DF Direct Weekly #111: Zelda TOTK Reaction, Asus ROG Ally Hands-On, Plague Tale 60fps Patch!

One of the biggest - if not the biggest - games of 2023 launched this week. Nintendo's Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has recently a massively positive reaction. John discusses his review and shares more thoughts on the game, while digging more deeply into the eternal question - is it too big for Switch? Meanwhile, Rich drops in from time off to share his impressions with the Asus ROG Ally and A Plague Tale: Requiem gets a 60fps patch... but what does it actually do?

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:04 News 01: Tears of the Kingdom launches!
00:26:05 News 02: Sharp producing next-gen Switch LCD?
00:34:49 News 03: ASUS ROG Ally reviews drop + our impressions
00:50:20 News 04: A Plague Tale: Requiem gets 60fps patch
00:56:36 News 05: John gets a new CRT!
01:02:53 Supporter Q1: With low sales and poor software support, where does the PS VR2 go from here?
01:07:36 Supporter Q2: Could DF revisit some of the recent troubled PC ports and see how they run now after patches?
01:11:23 Supporter Q3: Why does DLSS 3 produce a smoother experience in games with high CPU load?
01:15:47 Supporter Q4: Developers like to blame specific PC configurations for user issues. Could DF emphasize that PC performance issues are often common to all configurations?

[Lucromis]

I’d like to see more physics in games. We had a trend of it in the 2000s but a lot of games just ignore physics while concentrating on lighting like Ray tracing. To me, an interactive experience is more fun with physics.

[offspringfan]

I know Rich deserves a rest and Oliver has held his own well, but I'm glad to see the Holy Trinity of DF together again.

[GameplayUnboxed]

12:00 That face Alex gave, we know he's gonna emulate it in 4k glorry😂

[fishyperil]

Ultrahand sounds like a pretty silly name but it's really an homage to the "Ultrahand" toy that Shigeru Miyamoto's mentor, the inventor of the Game Boy and the father of Metroid, Gunpei Yokoi, made for Nintendo in 1966 that basically started the transition of their business from playing cards into toys and eventually video games.

[DataLore]

MVG already did a video on the overclocking point and found that the bottleneck for performance is almost entirely down to memory bandwidth. Overclocking the CPU and GPU did not help but OCing the memory had the game at almost a locked 30 fps in the heaviest areas even when ULTRAHAND (echo voice effect) is activated. I'll be interested to see if Rich's analysis concurs should that video happen.

[morganator]

The way John described Zelda with several layers of a hamburger then followed by Rich' facial expression, had me howling 😂😂

[mutantmagnet]

Phawx's video explains why the Ally performs worse when plugged.

The power profile the Ally uses tells the device to maximize power on the CPU because it assumes you will use an external GPU.

They have to revise the power profile so has to detect an external gpu being connected before using that setting.

[nateschumacher]

I love hearing John go on a rant like this because it confirms to me that I'm in the right place. Always a comfort to be in the company of like-minded individuals. Keep it up, DF.

[weaverquest]

I think part of the reason why we aren't seeing much physics driven gameplay systems in AAA games today is ironically because of the focus on realism. Like even in a game with good physics such as Red Dead Redemption 2 Arthur can't just pull up a giant magnet and start manipulating objects or burn a patch of grass to somehow generate enough uplift to lift him or have the ability to glue objects together to make crazy machines.

Focus on realism can hold back interesting gameplay ideas. A huge advantage for Zelda is that it can go full cartoon physics and add pretty much any crazy idea developers come up with like fusing an eyeball to an arrow to turn it into a guided projectile why not!

[vercoda]

I just bought the Zelda-themed Switch, to start off with the new game. What an introduction to Nintendo and proper handheld gaming after about 20 years after my Gameboy, eh! I just think Nintendo and Handheld quality games should be good for long, long distance travels I soon have.

[oatsaredelicious]

"Cinematic Sad Dad Games" is a brutal roast of Sony first party games.

[denisruskin]

ToTK is a technical masterpiece for Switch hardware. You can fall from a sky island to Hyrule, directly into a malice hole and arrive in the depths. All in one go, no stutter. This is on 1.6GHz memory bandwith mind you, DDR3 numbers.

[MrWizardGG]

Johns passionate speeches in appreciation of gaming has really impressed me

[tatn]

I love John speech about reviewing gfx in context of hardware.

I got so much love for a switch, simply because it allowed me to come to gaming while having 3 kids and full time job. There is just no other way for me to finish long games like Witcher 3 or Zelda, same time I am having a blast playing Mario and Kirby with my kids.
Great piece of hardware and great games are still being made !

[fourlights]

Rich can't be happier in that thumbnail, he got 4 numbers up in the lotto draw.

[Maxi]

Thank you John for calling out the nonsense online, you are right that many comments are not only disrespectful to the developers that made the game but gaming in general.

[KillianCC]

Johns rant/truth at the end of the Zelda discussion is so true and valid.

A lot of people are probably trolls looking for attention but there do seem to be legit people that think low of older games. I feel tons of those people probably either got into games in the 2010s and only ever saw the big AAA games, don’t seem to care about what games truly are and what the industry has accomplished.

[sleeplessindefatigable]

Asobo should just release a Plage Tale Requiem benchmark with an absurd amount of rats and just call it Ratmark.

[TilSkywalker]

The Leadbetter Castle finally got revealed at Episode 111 of the DF Direct!

[pan]

Nice to see Rich broadcasting live from his Penthouse suite!