DF Direct Weekly #64: State of Play Reaction, Horizon Forbidden West Updated, Sonic Frontiers

DF Direct Weekly reaches its 'landmark' 64th episode, automatically making it as good as the Nintendo 64, Commodore 64 and Mega 64 (?). John, Rich and Alex team up to discuss the Sony PS5 State of Play, including Resident Evil 4 Remake, Spider-Man's PC port and PlayStation VR2. Meanwhile, there's confusion and disappointment surrounding Sonic Frontiers' gameplay reveal, and anticipation for God of War PC's FSR 2.0 update and Horizon Forbidden West's new patch. Also: we are happy to confirm that DF Direct Weekly is NOT set in the PUBG universe.

00:00:00 Introductions
00:00:59 News 01: State of Play June 2022
00:41:38 News 02: Sonic Frontiers gameplay underwhelms
00:48:25 News 03: PS+ Japan gets NTSC classics
00:52:08 News 04: God of War and Horizon Forbidden West get updates
00:55:31 DF Content Discussion: DF Retro PS3 1080p video update
01:01:53 DF Supporter Q01: Any thoughts on breathless tech site stories saying RTX cards are "back to MSRP"?
01:07:41 DF Supporter Q02: What do you guys think AMD needs to pull out of the hat to surpass or at least be on the same level playing field as Nvidia on the PC market?
01:20:31 DF Supporter Q03: How about a comprehensive tech terms and techniques explanation video?
01:22:46 DF Supporter Q04: Why do most US, Canadian and Euro Genesis / Mega Drive games just sound so much worse musically than their Japanese counterparts?
01:26:32 DF Supporter Q05: With all the games that you guys have reviewed all these years, which post-processing effect is the one that makes a great impact in a game, or which is your favorite?

[divinitymode]

You guys should really take a look at Forbidden West’s revamped Performance Mode. It’s a total transformation and was clearly a major undertaking. I don’t know if Guerrilla are using a new in house TAA/reconstruction tech but the results are remarkable.

[Dac_vak]

Alex: I would like to echo Andre’s request. You’re extremely good at explaining complex tech at a high level, and I think it would be incredible to have something like a “yearly roundup” of new tech terms, and their implications.

Or perhaps instead of one long video, cut up each explanation into short videos, then list them all in a playlist people can reference. You mentioned you’ve gone over all of these terms before, but it’s extremely difficult and impractical to try to go through each previous video to try and find those explanations.

I know a project like this wouldn’t be hugely successful in terms of views, but it would be incredibly educational and helpful to the core members of your audience. One of the reasons I support the highest tier on Patreon is to help fund videos that might not otherwise have a viral impact. Please consider content like this! 💙

[ScrapKing]

Things that were “obvious” or “of course” this week include:
0:09:30 RE7 you played it in VR with a dual shock
0:09:35 RE7 for PSVR2 uses full hand controllers
0:15:05 Astro’s Playroom launched on PS5
0:17:05 Sackboy being announced as coming to PC
0:23:47 if something uses UE4
0:36:05 Final Fantasy obviously moved on to UE
0:49:20 they won’t put English games on PS+ in Japan
0:49:33 The big question remains what they’ll do for PS+ in the West
0:54:16 That Alex's whole video will be comparing FSR 2.0 vs. "native", and of course DLSS
1:10:04 AMD has a huge challenge in catching up in the machine learning space

[realryankennedy]

16:40 🤣🤣 Did Rich just tell Alex "you must be borderline aroused"? 🤣

[GamerInVoid]

I wish you guys cover Horizon Forbidden West performance mode once again

[SITSIndustries]

Audi's score this week in the "Rich says in-the-here-and-now" drinking game:

Hit: 8:45, 8:54 & 1:20:19
Miss: zero

Perfect score this week, Audi!

[duncanself]

Callisto Protocol looks really impressive

[alexsilva]

I'm loving all the PS Triple coverage lately. Having a comprehensive list of most of the true 1080p games on the system is a valuable tool for us PS3 enthusiasts

[SimonMTV]

Astrobot story about your son made my heart melt John 🥰❤️

[Michformer]

Speaking of Dead Space/Callisto Protocol and Second Sight/Psi-Ops matchups, another rivalry that springs to mind is Infamous vs. Prototype back in 2009. Released a few weeks apart from one another, if I recall correctly.

[Dac_vak]

John, I’m genuinely excited for your PS3 video. Not because I care about 1080p analysis, or even the PS3, but because I know that if you put this much work into it, it’s going to be a great video as per usual. 👍

[kelownatechkid]

You guys are really doing amazing work. Thank you.

[startedtech]

Currently RE4 has 13 releases on 12 different platforms. About to be 14 platforms with three separate PC versions! Outside of Tetris & arcade classics I wonder if this is the most ported videogame of all time.

[iconoclasttastic]

Sonic Frontiers reminds me of those "I made Sonic in Unreal engine in 24 hours" videos.
The studio seems to think going wild with stock 3D scans is going to cut the fan mustard.... oh ho.

[rmb]

The Horizon Forbidden West update stole the show for me. The shimmering issues have been fixed. The game was almost unplayable in 60fps prior to the state of play patch.

Still curious as to why this is so glossed over. The game was actually broken in 60fps mode, but it was talked about as "well that's what you get when you play in the favor performance mode". I'm like...no...the game was broken, as in what was being rendered and displayed on screen was showing unintended graphical errors.

I hate that I get so worked up about this but I'm still a bit irked that DF and many others did not point this out during the game's initial review.

Anyways, I'm extremely thankful for Guerrilla for fixing this, even though the game has been out for months at this point. I have picked HFW back up and am now having a blast.

[Salhcin]

No mans sky in VR on ps4 was very immersive. especially when it came to controls.. so a PSVR2 version with the proper hand controllers will be insane

[realshmoothie]

1:07:21 The only gpu setting worth changing is undervolting. You can drop your temps by 15 degrees while keeping same or similar core clocks.

[eruannster]

On the topic of the new Horizon performance mode: to my untrained eye, it looks a *lot* better in pretty much every way without really sacrificing anything. Some comments seem to suggest they reduced the foliage moving with the wind, but I personally haven't noticed anything different. Trees and grass still very much sway with the wind. I'd love to see what you guys at Digital Foundry can dig up and tell us about what they changed! It would be super interesting to dig in on what they actually changed.

[BitRetroMonkey]

Performance patch on HFW looks stunning. Just compare the intro level to before and after patch. It blew my mind. It’s that good.

[ScrapKing]

Thanks for the Atari Jaguar shout-out Alex. I had an insane amount of fun with that system. Tempest 2000, Alien Vs. Predator, Iron Solider, Cannon Fodder, and Hover Strike were ones I went back to again and again.