Hi-Fi Rush on PS5 and Xbox's cross-platform history so far

Hi-Fi Rush recently arrived on PlayStation 5, and as controversial as the idea of ​​Xbox going 'cross-platform' may be, the strategy so far is solid. Lower-profile titles that aren't exactly triple-A juggernauts gain new life on competing console hardware. Giving titles like Hi-Fi Rush more opportunities to find a wider audience can only be a good thing for the games themselves, and equally, it could even help evangelize the Xbox platform and what it offers to a wider audience. However, Microsoft needs to tread carefully for obvious reasons, and a combination of bugs, tech polishing issues, and minor bugs are concerning. In some cases, the PS5 versions are receiving features before the Xbox Series

When porting exclusive games from Xbox to PlayStation 5, the opportunities are great, but I would say that Microsoft is treading a very fine line here, and it is crucial that it gets it right. What we've noticed is a number of issues with these games, at least initially, where the PS5 versions offer advantages over their Xbox counterparts. The extent of these advantages varies from game to game, from the irrelevant to the curious to somewhat more worrying, but I think the point we want to make is that when the idea of ​​Xbox going cross-platform is so controversial, you could say that they should be. doing a better job.

Microsoft markets the Xbox Series . Surely first-party exclusives should offer complete parity, or even an improved experience, with respect to what Microsoft has marketed as the most powerful console on the market.

Hi-Fi Rush PS5 review + Xbox cross-platform releases: The story so far

Focusing on Hi-Fi Rush today, something unusual caught our attention. For the most part, PS5 gets a carbon copy of the existing Series X game, as it should be. They have matching textures, anisotropic filtering and world details. However, the quality of shadows on PS5 improves compared to the original Xbox Series X version. It is not an isolated case; applies to all dynamic shadows in the game spanning environments and characters.

The higher shadow resolution on PS5 allows for more precise shadow definition in fine detail without the aliasing and pixelation seen on the Series the Series S. To be clear, this is the only tangible difference between the Series X and its Sony counterpart. Otherwise, both run Hi-Fi Rush at 60 frames per second, with occasional one-frame drops in each that don't affect gameplay. Performance-wise, the PS5 isn't penalized at all by the higher shadow settings either; It's the same 60fps reading that the Series X has always had.

The fact that this or any kind of advantage exists in the PS5 version is, in principle, very strange and most likely an oversight. The PC at maximum settings looks the same as the Series X, whether you're looking at the Game Pass or Steam version. When using Unreal Engine Unlocker, we found that the shadow setting is already maxed out on PC, but it remains true that this element on PlayStation 5 offers higher quality. We dare say that this can be solved quite easily and, at first glance, it may be a small thing, but this is not an isolated case in which a first-party Microsoft title does not live up to the PlayStation 5 version.

It started with Ghostwire: Tokyo, which emerged on Xbox a year after its previous scheduled exclusivity with PlayStation 5. At that point, Tango Gameworks was an Xbox studio itself, and yet despite the extra year to work on the release of Series of 120Hz frames, PS5 still has a visible advantage in frame rate and the difference is up to 10 frames per second. That's how it was then and that's how it is now.

Likewise, Quality mode's ray-traced reflections still run at a higher quality level on PS5 on rainy streets. Additionally, the issues with misaligned shadows on the Series X highlighted in DF's original technical review have yet to be fixed. Again, this is the case despite the extra year of development for Xbox and one more year since the port arrived. It doesn't send the right message to the Xbox audience. On paper, the Series

Other, easier to avoid issues have also arisen, such as Pentiment launching on PlayStation 5 with a 120Hz mode that wasn't on Xbox Series X. Let's be clear: 120fps isn't exactly an essential feature given the type of game it is. Pentiment. 60 fps is absolutely fine. But still, there is functionality on PS5 that simply wasn't available for Xbox Series X at all last year. All Xbox systems ran at 60fps at best and its absence on Microsoft hardware was described as a bug. Fortunately, since the game's launch on PS5, 120Hz mode has also been brought to the Series . Interestingly, the title screen sequence, which is grueling and drops performance well below 120fps on PS5, shows one advantage of the Series X.

Ghostwire: Tokyo – Xbox Tech Review – No improvements on PS5, worse on Xbox Series X/S

The installments come as a surprise given that it is a Unity-based, dialogue-based side-scrolling adventure game in a 2D style. But the upshot is that Xbox takes full advantage of its newly added 120Hz mode. Still, in the contentious atmosphere surrounding Microsoft's cross-platform plans, the whole episode is a bit of a public relations faux pas and we can't wonder why this, or even the hidden Hi-Fi Rush issue, wasn't addressed. during its quality. insurance period. Hopefully, as with Pentiment's 120Hz issue, the shadow discrepancies seen in Hi-Fi Rush will also be fixed.

Beyond oversights and bugs, frame rate differences may be due to ambiguity over which console actually offers the best performance. After all, three and a half years of Digital Foundry platform comparisons have shown no clear winner: some games run better than others on either system. However, as Microsoft brings on additional developers under its own banner, it makes sense to ensure that the Xbox versions are as performant and feature-rich in every way as the PlayStation 5 versions.

It's also crucial that Microsoft maintains the reputation that Xbox is the best place to play its own games, especially as it seems clear that more will move from Xbox to PlayStation in due time. On that note, we'll soon see more Xbox titles coming to PlayStation 5: Obsidian's Grounded and Rare's Sea of ​​Thieves. Like Hi-Fi Rush, both are Unreal Engine 4 titles and it will be interesting to see how they translate.

For now, though, this is Hi-Fi Rush and no matter what platform you play it on, it's still an exceptional version that we highly recommend. It made my year-end top five list for 2023 for a good reason: it's a game built around a beat: the combat, our protagonist Chai's steps, and the environment all synced to the beat. The more you time your attack inputs to the beat, the more powerful your combos become, and it's a conceit that pairs wonderfully with the cel-shaded style's comic-perfect timing of its scenes. Seeing a game bursting with so much charm, color and humor is hugely refreshing, and I hope that by opening the game to an even wider audience on PS5, it receives even more of the success it deserves.