One of the perks of the PS4 version, as revealed earlier via a tweet, is atmospheric simulation - a real-time approach to rendering skies in the Ground Zeroes mission. This allows clouds to move dynamically and impact the sun's lighting, where by contrast the Xbox One release joins PS3 and 360 with purely static skyboxes.
The resolution details stand as the most dramatic difference though, with Konami happily making public the specifics of each version ahead of release. From our pixel counts, we can confirm that the PS4 does indeed push out a 1920x1080 framebuffer as promised, while on Xbox One we have just a 1280x720 window with which to work.
As an early example of how the Fox Engine is refreshing the Metal Gear Solid series, it's hard not to come away impressed with this Ground Zeroes prologue. The PS3 and 360 releases buckle under the weight of its new-found ambition, with general performance lurking in the 20-30fps range, but on the whole the game is still fundamentally enjoyable as an open-world action game.
But the king of the roost is most certainly the PS4 version, with its slick 1080p presentation marking a clear lead over the maximum 720p possible on Xbox One. The atmospheric rendering for skies is also a welcomed, if subtle extra on PS4 - the ramifications of which aren't fully fleshed out for single area demonstrated here.
On PC
But what kind of PC does it take to actually hit this high bar of quality? Fortunately, The Phantom Pain is relatively light on CPU use, and even our Haswell Core i3 processor doesn't get close to hitting full capacity in its most intensive scenes. Memory wise, as always we recommend 8GB of RAM in your PC, while your graphics card should have a minimum of 2GB of GDDR5 for 1080p gameplay. In terms of scaling through Metal Gear Solid 5's higher-end quality presets, virtually all of the focus is on the GPU side, and in testing a gamut of cards, this puts into focus how scalable the Fox Engine is.
To work from the ground upwards, Nvidia's GTX 750 Ti is still a front-runner for the budget-orientated PC gamer, with prices recently cut to £90. However, at default settings, it's clear that stock clocks don't quite cut it, with the card hitting 32fps on alpha-heavy explosions in battle, and 50fps for regular shoot-outs. The fix is simple however: raising the memory clock by 400MHz (in our case via MSI's Afterburner utility) we clear the bottleneck entirely, and can hit a perfect 60fps - without even touching the core clock. There's headroom to switch volumetric clouds and superior texture filtering on too, and the default preset also qualifies it for broader draw distances than on console. So with minimal tweaking, our budget gaming PC is actually capable of handing in a more refined version of the game at 1080p, inching ahead of the PlayStation 4 version.
As far as 4K (or 3840x2160) gaming is concerned, the GTX 980 Ti is once again the best bet. Running everything at maximum settings puts the performance of general open-world gameplay at around 40-45fps, which makes the game's 30fps cap a temptation. However, by dropping effects, post-processing and ambient occlusion options down a notch to the high preset, you regain a smooth 60fps at 4K without any issue. It's a seamless ultra HD experience during missions this way, and only brief drops in the prologue's alpha-heavy cut-scenes interrupt it.
Not going to plump the extra $100 for the star wars branding, but the bundle coming with a game I actually wanted to buy - PS4 for me this November!
When I get this PS4, I will probably sell my PS3 - does anyone know if there is any way to keep PSN purchases on the console without giving the purchaser my PSN log in? Would add value to include more games, but not going to give anyone access to my personal info.
Not going to plump the extra $100 for the star wars branding, but the bundle coming with a game I actually wanted to buy - PS4 for me this November!
When I get this PS4, I will probably sell my PS3 - does anyone know if there is any way to keep PSN purchases on the console without giving the purchaser my PSN log in? Would add value to include more games, but not going to give anyone access to my personal info.
Do you mean keeping your downloaded games on the PS3 and somehow providing it to whomever that buys it?
They are tied to your PSN account . . . I'm fairly sure that other people won't be able to access or play them unless you give them access. That would be the same for most gaming accounts I think.
I guess you could leave it logged into your account and keep it authorized but you could run into some funky issues down the road. Save game uploads, them uploading stuff or trying buy stuff, etc. Probably not worth the hassle.
Do you mean keeping your downloaded games on the PS3 and somehow providing it to whomever that buys it?
They are tied to your PSN account . . . I'm fairly sure that other people won't be able to access or play them unless you give them access. That would be the same for most gaming accounts I think.
I guess you could leave it logged into your account and keep it authorized but you could run into some funky issues down the road. Save game uploads, them uploading stuff or trying buy stuff, etc. Probably not worth the hassle.
Yeah I figured as much - was hoping when I sell it to be able to make more due to including more games, but at least I played my money's worth out of the downloaded games. I can always sell the PS3 console, then if i ever decide I want to play those games, unless Sony has a change of heart emulating/backwards capability, I just have to buy a PS3 again. May as well sell leading up to Christmas while it has more value and demand
Don't buy a PS4 today. Changes for tomorrow apparently. Though I've seen some of the bundles for 399 in the last month or two so I assume retailers could certainly be lower.
Finally got an i7-6700k today. Intel has been trickling releases of the chip into NA for the last 3 months, while Australia, Japan, and the EU have seen consistent stock since late June.
Absolutely brutal release. Hope it/z170/DDR4 3xxx+ is worth it.
I'm probably never gonna play Syndicate, but it's worth noting (again) that the soundtrack is probably gonna be amazing. Thanks, Austin Wintory!
Yeah, he showed us some of his work on it a long while back. Obviously had to keep it on the down low but he's really excited about it. I'm interested in these "murder ballads".
The same AnvilNext engine runs the game, and the same basic compromises we found in Unity are present and correct here - specifically, the utilisation of internal upscaling, with both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Syndicate sporting the same 900p resolution as last year's title. Indeed, there's a fairly compelling argument that Ubisoft has made a play for improved performance this year by scaling back on Unity's giddy ambition.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate shows genuine improvement here. In Unity, we could see extended periods of gameplay where the 30fps target was nowhere in sight. Its successor shows huge improvement on both platforms, but it's clear that the PlayStation 4 takes pole position. We have two videos below outlining the performance differential, concentrating on engine cut-scenes and gameplay. In the former, GPU load is significantly higher than it is during gameplay, and Xbox One's less capable graphics hardware has more of an issue coping with the load, with sustained drops in performance in some areas, dipping beneath the 30fps threshold while PS4 holds firm. In areas where the Sony console does drop frames, Xbox One lags still further behind.
Rapid traversal through environments can hit performance on both systems, but where the Microsoft box dips into the high 20s, PS4 has a better lock on its 30fps target - and when the Sony console dips to the 27fps area, Xbox One is a couple of fps further off the pace.
Erick Estrada reminded me that I missed the NPD's (North America region) for October. I've been kinda busy lately!
Xbone up with the big new Halo release. 10% higher at 303k versus the 275k for PS4 (and Wii U's 65K - I don't even want to do that percentage math on that . . . the poor Wii U ).
Surprisingly, the new Halo 5 bundle was outsold by the Remastered Uncharted bundle.
The North American market remains relatively close Xbone and PS4 wise (roughly 1 million difference). Worldwide it's a pretty big gap still with Vgchartz estimates at 15 million to 28 million - though I think they haven't updated those numbers in a while.
EDIT: Software for the month - order of systems shows sales ranking per console:
1.) Halo 5: Guardians (XBO)
2.) NBA 2K16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3) [Note: Second Month]
3.) Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (PS4, XBO)
4.) Madden NFL 16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
5.) WWE 2K16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
6.) FIFA 16 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
7.) Destiny: The Taken King (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
8.) Yoshi's Wooly World (NWU)
9.) Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
10.) Rock Band 4 (XBO, PS4)
Last edited by chemgear; 11-16-2015 at 10:27 PM.
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