Support NeoGAF

[CozMick]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-evolve-face-off

Evolve has come a long way since we first played the Big Alpha in autumn last year, and there's a pleasing iterative improvement in all areas since the recent beta. The experience feels more polished, and it is possible to have a few prolonged sessions without any issues. However, underlying kinks remain and we feel that the game still requires another round of bug-fixing and optimisation before it has the consistency and stability that we want from an online-focused multiplayer title. Certainly, the split-second freezing issue - something we didn't see in the previous versions - must be resolved.

Hopefully Turtle Rock will sort out these issues in short order, but for now the CryEngine powered visuals remain excellent, lending both scope and atmosphere to the colonised alien environments, while the team-based gameplay offers plenty of depth, certainly in terms of mastering the unique abilities of each monster and finding out which hunter has an advantage in a particular situation.

It's a decent multi-platform project too, with Xbox One's 900p presentation holding up well against the native 1080p image of the PS4 game. However, the poorer quality filtering and slightly slower streaming doesn't always show the PS4 version of Evolve in the best light - but thankfully, in the darker environments these issues don't distract from the quality of the gameplay on offer. On the whole, both console versions are worthy of consideration and play identically for the most part. Making a firm recommendation on which to buy is a little challenging: the PS4's 1080p resolution gives it a slightly more refined experience, and performance is a little more stable too. However, this is an online-focused title and the backing infrastructure here doesn't seem quite as robust as it is on Xbox One and PC.

Overall, it's the PC version that potentially offers the best experience. There's the ability to scale beyond the 30fps cap found on console, with extra image quality and resolution options too. However, getting a good, consistent level of performance requires capable hardware, adroit settings management - or both in concert, depending on your system. Get it sorted though and the results can be quite beautiful - and certainly in a fast-paced shooter, 60fps gameplay trumps the console-standard 30fps experience

Better performance and a better resolution on PS4 but a more robust infrastructure on X1 makes it a harder choice to decide the winner............oh my.

Spoiler

PC wins

 

[Velurian]

Its not really a competition I feel. More of a question or 2nd or 3rd place...

 

[madmackem]

I don't understand the online thing, I've been playing since launch on ps4 with zero issues, sounds like those old fanboi wars shit invading another Df article.

 

[Kezen]

Curiously, environment reflections are entirely absent from water and wet surfaces on both PS4 and Xbox One, even though they appear on the PC game across all presets.

The PC game uses higher resolution textures for less important structures in the environment,

The console versions of Evolve use settings that closely match the PC version's high preset, with some areas enhanced and others pared back

PC has a very high preset.

Very high or 'ultra' settings tend to be a case of massively diminishing returns, but Evolve is a noticeably richer experience maxed out on PC.

Moving onto mainstream enthusiast GPUs, we find that the R9 280 - a snip at around £140 - gets us very close to hitting 1080p60, with just a few drops in post-process heavy firefights.

 

[Angel_DvA]

I don't understand The infrastructure online thing, better resolution and framerate on PS4 but not enough to be the console choice ? i'm confused..

 

[PhatSaqs]

lol what a weird thing to point out with the online thing. I've played both and nothing different enough to notice imo online smh.

 

[Bootador83]

Such a relief we have a graphical comparison site advising on us on highly subjective (nowerdays) online infastructure differences.

 

[CozMick]

When a technical analysis says that 900p holds up well compared to native 1080p then that singlehandedly voids the entire article.

 

[Proxy]

It does seem like DF just isn't even trying at this point.

 

[Matush]

So we are taking online infrastructure into concideration for GRAPHICAL AND PERFORMANCE face-offs from now on? Wow.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

It's a difficult one to call? LOL.

Making a firm recommendation on which to buy is a little challenging: the PS4's 1080p resolution gives it a slightly more refined experience, and performance is a little more stable too. However, this is an online-focused title and the backing infrastructure here doesn't seem quite as robust as it is on Xbox One and PC.

 

[skynidas]

lmao at the online infraestructure thing. that's dumb

 

[geordiemp]

matchmaking is a more inconsistent experience on Sony's system, often leaving you waiting between five and 20 minutes

Fxxx off Turtle rock, put out an online game that's crap online. Insta no buy for my Ps4. Stopped reading right there.

If they have an online game that needs dedicated servers with not enough dedicated servers, wow.

And in 2015 I don't play sub 1080p games, so other console options are no better. And sub 30 at times for both consoles = unacceptable.

Load of crap all round unless you have a high end PC

 

[thuway]

I would love for their to be an independant analysis on the connection times on both platforms. If DF wants to bring it up, I'd love for their to be multiple sources willing to replicate it.

Also, I glanced the article, but are there any framerate values? And BOO AT THE LOWER AF ON PS4- wtf Sony :/.

 

[c0de]

Another thread to discuss in after at least one day when people discuss the technical stuff and not the “bias“ of df.

 

[iceatcs]

Poor DF, now they have to compare online, as graphics/performance always PS4/PC side and got to find new else to compare.

 

[Loris146]

So we are taking online infrastructure into concideration for GRAPHICAL AND PERFORMANCE face-offs from now on? Wow.

Is the next "cpu limited" thing

 

[Final Verdict]

So they are comparing xbl to pan now?
Interesting..

 

[Stilton Disco]

I really wish Eurogamer would compare a few different configurations of PC, entry level, budget enthusiast, and high end powerhouse, with a list of components to actually give the PC results some context.

Just saying 'PC' doesn't exactly tell us anything. I mean how did they get those results? What GPU were they rolling with, was it Nvidia or AMD, what CPU, how much RAM, what settings? So many variables, and such a range of real world combinations, all boiled down to 'our PC ran it best'. For someone whose been out of the loop of PC gaming for a decade, and looking to get back in, it's incredibly unhelpful.

Other than that, PS4 wins again, but the XO gets another caveat to make it seem subtly more desirable. Same old same old.

 

[RoboPlato]

Holy fuck at the infrastructure line.

 

[RyanPierre]

lol what a weird thing to point out with the online thing. I've played both and nothing different enough to notice imo online smh.

Well, on Sony's system, things don't aren't quite working as they should.

For example, matchmaking is a more inconsistent experience on Sony's system, often leaving you waiting between five and 20 minutes when things don't aren't quite working as they should.

 

[impact]

yea something is up with AF on PS4. There has to be a reason for this lol

 

[Replicant]

lol what a weird thing to point out with the online thing. I've played both and nothing different enough to notice imo online smh.

But but, dat superior xbl experience.....

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Holy fuck at the infrastructure line.

This. Transparency 101. Jesus.

Well, on Sony's system, things don't aren't quite working as they should.

Not once have I had to wait 20 minutes to get into a match. Not once. Please.

 

[Kezen]

I really wish Eurogamer would compare a few different configurations of PC, entry level, budget enthusiast, and high end powerhouse, with a list of components to actually give the PC results some context.

Just saying 'PC' doesn't exactly tell us anything. I mean how did they get those results? What GPU were they rolling with, was it Nvidia or AMD, what CPU, how much RAM, what settings? So many variables, and such a range of real world combinations, all boiled down to 'our PC ran it best'. For someone whose been out of the loop of PC gaming for a decade, and looking to get back in, it's incredibly unhelpful.

oving on to PC performance, it's fair to say that Evolve is fairly heavy on the GPU. Our "go to" system for console-equivalent performance features a Core i3 4130 matched with an entry-level enthusiast GTX 750 Ti and 8GB of RAM. Here, we see 25-30fps performance at 1080p with settings matched to the consoles as close as we can (everything on high, with very high shadows). To achieve console-level frame-rates, you'll need to blend medium and high quality settings, or else simply drop down to 1600x900 resolution. It's here that one of CryEngine's features is sorely missed - the in-built scaler found in Ryse allows you to downsample or upscale with excellent results, with HUD elements always running at native resolution. Its inclusion here would have been really useful.

Swapping out the GTX 750 Ti for a GTX 760, 1080p30 is easily attainable and there's room to push presets further. Performance increased significantly as moved up to the GTX 960, with frame-rates between 45-60fps, but the lack of consistency is off-putting, something that doesn't change even with an Intel quad-core processor in place.

CryEngine is seemingly compute-heavy and it's in this scenario that AMD graphics cards exert an advantage over their Nvidia counterparts. Moving onto mainstream enthusiast GPUs, we find that the R9 280 - a snip at around £140 - gets us very close to hitting 1080p60, with just a few drops in post-process heavy firefights. To achieve similar performance at the absolute highest settings, you're looking at high-end GPUs like the Radeon R9 290, R9 290X, GTX 970 and GTX 980. In combination with a quad-core Intel processor, all of these cards should blitz 1080p gameplay, and make a pretty good fist of handling 1440p too. We found that an overclocked GTX 970 and the stock GTX 980 run Evolve totally maxed at 2.5K resolution at between 50-60fps.

Here you go.

 

[MaLDo]

Load of crap all round unless you have a high end PC

Mmmmm

Moving onto mainstream enthusiast GPUs, we find that the R9 280 - a snip at around £140 - gets us very close to hitting 1080p60, with just a few drops in post-process heavy firefights.

 

[Gurish]

PS4 version has online problems? anyone can confirm this?

 

[boredandlazy]

Holy fuck at the infrastructure line.

The goalposts haven't moved, they've just widened.

 

[John Bender]

lmao at the online infraestructure thing. that's dumb

It's actually laughable

 

[CozMick]

Well, on Sony's system, things don't aren't quite working as they should.

But isn't this on a person to person basis?

It has nothing to do with the console afaik

For example im on a 152/20mb line and never ever have to wait more than 90 seconds to find a full lobby.

 

[Terbinator]

The infrastructure line isn't without warrant if it had a bit more behimd it given the reason fuckups when it comes to a games connectivity.

 

[FyreWulff]

TIL people thinking TCP and UDP work differently on the Wii U has spread to the PS4

 

[Bootador83]

It doesn't matter anyway as the XB1 controller has a longer battery life, thus offering a more player friendly experience that makes 1080p neither here nor there when it comes to a graphical showdown

 

[RyanPierre]

I was only poking fun at the article's grammar in my post if it wasn't clear.

 

[McLovin]

"PS4 version is better in every way, but my friends are all on xbox so I cant decide"

 

[jiggle]

Lol
Reads like every positive ps4 line MUST be followed by a but spin

 

[Kayant]

Hmmm so looks like performance improved from beta/alpha where XB1 had better performance but now PS4 has that.

 

[Maleficence]

It seriously looks like DF actively look for things to make the XBone look better in these faceoffs no matter how removed it is from the technical side of the games which DF is supposed to be focused on.

 

[Lord of Castamere]

I haven't had a single issue with matchmaking on PS4.

 

[Backfoggen]

Worse AF on PS4 again.

 

[Papercuts]

wat

I have played a lot on both consoles and they've been the same. Pretty weird ass line.

 

[thuway]

Worse AF on PS4 again.

Yeah, speculation months back was that it was due to a bug of some sort? But it's been over a year now. AF isn't some trivial little effect with zero meaning. What gives...

 

[Portugeezer]

Did they compare the online infrastructure? Maybe they should instead of spouting poo.

 

[CozMick]

I haven't had a single issue with matchmaking on PS4.

Lies, a complete and utter fabrication of the truth!

Digital foundry base their entire articles on everyone having the same console hardware so this means you have exactly the same internet connection as them, therefore it takes you 20 minutes to find a game.

Stop lying, its not funny and its not clever.

 

[JetSetRadio]

Digital comedy.

 

[RexNovis]

Wait isn't this a graphics analysis? What on earth do matchmaking issues have to do with graphics?

 

[GribbleGrunger]

"For example, matchmaking is a more inconsistent experience on Sony's system, often leaving you waiting between five and 20 minutes"

Wouldn't that be influenced by how many people are playing it? And isn't there more people playing it on the PS4?

 

[Dragon1893]

lol what a weird thing to point out with the online thing. I've played both and nothing different enough to notice imo online smh.

It was all they had.

 

[TheHater]

It doesn't matter anyway as the XB1 controller has a longer battery life, thus offering a more player friendly experience that makes 1080p neither here nor there when it comes to a graphical showdown

Will not be surprise if they use this next

 

[boredandlazy]

Lies, a complete and utter fabrication of the truth!

Digital foundry base their entire articles on everyone having the same console hardware so this means you have exactly the same internet connection as them, therefore it takes you 20 minutes to find a game.

Stop lying, its not funny and its not clever.

DF aren't lying. I've never been able to connect to online lobbies on my PS4.

Spoiler

I don't own the game.