Category: IGN

The PlayStation 5 Pro has officially been revealed, and developers will be releasing new-and-improved modes for their games that will take advantage of all that new horsepower. But what will it mean, really?

At a recent PlayStation 5 Pro preview event, we spoke with the technical leads of some of PlayStation’s biggest games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, and others, to discuss what improvements we can expect to see now that there’s a more powerful PlayStation 5 on the market.

There are three key features of the PS5 Pro as explained by lead architect Mark Cerny during the announcement presentation. The upgraded GPU will allow for 45% faster rendering for gameplay, advanced ray tracing will create better lighting effects, and the AI upscaler, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR, will help further improve graphics.

All of which you’ll see in action in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 according to Mike Fitzgerald, Director of Core Technology at Insomniac Games.

“The first big improvement in the PlayStation 5 Pro is PSSR, which is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, that lets us improve our old upscaling mode. We can render at a lower resolution, bring it up to a full 4K and get tons of extra detail out of the picture,” Fitzgerald says. “The second big thing is there’s new ray-tracing hardware in the PS5 Pro. We have really nice ray-traced reflections all across Spider-Man 2 and getting to run those faster and do more ray-tracing is a big deal.”

“And the third big thing altogether is these combined to make a new Performance Pro mode as we’re calling it on the PS5 Pro. You get the image quality and visuals of Fidelity Mode at the framerate of Performance Mode.”

Top of mind for several technical leads, including the folks at Naughty Dog, was how on the base PS5, players would often have to choose between Fidelity Mode, which offered better resolution at lower framerates, typically 30 fps, or Performance Mode which raised the frame rate to 60 at the expense of better graphical textures and ray-tracing. That choice is no longer necessary on the PS5 Pro, which can run games combining better resolution with higher frame-rates.

“Well the number one thing is gonna be the ability to play at 60fps in 4K, so that has been a huge deal,” Travis McIntosh, Naughty Dog’s head of technology says. “It makes it so we don’t have to compromise, so you don’t have to pick between high fidelity and good performance.”

The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the games that will be enhanced on the PS5 Pro, with the option to play the game with better visuals while still running it in 60 fps through a new Pro Mode. But McIntosh says that both the Fidelity and Performance Modes will also be improved on the PS5 Pro.

“There’s more than that, there’s also the fact that the high fidelity mode on the base PS5 actually looks even better when you’re on Pro. And there are some minor performance issues in performance mode on the PS5 base model that are also much better. Very solid 60 [fps], a lot less frame drops when you get to the pro.”

But McIntosh also says he’s personally excited for PSSR, which uses AI to upscale graphics.

“I would say I’m just really excited about the ability to use AI upscaling. Going forward as a developer, as a tech geek we spend a lot of time worrying about pixel throughput. It’s actually really tough to hit the targets of getting this many pixels through the game, and now we can focus on cool graphics stuff that we’re doing as opposed to just increasing pixel count. So that’s been a big benefit.”

McIntosh goes in-depth on the PSSR technology and how it upscales 1440p resolution to 4K, telling IGN that it, “produces just a way better result than previous upscalers because it can be trained not only on our game but on lots and lots of other games, and it learns and it improves at each iteration can improve and fix graphical errors, fix artifacting, and it learns how to make things look good. Foliage for instance is one example in our game that looks really good after the upscaler because the neural network is trained to do foliage really well.”

For Guerrilla Games World Lighting lead Roderick van der Steen, the biggest changes to Horizon Forbidden West all have to do with resolution and how improved they’ll be on the PS5 Pro, from better lighting to textures on characters.

“A big improvement that we could make by using the PS5 Pro is we could increase the resolution, increase stability of the image which is something we really focused on for this patch. And various other aspects like better filtering, better shadowing, and better volumetrics.”

Van der Steen says these improvements will be seen particularly in complicated models. “So fire, holograms, but also the skin rendering and the hair rendering where we could increase the shadow filtering to give a much more smooth and stable image.”

Lastly, ray tracing has been around for a few years now, but has often been sacrificed on consoles for anyone who prefers performance mode, which according to PlayStation is a majority of players. But the PS5 Pro is now able to add better ray tracing while maintaining a higher framerate. Just ask Jose Villeta, technical director at Avalanche Software, the developers of Hogwarts Legacy.

“So one of the few things we were able to improve on in our game thanks to the PS5 Pro is we focused on three areas,” Villeta reveals. “First we integrated PSSR – that gives a better upscaled image technology. And second we focused on ray-tracing, we tried to enable not only the best ray-tracing capabilities but improve the ray-tracing we had before. We were able to bring ray-tracing shadows, we were able to increase the percentage of ray-tracing reflections so they look sharper and have more content and detail.”

The improvements are a result of the better GPU which Villeta credits for giving Hogwarts extra heft. “The extra power we can actually make sure that all our visual modes, we have Fidelity, Fidelity with ray-tracing, and Performance mode, are all running at better framerate.”

Spider-Man 2, The Last of Us Part 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and Hogwarts Legacy are just four of the many games confirmed for improvements on the PS5 Pro, and we can expect to see even more Pro-enhanced games as we get closer to the new console’s launch on November 7.

For more on the PS5 Pro, check out our full hands-on preview, as well our interview on what more you can expect from the PS5 Pro.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

The creator of the high-profile God of War Ragnarok PSN-bypass mod has reportedly pulled it offline without explanation.

Just days after the PlayStation game God of War Ragnarok launched on PC to a ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating over its forced PlayStation Network account linking, a mod was released that bypassed the requirement entirely.

Sony had made it clear on the God of War Ragnarok Steam page that a PlayStation Network account would be required to play Sony Santa Monica’s purely single-player adventure, but that failed to prevent a number of negative reviews singling out the policy.

One modder going by the name iArtorias took matters into their own hands by stripping out the PSN requirement. iArtorias’ NoPSSDK mod, which had been downloaded thousands of times from Nexus Mods before its removal, “fully strips the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok.”

But because the mod removed the PSN overlay from the game and mimicked an offline mode in the process, it was being used to bypass the PSN / Steam account linking requirement. IGN verified the mod worked before its removal.

Posting earlier this week on Nexus Mods, iArtorias vowed to maintain their mod even if Sony updates God of War Ragnarok to combat it. “I will try to maintain the tool even if something changes, but hopefully nothing crucial happens,” they said.

But today, September 26, the mod is no longer available from Nexus Mods or Github. In a tweet, Nexus Mods insisted NoPSSDK had been removed from its site “by the author” and was trying to find out why. It seems likely Sony took a dim view of iArtorias’ mod, but it’s unclear at this point if the company got in touch to request its removal or whether iArtorias took it upon themselves to do so. IGN has attempted to contact iArtorias via Nexus Mods, and has asked Sony for comment.

Before the removal of the mod, iArtorias had received requests to release a similar mod for Sony’s other recently released PC games, such as Ghost of Tsushima. Ghost of Tsushima requires a PSN account for the Legends online multiplayer mode and to use PlayStation overlay, but it is not required to play the single-player game.

Sony’s PSN account requirement for its PC games was thrust into the limelight with the release of Arrowhead’s explosive PC and PS5 co-op shooter Helldivers 2 earlier this year. Helldivers 2 suffered a review bomb campaign on Steam after Sony made PSN accounts mandatory for PC gamers on Valve’s platform (Arrowhead subsequently decided to turn the Steam user review history graph into a cape, which is ready for launch but has yet to release).

Sony eventually backed down and reversed Helldivers 2’s PSN account requirement, but the game remains unavailable in the many countries that lack PSN. And indeed all Sony’s games on PC now suffer from this problem, which means God of War Ragnarök is unavailable on PC in over 100 countries.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

A good open-world game often has that emotional moment when the world opens up for the very first time. Take peering out at Hyrule from the grand plateau after leaving the first cave in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example. And while the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto is a comparatively small sandbox to Breath of the Wild’s huge open world, reaching the exhibition floor after climbing the escalator for the first time feels just as special. Greeted with familiar music and sound effects, you’re instantly invited to a Nintendo fan’s paradise that extends 360 degrees.

As you enter the exhibition floor, jumbo-sized versions of different Nintendo controllers and consoles can be seen hanging from the ceiling, with all the hardware and software that Nintendo has produced over the years displayed beneath them. Like Breath of the Wild’s open world, no correct order to the exhibits, so you are free to roam in any direction you please. And despite the sheer number of exhibits, I never felt overwhelmed or lost. It almost felt as if Nintendo was using its expertise in level design to curate the museum.

However, despite the abundance of Nintendo products on display there are very few items like development materials, original drawings, or prototypes that you can’t find anywhere else, which was disappointing. And for a museum, the amount of explanation and context that Nintendo gives to its displays is also surprisingly limited. As a longtime Nintendo fan, I found myself hoping for more than just final products, and I would have liked some deeper context added to the exhibits.

Instead of focusing on its past, Nintendo seems to following the same ethos as it does for its games: make an experience thatanyone can pick up and play, with minimal tutorial explanations. The Nintendo Museum lets you experience the company’s 135 year history with that same philosophy in mind.

From the NES to the Nintendo Switch, and GameBoy to 3DS, all the game consoles that Nintendo has produced are on display together with their own games as well as some of the major third-party titles. There are even some of those nostalgic peripherals. Gameplay for the games on display can be seen on screens as well.

A little bit of context is added to each display, showing how sales were divided per territory for each console, what series started on each hardware, and what kind of new challenges and technology were introduced.

Almost all of the software has both a Japanese, North American and European package at display. Just by walking around, it becomes apparent how much more global the industry has become. While games often had different titles and package art depending on the region during the NES days, releases on the Nintendo Switch pretty much all look the same for each territory.

If you’re visiting the museum from overseas, seeing the Japanese package art for your favorite games while still being able to take a nostalgic glimpse at the art you grew up with creates a nice balance. Old TV commercials and video game magazines from multiple regions also take visitors back to their childhood. It happened to me a few times when I suddenly saw an image that I didn’t even know I was nostalgic for.

It is true that almost all of what you can see on this floor can be found through Google, YouTube, or a good retro video game store. However, having everything cleverly displayed on the same floor does feel unique and may lead to some new discoveries.

For example, while the Wii U might not exactly be Nintendo’s most successful console, seeing it on display between Nintendo’s other consoles made me rediscover its importance. Major modern franchises such as Splatoon and Mario Maker debuted there, the idea of being able to play games on both your TV and a portable device that made the Nintendo Switch so popular was conceived, and the Amiibo product lineup launched during the Wii U era.

Of course, Nintendo wasn’t making video games when the company was founded way back in 1889. It all started with Hanafuda cards and later expanded to playing cards in North America, where they collaborated with Disney. Some visitors will be surprised to see products that feature Mickey Mouse, Lady and the Tramp and Bambi, instead of Mario, Pikachu and Kirby.

Looking at Nintendo’s older products, it becomes obvious that Nintendo already had that playful and inventive spirit long before they started to expand their business into video games. From playing cards, they went on to produce a wide array of board games that came in all sorts of themes, to even a baby stroller and “light telephone”, which is an obscure device that uses light to transport sound. It was thought of by Gunpei Yokoi, best known as the father of the GameBoy. Yokoi’s unique ideas like the Ultra Hand, the Ultra Machine and the Love Tester made Nintendo even more unique in the late 60’s, w eventually shapeshifting into the inventive video game company it istoday.

The museum presents the history of Nintendo and its characters through different, creative, themes, showing how elements like the Nintendo logo changed over time, how Mario’s question block evolved, the history of products that incorporate music, and products played by moving the body.

While there isn’t all that much to learn for Nintendo fans who have done their homework, seeing everything come together in a well designed space functions as a celebration of the company’s rich history.

While you will probably be left disappointed if you were hoping to see never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes material, prototypes of the Nintendo Dolphin, the Wii Remote and the Wii Balance Board are present. But for some reason these items were displayed discreetly at the back of the exhibition floor.

The first floor has a wide array of interactive activities to enjoy.These activities, which are themed after Nintendo’s past products, have the playfulness that people have come to expect from Nintendo’s games. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly impressed when I saw Shigeru Miyamotoshoot at goombas at the museum’s shooting gallery or hit furniture with the Ultra Machine’s batting-cage experience during last month’s Nintendo Museum Direct. However, once I got to experience these myself, I couldn’t help but smile at the care that Nintendo put into these simple yet cute experiences.

At the shooting gallery, my Zapper was accurate enough to hit targets that were quite far away. At the end of the game, each player’s score is counted simultaneously, making it exciting to see who got the highest score.

And the little reactions of the objects that you hit with the Ultra Machine are so cute that I wanted to try every one of the different rooms available. While humble when compared to the kind of spectacle you can experience at the bigger theme park, Super Nintendo Land , the simple but thorough production feels very Nintendo.

Another interactive exhibit let guests play cooperative games using giant NES, SNES and N64 controllers but it proved more difficult than expected. We often found ourselves laughing out loud at our embarrassing faliures.

I especially enjoyed holding a giant Wii Remote together with my colleague to fly around above Wuhu Island, the main location of Wii Sports Resort. A sea-plane can be steered by tilting the Wii Remote up, down, left, and right, to break balloons. It is a game that uses the entire body, which felt like a full-scale embodiment of the Wii’s motion controls. Considering that this is a game that can only be experienced at the Nintendo Museum, it is something that Nintendo fans should not miss, maybe even more so than the items at the exhibition floor.

The Love Tester, which measures the level of romance between two players is also an ideal icebreaker if you’re on a date. Players are told to hold hands or stare at each other and from there, they are tasked to scare away rats and dodge obstacles to keep the balloons attached to their heads safe,moving their hands and head like they would in a Microsoft Kinect game. It’s a simple experience, but one that has the uncanny effect of strengthening bonds with the people you are playing with.

These life-size Mario Party style mini games lets guests interact directly with parts of Nintendo’s history. And it’s through these various experiences that Nintendo showcases its history. As a company that always focused on fun and interactivity, this felt like a natural approach to a museum that celebrates their history.

However, not all of these experiences can be enjoyed in one visit. The Play Ticket that you receive upon entry comes with only 10 coins, which you can spend to play the experiences. The amount of coins required varies depending on the experience, but don’t expect to be able to enjoy more than 4 or 5 experiences in one visit. On top of that, visitors will likely have to stand in line for each activity once the museum opens to the public, though the wait is helped thanks to the iconic Nintendo music playing through the halls

Although the museum doesn’t have the scale and spectacle of Universal Studios’ Nintendo area, the facility is packed with little secrets and easter eggs. Finding each little detail almost feels like exploring a sandbox in Super Mario Odyssey. From Excite Bike characters on the wall, to Mario hanging on a goal pole, and even a Pikmin on the top of the museum roof, you are constantly rewarded for carefully observing the environment.

The lack of never-before-seen historical items and limited explanation can make Kyoto’s Nintendo Museum feel lacking in the traditional sense of the word ‘museum.’ However, its striking exhibition floor, fun, but simple, activities, and attention to detail made me feel like I was enjoying a cozy Nintendo game.

Observing, exploring and playing my way through the facility, I was subconsciously experiencing the company’s rich history in a unique way. While there may not be much new to see or learn about the company’s full history for the die-hard Nintendo fan, visiting the museum reminds you of why you fell in love with the games in the first place. For those less familiar with Nintendo or video games in general, the museum’s interactive nature makes it something that anybody should be able to enjoy anyway.

Nintendo Museum opens its doors to the public on October 2.

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. He can’t wait to buy an Ultra Hand for his kids.

Making a board game based on a video game is no easy task, particularly when that video game is focused on physics and kinetic weaponry. At first glance, you might assume Worms: The Board Game is a dexterity game – that is, a game about flicking or flinging projectiles at the opponent. This is not the case. Worms: The Board Game does focus the experience on chaos and unintended consequence, but it arrives at this destination through heaps of random chance. This is Worms if your carefully aligned bazooka shot was at the whim of a fistful of dice and a prayer.