that

[01:19] out on the site. NextG GPU rumor

[01:21] roundup. What's coming from uh Nvidia,

[01:24] AMD, and Intel, or what we think is

[01:26] happening based on rumors, and there's

[01:28] been a lot of them happening in the in

[01:30] the uh a follow-up to Computex there. Uh

[01:33] Will reviewed a $90 8K Pro controller.

[01:36] That's kind of like 8K refresh rate

[01:38] polling rate. I suspect it's for a

[01:41] display resolution. $90. but he reckons

[01:44] it's worth twi uh it's as good as

[01:47] alternatives that are twice the cost.

[01:50] And apparently we did indeed have our

[01:52] first showing or or um reveal of Intel's

[01:55] Z990 motherboard at Copyex. Now there's

[01:58] a lot of great stuff hopefully happening

[02:00] with Intel with its next generation CPU.

[02:03] So that's worth checking out as well. Um

[02:06] but that's all from us on that

[02:09] particular front. There's plenty of

[02:10] other stuff to check out there as well.

[02:12] Uh, I guess we should just crack on with

[02:14] our first news story. But first, this DF

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[03:37] Okay, so let's do it. Let's talk about

[03:38] Nintendo Direct, the last big event of

[03:40] the summer showcase season. Um, I think

[03:43] there was a general level of

[03:44] disappointment um based on what was

[03:46] actually shown there. And uh there was

[03:49] one big game that we were really looking

[03:50] forward to seeing but barely saw

[03:52] anything of. Um Oliver, you decided to

[03:55] take it upon yourself to choose the

[03:57] highlights of the show. And I guess we

[04:00] should start with Ocarina of Time,

[04:02] right?

[04:02] >> Yeah. Ocarina of Time. Interesting

[04:04] showing. I think the disappointment here

[04:06] that John or rather that Rich was

[04:08] mentioning is lies in the fact that this

[04:11] game is a title that was kind of heavily

[04:12] rumored. It's not really a big surprise

[04:14] and a leaker Nate the Hate was talking

[04:16] about this some months ago and it's been

[04:18] basically accepted wisdom that this game

[04:19] would come out at some point in the near

[04:21] future. And despite all that, Nintendo

[04:24] was revealing it with kind of all the

[04:25] panache of a developer, a publisher that

[04:29] was revealing a game for the first time

[04:30] when we already knew about this title.

[04:31] So, they really didn't show us too much

[04:33] here, unfortunately. Um, really just a

[04:35] couple seconds if I count it out now. We

[04:38] have like 15 seconds of what appears to

[04:41] be in-game real-time rendered footage

[04:43] and then a brief interstitial showing

[04:46] like a tapestry before then. So, nothing

[04:48] too exciting here. Um, but what they did

[04:50] show looks good. You know, I I saw a lot

[04:52] of people remark that Nintendo hired

[04:54] this man. And perhaps that's not quite

[04:56] fair. I think this does look quite

[04:57] attractive. Um, in this limited chunk of

[05:00] footage, we see Link sleeping, kind of

[05:02] like the beginning of the game, although

[05:04] there are some indications that maybe

[05:05] they've mixed things up a little bit

[05:06] just with uh respect to symbolism here,

[05:09] but he's sleeping. Uh, he's not

[05:12] cell-shaded, but he's obviously quite

[05:13] stylized. No TAA, no DLSS, which makes

[05:16] me think this might be an internal

[05:18] internally developed title because

[05:20] that's kind of like the visual signature

[05:21] of Nintendo so far this generation. It's

[05:23] running at 60 fps. appears to be 1440p

[05:26] in this footage based on some pixel

[05:27] counts or maybe about 1440p, maybe

[05:29] slightly higher than 1440p. Um quite an

[05:32] easy count actually uh with no AA or

[05:35] very limited post AA or something like

[05:37] that. Um quite pleasing, but I really

[05:39] want to see more. Like that's the big

[05:41] takeaway here. I really don't know where

[05:43] they would go with the remake. Would

[05:44] they make it open world, god forbid?

[05:47] Would they remix things? would they

[05:48] basically just deliver a visual remake

[05:50] of the title in line with some other

[05:51] efforts that we've seen from other

[05:52] developers where they really don't touch

[05:54] the original gameplay kind of like The

[05:55] Last of Us Part One,

[05:56] >> right?

[05:56] >> Um it's not quite clear. If it's

[05:58] Nintendo internal, I kind of suspect

[06:00] maybe they'd make more changes. If it's

[06:02] external, I would expect them to make

[06:03] fewer changes. But um yeah, very curious

[06:06] to see where this one goes, but I really

[06:08] want to see more footage. And it feels

[06:09] really weird cuz they're announcing the

[06:11] title for 2026. There's only 6 months

[06:13] left in 2026, but they're not announcing

[06:15] a date or showing any gameplay or

[06:17] anything like that. like it just seems

[06:18] like a weird way to announce the title.

[06:21] >> Interesting. We've actually got this

[06:22] supporter question which raises many

[06:24] similar questions. Um, Spotlude uh asks,

[06:28] "Hello, DF Crew. I'm intrigued to hear

[06:29] your predictions for OOT. Do you think

[06:31] it will be a pretty standard remake like

[06:33] Grezo did on the 3DS or more of a

[06:35] reimagining? Nintendo tend to not change

[06:38] the Formula X. The return of Woohoo

[06:40] Island and the countless remakes of Star

[06:42] Fox prove this, don't they? Do they,

[06:45] John?

[06:47] So, that is an interesting point because

[06:51] by and large when Nintendo does remake

[06:54] games, they tend to stay pretty true to

[06:56] the original formula.

[06:59] But I feel like in the case of Ocarina

[07:01] of Time, they if if they were to just

[07:05] stick with the original game design as

[07:07] it is or as we saw in the 3DS version,

[07:10] we would end up with a situation

[07:13] similar to and possibly even more

[07:15] egregious than uh Metal Gear Solid 3

[07:18] Delta, which I don't dislike Delta, but

[07:21] there's this weird disconnect with it

[07:23] where like all the underlying animation,

[07:25] gameplay, map design, everything about

[07:28] it is is the PS2 game, but then they've

[07:31] stuck this like super high-end visual

[07:33] presentation on top of it. And it's not

[07:36] bad, but it makes it feel weird to me. I

[07:39] never quite like that. And, you know,

[07:42] keeping an older engine running beneath

[07:44] the surface is not necessarily something

[07:46] that's an issue. Like Shadow of the

[07:48] Colossus and Demon Souls from Bluepoint,

[07:50] those games had enough like pizzazz in

[07:53] the general movement and design that it

[07:55] actually worked. But I don't think it

[07:57] would work here. And since they've

[07:59] already done the 3DS version of Ocarina

[08:02] of Time, I feel like it needs to be

[08:04] something a little bit more robust. And

[08:09] I don't think we really have a good

[08:10] blueprint for what that looks like under

[08:12] Nintendo, right? Can you guys think of

[08:14] anything that they've done where they've

[08:16] remade a game and it's significantly

[08:20] different from an original? I mean, the

[08:22] closest thing that I can think of off

[08:24] the top of my head that they published

[08:25] but didn't develop was Silicon Knights

[08:28] uh Metal Gear Solid the Twin Snakes,

[08:31] which was indeed quite different from

[08:33] the original in many many ways. Um, but

[08:36] that's not really a Nintendo game in in

[08:38] the truest sense. So, I'm not really

[08:40] sure

[08:42] if there is an example of this.

[08:44] >> Um, nothing springs to mind. I don't

[08:45] know what you think, Oliver.

[08:47] >> No, nothing really springs to mind at

[08:49] the moment. I mean, there are some

[08:51] titles that have been upgraded

[08:52] enormously visually, like Link's

[08:54] Awakening would be one, right, that we

[08:56] saw in 2019. Um, but I'm not really

[08:59] sure. I mean, and Nintendo tends to add

[09:01] when they do go back to older titles,

[09:03] they tend to add more convenience

[09:05] features, right? It's like when we saw

[09:08] the um Ocarine of Time 3D remake back in

[09:11] 2011, they added like some hint system

[09:14] to the game to smooth your experience of

[09:17] the title if you wanted to go back to

[09:19] the the home and see some hints for how

[09:21] you might progress. But in general, they

[09:23] don't really mess too much with things.

[09:25] The only thing that I would think is

[09:26] maybe pushing me in that direction is I

[09:29] think some people who are more in tune

[09:31] with the series than I am have pointed

[09:32] out some um possible inongruities with

[09:35] this sequence and a similar sequence the

[09:37] Nintendo 64 game in the Awaren Time

[09:39] remake as well. Um that suggest maybe

[09:41] they're messing up the timeline a little

[09:43] bit with this title. Um, but also if it

[09:45] is a Nintendo first-p partyy title,

[09:47] which we have a scan evidence to

[09:49] suggest, but perhaps it is, then maybe

[09:51] they would feel a little bit more

[09:52] freedom to go back and actually change

[09:54] things. Um, I'm not quite sure.

[09:57] >> Interesting. Um, well, famously, I've

[09:59] never played this game. Uh, it launched

[10:01] in a period where I just wasn't a part

[10:03] of Nintendo whatsoever, and I never kind

[10:04] of circled back to it. I was just

[10:06] looking at some footage now and

[10:08] obviously it's a game of its era and I

[10:10] suspect that just producing the kind of

[10:11] visuals that were hinted at in this uh

[10:14] I'm not even going to call it a trailer

[10:15] because it wasn't really was it? Um I

[10:18] think it's just going to be a full

[10:19] visual revamp and what more do you kind

[10:21] of want from that? I mean wasn't the

[10:23] original like 20 frames per second as

[10:25] well with very very basic um judged by

[10:27] today's standards graphics. So I think

[10:30] that would kind kind of be enough. I

[10:31] mean, um, what I don't know about it is

[10:34] certainly made up for by the fact that

[10:35] people absolutely love it, the people

[10:38] that have played it. So, I'm not really

[10:40] sure there's much to be gained from

[10:41] going beyond that. Maybe some sort of

[10:43] flourishes and and stuff like that. I

[10:45] don't know. I mean, this is the the big

[10:47] tease, right? Obviously, if it is indeed

[10:50] going to be coming 2026, we're going to

[10:52] be finding out more about it quite soon.

[10:54] Um, should we move on? Should we talk

[10:56] about Xenolade because we saw um new

[10:59] releases there, Oliver?

[11:02] >> Yeah. Yes. There are a variety of titles

[11:04] in the mix here. Probably the first and

[11:06] most exciting of these. Jeez, I guess

[11:08] it's four games that we're talking about

[11:10] in Xenolade Saga is Xenolade Genesis,

[11:14] which I think looks very good. I love

[11:16] the character models. It's very clean

[11:18] and pleasing with good cell shading on

[11:20] the character models, and the

[11:21] environments as well look quite good. I

[11:23] think they have very striking lighting

[11:24] like in that kind of interior sequence

[11:26] that we see here in the school or

[11:28] cathedral or whatever it is. Um

[11:30] definitely looks a cut above the other

[11:31] Xenolade titles and doesn't exhibit some

[11:33] of the u more worrying kind of like

[11:35] texture tiling and things like that

[11:37] we've seen in the other Xenolade titles

[11:38] necessarily. Looks quite clean. Looks

[11:40] quite good. Very pleasing open world

[11:42] title. Um some aliasing here there. It

[11:45] kind of looks a little bit like the Elus

[11:46] light almost to me because the way that

[11:48] it has very clean edges in stationary

[11:51] shots, but in motion it's a bit more

[11:52] compromised. I did count out one shot

[11:54] and it's 1440p roughly speaking. Um

[11:58] counted a couple edges on one shot. So

[12:00] appears to be a 1440p 30 title which is

[12:02] no great surprise. In terms of the

[12:04] Xenolade Chronicles Switch 2 editions,

[12:06] those are the other titles we're talking

[12:07] about. So basically they're going back

[12:09] and issuing Switch 2 editions for

[12:10] Xenolade Chronicles 1, 2, and three. all

[12:13] those titles that originally appeared on

[12:15] Switch. Xenolade Chronicles one was a

[12:17] Wii title, a 3DS title, and then a

[12:19] Switch title with a number of graphical

[12:21] enhancements. And um that's actually a

[12:24] title that I took a look at because they

[12:25] released that game. That's the first the

[12:27] three titles they were they're releasing

[12:28] here. And it actually looks quite good.

[12:30] It's very clean, crisp, pleasing, nice

[12:33] to look at. Not at all like a Xenolade

[12:35] Chronicles X, which as I'm sure John can

[12:37] remark, looked very ugly and upscaled

[12:40] and super messy. Um, I actually counted

[12:43] it out at 720p internally for Xenolade

[12:45] Chronicles one. So, it is being

[12:47] upsampled presumably with something like

[12:49] DLSS, which there is some evidence of on

[12:51] the edge artifacts that we see here. Um,

[12:54] so I'm quite pleased by this game and

[12:56] yeah, it's definitely nice to see a good

[12:59] 60fps update of a Xenolade Chronicles

[13:01] title that isn't compromised massively

[13:03] in terms of image quality. So yeah,

[13:06] across the board, I think Monolith Soft

[13:07] delivers some of the best uh Switch

[13:10] experiences in terms of their technical

[13:11] output. And these titles look to be

[13:13] reclaiming that crown after kind of

[13:16] slipping a bit with Xenolade Chronicles

[13:18] X, which was kind of a messy title on

[13:20] Switch 2, I would say.

[13:22] >> Uh yeah, I mean reclaiming their

[13:25] reputation a bit. I mean, it's it's a

[13:27] world of difference to my eyes based on

[13:29] what we saw from the prior game. John,

[13:31] thoughts? Yeah. Now, this is um one of

[13:35] the few games here at the Direct that

[13:38] actually was exciting. I do like

[13:40] Xenolade Chronicles,

[13:42] and I do think this new one, Genesis,

[13:44] looks quite excellent. I like the visual

[13:46] design. I'm a big fan of that sort of

[13:48] curved world design, right? It's

[13:50] similar, I guess, in concept to Halo or

[13:53] like the this the the world from Zone of

[13:56] the Enders where, you know, it's just

[13:58] like you traverse it, but you're like

[14:00] moving along it in a way as if it if it

[14:02] as it rises up against the horizon.

[14:05] >> And I hope that there's a way to

[14:06] actually seamlessly traverse the world

[14:08] in that sense, right? Rather than

[14:10] dividing it up into like different

[14:12] loading districts, which we don't yet

[14:14] know how it's going to play out. But I

[14:17] also like character designs. The

[14:19] animation with the terrain is better. I

[14:21] think Xenolade 1 and two always I never

[14:23] liked the way the games looked in motion

[14:25] because I especially with Shaw, he's

[14:27] basically got Kingdom Hearts shoes on.

[14:29] It's the way I always looked at it. Like

[14:31] big floppy feet and it just looks dumb

[14:33] running around the world. It never felt

[14:34] good to me.

[14:35] >> And I actually think getting that run

[14:37] cycle down is something that helps make

[14:39] a game feel good just to pick up and

[14:41] play. And it they've definitely

[14:43] improved. Xenolade Chronicles 3 was

[14:45] already a step up in that direction. So,

[14:48] uh, the upgrades I haven't really looked

[14:50] closely. Somebody did mention to me

[14:52] though that Xenolade 1 has some weird

[14:54] performance hiccups.

[14:56] >> Uh, did you see anything, Oliver? Uh, I

[14:59] saw it drop frames a few times. I was

[15:01] really just in the initial area,

[15:02] honestly. I tested it out for like 15

[15:04] minutes just to see how it was. So, in

[15:06] terms of image quality, I think it looks

[15:07] quite attractive. In terms of

[15:09] performance, that's harder to judge

[15:10] without like later game content, I would

[15:12] expect.

[15:14] Okay. Well, so yeah, I mean that's

[15:15] that's good stuff. I'm excited for those

[15:18] games for sure.

[15:19] >> Okay, Oliver. So, um Star Fox was part

[15:21] of the presentation there. There is

[15:23] actually a playable demo out now. Um

[15:25] you've taken a quick look at it, right?

[15:27] >> Yeah, just a quick look. Obviously, we

[15:29] have uh this game is coming in pretty

[15:31] soon. I think it's a June 25th release

[15:34] date if I'm not mistaken. If my memory

[15:36] isn't failing me too badly here, but

[15:38] yeah, it's very pleasing. And it's a lot

[15:39] of the same content we've seen in prior

[15:41] Nintendo showings of this title in the

[15:43] direct, but I think it looks awesome.

[15:46] The cut scenes look terrific. The

[15:47] gameplay looks great. Um, I was able to

[15:50] do a little bit more pixel counting with

[15:52] this title just to get some preliminary

[15:54] counts in the mix here. And in cut

[15:56] scenes, it is counting at 1080p. Um,

[15:58] which is kind of to be expected. That's

[16:01] kind of where I think we had counted the

[16:02] game earlier in gameplay. And the

[16:04] gameplay also counts at 1080p in my

[16:06] accounts. But interestingly, there is

[16:07] this divide between the cut scenes,

[16:09] which seem to be using some temporal

[16:10] image treatment, possibly DLSS or

[16:12] something, look very clean, very crisp,

[16:14] but 30 fps, and then the gameplay, which

[16:17] is 60 fps, but seems to be going along

[16:19] with more of that kind of Nintendo

[16:21] styling of not actually using uh much

[16:24] image treatment, if if any at all. It

[16:27] seems to maybe using I think it's using

[16:28] a post AA is my guess, based off of the

[16:31] image quality characteristics that we do

[16:32] see in these sequences. Beyond that, um,

[16:35] looks quite pleasing. I wish we saw a

[16:37] more, uh, lengthy demo perhaps because

[16:40] this is a very brief snippet of

[16:42] gameplay, unfortunately, without too

[16:45] much, um, too much in the way of like I

[16:48] would have loved to see some segments on

[16:50] Corneria, right? Some of the uh, early

[16:52] missions there. We just get like the

[16:54] sequence in the meteoride field, which

[16:56] is not that great. And then also, I

[16:57] think perhaps more interesting to us

[16:59] than any of those like preliminary

[17:01] technical details is the fact that this

[17:03] title has been confirmed to be using an

[17:05] external developer, Villain Studios.

[17:07] They also developed uh Knockout City,

[17:10] which was that kind of like I think it's

[17:11] now discontinued, but that kind of um

[17:13] MMO style title. U Mario Kart Live Home

[17:17] Circuit as well, another Nintendo title.

[17:19] Um Hot Wheels Rift Rally, a number of

[17:21] other games. And they're using their own

[17:23] internal game engine which is called

[17:25] Viper. Um, which is pretty cool. So,

[17:28] this is I guess we're kind of right in

[17:30] part in the sense that it is using

[17:32] proprietary technology, but wrong in the

[17:34] sense that it's not a Nintendo developed

[17:36] title, which I think we're kind of

[17:37] looking forward to because this game

[17:39] does exhibit some characteristics that

[17:41] would make it pretty tantalizing

[17:43] technologically for other Nintendo

[17:44] developed titles down the road, right?

[17:46] But it turns out this is internal

[17:48] technology at Villain. It's not a uh

[17:52] internal Nintendo title or Nintendo

[17:54] internal uh first-party engine.

[17:57] >> Okay. So, um John, you're very keen to

[17:59] review this. What do you want from this

[18:01] game?

[18:02] >> Well, we know that it is a

[18:03] straightforward remake, but I guess the

[18:05] most interesting thing to me is just the

[18:07] way they expand the story stuff outward

[18:10] cuz I, you know, getting a little bit

[18:11] more of that in there. The original game

[18:13] did not have like proper cutscenes in

[18:15] the same sense outside of a couple

[18:17] little segments. So, I like that

[18:19] addition. Um, and this it's just one of

[18:22] those classic games. It's fun to revisit

[18:25] many times over. So, and it is designed

[18:27] to be replayed multiple times cuz a

[18:29] single playthrough is pretty short, I

[18:31] would say, which is fine. Um, it's like

[18:34] a Panzer Dragoon game in that regard,

[18:36] >> right?

[18:37] >> Uh, but but there's many different paths

[18:39] and secrets and all kinds of stuff to

[18:41] find. And so, I'm really I'm just in it

[18:43] for the additional story stuff and the

[18:45] presentation, the visuals. And it's cool

[18:47] to learn that it is like their own

[18:49] internal engine because of everything

[18:51] that Nintendo first party has released

[18:54] on the console. It's one of the best

[18:55] looking things we've seen yet by far.

[18:57] >> Mhm.

[18:58] >> I would say.

[18:58] >> Mhm.

[18:59] >> It feels technically impressive to me.

[19:01] >> Mhm. Good stuff. Well, can I have a

[19:03] review on that soon hopefully? Oliver,

[19:06] let's let's return to your selected

[19:09] highlights. Kingdom Hearts. Lots of

[19:11] Kingdom Hearts.

[19:13] >> Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts. So

[19:15] perhaps the standout here is our first

[19:17] gameplay of Kingdom Hearts 4, which was

[19:19] announced a number of years ago.

[19:21] Obviously, the Kingdom Hearts franchise

[19:22] longunning. Kingdom Hearts 3, I think,

[19:24] came out in 2019, if I'm not mistaken,

[19:26] maybe 2018. This title has been long in

[19:29] incubation since then, but I think it

[19:31] looks pretty good here. They appear to

[19:33] be targeting a 60fps target on Switch 2,

[19:37] um, which is quite good. There's some I

[19:39] didn't get a pixel count on this, but it

[19:41] seems quite clearly low resolution.

[19:43] Maybe some reconstruction artifacts in

[19:44] the mix, some messy looking SSR, things

[19:46] like that. But 60 fps on Switch 2 for a

[19:48] current generation title. Pretty cool.

[19:51] Um, some of the city environments do

[19:52] look a little bit bare. I wonder if that

[19:54] might be touched up a little bit on some

[19:55] of the bigger consoles in terms of their

[19:57] lighting presentation or asset detail or

[19:59] anything like that, but the cut scenes

[20:01] look quite terrific here. So, some good

[20:03] signs there for Kingdom Hearts 4. They

[20:05] are also releasing Kingdom Hearts 1 to 3

[20:08] on Switch 2, which I'm glad those are

[20:11] getting a Switch 2 port. And the first

[20:12] two titles are coming to Switch One as

[20:15] well. Um, if you might recall, there was

[20:18] a Kingdom Hearts 1 to3 cloud edition for

[20:21] Switch One, which released some years

[20:23] ago, but that did not include any

[20:25] obviously native rendering on device

[20:26] itself. It was all in the cloud. And I

[20:29] don't know, it's kind of bittersweet cuz

[20:30] I'm glad that they're coming back and

[20:32] reintroducing those title those titles

[20:34] running natively on Switch One and

[20:36] Switch 2. That's terrific. But they're

[20:38] discontinuing the uh Switch One edition,

[20:41] the Switch One clouded edition, which

[20:43] is, you know, maybe fine, but they're

[20:45] also pulling the server support for

[20:47] those titles in 2027. So, it really does

[20:49] indicate when you buy these cloud

[20:51] editions on Switch or Switch 2 or

[20:53] whatever, you really don't know what

[20:54] you're getting into, right? And in some

[20:56] cases, they can pull support for those

[20:58] games sooner than expected. I think

[21:00] having support for those titles for only

[21:02] one year past the d-listing date I think

[21:04] is probably not a reasonable way to go

[21:06] here.

[21:07] >> No, that's kind of crazy. On the one

[21:09] hand, I'm kind of glad it's going

[21:11] because whenever we've tested it, it's

[21:13] just been awful. I can't believe that it

[21:15] was sustainable. On the other hand, if

[21:17] people have bought it, they deserve

[21:19] something for their time, for their

[21:20] money, basically. Um, John Kingdom

[21:22] Hearts. So, actually, weirdly, one of

[21:25] the one of the things about this that

[21:26] caught my attention is like the

[21:28] technical presentation of the Direct.

[21:31] Uh, if you actually watch the Direct as

[21:32] they showed it, uh, it was broadcast at

[21:35] 60 frames per second and there was 60

[21:37] fps content in there. And in fact, the

[21:39] logo for Kingdom Hearts 4, which is part

[21:41] of the video, is 60 frames per second.

[21:44] But guess what? The gameplay and

[21:46] everything shown in that version of the

[21:48] trailer is all 30. Yet, you guys were

[21:51] saying like, "Oh, no. It looks like 60,

[21:53] but that's only in the dedicated Kingdom

[21:56] Hearts 4 trailer. So, I was like, wait,

[21:59] did they mess it up? Like, clearly they

[22:02] delivered a 60 fps asset because the

[22:04] logo for the game is 60, right? So, it's

[22:07] not like they uploaded a 30 fps trailer,

[22:10] but why the difference? Is it other

[22:13] console footage? Like, what's going on?

[22:15] Like I really don't know cuz on

[22:16] Nintendo's official website or YouTube

[22:19] channel, they have the 60fps version of

[22:21] the of the game trailer. So

[22:24] >> really baffling to me. And it's funny

[22:27] that they would show it at 60 because

[22:29] from what I've seen, Kingdom Hearts 3 on

[22:31] Switch absolutely does not run at 60.

[22:35] It's quite bad. Uh, so, um, I would

[22:39] genuinely be shocked if they were able

[22:41] to get Kingdom Hearts 4 running at a

[22:43] stable 60 on Switch 2 when when Kingdom

[22:45] Hearts 3 can't even do that. You know

[22:47] what I mean?

[22:48] >> Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because

[22:50] now I'm going I'm pressing the uh the

[22:53] frame by frame buttons on the YouTube

[22:55] trailer and it looks like the the the

[22:57] standalone trailer, the initial

[22:58] cinematic is 30

[23:00] >> and then and then it swaps to 60.

[23:03] >> Um, that's that's kind of weird, isn't

[23:04] it?

[23:06] It's extremely weird. I I don't know. I

[23:09] don't know what's up with it, but

[23:10] >> it definitely does look like plausibly

[23:12] rough and aliased and it has issues, but

[23:16] I would concur with John that I would be

[23:17] a little surprised to see a title like

[23:19] this hit 60 fps on Switch 2, unless it's

[23:22] been architected from the ground up to

[23:24] be a 60 fp Unreal Engine 5 and it's

[23:26] using

[23:27] >> those types of features. And I just

[23:29] don't believe that they're going to so

[23:31] easily

[23:31] >> Well, we don't we don't know what

[23:32] features they're using yet, right? But I

[23:35] I otherwise. Yeah,

[23:37] >> we need we would need to look. I do see

[23:40] SSR it looks like. So, it could just be

[23:42] that. And who knows about the lighting.

[23:44] >> So, we'll see. Like maybe they'll

[23:46] surprise us. And that actually brings us

[23:48] to this uh the third party aspect of

[23:51] this show actually. And that as somebody

[23:54] that owns all platforms, uh it was a bit

[23:58] unexiting for me, but I I can see why

[24:00] some folks would be excited. Like they

[24:02] basically showed eight games that

[24:05] already exist on other platforms and are

[24:07] getting ports and then six six games

[24:09] that are upcoming that are going to be

[24:10] on other platforms as well. But hey, it

[24:13] does show third party support. But the

[24:15] one that stood out actually was Dragon's

[24:17] Dogma 2 Dark Arisen.

[24:19] >> Not only because it's like the Dark

[24:21] Arisen version, but when we first

[24:22] started talking about Switch 2, we

[24:24] admittedly underestimated that it could

[24:27] actually handle this game. And I

[24:29] maintain that the original Dragon's

[24:31] Dogma 2 that was released probably would

[24:33] not run well on Switch 2, but Capcom has

[24:36] continued to update and improve the

[24:38] game. And I can see that they've

[24:41] obviously made changes then that allow

[24:43] them to now target Switch 2 as well. And

[24:46] that's cool to see. Um, the thing is is

[24:50] like the original Dogma 2 was really not

[24:53] wellreceived, especially in Japan.

[24:56] People were really bummed out by it. So,

[24:58] and it was the same actually with

[24:59] Monster Hunter Wild. So, like Capcom's

[25:01] mostly had hits this gen, but these two

[25:02] games fell short, but this is their

[25:05] chance to sort of redeem themselves. And

[25:07] I think that may indeed be possible. I

[25:10] hope so. I'd like to see it cuz

[25:11] conceptually there's a lot still a lot

[25:13] of good stuff going on. And, you know,

[25:16] the the update of the original Dragons

[25:19] Dogma also arguably got better. So,

[25:21] we've been here before,

[25:22] >> but yeah, I'm happy to see that. in

[25:24] other re engine games. Of course, Oni

[25:26] Musha was announced for the Switch 2.

[25:29] And now I'm skeptical because that was

[25:31] also shown running at 30 FPS in the

[25:34] Direct trailer, but could it actually be

[25:37] 60?

[25:38] >> Like I don't know. Like now I don't know

[25:40] if I trust what the Direct is showing

[25:42] us. You know what I mean?

[25:44] >> Oh no.

[25:45] >> Um I would like to direct your attention

[25:47] to the 24 mark in the dark in the

[25:49] Dragons Dogma 2 Dark Arisen uh trailer,

[25:52] the standalone trailer. Okay.

[25:54] >> And uh again, move frame by frame. And

[25:57] it's it's 60 frames pers, but it really

[26:00] does look like fame gen. Sorry.

[26:04] >> I I suspect this title is unlocked,

[26:06] right? Cuz it is it is 60 fps in some

[26:09] portions and like 40 to

[26:10] >> Oh, you're right. No, I Okay, so look at

[26:12] this. You're right. The discoveries

[26:14] continue, Rich. I brought up the

[26:16] official one on the Nintendo UK channel

[26:18] and sure enough, it is like an uncapped

[26:20] frame rate. I can just see by eye

[26:22] whereas the direct itself. So, let me

[26:24] let me go to Oni Musha uh for Switch 2

[26:29] trailer. We're doing this live, folks,

[26:30] because this is this is a discovery. All

[26:32] right, so here it is. Nintendo of

[26:33] America Way of the Sword, just the

[26:35] Onimusha trailer. What do we got?

[26:38] Okay, that trailer is still presenting

[26:41] at 30. It's a 4K 60 upload, but that's

[26:44] 30. So that actually might just be 30

[26:46] fps which would be interesting cuz they

[26:49] don't usually cap their games,

[26:50] >> right?

[26:51] >> But now like we've opened up this can of

[26:54] worms guys where like you look at this

[26:56] direct and it's like you know they

[26:57] showed Stellar Blade for instance that's

[26:59] coming to Switch. I love Stellar Blade

[27:01] but that was shown at 30 fps. So now

[27:03] it's like wait I need to go check out

[27:05] the trailer. Well actually no that looks

[27:07] uncapped on the direct. My bad. Is it

[27:10] was uncapped when I looked at it. Yeah.

[27:11] Yeah.

[27:12] >> So So that one's actually that one's

[27:13] actually correct. It's just uncapped and

[27:15] >> I think it's just Kingdom Hearts. That's

[27:16] a possibly a problem there. But I

[27:19] >> Kingdom Hearts and Dark Risen because

[27:21] Dragon's Dawn also doesn't

[27:23] >> Was it 30 FPS in the direct only?

[27:25] >> Yes.

[27:26] >> Oh, okay. Yeah,

[27:27] >> it looks choppier to me.

[27:29] >> Um, yeah, I would I would also I' I'd

[27:32] certainly echo John's thoughts there,

[27:34] but but I'd have a concern overall here

[27:36] with like I am happy they're bringing

[27:38] Dragon Sign to Switch. I'm less happy

[27:40] that it seems to have a very

[27:41] inconsistent performance level that's

[27:43] like all over the place in line with

[27:44] other Capcom pedals. But yeah, what do

[27:46] you expect? Well, in this case, it seems

[27:48] to have some sequences that are like sub

[27:50] 30 fps and some that are hitting 60 fps.

[27:52] That's not too

[27:53] >> Actually, you're right. This this might

[27:55] be okay in the direct. It might just be

[27:57] Kingdom Hearts 4. I'm looking at it

[27:58] again. It's just it's just the

[28:00] performance is so unstable.

[28:02] >> Yeah. Yeah. It's

[28:04] >> there's also like um like other titles

[28:06] here that I saw that were a little bit

[28:08] unconvincing. Final Fantasy 14 appeared

[28:11] to exhibit some performance issues at

[28:12] times in the footage they did show off

[28:14] which was not too promising.

[28:16] >> Mark Triforce Detlesson who covered FF14

[28:18] also noted that it looked and ran very

[28:20] bad in that video. So that's not

[28:22] promising. And he is our resident uh

[28:24] Final Fantasy 14 expert.

[28:26] >> Right. And then also Metaphor Refantasia

[28:28] was shown in this foot in this uh set of

[28:30] trailers here. and it appears to be an

[28:32] unlocked frame rate kind of like PS5 is

[28:35] but at 1080p resolution it appears to be

[28:38] um and it looks very very rough. So in

[28:41] general like I'm I'm very happy that

[28:42] Switch 2 is seeing a lot of third party

[28:44] support but in terms of the actual games

[28:47] that are being brought over I'm seeing a

[28:48] lot of really inconsistent unpleasant

[28:51] performance trends possibly with this

[28:52] these titles. Again this is purely

[28:54] software so you don't want to judge too

[28:55] much but like you look at a title like

[28:57] Space Marine 2 and it's like did we

[28:59] really need that on Switch 2? I'm not so

[29:01] sure, especially when performance is

[29:02] going to be maybe not the best in these

[29:05] games. And with Capcom, they have a

[29:07] unique issue, which is this unlocking of

[29:08] frame rates, which I'd love to see

[29:10] addressed in some form. It's not great

[29:12] in a title like Pragmata, which is like

[29:14] 60 fps sometimes, but mostly 40 to 50

[29:16] FPS, but with a title like Dragon

[29:18] Stockman 2, which is much more CPU

[29:20] starved, I suspect it's going to be a

[29:22] much bleaker output there without a 30

[29:25] fps lock. So yeah, I just want to

[29:27] clarify there is a weird shot in that

[29:29] Dragon's Dogmouth trailer where

[29:31] something is happening there that

[29:32] doesn't look right, but the rest of it

[29:33] does look just standard unlock frame

[29:35] rate. Um, John,

[29:38] >> I was going to say uh I do think Oliver

[29:42] stuff like Space Marine 2 is like just

[29:45] interesting from a technical standpoint.

[29:47] >> Sure.

[29:47] >> And that's I I thought about this a

[29:49] little bit. So, like what makes a port

[29:50] like that interesting or not to me and

[29:53] maybe our audience kind of comes down to

[29:56] the technology behind it. If it's just

[29:58] another Unreal game, for instance, you

[30:00] can kind of presume it's just going to

[30:01] be lowering the usual settings in the

[30:05] specific way that they do and will have

[30:07] performance that's likely not going to

[30:08] be great. And that's, I think, kind of

[30:10] boring. But Space Marine 2, I believe

[30:13] that's their own in-house technology

[30:15] still. It is not Unreal. and that game

[30:18] is doing some pretty cool and different

[30:19] stuff. So, in that case, personally, I

[30:22] would find that very interesting because

[30:23] then we get to see how they adapt that

[30:25] engine to something like the Switch 2.

[30:28] And so, that's kind of where my line is

[30:30] is like, are they doing something

[30:31] interesting with a port? Yes or no. Is

[30:34] it a different engine than something

[30:35] like Unreal? Yes or no? That's kind of

[30:37] what determines. But, I will say, you

[30:39] know, it's good for Switch 2, especially

[30:41] at this point with the cost of all the

[30:43] hardware being what it is. Uh, if you

[30:45] only have a Switch 2 for instance, then

[30:47] yeah, it's great to have these

[30:48] thirdparty games on it.

[30:50] >> Interesting. Space Marine 2. I didn't

[30:52] know about that one, but man, that is

[30:54] super CPU heavy. So, I'm going to be

[30:56] very to see what they're doing on that

[30:58] one.

[31:00] >> Of course, the biggest announcement,

[31:02] Rich, was mina

[31:05] Minecraft.

[31:06] >> Okay.

[31:06] >> It showed they had a segment on freaking

[31:08] Minecraft for some reason, and it wasn't

[31:10] even running smoothly. So, I'm

[31:11] completely baffled by that.

[31:14] Okay.

[31:15] >> I mean, like, why? It's like whatever.

[31:20] >> But there was other good stuff in there.

[31:22] I mean, they showed a little more of the

[31:24] Dusk Bloods, which is that From Software

[31:26] game that's sort of Bloodborne adjacent

[31:29] uh aesthetically.

[31:31] >> So, that's that's looking good, I would

[31:33] say. Uh we've got Thumb Wrestling in

[31:36] Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and we

[31:38] were given a nice two or three minute

[31:40] demonstration of that. So, if you really

[31:42] like thumb wrestling, Rich, and

[31:44] skateboarding on grass, that game's got

[31:46] you covered. Um, Mura Masa is coming

[31:48] back, which is cool. But that's also

[31:51] coming to PC, but that's um that was

[31:54] originally a Switch game or sorry, a Wii

[31:56] game

[31:57] >> that then was ported to the VA and now

[32:00] we're getting a new version on multiple

[32:03] platforms, including the Switch 2.

[32:05] >> So, and then Hello Kitty Party Land.

[32:07] >> Okay. I think Tom was particularly

[32:09] excited by that one for some reason.

[32:11] >> Yeah, he he that was the thing he posted

[32:13] the most about in the Slack channel, so

[32:15] expect coverage from Tom.

[32:18] >> Um, sorry. Go ahead.

[32:20] >> The last thing I I I noticed, um, they

[32:22] actually are bringing Devil May Cry 5 to

[32:26] the Switch, too.

[32:27] >> Yeah, that's cool.

[32:29] >> I love Devil May Cry 5. So, that's

[32:31] that's interesting that they've It's

[32:33] Capcom mining the back catalog again,

[32:35] right? And hey, why not? Yeah. Yeah. I'm

[32:38] still waiting for the control port for

[32:40] Switch to I mean, it's got to happen.

[32:41] >> You think it'll happen, right?

[32:42] >> Well, you can play it on an iPhone with

[32:44] with raid tracing.

[32:46] >> Oh, that's a good point. Yeah,

[32:47] >> shortly. I I'm surprised we haven't seen

[32:49] it yet. Um, so Oliver, um, we had Rise

[32:53] of the Tomb Raider Shadow Dropping after

[32:56] the event. It's playable. You can buy it

[32:58] now. Should we?

[33:01] >> Uh, well, that's that's the question of

[33:03] the hour. Um, I did to test it, I guess.

[33:07] So, that's uh not but it's I don't it's

[33:09] not a vote of confidence on my part

[33:11] because I I was concerned about this

[33:13] port because Aspire is the studio

[33:14] handling this one. They also did the

[33:16] Tomb Raider 2013 port to switch to a few

[33:20] months ago which was very compromised.

[33:22] Had some concessions even relative to

[33:25] the PS3 and 360 versions. Not a very

[33:28] good title. And uh here I would say this

[33:30] is better, but it still has compromises

[33:33] that are like totally bizarre. So you're

[33:35] missing some visual features relative to

[33:37] PS4. So there's no motion blur for

[33:40] instance, right? No motion blur

[33:41] whatsoever in the game. Um there's no

[33:44] shadowing in some instances, like for

[33:46] instance in this cut scene, like all the

[33:48] small details in the wall behind Delara

[33:50] are unshadowed, like the pins. And in

[33:52] this shot, all the distant shadows for

[33:54] foliage are missing. So, it looks very

[33:57] flat and ugly and not very pleasing.

[34:00] Lacks depth, I would say. And then in

[34:02] that cut scene earlier, there also some

[34:04] miss missing objects like part of the

[34:05] building in this shot, which is just

[34:06] totally gone, and then the beams in this

[34:08] shot. So, it seems like they're missing

[34:11] like they're just porting these games

[34:13] over and missing a lot of the uh visual

[34:16] minutia of what make them look so good

[34:18] on current generation platforms. At

[34:20] least like the the hair is similar. Um,

[34:23] the lighting overall is similar, but

[34:25] there are these weird cuts here and

[34:27] there that don't feel totally

[34:28] intentional. I'm not totally sure what

[34:30] their porting process was, but it does

[34:32] not seem like it was uh rigorous enough

[34:34] perhaps. Um, frame rates are okay. It

[34:36] seems to be doing a good enough job at

[34:38] 30 fps. There's no DLSS here. Seems to

[34:40] be a pretty similar image treatment to

[34:42] the PS4 version of the game, but yeah,

[34:44] it's inferior to PS4 in a few key ways.

[34:47] And the overall vis visual presentation

[34:49] looks fine, but it's really unfortunate

[34:52] to look at these ports and say, "Well,

[34:54] it's actually missing some key visual

[34:56] stuff relative to that PS4 version." Not

[34:59] really where you want to be with a

[35:00] Switch 2 version of a game.

[35:01] >> John, Rise of the Tomb Raider was a a

[35:03] benchmark game for Digital Foundry back

[35:05] in the day. I mean, God knows how many

[35:07] times you covered it. Here it is again.

[35:09] >> I Exactly. I mean, I I don't have too

[35:12] much to say, but this is possibly one of

[35:14] the games I've covered the most on

[35:16] Digital Foundry. And it always felt like

[35:18] just when we thought we were done, a new

[35:20] version would come out. Yeah.

[35:21] >> And after the last version, I thought

[35:23] for sure that it was over. We were not

[35:26] going to be revisiting this game again.

[35:27] But here we are. It's 2026 and there's a

[35:30] new version of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

[35:32] I do want to check it out just out of

[35:34] morbid curiosity at this point. But the

[35:36] thing that really gets me and what I I

[35:38] cannot stop laughing over is it's called

[35:40] Rise of the Tomb Raider 20ear

[35:42] celebration,

[35:43] >> right?

[35:44] >> Like do I I know now where that comes

[35:47] from. But do you know why? Like when you

[35:49] when you look at the title, you're

[35:50] thinking like, okay, what like what what

[35:52] are they celebrating?

[35:53] >> Well,

[35:54] >> what would you think? What would you

[35:55] guess Rich?

[35:56] >> What happened in 2006 then? Tell me.

[35:59] Well, so at first I was like, wait, 2006

[36:03] is the first Crystal Dynamics Tomb

[36:04] Raider, so maybe that's what they're

[36:06] celebrating. But it turns out 20 years

[36:09] Celebration was the subtitle for the PS4

[36:11] version released in 2016, I think, which

[36:14] was celebrating the 20 20 years of Tomb

[36:17] Raider. And I think because it's a port

[36:20] of that version, they just left 20 years

[36:22] celebration on the title despite the

[36:25] fact that it's no longer relevant to

[36:27] what it was originally celebrating. So I

[36:30] guess theoretically they could be

[36:31] celebrating Crystal Dynamics releasing a

[36:33] Tomb Raider game, but I really don't

[36:35] think that's what they're doing. I I

[36:37] think this is just they just left the

[36:38] title alone rather than change it to

[36:41] like 30-year celebration. Yeah, they're

[36:43] they're well they're trying to indicate

[36:45] parody feature parody with the 20-year

[36:48] celebration version which has like some

[36:50] new features, co-op things like that. So

[36:52] I think it's just to indicate that's the

[36:54] version of the game you're getting.

[36:55] >> It's pretty dumb though.

[36:56] >> It should be 30ear celebration. I agree.

[36:59] But

[37:01] >> wow.

[37:01] >> Oh man, I love it.

[37:03] >> Okay. Uh well that was the last event of

[37:06] the summer showcases in 2026. Although

[37:09] we said that after Xbox and then more

[37:11] came along so who knows at this point

[37:13] but let's move on. Um so after the Xbox

[37:16] showcase uh we saw earlier. Um we

[37:19] actually now have 30 minutes of gameplay

[37:22] from Fable and uh certainly interesting

[37:24] stuff and certainly very different to

[37:26] the presentation we we saw at the

[37:27] showcase which looked like some sort of

[37:29] amazing sort of action adventure. This

[37:31] is kind of like classic Fable, right

[37:33] John?

[37:34] >> It is and it isn't. So, what I like here

[37:36] is that it does seem to be more than I

[37:39] expected building on the promises of the

[37:42] original Fable uh on technology that can

[37:45] now support that vision. So, if you go

[37:48] back to the original game, uh Peter

[37:50] Molly knew as usual was promising the

[37:52] world and that was one of his most

[37:53] egregious examples. Um and it made it

[37:57] sound like a game where you could do

[37:58] anything and it was just like this wide

[38:00] open thing of freedom. For me, this

[38:02] Fable released not that long after I

[38:05] first experienced the glory of uh The

[38:07] Elder Scrolls Marowind.

[38:09] And I had this vision of like, wow,

[38:11] Fable's going to be like Marowind but

[38:13] with like all this extra stuff you can

[38:15] do. And then it turned out it was just a

[38:18] bunch of loading screens and like every

[38:20] area in Fable was broken up into tiny

[38:22] little segments.

[38:23] >> Yeah.

[38:24] >> Which was crushingly disappointing at

[38:27] the time and I didn't love the game. The

[38:30] sequels improved upon that, but they

[38:32] never fulfilled that. This actually does

[38:35] seem to, and this is an example where I

[38:37] do think an open world actually makes

[38:38] sense, but this seems to offer a lot of

[38:41] the granular interactions and like life

[38:44] management features that Fable kind of

[38:47] attempted and was originally promising

[38:49] to deliver, but it's actually doing it

[38:52] at scale and with technology that can

[38:57] support all of that. And so I was really

[38:59] surprised and impressed with just how

[39:01] much stuff is going on beneath the

[39:03] surface here. And I'm very curious to

[39:06] see how it all plays out because yeah,

[39:09] all the trailers for this just painted

[39:11] it as more of an action adventury thing

[39:13] and it was unclear if they were going to

[39:15] sort of retain that original vision, but

[39:17] they've definitely embraced it. And so

[39:19] it seems like it could be a game that

[39:21] combines that sort of like those

[39:23] impressive moments, but with this more

[39:26] life management side of things as well.

[39:30] And boy, you can become if you want to

[39:32] like like just kick the whole town's ass

[39:34] and become like a total criminal and a

[39:36] dirt bag, they have shown in this demo

[39:39] that you can still do that, which is

[39:41] great. So

[39:42] >> I did enjoy that. 25 minutes of

[39:45] basically trying to uh uh manage the the

[39:47] the town nicely and be a per a great

[39:50] person to everyone and uh romance the

[39:53] local shopkeeper and then at the end

[39:55] they just start randomly killing people

[39:58] uh after uh saving a centurion pig

[40:02] pig. the pig.

[40:04] >> The thing is, you know, that was the

[40:06] thing, right? Because um uh those some

[40:09] of those alternative choices for Colin's

[40:12] fate look pretty grim,

[40:15] right? Yeah. The pig dies

[40:21] and I like that they're not they're not

[40:22] really shying away from that stuff. It

[40:24] seems like they're really embracing

[40:25] this. You can go totally good or totally

[40:27] evil or somewhere in between. And it is

[40:30] fun to mess with that stuff and see what

[40:33] happens as a result. And it really seems

[40:34] feels like they are going to try to pull

[40:36] it off. So that's great. And in

[40:38] addition, of course, visually speaking,

[40:41] I think the game looks really nice. Y

[40:43] >> um it's it's a little bit more back down

[40:46] to earth now that we've seen more of the

[40:48] gameplay, right? But it's still like I

[40:51] really love the subtle lighting in this

[40:54] game and the detail levels and the

[40:56] characters. Uh, I mean, I know it's a

[40:58] different team with a different goal,

[40:59] but I was a little worried about that

[41:00] because let's be honest, Forts of

[41:02] Horizon may have amazing looking cars,

[41:04] but its characters are pretty awful.

[41:07] >> So, Playground Grims has never

[41:08] demonstrated that they're good with

[41:10] character design and like rendering

[41:12] characters in a game world, but this

[41:14] obviously puts that to bed and they look

[41:16] excellent. I think, you know, the

[41:18] highlight for me was basically your your

[41:20] avatar turns up in this town to

[41:22] investigate weird things going on and uh

[41:24] he asks the talking pig about the weird

[41:26] things and the talking pig says, "Yeah,

[41:28] nothing crazy going on here."

[41:32] >> Oliver, what were your thoughts?

[41:34] >> It's nice to have this kind of slice of

[41:35] exploration and talking to villagers and

[41:37] stuff like that because it does indicate

[41:39] what you'll be able to do in this game

[41:40] during your downtime. My kind of concern

[41:43] with these systems is like how deep do

[41:45] they go? Is this just a game where you

[41:47] can check a lot of boxes and you can

[41:49] have like this little fun social

[41:50] simulation for 30 minutes or an hour and

[41:52] then it becomes kind of tiresome or how

[41:54] like how deep or involved do these

[41:56] gameplay systems go beyond just like the

[41:58] reputation system changing a few in-game

[42:01] events things like that. Um I'd be

[42:03] curious to see how deep it goes because

[42:06] to me at least in these kinds of titles

[42:07] I tend to treat them as like a kind of

[42:09] completionist exercise of like I want to

[42:11] do all the quests, I want to do all the

[42:13] main story content. I want to complete

[42:16] all the kind of uh carefully handcrafted

[42:18] and iterated on uh content in the game.

[42:21] I'm not really so interested in these

[42:22] kinds of social dynamics in titles like

[42:25] this, but this seems really cool.

[42:27] Technically, this is a 30 fps showing. I

[42:29] don't know whether that's representative

[42:30] of console footage or exactly what it's

[42:33] meaning to represent here. I'd presume

[42:34] this game would have a 60 fps mode as

[42:37] well. I would definitely agree with John

[42:38] in that sense. I think the lighting is

[42:40] quite attractive in this title and uh

[42:42] I'm definitely curious to see how this

[42:44] pans out when it does get released. I

[42:45] think they delayed it uh apparently to

[42:48] get away from Grand Theft Auto 6. I'm

[42:50] not quite sure the extent to which they

[42:52] need a little bit more time with this

[42:53] title. I certainly wouldn't blame them

[42:55] for that, but it'll be interesting to

[42:57] see this game when it releases I think

[42:58] in early 2027.

[43:01] >> Yeah, I think it's a a wise move. If

[43:03] they needed more time to do to to polish

[43:05] it, absolutely fine. But I also think

[43:07] that, you know, let's say they released

[43:09] before or indeed after Grand Theft Auto

[43:11] 6, um, and Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out,

[43:14] then suddenly you've you've invested

[43:15] like what, six, however many years of

[43:18] development into this, and the audience

[43:20] are going to be very easily tempted away

[43:22] to play GTA 6 instead. And um, that

[43:25] would that would be pretty bad. Yeah.

[43:28] Um, I I thought this looked pretty good.

[43:30] I thought uh actually seeing the game in

[43:32] motion um uh and actually a sort of deep

[43:35] dive into how it all plays out on the

[43:38] sort of micromanagement scale kind of

[43:40] demonstrated to me that it's you know I

[43:42] just don't have time for that kind of

[43:44] level of immersion. So I'm going to be

[43:45] really interested to see um just going

[43:48] through the quest line how that all

[43:49] plays out. But you know if people want

[43:51] to sit in this world and inhabit it and

[43:52] do all the things you saw in that

[43:54] trailer uh that's pretty good. But that

[43:56] last five minutes, I just thought,

[43:58] "Yeah, that's probably going to be me."

[44:00] Just causing some carage.

[44:04] >> The game's very, very British, too,

[44:06] which is something they've maintained

[44:08] from the original. I do wish Patrick

[44:10] Marber would make an appearance, who

[44:12] famously was uh Peter O'Hanrahan in the

[44:14] day-to-day. I I feel like he would have

[44:17] been perfect in this game.

[44:20] >> Okay. Um let's move on. Okay. Next news

[44:23] story of the week. Well, this one

[44:24] actually sort of broke a little while

[44:26] earlier. There's been reports that

[44:28] Nintendo is producing a new model of the

[44:31] Switch 2. Now, obviously, we'd love to

[44:32] see new OLED screens and stuff like

[44:34] that, but this one is actually a bit

[44:36] more um legally based in nature. The EU

[44:39] is introducing um legislation that

[44:41] basically means that um mobile devices

[44:44] should have easily replaceable

[44:45] batteries. And um they are going to be

[44:48] producing a new version of the Switch 2

[44:50] which is apparently um going to have an

[44:53] easily replaceable battery. And I think

[44:55] this is pretty good news um not least

[44:58] for the environment but also for the

[44:59] fact that it man you know um I've

[45:01] watched tearown videos of the Switch 2

[45:04] and to actually get to the battery is a

[45:06] super super involved process. So, the

[45:08] idea that you'll be able to buy a Switch

[45:10] 2 and then, you know, basically if the

[45:13] battery starts to fade, replace it

[45:15] easily, I think that's absolutely

[45:16] fantastic. And there's um I think the

[45:18] legislation should indeed cover the um

[45:21] Joy-Cons

[45:23] >> as well. Um and possibly the Pro

[45:25] Controller. Um, based on what Nintendo

[45:27] is saying, anything with a be product

[45:30] code, a B product code, um, will have a

[45:33] version for the, um, for the for the EU

[45:36] which has replaceable batteries and that

[45:38] would cover the JoyCons and the Pro

[45:40] Controller. So, hopes are high there.

[45:42] Um, this is a really good initiative,

[45:44] right John?

[45:45] >> Oh, it's fantastic. It's actually an

[45:48] example of legislation that's genuinely

[45:50] beneficial beyond just, you know, any

[45:53] environmental impact. This is more about

[45:55] the right to repair and allowing users

[45:58] to like really own and manage their own

[46:00] equipment, right? Uh these built-in

[46:02] batteries, especially the ones that are

[46:04] difficult to get to, it's a serious

[46:05] problem because batteries do not last

[46:07] forever. And when they do go, not only

[46:10] is there a potential safety hazard in

[46:12] some cases as far as like expanding and

[46:15] exploding, right? But it also means, you

[46:18] know, your product is dead until you can

[46:20] find a way to replace it. And at least

[46:22] in the case of Switch One, when there's

[46:24] no battery or no charge to it, the

[46:26] console cannot operate, right? So, you

[46:29] need a working battery in there, which

[46:31] is something I worried about for the

[46:33] longevity of this these systems. And

[46:35] it's specifically this that has kept

[46:37] things like the PSP and the the DS and

[46:40] even 3DS like alive long term is that

[46:44] the battery is easily swappable. So you

[46:47] even when that original battery has

[46:49] failed and many of them have at this

[46:50] point uh it's easy to replace and you're

[46:54] going again and yeah some of them have

[46:56] had issues with swelling especially the

[46:57] PSP

[46:58] >> and that may or may not happen now but

[47:00] again it's replaceable so not a big deal

[47:04] >> but these these modern devices man

[47:06] you're absolutely right taking them

[47:07] apart getting to the battery it's

[47:09] extremely fiddly work uh like tiny tiny

[47:13] little parts like small screws and very

[47:16] careful carefully placed ribbon cables

[47:18] and all kinds of stuff like that which

[47:20] are not necessarily fun to put together.

[47:23] I will say

[47:24] >> uh I've done some and even just Joy-Con

[47:26] replacements. They're not nearly as bad

[47:28] as the system, but it's not that fun to

[47:30] work on them and it can be a bit of a

[47:32] pain. So, being able to replace

[47:34] batteries like this makes these models

[47:36] awesome. And I would hope that they

[47:38] would just embrace this for uh the

[47:41] global hardware chain, right? I don't

[47:44] know if they will, but like I feel like

[47:45] all new consoles sold, you should just

[47:48] do this replaceable battery thing

[47:50] because it does make the hardware like

[47:52] better in terms of uh you know

[47:56] longevity.

[47:57] >> Yep. There's also there's also the

[47:59] potential to have um more energy dense

[48:01] cells in there. So you could have longer

[48:03] battery life for example. Although what

[48:05] I will say is that you know the story of

[48:07] um third party batteries that have

[48:09] actually failed a lot lot quicker than

[48:11] official batteries. I mean, I've got a

[48:12] lot of uh uh sad stories to tell on that

[48:15] front, particularly when it comes to my

[48:17] Dyson vacuum cleaner, but um yeah,

[48:20] interesting question from teasing

[48:22] hilarity. How Howdy Foundryman

[48:23] exclamation point. Given Nintendo have

[48:25] to produce the EU replaceable battery

[48:27] model of the Switch do, what do you

[48:28] think the chances they phase out the OG

[48:30] model and just go with the EU version

[48:32] everywhere going forward? While they may

[48:34] lose some sales from people replacing

[48:36] their worn bat VOG units, they hedge

[48:38] against other jurisdictions introducing

[48:41] similar requirements, keep product lines

[48:43] and associated tooling, etc. to a

[48:45] minimum and importantly offer all

[48:47] consumers the opportunity to keep their

[48:49] devices going when the battery wears

[48:51] out. Well, you know, that's going to be

[48:52] a decision for Nintendo to take, but

[48:54] they're quite specific at the moment

[48:55] that it seems to be a particular

[48:58] variant, I believe, as opposed to like a

[49:01] sort of global uh roll out. this EU

[49:03] legislation. There's a lot of stuff in

[49:05] there that's pretty good. For example,

[49:07] um the glue that's used to like, you

[49:10] know, basically keep batteries in place.

[49:12] A nightmare when it comes to actually

[49:14] fixing these things, that's not allowed.

[49:16] And similarly, they need to reply uh

[49:18] supply replacement parts for 5 years

[49:22] after the final device comes off the

[49:24] production line, which again I think is

[49:26] is is pretty cool. Um Oliver, what do

[49:29] you make of all of this?

[49:30] >> Yeah, I think this is pretty good. But I

[49:31] think the primary change here will be

[49:33] getting away from the glued batteries,

[49:35] which is very common in consumer

[49:37] electronics nowadays to ship devices

[49:39] with glued batteries as opposed to

[49:41] screwed in batteries or batteries

[49:43] secured through other means. Um, which

[49:45] is great because right now if you have a

[49:47] Switch 2 unit, you want to replace the

[49:48] battery. I think you basically have to

[49:50] soak soak it in isopropyl alcohol to get

[49:53] the adhesive to be removed and then you

[49:56] can remove the adhesive and then you can

[49:58] stick another battery in there. But it's

[50:00] kind of a process. This should ease up

[50:02] that whole process considerably. If they

[50:05] do move towards screws and pull tabs and

[50:07] easier methods of removing a battery,

[50:09] that would be great. Um, I would say

[50:11] that most Switch 2 users won't need to

[50:13] replace the battery hopefully. But

[50:15] definitely if you do use your Switch for

[50:17] extended periods or for a very long

[50:19] time, right, over the course of a decade

[50:22] plus, you need to replace that battery,

[50:24] this is going to be a really good

[50:26] solution for those users and it's going

[50:28] to enhance the durability lifespan of

[50:31] switch to units in the weld, which is

[50:33] great. I'm not sure they're going to do

[50:35] this for the whole world because I think

[50:36] it is just cheaper, simpler um to use to

[50:40] use glue and possibly you can also fit

[50:42] in a slightly higher capacity cell as

[50:44] well just because you don't need to have

[50:46] the kind of associated like tooling and

[50:48] marks and areas needed to screw down a

[50:51] battery. You can actually have those be

[50:52] filled with battery because glue does

[50:54] not really require nearly as much space

[50:56] and things like that. So, yeah, I would

[50:59] assume this will be EU only, but I

[51:01] wouldn't mind having a screwed in

[51:02] switch, too, even if it had like

[51:05] marginally lower battery life. I think

[51:07] that's a trade you'd be perfectly

[51:08] willing to take for much easier

[51:10] serviceability down the line if you do

[51:13] want a new battery in your Switch, too.

[51:15] >> Mhm. Yeah, I'm going to be interested to

[51:16] see who else follows suit on this, but

[51:18] certainly the concept of replaceable

[51:20] batteries is a is a good thing. Um,

[51:22] speaking of devices where the battery

[51:24] hasn't gone great, for me personally,

[51:26] the original Steam Deck, um, I didn't

[51:29] use it for some time and I actually

[51:30] found that, um, while the battery life

[51:33] seemed, uh, on the face of it to be

[51:36] okay, the device would occasionally just

[51:38] shut down during play randomly. And I

[51:40] think it just wasn't delivering the

[51:42] requisite power anymore.

[51:44] >> Um, which which wasn't great, right? But

[51:47] you know those devices, the PC side of

[51:49] things, um certainly it's uh quite easy

[51:52] to remove the back at least. Yeah. And

[51:55] to get at things. Yeah. Right.

[51:57] >> Yeah. But um the switch was definitely a

[51:59] lot lot more difficult. Um I kind of

[52:02] want to take a look at this new version.

[52:04] Um the legislation comes into force

[52:06] February next year, I believe. So I'm

[52:08] curious as to whether we're going to see

[52:09] it sooner rather than later.

[52:12] >> Um anyway, um let's move on. Okay. So,

[52:15] somehow the RTX 3060 has returned. This

[52:18] has been rumored for some time. Uh the

[52:20] concept that Nvidia is going to bring

[52:22] back a 5-year-old graphics card to

[52:24] address uh issues in the supply chain.

[52:27] We actually now have evidence that it

[52:29] has actually happened. I mean, Oliver,

[52:31] you talked to Nvidia in CES, I believe,

[52:34] to talk to say these rumors true, and

[52:36] they basically said it never left

[52:39] production. Uh which I I couldn't back

[52:42] that up at all. I couldn't find 3060 for

[52:45] sale uh in the UK. 3050 on the other

[52:48] hand I think is fair that it did seem to

[52:51] still be there.

[52:52] >> But uh a company called Manly M L I not

[52:58] not the traditional you uh English

[53:00] spelling or meaning they have actually

[53:02] released um a new 3060 apparently. Um it

[53:06] seems to be the good news is it's the 12

[53:08] GB model uh 3584 CUDA cores looks like

[53:12] uh standard specification 3060. Um and

[53:16] they've released unfortunately a 6 GB

[53:20] 3050. Um the original was 8 GB. So

[53:23] obviously they've cut down the the

[53:25] memory interface there, reduced

[53:26] bandwidth. I'm going to be interested to

[53:28] see whether Eddie War people actually

[53:30] bring out a new a quote unquote new 3060

[53:34] and the extent to which um it will

[53:36] actually proliferate in the market. I

[53:38] think at this point I'm kind of doubtful

[53:41] as it if it's going to sort of get a

[53:43] sort of widescale re-release unless it

[53:45] is super cheap to make because um um you

[53:49] know in the UK you can pick up a a 5060

[53:52] 8 gig model for I don't know about £260

[53:56] which I think is pretty good value

[53:59] certainly in the current climate. Um but

[54:02] Oliver I'm just kind of curious what you

[54:03] make of this uh um whole situation. It's

[54:07] kind of bizarre to resurrect a 5year-old

[54:10] graphics card, isn't it?

[54:11] >> Yeah. The comment the specific comment

[54:13] that you received from Nvidia CES was

[54:16] that like you said, these cards had

[54:18] never left production, which uh I'm I'm

[54:22] not sure how to square that with the

[54:23] fact that I don't really see any 3060s

[54:25] for sale at the moment, but apparently

[54:27] there are new cards coming from Manly.

[54:29] There's also a report that some limited

[54:30] supplies will be coming from apparently

[54:33] colorful ASUS, MSI, and Galax according

[54:36] to a rumor. So, that's an interesting

[54:38] Yeah, that's an interesting outcome that

[54:40] apparently was that was reported by

[54:41] Video Cards a little bit ago um uh about

[54:44] a month ago. So, I I will be curious to

[54:47] see what happens. I actually think these

[54:49] cards are a good match for the needs of

[54:52] modern games actually because they

[54:54] combine decent performance with 12 GB of

[54:58] frame buffer, you know, and good rate

[55:00] tracing performance and things like

[55:01] that. So, they're not quite at the level

[55:03] of like a current generation console

[55:05] necessarily in terms of rasterization

[55:07] performance, but they are just about

[55:09] there in terms of the performance that

[55:10] you need for modern games with enough

[55:12] frame buffer to back it up, right? and

[55:14] run your high settings, high hair, high

[55:17] textures, whatever. Run Indiana Jones

[55:18] with no great worries or corals should

[55:22] be fine. So, that's very positive in my

[55:25] view. But, yeah, I am curious to see

[55:27] where this goes. I'm not entirely sure

[55:30] where this supply is coming from. Maybe

[55:32] Nvidia had some spare parts. You never

[55:34] really know with supply because Nvidia

[55:36] could be producing cards and they could

[55:38] be holding on to them. They could have a

[55:40] backstock of cards. We don't really know

[55:42] what the production status is on these 8

[55:44] nmter cards from Samsung, right? Who

[55:46] knows what what's being produced at what

[55:48] times, but I actually think this would

[55:50] this is not the worst line to come back

[55:53] with the needs of modern games. I

[55:54] actually think this 3060 12 GB model has

[55:57] aged quite well. Now, uh 306 GB modu

[56:01] model I don't think has aged nearly as

[56:03] well unless you need like a u device

[56:05] that does not use external PC power,

[56:08] right? But it's still quite good for uh

[56:10] a device that does not use PCIe power,

[56:13] but 6 GB is not really good for anything

[56:16] but esports these days. 8 GB is really

[56:18] the minimum you would want to be at for

[56:20] current gen AAA software. And then 12 GB

[56:23] is much much more comfortable obviously

[56:24] for modern games.

[56:27] >> Mhm. Yeah. John, what do you make of

[56:28] this? I mean, here's the thing, right? I

[56:30] mean, it is 5 years old. Uh we should be

[56:32] considering it obsolete and yet

[56:35] 12 GB of RAM, that's a very very good

[56:37] thing. uh you've got DLSS obviously

[56:40] which is you know fantastic technology

[56:43] it works

[56:45] um and it may not be as powerful as a

[56:47] PlayStation 5 GPU but you've got better

[56:49] upscaling and you know obviously

[56:51] developers are trying to address like uh

[56:53] 1440p to 4K resolutions with PlayStation

[56:58] 5 via upscaling and the 3060 might be

[57:00] weaker but you know chances are it's

[57:02] going to be addressing 1080p and 1440p

[57:06] screens so I'd say But if the price is

[57:08] right, there's actually good reasons to

[57:12] to bring back the 3060. I mean, you

[57:14] know, it it still performs reasonably

[57:17] well. You know, it's not as if the

[57:19] feature set has disappeared. It is still

[57:21] supported via driver updates. It is like

[57:24] number one or number two in the Steam

[57:26] hardware survey. So, a lot of people are

[57:29] using these cards. I mean, if you're

[57:32] going to bring back some older GPUs,

[57:34] there are worse contenders.

[57:37] Indeed. Uh I just think it's funny that

[57:39] we can now pair a 3060 with a a newly

[57:43] re-released 5800 X3D and you build you

[57:48] you build a it's like building a retro

[57:50] PC in the modern and era. But

[57:54] >> uh I mean it does it does kind of feel

[57:56] like the requirements on games have kind

[58:00] of settled into largely like a I don't

[58:04] want to say a rut, but we've reached a

[58:05] point where even those older GPUs are

[58:07] still viable, which it's interesting to

[58:11] reflect on. It's probably good in terms

[58:13] of like value for customers. uh like in

[58:17] the early days of 3D cards or the 2000s,

[58:19] like you could never imagine like a

[58:21] 5-year-old graphics card still being

[58:23] viable in the face of new releases,

[58:25] right? Like just no way. Uh but

[58:28] obviously times have changed and uh

[58:30] given the cost of components. I mean,

[58:33] this is it's it's one way to go about

[58:35] it, I guess.

[58:36] >> Mhm. Yeah, I was just checking your

[58:38] dates there, and you're quite right.

[58:39] There's an uh 13month difference, I

[58:42] think. Uh maybe 14 month difference in

[58:44] the release date between the 3060 and

[58:46] the 5800 X3.

[58:47] >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They they're they're I

[58:50] remember them being a bit contemporary

[58:52] though. Usually if you get a 5800 X3D,

[58:54] you would have a higherend GPU, but

[58:55] still

[58:57] they're both aged hardware.

[59:00] >> Yeah, absolutely. I guess we just need

[59:02] to wait and see what the proliferation

[59:04] of these cars is going to be. But, you

[59:05] know, there are worse options. Um but

[59:08] similarly, we've had rumors this week

[59:10] and actually Will talked about it on the

[59:11] website about um the fact that the 50

[59:14] series super um Blackwell super cards

[59:18] with more memory may actually be

[59:19] launched next year um being announced at

[59:22] CES 2027 I guess. And um that would kind

[59:27] of like be a good thing. Um there have

[59:31] been rumors for some time that um there

[59:33] was going to be a 9 gigabyte version of

[59:35] the 50/50 and then there were rumors

[59:37] there's going to be a 9 gigabyte version

[59:38] of the 5060 and the way that that

[59:41] actually becomes a thing is that um

[59:43] instead of having four memory IC's on

[59:45] the board you have three and those three

[59:47] have higher capacities. Uh the problem

[59:50] being that obviously you're losing

[59:52] memory bandwidth because the the bus is

[59:54] uh cailed. Now, it kind of made sense

[59:56] for the 50/50 because they were going to

[59:58] swap out um GDDR6 memory for GDDR7,

[1:00:01] which is basically twice as fast. So,

[1:00:04] even though you've lost bandwidth on the

[1:00:05] bus, you're gaining it from the speed of

[1:00:07] the of the memory IS. Uh that product

[1:00:10] never seemed to come out and I kind of

[1:00:11] think that's a bit of a shame. And um

[1:00:14] yeah, similarly then the rumors of the 9

[1:00:16] GB 5060, you would have lost performance

[1:00:18] on that uh because it's already got G7,

[1:00:21] but um you would have had an extra

[1:00:23] gigabyte of memory. And what we've been

[1:00:25] seeing recently in terms of optimized

[1:00:28] settings for um 8 GB cards is that 8

[1:00:32] gigs is is kind of not good enough.

[1:00:36] >> But it often seems like 9 GB might be

[1:00:39] good enough. So, I was really hope I was

[1:00:42] really hoping to see that 5050 9 GB come

[1:00:45] out because it would it effectively

[1:00:46] offers 4060 performance, which is okay,

[1:00:50] but then you've got just a little bit of

[1:00:52] extra memory that would potentially

[1:00:54] allow for those higher quality textures

[1:00:56] to to come into play. But obviously, if

[1:01:00] there is going to be a 5060 Super that's

[1:01:02] 12 GB, well, happy days. Um it is kind

[1:01:05] of odd though Oliver that you know extra

[1:01:07] memory being offered

[1:01:10] extra memory being offered um in in uh

[1:01:14] when there's a memory crisis

[1:01:16] but I guess obviously it's down to the

[1:01:18] supply of these um 3 GB memory modules

[1:01:22] and maybe that has improved.

[1:01:24] >> Yeah. And maybe I mean with some of

[1:01:26] these products you don't you don't

[1:01:28] really know what the me the specifics of

[1:01:29] the memory market look like. like maybe

[1:01:31] there's a bit more supply for G6 modules

[1:01:34] for this RTX 3060 device. Like maybe

[1:01:37] that's actually viable to ship something

[1:01:39] with 12 GB or maybe they just have the

[1:01:41] allocation already bought and need to

[1:01:42] fill it somewhere, you know? Who knows

[1:01:45] exactly? Um but yeah, I would I would

[1:01:48] really hope to see the super series and

[1:01:50] if not the super series, then just

[1:01:52] something using these 3 GB modules

[1:01:54] because that seems like a really good

[1:01:55] way to allay some of these memory

[1:01:57] pressures that are facing modern games.

[1:01:59] 8 GB is not so comfortable in a lot of

[1:02:01] modern games. Um, you really have to go

[1:02:04] down in terms of the settings. You don't

[1:02:06] really want to be in a scenario where

[1:02:07] you're at a where you're at a worse

[1:02:09] memory capacity relative to consoles. I

[1:02:11] think historically speaking, that's

[1:02:12] actually not been a good way to go. And

[1:02:14] I think we're seeing that this

[1:02:15] generation, but like you said, kind of

[1:02:17] the pressures in terms of supply and

[1:02:19] pricing pushing you completely in the

[1:02:21] other direction are really not too

[1:02:24] attractive at the moment. So, I do hope

[1:02:26] we see that super series though, and I

[1:02:27] do hope we see these 3 GB module GPUs

[1:02:30] hit the market soon because they seem

[1:02:31] like a good mix for the current range of

[1:02:34] rendering challenges where maybe we're

[1:02:36] not so pushed on bandwidth, maybe we're

[1:02:38] not so pushed on compute or rate tracing

[1:02:40] capability, but we just need more frame

[1:02:42] buffer with these lowerend GPUs to be

[1:02:44] really comfortable.

[1:02:47] >> That's a point you've come up with quite

[1:02:48] a lot, John, which is basically, hey,

[1:02:50] today's hardware, it's actually pretty

[1:02:51] good. you know, when do we actually need

[1:02:55] new technology at this point?

[1:02:57] >> I, you know, I think about that a lot,

[1:02:59] especially on the high end, right? Like

[1:03:01] it feels like Nvidia put all their

[1:03:04] effort into hitting the 5090 and they're

[1:03:06] like, "Okay, that was too far. You got

[1:03:08] to back off,

[1:03:10] you know, and it just we've kind of been

[1:03:13] everybody's been settling for a lot

[1:03:14] less." Like it it's it's weird how how

[1:03:17] the market has changed and I guess the

[1:03:19] part shortage has a lot to do with it.

[1:03:20] So, in the spirit of that, Rich, when

[1:03:23] you go to a computer shop or even like

[1:03:25] Amazon or something, I still see a lot

[1:03:26] of cards like the RTX 3050, right?

[1:03:30] >> I even see the the GTX 1660 around,

[1:03:33] >> man.

[1:03:33] >> Do you want do you want to know what

[1:03:35] card kind of slots around that that that

[1:03:38] era? You know, that we maybe it's time

[1:03:39] to bring it back. Say it with me now.

[1:03:42] AMD Radeon Ride Fury X. It's time for

[1:03:48] the revival, baby. the 11-year

[1:03:50] anniversary.

[1:03:53] >> Oh dear. You've got an interesting uh

[1:03:56] obsession with the Fury X, haven't you,

[1:03:58] John?

[1:03:59] >> I do. I love the Fury X.

[1:04:01] >> The, you know, I'm sort of just sort of

[1:04:03] still harboring. I mean, the my sort of

[1:04:06] uh review of the Fury X, it was one of

[1:04:08] those situations where um the card comes

[1:04:11] in for review and um you have to keep

[1:04:14] benchmarking it because the results

[1:04:15] aren't as good as you think they're

[1:04:17] going to be or have been promised. And

[1:04:19] um you know I distinctly recall AMD

[1:04:22] saying it was going to be an

[1:04:22] overclocker's dream and it was unstable

[1:04:24] when I added 50 megahertz to the to the

[1:04:28] core. It was kind of like you know it

[1:04:31] happens a lot. It happened with the 1970

[1:04:33] GRE recently where my review was a day

[1:04:36] late because you know um it just didn't

[1:04:38] make sense. None of the results I got in

[1:04:41] made sense. It just looked like poor

[1:04:42] value. Why would you release a poor

[1:04:45] value when the press deck is coming up

[1:04:47] with, you know, value scenarios which

[1:04:49] make it look great? You know, you start

[1:04:51] to doubt your own sanity. Um, but what I

[1:04:54] will say is that pretty much in each and

[1:04:56] every time that this has happened, the

[1:04:58] the numbers are the numbers and it's

[1:05:00] just not a particularly great product.

[1:05:02] I got to say there, Rich, looking at the

[1:05:04] relative performance according to this

[1:05:06] chart, the G RTX5090 is 785%

[1:05:11] faster than the R9 Fury X,

[1:05:14] man. Cazy stuff.

[1:05:17] Okay, let's move on to our final news

[1:05:20] topic. Well, it's not a news topic as

[1:05:22] such. Um, obviously we now have via Will

[1:05:25] Jud a website that tells us what we were

[1:05:27] up to one year ago, 5 years ago, 10

[1:05:29] years ago. There's a lot of E3 stuff in

[1:05:31] there this week, perhaps not

[1:05:33] surprisingly, but John, um, you

[1:05:36] highlighted that

[1:05:38] it is five years ago that AMD released

[1:05:41] FSR1, uh, which is one of those periods

[1:05:44] of time, one of those pieces of content

[1:05:46] where, you know, you say things that

[1:05:48] actually are true, but people just don't

[1:05:50] want to accept it and, uh, you you end

[1:05:53] up getting hammered on social media and

[1:05:55] stuff like that. Poor old Alex had a bad

[1:05:57] time of it back in the day with FSR1

[1:05:59] because he told it, you know, he told it

[1:06:01] how it was or or how he saw it and um

[1:06:05] yeah um it turns out that it is a pretty

[1:06:08] basic upscaler and not particularly

[1:06:10] great and better things were to come

[1:06:12] from AMD. Um I mean five year five years

[1:06:15] on we're on FSR4. The gap has been

[1:06:17] closed with Nvidia effectively, but uh

[1:06:20] it certainly wasn't 5 years ago.

[1:06:23] Oh yeah, that that was an interesting

[1:06:25] time because people were and rightfully

[1:06:28] so looking for an answer to DLSS2

[1:06:31] because let's remember DLSS1 from 2018

[1:06:35] not good but DLSS2 by that point was

[1:06:39] excellent especially for the era and FSR

[1:06:42] was sort of rumored to be AMD's like

[1:06:45] sort of tackling of this uh whole like

[1:06:48] upsampling thing right but as we would

[1:06:51] later learn it really was never intended

[1:06:53] to be that. It was not a product that

[1:06:56] could compete with what DLSS had become

[1:06:58] and it wasn't built to do that either.

[1:07:01] Uh and I remember when Alex was first

[1:07:04] looking at it, he was just like

[1:07:06] >> like what is going on? This is really

[1:07:07] bad.

[1:07:08] >> Like he was he was not impressed. And it

[1:07:12] also forced him to play a lot of

[1:07:13] Godfall, which is a game nobody talks

[1:07:15] about anymore. If you remember, it was

[1:07:16] the era of Godfall.

[1:07:18] Uh but and that was I guess one of the

[1:07:21] first games to support it.

[1:07:23] >> But it turned out to just be a spatial

[1:07:25] upscaler with sharpening

[1:07:27] >> essentially. It wouldn't be until

[1:07:30] >> FSR2 is when they when they actually

[1:07:32] made the leap, right?

[1:07:33] >> Mhm. Yeah, there was a leap there, but

[1:07:35] even then, you know, FSR 2 was being

[1:07:37] called a DLSS killer and what it was a

[1:07:39] gigantic improvement, let's be clear

[1:07:41] here, but it wasn't a DLSS killer.

[1:07:43] >> No. Um, and in fact, you know, FSR4 has

[1:07:46] come along and it's quite interesting

[1:07:48] that while the quality is there, I don't

[1:07:50] think anybody's calling it a DLSS killer

[1:07:52] anymore, even when it's got the the

[1:07:54] greatest claim to actually being, you

[1:07:56] know, comparable technology. Really,

[1:07:59] really bizarre stuff.

[1:08:00] >> It's good. Yeah.

[1:08:01] >> Yeah. I mean, Oliver, um, you'd think 5

[1:08:05] years on FSR1 should be far away in the

[1:08:08] rear view mirror, but it's it's not, is

[1:08:10] it?

[1:08:11] >> No. No, it's not. And indeed with some

[1:08:13] of these Nintendo titles we uh tend to

[1:08:16] load up when we look at the IP notices

[1:08:18] in those titles is we often notice SMAA

[1:08:21] very common uh anti-aliasing technique

[1:08:23] that Nintendo likes but also FSR1 is

[1:08:26] very commonly named in those titles.

[1:08:29] Nintendo in particular loves to use FSR1

[1:08:31] to upscale their games. Capcom also

[1:08:34] still likes to use FSR1 quite a bit with

[1:08:36] their R engine titles. I think it was

[1:08:38] used in Pragmata as well as Resident

[1:08:40] Evil Reququum 2 very recent re engine

[1:08:42] titles. Um, which I think is interesting

[1:08:44] because perhaps the biggest problem with

[1:08:47] FSR1 doesn't really have to do with its

[1:08:49] actual quality. I think it just has to

[1:08:51] do with kind of convincing developers in

[1:08:54] some cases, hey, here's an alternative

[1:08:56] way of upscaling your game where you

[1:08:59] don't necessarily need temporal

[1:09:01] upscaling because I think temporal

[1:09:02] upscaling almost universally produces a

[1:09:04] better result. And some game engines

[1:09:06] like the RE engine are very capable of

[1:09:08] supporting it, right? But for some

[1:09:10] reason on PC and on consoles, um, Capcom

[1:09:13] and other developers seem to prefer

[1:09:15] FSR1. Maybe it's a little bit easier to

[1:09:17] work with, but for whatever reason, they

[1:09:19] stick with FSR1 and produce results that

[1:09:21] just aren't good enough in those titles.

[1:09:22] Um, but I do think it's an acceptable

[1:09:24] upscaler uh for spatial upscaling as

[1:09:27] long as you don't view it as Diosysis

[1:09:29] alternative, which is unfortunate

[1:09:30] because that's the way that Andy was

[1:09:32] marketing it at the time. they were

[1:09:33] marketing it as here's our alternative

[1:09:35] to DLSS. It wasn't remotely close to the

[1:09:38] quality of DLSS at that time and

[1:09:40] obviously it isn't now. Um it does also

[1:09:42] tend to produce kind of a certain

[1:09:44] stereotyped look to imagery that I don't

[1:09:47] really like necessarily when you look at

[1:09:48] it closely. It tends to smooth out

[1:09:51] edges. It tends to round out edges and

[1:09:53] produce almost kind of a slightly

[1:09:54] painterly look on the final image. can

[1:09:57] depend on the resolution of the source

[1:09:58] content and what you're upscaling to.

[1:10:00] But often times it produces a little bit

[1:10:02] of an ugly looking image I would suggest

[1:10:04] and in those cases I'd prefer a bilinear

[1:10:07] upscale. Honestly, I don't really need

[1:10:08] this kind of very artificial looking

[1:10:10] final resolve in my uh computer

[1:10:12] software. So I think it's been not so

[1:10:15] successful but you know looking on the

[1:10:16] bright side I think FSR2 is a big

[1:10:18] improvement. FSR3 still a further

[1:10:21] improvement on the analytical side of

[1:10:22] things. And then FSR4, FSR 4.1, and the

[1:10:26] enhanced version of PSSR. Those are all

[1:10:29] greatly improved versions of this kind

[1:10:32] of upscaling family that do produce a

[1:10:34] meaningfully improved image with the

[1:10:36] full detail you'd expect from a high

[1:10:38] resolution image. So there's been a lot

[1:10:41] of improvements in the space, but it's

[1:10:42] unfortunate in 2026 to still have to

[1:10:45] talk about. FSR1 is a contemporary piece

[1:10:47] of rendering technology because so many

[1:10:49] developers continue to use it and don't

[1:10:51] I don't think it's the right solution

[1:10:52] for most titles.

[1:10:54] >> Yeah, it was um a particular pain point

[1:10:57] in Pragmata and um Resident Evil Recreum

[1:11:01] to the point where you kind of wonder

[1:11:02] why Capcom did it.

[1:11:05] It's kind of a bit weird there. Yeah, I

[1:11:08] mean there were some good things about

[1:11:09] it, right? you know, open source. Um,

[1:11:11] you know, that was something that AMD

[1:11:13] was very very heavily invested, still

[1:11:15] heavily invested in, but obviously, um,

[1:11:18] FSR4, I'm not sure of the extent to

[1:11:20] which ML stuff there can actually

[1:11:22] transfer to other GPUs, but you know,

[1:11:25] FSR2 obviously gained a lot of, um, uh,

[1:11:28] traction across many many systems. Um,

[1:11:30] so, you know, that that was a sort of

[1:11:32] useful legacy, so to speak. But, you

[1:11:34] know, all paths seem to be converging

[1:11:36] now on machine learning. Although, you

[1:11:38] know, there are still um some some

[1:11:40] pretty impressive uh uh temporal

[1:11:42] solutions out there. Um yeah,

[1:11:46] that's all we really got to say about

[1:11:48] that one. Um any final words on that

[1:11:50] one John?

[1:11:52] >> Uh just it's I'm it's become a bit of a

[1:11:55] scourge and I wish that uh Japan had

[1:11:57] never been made aware of the existence

[1:11:59] of one. A lot of those developers are

[1:12:01] the only ones that seem to hang on to it

[1:12:03] when there's just better, less ugly

[1:12:06] upscaling solutions that are just as

[1:12:09] cheap or cheaper

[1:12:11] >> out there. Well, it is very, very cheap.

[1:12:13] That's the thing. I think that's the

[1:12:14] reason Capcom are using it. It was in

[1:12:17] Hogwarts as well.

[1:12:18] >> Hogwarts Legacy used FSR1. Yeah. Quite a

[1:12:20] bit. Um, now on the PS5 Pro version, it

[1:12:23] uses PSSR one, which then you can

[1:12:25] upgrade to PSSR 2 using the override.

[1:12:28] But yeah, it uses FSR1. and all the

[1:12:30] console versions which does lend it

[1:12:32] again a bit of that kind of painterly

[1:12:33] look. You can kind of spot it from a

[1:12:35] mile away once you're trained on it. You

[1:12:37] can really spot that heavily upscale.

[1:12:39] >> Yeah.

[1:12:40] >> Yeah. I think you know back in the day

[1:12:42] some of the push back against Alex's um

[1:12:44] analysis was it, you know, he did an

[1:12:46] image quality analysis and he wasn't

[1:12:48] particularly concerned about the frame

[1:12:49] rate boosts that you get. And you did

[1:12:51] get big frame rate boosts from FSR1

[1:12:53] because it doesn't do much and it's

[1:12:55] effectively running the game at a lower

[1:12:56] resolution. Right. Yes. And Alex wasn't

[1:12:59] particularly concerned about that

[1:13:00] because that wasn't his particular

[1:13:02] focus. Alex is like, well, it's so super

[1:13:05] PCentric, but I can tell everyone here

[1:13:07] that he just doesn't care about

[1:13:08] benchmarks that much. You know, it's

[1:13:11] he's interested in the in the

[1:13:13] experience. I remember there was um I

[1:13:16] think it was uh when we did XESS,

[1:13:19] um we had the first look at XESS

[1:13:21] upscaling. gave it a pretty good review,

[1:13:23] but Intel were asking me, you know, um,

[1:13:26] you know, how do how can we make sure

[1:13:27] Alex is isn't going to benchmark the

[1:13:29] card cuz it's not out yet. And I'm sort

[1:13:31] of saying to them, look, Alex has no

[1:13:33] interest in knowing what this precise

[1:13:36] benchmarks of your new GPU are

[1:13:38] whatsoever. He's really is focused on

[1:13:39] the experience here and what XSS is

[1:13:42] delivering. But yeah, I mean, um,

[1:13:45] interesting to see what the DF Time

[1:13:46] Machine is bringing up here. Um, it's a

[1:13:48] website that will put together and uh,

[1:13:51] yeah, just it's wall to-wall E3 stuff.

[1:13:53] Otherwise, going back 10 years, Zelda

[1:13:55] Breath of the Wild, Wii U E3 frame rate

[1:13:59] test, and those favorites work great

[1:14:01] from what I remember. And, uh, yeah, we

[1:14:03] were looking at Days Gone on PS4. E3

[1:14:06] demo performance wasn't great. It got a

[1:14:09] lot better. Yeah, crazy stuff. Um, we

[1:14:12] shall continue with our retrospectives

[1:14:13] though cuz as well we really enjoyed

[1:14:15] going back and uh re revisiting some of

[1:14:18] those older stories and sharing some of

[1:14:19] the anecdotes from back in the day. But

[1:14:22] that is the end of this particular

[1:14:23] episode of DF Direct. Hope you enjoyed

[1:14:25] it. Uh, like, subscribe, share if you

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[1:14:31] Early access to the direct. That's great

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[1:14:39] free video downloads, high quality video

[1:14:40] downloads, lots of great stuff there.

[1:14:42] But that's all from us on this one.

[1:14:44] Thanks for watching and supporting

[1:14:46] Digital Foundry. And we guess we'll see

[1:14:48] you next week. Cheers.