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Watch Metal Gear Solid 5 at 60 frames per second

Um, wow.

Richard Leadbetter avatar
Blog by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry
Updated on
147 comments

With the arrival of the next-gen era upon us, developers are looking at the raw hardware capabilities of the new consoles and wondering exactly how to use the vast increase in horsepower available to them. We'd like to think that 1080p is a given, but what's been particularly heartening has been a commitment to 60 frames per second from a number of key studios working on some of the most eagerly awaited titles.

According to Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is one of those projects currently aiming for the gold standard in console frame-rate, and it's borne out by the video trailer presented at the beginning of Microsoft's E3 conference. Kojima himself is no stranger to shipping a 60fps title, of course. While the third and fourth Metal Gear Solid outings had varying performance levels (not to mention PSP Peace Walker operating at a locked 20fps), MGS2's interior sections ran at the full 60fps, dropping down to 30fps for the more demanding outdoor scenes. In presenting the HD Collection on Xbox 360 and PS3, which aimed to restore full frame-rate across the board, we perhaps get a much better idea of how the games were meant to be played.

The difference is revelatory - even more so for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. If you've only seen the trailer on a blurry stream with an ever-variable frame-rate, you're missing out on some beautifully detailed work from Kojima Productions that only looks even more beautiful when running at 60 frames per second - the way it was meant to be seen.

"Watch the E3 Metal Gear Solid 5 trailer the way it was meant to be seen - at 60 frames per second."

Kojima's targeting 60fps for next-gen Metal Gear, and the E3 trailer reflects that vision. At full frame-rate and with more sympathetic video encoding, the trailer looks phenomenal. As with all of our 60fps presentations we recommend Google Chrome on PC or an iOS device for the smoothest playback.

Alternative 720p60 version: Capable hardware required for smooth playback

There's a pretty good reason why you don't see more 60Ffps video on the internet - and it's specifically down to the fact that existing PC playback technologies appear to have real issues maintaining frame-rate. In our tests, Google Chrome is the best choice for streaming playback, while hardware decoding from iOS devices also comes up trumps. For those who'd prefer an offline download option for watching on console, you're sorted there too.

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