It’s something of a DF Direct special this week, as regular co-host Alex Battaglia is joined by two insightful guests, longtime games journalist Sam ‘samred’ Machkovech of Ars Technica and streaming expert Addie of the YouTube channel EposVox.
The trio tackle the week’s news – including the first substantive details on the hotly anticipated Spider-Man Remastered PC port from Insomniac and Nixxes. Elsewhere in PS-adjacent news, The Last Of Us Part 1 has had some footage leaked – and ‘no gameplay enhancements’ is the description provided. Do the team still have high hopes for the remaster, or does this dampen the mood somewhat?
Meanwhile, it’s a good week for PC news, as in addition to the Spider-Man news, Activision has appeared on Steam as an official publisher – a reversal from the previous strategy that saw Call of Duty games distributed via the Blizzard launcher. Some classic PC titles are also available for free via Xbox Insider. John Romero is in the headlines too, heading up development of a new FPS, while Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was recently confirmed to be still under development at an unnamed studio, following its near-cancellation last year.
- 00:00:00 Introduction – Alex Battaglia, Sam Machkovech and Addie EposVox
- 00:01:09 News 1: Spider-Man Remastered PC port details revealed
- 00:09:57 News 2: The Last of Us Part 1 leaked footage and impressions
- 00:16:30 News 3: Intel Arc GPUs get benchmarked and reviewed
- 00:34:50 News 4: Activision gets official Steam publisher page
- 00:40:28 News 5: Classic PC titles available for free via Xbox Insider
- 00:48:22 News 6: John Romero to make new UE5-based FPS game
- 00:52:07 News 7: Bloodlines 2 development resumed at new studio
- 00:55:01 DF Content Discussion: Sam’s new release roundup
- 01:02:33 DF Supporter Q1: Could Series S run some One X-enhanced games?
- 01:07:57 DF Supporter Q2: Why don’t PC games compile shaders in advance?
- 01:15:59 DF Supporter Q3: Using a One X as “extra storage” for a Series X library – is it a good idea?
- 01:19:21 DF Supporter Q4: Will other manufacturers produce Xbox Series SSD expansion cards?
- 01:22:57 DF Supporter Q5: How good is Windows HDR for games?
- 01:26:53 DF Supporter Q6: What games or tech releases is Sam looking forward to?
- 01:30:50 DF Supporter Q7: If streaming had been around in the 90s, what games would have been popular to stream?
- 01:35:37 DF Supporter Q8: What is the best way to get high quality game capture for editing using OBS?
- 01:36:48 DF Supporter Q9: Would a Stream Deck or other specialty input peripheral be helpful for general office use?
- 01:39:19 DF Supporter Q10: Is desktop Linux bound to be a UX headache for new users forever, or is there a way to fix it?
- 01:44:31 DF Supporter Q11: Sam, do you still use your Playdate?
- 01:46:11 DF Supporter Q12: What’s a game you liked when you were younger but don’t look back on as fondly?
Later, the temporary team tackle a tremendous turnout of DF support questions – including popular topics like HDR support on Windows and why the Xbox Series S can’t run some games with Xbox One X enhancements.
Our two guests have a chance to shine too, with DF supporter submitting some ideal questions. Sam shares his most anticipated game or tech releases and his current thoughts on the adorable Playdate handheld, while Epos Vox steps into his role as the Stream Professor, answering whether macro pads like the Stream Deck are useful for everyday use and the best way to use OBS for game capture, rather than game streaming.
It’s a unique and refreshing episode of DF Direct, chock-full of helpful advice and defensible takes, so do take a look! You can of course join the DF Supporters Programme yourself to submit DF Weekly questions, join the Discord community and unlock a wealth of high-quality videos. We’d like to feature more DF Direct Weekly guests hosts in future too, so feel free to tag them – and us! – on Twitter: @wsjudd and @digitalfoundry.
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