Death Stranding 2: On The Beach - PS5/PS5 Pro - Digital Foundry Tech Review

So game has marginally higher resolution on Pro but at the same time looks sharper, have less shimmering and more details are visible.

My guess is that PS5 is using simple TAA and Pro is using GG tech, it's in the engine and in Horizon base PS5 didn't get it as well. Textures can indeed be better or it's just the difference from much better reconstruction.

Not too bad Mr. Kojima. Maybe Pro was worth it after all.

If they are using GG's upscaling solution, there's just no point at all to limit its usage in pro console only.

HFW's case is entirely different since it uses checkerboard rendering on base console.
 
He did, until Death Stranding.

Death Stranding is pure, mechanical, purposeful gameplay. It can be played for ages, with techniques always open to experiment further with. All the cinematics and weird lore is decoration on top of the fully-conceived gameplay.

You may not like the gameplay it offers, that's absolutely fair. (Kojima's dedication to anti-action action asks a lot of an audience each time. ) However, to say that Kojima is only interested in directing cutscenes is dismissing a layer cake because you don't like frosting.
 
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To be perfectly honest playing on base PS5 the performance mode has real aliasing on distant details.

Up close it's pretty sharp and you feel the 1440p, but the overall IQ could definitely be better. The game is superb but has a clean, subtle look that feels like it could really be enhanced with more clarity.

I hesitate upgrading to the pro in the end. Can guys here be 100% honest and tell me whether it's really sharper ?
Play the game on quality mode. Then imagine the game looking sharper and less aliased with double the motion clarity. That's basically the pro performance. Is that alone worth upgrading a console? Lol. Only you can decide that!

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If they are using GG's upscaling solution, there's just no point at all to limit its usage in pro console only.

No way to know that for sure. GG's solution may be ML based too (or too heavy on the GPU to maintain desired base resolution). We just have no details at all.
 
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Play the game on quality mode. Then imagine the game looking sharper and less aliased with double the motion clarity. That's basically the pro performance. Is that alone worth upgrading a console? Lol. Only you can decide that!

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No way to know that for sure. GG's solution may be ML based too. We just have no details at all.
Actually it could be. Quality mode on base looks significantly better on a 4K OLED, but the 30 fps is not very good.

I think I'll cave in
 
It's the same with DLSS. It's considered "perfect" or "better than native" by many users, but if you look closely you will find issues very similar to PSSR as they're inherent to all AI upscalers in one way or another. Yet few people talk about its flaws here, it's mostly PSSR that is being torn apart.
That's what I'm saying from awhile. But nope I'm trolling because no shot no prove.
 
That's what I'm saying from awhile. But nope I'm trolling because no shot no prove.
DLSS was better than native in the first Death Stranding.

But ofcourse it is not perfect. No technology ever is otherwise there would be no possible improvement and we can all ascend to the singularity.
 
The base PS5 doesn't have RT reflections at all in any mode of AC Shadows. The PRO has them in both the quality and balanced modes now (quality mode is slightly higher quality). And of course the RTGI in performance mode whereas it's limited to the 30fps quality mode on the base. Definitely one of the best PRO upgrades out there.

Get the facts straight before you continue moaning and complaining about the PRO (you should have been sold your PRO and limit yourself to PC gaming with those expectations 😉)
Fuck you dude ....am I supposed to know every little fact about the how each game runs? I even said I think AC shadows takes advantage of RT on the Pro.... so what is the problem? That doesn't change the fact that there are not many games taking advantage of the Pro's extra RT performance.

My expectations were higher than most but still in line with Sony's own promises for the console. Most games have come in under par in terms of utilizing it especially the initial batch of games that comprise the majority of patched games on the system.

And in recent times we've had a slew of games that do insulting little like Expedition 33, Oblivion, Indiana Jones and Atomfall
 
If they are using GG's upscaling solution, there's just no point at all to limit its usage in pro console only.

HFW's case is entirely different since it uses checkerboard rendering on base console.
Not sure what you mean? It's heavily implied GG's upscaler leverages the Pro's ML hardware. I don't think it's feasible on the base PS5.
 
Not sure what you mean? It's heavily implied GG's upscaler leverages the Pro's ML hardware. I don't think it's feasible on the base PS5.

Mind linking me to a source which states that GG's solution is leveraging ML hardware, that was my hunch but I could have sworn they were being super vague about it during the interviews and such.
 
Mind linking me to a source which states that GG's solution is leveraging ML hardware, that was my hunch but I could have sworn they were being super vague about it during the interviews and such.
There's no source that states it, that's why I said it's heavily implied. The solution is only used on the Pro and not on the base PS5 and exhibits qualities unique to ML-accelerated upscalers, so it'd be surprising if it didn't use the Pro's ML. Otherwise, why not just have it on the base console?
 
DLSS was better than native in the first Death Stranding.

But ofcourse it is not perfect. No technology ever is otherwise there would be no possible improvement and we can all ascend to the singularity.
If I would say PSSR is better than native I can only imagine the reaction of someone.
 
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There's no source that states it, that's why I said it's heavily implied. The solution is only used on the Pro and not on the base PS5 and exhibits qualities unique to ML-accelerated upscalers, so it'd be surprising if it didn't use the Pro's ML. Otherwise, why not just have it on the base console?

They haven't explicitly mentioned their solution leverages ML hardware which I find a little suspicious.

It's plausible they developed a more advanced and performant TAAU solution which is more compute heavy, this may explain why we don't see it on base PS5.
 
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They haven't explicitly mentioned their solution leverages ML hardware which I find a little suspicious.

It's plausible they developed a more advanced and performant TAAU solution which is more compute heavy, this may explain why we don't see it on base PS5.
Plausible, yes. But that thing is better than DLSS 2/3 in quality. Seems just as suspicious for a non-AI solution to suddenly be THAT good.
 
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They haven't explicitly mentioned their solution leverages ML hardware which I find a little suspicious.

It's plausible they developed a more advanced and performant TAAU solution which is more compute heavy, this may explain why we don't see it on base PS5.
I wouldn't bet on that. The performance impact would be gigantic for TAAU to get that good. That thing is actually better than PSSR and on par, if not better than DLSS3 in HFW. To get that quality using TAAU is simply not possible without severely impacting performance, which is why you don't see anyone doing it because ML upscalers are much more cost-effective.

Plausible, yes. But that thing is better than DLSS 2/3 in quality. Seems just as suspicious for a non-AI solution to suddenly be THAT good.
Yeah, this.
 
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I wouldn't bet on that. The performance impact would be gigantic for TAAU to get that good. That thing is actually better than PSSR and on par, if not better than DLSS3 in HFW. To get that quality using TAAU is simply not possible without severely impacting performance, which is why you don't see anyone doing it because ML upscalers are much more cost-effective.


Yeah, this.
May be they've been asked not to divulge details so that they don't end up overshadowing PSSR.
 
That's a weird take.
I agree! Lol. It's just random speculation as I can't think of any other reason for them to be cage-y. Announcing that they built something better than PSSR using the same hardware, during the PSSR launch, seems a bit self-defeating from a marketing standpoint.
 
seems like you haven no idea how ml process works, it's not something a game studio can handle.
For a single game when much of the legwork has already been done with PSSR? It is possible. The biggest challenge in ML upscalers is the training model and having it work on a wide variety of games and the amount of time it takes to do so to train it on an enormous dataset. Additionally, the engineering team had also worked with checkerboard rendering. If it's for one engine and one game, a single studio could feasibly do it, especially with Sony's backing. It could be a derivative of PSSR for all we know.

No it is not. more stable yes, but at the cost image clarity like all the other non ai temporal solutions.
Nvidia's solution handles particle trails better, but Guerrilla's better handles reflections in water, with smoother and less aliased results. The Guerrilla upscaler also fares marginally better in terms of motion, though the tiny amount of motion blur forced on in the PS5 version does confound the comparison somewhat. The FSR versus 'GSR' comparison is more heavily in favour of what Guerrilla has managed on PS5, with FSR tending to over-accumulate, leading to blurry grass when the camera is stationary and softer results in general - but still a perfectly acceptable resolve overall.

It's an impressive result for the home-grown solution and its efficacy perhaps speaks to why Guerrilla opted against using Sony's PSSR for its PS5 Pro update. The studio said that it developed the technique for its own future titles, then backported it to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Horizon Forbidden West, so it'll be fascinating to see whether it'll be deployed elsewhere - or even by other Sony internal studios - in the future.


It might not be a software solution, but the quality along with the performance make me really doubt it's just a TAAU derivative. That thing seems as performant if not more than PSSR.
 
For a single game when much of the legwork has already been done with PSSR? It is possible. The biggest challenge in ML upscalers is the training model and having it work on a wide variety of games and the amount of time it takes to do so to train it on an enormous dataset. Additionally, the engineering team had also worked with checkerboard rendering. If it's for one engine and one game, a single studio could feasibly do it, especially with Sony's backing. It could be a derivative of PSSR for all we know.

you need a super computer to do the machine learning for these ai upscaling solutions, and I seriously doubt that GG'd purchase or rent one to create some temporary substitute for pssr


Nvidia's solution handles particle trails better, but Guerrilla's better handles reflections in water, with smoother and less aliased results. The Guerrilla upscaler also fares marginally better in terms of motion, though the tiny amount of motion blur forced on in the PS5 version does confound the comparison somewhat. The FSR versus 'GSR' comparison is more heavily in favour of what Guerrilla has managed on PS5, with FSR tending to over-accumulate, leading to blurry grass when the camera is stationary and softer results in general - but still a perfectly acceptable resolve overall.

It's an impressive result for the home-grown solution and its efficacy perhaps speaks to why Guerrilla opted against using Sony's PSSR for its PS5 Pro update. The studio said that it developed the technique for its own future titles, then backported it to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Horizon Forbidden West, so it'll be fascinating to see whether it'll be deployed elsewhere - or even by other Sony internal studios - in the future.


It might not be a software solution, but the quality along with the performance make me really doubt it's just a TAAU derivative. That thing seems as performant if not more than PSSR.


It's just his opinion, the guy just prefers stable image over anything else. HFW on pro is much blurrier than dlss.


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and I wouldn't call this on par or better than dlss.


Also so called 'bad pssr games' are either 1. running at extremely low rendering res or 2. uses a form of ray tracing

If we take examples from games that are 1440P or higher with no ray tracing, say the last of us or stellar blade,

pssr works very well with reasonably stable image quality and great image clarity.


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and it even beats dlss in motion :messenger_winking:
 
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you need a super computer to do the machine learning for these ai upscaling solutions, and I seriously doubt that GG'd purchase or rent one to create some temporary substitute for pssr
Why would they rent anything when they belong to a film/camera company with a gaming brand that developed an ML-based upscaler? GG has more tools than most devs to undertake such an endeavor. It's not just some plucky indy dev.

The upscaler in HFW being a simple software solution is hard to believe given how performant it is and that it's presumably better than PSSR in this game since GG decided to use it instead.

We saw plenty devs try their hands at proprietary solutions such as IGTI, Ubersampling, NXSR, and more, and none comes even close.
 
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Watched the Base vs Pro segment:

- Both have Quality and Performance modes
- Differences in level of detail and fidelity but not significant.
- No reason to choose quality on Pro, performance is the best option.
- exceptional framerate stability on both consoles

That's pretty much it

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Also a bit of shimmering on far objects on the performance mode of the base console. They don't exist on Pro.
I was told this game would be a reason to buy the Pro.

The Pro has been an absolute BUST so far.
 
I was told this game would be a reason to buy the Pro.

The Pro has been an absolute BUST so far.

From the day it was announced I found it suspect and I still didn't upgrade. PS4 Pro, while lacking 4K movie playback, made sense as many households upgraded to 4K HDR sets. The bulk of PS4 games released after were significantly better on Pro. The differences were never minimal, resolution was always a good bit higher and there was HDR which was and still is implemented with mixed results.

I feel the PS5 Pro is a harder sell, not even taking its price into consideration.

DS2 is another big game I don't feel a Pro is needed for. Like SH2, Astro Bot and many others.
 
Why would they rent anything when they belong to a film/camera company with a gaming brand that developed an ML-based upscaler? GG has more tools than most devs to undertake such an endeavor. It's not just some plucky indy dev.

The upscaler in HFW being a simple software solution is hard to believe given how performant it is and that it's presumably better than PSSR in this game since GG decided to use it instead.

We saw plenty devs try their hands at proprietary solutions such as IGTI, Ubersampling, NXSR, and more, and none comes even close.


So, you're basically saying that they got a super computer just lying around doing nothing so that their buddy can come use it?

I'm pretty sure they've got one working on pssr but..


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they've got lots of catch ups to do. lol



I'm not sure why people give so much credit to GG's solution, to me it just looks a version of TAAU tailor fitted to work on HFW nothing more


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because it just doesn't look as good as the quality mode on ps5





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on the other hand, TLOU with pssr is very close to the quality mode of ps5 actually beating it in some aspects.

sure GG chose their own solution over pssr, but that doesn't mean anything because pssr performs worse than fsr in some games.

does that make fsr a better solution? absolutely not

it's just that pssr is still in its infancy and needs improvement.

GG just saw their own solution to fit better in their game for the moment.
 
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It was also supposed to be Ray Tracing ...remember Cerny's "3 pillars"?

We haven't seen RT improvements in many games at all ....ratchet and Spiderman amd that's it. I don't count GT7 because the game looks downright bad with RT and pssr.
See here is where you're stretching to highlight what's lacking without full context. Sony 1st party studios by and large haven't released many RT enabled games at all! In fact, only the Insomniac games and GT7 feature it in any meaningful way for visuals. God of War, Returnal, Demon's Souls, Horizon, TLOU Pt1/Pt2, Astro Bot etc...none of them feature RT on the base PS5 (or PC) so why would you think Sony would add it for a "PRO" console? The PRO's job is to take the PS5 experience and elevate it via IQ or perf improvements not to recreate the wheel or add new features to PS5 games. My point is this is not a PS5 PRO problem but rather a Sony studios problem at large.

Perhaps you also underestimate just how much work it is to add Ray Tracing to a modern game engine and pipeline. We're talking years of work to build it into an engine, art pipeline, and tune it. Even some of the more meaningful RT improvements for PRO took many months of work to do (i.e. AW2, AC Shadows, GT7) which is not something most developers can afford to do for a relatively niche low volume console.

Furthermore, it's completely disingenuous to dismiss the GT7 RT enhancements on PRO due to poor PSSR quality. Fortunately, Polyphony added the ability to disable PSSR while still keeping RT ON and if you do that you retain the pristine 4K image while getting RT reflections on external car bodies during gameplay and replays. This is still a meaningful improvement over the base completely independent of PSSR even if you miss the internal RT bounces in the cockpit view.

We really need pssr to be fixed/revised for the huge initial batch of Pro patched games because so many of them suffer from aliasing and Pssr specific artifacting.....not that we ever will see this happen though but games like Alan Wake 2, Avatar, SH2 and Dragons Dogma 2 all have barely better image quality than base ps5
Actually, in the case of SH2, DD2 and Avatar IQ is actually worse on Pro. The waterfalls in Avatar are disgustingly artifacted. SH2 we all know about and DD2 has really messed up ambient occlusion due to pssr. Digital Foundry even covered that one.

SW Outlaws, GT7, Datktide, Hogwarts Legacy all have significant issues too. If you play GT7 with RT on and pssr looks like a blurry mess ...until recently I was getting raked over the coals pointing these problems out to people but seems like recently people are starting feel like Sony is half assing Pro support.
Really?! Pretty much every 1st (and 2nd) party PS5 game has a meaningful PRO improvement taking advantage of the "BIG 3" where appropriate. As I mentioned, all of the games that support RT on the base console sees enhancements on the PRO. Nearly every major Sony PS5 game leverages PSSR on the PRO for IQ and perf improvements and there is far more effective and consistent use of VRR, unlocked frame rates, and fast loading from Sony 1st party. From Demon's Souls, Returnal, Stellar Blade, GT7, TLOU Pt1/2, Astro Bot, and SpiderMan 2 to the recent Days Gone Remastered and Death Stranding 2, you're going to see some of best examples of what the PRO has to offer (PSSR, 60+ FPS, RT enhancements). Furthermore, they've been great about upgrading the SDK and PSSR quality and performance for devs behind the scenes and working closely with key devs on their PRO upgrades including Ubisoft for AC Shadows, Kojima for Death Stranding 2, Shift UP for Stellar Blade, and Square for FFVII Rebirth.

Your problem is that you focus so much energy on what the PS5 PRO isn't doing or is lacking but putting the blame in the wrong place. Sony doesn't develop any of the games you're complaining about here except GT7. Those other games would fall on the dev to update their PSSR and patch the games. It's a question of how much time and energy they want to put into their PRO upgrades. It's not a simple swap of a DLL file to get the desired results. In most of these cases, it may require a bit more engine (and in some cases) art work to get the desired quality.

Also, you pointed out like 8 games here with issues out of the roughly 100 games out there with PSSR support. Point being that in the vast majority of cases, PSSR looks way better than FSR or whatever solution is employed on the base PS5.

That doesn't change the fact that there are not many games taking advantage of the Pro's extra RT performance.

My expectations were higher than most but still in line with Sony's own promises for the console.
Again, the vast majority of games that feature RT on the base PS5 to some capacity have indeed seen enhancements on the PRO. Hogwarts Legacy, First Descendent, Dead Rising Remastered, Alan Wake 2, F1 24/25, Callisto Protocol, AC Shadows, Dragon Age Veilguard, Jedi Survivor, Fortnite, MH Wilds, and the aforementioned 1st party Sony RT titles are just some of the games with enhanced RT on the PRO.

Your second statement here is the root of your problem: Sony never promised anything and they know it would have been silly of them to do so since they cannot guarantee what features a dev would integrate and what the results would be in every game. Their job was to make a canvas for PS5 enhancements and entice developers to use it with what is possible if the system was fully utilized. However, they can't force them to implement anything for an "optional" PRO console.
 
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So... M MazingerDUDE and Gaiff Gaiff , here we are speculating if the game is using regular PSSR, FSR4-PSSR, GGSR (that's what I'm going to call it going forward), while NXGamer claims resolution numbers and classic TAA/checkerboarding with DRS! Wasn't John claiming near identical resolution on both? Who do we even believe anymore? :messenger_tears_of_joy:

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I played for maybe 3-4 hours and the vid did not do the game justice. It looks amazing.
Really all the no. Rt whiners are so tiring.
Look just breathtaking. I am audibly gasping here.

These are simply and undoubtedly best character models I've ever seen and best cutscene graphics. I am feeling the same about gameplay graphics but it could be at least discussed here, ok.
 
Play the game on quality mode. Then imagine the game looking sharper and less aliased with double the motion clarity. That's basically the pro performance. Is that alone worth upgrading a console? Lol. Only you can decide that!

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No way to know that for sure. GG's solution may be ML based too (or too heavy on the GPU to maintain desired base resolution). We just have no details at all.
I think when the PS5 Pro 60fps mode looks better than the PS5 Base 30fps mode that's a pretty decent upgrade and beyond what people/Cerny expected.

Preformance vs performance the scenery is just a blur on base vs Pro.
 
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So... M MazingerDUDE and Gaiff Gaiff , here we are speculating if the game is using regular PSSR, FSR4-PSSR, GGSR (that's what I'm going to call it going forward), while NXGamer claims resolution numbers and classic TAA/checkerboarding with DRS! Wasn't John claiming near identical resolution on both? Who do we even believe anymore? :messenger_tears_of_joy:

oKNgGPRI4I7VLJ9V.png



Performance mode on pro with 48" oled in my face and it's definitely sharp and don't have usual taa aliasing/shimmering.
Looks great. And I love that 60 runs in 120hz container. Should be like that for every game and even 30fps
 
I think when the PS5 Pro 60fps mode looks better than the PS5 Base 30fps mode that's a pretty decent upgrade and beyond what people/Cerny expected.

Preformance vs performance the scenery is just a blur on base vs Pro.
I wanted to see the difference so I took some screenshots on my PS5s.
The PS5 Pro's Performance mode has better image quality, and the draw distance is just as good as the PS5's Quality mode.

Perfomance Mode (PS5 pro vs. PS5) *The detail of the distant mountains is omitted on PS5.
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So... M MazingerDUDE and Gaiff Gaiff , here we are speculating if the game is using regular PSSR, FSR4-PSSR, GGSR (that's what I'm going to call it going forward), while NXGamer claims resolution numbers and classic TAA/checkerboarding with DRS! Wasn't John claiming near identical resolution on both? Who do we even believe anymore? :messenger_tears_of_joy:

oKNgGPRI4I7VLJ9V.png



I checked it out with my PS5s, and the image quality of the PS5 Pro is definitely superior.
I lined them up at 400% zoom, but is the resolution really the same?

Perfomance Mode (PS5 PRo vs. PS5) *The Pro version has clearer text and is easier to read.
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Perfomance Mode (PS5 Pro vs. PS5) *The Pro version appears to have a higher resolution (wire).
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So... M MazingerDUDE and Gaiff Gaiff , here we are speculating if the game is using regular PSSR, FSR4-PSSR, GGSR (that's what I'm going to call it going forward), while NXGamer claims resolution numbers and classic TAA/checkerboarding with DRS! Wasn't John claiming near identical resolution on both? Who do we even believe anymore? :messenger_tears_of_joy:

oKNgGPRI4I7VLJ9V.png




So, in performance mode, the Pro has a minimum resolution which displays 60% more pixels compared to the base PS5's minimum resolution and it has better LOD, shadows and ambient occlusion settings (though they're small) and improved depth of field.

That sounds like pretty good outcome from the Pro wrt performance mode.
 
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After playing yesterday I would have to say that Zathalus Zathalus maybe right, quite noticable artifacts with SSAO + foliage that remind me of PSSR in some games.

Nice mystery we have here, lol.
 
So... M MazingerDUDE and Gaiff Gaiff , here we are speculating if the game is using regular PSSR, FSR4-PSSR, GGSR (that's what I'm going to call it going forward), while NXGamer claims resolution numbers and classic TAA/checkerboarding with DRS! Wasn't John claiming near identical resolution on both? Who do we even believe anymore? :messenger_tears_of_joy:

oKNgGPRI4I7VLJ9V.png



Hopefully, Brazil Pixel covers the game. His tool for pixel counting is great.
 
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My only complaint going from playing on my PC to this is the issues with foliage, theres some strange blurriness I cant quite put my finger on when I pan the camera. I guess its image break up. Ive never really noticed it before. Apart from that the game looks amazing.
 
Played the intro a bit. I still have to beat the first one so I didnt want to accept Fragile's quest lol.
 
Not impressed about the graphics. Looks good, like Forbidden West a couple of years ago. Actually Horizon was more impressive because more things were going on. Here its mostly rocks. :D
Expected more.
 
Performance mode on pro with 48" oled in my face and it's definitely sharp and don't have usual taa aliasing/shimmering.
Looks great. And I love that 60 runs in 120hz container. Should be like that for every game and even 30fps
Yeah I wonder why they don't have this option for all 60 fps games.
 
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