This week was packed with Redfall backlash, PlayStation Plus announcements and massive hype over new looks at Tears of the Kingdom and Final Fantasy 16. Let’s recap.
On Wednesday, April 12, Redfall developer Arkane Austin confirmed the upcoming vampire-hunting adventure will launch with Quality Mode only on Xbox Series X|S. This means that the game will be hard-locked to 30 frames per second as a high resolution is prioritized; 4K on Xbox Series X and 1440p on Xbox Series S.
The dev went on to reveal that the game will receive a Performance mode option in a later update, but unfortunately a release window was not given.
The news caused huge discussions across the web that ranged from civil conversations to toxic behavior and console war baiting.
But regardless of which threads you pay attention to, the major takeaway is that performance mode is generally favored amongst gamers, especially for fast-paced shooters. This echoed in a poll from Jeff Grubb as well as the comment section to a GameSpot News episode in which I asked about quality vs performance before this news was revealed.
At this point in the lifecycle of the Series consoles, 60 frames per second feels like the new standard. Is 30 frames the end of the world? No. Will it make a fun game boring? No. However it is a bummer to know you own what is marketed as the most powerful console, yet you’re locked at last-gen frame rate for the time being on a major first party AAA release.
However it’s important to keep in mind that game dev is complicated and the scope of the sandbox that Redfall takes place in could be one of the reasons why resolution is being favored over frame rate. In a previous interview, creative director Harvey Smith also mentioned that the game was developed under COVID-19 pandemic challenges and frequent power outages.
If you’ve had your eye on Redfall, hit the comments and let me know if you’re still excited for the game’s release in May or if the latest updates on it have killed your enthusiasm.
For those of you that only have a PlayStation, you weren’t going to be playing Redfall anyway, so what can you play soon? This week Sony announced the addition of 16 games to its PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Headlining the new selection for PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers is Kena: Bridge of Spirits, 2022’s delightful action-adventure in which you take on shaman duties and grow a small tribe of adorable creatures to help you solve puzzles.
