DF Direct Weekly #136: Modern Warfare 3, GT7 Update, Spider-Man 2 on Low Spec SSD, Super Mario RPG

20 thoughts on “DF Direct Weekly #136: Modern Warfare 3, GT7 Update, Spider-Man 2 on Low Spec SSD, Super Mario RPG”

• I think if people aren’t seeing much difference in graphical fidelity, then, as I’ve always said, companies should focus more on interactivity, destructibility, emergent gameplay etc. THAT would be noticeable since, historically, games have mostly looked good but essentially rigid and set-in-stone scenery.

• 1:40:49 Something that wasn't mentioned during this conversation is what gameplay sacrifices are made to get these graphical advancements in the games as well. There's plenty of features and details from old games that have steadily disappeared over time as graphics have become more robust. There may be other reasons for it besides time/money investments, like lack of perceived player interest, but the point still stands when you can go for a more aesthetically pleasing game over a technically impressive game like John was seemingly talking about. The implication of this being they could add more depth to the game in other ways by freeing up resources from that area. Put less resources into trying to perfectly recreate the broad visual look of real life and more into subtle (but very valuable) things like animations, dialogue, gameplay, cool intricate details like TDU2's car functions, etc.

  To continue the car game example: If Forza Motorsport had the graphics of Forza Horizon 4 (not even 5) but had 0 outdated car models, minimal bugs, accurate car sounds for every car, more tracks on release, a real single player campaign instead of an event checklist, AI that wasn't busted, a penalty system that actually dissuaded rammers, a multiplayer matchmaking system that actually matched based on skill instead of first come first served, etc. If even half of that changed, while the handling stayed the same, I would take that trade 100% of the time. You could pick only the worst options from that list and I'd still take it.

  The EA WRC game is probably an example on the other side where they sacrificed graphics to enable more gameplay. I respect it as somebody who likes racing games but I also think steady fps is just as if not more important.

• MY PC Version of Forza Motorsport switches DLSS off after a race or 2 and I can only enable FSR then. Which sucks.
  (13700k – RTX 3090 – Windows 10)

• I think Rich and John are losing the point here in regards to Apple expanding its gaming catalog with current gen games. The simple reason is: not everybody owns a console, but as a defacto almost everyone owns a smartphone. In fact currently there more households with a laptop and smartphone than with a TV or monitor. All those games are for casual audiences to enjoy, hurts to say it as a non Apple enthusiast but it is true. Whoopi Goldberg can't play Diablo IV on his Mac? You better fix that Blizzard.

• I think the problem these days is there are so many optimised engines that run at high framerates (ID tech, frost bite etc) Then something like alan wake 2 comes along.. people kind of expect to be able to play it because everything else runs great on their system. I think the developer should at least take into consideration what gpu's the majority are using. Instead of using 'next gen' technology just for the sake of using it.

  Im sure you could probably make a simple game where you play as a high fidelity 3d cube with 8K textures, ray tracing etc.. but there's a point you have to be realistic with the type of game you are making and justifying the hardware requirements for that experience.

  Framerate is ALWAYS the deciding factor for me, i refuse play anything at 30fps it's not acceptable or enjoyable. Yet developers feel the need to try and make impressive screenshots at the cost of performance.

• That retro video game manifesto idea is great. Would love to watch that

• I only buy for the single player campaigns so will wait for very deep discount.

• Regarding the thoughts on ppl's perception of graphical visuals and appreciation of the tech – one reason I've started tuning in regularly at your content is to help myself develop a better understanding of the tech discussion.

  I come from a lot of top down RTS/RPG gameplay and am just generally feel my eyes are illiterate to the things that this channel looks at.

  I guess what I'm trying to say is that (at least in my case) a lot of visual stuff wasn't even in my mind space for a long time, until I made a concerted attempt to start looking at more.

• Rich goes full-on size over-compensation with his mug. WFT is in that mug? I am worried for his health… or his psychological health. Hopefully he can move back to a big-boy glass/cup/mug, and forget the projection (we know… you're the man).

• I think the x86 instruction set is pushed as far as it can really go. It is very much like the opengl or x11 of hardware instruction sets. As much as staying on x86 would be good for compatibility it also stifles innovation in the hardware space. Expecially since x86 draws so much power – I really think in a world being destroyed by our insane need for more resources it would be good to find a new alternative in the future.

• Would love to see a Gran Turismo 7, 4 player split-screen performance review!

• 47:30
  They do make M.2 to SATA, bit its not one SATA, its 5xSATA6.
  I've turned an ITX board into a micro file server with 10 storage drives, 2 OS drives and 2 cache drives. using a PCIE 16x to 4xM.2 bifurcation card for the OS drives and cache drive, with the SATA controllers on the two M.2 slots on-board(the sata cards didnt fit in the case when on the 16x adapter)
  with those new dual actuator drives from Seagate, 5 of those will run close to the 3500MB/s limit of PCIE 3.0 M.2, assuming this is all sequential read/write (~500MB/s/drive=2500MB/s)

• John's thoughts on support question 4 are astounding, worthy of a video on their own.

• Please make a video of Star Ocean Second Story R. it's a marvel in how to make remakes right!

• We're not seeing Metroid Prime 4 until the launch of the NG Switch which will most likely be in March of 2025.

• In the second Max Payne, the character was based on model Timothy Gibbs. I think Max Payne 3 did it best by modeling after his longtime voice actor, James McCaffrey, who also plays Zachariah Trench in Control. I really hope the remakes have Max Payne look like a younger version of James McCaffrey.

• Ultramagical PS5 SSD debunked… again.

• Probably best to play a fair chunk of a game before waxing lyrical about it. Same happened with Luke from Linus Tech Tips and Starfield, the longer he plays, the less he likes it. He doesn't even wear the watch anymore.

• Remedy should integrate into the Max Payne remake or solo release a cheap/free "remake" of 3DMark 2001 🤣🤣

• AMD Launches Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Bundle for Radeon and Ryzen. December is going to be a busy month for John and Alex 👍

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