Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

This week, Rich is joined by Alex and Oliver to discuss a range of topics, including the Unrecord footage that's gone 'viral', the launch of the first Unreal Engine 5.1 title outside of Fortnite to use Lumen and Nanite, and the arrival of the Horizon Burning Shores DLC - which looks amazing. Meanwhile, discover why Digital Foundry won't be doing another office tour and learn about Rich's 'cone of...

Rich, Alex and Oliver sit down for the latest DF Direct Weekly, discussing the controversial move for Microsoft to ship Redfall at 30fps with a performance mode to follow, along with confirmation that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justive League is getting a length delay. The team muse over the implications of Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive changing the face of PC graphics in future games, while the thir...

Rumours of a new PlayStation portable streaming device dominated the news this week, supplanting the actual reveal of the ultra-powerful Asus ROG Ally, first revealed on - believe it or not - April Fools Day. Meanwhile, John is seriously unhappy about Microsoft blocking emulation on Xbox Series consoles, while the applications of AI tools and the concept of affordable GPUs prompts further debate....

We're not angry, we're just disappointed. And a touch baffled. Stupefied even. And actually, yeah, maybe a bit angry too. Just how did The Last of Us Part 1 launch on PC in the state it did? John, Rich and Alex discuss their impressions on the game, what went wrong with the port - and whether Sony should have launched it in this state at all. Meanwhile, it's a sad, sad day as E3 2023 is cancelled...

It's GDC week, with Alex, Rich and John discussing the big news from the latest events, including some exciting new Unreal Engine 5 developments, plus Nvidia's latest innovations in real-time path-traced gaming. Meanwhile, the team isn't that impressed by Elden Ring's RT upgrade, while EA's decision to delete a bunch of excellent Battlefield games doesn't go down particularly well either. 00:00:0...

John, Alex and Will take to the mics this week to discuss the possibilities of some exciting iterations on gaming favourites. Do the recent reports of a PS5 Pro make sense? What about an OLED Steam Deck? And if Counter-Strike is so great, why isn't there a Counter-Strike 2? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:24 News 01: Resident Evil 4 impressions! 00:13:53 News 02: PS5 Pro - is it coming? 00:25:01 News...

A big week of news to discuss, with Oliver, Rich and Alex talking about Starfield's latest announcement and 'delay', plus the story that Suicide Squad will be pushed back in order to address the negative reaction to its State of Play gameplay reveal. Meanwhile, the COD war between Microsoft and Sony continues - and Halo Infinite on PC receives RT support. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:52 News 01: St...

Baldur's Gate 3 isn't exclusive to any particular console, but right now, the Xbox versions are facing a unique problem that could impact the future of Series S. Meanwhile, John, Rich and Tom discuss the latest FF16 footage, the fate of Luminous Productions, Nvidia's new video AI upscaler and the impressive Humanity demo on PS5. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:45 News 01: Baldur’s Gate 3 hits Series S...

In a massive 100th Special Edition, DF Direct Weekly delivers the biggest show to date, with all current serving members of Digital Foundry at the mics. John, Alex, Rich and Audi take point on the main news stories of the week, joined by Tom, Will and Oliver for a gigantic supporter Q+A 'AMA' special. Thanks for watching and listening to the show over the last couple of years! 00:00:00 Introductio...

We join John, Rich and Alex in the immediate wake of the PSVR2 review period, further discussing the hardware, talking games and answering supporter questions. Rich and Alex investigate a tip-off that DLSS is accessible on select Nvidia non-RTX GPUs in Cyberpunk 2077, while John and Rich discuss issues with games they looked at outside of work hours - Wild Hearts on PC and the new Tales of Symphon...

A big week for news as the first phase of Sony's PlayStation VR2 embargo decloaks, meaning we can take the hardware out of its box and offer first impressions on the headset and controllers! Meanwhile. the latest Nintendo Direct turns out to be a bit of a banger - Pikmin 4 takes centrestage, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gets a new trailer and the brilliant Metroid Prime Remastered gets a surprise '...

It's time for another round of Digital Foundry Direct Weekly, on this occasion featuring the technical stylings of Sam Machkovech, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia. On the docket this week: layoffs at Halo developer 343 Industries amid a rumoured switch to Unreal Engine 5, a new PS5 beta firmware and is it 'safe' to move to Windows 11 on a gaming rig? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:53 News 01: Halo d...

At Digital Foundry, we've been complaining about gaming events - and the way games are shown - for years... but you know what? Microsoft's Developer_Direct cracks it, with only one more aspect required to make the format almost perfect. But what's not perfect? The release of Forspoken, especially on PC. John, Rich and Alex are at the mics to discuss all of this - and more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00...

A packed week of news as John, Rich and Alex discuss the elevated min specs for the PC versions of Forspoken and Returnal, which beg the question: ARE MIN SPECS OUT OF CONTROL?!11 Meanwhile, Stadia finally dies, while GeForce Now 4080 arrives to demonstrate that high-end cloud gaming can actually work.   00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:58 News 01: Forspoken and Returnal PC requirements detailed 00:21:...

The big topic of the moment - has Nintendo Switch hit its limits? Is performance not good enough anymore and do we need a next-gen successor? John, Rich and Alex share their thoughts on the current Switch and a prospective replacement model. The team also discuss Microsoft's new Developer_Direct initiative, Xbox's 'carbon aware' credentials and finally... what on earth is happening at Ubisoft? 00:...

DF Direct Weekly is back for 2023, kicking off with the reactions of John, Rich and Alex to the big CES keynotes, discussing Nvidia's latest innovations and the RTX 4070 Ti backlash - plus the latest enhancements to OLED TV technology. And as always, DF supporters provide a wealth of excellent questions for the team.   00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:25 News 01: Sony at CES 2023: PS VR2 and Gran Turis...

The end of the year draws closer and as the Digital Foundry crew prepare to take a well-earned vacation, John, Rich and Oliver have just enough time to cram in one more DF Direct Weekly, looking back over a challenging 2022, looking forward to the New Year - and cramming in more supporter Q+A than we've ever done before! 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:35 DF Supporter Q1: What does Epic’s delisting of...

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is slated for release in 'Fall' 2023, Kojima's helping to make a movie, Steam Deck is set to get a successor - and Returnal's recommendations include a mammoth 32GB of memory. All this, plus discussion of the RDNA 3 review aftermath in this week's show. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:00 News 01: Spider-Man 2 to launch in fall 2023 00:08:51 News 02: Death Stranding film in the wo...

The Game Awards - aka 'The Geoffs' - are back once again, bringing a deluge of new trailers and announcements for Rich, John and Alex to pore over in the latest DF Direct Weekly. Meanwhile, Stadia devkits are starting to emerge and Microsoft is raising game prices - but before all of that, the team takes a look at a dramatically improved build of The Callisto Protocol on PC. The Game Awards - aka...

After a challenging week reviewing The Callisto Protocol and awaiting various performance patches, Alex, John and Rich unload about the triumphs and tragedies of the launch period, while reflecting on how good the game actually is. Meanwhile, Nintendo's promising improvements to Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, modders tackle Sonic Frontier's shortcomings - and Jesus Christ himself appears, rendered at 4K6...

Will we have to wait until 2028 for new consoles from Microsoft and Sony? And how are the two companies at war over Call of Duty? Audi, John and Rich discuss, also covering news on The Witcher 3's upgrade plus the latest news about The Callisto Protocol. Meawhile, what on Earth is the Boner in Berlin?   00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:31 News 01: Next-gen consoles to launch in 2027/2028? 00:13:41 News...

In the latest episode, John, Rich and Alex share observations, thoughts and hopes for The Witcher 3's forthcoming re-release and there's discussion on Epic's improvements to Unreal Engine 5, plus thoughts on RTX 4080/4070 Ti pricing. Meanwhile, what on earth is happening with Pokémon Violet and Scarlet polish and performance? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:48 News 01: Witcher 3 next-gen patch incomin...

There's been a lot of debate recently about whether Xbox Series S's limited performance is 'holding back' the other consoles from being everything that they can be - so Rich, John and Alex weigh in with their opinions based on developer discussions and two years' worth of gaming data accrued by the channel. Meanwhile, it's all about the patches as Forza Horizon, Sackboy PC and Halo Infinite receiv...

A big, big week for PC and console gamers as AMD emerges to showcase its new RDNA 3-powered RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT graphics cards with Rich, Will and Alex delivering their verdict on the reveal. Also, what to make of the PSVR2 launch line-up and pricing? Meanwhile, the realisation that new gaming tech is going up in price hits home as it's discovered that Microsoft is losing $100-$200 per cons...

John, Rich and Alex re-convene to share first impressions on the new God of War and the extent to which it leverages PlayStation 5. Meanwhile, rumours start to gather pace on AMD's RDNA 3 offerings, Microsoft hints at price increases - and what should we make of the Modern Warfare 2 PS4 Blu-ray with just 70MB of actual data on it? 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:37 News 01: God of War Ragnarök impress...