Alan Wake 2 is a graphical showcase on both PC and consoles, so it was disappointing to see the game’s PS5 Pro patch leave the game looking and running worse in some areas than on base PS5. Thankfully, developers Remedy have lived up to their name with a fix for the situation: a new PS5 Pro patch that adds in a toggle for the problematic PSSR upscaling as well as some other nice changes and additions.
As we discuss in this week’s DF Direct show, embedded below, the new patch is surprisingly comprehensive. As well as the PSSR toggle, there’s also a new balanced graphics mode for users of 120Hz displays that targets a 40fps frame-rate on PS5 Pro. The balanced mode is interesting, as it combines the higher settings (including RT) of the quality mode with the lower resolution of the performance mode. The new patch also purports to tweak settings across all modes to reduce noise, although – spoiler alert – it doesn’t appear to work as we expect right now. We’ve tested the new modes and they’re a welcome upgrade for PS5 Pro owners that improve the game’s presentation overall, although some areas are still in need of improvement.
Oliver is our man in the field for this one, and he reports that the mooted settings tweaks to performance mode don’t appear to have been realised. In side-by-side comparisons between the launch and current versions of the game, there are no visible differences in terms of foliage, shadow quality, draw distance and so on. Image quality also seems to be similar, so if there are any settings tweaks they are presumably quite minor or affect areas other than what we’ve tested. However, performance has been improved, with around a 10 percent frame-rate uptick in most of the challenging scenes we tested, bringing the game closer to 60fps.
0:00:00 Introduction0:01:09 News 1: Switch 2 leaks describe dock, magnetic connection0:17:40 News 2: New Alan Wake 2 PS5 Pro patch tested!0:28:14 News 3: Indiana Jones lighting improved on Xbox0:35:32 News 4: New Legion Go uses SteamOS0:49:50 News 5: RTX 50 series leaks continue1:01:35 News 6: DF Supporter Game of the Year awards!1:18:01 News 7: “Monkey Kong” hits Nintendo eShop1:25:36 Supporter Q1: After the Mark Cerny interview, how do you think Sony will approach PS6?1:33:47 Supporter Q2: How will Project Amethyst affect Microsoft’s relationship with AMD?1:39:00 Supporter Q3: How will today’s high-end PC hardware compare to next gen consoles?1:45:01 Supporter Q4: Why was PS3/360 game performance often so poor?1:55:02 Supporter Q5: What do you make of FF7 Rebirth’s PC lighting upgrades?1:58:54 Supporter Q6: What’s the best looking last gen game?
Elsewhere, the new patch does deliver some meaningful changes and improvements. For example, the noise we spotted in reflections has been reduced or eliminated, suggesting changes to the denoiser algorithm used here. The roughness cutoff for reflections may also have been altered, with some rough surfaces like unpolished wood no longer exhibiting obvious reflections as they did in the earlier version.