After seeing Sam Lake as a cop at the beginning of this video, I REALLY hope they use him again for the Max Payne remake. It would be criminal not to!

It's amazing to see what was traditionally only available from offline rendering being offered up in realtime now - technologically and artistically beautiful! Both console and PC look superb regardless of the extras enabled/disabled as you play what you have. That said, seeing the accurate, depth accurate diffused shadows of the the foliage on the PC is kind of incredible! Hats off Remedy..👍👍

The Sam Lake rendering looks spot on.

Its worth noting, how impressive the positioning of the 3rd person camera is. Seems like its a alteration of fish eye lens, with a flare. I'm used to (and maybe everybody) withnessing a typical 3rd person or 2nd person perspective in games.

So relieved this analysis is available pre launch.

Looks great, but the aliasing seems pretty extreme, image stability has come to be something I’ve really appreciated in this current gen

Looks awesome on both PS5 and PC! I'd really love to see a 40 fps mode on PS5 for 120 Hz TVs, as a compromise between performance and frame rate. A game like this would be perfect for that.

This is such an exciting time for tech and human history. 20 years ago we went from blocks painted to look like characters to photographic CG movie quality characters rendered in real time, as well as fully simulated lighting that is almost as close to bringing in an actual light source straight from the real world. It won’t even be another 20 years before we create worlds indistinguishable from our own. That’s literally right around the corner, and we all get to be here to see it happen. Exciting stuff!

Such an impressive looking game

Long time DF viewer- Ollie, love the work you do! - and I'd also really benefit from adding resolution numbers to your videos alongside your reporting of them. That visual component makes it easier to "hear" and process the numbers your delivering. Tom, for instance, does a great job of this in his vids and I think it really helps me entertain the resolution numbers a bit easier. Keep up the great work and I hope you'll consider!

i impressed how ps5 stacked up to pc in terms of graphics and lighting, usually, in the games when the lighting relies heavily on rt, devs forget about rasterized lighting causing it to look much worse, but in this game devs didn't forget about regular players without 2000$ gpus and made rasterized lighting look really good, huge respect

I think something that was missed in this video was how impressive the lighting is from a distance looking into buildings. Most games can treat their lighting like a camera does, over exposing the background so that whatever is in close focus can be well lit. But in Alan Wake 2, it brilliantly shows light inside buildings like how the naked eye would. This results in it feeling way more real. This is hard to explain in text, and so I hope I am making sense!😅 Anyone else notice that?

Beasts! Remedy are killing it. Creativity+talent can never fail.

The art direction and technical realisation is incredible. Amazing job team!

Control was incredible. Cant wait to try this!

I was sooo waiting for this one. Thanks, DF team

I am so excited to play this - the weekend can't come any sooner. What a year for games 2023 has been - still have such a backlog and there's even more to come😅

I always find funny when people compare a 550$ console with a 2000$ GPU + 300$ CPU. I don't know how is that useful for anybody, of course it looks better.

This game looks incredible. Easily one of the best if not the best looking game I’ve ever played so far.

Looking forward to all the nutty things they will do with the visuals

Remedy is by far my favourite western studio, their games are incredible gifts to us Lynch fans!

The shot at 8:51 literally had me pause the video and say "holy sh*t" out loud. That looks downright real.

It's surreal to me even seeing a sequel to the first game, it's 13 years old now, definitely a pleasant surprise

It's nice to see good optimization across the board. Smooth 60 fps is commendable effort. Though I guess every new game will need FSR2 for 60fps, that's fine but I would prefer playing it at native resolution on quality mode because even on the video artifacts caused by upscaling are visible.

Considering the crazy PC requirements, a tight lock on 60 fps for the PS5 was just too much to hope for. Looks gorgeous though! Remedy's in-house engine, Northlight, has been one my favorites since Quantum Break. It's great to see they keep building upon it.

the intro should have mentioned quantum breaks real time GI, it was amazing.

Wow! The shadows and visuals on PC maxed out are stunning! Looks great on PS5 too.

There is nothing bar raising about HD-ready resolutions for anything higher than 30fps nor barely Full-HD resolution for quality mode

Oh man Oliver how are you not more stoked on this!? This looks and runs absolutely amazing AND it's good. That's such a rarity.

I'm a huge David Lynch fan, and I love how this game wears that influence on it's sleeve so to speak.

Looks incredible 😮

This game visually looks stunning on both PC and Console! I've never played Alan Wake but recently bought a 4090 and recieved a code for a copy of Alan Wake 2 so I'm looking forward to trying this out.

Great video - I long for the day a Nintendo hardware can push visuals like this! Mark

They raised the bar so fucking high you can't even see yourself in the mirrors 😂

Game looks good and I'm glad to see that consoles get a version that looks nice and runs pretty well. Much better than Control did on all of the PS4/XB1 variants. I was watching a PC benchmark video and going down that side path with Saga seems like an early performance hot spot on all systems. Walking back up it is fine but going down it tanks frame rates every time it happens.

Im honestly surprised how good it looks on console. Another job well done Remedy.

So stoked for this game, absolutely love everything Remedy does, they are top notch at story telling.

Incredibly gorgeous game. Excited to play tomorrow

Oliver is really hardworking. Thank you.

If this game connects to Control and the FBC and the oldest place and The Director (or if she appears) I’m literally going to lose it. I became so in love with its Lore.

Beware, as the video contains a few spoilers that can likely change the surprise factor that you might've experienced when playing blind. 11:30 through 11:35 (especially) 4:49 through 4:54 and a little bit in the summary at 13:55 through to 14:27. I think stuff like that probably warranted a warning, but oh well. Thank you DF for the video! Game looks very pretty.

That aliasing looks like dead space prior to patch

Remedy games are so atmospheric...looking forward to this one.

The game looks great!

Wow they did an outstanding job with both the art style and graphics. There were some shots that I preferred without RT, but it does feel more cohesive with it on.

I was expecting a consoles comparison to decide which version to get! Hopefully it will be released later today!

Can’t wait for tomorrow,it’s been a long way to home 13 years!

I have never seen such cohesive lighting in a video game. Wow.

This game just reminds me that a mid gen refresh would be nice. Console refreshes need to find a way to have a dedicated RT processor

Very impressive. Might have to get a copy.

Looks very promising. Hope the HDR implementation is correct as games this dark tend to have raised blacks in HDR. Great job as always.

Grab the popcorn. 🍿

The consoles are starting to show their age here.

Can we just talk about the amount of Max Payne Easter eggs in this haha. The FBI agent, the chap on the sofa....

Still waiting the video about Squadron 42 demo and the Star engine demo guys! Please! I know you already did star Citizen videos so it would be nice to have another one after that Epic Citizencon demonstration!

The long wait is finally over. What an amazing year for games!

I don't really enjoy horror games. I did enjoy Control. Not sure if this would be a good fit for me. Which is a shame because the visuals look great and it'd be neat to see how my GPU would cope. Maybe there will be a Control 2 someday. Another awesome video from DF!

Eagerly awaiting your ghostrunner 2 video

Heyyy is that the Janitor Ahti I see in Alan Wake 2, I love the linking of those games so I hope there is more interlinking. Looks great the game

You guys should review the PS5 vs XBSX in this game, as the Series X supports mesh shaders, while the PS5 only supports primitive shaders. For Science, you know!

I’ll say this, one of the best parts of current day gaming is all the reviews before you make a purchase. This just made me get the game day 1. It makes devs have to make sure their game is great at launch too.

Thanks for the video DF. Is there a PC specific video coming also?

So relieved that performance pans out on PS5 and you enjoyed the game. Here's hoping it will be a success sales wise so that Remedy can keep their independent spirit alive.

Can't wait to finish up the first game so I can immediately hop on AWII

I'm looking forward to AW 2 ps5 so much 😎🤙🏿

3:46 this guy reminds me so much of the original May Payne

I wonder if its semi open, alan wake will always be so memorable to me🔥🔥

This is what I expected next gen to look like! More cinematic, more realistic lighting, more film like. Too many games are still going for a super clean, polished look where things look plasticy and flat. I’m enjoying Spider-Man 2, but the character models in some cut scenes and gameplay look terrible and washed out, and it pulls me right out of the experience. Bravo Remedy, real looking forward to this game!

Looks like part of the Volocity architecture is being used on the Series X/S evidently proven by the smaller install size. Less memory to render should help with performance imo.

We used to have nice mirror reflections without RT for decades. Not anymore.

Thanks great video

The town sheriff, isnt that the same guy from quantum break? Am I crazy?

Im actually surprised by the performance on ps5 given how demanding the game can be on pc hardware. Didnt think they would go for a performance mode at all ^^

11:30 hey, we know that guy! :)

i'll have to say, the SSR artifacts looks right at home for a game like Alan Wake

Finally these games are pushing things

Seems like a good game to play on 30fps with live action cutscenes also at 30

Remedy has once again outdone themselves. With the exception of CrossfireX, I personally don’t believe they have missed yet! So happy for Sam and team, and I pray this game gets all the love and success it deserves!!!

I can't wait to play this tomorrow

I’ve always loved the lighting in Remedy’s games, ever since the original Alan Wake. That game had great lighting, especially in the remaster. The original wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but it did a lot of things right. The atmosphere was amazing and very self-aware of the tone it was setting. It really felt like an old school horror thing with just the right amount of cheese. The shooting was satisfying. The story was honestly great. Sounds were great. I think the issues with the game were mostly lack of variety gameplay wise throughout the story, and my biggest gripe was throwing in collectibles during moments when you’re supposed to be running away or in a very intense situation. This was bad design and broke the immersion. Also, dying from a 4 foot cliff? Some silly stuff that was overlooked. Alan Wake 2 looks incredible and the reviews speaks for itself. Remedy has learned a lot from Control.

the graphical presentation looks incredible, best i've seen

Been waiting for this more than any other game

@11:30 it's Ahti the janitor from Control!

Finally, a REAL next-gen game !!! can't wait for Alex's PC analysis !!!

The absolute MADMEN! They managed to get this to hit 60fps on console, that's miraculous. The strong art direction will most likely distract from the loss of finer details, too. Amazing work.

Come a long way from Sam Lakes flat face in the first Max Payne, remedy are really showcasing their tech, looks amazing

Oliver might be the best new addition to the DF cast. imo.

I must say I am really impressed with how good the visuals are in this game. Reminds me of TLOU2 next gen version. So crisp along with really nice environments! Enjoying the game so far. This has to be the benchmark for these sorts of games going forward!

@8.49 the PS version has shadows on the leaves on the ground but not on pc... I hope that's a bug because that would mean this problem would occur in other places. Also where the ceiling and the wall connects right above the door has this weird white line... maybe some light leakage...

Some issues here and there visually, but overall a great-looking game. It's also one of the few games where I think keeping film grain on is okay because it clears up any color banding one might have, but also is so fine that it's almost unnoticeable. There are some weird animations on occasion, awkward collision detection for the characters at times, and objects that move unrealistically (like a chair or cup sliding across a room without animating). And although the frame rate is mostly stable (playing in 30fps) the early Saga section of being in combat was pretty unstable. My biggest issue, however, is the lack of reflections in mirrors. I get raytracing was out of the cards here, but still, the lack of reflections in mirrors is bad. And I dislike that there's always been a lot of shimmer on textures/reflections in their Northlight games. Lastly, the number of repeating the same NPC models sticks out it's a bit immersion-breaking. I like the game a lot so far though, and surprised it took so long to get to the part where you can choose between Saga or Wake, which I just got to, and that's ten hours in. No deaths yet, just exploring to make sure I haven't missed anything. In Watery now. I loved the first game, so I'm happy that this game is so engaging. Not as big a fan of Control, but still found it interesting and love how it's all connected.

Playing this on Fidelity mode tonight at 12!!!

Aliasing killing it. It's a no go at this stage.

Fingers crossed for a 40fps mode in the (near) future.

I feel like FSR is just overall inferior to the old checkerboard way. The latter at least provides a stable and consistent image whereas FSR could look nice in some places, but terrible in the others.

4:49 - "Collecting evidence had gotten old a few hundred bullets back. I was already so far past the point of no return I couldn't even remember what it looked like when I had passed it."

Nah ah! 9:03 this is the only scene where the ps5 is more realistic. Would the underside of that coffee table look completely black in reality? I think not, my good sir!

Leaning toward Quality mode as the 30fps seems pretty stable which is what matters, this game is more about graphics so it seems the logical choice as long as FPS is stable

4:50 Max Payne 1 grin spotted

Well according to Alex in his 2:15 pc video it uses a form of software gi using signed distance fields for its gi solution

Does the PC and xbox versions support mesh shaders like the developers mentioned prior to release? Will you be covering it at all? Was surprised to see no mention of it