Typically this was nothing more than a single frame persisting one extra frame too long creating a slight visible pause in the action, and only really becomes bothersome when a number of these instances all occur within a short period of time.įurthermore, massive particle displays and certain combat scenarios could actually drop performance levels below 30fps for a longer duration resulting in obvious slowdown. This was most clearly seen while traversing the city at high speeds but could occur at any point really. Unfortunately, it didn't work quite as well as we might have hoped as there were still plenty of minor drops during gameplay that interrupted its fluidity. The idea is simply to increase consistency by limiting peak performance levels. The idea is that, while each game should be assessed on its own merits, should the average frame-rate fall too far below 60fps, it's better to limit the frame-rate to a more consistent 30fps instead. A few months ago we touched on the issue of whether or not higher frame-rates could always lead to better gameplay. If the judder proves to be overly distracting, however, there is an alternative now thanks to the 30fps cap introduced in a Second Son patch, and retained for First Light.
There are still similar consistency issues to Second Son - unique frames persist for different time-periods, causing on-screen stutter. While there are improvements, there's not quite enough of a boost to make the unlocked frame-rate work for us.
inFamous First Light 30fps lock frame-rate tests. Changes made to the city include the removal of DUP outposts, which aren't installed yet in this timeline, but it's hard to imagine those changes alone accounting for the difference. As with the first release, the frame-rate reaches its lowest points during combat sections, once again suggesting that the game's bottlenecks may have more to do with enemy encounters than anything else. If you take a look at the performance analysis comparing the two releases the difference becomes pretty clear First Light has a good 5fps advantage, give or take, over Second Son for much of the duration. There is a palpable sense while moving about that performance is indeed faster than the original game. While exploring the city we found that the frame-rate stuck more closely to a 40fps average. While the visuals in these sections remain quite detailed and impressive in their own right, it does suggest that their engine is not entirely bottlenecked by handling large environments.Ĭonversely, we were surprised to find that gameplay set within the city itself actually seemed to operate at a slightly higher average frame-rate. That turned out to not be the case at all, however, with the average frame-rate during these sections remaining mostly under 40fps. Prior to testing, we had hoped that, by utilising more confined environments, we might actually see frame-rates improve, perhaps even closing in on that 60fps mark. Keeping this in mind, let's take a look at the latest episode.įirst Light takes place predominately across the first of the two islands available in Second Son while also offering a slew of indoor areas within the DUP containment facility. We weren't so happy with the decision to go with an unlocked frame-rate at the time but thankfully, as with Guerrilla Games and Killzone Shadow Fall before it, Sucker Punch implemented an optional 30fps cap, giving gamers the chance to choose between raw unlocked performance and a more consistent update. With Second Son, our testing suggested an average frame-rate somewhere around 35fps during a normal run of play, producing noticeable judder on a 60Hz. The question, then, is to what extent the developer has decided to tackle performance - if at all. 
With inFamous First Light, the standalone downloadable episode, Sucker Punch has been given another shot to further refine its already impressive tech. Unfortunately performance wasn't quite where we would have liked with an unlocked frame-rate coupled with inconsistent performance and occasional dips below 30fps. When inFamous Second Son was released earlier this year, the game's developer, Sucker Punch, delivered a strong technical showing that clearly demonstrated the advantages of the latest Sony console.
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