Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

It's all very Xbox-heavy this week, as Austin Evans reveals that the latest Xbox consoles have finally transitioned to 6nm silicon. There's plenty of reaction to Microsoft's Xbox Partner Showcase, including the reveal of FBC: Firebreak, while John gets very excited about the new Analogue 3D - an FPGA-powered N64 clone with cutting-edge video and overclock features. The team 'pour one out' for the...

In a rather jovial DF Direct, John returns from Japan having played PS5 Pro and visited a big bunch of developers, there's curiosity around Nintendo Alarmo and mysterious online tests it has in the offing, there's much anticipation for Alien Isolation 2 and some degree of confusion surrounding Intel's Arrow Lake-S CPU line-up. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:00:56 News 1: Red Dead Redemption announced for...

October 11th 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the GeForce 256, the original Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). With cutting edge technologies like hardware-accelerated transformation and lighting (T&L), combined with what was - for the time - brutal performance, GeForce 256 was a game-changer. In this DF Direct special hosted by Alex Battaglia, we bring together Nvidia staff to discuss why this...

Another packed Direct sees Oliver, Rich and Alex tackling Nintendo's various takedowns - on the Ryujinx emulator and YouTube emulation content. Oliver spends some time with Until Dawn on PlayStation 5 offering up impressions that range from the good, the bad and indeed the ugly. Alex talks us through the UE5 MegaLights technology and the new God of War Ragnarök PC patch, while the new STALKER 2 do...

A new State of Play quote-unquote drops, giving Rich, Alex and Oliver much to discuss in this latest edition of DF Direct Weekly. Ghost of Yotei, Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster and the new Dragon Age dominate discussion, before the team move on to talk about the latest PS5 Pro title reveals. RTX 50-series specs come into focus - with leaks revealing a huge gap between 5080 and 5090. And there's much c...

In the wake of the PlayStation 5 Pro reveal, press had the opportunity to go hands-on with the hardware - and a wide range of games - at an event in Sony's San Mateo HQ. Oliver Mackenzie was our man on-site, and he's come back with a wealth of gameplay impressions, b-roll of the event and the titles tested and on-camera developer interviews. Is the upgrade worthwhile? Oliver is joined by Rich to d...

Another massive Direct sees Rich, John and Alex convene to discuss the huge Switch 2 prototype leak, the revelation that Intel and AMD battled it out for the PS6 contract, while the team shares notes on the quality of Capcom's Dead Rising remaster. Meanwhile, the actual nature of AMD's FSR 4 AI upscaling is discussed - along with continuing bafflement around the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster... and w...

In our DF Direct Special in the wake of the PlayStation 5 Pro reveal, we had much to say about the hardware, the pitch and the price - but not much to say about the games, owing to the poor media quality. Now, armed with a 65GB ProRes file of the Mark Cerny presentation, we can go deeper - much deeper - into the software that was shown and how good PSSR AI upscaling actually is. Strap in for anoth...

It's finally happened. PS5 Pro is real, announced and detailed by none other than lead system architect, Mark Cerny. John, Rich and Alex sit down to discuss the reveal, how Sony chose to market it, the Big Three tech innovations - larger GPU, ML upscaling and RT enhancements - and of course, the shocking price-point. 0:00:00 Overview 0:01:20 How is Sony marketing the PS5 Pro? 0:09:43 Big three fea...

The inevitability of Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro increases still further as the firm 'leaks' the new design in a 30th anniversary artwork. Meanwhile, there are highs and lows for PlayStation: Concord crashes and burns, resulting in its withdrawal from sale - and yet spirits are raised by the frankly incredible Astro Bot. Elsewhere, RTX 5080 performance leaks suggest a 10 percent improvement over RTX...

Another week of exciting news as reputable sources reveal that PlayStation 5 Pro is incoming - and we've even got a sketch of the (possible!) design. Meanwhile, the Black Myth: Wukong Xbox no-show continues to command attention - as does the decision to release Avowed on Xbox consoles at 30fps. John, Rich and Oliver are on the mics this week - but Tom ducks out of his short vacation for a quick ch...

Rich returns from Gamescom 2024, bringing with him hands-on impressions of STALKER 2 on Xbox and the incredible Black State on PC. Alex and Oliver share notes on the Final Fantasy 16 PC demo, while the team discuss the highlights - such as they are - of Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live. But the big story is the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to PlayStation 5 - and the ex...

On the eve of release, the team ponder the dearth of Black Myth: Wukong PS5 reviews - and then some last-minute footage emerges. Will Judd joins the team to discuss the latest AMD Zen 5 problems, more rumours of Xbox exclusives coming to PlayStation 5, while The Verge bravely talk about the game nobody's supposed to be talking about but everyone's playing. Meanwhile, we don't actually have a Switc...

Another packed edition of DF Direct Weekly sees Rich, Alex and Oliver discussing a range of topics. Why is it so difficult to get PSVR 2 working on PC? Why are the AMD Ryzen 9000/Zen 5 reviews to contentious? As Star Wars Jedi: Survivor breaks cover on last-gen consoles, what exactly is the point - and will the PC version get fixed? Meanwhile, the team rave about Space Marine 2's visuals, Doom/Doo...

With John and Alex either on holiday or otherwise unavailable, Rich is joined by Tom and Oliver for our weekly show discussing the latest gaming and technology news. The team take a look at the recent Star Wars Outlaws previews, Tom gets to grips with Nobody Wants To Die and Visions of Mana, while also taking a look at the RT upgrades to EA Sports titles using the Frostbite engine. Meanwhile, Rich...

Once again, the PS5 Pro (which doesn't exist apparently) dominates the news, with RDNA 4 ray tracing features revealed - said to be integrated into the upcoming Sony console... but what do these features actually do? Meanwhile, PS5 Pro (which isn't real) has a settings profile in the new No Man's Sky update, so how is Hello Games utilising the enhanced console's hardware? Beyond that, John's enthu...

Another big DF Direct Weekly sees John, Rich and Alex discussing PS5 Pro release date uncertainties, the unprecedented support from Hello Games on No Man's Sky and the alarming stories surrounding stability issues on Intel's 13th and 14th Generation Core processors. Alex has much to share in terms of Unreal Engine and GPUOpen presentations, while John gets to play some Death Game Hotel with none o...

As we begin to approach the tail-end of the Nintendo Switch era, Oliver Mackenzie and John Linneman get together to discuss their personal selection of the most technically impressive games of the generation - absolute marvels bearing in mind that the core hardware is based on a 2015 Nvidia mobile chipset. In this first video, the emphasis is on first party exclusives published by Nintendo - but t...

In this week's Direct, Microsoft says you don't need an Xbox to play Xbox - but if they're talking about streaming on a Fire Stick 4K, we'd beg to differ. Meanwhile, Alex talks about a 1.4GHz CPU overclock for the OG Xbox and shares his thoughts on the new Black Myth: Wukong full RT assets and benchmarks. Oliver tests out Ace Combat 7 on Switch, while Rich checks out frame generation on the First...

In the new DF Direct, the team discuss the growing importance of VRR in console gaming - but are we reaching the point where it's becoming essential for good performance? Meanwhile, Rich has some positive things to say about Microsoft's Auto SR upscaling technology, John has much to share on the new Crazy Taxi, and there are some interesting discussion points raised in a recent Mark Cerny intervie...

In the latest DF Direct Weekly, we take a very early first look at FSR 3.1's improved spatial upscaling, which 'dropped' just prior to recording. The team discuss Capcom's reveal of a NEW Dead Rising remaster/remake, while we have first impressions on a potentially game-changing patch for Dragon's Dogma 2. And just why is PlayStation 5 so technically competitive with Xbox Series X, despite having...

Some practical tests in this week's episode of DF Direct as Rich examines the modded performance modes cropping up for the Xbox Series S version of Starfield - while his £2,000 investment in a Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X Elite translates into some truly awful gaming. Meanwhile, John's been checking out the new PlayStation 2 and PSP emulators for PS5, while Alex isn't particularly happy about...

Just when we thought the summer festival of gaming events was over, Nintendo comes out of nowhere with a brand-new Direct featuring a wide rage of excellent titles - not bad for a system reaching the end of its life cycle. John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie team up to share notes on the Direct, including a tech-orientated argument about how it's definitely NOT Switch 2 delivering the Metroid Prime...

John, Alex and a freshly returned Rich deliver a 'come down' Direct that's a little more relaxed after the mania of the summer showcase events. The team bemoan the state of the Ubisoft Forward stream quality, ruining the visual quality of some great games, then move onto the discourse surrounding the Gears of War: E-Day cinematic. John's excited about the UE5 Riven remake, while Alex is even more...

Microsoft's Xbox 2024 Showcase turned out to be an excellent presentation, with banger after banger. In this new DF Direct Special, John Linneman, Alex Battaglia and Oliver Mackenzie break down the show with their reactions to each of the key games before moving on to discuss the somewhat underwhelming hardware line-up - plus comments on Phil Spencer's latest remarks on the Xbox multi-platform str...