Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

The summer games showcase event season is upon us and Sony is first off the mark with an excellent showing. God of War Laufey and Marvel's Wolverine are the highlights of the event, but there's plenty more that caught our eye here. John and Oliver share their thoughts on the event.

00:00 Introduction
01:13 God of War Laufey
08:44 Marvel’s Wolverine
16:46 Rayman Legends Retold
20:50 Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
25:09 Stuntman Hollywood
28:55 Until Dawn 2
32:24 Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis
35:30 Kemuri
37:45 Omimusha: Way of the Sword
43:07 Concluding thoughts
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The shock news of +40% price rises for Steam Deck kicks off a BIG Direct this week, swiftly followed by the team's first impressions of the PC version of 007 First Light - and its ker-azy upscaling issues. The new Call of Duty coming to Switch 2 is a topic of much interest, as is the announcement of a brand-new expansion for The Witcher 3. Rich is dismayed by the presentation of bare buttocks in Metal Gear Solid 4's PS5 remaster, the panel reminisces on five years of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - and we deliver an explainer on why it's getting more difficult to cover Xbox Series versions of third-party multi-platform games.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:04 News 1: Valve restocks Steam Deck with massive price bump
0:20:26 News 2: 007 First Light suffers DLSS issues on PC
0:39:39 News 3: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 announced
0:47:13 News 4: New Witcher 3 expansion announced
0:53:27 News 5: MGS4 PS5 port demoed!
1:04:33 News 6: Xbox whitelisting woes derail game coverage
1:14:08 Retrospective: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart 5-year anniversary
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The team sit down once more to discuss the latest questions from DF Supporters. What do we make of Unreal Engine 6's debut in Rocket League of all places? Has Epic delivered a version of Lumen that is performant enough for lower spec kit? Is Sony's quality control to be blamed for lower than expected PC sales and finally, the big one... if Steam is a monopoly, why do we like it?

00:00 Introduction
01:09 Supporter Q1: What should we make of the Unreal Engine 6 announcement?
16:48 Supporter Q2: What does the new “medium Lumen” preset mean for Switch 2?
21:52 Supporter Q3: Which UE5 game got closest visually to The Matrix Awakens?
25:58 Supporter Q4: Has the RTX 4090 aged like fine wine?
34:10 Supporter Q5: Should Sony’s declining PC port quality be blamed for poor sales?
42:05 Supporter Q6: If people don’t like monopolies, why do they like Steam?
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John, Oliver and Rich sit down to discuss the latest gaming and technology news, kicking off with the end of the road for Destiny 2. It's had a fantastic long run, but where does that leave Bungie? Following that, it's a - dare we say it - Unreal Fest. The team discuss the latest Lego Batman on PS5 and PC, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book on Switch and more, before moving into retrospective mode - it's been one year since the Witcher 4 UE5 demo and five years since we went hands-on with the Valley of the Ancient demo, so what have we learned? And finally, the nostalgia continues: this week, it's been an incredible TEN YEARS of DF Retro!

0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:16 News 1: Bungie ends Destiny 2 development
0:19:44 News 2: Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight released
0:32:51 News 3: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book tested
0:45:41 News 4: Two new UE5 games buck engine trends
0:57:36 Retrospective: 5 year Unreal Engine 5 early access anniversary
1:12:07 Retrospective: DF Retro celebrates 10 year anniversary
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The show kicks off with the news that Sony is no longer bringing its single-player narrative-driven games to PC before moving on to supporter questions! How competitive would PS5 with Linux be to Valve's Steam Machine? Will FSR 4.1 come to Xbox consoles and could a PSSR Lite come to base PlayStation 5? Would there be any point bringing Quick Resume to PS6 and... is it Xbox or XBOX and should we change our pronounciation of the name?!

00:00 Introduction
00:45 News: Sony says single-player Sony games will no longer release on PC
08:14 Supporter Q1: Could a Linux-running PS5 be a good Steam Machine alternative?
12:48 Supporter Q2: Will FSR 4.1 come to Xbox? What about a PSSR for base PS5?
19:03 Supporter Q3: Could Sony implement Quick Resume for PS5?
24:56 Supporter Q4: Could a new third party commercial game engine succeed?
33:15 Supporter Q5: Do any of you double dip on game re-releases?
40:42 Supporter Q6: Is it Xbox or XBOX?
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