Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: An Excellent Game - But 60fps Comes At A Cost

Digital Foundry : Developer Eidos Montreal's take on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy brings us one of the very best story-driven games of 2021 - and it's great to see Square-Enix pivot back firmly to a single-player action game. There's no multiplayer, no online, not even co-op - and refreshingly, there's not the slightest hint of the 'games as a service' concept that sat so uneasily with Marvel's Avengers. It's all about you, playing as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, haphazardly adventuring through a well-scripted story, chapter by chapter. Based on the Dawn Engine, as used in Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Guardians of the Galaxy is a genuine treat, but how does it play out on the new wave of consoles?

[Lexreborn2]

So they did it again, they are prioritizing the bandaid of VRR as making a personal experience better vs what the collective people will encounter.

The truth is the 60 fps mode is broken on Ps5 and series X. And, it’s important this game gets proper optimization for those modes. Not to mention the game breaking bugs the game presents on PC.

It’s ambitious but it is undercooked, they need to say that

[porkChop]

They aren't "prioritizing" anything. VRR is there on Xbox, and it makes the FPS drops far less noticeable. That's a fact, that's the whole point of VRR. They aren't pretending everyone has a compatible display. But having the option is obviously better than not having it.

[Eonjay]

Yes that is a fact. But it's also a fact that 90% of Xbox players will not benefit from VRR. They would be far better served with a better optimized experience. Clearly. This does not take away from the benefits of Vet for the small minority that can take advantage of it.

[GamerRN]

Eonjay

Where did you find the statistic that says 90% of Series X owners don't have VRR? I was looking to see what percentage actually was.

[porkChop]

"They would be far better served with a better optimized experience. "

Duh? No one is saying unoptimized games are ok just because we have VRR. What point are you trying to argue?

[Profchaos]

Having the option is great but I'd be shocked if vrr is even on 10%of players TVs

[Lexreborn2]

Having an option is not the general experience. The general experience is important. And they are prioritizing it in EVERY single showdown when it comes to the shortcomings of the Xbox.

The reality is the tech is not fully implemented and it’s like if they installed SSDs in last gen systems because they had the option. And then touted the perks of it every time and didn’t ask for the actual fixes of the games to be addressed for the market.

It’s funny how people want them to be the voice to devs but when there is a clear time to say fix it devs you folks suddenly “disagree”

[Eonjay]

Yes you are.

He said:. It's not optimized.
You said:. VRR is the solution. You completely ignored his point.

Everyone even DF said it's not optimized.

You are part of the problem. You are blocking everyone from demanding better for their systems and trying to for everyone to acknowledge what they already know about VRR.

[porkChop]

I never said VRR is the solution. It's not a solution at all. It's just a band-aid. The solution is devs better optimizing their games. Bro I didn't buy the game specifically because of the issues. I'm waiting *until* the devs fix it. Wtf are you talking about? I'm not blocking anything.

[Jin_Sakai]

1080p 60fps with drops? Eidos Montreal need to learn how to optimize their games more.

[--Onilink--]

Thats not even the biggest problem, its that its 1080p with worse LOD, anisotropic filtering, ambient occlusion and even TEXTURES… (and even then its not locked)

Its possibly one of the most poorly optimized performance mode I’ve seen, it basically feels like it was made for One X and PS4 Pro instead

[--Onilink--]

They did say it, for a full 15min they said it… and vrr was only mentioned once, while discussing the performance drops in general and how that helps alleviate them, which is accurate because its exactly what VRR does.

I have no idea how you see that video and come up with the idea of “prioritizing VRR”

As long as there are TVs and Monitors that dont have the feature and there are games that are not locked in framerate, it is perfectly understandable and reasonable for them to mention it

[Lexreborn2]

They legit say in the videos every time. “Thanks to VRR I had a better experience” but generally never go out of their way to say fix it like I’ve seen them complain on other comparisons with equal issues.

[porkChop]

"And they are prioritizing it in EVERY single showdown when it comes to the shortcomings of the Xbox."

They mentioned VRR like one time. That's not prioritizing anything, or do you not understand what that word means? That's just saying VRR helps if you're actually able to use it.

"didn’t ask for the actual fixes of the games to be addressed for the market."

Did we watch the same video? At no point did DF say, it's fine don't bother updating the Xbox version because it has VRR. Are you delusional? They pointed out both performance and visual issues on both platforms.

[Lexreborn2]

He literally said again… “because the drops from 60fos aren’t as frequent on series X in performance mode as Ps5 he speculates it’s because it may be a patch ahead. Right after saying because of VRR the experience is overall better..

That is a constant that keeps getting used in every single “vs/headtohead/comparison and it’s a constant with the Xbox as games are continuing to release.

Which means it’s something that needs to be gotten ahead of because if the excuse keeps coming that VRR fixes it. As time goes on when PS5 implements VRR support the devs will just rely on the TVs to fix their mistakes.

That is a prioritization of a single tech outside of the consoles true capability that will cause a divide for a lot of games including later adopters who want to grab an out of box experience and then they are met with a performance they can’t explain and you’ll hear people in our community be passive over it.

Dropping 10-15 frames on any game from any gen has always been a bad thing. Why are you guys trying to move the goal post on this topic because VRR is in the mix?

[porkChop]

"because the drops from 60fos aren’t as frequent on series X in performance mode as Ps5 he speculates it’s because it may be a patch ahead"

That's not because of VRR. They do their framerate tests with VRR off. Those two statements have nothing to do with each other. VRR makes fps drops much less noticeable, but the drops are still there.

"Dropping 10-15 frames on any game from any gen has always been a bad thing. Why are you guys trying to move the goal post on this topic because VRR is in the mix?"

No one is saying that it isn't a bad thing. Neither is anyone moving any goalposts. I chose not to buy the game because I'm waiting for the performance to be optimized. I have a Series X and a display with VRR, yet I'm still waiting. Everyone is in agreement that dropping 10-15 fps is not at all ok. Just because a small percentage of people *can* use a feature doesn't mean suddenly no one cares about performance issues.

[Lexreborn2]

When I say they are prioritizing VRR it isn’t solely for this game. In every face off since this gen it’s been a focal point in every face off that has covered series X frame drops from Vhalhalla, CoD, ghost runner to this as being a solution. And, reality is they aren’t experiencing what we are even if they acknowledge it because we don’t have VRR readily available.

So, it’s something that is becoming not only an argument I. The gaming space. But, a reason not to revisit a game to see if past issues were address. And it’s more important to have accurate info based on market access then ever before.

[dreamed]

If you cant get your game to run at 60fps in 2021 you should probably stop making games and just make pre packed sandwiches.

[Ninver]

🤣🤣 this is why I enjoy coming to the comments section. Here's a like for brightening up my day.

[Profchaos]

And yet if they took away a lot of the graphical features or down resed the game to achieve it you'd probably say it's ugly.

[porkChop]

The visual and performance issues are what made me decide to wait. I know the game is great, but I'm waiting until they actually iron out the issues.

[chicken_in_the_corn]

How is this game?

[Pyrofire95]

I really have only seen positivity around the game. It's apparently pretty solid if really cheesy at times.

[thesoftware730]

I just don't understand why VRR is being talked about as a negative. It is a feature, that is the whole point of it, to make games run better, do it matter who has it and who don't? are they supposed to ignore new tech because PS5 don't have it? Some people only have 1080P T.V still, should they not mention 4k? Most gamers don't have PS5 or SX, should they only talk about PS4 and Xbox one?

This is a tech review of games and how the consoles can handle them. People make it seem like they are being dishonest by talking about VRR, when In fact, in a TECH review it would be dishonest NOT to mention a feature such as VRR. Should they ignore the people who can use VRR?

[badz149]

1080p60fps even on the SX? they need to scrap that engine real quick!

[Harryvok]

I was going to pick this up soon, but not for 1080p 60fps. I'll wait and see if they add a 1440p 60fps mode with lower lighting settings etc. Can't stand looking at a blurry 1080p image anymore.

[bangoskank]

Not when you play on a pc😎