[Bullet Club]

Dying Light is out soon for Nintendo Switch - and Digital Foundry has exclusive access to the game. This is one of the most challenging ports we've seen and Techland has done a remarkable job in scaling down and optimising this brilliant game for a vintage 2015 mobile chipset. John Linneman has all of the details.

 

[Jack's Fury]

Dying Light was one of my favourite eraly last gen surprises but I've not touched since finishing The Following expansion on release, definitely will go for another playthrough once the next gen update they've just announced drops.

Hopefully they'll make a demo for the switch version, i wouldn't mind trying it.

 

[regawdless]

Uncapped frame rate fluctuating between 30 and 36 fps? I'm always confused by such blatantly bad decisions.

Other than that, it's a Switch version. Looks as good as the hardware allows it to look.

So not good.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Honestly, I love bollocks like this. All the ultra high, max setting games, shown on PC's that have individual components that cost more than all the current consoles combined, tell us nothing about what both game developers and hardware are really capable.

Stuff like this, these 'impossible' ports, squeezing every last drop of power out, getting deep into the game code and optimising to hell and back just to run in a barely playable state, this fascinates me, and is far more impressive and exciting than seeing the game running at 4K120fps maxed out through simple computational brute force.

 

[regawdless]

Honestly, I love bollocks like this. All the ultra high, max setting games, shown on PC's that have individual components that cost more than all the current consoles combined, tell us nothing about what both game developers and hardware are really capable.

Stuff like this, these 'impossible' ports, squeezing every last drop of power out, getting deep into the game code and optimising to hell and back just to run in a barely playable state, this fascinates me, and is far more impressive and exciting than seeing the game running at 4K120fps maxed out through simple computational brute force.

Never understand takes like these.

Devs always work with hardware limitations and try to squeeze as much as possible out of it. Even the current gen consoles have very limited budgets and devs need to optimize the hell out of it.

For me, it's way more fascinating to see devs putting as many amazing visual effects into a game, push hardware to it's limits in creative ways, while still making it playable. Shit like Metro Exodus EE on current gen consoles. Amazing looking raytraced GI lighting in an open world shooter at 60fps on cheap ass hardware??? That's MAGIC! This took so much optimization, this is what game development is about (regarding tech).

I don't see what's so great about taking an existing game and just reduce details, draw distance, resolution etc. to the point when it's running with an acceptable framerate. Sure, the code will be optimized to run on the other hardware but it's.... just a visually gimped port.

Can't feel the excitement for that myself.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Never understand takes like these.

Devs always work with hardware limitations and try to squeeze as much as possible out of it. Even the current gen consoles have very limited budgets and devs need to optimize the hell out of it.

For me, it's way more fascinating to see devs putting as many amazing visual effects into a game, push hardware to it's limits in creative ways, while still making it playable. Shit like Metro Exodus EE on current gen consoles. Amazing looking raytraced GI lighting in an open world shooter at 60fps on cheap ass hardware??? That's MAGIC! This took so much optimization, this is what game development is about (regarding tech).

I don't see what's so great about taking an existing game and just reduce details, draw distance, resolution etc. to the point when it's running with an acceptable framerate. Sure, the code will be optimized to run on the other hardware but it's.... just a visually gimped port.

Can't feel the excitement for that myself.

Metro Exodus is a massive outlier in terms of what devs do. They've done the raytracing alone on that game three times!

Most big budget games, that really get the best out of any specific hardware, are console exclusives, and even they generally need a couple of sequels to really show what can be achieved for those particular specs off to their best.

Most games by anyone that could actually do anything truly impressive, are the ones that are made by enormous teams, barely communicating, churning titles out on a conveyor belt, riddled with bugs and released with a 'we'll fix it later if enough people buy it AND complain' attitude.

Even CDProject Red, one of the few studios that will spend the time and effort needed to make a game truly sing as sweetly as it could, end up releasing a broken mess like CP2077, rather than a technical tour de force.

The fact is we are deep into the realms of diminishing returns with the upper limits of graphical design, with most games having barely any difference between High, Ultra and Max, beyond the skyrocketing price tag each level up requires to run, and 99% of developers spend only the effort needed of them to allow their marketing team to pump out bullshot trailers. It's the low end where studios more often specialise in complex development most studios lack the expertise or will to spend time and money going beyond what was thought possible for a game, opening it up for enjoyment by an audience most journalists and commentators never even consider, but that vastly outweigh the number of those capable of gaming at the high end of the hobby.

 

[regawdless]

Metro Exodus is a massive outlier in terms of what devs do. They've done the raytracing alone on that game three times!

Most big budget games, that really get the best out of any specific hardware, are console exclusives, and even they generally need a couple of sequels to really show what can be achieved for those particular specs off to their best.

Most games by anyone that could actually do anything truly impressive, are the ones that are made by enormous teams, barely communicating, churning titles out on a conveyor belt, riddled with bugs and released with a 'we'll fix it later if enough people buy it AND complain' attitude.

Even CDProject Red, one of the few studios that will spend the time and effort needed to make a game truly sing as sweetly as it could, end up releasing a broken mess like CP2077, rather than a technical tour de force.

The fact is we are deep into the realms of diminishing returns with the upper limits of graphical design, with most games having barely any difference between High, Ultra and Max, beyond the skyrocketing price tag each level up requires to run, and 99% of developers spend only the effort needed of them to allow their marketing team to pump out bullshot trailers. It's the low end where studios more often specialise in complex development most studios lack the expertise or will to spend time and money going beyond what was thought possible for a game, opening it up for enjoyment by an audience most journalists and commentators never even consider, but that vastly outweigh the number of those capable of gaming at the high end of the hobby.

I personally enjoy games by smaller teams more, because they tend to be more focused and less focus-tested to death. Don't like that inefficient bloatet mess that game development has become.

From a tech standpoint though and to your initial statement, I understand your point even less now. Because taking a big game like Dying Light with it's multi million budget, that as you've said hit a certain point of diminishing return and didn't push any boundries visually, and dumb it down to weak hardware... sounds even less exciting now than before

 

[mcz117chief]

Can I get an answer that has been always bugging me about the Switch (am an owner myself btw). Is it, or is it not, more powerful than the PS360 gen of consoles? I feel like the games from that gen looked a lot better than the Switch games but everywhere I looked people kept telling me that Switch is vastly superior, but I just don't see it. I can't imagine games like The Last of Us, Gears of War 3 or God of War 3 to run on Switch at such resolution and framerate as it did on the old gen consoles. Can anyone give me an enlightened answer?

 

[Stilton Disco]

Can I get an answer that has been always bugging me about the Switch (am an owner myself btw). Is it, or is it not, more powerful than the PS360 gen of consoles? I feel like the games from that gen looked a lot better than the Switch games but everywhere I looked people kept telling me that Switch is vastly superior, but I just don't see it. I can't imagine games like The Last of Us, Gears of War 3 or God of War 3 to run on Switch at such resolution and framerate as it did on the old gen consoles. Can anyone give me an enlightened answer?

It's probably because you haven't played on a 7th gen system recently.

The Switch is more powerful than the WiiU, which handily trounced the PS360 consoles.

Bayonetta is a good point of comparison, since it's a clear progression in quality from 360 to WiiU to Switch.

 

[mcz117chief]

It's probably because you haven't played on a 7th gen system recently.

The Switch is more powerful than the WiiU, which handily trounced the PS360 consoles.

Bayonetta is a good point of comparison, since it's a clear progression in quality from 360 to WiiU to Switch.

Just now actually, I am doing a replay of the Gears of War series. There are still plenty of other games I play from that gen (Ace Combat 6 yesterday). Bayonetta also isn't a looker like God of War 3, not even close.

 

[Neil Young]

Dying Light is one of my recent favorites but I would never play it for the Switch. It already looked a bit like ass on the Xbox one, I'll wait for their next gen update.

Also, I'm in the same boat where there's not much that impresses me graphically for the Switch. Luigi's Mansion, Mario Odyssey...that's about it really. I haven't played Dredd, maybe that looks good.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Just now actually, I am doing a replay of the Gears of War series. There are still plenty of other games I play from that gen (Ace Combat 6 yesterday). Bayonetta also isn't a looker like God of War 3, not even close.

There's also a couple of Assassin's Creeds, Saint's Rows, LA Noir, Skyrim and so on, all of which look and run better on Switch.

If you just want to go off exclusives, Mari Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles and BOTW all visually trump what the gen before could manage.