After watching all the previews I can honestly say WTF. Xbox. OK, let's pretend that Starfield and Redfall where all Bethseda-rooted oopsies stemming from bad engine design of management. Heck, Creation Engine in Starfiled is still choking my 5800x3d, I've checked specifically before wrtiting this.
But Hellblade 2? Look, the game is pretty, but right now a lot of games are pretty, thanks to UE5. Looking at you, Robocop.
Thing is, because of Series S Hellblade 2 is deliberately limited in scope. It is clear as day after reading the previews and watching some videos. Battles are 1 on 1, arenas are tiny, there are constant black bars, you can spot quite a lot of interpolation artifacts (meaning that even on SX it's not hitting anywhere near native res). Plus the footage is drowning in very grainy IQ with a lot of post-processing going on. OK, I get it, game is too heavy for some reason. But at least give people with X some sort of Series S unlocked options. It's also worth noting that Hellblade 2 is built around 'brutal fights' (if we believe the previews) and yeah, unlocked or 60 is a nice bonus for any action. Give us some options. With locked targets VRR on Xbox is just useless tech. My main gaming screen is LG CX and I adore that Sony is actually pushing the 40fps option which I choose all the time. It's a fantastic trade-off between IQ and speed while maintaining heavy tech like RT. SM2 with 40fps is something surreal to behold on a $500 box.
Anyway, Hellblade's 2 scope is not something unheard on consoles (The Order 1886 actually showed us all the same tricks back in 2015) and I don't agree that it's pushing anything tech-wise to justify the lack of any performance options. Especially when we have games like Rebirth (downright CG at times), SM2, R&C, FF16 (not good, but it's and option nonetheless), GT7 (VR+120hz!!!), HFW, Resident Evil 8/4RE (VR!) all pushing the fidelity and tech envelope while still giving us choice. While at the same time all of the above being vastly bigger games in terms of scale, scope, gameplay programming and number of assets/NPCs.