This Year, I'll Care About Fidelity Versus Performance More

I find most technological conversations around gaming to be fairly boring. Part of this is that too many modern games put, if not all, then at least far too many eggs into the presentation basket, and feel far more hollow in terms of narrative or innovation as a result. I only play PC games when I absolutely have to, and that usually means indies like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pizza Tower, so I’ve never done a deep dive into graphics settings. Even on console, I pay little attention to the tweaks one can do. In 2024, that's going to change.

I realise this seems like an odd resolution to make. This year, I’m gonna sweat the small stuff more. I’m going to spend more time on the couch playing video games. I&rsq🌊uo;m going to ignore the roses. However, while most people decide at the start of the year to care less about the minor things in their lives, I fear I don’t quite care enough, so it’s time to dial this up.

I think games look pretty good these days. The leap between generations has been getting smaller, no matter what they tell us. The gap between PS4 and PS5 is way less for a player to notice than SNES and N64. For this reaso💖n, I don’t bother paying much attention to the settings. If it looks good out of the box and graphics are down my list of priorities, why waste time fiddling with them? The beauty of a console, as well as the ability to play while on the couch, is that it decides all this for you.

Saga standing in the middle of a room dedicated to Alan Wake's works, pointing a flashlight at his cardboard standee holding a copy of The Sudden Stop, and more Casey book posters on the wall and mantle.

But recently, I realised I had become too lax. I went on the VGC podcast at the end of 2023 to discuss 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man 2, and the host asked us whether we played the game in Fidelity Mode or Performance Mode. Everyone gave their answers, justifyin๊g their choice,🌼 while I just shrugged and said, “whichever one the default was”.

It wasn’t until later that day when our video team asked m💞e to record some web swinging in both modes for a side by side comparis💫on that I finally checked it out. Turns out I had been using Performance, and it looked impressive enough for me. Then, at the video team’s request, I switched to Fidelity, and I finally realised I was playing on a PS5.

Everything just fell into place in Fidelity Mode. The colours were brighter, the reflections were more defined, the whole game just seemed better. It wasn’t better - it played the same - but that simple switch made me rea⛄lise I’d not been getting the full experience. It was like seeing Oppenheimer in IMAX and ⛄realising Nolan might be right about not watching movies on your phone.

But the sensation was a little like changing glasses - spectacular atꦓ first, then gradually more ordinary. On games I’ve played since, that initial ‘pop’ has been smaller now that I know what to expect. Deep down, I guess I just don’t care that much about how a game looks. But I still want it to look its best, and that means in 2024, my aim is to care, just a little bit more.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Peter dressed in black standing above a city Symbiote nest surrounded by tendrils

Of course, I’m not turning my back on the ease of consoles completely. That would be one of those wacky resolutions I’d have no chance of keeping, like ‘go to the gym’. While PCs spluttered under the weight of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2, my PS5 found it a breeze. Sure, those of you who put in the three hours’ work on your PC that cost four times thﷺe pric🍸e of a PS5 managed to make it look nearly twice as good, but ‘it looks real good’ is like the sixth best thing about Alan Wake 2, if that?

Performance Mode makes it run better and Fidelity Mode makes it look better is a basic oversimplification of what I’m sure many people will tell you is a complicated matter. For me, 2024 is the yea♋r I try both and stick to the one I like best for each game I play, or at least each one with the options - I expect smaller indie games to get a lot more breathing room this year.

My resolution is to care just enough that I have the best experience each time, but not enough that I become one of those people who 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:erupts with disgust when it’s revealed that an upcoming game will be locked at 30fps sometimes. Maybe next year I’ll be back here saying my resolution is to care less after becoming obsessed with tweaking the graphics so they’re absolutely perfect. Or, like most resolutions, maybe it’ll be broken by February when I stick with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Suicide Squad’s default mode and never look back.