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[RedC]

As the third project from Compulsion Games, South of Midnight impresses with an eye-catching stop motion style. Unreal Engine forms the basis of what's for now an Xbox Series X, S and PC exclusive, and the good news is that both consoles reap the spoils in decent performance - targeting 60fps. Tom digs in to all releases, including a look at the way its animation is incorporated into its visual design.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Looks well optimised, fairly polished title.

 

[intbal]

A pretty lightweight video from Tom.
Good art. Good performance.

I suppose there's really not much to say since there are no console comparisons and only a single display mode.

 

[Killer8]

The stop motion effect is really jarring. Looks like those low framerate enemies that are far away in Dark Souls. Just doesn't have the intended effect at all.

 

[adamsapple]

- Third game from Compulsion, each title has a unique visual style
- Refreshing to have a guided experience in deluge of open-world games
- Game seems to use Unreal 4, not Unreal 5

- All cut-scenes run at 30fps with certain elements running at half-refresh ala Spider-Verse
- Stop motion effect is convincing at creating an 'other-worldly' effect
- Gameplay runs at 60fps but running and enemy animations employ the same effect
- However, there is a toggle to disable the effect during game-play on both console and PC

- Series S and X both run DRS with Unreal's TAA to up-scale
- SX: DRS 4K between 1080p and 2160p
- SS: DRS 1080p between 540p and 1080
- Series S Image quality can take a hit and look blurry but most chapters hold up well
- Most effects are the same with depth of field taking a hit on Series S due to lower resolution
- Textures, AO etc are the same. Shadow quality take a minor drop on Series S

- PC version at 4K/Ultra has shadow quality being the main divider between SX and PC
- PC supports DLSS and frame-gen.
- 4080 is comfortably at or above 60 but frame-gen can make it go north of 100
- Minor stutter / streaming hitches present

- Consoles both target 60fps with V-sync and seems to stick to both decently
- Worse drops seen to low 50's but well within the VRR range
- Single digit streaming drops also seen infrequently
- The 30fps cut-scenes suffer from uneven frame pacing, however

Verdict:
- Well optimized with a single mode for consoles, either is recommended but Series S can suffer from worse image quality by comparison.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Haven't noticed any performance issues on the Series X, game runs very well.

 

[adamsapple]

Haven't noticed any performance issues on the Series X, game runs very well.

Have you noticed any streaming issues?

One of the reviews said they noticed some texture streaming delays on the console version. Not sure how old their review build was and if those issues have been fixed in any day 0 patches.

 

[Rockman33]

Looks pretty well optimized. Happy to see you can turn off the lower FPS animation during gameplay.

 

[Shaki12345]

Another win for GamePass. Footage won me over. Installing now.

 

[FalconPunch]

Looks pretty cool. Might check this out when it's on sale.

 

[Fbh]

Seems like a solid release on Series X. Decent IQ and 60fps.
Also thank god they have an option to disable the awful stop motion effect during gameplay. It's unique in cutscenes but not something I want to see in actual gameplay, specially in an action heavy game.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Looks great. Very excited for this game. Can't wait

 

[adamsapple]

The frame pacing issues on the 30fps cut-scenes seem like a bummer, wish the scenes were also 60fps.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Looks pretty dang good. Deffo going to give this a play at some point.

 

[RedC]

If this gets ported to PS5, hopefully it will be PS5 Pro Enhanced.

 

[Darsxx82]

Haven't noticed any performance issues on the Series X, game runs very well.

The only time they found it dropped below 60 was in a specific area during a storm scene.

It's a very well-optimized game with good IQ. The fact that they don't see the need to offer more than just one mode speaks volumes about how they understand they've done their own optimization work. Not just on XSX/S, but it seems to work well on PC as well.

 

[DanielG165]

Super well optimized game, this is, and across all platforms. This is one I can get close to maxing out on my PC with headroom to spare, and the Series X seems like it crushes this game with no issue. Good stuff. Well done by the devs and how well they understand how to optimize for different hardware.

I'll personally be leaving the "stop motion" effect toggled on.

 

[eNT1TY]

I kinda like the stop motion effect, haven't played the game yet so don't know if it impacts gameplay or such but i think it adds a certain something the scenes that makes them visually pleasing.

 

[Self_Destructive]

Colin Penty from The Coalition worked on optimizing this game up to 60fps on Series consoles.. so that's good to see. He's a part of Microsofts Xbox technology group meant to help first parties optimize their games.

 

[adamsapple]

Colin Penty from The Coalition worked on optimizing this game up to 60fps on Series consoles.. so that's good to see. He's a part of Microsofts Xbox technology group meant to help first parties optimize their games.

That's not a bad thing, similar to how Sony used their ICE team to help out devs back in the PS3.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

540p on the s? Christ on a cracker. It'll be funny if this comes to switch 2 and looks better than that.

 

[Gambit2483]

540p on the s? Christ on a cracker. It'll be funny if this comes to switch 2 and looks better than that.

Switch 2 has DLSS so it's very well possible