DF Direct Weekly #181: Major Switch 2 Leak, Intel vs AMD for PS6, FSR 4 Using AI, Days Gone Remaster

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 what's this about a Days Gone remaster too?

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0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:08 News 1: Switch 2 hardware revealed in apparent leak
0:23:07 News 2: Dragon’s Dogma 2 patch boosts PC performance
0:33:04 News 3: Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster tested
0:44:34 News 4: RDNA 4 skips high-end GPUs, FSR 4 to be AI-based
1:00:40 News 5: Intel, AMD battled over PS6 contract
1:07:32 News 6: Horizon, Days Gone remasters rumoured
1:17:50 News 7: John gets a Virtual Boy!
1:27:12 Supporter Q1: How does Sony deliver consistently good PC ports?
1:32:51 Supporter Q2: What do you make of Nintendo suing for Palworld’s alleged patent violations?
1:38:25 Supporter Q3: Would you expect to see a big difference between FSR 2 and PSSR on Pro titles? Is ML-based upscaling powerful enough to keep console prices low?
1:43:59 Supporter Q4: What benefits will PS5 Pro bring to the PlayStation Portal?
1:46:24 Supporter Q5: Will PS5 Pro titles bring back-compat boosts for PS6?
1:49:28 Supporter Q6: How likely is a 40fps PS5 Pro mode for GTA 6?
1:53:57 Supporter Q7: Why have Respawn failed to fix fundamental issues in Jedi: Survivor on PC?
1:59:44 Supporter Q8: Why isn’t there an Ernest-based game?

[MazLad]

Thumbnail Rich just saw a slug in the kitchen.
Thumbnail John just stepped on a slug in the kitchen while barefoot.
Thumbnail Alex: Placer of said slugs.

[yadspi]

Imagine Nintendo announces the Switch XL and it's the same Switch but 8"

[jlb]

Alex I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who’s less interested in Nintendo Switch as you.

Alex: Wellll….. I mean… yes.

[MrLathor]

This guy Jack from AMD is a total visionary. Foresaw AI image reconstruction as the future a whole 9-12 months ago. Through sheer force of will he steered his team in the right direction when nobody else could see what was going to happen. At least that’s how he imagines it in his head instead of admitting he is 3 years late.

[JJSideshowBob]

The Days Gone Remaster is simply ridiculous. It's like, whatever viable business case you come up with is now turned into reality even if the overall strategy is nonsense. So they shoehorn something in there to repackage and sell it again at full price to generate some revenue while the playerbase is starved for originality.

[peterhague]

Surely the the yen losing value vs the $ would make a low price MORE feasible, not LESS feasible? Because the $ they would be getting are worth more to them?

[syferz]

15:23 on the motherboard picture, you can see the card slot has the connectors for the old Switch game cards, with 19 pins instead of 17 pins, also adds 6 new larger pins right next to them for a whole new system with different speeds. This indicates BC, it also indicates that old memory was not nearly fast enough.

[mjlaw]

Did we get a “giggity” out of John around the 1:20 mark?

[andre_ss]

I think what Alex says about Jedi Survivor and UE here is further evidenced by the last-gen ports: they seem to run mostly fine at 30fps even though they’re running on vastly inferior, much much underpowered CPUs and memory subsystems; but what’s really enlightening there, I think, is actually where they struggle the most: doors take ten to fifteen SECONDS (hundreds of frames!) to open, camera cuts leads to severe hitching and pop-in is visible everywhere — all most certainly caused at least in part by UE’s poor asset management system. CD Projekt’s presentation showed us just how much CPU performance is left on the table by UE’s (UE5 in that case) current asset management code.

[twocityfoodies]

Nintendo first party software attachment rate is so incredibly high, that they can afford to a hit on the hardware side. They are doing software numbers that Sony and MS only dream of.

[npancratz]

"Look at my peep-box, boy!" The purest of Alex gold right there 😄😂🤣

[ACGreviews]

Lets do this! Shadow squinting, pixel peeping, polygon peering squads UNITE!

[dan_loeb]

the switch 2 proto shell has a battery tray only slightly bigger than the original switches battery. but it's worth pointing out amd was gunning for the switch 2 soc manufacturing but lost out to nvidia due to not having as good efficiency at 4-10watts. they're targeting far lower min wattage in handheld, so the battery life will probably be more of the same as the og switch, despite the larger screen and cooling setup.

[ReadySetRandall]

Ernest definitely deserved a game. The most likely choice that would make a decent video game would have been based off the movie Ernest Scared Stupid.

[ArcadianGenesis]

They need to make the joycons more _ergonomic._ The OG Switch joycons are useless to me. I use the Pro controller when it's docked, and 3rd party Split Pad Pros in handheld mode. After using the PS Portal, the bar has been raised even higher for hand comfort on a portable device.

[Khn]

I love the triflecta of white balance on the three cameras. Everyone is having their own hue

[terokai]

I think whats frustrating about the AMD story is that AMD is damned if they do damned if they dont. If they abandon the high end market well its a mistake and nvidia doesnt have a competitor

If they do make a high end card and it once again fails to move the needle then its oh what were AMD thinking of course they couldnt compete with nvidia.

I think focusing on the mid and low range is probably their best choice from a market and financial point of view

[alistairblaire]

My hype level heavily relies on backward compatibility. If it’s not there it’s a wait and see device, possibly a couple years so I can wait for the library to build up. If it’s backwards compatibility compatible and improves performance I’ll vie for one on release day.

[NPC_Algernon]

I have doubts that they'd take a loss on Switch 2. Didn't the interim president Kimishima say they weren't going to sell the original Switch at a loss because of what happened with the Wii U?

[SIXminWHISTLE]

I think John is hitting peak retro hipster now. High praise for the Virtual Boy? I have one myself, and it only good quality is as a display piece on the shelf.