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Final Fantasy 13 gets 1080p support on Steam next week
Square Enix will introduce a patch for Final Fantasy 13 on Steam next week that will give players additional graphics options. Slated to land on Thursday, December 11, the update will allow players to switch to custom resolutions, such as 720p and 1080p. The patch hits the same day that the game's sequel, Final Fantasy 13-2, will arrive on Steam as well. Final Fantasy 13 first launched in late 2009 in Japan, making its worldwide debut in March 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was followed by the aforementioned 13-2 in February 2012 and the final game of the trilogy earlier this year, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. Those planning on picking up the Steam version of Final Fantasy 13-2 may want to pre-purchase the game, as it is 10 percent off at the moment ($17.99). [Image: Square Enix]
Advanced Warfare console comparison drops a few frames on PS4
Sledgehammer Games recently confirmed that the Xbox One version of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare automatically scales its resolution up to 1080p on a frame-by-frame basis. By comparison, the PS4 version consistently maintains a high resolution, but performance analysis tests from Digital Foundry show that it comes at a price. In a video (seen after the break) of Advanced Warfare version 1.04 running on both systems, the testers found that the Xbox One version held up at a mostly steady 60fps. As for the PS4 version, it had more frequent dips in frame rate, dropping as low as the mid-40s during some scenes. The tests were primarily focused on the game's campaign; initial looks at Advanced Warfare's multiplayer performance bore similar results, though the Xbox One version did not scale up from its 1360x1080 resolution during multiplayer sessions. [Image: Activision]
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare scales up to 1080p on Xbox One
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare runs at 60 frames per second on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Sledgehammer Games confirmed. The first-person shooter is also locked in at 1080p on PS4, though it "runs at 1080 scalable," according to the developer's co-founder, Michael Condrey. The resolution of the Xbox One version of the game will change "on a frame by frame basis" in real-time, according to the developer. Condrey told Metro that the game "will scale from 1360 all the way up to true 1080," shifting from resolutions of "1360×1080 up to 1920×1080" on the Microsoft console. It's an improvement on the series' efforts last year on the console, as Call of Duty: Ghosts trotted out an upscaled 720p version on Xbox One. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out now and received positive marks in our review. [Image: Activision]
Dragon Age: Inquisition 1080p on PS4, 900p on Xbox One
Dragon Age: Inquisition will run at 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One, BioWare announced in a tweet. The disparity between platforms wasn't a concerted design choice, the message said. "We maximized the current potential of each platform," the tweet said. The capabilities of the PS4 and Xbox One have been under extra scrutiny this week, following comments from Assassin's Creed: Unity developers that "you don't gain much" from maxed-out framerate and resolution. Assassin's Creed: Unity is locked at 900p and 30fps on Xbox One and PS4. Historically, the PS4 has proven to be more consistent than the Xbox One in running games at 1080p and 60fps. PC requirements for Dragon Age: Inquisition are also out today, with a minimum of 4GB RAM and a recommended 8GB RAM, minimum DirectX 10 and recommended DirectX 11, and a necessary 26GB hard drive space. See the full specs below. Dragon Age: Inquisition launches on November 18.
Assassin's Creed devs weigh in on the demands of 60fps
Assassin's Creed: Unity will run at 30fps on PS4 and Xbox One, and Ubisoft isn't interested in pushing that number higher because action-adventure games feel better below 60fps, Creative Director Alex Amancio told Techradar. Amancio said it's the same case with resolution (Unity runs at 900p). "If the game looks gorgeous, who cares about the number?" he asked. Level Design Director Nicolas Guérin shared the sentiment, saying that Ubisoft for a long time wanted to hit 60fps in its games, but "you don't gain that much" from it.
Assassin's Creed: Unity at 900p, 30fps on Xbox One, PS4
Assassin's Creed: Unity will be locked at 900p and 30fps on both Xbox One and PS4 when it launches in November, Senior Producer Vincent Pontbriand tells VideoGamer. "We decided to lock them at the same specs to avoid all the debates and stuff," Pontbriand says. Most games in the new console generation hit 1080p, though the PS4 has more consistently supported higher resolutions and frame rates than the Xbox One, and that has been a point of contention for some players. Others see the entire debate as "a PR differentiation." Pontbriand says that the limiting factor on new consoles is the available CPU and AI computation, not graphics processing. "It's the CPU [that] has to process the AI, the number of NPCs we have on screen, all these systems running in parallel," he says. "We were quickly bottlenecked by that and it was a bit frustrating because we thought that this was going to be a tenfold improvement over everything AI-wise, and we realized it was going to be pretty hard. It's not the number of polygons that affect the framerate. We could be running at 100fps if it was just graphics, but because of AI, we're still limited to 30fps." Ubisoft is beefing up Assassin's Creed: Unity in other ways – the dev team rewrote "6 million lines of code" for the new game, Creative Director Alex Amancio told Joystiq. For historical context, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag received a post-launch patch on PS4 that bumped the game's resolution from 900p to 1080p. Assassin's Creed: Unity launches on November 11 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. [Image: Ubisoft]
How Shadow of Mordor PS4 stacks up to PC's huge textures
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a great action game, and a pretty (gruesome) one at that. Those playing on consoles will get a good sense of Monolith's interpretation of the Tolkien universe, but high-end PC players have access to an even more detailed version of Middle-earth. Players with beefy computers can download the HD content pack on Steam, which patches Shadow of Mordor with the "highest resolution textures available." The content pack requires a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 as well as a minimum of 8 GB of system RAM and a video card with at least 6 GB of RAM. Digital Foundry put together a comparison video with the PC version's ultra textures and a PS4 copy of the game, found after the break. For more footage of Shadow of Mordor in action, check out Tuesday's hour-long archived Joystiq Streams. [Image: WBIE]
Project Cars targets 1080p on Xbox One, PS4
Visual fidelity has always been important to players, especially when the resolution between two versions of a game doesn't match. A class-action lawsuit was even filed over a multiplayer game that failed to live up to its promised resolution. With that in mind, racing fans will be happy to know that Project Cars is aiming for 1080p and 60 frames per second on PS4 and Xbox One. Slightly Mad Studios' Andy Tudor told Eurogamer that while recent Xbox One demos of the racer were "not quite 1080p at the moment," the developer is "still aiming to get there." "Towards the end of the game you're always optimizing, and during development it's a rollercoaster. Sometimes you look at the game and think oh god, that's not working, that's not working. But other days you hit 60 fps, and it's awesome," Tudor said. He explained that the "physics underneath runs at 600 times a second," and that the developer calculates "the input you're doing on the controller 250 times per second." The racing sim will launch on the next-gen systems as well as PC on November 18, arriving in 2015 on SteamOS and Wii U. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Report: Lords of the Fallen PS4 is 1080p, Xbox One is 900p
The only difference between the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Lords of the Fallen is in the resolution: Xbox One is 900p, while PS4 is 1080p, City Interactive Executive Producer Tomasz Gop tells VideoGamer. "Probably the resolution [on Xbox One] is like 900p instead of 1080p on PlayStation 4," Gop says. "But apart from that there's nothing different, I would say." Lords of the Fallen is a dark fantasy RPG due out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on October 28 in North America. Gop first compared Lords of the Fallen to Borderlands and Dark Souls, and he later told Joystiq that it was a complicated, strategy-inspired game. "You can imagine Lords of the Fallen as a game that has all the layers, all the complexity, all the mechanics, all the elements of very advanced tactical combat," Gop said. "But it's not being mindlessly punishing at the same time." [Image: City Interactive]
Blizzard: Microsoft demanded 1080p for Diablo 3 on Xbox One
Microsoft spurred a last-minute resolution bump for Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition prior to its recent launch for the Xbox One, Blizzard production director John Hight told Eurogamer at Gamescom. "We did find it challenging early on to get it to 1080p," Hight said. "That's why we made the decision to drop to 900. That's what we demoed and were showing around E3 time. And Microsoft was just like, 'This is unacceptable. You need to figure out a way to get a better resolution.' So we worked with them directly, they gave us a code update to let us get to full 1080p." Blizzard announced during E3 that the Xbox One version of Diablo 3 would be presented in 900p, placing it at a disadvantage compared to the 1080p PlayStation 4 edition. A day-one patch pushed the Xbox One version's resolution to 1080p at launch, though Eurogamer notes that the update introduces slight framerate drops in busy gameplay areas that weren't present at 900p. [Image: Blizzard]
Sony sued over Killzone: Shadow Fall's 1080p promises
A California class-action lawsuit alleges Sony Computer Entertainment America engaged in "deceptive marketing" of Killzone: Shadow Fall for PS4 when it advertised the game running in 1080p. After launch, Digital Foundry found that the multiplayer portion of Shadow Fall runs in upscaled 960 x 1080 resolution, a step below 1080p – and law firm Edelson PC and plaintiff Douglas Ladore see a case there. The suit, on behalf of Ladore and "all others similarly situated," seeks damages of more than $5 million. It also calls for Sony to more accurately advertise Shadow Fall's multiplayer resolution. "Sony admitted that it did not in fact design Killzone to display multiplayer graphics in 1080p, but instead used a technological shortcut that was supposed to provide 'subjectively similar' results," the suit argues. "But Sony never advertised and convinced consumers to buy a technological shortcut."
NIS America to pay agreed pledge for GaymerX2 [Update]
Just yesterday, NIS America stepped away from its $3,000 pledge to cover costs for the GaymerX2 convention held in San Francisco on July 11 through July 13. According to the LGBTQ-focused event's founder Matt Conn, the situation between both parties is currently being resolved, and will result in NIS America agreeing to pay the full amount it promised to the event holders. "After talking with their team, [NIS America] have apologized for the misunderstanding and offered to make right and pay the full amount that they agreed upon," Conn told Joystiq via email. "We have apologized for escalating it to a public level so quickly and we are pleased with how quickly they offered to resolve the situation and make right on their promise, and we harbor no ill will towards them."
Destiny Xbox One beta won't be 1080p, Bungie aiming for it in full game
The PS4 beta of Destiny, which begins today, is expected to run in 1080p resolution - after all, last month's alpha did. However, the Xbox One beta, which begins on July 23, will not, according to comments made during an IGN livestream yesterday. Before anyone sounds the alarms, Bungie Community Manager David Dague maintained the developer's aiming to hit 1080p "across all platforms." Talking to Dague on the stream, IGN's Ryan McCaffrey said, "The way game development works, correct me if I'm wrong, the beta has to be branched off well in advance, aside from the main game. So the final game will run at 1080p on both [PS4 and Xbox One], but we won't see that on the beta of Xbox."
Witcher dev says 1080p vs 720p is 'a PR differentiation'
We're not sure at what resolution The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will run on consoles, but Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of developer CD Projekt, doesn't seem to believe it matters much. "It's more of a PR differentiation," Iwinski told Eurogamer. "We had the debate in the studio about it and actually asked our tech guys to explain how it works," Iwinski said. "And they sent me some complicated graphs that if I have this size of the screen, and I sit one meter or two meters from it, then I might be able to see the difference." Iwinski said he and his team are still working on maximizing each system's power, but that there were no plans to place artificial restrictions to make the game run the same across platforms. "It's against our values to dumb anything down for the sake of some business arrangement," he said. [Image: CD Projekt]
Watch Dogs won't hit 1080p on either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are both plenty powerful, but so far, many third-party games have ended up running better on Sony's console. That trend apparently continues later this month with Ubisoft's upcoming cyberpunk hackathon, Watch Dogs. The PS4 may have the upper hand in terms of native resolution as Joystiq noticed, but the game will run at 30fps (the gold standard for open-world games) on both platforms and neither will sport 1080p natively according to publisher Ubisoft. This is contrary to what a PlayStation.com listing said before it vanished over the weekend. The adventures of Aiden Pearce will run at 900p for Sony fans, while Xbox One owners will see 792p on their flat-screens. Because both consoles will upscale the game and output it to your display's native resolution, it's a difference you might only notice if both versions are running side-by-side. If you'll remember, Assassin's Creed 4 shipped on the PS4 at 900p as well, and received an update to hit full HD after the game launched -- we'll be watching to see if that happens here, too.
Watch Dogs no longer listed as 1080p, 60fps on PS4
Sony's Watch Dogs product page no longer lists 1080p or 60fps as part of the game's selling points. This weekend, the PlayStation site listed Watch Dogs for PS4 as follows: "Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch Dogs in a way that only PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p." Now, the final prepositional phrase of that description is gone. There's no word on why the specs were extinguished, especially since the wider internet already caught wind of them. Maybe Sony's site was hacked by a savvy Chicagoan techno-wizard with a baseball cap and a smartphone. Maybe. Ubisoft hasn't provided any other targets for Watch Dogs' resolution and framerate on PS4 (or Xbox One). Watch Dogs is due out on May 27 for PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: Ubisoft]
Report: PlanetSide 2 on PS4 to run at 1080p, playable at E3
PlanetSide 2 creative director Matt Higby has confirmed that the MMO shooter will run at 1080p on Sony's PlayStation 4 console, IGN reports. Higby made the announcement during a stream of the game, noting that optimization for the console version is ongoing. PlanetSide 2 was expected to land on PS4 in early 2014, but we've yet to hear an update on when we can expect to load up and roll out with thousands of other soldiers in Sony's sci-fi universe. IGN also reports that Higby said hands-on time with the game will be available at E3, so we might just have to be patient and see what's said next month. Either that or we solve our problems the PlanetSide 2 way and roll up to Sony with a couple hundred tanks and heavily-armed aircraft, but we think that might get us in trouble. Also, we don't own any tanks and/or heavily-armed aircraft. [Image: Sony]
Sony listing touts Watch Dogs at 60fps, 1080p on PS4
While Ubisoft has yet to confirm technical details of its open-world vigilante simulator Watch Dogs, a Sony summary of the game on PlayStation.com claims the game will run at 1080p and 60 frames per second on the PS4. The full text reads: "The world of Watch_Dogs comes alive on PS4 with the best graphics on any console and exclusive missions found only on PlayStation. Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch_Dogs in a way that only PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p." Watch Dogs recently faced harsh criticism when a recent gameplay trailer failed to live up to the visuals set forth by the game during its E3 2012 debut. [Image: Ubisoft]
Titanfall ships at 792p on Xbox One, post-release resolution 'likely to increase'
The Xbox One version of Respawn Entertainment's first-person shooter, Titanfall, will showcase its mech-battling action in 792p resolution when it ships this week, lead engineer Richard Baker confirmed during an interview with technical analysis site Digital Foundry. The retail version's resolution and 60 frames-per-second output (mostly) mirrors the visual presentation seen in Titanfall's pre-release beta from last month. Baker explained that Titanfall is "likely to increase resolution after we ship," though day-one players will be locked at 792p. "We've been experimenting with making it higher and lower," Baker said during Digital Foundry's interview. "We're going to experiment. The target is either 1080p non-anti-aliased or 900p with FXAA. We're trying to optimize... we don't want to give up anything for higher res. So far we're not 100 per cent happy with any of the options, we're still working on it." [Image: Respawn]
Do you really need a 4K smartphone screen?
See those two screens up there? Pretty soon the smartphone will have the same resolution as the much bigger panel (a 27-inch Dell U2711 monitor with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels). While the snappiest CPUs, more RAM, better cameras and other frills are a must for the latest handsets, the current marketing pièce de résistance is a higher-resolution screen. In four years, we've passed from a norm of 800 x 480 to 960 x 540 and up to 720p, 1080p and soon -- likely on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S5 -- 2,560 x 1,440 Quad HD (QHD). That works out to a borderline-insane 500-plus pixels per inch (depending on screen size) and manufacturers aren't stopping there. But is more resolution worth the extra expense if you can't even see the difference? Well, it's complicated.
