Images courtesy Sony, Microsoft
The next-gen consoles have arrived, and for the first time, one of the biggest questions being asked is “what are my old games gonna look like?” Consoles are becoming more and more like PCs, especially with the Xbox Series X and its ability to play games from every previous Xbox console--and companies are touting upgrades, free or otherwise (looking at you 505 Games) to their existing games in order to spruce them up for the PS5 and Series X.
First on this list is
Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Added in an update last November, the game now supports 4K at up to 120 fps (note: not all 4K TVs support 120 fps at 4K, so you may need to choose between graphical fidelity and frame rate) as well as improved draw distance in campaign. One thing I have noticed is that your FOV is locked to 78 if you’re running the game above 60 fps. Prior to the December 16th update, this could be bypassed by changing your FOV while at 60 fps, then changing the max FPS in the Xbox settings to 120 fps, but this is no longer possible.
2019’s
Control is probably the only game on this list that really needed a next gen upgrade, because
Control on last gen is rouuuugh. On my base Xbox One,
Control crashed around 5 times over the same number of days, with some serious slow down during really busy fights. Included with the $40
Control: Ultimate Edition you’ll get a “free” next gen upgrade, which, from what we’ve seen, will add two different modes: performance mode, which will run in 4k at 60 fps, and Ray Tracing Mode, which will, you guessed it, enable ray tracing and run in 4K at 30 fps. Both modes look incredibly pretty, but that Ray Tracing mode is what I’m really excited about, since the lighting and particle effects in
Control were already amazing to begin with.
Next we have
Gears 5. Like the
Master Chief collection, the game was updated to support 4K at up to 120fps, better textures on smaller objects and, more interestingly, a new feature called Screen Space Global Illumination. In a similar way to raytracing, SSGI creates highly realistic lighting and shadows, but isn’t as big of a strain on the hardware. I haven’t noticed any limitations to running the game at 120 fps either, so the only thing stopping you is your TV.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order just recently received a next-gen patch for Xbox and PlayStation consoles; however, what this patch adds differs depending on the console. Xbox Series X has two modes, quality and performance, with the former targeting 30 frames at a dynamic 4k and the latter targeting 60 frames at between 1080 to 1440p. PlayStation 5, on the other hand, only offers a single mode, which functions similarly to the performance mode on Series X: 60 frames at around 1200 to 1440p.
Screenshot: Ghost of Tsushima
Next is
Ghosts of Tsushima for PS5. Of all the games here,
Ghosts of Tsushima received the simplest upgrade with the ability to play the game in 4K at 60fps, though that isn’t to say this upgrade is small, and the game looks amazing.
Last on the list is
Nioh 2, but this isn’t just
Nioh 2. Come February there will be four new releases for the Nioh series.
Nioh 2 - Complete Edition for PS4 and a remastered version for PS5,
Nioh Remastered for PS5, and the
Nioh Collection for PS5, which include both the first and second game. In addition, owners of the base
Nioh 2 will get a free PS5 upgrade for the game, adding support for 4K at up to 120 fps.
This is just the beginning of the next gen upgrades, with games like Doom Eternal, GTA5, Cyberpunk 2077 and more planned for the future. We can't wait.
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