Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

Another gigantic edition of DF Direct Weekly sees Rich, Alex and John tackle the PlayStation Handheld rumours (no, it won't run native PS5 games), problems with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's PS5 Pro patch, updates to Star Wars Outlaws and the outrageously 'familiar' Light of Motiram - featuring the four horsemen of the gaming apocalypse. Rich and Alex have high hopes for Intel's B580 GPU, while John has much to say about Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary and the recently released Dynasty Warriors Origins demo. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:19 News 1: Potential portable PlayStation in development 0:18:08 News 2: Avatar PS5 Pro patch shows PSSR struggles 0:31:25 News 3: Star Wars Outlaws patch brings PC fixes 0:37:47 News 4: Intel Arc B580 GPU leaked 0:49:42 News 5: Light of Motiram takes heavy Horizon inspiration 1:00:47 News 6: Valve celebrates Half-Life 2 20th anniversary with update, new documentary 1:19:42 News 7: Dynasty Warriors Origins demo drops 1:25:31 News 8: Highlighting Brazil Pixel 1:36:33 Supporter Q1: Will CD Projekt Red be able to fix UE5 stuttering? 1:44:08 Supporter Q2: How will Microsoft configure their business if Steam can run on Xbox? 1:51:21 Supporter Q3: Why does Windows 11 cause so many headaches? 2:01:58 Supporter Q4: Why haven’t we heard more about a PS5 Pro patch for Black Myth: Wukong? 2:07:45 Supporter Q5: How does Nintendo avoid technical issues in their games? 2:14:19 Supporter Q6: What would a theoretical PS3 Pro look like? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PSSR on PS5 Pro: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - what's actually going on? Rich, Oliver and Alex discuss, before moving on to a look at Silent Hill 2's latest Pro update... which removes PSSR in its performance mode. Rich has some interesting findings from Assassin's Creed Syndicate's new 60 frames per second upgrade, along with a look at the latest iteration of PlayStation Portal - including direct cloud streaming support. And Oliver has some favourable impressions from the unexpected but rather cool Pro upgrade for The Callisto Protocol. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:05 News 1: PS5 Pro PSSR issues analyzed 0:29:50 News 2: Silent Hill 2 patch tested: PSSR dropped! 0:39:02 News 3: STALKER 2 suffers launch woes 0:51:04 News 4: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate gets current-gen patch 1:02:23 News 5: Sony in talks to acquire From Software 1:12:34 News 6: PlayStation Portal updated with cloud streaming support 1:22:57 News 7: Callisto Protocol PS5 Pro patch released! 1:32:36 Supporter Q1: Are there any Nvidia graphics cards for $400 or less that are good deals? 1:42:29 Supporter Q2: When there are glaring performance issues in a game, what do you chalk them up to? 1:50:24 Supporter Q3: Why do games often offer so many console modes when one of them is clearly optimal? 1:57:13 Supporter Q4: Are you feeling Unreal Engine 5 fatigue? 2:01:29 Supporter Q5: Will Microsoft bring Xbox backwards compatibility to PC? 2:10:39 Supporter Q6: Which vaporware is better: Blast Processing or “the power of the cloud”? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DF Direct Weekly returns, with Rich, John and Oliver discussing the latest chapter of the Xbox multi-plat transition saga, the release of LEGO Horizon Adventures and Intel's pledge to improve Arrow Lake CPU performance. Meanwhile, Sony is bullish on PS5 Pro sales as discounts begin in the UK and the team has concerns about the mooted Stellar Blade PC port. And finally, John has a forum for telling you all about how great the recently released Halo 2 E3 demo is - and why he loves the ModRetro Chromatic. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:02:17 News 1: Phil Spencer: no “red lines” on Xbox ports 0:26:42 News 2: Lego Horizon Adventures impresses on consoles 0:36:01 News 3: Halo 2 E3 demo resurfaces in Master Chief Collection 0:50:51 News 4: PS5 Pro sales reportedly not impacted by price 1:00:56 News 5: Stellar Blade developer considering PC release 1:07:56 News 6: Intel plans Arrow Lake performance fix 1:17:08 News 7: ModRetro Chromatic impresses 1:27:58 Supporter Q1: How will the next Xbox achieve the “largest technical leap” in a console generation? 1:35:07 Supporter Q2: If the next Xbox doesn’t have a disc drive, how will disc backwards compatibility function? 1:41:36 Supporter Q3: Are you excited to see the rumoured Nvidia ARM-based laptop chip? 1:47:43 Supporter Q4: Will we see support for ultrawide aspect ratios on consoles? 1:56:17 Supporter Q5: Can we give Epic credit for allowing Internet Archive to host older Unreal games? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's post PS5 Pro clarity in this week's Direct, with Rich, John and Alex discussing No Man's Sky at 8K resolution (tested!), God of War Ragnarök's patch on PS5 Pro - and the surprise arrival of Death Stranding on Xbox Series X/S. Rich does some performance testing there, leading to fascinating results. Meanwhile, John has a special moment with a new PC monitor, while Alex and Rich prostrate themselves before AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D. And yes, why DIDN'T the team do a full specs breakdown of the PS5 Pro's actual packaging? 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:08 News 1: God of War Ragnarök PS5 Pro patch tested! 0:13:36 News 2: Nintendo confirms Switch 2 backwards compatibility 0:25:27 News 3: Death Stranding lands on Xbox 0:38:11 News 4: No Man’s Sky patched for PS5 Pro 0:47:49 News 5: Sony INZONE M10S impressions 1:05:53 News 6: Sonic Generations can run at 60fps on Switch 1:11:42 Supporter Q1: Will you use the 9800X3D for high-end gaming benchmarks? 1:16:21 Supporter Q2: Will PS6 use 3D V-Cache? 1:17:32 Supporter Q3: Will Alex and John switch to 9800X3D? 1:22:15 Supporter Q4: Why is Game Boost falling short of the promised 45% increase to PS5 Pro raster performance? 1:29:21 Supporter Q5: Would AI frame extrapolation make native frame-rate unimportant? 1:32:30 Supporter Q6: What do you want out of a Steam Deck 2? 1:38:32 Supporter Q7: Why didn’t you spend more time analyzing the PS5 Pro box? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices