Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

Alert status is elevated to GEOFFCON 1 as we react to the major reveals - and other games that caught our attention - at The Game Awards 2024. What can we learn from The Witcher 4's cinematic trailer and the RTX 5090 that powered it? Is Intergalactic from Naughty Dog really rendering in real-time at 4K 60 with ray tracing? How good does Mafia: The Old Country look and just how wonderful was Split Fiction? Does Elden Ring Nightreign exhibit any evidence of technical progression whatsoever? All this and more in the new Direct, plus Oliver's analysis of the new PS5 Pro updates for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:25 News 1: The Game Awards 2024 - The Witcher 4 0:15:07 Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet 0:30:04 Split Fiction 0:37:33 Elden Ring Nightreign 0:42:57 Mafia: The Old Country 0:47:53 John’s picks: Ninja Gaiden, Virtua Fighter, Project Century, Turok. Onimusha, Okami, new GenDesign game 1:01:20 Oliver’s picks: FF7R PC, TLOU Pt 2 PC, Screamer, Sonic Racing 1:13:50 News 2: Avatar and Star Wars Outlaws PS5 Pro fixes tested! 1:26:31 News 3: LG discontinues Blu-Ray players 1:40:30 Supporter Q1: Will Doom: The Dark Ages have the same RT features as Indiana Jones? And should id Tech be licensed to other developers? 1:47:27 Supporter Q2: Why isn’t there a Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro patch? 1:52:05 Supporter Q3: Should we be concerned about the Arc B580’s die size? 1:59:03 Supporter Q4: What would a hypothetical Arc B770 look like? 2:06:58 Supporter Q5: If Geoff was to give an award for game engine utilization, who would win? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a new, gigantor-scale edition of DF Direct Weekly, John and Rich celebrate PlayStation's 30th Anniversary, Alex joins to discuss Indiana Jones on PC with its 'actually quite reasonable' specs, while Oliver and Tom discuss potential Steam Machines, Lenovo Legion Go S, the latest Intel GPU announcements, Warhammer 40K Darktide on PS5 and Pro and... much, much more! 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:14 News 1: Sony celebrates PlayStation’s 30th anniversary 0:24:09 News 2: Valve branding guidelines suggest third party SteamOS hardware 0:37:05 News 3: Black Ops 6 on PS5 Pro tested + developer info! 0:48:48 News 4: Intel reveals B580, B570 GPUs 0:58:28 News 5: Lenovo Legion Go S leaks 1:09:44 News 6: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide PS5 Pro tested 1:25:29 News 7: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reaction! 1:46:23 Supporter Q1: Is the industry finally moving to mandatory hardware RT? 1:54:50 Supporter Q2: Can Microsoft minimize hassles if they move towards Windows for their console releases? 2:03:05 Supporter Q3: For midrange GPUs, is it better to use temporal upscaling to 1440p or 4K? 2:10:23 Supporter Q4: Will Switch 2 games output to 720p or 900p in portable mode for performance reasons? 2:17:18 Supporter Q5: Will upcoming portable consoles be supported like the Series S? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another gigantic edition of DF Direct Weekly sees Rich, Alex and John tackle the PlayStation Handheld rumours (no, it won't run native PS5 games), problems with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's PS5 Pro patch, updates to Star Wars Outlaws and the outrageously 'familiar' Light of Motiram - featuring the four horsemen of the gaming apocalypse. Rich and Alex have high hopes for Intel's B580 GPU, while John has much to say about Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary and the recently released Dynasty Warriors Origins demo. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:19 News 1: Potential portable PlayStation in development 0:18:08 News 2: Avatar PS5 Pro patch shows PSSR struggles 0:31:25 News 3: Star Wars Outlaws patch brings PC fixes 0:37:47 News 4: Intel Arc B580 GPU leaked 0:49:42 News 5: Light of Motiram takes heavy Horizon inspiration 1:00:47 News 6: Valve celebrates Half-Life 2 20th anniversary with update, new documentary 1:19:42 News 7: Dynasty Warriors Origins demo drops 1:25:31 News 8: Highlighting Brazil Pixel 1:36:33 Supporter Q1: Will CD Projekt Red be able to fix UE5 stuttering? 1:44:08 Supporter Q2: How will Microsoft configure their business if Steam can run on Xbox? 1:51:21 Supporter Q3: Why does Windows 11 cause so many headaches? 2:01:58 Supporter Q4: Why haven’t we heard more about a PS5 Pro patch for Black Myth: Wukong? 2:07:45 Supporter Q5: How does Nintendo avoid technical issues in their games? 2:14:19 Supporter Q6: What would a theoretical PS3 Pro look like? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PSSR on PS5 Pro: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - what's actually going on? Rich, Oliver and Alex discuss, before moving on to a look at Silent Hill 2's latest Pro update... which removes PSSR in its performance mode. Rich has some interesting findings from Assassin's Creed Syndicate's new 60 frames per second upgrade, along with a look at the latest iteration of PlayStation Portal - including direct cloud streaming support. And Oliver has some favourable impressions from the unexpected but rather cool Pro upgrade for The Callisto Protocol. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:05 News 1: PS5 Pro PSSR issues analyzed 0:29:50 News 2: Silent Hill 2 patch tested: PSSR dropped! 0:39:02 News 3: STALKER 2 suffers launch woes 0:51:04 News 4: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate gets current-gen patch 1:02:23 News 5: Sony in talks to acquire From Software 1:12:34 News 6: PlayStation Portal updated with cloud streaming support 1:22:57 News 7: Callisto Protocol PS5 Pro patch released! 1:32:36 Supporter Q1: Are there any Nvidia graphics cards for $400 or less that are good deals? 1:42:29 Supporter Q2: When there are glaring performance issues in a game, what do you chalk them up to? 1:50:24 Supporter Q3: Why do games often offer so many console modes when one of them is clearly optimal? 1:57:13 Supporter Q4: Are you feeling Unreal Engine 5 fatigue? 2:01:29 Supporter Q5: Will Microsoft bring Xbox backwards compatibility to PC? 2:10:39 Supporter Q6: Which vaporware is better: Blast Processing or “the power of the cloud”? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices