Last week, I checked in with Eurogamer to spotlight a Warehouse Sale for Digital Foundry merchandise, and this time we’ve got another update: fresh Bespoke
pieces are now live at the DF Store. They include a fan-made concept that genuinely made us smile, especially since we’re all so used to repeating that same catchphrase.
Alongside the highly anticipated Bespoke tee—featuring a double-sided blue/purple gradient on a black base—you can also grab a neat metal pin (visible above). On top of that, the Bespoke Collection comes with a sticker set, including a DF Approved quality seal, a DF Retro PVM artwork, and two #stutterstruggle frame-time charts. One of those charts is a blank template, so you can note your own traversal or shader compilation stutters.
We’ve been polishing these designs for the last three months, and the PVM artwork has taken even longer. It’s great to finally see them available on (virtual) shop shelves. To me, they look fantastic—after all, I had a chance to review some of the initial samples—and I’m particularly excited that the outstanding Bespoke design created by community member Dacvak is now set to reach a much wider audience.
Beyond promoting our latest products—which, to be fair, isn’t the easiest job for the Digital Foundry team—I’d like to pause and explain why we put effort into merchandise at all. After all, doesn’t every minute spent vetting designs, choosing items, or posting selfies pull time away from the work we actually do? So why bother?
Put simply, the tough reality of making YouTube videos and writing articles in 2024 is that ad income alone doesn’t cover everything needed to keep going. We’re lucky to have a dedicated supporter base who backs our efforts directly on Patreon, but that level of steady support won’t work for everyone. That’s where merchandise comes in as a practical option. When you buy a shirt or pin, you help us continue while also getting a high-quality item you (hopefully!) enjoy wearing or displaying.
This kind of support becomes especially important as we work to keep improving the tools behind much of our PC and console coverage. Our goal is to stay at the cutting edge of video game and hardware analysis, which means investing in fresh software and new approaches. We want to open up new paths for analysis while also cutting down some of the effort and hassle tied to the tools we rely on today. Ideally, that added efficiency will offset the (fairly limited) time spent building and promoting merchandise.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:02:16 News 01: PS5 Pro to feature “ultra boost mode”
- 0:15:50 News 02: Ghost of Tsushima PC requirements disclosed
- 0:31:05 News 03: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 announced
- 0:38:38 News 04: Avatar developers reveal game technology
- 1:00:17 News 05: Experiencing GeForce Now G-Sync
- 1:09:56 News 06: Apple welcomes emulator innovations!
- 1:18:45 Supporter Q1: What would a more PC-like console look like? Would it be worthwhile?
- 1:28:25 Supporter Q2: How could a 5090 enhance today’s gaming experiences?
- 1:36:16 Supporter Q3: Why can’t Nvidia acquire an x86 license and produce x86 CPUs?
- 1:40:38 Supporter Q4: Will The Last of Us Remastered receive a PS5 Pro remaster?
- 1:42:32 Supporter Q5: What are your most awaited PS5 Pro patches for existing games?
- 1:48:36 Supporter Q6: Will Sony launch their exclusives on PC on the same day as PS5?
- 1:55:07 Supporter Q7: Can FSR 3.1 preserve this console generation’s image quality?
- 2:03:36 Supporter Q8: If DF produced a console motherboard shirt, would Alex wear it?
Alright—time to move past the Digital Foundry back-and-forth. DF Weekly #159 was packed with lots of interesting discussion about real-world industry developments from Rich, Alex, and Oliver. The team dug into the PlayStation 5 Pro’s ‘ultra boost mode’, including which games could benefit most from the automatic acceleration it offers. They also covered the oddities in the recently shared PC requirements for Ghost of Tsushima, plus the newest arrival: G-Sync coming to GeForce Now.
This week, I was especially taken with another subject raised during the show—the announcement of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 by Warhorse Studios. For benchmarking, I’ve spent countless hours with the first game, and I’ve always been impressed by how forward-looking it felt, especially in terms of performance, as well as the sheer scale of its world.
From what the trailer suggests, it looks like the sequel is returning to familiar strengths. It appears to use a more up-to-date version of the CryEngine adaptation from the original game, rather than leaning on the trendier Unreal Engine 5. There’s good reason the industry often sticks to a single engine—UE5 is clearly popular for a reason—though I’ve previously mentioned its downsides, particularly how it can lead to a wave of games with overlapping visual traits and similar limitations. So it’s genuinely exciting to see a major new release built on CryEngine, and I agree with developer Tobias Stolz-Zwilling when he says the original game has ‘aged remarkably well visually‘ because of its CryEngine foundation.
So far, we’ve seen some meaningful improvements on the next game’s front—more detail and better overall graphical quality. Alex in particular pointed to the rendering of believable environments, along with the sky’s volumetric clouds. Oliver also shared thoughts on upgrades to indirect lighting, first-person animations, and the possible inclusion of ray-traced reflections that could show through on semi-gloss armor.
It’ll be interesting to see how the game handles what should be higher NPC numbers, especially with the shift from the first title’s more rural landscapes to a considerably larger city and other varied surroundings. We’ve already learned from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 that CPU constraints driven by lots of NPCs can become a serious factor even on high-end PC systems. That makes it a strong candidate for CPU-focused analysis—while also posing a real test for consoles of the current generation.
This has turned into a fairly long blog, so I’ll wrap things up by mentioning that this week’s extended episode also included some great supporter questions. One standout came from LeftistHominid, who is a long-time participant. They asked whether Alex would “debase” himself by wearing an explicitly console version of the DF Motherboard shirt. The reply from our resident PC expert may surprise you—so be sure to take a look at that question, and then watch the full episode using the link above.
Finally, the DF Store Warehouse Sale is running for this week only, which makes it a great opportunity to pick up some older DF designs at a reduced price. And, of course, it’s also a chance to check out the new Bespoke Collection items. As always, thanks for sticking with us to the very end—assuming you made it—and for watching and supporting Digital Foundry.