Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart arrives this week, and inside, you'll see graphical options that adjust how the game looks: fidelity, performance RT, and performance. That's three more options than the Ratchet & Clank game in 2016, which had exactly zero graphical options.
Honestly, I would prefer that we donāt go the way of full customization - part of the reason I like consoles is the simplicity of it. Iām perfectly fine with being given a few options on performance and resolution - and when being given 2 or 3 distinct āprofilesā to choose from, it doesnāt really feel overwhelming. But if you just give me a full PC-style menu? Nope - donāt want it. I donāt need that kind of decision-paralysis in my life. I guess Iād be okay with it if itās in addition to the distinct modes - like, if you really want to tinker, itās there, but otherwise, just let me pick the one that gives me that solid 60FPS and be done with it.
Same. One of my least favorite things about PC gaming is fiddling with graphics settings trying to find the setting that will make a game that ought to run on my computer work properly. Especially when itās the all too common occurrence of an unhelpfully named checkbox that for no apparent reason is on by default like the āunlimited video memoryā setting in Total War. Honestly Iām not a fan of the performance/quality option.
Yup, I donāt want to do that much thinking. Give me a couple modes that all work as advertised and let me pick. Iāve been playing Rift Apart on the Performance RTX mode because I donāt have a 4K television and it works beautifully (you can literally see an occluded reflection of the city skyline in Clankās head - itās the craziest thing Iāve ever seen).
I would hope thatās that would be the way it goes. Thereās certain things that just donāt bother me too much that I would mind turning down such as better shadows or antialiasing.
I feel like this is kinda what most PC games already offer - your standard Low, Medium, High, etc settings, and then you can go custom. On PC, I tend to find sticking with those standard settings is basically no good - and theyāre not tied to suggested framerates either - because PC hardware varies so heavily from build to build. Maybe I can have everything else cranked super high as long as I turn down particle effects, or something like that. If consoles had this - and I guess they do now, given the spread of Performance and Details modes - given that itās a much more consistent set of platforms than PCs, maybe they donāt need so much fine-tuning anyway.
Even now just having graphics options like performance mode vs fidelity mode, I still find myself in that āHow do I know when Iām satisfiedā kind of mentality. Maybe Iām just bad at making decisions, but I almost always prefer when a video game just looks the way it looks, take it or leave it.
I certainly would like to see 60fps modes (60fps with Raytracing is how I preferred to play the Spiderman remaster), and I do like the idea of allowing some adjustment for taste, but honestly, the lack of a need to mess with display options is one of the things I like about console gaming.
For me, a better UI would be a onetime console level setting of āprefer performance or prefer qualityā. Then I could just play knowing that every game that can will be at 60.
I do have to give it up for Insomniac for figuring out a āhereās 60 FPS and some bells and whistlesā mode. Thatās going to be my preferred setting moving forward whenever I can get it.
One thing I hope we get one day so badly is an option for 60fps gameplay, 30-24fps cut scenes. The absolute unreality of watching a scene play out at the higher rate is why I still will go for 30 in some games
I would love if console games had more PC-like options, but just for accessibility reasons. I donāt like last genās āPS4 Pro/New Nintendo 3DS/whatever the better Xbox wasā upgraded system thing because I want console games to be consistently able to play their own gamesā¦
But I do find a lot of games have wonky anti-aliasing or shadows that give me the worst migraines. FOV sliders would rock on console, because I have my Playstation set up to play on my monitor and it can definitely suck not being able to modify that when Iām sitting 3ft from the screen instead of 8ft like with my TV. And, yeah, a āI donāt have 4kā option is good.
I havenāt owned a current Gen console for a while, but Iām hoping amd fsr will be implemented into playstation and Xbox so you donāt always have to choose between fidelity and frame rate. Otherwise Iāll just be pc gaming til my gpu (2 1/2 year old 1070) dies and Iāll have to choose between understocked gpus or consoles.
I donāt like that performance / vs / graphics modes seem to be standard now in modern console games as it feels like a hold-over from the half-step of PS4 Pro and XBOne-X. I would rather theyād optimise as best they can to reach a target 60fps.
I do like that Ratchet & Clank lets you turn off or adjust motion blur though, every game should have that.
I think I must be tbe odd one out because, for whatever reason, I have found myself vastly preferring the 30fps/āhigher fidelityā modes on every PS5 game Iāve played so far. Iāve tried them both in every game Iāve played! Miles Morales, Demonās Souls, Subnautica, etc. I go to 60fps at the start and I get the same feeling I get when watching high-framerate TV, like everything is too smooth. I love high framerates on my PC, but for some reason when itās on a big TV I find myself wanting something that looks and feels more filmic (he says, purposefully avoiding the word cinematic). For whatever reason, I feel way more immersed with a lower framerate.
I do agree though that I donāt really want a bunch of sliders and options gumming everything up. When Iām in a mood for console gaming Iām usually in a mood for simplicity and ease-of-use.
Maybe not on that level of control over graphical setting but wouldnāt mind more options with that. One thing I do wish is allowing me the option to completely remap controller. Enjoy when the right most button (A on Nintendo O on Sony and B on Xbox) is confirm and bottom button (B Nintendo X Sony and A Xbox) but so few games let me have that choice.