DF Direct Weekly revisits RE Village DRM, Skyward Sword HD and 120Hz modes
And lining up something special for Steam Deck.
Timing is everything, right? So let's get the bad news out of the way first. We tend to shoot Digital Foundry Direct Weekly every Thursday morning, it goes out to supporters on Saturday with a public release on Monday. The big news last week though was the reveal of Steam Deck, which happened pretty much directly after our filming was complete - which is perhaps unfortunate. Still, for our initial thoughts, the Steam Deck spec analysis is now available both on Eurogamer and YouTube, and we'll be following that up with further discussion in a DF Direct special later on in the week.
So, what do we have for you in the meantime? The DF team crystalises its thoughts on the desperately sad Resident Evil Village DRM situation, we debate the plus and minus points of the Skyward Sword HD release on Switch, and we also talk about Asobo's intriguing A Plague Tale: Innocence 120Hz support. It's not really a 120fps mode as such, it simply unlocks frame-rate if you have 120Hz active and produces some interesting results on a VRR capable display. We talk about the possible implications of modes like this in the here and now and with future Xbox hardware in mind.
On the retro side, we mull over the rumours circulating a PowerSlace/Exhumed remake or remaster - my favourite Western-produced Sega Saturn game in the 1990s! Plus, Capcom CPS2 gets MiSTer support, opening up a phenomenal range of Capcom arcade games for use on the FPGA-based system. And you'll get updates on all of the cool stuff we've been doing on the Digital Foundry Supporter Program!
If you're looking to skip ahead to specific parts of the show, go right ahead!
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:01:03 RE Village DRM situation
- 00:18:04 A Plague Tale Innocence 120Hz unlocked frame-rate
- 00:27:11 Zelda Skyward Sword HD impressions
- 00:36:40 PowerSlave/Exhumed returns!
- 00:41:12 MiSTer gets CPS2 arcade support
- 00:46:54 DF Content Discussion/Supporter Program schedule
- 01:12:01 Supporter Q1: Does the PS5 shortage indicate a long PS3-era console generation?
- 01:19:33 Supporter Q2: What are the chances of other PS4 titles getting 120fps support?
- 01:24:11 Supporter Q3: Any plans for more Switch overclocking videos?
- 01:29:22 Supporter Q4: Do you think the die shrink Switch we got a couple years ago or the new OLED switch will run cooler?
- 01:31:29 Supporter Q5: Would you be interested in digging into some of the older computer titles for DF Retro?
- 01:36:24 Supporter Q6: Will Sega ever tap the vast and excellent Saturn library? Also please talk about the Saturn more.
- 01:42:54 A new challenger has arrived!
- 01:43:48 Goodbye
Supporter Q+A? We love it. We integrate questions into the RE Village and Skyward Sword HD discussion, but we also get into the nuts and bolts of the current semi-conductor shortage, and its implications for the length of the console generation... or more possibly, a continued extension of what already seems like a very long cross-gen transition. Does COD Warzone's 120Hz debut mean we'll see more PS4 games run at 120fps on PS5? Are there any real candidates for this beyond Rocket League? And what of the OLED Switch? Will it be a good replacement for an overheating launch model? And we've done it before and we'll do it again - we talk about Sega's retro plans which surely at some point must progress beyond the Mega Drive? We really love taking a break from our projects to produce these Directs and hope you like them too.