DF Direct Weekly talks PS5 Slim and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Switch

A busy week of gaming news forms the basis of the latest episode of DF Direct Weekly – our 67th episode! This week, we’ll be tackling our topics this week with some great Sony stories, kicking off with the arrival of the European iteration of Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription service. On the one hand, there’s no doubt that the “extra” tier is out of the park in terms of the wealth of titles available to PS4 and PS5 users – even if the extreme value puts the high price of Sony’s new titles in the balance. even sharper. But what about the thorny subject of classic premium tier games?

Unfortunately and inevitably, it’s an unfortunate first appearance for fans of Sony’s incredible library of older games as we see 50Hz titles ill-suited to 60Hz output – but there are hopefully, with Sony announcing that, where possible, 60Hz renders of these games will be made available. John, Alex and I discuss the news, hoping this disappointing storyline will eventually be resolved the way Sony says it will, but at the same time wondering how we got into this mess in the first place. After all, the same criticisms were leveled at the PlayStation 2 line of classics for PlayStation 4, but years later we’re still in the same situation. If and when these 60Hz games become available we will review them – but even with this situation resolved, Sony still has a lot of work to do with its emulator to make these titles really shine and match the kind of features the retro community has delivered. .

We also spend time talking about DIY Perks’ Remarkable Custom PlayStation 5, which aims to create a luxury “slim” console no more than 2 cm thick. The custom water-cooled solution looks great, with the kind of materials and engineering work that could never be put into a consumer electronics device. However, the gigantic PSU/watercooling solution demonstrates how difficult it would be for Sony to manufacture such a machine. Our money’s on a more refined, smaller (but not thin) design based on CPU die shrink – we’re expecting that later down the road.

67th edition of DF Direct Weekly, with Rich Leadbetter, Alex Battaglia and John Linneman perpetrating the episode.

00:00:00 Introduction: John, Rich and Alex reveal themselves
00:00:36 News 1: PS Plus Europe’s Classic Games Missed… With a Twist
00:09:26 News 2: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct
00:17:36 News 3: Forza Horizon 5 adds TAA support on PC
00:24:39 News 4: Klonoa Switch Demo is struggling
00:30:18 News 5: Custom PS5 Slim Model
00:37:32 News 6: Tony Hawk 3+4 canceled
00:41:21 DF Content Discussion: DF Retro Updates and Developer Interview
00:46:17 DF Supporter Q1: Do you think Naughty Dog could give TLOU Part 1 a better performance by showing more gameplay comparisons instead of mostly cinematic comparisons?
00:49:54 DF Supporter Q2: Is there a way to tell if the game disc you are buying contains a full playable game?
00:54:59 DF Supporter Q3: Could a new switch have a docking station with a PCIe interface and a higher power GPU?
01:00:06 DF Supporter Q4: What new technologies could significantly change the gaming experience?
01:04:09 DF Supporter Q5: What kind of weaknesses or flaws do you think this generation will be remembered for in the annals of history?

Next, Alex shares his thoughts on Forza Horizon 5’s TAA update for PC users, with the team wondering why Playground Games hasn’t rolled it out to Xbox Series consoles. Meanwhile, John is unhappy with the initial release of the Klonoa remaster on Nintendo Switch via a Japanese-only demo – much worse than the original releases in some ways. He goes to great lengths to point out, however, that the PlayStation and Xbox versions appear to be fine.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 received a massive 24-minute Nintendo Direct Special and we’re spending time commenting on that as well. It’s hard to say how the developer pulled this off (a new TAA/rebuild solution, perhaps?) but the image quality looks exceptionally good – a big upgrade over the last game. closer to the launch of the game, but we are very excited.

As always, the show ends with questions from our supporters. Why has Naughty Dog shown so little of The Last of Us Part 1? Why not show us the improved gameplay or graphical comparisons that haven’t been compared to pre-rendered PS3 cutscenes? My thoughts on this are pretty straightforward – it’s just the first part of a concerted marketing campaign that will cover gameplay at some point in the future.

Other questions include requests for consideration on whether the Super Switch (i.e. the next-gen Nintendo console) might have another GPU in its docking station for enhanced TV gaming, and if there’s a way to tell if the physical disc you’re buying for your current -gen console actually contains game code (spoilers: not really). And we end with an intriguing question about the shortcomings/limitations of current-gen consoles that machines may be remembered for years to come (similar to the PS360 era of mediocre performance and obviously game quality). sub-native image in many, many games).

We’re exceptionally proud of our support program: the community we’ve built, the bonus material we give away regularly, early access – and, of course, the massive commitment to DF Retro it’s allowed us to do. Join us!