Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

The Digital Foundry team amass to discuss Sony's acquisition of Bungie, Destiny remaining multi-platform, DLSS arriving for Flight Simulator along with the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Switch. And what's the score with Dying Light 2's resolution reaction?

00:00:00 Introductions 00:00:33 Sony buys Bungie 00:15:22 DLSS coming to Flight Simulator 00:19:56 Switch is the fastest selling console of all-time 00:27:25 Bloodborne "PSX Demake" releases 00:31:50 Team17 pledges support for NFT, cancels support for NFT 1 hour later 00:40:51 DF Content Discussion: Dying Light 2 00:50:26 DF Supporter Q1: Do you believe that games on the next generations of consoles from Sony and Microsoft will rely mostly on ray tracing for rendering graphics? 00:52:56 DF Supporter Q2: Do you think the Steam Deck would be capable of becoming a portable 60fps PS3 thanks to the emulator RCPS3? 00:55:55 DF Supporter Q3: How does id Tech 7 avoid the shader compilation stutter issues we see in Unreal Engine games? 00:58:36 DF Supporter Q4: Does DLSS work with Dynamic Resolution? 01:02:05 DF Supporter Q5: When developers get a idea of what hardware will be in next-gen consoles? 01:07:58 DF Supporter Q6: Local hardware combined with cloud based hardware = Super hardware?

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What's going on with Call of Duty on PS5 following the Microsoft acquisition of Activision? What actually happened when Alex Battaglia discovered that Crysis 4 is in development? Just how good does the Resident Evil 4 HD mod look? The answers to these questions and many more are to be found in DF Direct Weekly #46 with Rich Leadbetter, Alex Battaglia and John Linneman on mic duties.

00:00:00 Introductions 00:00:31 Activision/Microsoft continued 00:08:12 Crysis 4 announcement 00:12:57 DF Bonus Supporter Q: Crysis 4 get its own "parallax sand" moment? If so, what are your predictions on what Crytek will bring to the table? 00:16:13 New Black Myth Wukong dev diary 00:20:27 Resident Evil 4 HD Project will see release Feb 2 00:24:18 Epic Games Incubates New Studio in Poland 00:28:00 DF Content Discussion: Uncharted PS5 00:39:41 DF Supporter Q1: Would Sony be able to shrink the PlayStation 4 into a handheld form and have it play the entire PS4 library? 00:43:23 DF Supporter Q2: If Nvidia released an RTX 40xx series graphics card tomorrow, which games or tech demos in your current library would you want to test first? 00:52:54 DF Supporter Q3: Rich, when can we expect more 4K on a budget? 01:02:23 DF Supporter Q4: I've seen rumors that Sony is looking to add backwards compatibility of some sort for PS1, PS2, and PS3 to the PS5. How would you like to see Sony handle this? 01:09:28 DF Supporter Q5: With our move to a post-resolution future, what are some games that you think *do* benefit from a native resolution? 01:12:06 DF Supporter Q6: Do you think another player could (or even should) enter the console market as it is today?

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Audi, Alex and John take on this dramatic week of news as we further reflect on the ongoing Microsoft/Activision rumblings, the dreadful AMD RX6500 XT launch, Cloud only gaming on the switch, Diablo II DRM and even a bit of Netflix and chill. All this and more in DF Direct Weekly!

00:00:00 Introductions 00:00:56 Microsoft/Activision 00:16:11 Horizon Forbidden West Story trailer (no spoilers) 00:20:27 Diablo II Remastered DRM troubles 00:26:22 AMD RX6500 XT 00:35:30 Kingdom Hearts on Switch, could only, $90 00:43:16 Cuphead coming to Netflix, Shenmue The Animation debuts Feb 00:48:13 Final Fantasy 7 classic version gets native 60fps support 00:54:30 DF Content Discussion: John's Big Rig 01:08:37 DF Content Discussion: Patreon content plans 01:11:27 DF Content Discussion: PC Time Capsules 01:14:53 DF Supporter Q1: With the upcoming Steam Deck I fear that it will flop because of availability issues. What are your thoughts on this? 01:17:23 DF Supporter Q2: Is there any hope for Xbox in the Japanese territory? 01:22:59 DF Supporter Q3: What are the chances that old Activision titles like Deadpool, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Out of the Shadows and the Transformers games by High Moon Studios will be relisted for PC again? 01:26:19 DF Supporter Q4: Take a favorite game of any genre, now have it remade in a completely different one. 01:29:50 DF Supporter Q5: Anything you guys looking forward to with HDMI 2.1a? 01:31:10 DF Supporter Q6: Do you think that Microsoft's acquisitions will eventually include major tv and film content? 01:33:28 DF Supporter Q7: Alex, what is the game box to the left of the white Quake box behind you?

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Huge news shaking the core of the games industry today as Microsoft seemingly out of nowhere announced their acquisition of Activision/Blizzard/King, hot on the heels of them already adding Bethesda to their Xbox family. Audi Sorlie, Alex Battaglia and John Linneman enter the war room to discuss what this could potentially mean for Microsoft and the video game industry itself.

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Rich, Alex and Will take to the mics for DF Direct Weekly #44, talking about extended lifespans for last-gen consoles, a lacklustre patch for Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PC, more woes from the PC hardware market and an interesting solution for getting Fortnite back on iOS devices...

00:00:00 Introductions

00:00:38 Is Sony Dealing With PlayStation 5 Shortages by Making More PS4s?

00:04:59 Square Patches Final Fantasy 7 Remake PC

00:13:21 GeForce 3080 12GB is causing problems

00:21:16 Fortnite back on iOS via GeForce Now

00:26:42 DF Content Discussion: Will's Weird Tech

00:34:18 DF Content Discussion: Quake Remastered

00:37:17 DF Content Discussion: God of War PC discussion

00:45:30 DF Supporter Q1: Recent reports suggests Series S sales may be outpacing Series X. What does this mean for the future development environment of the Series X?

00:52:06 DF Supporter Q2: Hypothetically, if VRR was to become the norm and every modern display had support for it, what sort of frame rates do you think developers should target?

00:58:13 DF Supporter Q3: Hi DF, do you expect the continuing chip shortages to result in cross gen releases persisting for the majority of major releases through to the end of 2022?

01:02:43 DF Supporter Q4: Have you ever had discussions about colour grading in games with devs?

01:06:10 DF Supporter Q5: How plausible is Half Life Alyx on PSVR2 according to your crystal balls (of steel)? Any inside knowledge, rumor confirmation?

01:07:04 DF Supporter Q6: Why do more PC games not just do the shader compilation in advance?

01:12:00 DF Supporter Q7: Would the DF team consider exploring the topic of integrated graphics for gaming in a future episode?

01:15:04 DF Supporter Q8: What title coming out in 2022 are you looking forward to the most from a tech perspective?

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DF Direct Weekly is back for 2022, with John Linneman, Alex Battaglia and Rich Leadbetter emerging from the holiday break to regale you with almost eighty-seven minutes of the latest tech and gaming news.

00:00:00 Introductions

00:00:34 CES 2022: OLED & QDLED News

00:11:25 CES 2022: AMD & Nvidia Conferences

00:23:48 CES 2022: BMW iX colour changing car & Sony Vision

00:28:08 CES 2022: Intel Conference

00:32:11 Square Enix announces intent to go into NFT and blockchain

00:40:59 Xbox Dev Mode gets "shut down", though not really.

00:45:25 Alan Wake Remastered Adds Auto HDR Support on Xbox Series S|X

00:49:31 DF Content Discussion: 2022 plans and resolutions

01:00:27 DF Content Discussion: GOTYS

01:02:56 DF Supporter Q1: Why do you feel gaming has never taken off on Mac?

01:08:47 DF Supporter Q2: I'm curious if we'll ever see a DF Retro H20 part 3?

01:16:18 DF Supporter Q3: What are your thoughts on the current state of AAA gaming, and what are your thoughts on the future of AAA gaming?

01:19:57 DF Supporter Q4: Is it possible that PSVR2 could be the leading platform for the most cutting edge VR experiences for the next few years?

01:22:26 DF Supporter Q5: From listening to the DF crew talk about ray tracing I gather that it is somewhat of an endgame in terms of real time lighting techniques. I wonder, is there anything that raytracing fundamentally can't do?

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Rich Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia sit down at the end of 2021 to discuss the first full year of the new console generation. Have PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S lived up to expectations? What to make of the platform comparisons one year in? Does Series S deliver?

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Join Alex Battaglia and John Linneman for an extended discussion on the best game graphics of 2021. There've been some amazing visuals this year - remarkable achievements from the first year of the 'next-gen' consoles, and all delivered in the Covid era, no less. Please note: Flight Simulator would definitely have made the list, but remember that it was first released in 2020 - and we talked about it in depth in the Best Game Graphics of 2020!

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Join Alex Battaglia, John Linneman and Tom Morgan for Digital Foundry's last DF Direct of the year! The team share their views on first media assets of Horizon Zero Dawn on the base PS4, there's reaction to the brilliant new Xbox documentary, Nightdive Studios shows off their System Shock remake, plus of course, there's more DF content discussion and Supporter questions!

00:00:00 Introductions

00:01:14 Horizon Forbidden West PS4 version revealed

00:06:24 Colour plates for PS5

00:09:44 Xbox Documentary impressions

00:24:43 Nightdive shows off System Shock

00:28:50 Psygnosis co-founder Ian Hetherington passes away

00:34:33 PC Gamer lists 18 games not available digitally

00:48:16 Splinter Cell is back, BABY

00:52:32 DF Content Discussion: Game of the Year videos

00:54:02 DF Content Discussion: 12 Days of Phoenix Games

00:57:22 DF Supporter Q1: How much better do you think DLSS can get over time?

01:00:25 DF Supporter Q2: Any backlog games that you guys are planning to play/finish during the holidays?

01:04:33 DF Supporter Q3: John, you've been preaching about using the BFI-mode on the LG CX and setting it up properly using ColorControl PC software. Do you have some sort of walkthrough at hand on how to set this up?

01:08:20 DF Supporter Q4: Do you think the emergence of more super detailed and realistic game worlds we'll see the emergence of titles that centre around virtual tourism and simple exploration?

01:12:44 DF Supporter Q5: When will we get the next big leap for rendering foliage?

01:19:12 DF Supporter Q6: I’d like to ask if you thought of adding a film grain filter percentage as a new way to measure clarity?

01:23:40 DF Supporter Q7: Why is Genesis/Mega Drive audio so hard for emulators to get right?

01:29:31 DF Supporter Q8: Is Parasite Eve a Christmas game or is it a game that's set during the Christmas season?

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In the immediate aftermath of The Game Awards, it's John Linneman, Alex Battaglia and Rich Leadbetter at the mics to talk about the new trailers, the continual evolution of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC plus... what's going on with Sony's plans to compete against Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass? 00:00:00 Introductions 00:00:33 The Game Awards reaction 00:21:18 Horizon Zero Dawn gets DLSS 00:32:22 PlayStation rumoured to make new subscription service 00:44:23 Bulk Slash English translation releases 00:46:08 DF Content Discussion: Halo Infinite and the physical disc situation 01:03:00 DF Content Discussion: Christmas content 01:05:56 DF Supporter Q1: Tom's videos say "XBOX ONE" while everyone else goes with "XBOX ONE S". Is it fair to assume Tom's the only one using OG Durango? 01:07:12 DF Supporter Q2: What is the general level of support for surround sound setups in modern games? 01:11:09 DF Supporter Q3: How useful is dynamic resolution scaling? 01:14:16 DF Supporter Q4: Why do devs tend to limit dynamic resolution bounds so much? 01:20:19 DF Supporter Q5: Do you foresee more developers making use of or at the very least allowing users to play their games at above 60fps in cases where perhaps 120fps is not feasible? 01:23:23 DF Supporter Q6: Do you think poor response times of commercial LCD televisions at the time helped standardise 30fps during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era? 01:28:37 DF Supporter Q7: What is everyone's favourite ever controller?

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