Sure, it would launch several months after the PC and Xbox Series X/S versions, but the quantum shift had finally occurred. Cue the announcement of Forza Horizon 5 and the resurgence of rumors around titles like Starfield, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and more. PS5 players could finally experience franchises restricted to Xbox for years and, in some cases, decades.

However, now that the Great Circle is almost here, launching on April 17th for Sony’s console, how does this version compare to other platforms?

Let’s get this out of the way immediately – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a gorgeous game. Developed on a fork of id Tech 7, it looked utterly gorgeous on PC and Xbox Series X when it launched, even with some players facing issues with the former’s system requirements at launch. Does all that visual splendor carry over to PS5? How about the performance?

Thankfully, as with other Xbox releases on PS5, the Great Circle is an excellent port. There are some notable things to nitpick with the visuals, which can still be seen on the PC and Xbox Series X versions. Nevertheless, this is a great-looking game out of the box and the performance is rock-solid.

The latter is notable primarily because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle runs at dynamic 4K resolution and targets 60 frames per second. The biggest attraction is the implementation of ray-traced global illumination and the results are truly exceptional. Indirect lighting naturally illuminates indoor locations, be it in buildings or caves, and the resulting shadows are sharp. Even if the resolution shifts during heavier scenes, the overall image quality and pixel count remain fairly high.

Considering many other developers have struggled to deliver excellent visual fidelity and solid performance while implementing ray tracing, the Great Circle is definitely a stand-out. I have no idea how MachineGames optimized it to such an incredible extent on consoles, but that carries over to PS5 with nary a hitch.

How do the console versions measure up to each other? For that matter, does the PS5 version beat out the Xbox Series X, when compared to the PC version, or are they more or less on the same page? Let’s find out.

PS5 vs. Xbox Series X

As you might have guessed by now, the differences are negligible. Such is the porting work that you’d be hard-pressed to notice many differences between the game on either console. The frame rate stays at a near-constant 60 frames per second during gameplay – some very minor drops can be observed rarely, but they hardly impact the overall flow. Loading times are also fairly similar – once you’ve chosen your settings and default difficulty, the transition to gameplay is nearly instant. Quitting to the main menu and resuming a save is seamless and takes no time on both platforms.

Perhaps the most notable blemish is the pop-in, with some shadows and a few assets loading as you get closer. The overall draw distance and level of detail are still extremely impressive on consoles, and some may be hard-pressed to notice it during the more intense sequences. It’s during the exploration sequences, like walking through the jungle in the Prologue and venturing into the ruins or running around the larger open maps, that it becomes noticeable. Once again, it’s far from a deal-breaker – you’re still guaranteed immense amounts of fidelity backed by incredible performance.

PS5 vs. PC

It’s here the dynamic resolution vs. native 4K comparison becomes more noticeable. First off, our test rig consists of an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, and 32 GB of RAM. For the settings, we set almost everything to the highest settings wherever applicable, be it Supreme or Ultra (though Volumetrics Quality is limited to Medium). Nvidia DLSS is employed and set to Quality Mode, with Dynamic Resolution not enabled.

Needless to say, the PC version is the clear winner. Though some very minor frame drops are noticeable in certain areas, it stuck to 60 frames per second for most of our hands-on time while delivering a crisp resolution and excellent image quality. Some pop-in issues were still noticeable at times but didn’t hamper the experience.

Though the dynamic resolution puts the PS5 (and, by extension, the Xbox Series X) version at a disadvantage, it’s only really apparent when directly matched up against a native 4K image like this. Otherwise, you’d be hard-pressed to notice any earth-shattering differences in visual fidelity. Which is a good thing, mind you.

Another note on the PC version – despite not meeting the requirements for all Supreme/Ultra settings, it still offered an incredible visual experience. It speaks to MachineGames’ optimization in this regard, and though your mileage may vary, you’re still assured of excellent fidelity and performance.

Conclusion

However, the best part about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that, besides being an excellent game, you’re not forced to choose a version (though maybe avoid playing on Xbox Series S). It performs well on Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC, balancing stellar performance with a nearly-locked 60 frames per second with incredible graphical quality that makes id Tech 7 shine. That it’s able to achieve all this with ray-traced global illumination enabled and sticking reasonably close to 4K on consoles makes it a technical marvel in many ways.

Beyond the technical aspects, the Great Circle is notable for its art direction and cinematic presentation. The shot-for-shot remake of the opening for Raiders in the Prologue, the sheer visual splendor of locations like Egypt and the Himalayas – it’s a treat for fans of the franchise and action-adventure titles alike. Even in places with differing weather conditions like snowfall and rain, MachineGames is showing off with the sheer amount of detail that it stuffs into scenes.

However, above all else, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a phenomenal game that’s faithful to the character and atmosphere of the films. It’s nostalgic yet stylized, incorporating that trademark Indy kitsch and charm while delivering a fun, original story with plenty of adventure, puzzle-solving, and mystery. If you haven’t played it on Xbox Series X or PC, there’s never been a better time now that it’s finally coming to PS5.

Though it received a free update for the PS5 that included 30 FPS and 60 FPS options, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is a proper paid upgrade over the PS5 version. While it’s not a massive graphical overhaul, it does offer new modes, including the rogue-like No Return and Lost Levels, three levels cut from the game alongside extensive developer commentary. You can also engage in Guitar Free Play or try to complete the story as quickly as possible in Speedrun Mode.

Over a year later, the remaster finally comes to PC on April 3rd, as Naughty Dog teams up with Nixxes and Iron Galaxy. Is it a massive improvement over the PS5 version? Is it the definitive way to play the classic? Of course, after The Last of Us Part 1’s disastrous launch on PC and the mixed bag that some first-party PS5 ports (like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) have been, some skepticism is understandable. Let’s dive in and find out.

What’s New With the PC Version?

Considering that The Last of Us Part 2, both the original and remastered, doesn’t offer ray tracing, it’s no surprise that it isn’t on the table with this PC port. What it offers is Ultrawide monitor support, whether you’re rocking a 21:9, 32:9 or 48:9 resolution display, not to mention triple-monitor set-ups. Upscalers like Nvidia DLSS 3 Super Resolution, AMD FSR 3.1, Intel XeSS and AMD FSR 4, alongside Frame Generation and DirectStorage, are also supported. You can also enable Vsync and output much higher frame rates than the PS5. But how heavy will all this be on your system?

PC Requirements and Test Rig Configuration

Regarding PC requirements, Naughty Dog, Nixxes and Iron Galaxy offer a decent range of scalability. While you only need an Intel Core i3-8100 or an AMD Ryzen 3 1300X on the Minimum end, a GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon RX 5500XT is required along with 16 GB of RAM, which is enough for 720p/30 FPS at Low settings. On the recommended side for 1080p/60 FPS on Medium settings, you’ll need a Core i5-8600 or Ryzen 5 3600, an RTX 3060 or Radeon RX 5700, and 16 GB RAM.

Playing at 1440p/60 FPS on High settings requires a Core i7-9700K or a Ryzen 7 3700X, an RTX 3070 or a Radeon RX 6800, and 16 GB of RAM. If you’re aiming for the highest quality standard, namely 4K/60 FPS at Very High settings, you’ll need a Core i7-11700 or a Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, an RTX 4080 or RX 7900XT and 32 GB RAM. And while it’s roughly 79 GB on PS5, a whopping 150 GB of installation space is required for the PC port (SSD mandatory). Our rig has an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 32 GB of RAM.

Graphical Options and Our Settings

On top of upscalers, DirectStorage support, and whatnot, the big appeal of the PC port is adjustable graphics options. You can adjust the Level of Detail, Reflection Quality, Texture Quality and Filtering, Shadow Quality, Depth of Field Quality, Refraction Quality, Particle Density, and much more.

For our settings, we went with DLSS set to Quality at 3840×2160 resolution, 60 Hz as the refresh rate and frame rate capped at 360. DLAA and Vsync are enabled while pretty much every option is set to Very High, though no changes were made to the Field of View, and dynamic resolution scaling is off.

PC Performance

If the performance of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC made you skeptical of future first-party ports, rest assured. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s frame rate runs at a solid 60 frames per second throughout with very minimal drops. It’s impressive given the sheer amount of detail and effects at 4K, whether you’re admiring the lights in town or venturing through snow-covered fields, escaping from a horde of infected. Facial and character animations also look as nuanced and natural as ever, with stunning image clarity bringing all the little details – like freckles, snowflakes, and whatnot – to the forefront.

However, there are some drawbacks. In an early scene with Abby and Owen, the latter’s hair glitches out in places. It happens again later on and though it’s not super-prevalent, the times it does occur are impossible to miss. There are also ghosting issues, which are subtle in the mansion scene, again with Owen’s hair, but they’re much more noticeable when Ellie sprints through the snow on horseback. At first, it seemed restricted to cutscenes, but you may even notice it during gameplay while moving at a measured pace. There aren’t any major glitches or performance troubles otherwise.

PC vs PS5 (Fidelity and Performance)

On the PS5, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers Performance and Fidelity modes. The former runs at 1440p/60 frames per second, while the latter offers native 4K and 30 frames per second. Those with a 120 Hz output can mess around with the PS5’s VRR settings to achieve higher unlocked frame rates, but we stuck to the default.

Both modes offer stable frame rates on the console, but Fidelity mode packs better image clarity, especially in distant details and aspects like foliage. The trade-off is the frame rate, of course. With the PC version, you get the best of both worlds. Sections like riding through the fields as Joel and gazing upon Jackson from a distance while the sun shines really highlight how well the visuals have held up through the years, even if some ghosting is visible at times.

Conclusion

When you look back at the series’ debut on PC with The Last of Us Part 1, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is on a completely different level. Yes, the ghosting can get distracting, and there is the odd visual glitch with Owen’s hair, but it’s backed by excellent performance, gorgeous visuals all around and no major bugs (at least none we observed in our hands-on time).

As always, your mileage can vary depending on the hardware and settings, but seeing this level of fidelity with most settings on Very High and at 4K with a mostly locked 60 FPS on an RTX 3080 Ti is pretty impressive. If you’re a PC player waiting to continue the story since Part 1 dropped, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered comes highly recommended.

As enticing as it all is, previous showcases looked more than a bit rough, raising concern over whether it would actually meet the initial November launch. Thankfully, the delays have allowed for some significant polish, with the fidelity of the setting, combined with Shadows’ art direction, shining through. We compared the visual fidelity and performance of the PS5 and PC versions to highlight all the differences, especially between different modes. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

What’s New?

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a lot going on with its world design, especially with how intricately the development team has researched Japan, right down to the rooftops of various architecture. Such is the extensiveness that game director Charles Benoit told IGN it was “probably the most complex thing that I ever worked with” compared to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Syndicate, with specific code and animations required to ensure “something superfluid.”

Environmental destruction is also something to behold. Initial showings highlighted the destruction of vendor stands with vegetables and fruit scattering naturally on the ground. However, even in the early going, watching Yasuke kick an enemy through wood containers, some shattering as the body careens through and others tipping over from the impact, is so satisfying. Objects are also sliced realistically depending on the orientation of the blade, and while that’s cool, there are some weird interactions. Watching an ally slice the top of a wooden barrel and seeing the part fall to the ground is cool, but not so much when another part hops a little before landing on top.

Of course, there’s also ray-traced global illumination and ray tracing, an improvement over previous GI implementations. With the changing seasons, scenes significantly shift in lighting and shadow quality throughout. The use of Atmos is also notable for its procedural clouds and physics-based weather. It makes for more natural transitions between rainy and clear weather, and though the rain quality is just fine, watching the splashing of drops on the ground, the horse, various characters, etc., is pretty incredible on PC.

Walking through the Iga Province and watching the nearby scenery gently swaying with the wind or hanging around in a foggy area as it slowly dissipates, lingering ever so slightly as the sun starts to shine, can be mesmerizing.

Test Build Specs and Settings

On PC, we tested Assassin’s Creed Shadows on an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB RAM DDR4 RAM, and an NVMe SSD PCI e 4.0. We set almost everything to Very High – with Ultra High enabled for a few options like Light Source Quality – at 4K resolution. The upscaler was set to Automatic and Quality with dynamic resolution enabled.

Ray-traced global illumination on Diffuse + Specular Everywhere while ray-tracing quality and BVH quality (which adjusts the quantity of geometry) was set to Very High. You can change character and hair strand quality, with individual strands standing out, though even details like wrinkles and pores are distinguishable.

PC Performance

Of course, performance is the biggest question, especially on PC, and the answer is: Pretty good. There are a few noticeable frame drops when exiting the map screen occasionally. Fast travelling to Nanbansen, we noticed the frame rate hovered between 55 to 60 frames per second while looking around at various scenery and undiscovered PoIs. Though it dips to about 50 to 52 frames per second while underwater and swimming, it climbs back to 55 to 60 as soon as you get out and start running around or fighting enemies.

Even if a day one patch further smooths things out, it’s pretty good considering the settings and ray tracing quality. The loading times while fast travelling are also pretty snug on PC – journeying to Nanbansen took about nine seconds.

PS5 Modes

With so much going on in terms of visuals, the PlayStation 5 holds up, though there are some caveats. It offers an upscaled 2160p resolution across all three of its modes. Performance runs at 60 FPS and features Selective Ray Tracing, which means only The Hideout benefits from global illumination for diffuse lighting. Quality Mode runs in 30 frames per second with Standard Ray Tracing, thus ensuring the same lighting for the whole world. Finally, Balanced Mode is similar to Quality Mode but runs at 40 FPS and requires a 120 or 240 Hz display with HDMI 2.1.

Quality Mode is clearly the winner when it comes to details. Details like Naoe’s naturally bouncing hair as she walks to global illumination and shadows look sharp. The reflections in the water are also pretty decent (standing out the most in the duels, like the initial 1v1 fight against an Oda Brute), while the frame rate is relatively stable.

Even if it’s a step down in fidelity, Performance Mode still looks solid enough while delivering what it promises – a solid 60 frames per second. There’s occasionally some subtle pop-in, especially for foliage and its shadows, though the overall rendering distance is pretty impressive. While the lighting and shadows are noticeably lower quality, they still look pretty decent.

Balanced Mode may seemingly offer the best of both worlds (even if the lighting feels over-exposed in some places), but it highlights one of the bigger issues with the PS5 version – the image quality. Maybe it’s an issue with the upscaler or the resolution dynamically changing to ensure solid performance, especially in busier scenes. Again, things look significantly better in 1v1 duels, but two other baffling issues occur during gameplay.

The first is some slight asset culling at the bottom right of the screen (usually for foliage), which looks odd once you notice it. The other is a weird smudging around specific regions of characters, most noticeable during the duels. It’s especially egregious in Performance Mode and looks terrible. On the bright side, at least loading times in all modes are pretty solid, taking a little under 10 seconds in Performance Mode, about 11 seconds in Balanced and less than 14 seconds in Quality Mode when fast-travelling to Nanbansen.

PC vs PS5 Quality Mode

Obviously, the PC version wins out. As decent as the PS5 version looks in Quality Mode with its GI, shadows and solid performance, it doesn’t measure up to the PC version, which is superior in all three aspects and offers better image quality. You can see a clear distinction in graphical quality during cutscenes versus gameplay on consoles. It’s all but negligible on PC, resulting in a gorgeous visual feast.

Conclusion

While the PS5 version is a viable way to play the game, even though it struggles through some unique issues, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a tour de force on PC. Offering a wealth of options and making good on its promised new features, it also provided a visually rich experience backed by solid performance and incredible levels of polish. Whether experiencing the late Sengoku era in all its glory or embarking on a new stealth action experience, the graphics are some of the series’ best yet.

Ignoring all the Metal Gear inspirations, there’s plenty of weird stuff happening in the latest 10-minute trailer, which meticulously balances spoilers with a distinct lack of context. We saw more of Fragile attempting to escape with Lou but not what happened to the latter (or how Sam will inevitably reunite with her).

Tarman is missing a hand at some point, raising concerns about how much Tar and how much Man he really is. Tomorrow is seemingly synchronizing with Higgs in an unknown manner, perhaps further hinting at her DOOMS condition. A sentient mannequin named Charlie appears, and there’s also the mysterious Red Samurai (whoever they may be). Perhaps the only regular character is Doctor until you notice she has two right hands.

Of course, none of that even begins to scratch the surface of what’s happening visually. Death Stranding was one of the best-looking games ever made, even when it launched on the PS4 in 2019. It’s a testament to the Decima Engine’s scalability that it’s looked even better on the PS5 and PC. However, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is on another scale entirely.

Though it’s still in progress, and things could change significantly, especially with the performance and resolution (especially since graphical modes have yet to be detailed), the trailer is a trove of gorgeous highlights and scenes. The lighting and shadows from the opening scene look incredible, and ambient occlusion is notable throughout the trailer.

Venturing outside the UCA, the sequel boasts a more impressive variety of environments. Sam is seen walking along the shore of a lake as the sun sets, with the waves naturally flowing and diffusing sunlight on its surface. The water physics is all the more impressive in a different scene when a river of dirty water flows into a cleaner water body, naturally mixing with it. More violent instances of this are apparent during the fights with B.T.s, and it’s satisfying to see the difference in viscosity that tar possesses in some scenes.

Though mountainous ranges and fjords are very much apparent and look incredibly sharp, there’s a distinct amount of foliage throughout. When Sam exits the DHV Magellan around the two-minute, 38-second mark, a variety of vegetation – from grass and weeds to patches of green is visible. The foliage even realistically parts when he walks through it, though the effect is subtle, and there’s still a substantial amount that his body is simply phasing through. The fact that the grass calmly sways with the wind is also notable, making an otherwise lonely environment feel alive.

Then there’s the forest environment, which is briefly shown but offers up an even more lusher variety of greenery with its extensive trees and falling leaves. Atmospherics are similarly impressive, with effects like the aurora borealis coming as more natural and not as chiralium-infested as the first game’s. It’s also interesting to note things like fire, which not only creates realistic embers but naturally deforms the environment. You can see a tree on fire, which slowly but surely crumbles before falling.

Incredible particle effects are also visible when the dust storm begins rolling in, which also highlights the gorgeous volumetrics. It’s a gradual shift until Sam is practically pelted by shards and dust particles. Even the lightning hitting the car looks sharp, kicking up some sparks in a brief but brilliant flash.

However, this scene also highlights some oddities in the visuals, which should be ironed out by launch time. Though the vehicles are covered in dust, some of their textures look a little muddy and not quite as crisp when the camera gets closer. You also can’t see Sam’s reflection in the car’s windows. Perhaps this is due to the perspective, the dust covering the windows or some combination of the two. You’ll also notice per-object motion blur, especially during the scenes with fast-moving vehicles.

It’s not like Death Stranding 2 isn’t capable of sharp-looking reflections – that one scene where Neil’s face is reflected in the glass looks clear and distinct. Then again, that is a cutscene, so perhaps the effect is subdued during gameplay. Neither Kojima Productions nor Sony has confirmed if there’s ray tracing – based on this trailer, it’s difficult to really point to any specific uses of it, especially for the ambient occlusion and reflections.

This isn’t to say that the feature is absent since the trailer represents a product that’s still a work in progress (regardless of how polished it looks). Perhaps ray tracing is a separate graphical mode to be revealed. Given the lack of ray-traced reflections in more contemporary titles like Horizon Forbidden West, it remains to be seen.

Regardless, the sheer graphical fidelity and enhanced scale are something to behold. My particular favorite scene is the one where two giant B.T.s are battling it out while Sam peppers one of them from the ground with bullets. The muzzle flash contrasts impressively with the darker environment and the impact of punches, with one uppercut creating a spray of liquids. Then there’s the scene on the highway at around four minutes and 55 seconds, with Sam shooting an enemy on his reverse trike. It’s an impressive showcase for the ambient occlusion, shadows, and environmental effects like rain.

It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is shaping up this well, especially with how immaculately detailed its predecessor is. The sheer amount of fidelity in each scene is worth appreciating, especially in the cutscenes with other characters. The cinematography definitely deserves a nod but even details like bruises and sweat come across so naturally that it’s uncanny. The same goes for the facial animations and movement.

Death Stranding 2 is still several months off, and some smaller details could change (and even improve). However, when it comes to the overall artistic vision and fidelity that Kojima Productions is going for, it looks set to compete with the best-looking titles of this generation, if not set its own benchmark in aesthetics. Time, as always, will tell, and we’re keen to see what kind of performance and resolution parameters all this brilliance entails.

And then the first open beta hit.

Suffice it to say that expectations were readjusted very quickly afterwards. Between performance issues on all platforms, horrendous image quality on consoles (especially in Performance Mode), and the low polygon monsters (which went from bizarre to beloved), Wilds clearly needed way more time for polish.

While these improvements didn’t carry over into the second beta, the development team did put in the work, adjusting the minimum system requirements on PC, and swapping Checkerboard Rendering for AMD FSR upscaling. Prioritize Framerate mode also saw performance gains thanks to the fix for a “rendering bug.”

All this is well and good, but how does the full game fare at launch? Can Monster Hunter Wilds’ technical chops match its ambitious scale? Let’s find out.

Changes From Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter World is famously the last title in the franchise to be developed on MT Framework before the company embraced RE Engine for its future titles. The technology allows for some pretty impressive new features. As stated earlier, that first trailer underscored how the developer was evolving on World’s fundamentals.

The locales haven’t just increased but feel like full-fledged regions with detailed ecosystems – something, which World dabbled in but not on this scale. Seamlessly going from your base out into the world without any loading is also impressive, as is the day/night cycle. It’s all something to behold, and that’s not even getting into the endemic life like the herds roaming around or the various interactions between plants and small birds in the world.

General Graphical Analysis

However, it’s the weather conditions that can steal the show, depending on the location. The starting locale, the Windward Plains, is an excellent example. When the sandstorm rolls in, you can see it naturally sweeping over the map from the distance. Monsters are covered up in the middle of it, and if they enter a body of water, the sand washes off. You even see dust particles shifting off rocks and other environmental objects with the wind. Then you have the lighting storms, with bolts naturally hitting the ground and even congregating near the stone lightning rods.

Even the Scarlet Forest is something to behold. When it rains, it pours, and you can see that flowing naturally traveling down slopes or pattering off foliage. During the battle with Uth Duna in some water bodies, it will move violently, which can even shift your movement.

That added fidelity is also apparent in the character models, both for the humans and monsters. Characters animate more naturally, which especially carries over into combat – watching your hunt feebly slash away at a monster while they’re trying to get up and seeing them collide against the environment is incredible.

The facial expressions are more natural, especially the eyes, and the sheer detail on fabrics and metal is great. That’s even more apparent when fighting the monsters, whether it’s Doshaguma’s fur and folds bristling naturally as it ambles along or Chatacabra’s skin, which is still disturbingly moist, regardless of the platform.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though, especially when it comes to the brightness. When playing through on PS5, I was amazed at how desaturated and grey the overall color tones could be. After playing around with the HDR settings, there were improvements, but it still felt odd in places. Things did feel more vibrant in the Windward Plains when the atmosphere cleared, and the sun shone down, for what it’s worth.

PC Specs and Graphics Settings

The PC version of Monster Hunter Wilds is chock-full of options, with support for all the major upscalers like DLSS 3.5, FSR 3 and XeSS 1.3. Frame Generation is also included, and you can adjust multiple quality parameters from the quality of textures, texture filtering, meshes, fur, foliage and more to adjusting the cutscene and background frame rate. Variable rate shading, screen-space reflections, ambient occlusion – it’s all here.

Our test rig for the PC version consisted of an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 32 GB memory. DLSS was set to Quality Mode at 4K, with all settings maxed out.

PC Performance

As somewhat expected, given that 4K/60 FPS at Ultra settings requires an RTX 4070 Ti (12 GB VRAM) or an RTX 4070 Ti Super (16 GB VRAM), our test rig hovered around 38 to 40 frames per second. It would often dip to 30 FPS in more visually dense scenarios, like open areas with significant herds roaming about and clear skies. The frame rate would improve during sandstorms, though, hitting 45 frames per second in a relatively stable fashion.

Nevertheless, the PC version’s fidelity is pretty good, with solid image quality and draw distances. Some pop-in is visible in certain places, and there is a bit of asset loading in some scenes, but it’s nothing too major or insignificant enough to escape notice at times.

PS5 Performance and Resolution

Of course, things take a turn with the PS5 version. It offers three modes – Prioritize Graphics, Prioritize Framerate and Balanced. Prioritize Graphics renders at 1728p and targets 30 FPS, while Prioritize Framerate renders at 1080p and targets 60 FPS. Both output to 2160p through upscaling, and the results are very mixed.

Image quality and aliasing in Performance Mode look downright horrendous. Try walking through the Windward Plains while a thunderstorm rages for the most egregious example. The draw distance also goes for a toss with consistent environmental texture pop-in and asset loading, especially in the environment. Things improve somewhat slightly up close, though wandering through the Scarlet Forest, you’re bound to see some poor aliasing among the foliage.

Balanced and Prioritized Resolution are better in both aspects, though the aliasing still isn’t perfect. Performance Mode at least sticks mostly to 60 FPS, though you’ll notice some pretty hefty drops at times, especially when loading back into the base from a hunt in a different region.

You can also enable frame caps or turn them off completely, the latter required for 120 Hz mode. I found this setup worked well enough for Balanced Mode, delivering a relatively consistent 40 FPS. It also ensured a smoother Performance Mode experience. Resolution Mode is perhaps the most stable, though there are still drops. Regardless of the mode, get used to seeing NPCs and monsters in the distance moving around at lower frame rates.

PC vs. PS5 Quality Mode

If it wasn’t obvious enough, the PC version is the clear winner here. It blows away the PS5 version on Quality Mode with its image quality and aliasing and also delivers higher frame rates, even if they can consistently dip. The latter depends more on your hardware configuration, so hitting more consistent frame rates by toning down a few settings isn’t impossible.

Conclusion

With how ambitious Monster Hunter Wilds can be with its scale, RE Engine is once again proven to be ill-suited to these large environments. The PC version does a relatively good job with its quality level and even without following the Ultra requirements stringently, we eked out some pretty decent performance at the highest settings. As for the PS5 version, I prefer Balanced Mode with 120 Hz mode enabled for that sweet spot between frame rate and resolution. Overall, it’s an improvement over the beta, but still far from the best.

After all, Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation is where the development team finally had enough of Lara Croft and decided to kill her off, making it the last title in the series. That didn’t last long, though, as Eidos Interactive mandated more Tomb Raider titles, resulting in two new games. The first was Tomb Raider: Chronicles, an anthology of standalone tales meant to honor Croft’s legacy by milking it for more money.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is the other – a sequel/soft reboot that saw the return of Lara in a way that so many fans demanded: A stealth action-adventure title with another playable character. Alongside Chronicles, it’s considered the absolute lowest point of the series. While critics and fans mercilessly panned it, at least it catalyzed Crystal Dynamics to take over and reboot everything with Tomb Raider: Legend.

A remaster of either title, let alone both together, just doesn’t seem ideal, and yet, the developer is going through with Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered. Launching on February 14th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, the compilation includes several new features like a fly-by camera, an option to skip cutscenes, and an ammo counter. There’s even some restored content in The Angel of Darkness, which provides “more context” for the story.

Above all else, the biggest appeal of these remasters is the visuals, and the developer, thankfully, continues killing it in that regard. Let’s dive into each title and compare their visuals to the original games to outline all the improvements.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation – Original vs. Remastered

Even with the development team at Core Design feeling absolutely burned out on the franchise, Tomb Raider 4 upped the visual quality in numerous ways. Character models felt more natural thanks to additional facial features; levels sported improved lighting and 3D architecture – the PC version even had bump mapping.

Its presentation felt more fluid and seamless, especially with how players communicated with each other in cutscenes. Of course, as endearing as the character animations and environmental design, the lighting was also commendable, especially with light shafts through windows at specific points.

The remaster improves on all that in some truly incredible ways. First off, the character models are much more detailed, right down to better faces and more natural reactions. The prologue is also the perfect showcase for the revamped lighting and shadows, with more pronounced beams that more naturally illuminate Lara’s surroundings.

Of course, the environmental textures are completely overhauled and brimming with new details, including new foliage, sharper tree textures, and more. That skeleton on the ground in the beginning? It’s now much more detailed, with the colors more fitting the environmental tones. Even the leaves dangling from above are individually outlined and rendered to look natural and less like clumps of green.

Perhaps the only downside is that some sections can look a little washed out compared to the original’s vibrancy. It’s fine when wandering through darker sections, especially with the muzzle flash from Croft’s weapons naturally lighting up the surroundings. But some places definitely feel more subdued in color tones than the original.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles – Original vs. Remastered

Since it was built for the PlayStation One and meant to call back to the previous titles’ gameplay, Chronicles didn’t sport much of a graphical leap for the series. It still sported some interesting lighting and texture work, though the former didn’t exactly feel like the most realistic. The environmental textures also felt a bit uneven and less seamless in places, which isn’t the case in the remaster. Once again, they’re completely overhauled, from the gorgeous pavement with more discernible cobblestones to proper door arches and window sills.

The hanging foliage is also presented yet again with individual leaves, looking less messy than the original. Such is the clarity of the environmental textures that the signs are more imminently readable and less fuzzy. It’s also worth noting the lighting improvements, which can transform a room where Lara might tight-rope walk into a sequence where environmental features are more easily discernible. Overall, everything inherent in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation’s remaster is just as pronounced here, even if the locations aren’t necessarily as detailed.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness – Original vs. Remastered

As awful as the game was, you have to give credit where it’s due to Core Design for the original visuals, even if the art direction and overall fidelity were far from top-notch at the time. This being the first Tomb Raider developed from the ground up for PlayStation 2, it sports noticeable upgrades to the lighting and shadows, including starker tones to match the overall edgier atmosphere. The environmental textures and assets sport higher polygon counts and details, while atmospherics like smoke and fog further add to the mood. Lara’s model is also a step up in almost every way.

Its remaster is perhaps the most surprising upgrade yet in terms of sheer quality. The rain in the opening level is much more pronounced, right down to its hitting the floor, and the multitudes of different lighting feel much more natural, especially in the shadows created. The textures are more detailed by leaps and bounds, better fulfilling the dingy and dark tones that Core Design doubtless sought.

Conclusion

Though it maintains much of the animation work and cutscene direction of the originals, Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered does more than just radically transform the environments, lighting, and shadows for modern platforms. It also ensures a uniform design for Lara Croft’s model throughout, ensuring she looks the same in The Angel of Darkness as she does in The Last Revelation and Chronicles while still presenting immaculate details.

Environmental objects which you acquire even sport more detailed 3D models, fitting in with the rest of the revamps. And, of course, it all runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second throughout, with nary a frame drop in sight on PS5.

So, you could debate the necessity of bringing Tomb Raider 5 and 6 back in remastered form, even if the developer said it just didn’t feel right to only remaster the fourth game in. However, there’s no denying that Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered is the best way to experience these games. Maybe it’s in the sheer amount of features and quality of life changes, or finally learning what the heck is going on in The Angel of Darkness. Either way, they’re an essential part of history and complete Croft’s original journey stunningly.

Like the setting, its launch was anything but fantastical, with numerous bugs, loading issues, etc. Performance issues bogged down the PS4 and Xbox One at the time. While it wasn’t as disastrous as, say, Cyberpunk 2077, it would take multiple updates to get it to an acceptable state for players.

Perish those dark memories, though, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a different beast entirely. It performs exceptionally well on PC, and while the PS5 version (the only console we tested) has a few noticeable hang-ups, the results prove more than satisfactory. Without further ado, let’s dive into the technical aspects, graphical fidelity and performance of both versions and what makes them shine.

Engine Overview and Improvements Over Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 runs on Crytek’s CryEngine, and while it’s very much the same engine as the first game in name, there have been heavy modifications. This is also the case for the sequel – Stolz-Zwilling even went as far as to say that it’s “very different from what one would call a ‘CryEngine.’”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance wasn’t a bad-looking game by any stretch, yet its follow-up boasts some very impressive improvements. Lighting and shadows look more natural and realistic, with the tones more accurately reflecting the latter. The lighting improvements are all the more noticeable on characters, with Henry’s facial features coming across as more defined and realistic.

It also doesn’t hurt that physically based materials are used, which looks impressive all around, whether you’re admiring chainlink mail or gawking at shiny pauldrons. Environmental textures have seen a noticeable bump in quality especially on the ground and in foliage, while reflections are more natural.

Graphics Overview

In terms of graphical settings, there is a fair amount to tweak but nothing too crazy, including object quality, particles, lighting, and global illumination. You can also adjust the shader quality, shadows, textures, post-process quality, and details on volumetric effects, characters, and vegetation. A horizontal FOV slider is available alongside motion blur and near depth of field settings, while upscaler options include Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR 3.1. All the usual options are available, including Quality, Performance, Balanced, and Native AA.

Test Rig Hardware and Graphics Settings on PC

Our test rig for the PC version consisted of an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, and an NVMe PCI-e 4.0 SSD. The resolution was set to 3840×2160 and the frame rate limit to 120 FPS (with V-Sync enabled) with a horizontal FOV of 95, Object Motion Blur and Near DOF enabled. For the graphics settings, we set everything to Ultra and the anti-aliasing to SMAA 2TX. Nvidia DLSS was also enabled and set to Performance.

PC Performance

Even with everything set to Ultra and 4K resolution, we achieved some very smooth frame rates on PC, hovering at 60 and 65 frames per second throughout (occasionally even going up to 80-82 FPS). During cutscenes, it would drop to 30 frames per second while conversations jumped back up to 60-65.

It is worth noting, however, that during NPC-heavy scenes, the frame rate would drop to 49 to 54 frames per second. The same could be observed later during a sequence where multiple NPCs are fighting, and fires are raging dropping as low as 47 frames before going back up again after things calmed down.

It’s worth noting that the PC version also suffers from slight pop-in – emphasis on the “slight.” Granted, it’s much less common than on PS5’s Quality Mode, but you’ll still notice it from time to time, especially when riding on horseback.

PS5 Performance vs Quality Mode

PS5 and Xbox Series X benefit from two graphics modes – Performance and Fidelity. The latter delivers a 2560×1440 resolution at 30 frames per second, upscaled to 4K courtesy of FSR. The former offers 60 FPS but at 1080p resolution upscaled to 1440p. There is a noticeable drop in sharpness, and though slight drops are visible at certain points, like in the opening siege, the performance is otherwise very consistent. However, both modes suffer from pop-in – it’s most egregious on Performance and much less so on Quality, but still visible. We also noticed lower frame rates on NPC shadows ahead of the player during the initial horse ride.

PC vs PS5 Quality Mode

It should come as no surprise, but the PC version is the clear winner here. In terms of image quality, resolution, and performance, it’s clearly superior to the PS5 version’s Quality mode in every way. The latter shouldn’t be discounted, especially with how much fidelity it offers alongside a solid frame rate and sharp image quality, but we’d imagine that most would prefer playing Performance Mode for the 60 FPS bump. Here’s hoping that the latter has its pop-in reduced to make it more palatable.

Conclusion

There’s no two ways about it – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a massive step up over the original in terms of optimization and performance. The fact that it achieves this while significantly improving the graphical quality, is also worthy of praise. You’ll want to experience it on PC, which can look stunning and deliver solid performance throughout, though some scenes could still use more optimization and polish.

However, it’s great to see that the PS5 version hasn’t fallen behind drastically, offering some reliable performance that stays consistent in both Quality and Performance modes. The pop-in is understandably distracting and can occasionally take away from the latter’s experience, which is all the more annoying because of how good 60 FPS feels. Nevertheless, it’s leagues ahead of the first game’s debut on PS4, and truly brings the medieval world to life in stunning detail.

Overall, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a strong success for the series in both the graphical department and overall polish. We didn’t run into bugs or glitches during our time testing, making for an ideal experience. If you’re still on the fence regarding its performance, there’s little to fear, though once again, the best possible option, especially in fidelity, is on PC.

After a fair bit of waiting, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has finally made its way to the PC platform – with support from Nixxes Software. But how does it compare to the original release, what are the enhancements on offer, and most importantly how does it performance compare against the PS5 version? Without further delay, let’s just jump right in and find out.

What’s New?

Nixxes Software has proven itself to be a more than capable developer when it comes to porting PlayStation games on the PC platform. Insomniac’s in-house engine has already been ported to the PC multiple times, in the form of Marvel’s Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, and despite the sheer fluidity all of those games displayed on the PS5, they have largely been excellent PC ports.

Spider-Man 2 on the PC platform is all about pushing the limits of what was possible on the PS5, and Insomniac has given quite a few options to enhance the image quality by a further margin. Chief among these options is the flexibility that comes with ray tracing, ranging from options such as DLSS ray reconstruction to modifying the draw distance for ray tracing and more.

Of course, you also get the flexibility to play in ultrawide resolution alongside options for DLSS 4.5, AMD’s FSR, and Intel XeSS to upscale the image. In addition to this, there’s also support for DLSS frame-generation which should help to create a smoother experience for a wide range of PC gaming hardware.

In broad strokes, the visual presentation hasn’t changed all that much from what we saw in the PlayStation 5 release. It’s an iterative upgrade after all, but that doesn’t make these updates any less important. Despite a few major fumbles, that we will later discuss in later sections, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC is a mostly feature-rich rendition of the PlayStation 5 release.

Test Bench Specs And PC Graphical Settings

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features a plethora of graphics sliders and quality control options that allow users to find the perfect balance between fidelity and performance. As previously mentioned, you can control everything from texture quality to ray tracing distance to upscaling options and much more. Helpful texts appear as you click on any setting which can guide you on what toggle or slider impacts what part of the visual presentation, however, having distinct meters for VRAM usage alongside screenshots would have made for a much smoother experience for tinkerers such as myself.

For our test purposes, we ran the game on a system comprising AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB of RAM, and a PCI-e 4.0 NvME SSD to closely match the disk read-write speeds of the PS5. To put things into perspective, Insomniac Games recommends players have an AMD Ryzen 5 5600, 16 GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 to play the game at high settings at 1440p and 60fps.

Unsurprisingly, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 can be a highly demanding game for the PC audience, which has been the case, well, for almost all major AAA games for years. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 flaunts a large and detailed open world with stunning character models and textures. It was a visual stunner on the PS5 so there will always be a concern about whether it can run at stable performance on the PC.

Either way, our PC rig satisfies the recommended requirements so we went ahead and tested the game on mostly maxed-out settings with ray tracing switched on and set to very high. We were running the game at a resolution of 4K, with DLSS upscaling turned to Quality mode.

Comparison With PS5

We compared some sequences on the PC at the aforementioned settings against the PS5’s Quality mode, and the results are, well, as expected. The first boot of the game takes some time to load which is most likely due to compiling shaders to optimize performance for further runs.

Once you get into the game, some improvements are immediately noticeable over the PS5’s Quality mode. Textures are a bit crisper which is most likely a direct result of better upscaling thanks to DLSS 4.5. Character models and material quality seem to remain the same across the board.

Coming to the ray tracing, reflections look better on the PC as compared to the PS5 Quality mode. Additional bounce lighting adds more depth to the scenes, and the difference is especially noticeable in cinematics where close-up lighting helps bring characters to life. Post-processing effects don’t show much noticeable improvement over the PS5 quality mode.

We turned ray tracing reflection distance to a higher setting, and that results in more detailed scenes with better attention to detail in faraway objects. Shadows are also similarly cast at far distances, giving scenes a lot more depth. World streaming works pretty well for the most part, but there are some pop-in issues that come in the way of moment-to-moment gameplay which can be a bit off putting since high-speed movement is such a big part of the Spider-Man 2 experience.

PC Performance

As for the framerate, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC was running at 60fps during some sequences. That being said, there were plenty of dips during computationally demanding scenes which knocked the frame rate to the lower 30s and sometimes even to around 25fps. DLSS frame generation and upscaling do help with smoothing out those rough performance figures by some margin, but it wasn’t a locked 60fps experience.

The lack of a stable frame rate is a pretty big deal given that Spider-Man 2 is a fast-paced experience and the significant performance drops impact the moment-to-moment gameplay. Furthermore, we also noticed a few bugs and glitches during our tests, such as one during an initial scene where Norman’s eyes seemed a bit weird. These bugs and glitches are mostly visual and don’t impact the gameplay all that much, but it’s still worth noting because these issues don’t exist on the PS5 release. At the time of writing this analysis, there are a number of reports highlighting crashes and several other errors while running the game. In fact, it’s something we witnessed as well while reviewing the PC version. Suffice to say, Spider-Man 2 isn’t exactly off to a stable start on PC.

Conclusion

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PC can be a mixed bag. While it doesn’t disappoint in terms of PC-exclusive features, it definitely leaves a sour taste in the mouth with performance and optimization issues across the board. Right from long shader compilation on the first boot to unstable performance and bugs, Spider-Man 2 on PC could greatly benefit from a post-launch patch that could fix such issues.

Again, what makes the whole ordeal surprising is the fact that Nixxes Software has previously done similar ports with much better results. However, the silver lining to it all is that fans finally have a way to experience Spider-Man 2 on PC – albeit with issues. Let’s hope that all of those will be sorted out in the near future.

As much as I was looking forward to Performance mode delivering 60 FPS, I also mentally prepared for some hits to the graphical quality. They were far more drastic than imagined, though, and while Square Enix did improve several aspects at launch and after, the fidelity wasn’t doing it for me. It’s a shame because of how great the environments, cutscenes, and battles looked.

While it received an update on the PS5 Pro, utilizing PSSR to achieve a 4K output while hitting 60 frames per second, Rebirth’s PC version is what I truly looked forward to. Would it finally showcase this visual masterpiece in all its glory? Would Cloud and friends look even better than before? Could it be the definitive way to experience the saga’s continuation, following up on Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s excellent port?

Now that it’s almost here, the answer is yes, for the most part. Some aspects could still do with improvements and further optimization but as it stands, Square Enix has delivered. Let’s jump into everything you should know about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s performance and graphical fidelity on PC as well as how it compares to the PS5 version.

Graphics Settings and Test Rig

The graphics settings for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on PC are pretty standard fare. Graphics quality falls into three presets – Low, Medium, and High – but you can customize separate options for minimum and maximum Dynamic Resolution Scaling, background model detail, ocean detail, character model detail and effect details.

Texture resolution, shadow quality, fog quality – it’s all here, and there are even options to adjust the number of characters displayed and their shadow distance. A separate font is also available for better text legibility when playing at lower resolutions. The anti-aliasing is intriguing because it offers three options – TAA, TAAU and DLSS.

There are no separate upscaling options for DLSS like Quality or Performance, much less the ability to select AMD FSR or Intel XeSS. Square Enix never really said it was implementing the latter, but not even having different modes for DLSS is odd. Here’s hoping it arrives sometime after launch if only to provide those in need with the option.

Our test rig consisted of an AMD 5950X, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB of RAM, and an NVMe SSD PCI-e 4.0. Aside from 50 percent minimum Dynamic Resolution Scaling, all settings were on High with DLSS anti-aliasing, 3840×2160 resolution and 90 FPS enabled. Characters displayed is set to seven, while their shadow display distance is set to eight. So, how does the game fare on PC compared to the PS5 version on Quality Mode?

PC vs PS5 Quality Mode

Beyond resolutions up to 4K, DLSS, 120 FPS and adjustable displayed characters, Square Enix touts other improvements with the PC version. These include “significantly improved” lighting, allowing for more clarity, higher texture density and a bump to the background polygon density.

The PS5 version of Quality Mode targets 30 frames per second and around 4K with a dynamic resolution. While the image clarity is generally decent on the console, it’s not as sharp as the PC version. It does stick close to the 30 FPS target, which is much better than dealing with the inconsistent Performance Mode. However, the fidelity is better overall on PC.

The lighting alone presents a noticeable jump, coming across as more natural, while shadow edges look smoother and less blurry than on PS5. Perhaps the only real downside is the noticeable pop-in, especially in the open-world environments. The PS5 version had this too, for sure, but the increased fidelity and image quality make it all the more noticeable. Then again, it’s distracting when foliage is loading just a few feet away.

Be that as it may, the PC version is still pretty stunning, with the high-resolution assets and lighting shining throughout.

PC Performance

Square Enix recommends an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or an Intel Core i7-10700, a Radeon 7 5700X or GeForce RTX 4080, and 16 GB RAM for 2160p/60 FPS on High settings. Our testing rig falls short in that regard, but we still achieved some pretty good performance. It was fairly consistent at 90 FPS, sometimes dropping to 85 before jumping back up again. Strangely enough, the same difference occurred when playing at 60 FPS, with frames occasionally dropping to 55. Though some of the busier fights and a few scenes in the first hour led to these frame drops, the PC version is otherwise strongly consistent.

On my own set-up consisting of a Core i5-11400, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, and a GeForce RTX 4060, performance was pretty solid. When dropping to 1080p from 1440p, it felt more consistent even with pretty much everything set to High (Square Enix recommends Medium, so your mileage may vary). The same frame drops would occasionally occur, but once again, it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the title.

Conclusion

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is unarguably one of 2024’s greatest games and an exceptional follow-up to Remake, warts and all. The graphical issues on PS5 did it no favors, and you really have to wonder how many didn’t jump in at launch because of the same. Even with the PS5 Pro offering improvements, dropping $700 to experience one game in better detail isn’t exactly fiscally responsible.

The PC version isn’t perfect by any means. Between the pop-in, slight frame drops and lack of DLSS options, there’s room for improvement. I’d also like to see additional options in the future to fine-tune the fidelity even further.

However, this is still a quality experience and represents the first step to really doing justice to Rebirth’s art direction, environments, cutscenes, characters, and so much more. Though Square Enix could probably offer even more customization in the future, the lighting improvements are an unexpected but welcome surprise that makes the world feel more vibrant and alive. Of course, the keyboard and mouse support isn’t too shabby either and being able to assign functions to multiple keys and mouse buttons is nice.

If you’ve been waiting to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on hardware that can truly make it shine, the PC port is definitely recommended. Here’s hoping that the development team continues to refine and improve it, further enhancing what is currently the best way to experience Cloud and company’s journey.

Furthermore, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle also mark the first time that id Tech engine has been natively updated for the current generation of consoles, and it’s definitely a looker. But how does it achieve that visual presentation, and what’s exactly going under the hood? We will be answering these questions in depth while also taking a look at the changes between Xbox Series X and PC.

Engine details

As mentioned previously, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is built using the id Tech 7 engine – probably an advanced version of the same engine that powered last-gen hits like DOOM Eternal. It’s a powerful engine that provides a great balance between fidelity and performance and is known to scale well across a wide variety of hardware.

The engine might not break new ground in terms of rendering techniques, but it is definitely a considerable improvement over what we saw in the previous generation. Right from detailed character animations to impressive environment detail and a robust post-processing pipeline, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle brings forth a strong visual presentation.

Test PC Specs and PC Graphical Settings

For our tests, we went with a test bench comprising a Ryzen 9 5950X, an Nvidia RTX 3080Ti, and 32 GB of RAM which is a tad below compared to what the developers have recommended for Supreme Settings. The performance was surprisingly good but more on this in a bit.

Taking a look at the settings menu, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle presents players with a wealth of options and sliders to tinker around with and find the perfect fit between performance and fidelity. You can use both presets or play around with options related to reflection quality, and texture pool size to find out what fits your purpose. In addition to these options, the game also supports Nvidia’s DLSS and Super Resolution which can help clean up the image quality by a further margin.

Given our test bench specs, it made sense to go with Ultra settings which is a notch below Supreme. The resolution was set to native 4K with dynamic resolution scaling turned off. We did use DLSS Super Resolution which was turned to Quality.

PC Performance

We played through a good chunk of the game on PC, and the game performs pretty well across a bunch of different scenarios. PC performance was largely stable, and the game had little to no issues hitting the target 60fps. The world streaming system works pretty well, and LoD swapping happens smoothly without many visible artifacts – and frame-rate chugs along smoothly in both cramped areas and large open areas.

But that doesn’t mean that it is flawless though. We noticed split-second frame drops, and that seems to be caused whenever there are a lot of volumetric post-processing effects on screen. It’s pretty minor, and might even be related to optimization issues – but it’s definitely a bit of observation that needs to be noted. But in broad strokes, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle performed pretty well and if prior id Tech games are anything to go by, it should scale well across a wide variety of hardware.

Xbox Series X Performance

The Xbox Series X version features a mode that runs at 60 fps with an output resolution of 4K. We put the game to its paces, and it performed pretty welll. Performance was quite optimized and stable, and resolution scaling was not really noticeable while playing.

The Xbox Series X most likely renders the game at a lower internal resolution, and the image is then upscaled to the target of native 4K. It seems to be using some sort of FXAA or MSAA for clearing up the image on the console, and while upscaling artifacts might not be very clear – they definitely do exist.

Overall, MachineGames has done some great work providing a performant release with this rendition of id Tech. Having a second 40fps mode that matches the level of graphical fidelity seen in the PC release would have been a great addition, and hopefully this is something that the developer may look into with a post launch patch.

Various Graphical Parameters

Starting things off with the character models, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features really good-looking character models that are appropriately detailed and expressive. The polycounts are appropriately high, and meshes react well to changes in expression. It’s all built on top of what came before with Wolfenstein, but a better motion capturing and rendering budget has made the characters look pretty good in close-up cinematic shots.

Hair rendering has also seen improvements, with fine-grained details clearly visible without much artifacting. Physically based materials have also been used for costumes – giving Indiana Jones and the Great Circle a very well-rounded look, especially with the additional cinematic lights that are used in cutscenes.

Coming over to the environments, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle marks a big departure from the developer’s previous works. Gone are the huge Nazi megastructures that serve as architectural marvels which have been replaced by sprawling levels with an impressive amount of variety between each stage. The id Tech engine was always great at rendering levels at scale, but Indiana Jones adds a level of richness that wasn’t present before.

Assets are a lot more colourful this time around, thanks to the extensive use of high-quality foliage in the jungle levels. The quality of assets is great all around, right from natural elements like trees and rocks to artificial geometry like brick walls and carved stones and much more. Then there’s the lighting where we get to see what looks to be a similar implementation to Wolfenstein 2.

id Tech uses a mix of baked lighting and dynamic bounce lighting for indirect lighting. It works with great effect over here since Indiana Jones isn’t an open world with dynamic times of day or tons of indirect light sources spread across the level and also helps with giving the developer greater freedom over the look and feel of each scene.

As for the reflections, Indiana Jones seems to be using screen space reflections which have an appropriately high resolution on the reflected image and updates in real time. Shadows are also similarly a mix of baked and dynamic, and they are rendered at far distances from the camera which gives the game a pretty uniform look all around.

Finally, there’s the post-processing aspect of the presentation where we get to see an improved volumetric light system. Beams of light penetrate through the trees, and generous smoke volumes can be seen used to both mask faraway details and add depth to the surroundings. A high-quality per-object motion blur is also used along with the usual depth-of-field effects, and the combo works just as well as it did for the engine’s previous fast-paced combat titles – rounding off an amazing presentation.

Xbox Series X vs PC

Much like prior games built on id Tech, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is largely the same game across both platforms – though there are a few iterative differences that we can make between our PC version running on the aforementioned settings and Xbox Series X.

The PC version inches a couple of shades ahead from the Xbox version in terms of image quality, which isn’t surprising considering we are also using Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution. Textures look a bit crisper as a result but there isn’t much of a difference between the rendering techniques used in both releases. In broad strokes, the Xbox version of the game is very close to the High preset on the PC.

Overall, both versions of the game look pretty similar to one another which isn’t surprising considering the excellent scalability of the engine used. Xbox players get a great experience that balances both visual fidelity and performance, while PC players get to push resolution and textures to a further degree.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is yet another great game from MachineGames. Despite being way out of the developer’s comfort zone, the team has crafted a compelling experience that captures the spirit of thrill and adventure of the genre. The id Tech engine might not reinvent the wheel in terms of rendering techniques, but it produces some great results – not just from a visual perspective but also from a performance standpoint.