super84trooper

@Llamageddon Thank you! Trust me, as a long time Skyrim and Star Wars fan no one is hoping that the game will finally measure up more than me… I generally have quite a high tolerance for Bethesda jank, but things like no surface maps, no land vehicles and space travel through loading screens were just too weird design choices for me to ignore.

@Llamageddon Yeah I copy-pasted this datapoint directly from OpenCritic, and as said it includes to my understanding all games reviewed on the platform (not just high-profile releases, but I would assume that they have some sort of a filter for the worst spam that gets released on Steam). And also agree on the relative performance compared to other major releases in 2023 in that it wasn’t quite in the same league: in 2023 Game Awards it received only one nomination which is considerably less than the heavy hitters that year (lead by BG3 which got 9). And this was my underlying point that it is not and most likely never will be a masterpiece like BG3 or AW2 (that for 8 nominations) were, but compared to all games that are reviewed on OpenCritic at least calling it ”just average” or ”poor” for example is perhaps a bit misleading.

But it is ultimately all down to personal preference and what kind of quality criteria and thresholds each of us sets for the games we play! For me personally, when Starfield launched I skipped it exactly because the quality wasn’t high enough compared to the other blockbusters released that year. Now I think it might be if Free Lanes really does what it says on the box. Looking forward to the reviews to see how far we actually have come in the last 2.5 years and decide then.

@lazarus11 I thought with this game it was the other way around: that the beginning is dull but after 10 hours it starts to get interesting? Based on reviews again, have yet to play it myself.

Looking forward to this!

And to anyone interested in the game who is due to the internet sentiment wondering if the game is just ”mediocre”: objectively, it is not. Starfield was ranked in the 95th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic, and that was as at the time of launch, before any post-launch updates. It is not Red Dead Redemption or Bloodborne style earth-shattering amazing, but still (again without personal preference factors) a very, very good game.

@Ma53 I tried Jedi Survivor quickly! The biggest issue which was the foliage lighting is completely fixed as far as I am able to tell. Image quality overall is much better, especially when standing still the level of detail is much higher. When moving around I could see perhaps a tiny bit of artifacting in the grass? But nothing really noticeable during normal gameplay, I only saw it in some scenes if I really focused on it. Overall a big improvement

@Reeneman OK thanks I had missed this! So it is just the toggle then?

Does anybody know if AW2 and Control got their patches yet?

Baldur’s Gate 3: This already had a really good PSSR implementation and, unsurprisingly, still looks great. Sharp and stable image but no major change to my eye.

The Last of Us Part 2: The PSSR implementation was already good, now it is even better. The slight film grain effect is totally gone. Really sharp and detailed image, looks very 4k. I noticed some very slight artifacting in tree branches against the sky in Jackson, other than that image quality looked flawless.

Gran Turismo 7: Basically all the issues with the PSSR implementation are gone. Image is not only better than before, but I like it better than the 4k + TAA; this looks sharper and more detailed. Powelines look a lot more stable than before. Found one flickering antenna (note: PSSR2 may have issues with antennas specifically). Overall, clear win and my new favourite way to play GT7.

Star Wars Jedi Survivor: The jump in the level of detail is insane! Foliage looks so good when standing still, and the ugly flickering effect is completely gone! Some small artifacting in grass when moving sideways, but hard to tell unless you are focusing on it. So especially when not moving, clear jump in image quality; when moving around some minor breakup, if you use motion blur you likely won’t notice.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Fidelty mode with fps unlocked): Really stable image, excellent texture detail. I’d call the image quality flawless from a normal viewing distance, managed to find one antenna far in the distance that was flickering slightly. RT reflections look clean, so upscaling doesn’t seem to introduce noticeable instability or anything. No visible performance improvements: the few stress test areas that drop the fps still do.

If someone is interested, I’ll be testing some PSSR-titles tonight and post my impressions here. Starting with

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Really clean and stable image. Particle effects like snow are resolved cleanly. Ray traced reflections look surprisingly good, as do textures! Hair on the collar of Miles’s jacket still flickers. Fps 70-80, so pretty much the same as before. If someone told me this was native 4k, I would believe.

@SystemAddict Agree, but for the devs that are willing to go back and do a full PSSR2 update for their game I would think there are big opportunities for performance improvements, if you can for example get a more stable and detailed image while lowering the internal resolution from say 1440p to 1080p. Interesting to see which developers go the extra distance.

@SystemAddict Based on the extensive 2 minutes testing both games seemed to run the same. Also DF gave yesterday their early impressions that the performance cost of PSSR2 should pretty much match with PSSR1, and for the time being I have no reason to believe this would not be the case

And to continue, I just quickly tried Spider-Man 2 (like 30 seconds before work), the image quality is even better than in the first game. Very 4k-like. I am not DF of course but these are my very first impressions

FYI I really quickly tested the toggle with Marvel’s Spider-Man and at least the image stability seems to be massively improved. The film grain effect and distant aliasing are just gone. Some very minor flickering remains in some distant objects, but to me it is a huge jump in image quality, 98% of the things that annoyed me in PSSR1 in this game are fixed.

I have been trying to decide whether I think exclusives are a good thing or not. I don’t get any value from someone not being able to play the game, I think it’s more the merrier. However, I do think (an I may be overly optimistic in this day and age) that exclusives give the proper incentive to make games that are so good that they become genuine system sellers. They don’t just need to justify paying the 80€ price tag, they need to justify buying an entire console. And for that the quality needs to be 10/10. If this is what happens, exclusivity gets my approval.

I miss Batman games so much I would pay decent price for the entire Arkham saga running 4k@60 with HDR. It seems such an obvious way for them to make a quick buck to finance other projects, no idea why we haven’t gotten it yet. Here’s hoping!

It is exactly crap like this why live service games are hated. You take honestly one of the most talented game studios that has the magic skill to push out 10/10 experiences consistently, then you force them to do a live service game and when it surprise surprise doesn't work you shut them down entirely.

I am so mad about this, and this makes no sense whatsoever no matter which way I look at it. This is like almost a crime against gaming as an art form. Sony, get your stuff together before you end up closing Naughty Dog or something next.