Elden Ring Impressions, Steam Deck, & Street Fighter 6 News

Elden Ring Performance and Impressions

The team shares their initial thoughts on Elden Ring, highlighting a major discrepancy between its critical acclaim and its technical execution.

• Console Performance: The team finds the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions to be technically disappointing. John notes that the PS4 Pro version running on PS5 is currently the only way to achieve a stable 60 fps, while the Xbox version is best played using VRR to smooth out unavoidable frame rate drops.
• PC Version Issues: Alex reports that FromSoftware has failed to deliver a polished experience on PC, citing unavoidable frame time stutters due to shader compilation and poor DirectX 12 implementation, regardless of graphical settings.
• Artistic Success: Despite the technical flaws, they praise the game's open-world design, noting that it successfully avoids the "list of tasks" clutter seen in other AAA open-world games.

Industry News and Updates

Bethesda Launcher Sunset

The decision to move Bethesda titles to Steam is met with relief by the hosts, who express frustration with the industry trend of publisher-specific, feature-poor launchers clogging up PC gaming.

Soul Cresta Technical Critique

PlatinumGames' latest title is criticized for its botched pixel scaling, which results in distorted, shimmering visuals in motion, despite the high quality of the soundtrack and core gameplay mechanics.

Street Fighter 6 & Unreal Engine 5

"Street Fighter 6 needs to come out of the gate quite strong to make up for the launch of Street Fighter 5."

• The teaser for Street Fighter 6 has raised questions about art direction and engine technology, with the panel speculating a shift to the RE Engine.
• Unreal Engine 5 is moving toward a full release, with the team expressing excitement over the preview builds and the potential for hardware-accelerated Lumen to improve lighting and reflection quality in future projects.

Q&A Session

• Technical Knowledge and Immersion: The hosts discuss whether their technical expertise hinders their enjoyment of games. They admit that while noticing frame rate drops and rendering issues can sometimes pull them out of a game, their appreciation for the medium remains strong.
• Fighting Games: The panel argues that while fighting games were once the benchmark for graphical tech, they have stagnated. They suggest that future titles should pivot from just "better graphics" to simulating more complex physical interactions and collision.