Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Wow, that came out of nowhere! A few days ago, Respawn Entertainment surprised us by releasing a next-gen patch for its awesome Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, making specific improvements that exploit more of the power delivered by the trio of new consoles. This is not a complete next-gen patch as such – similar to Cyberpunk 2077, it simply modifies the latest-gen code in order to get higher frame rates from newer machines, taking advantage of the CPU by especially to give us a lock much closer to 60 frames per second.

The patch is also interesting in that Respawn Entertainment has released patch notes that tell us almost everything we need to know about technical improvements. Frame rates are increased in all areas, the quality of post-processing is improved and resolutions are increased. The actual range of upgrades actually varies from machine to machine for reasons that are not entirely clear, but we would expect this to have something to do with the capabilities of intergenerational SDKs from Sony and Microsoft as opposed to the capabilities of the machines themselves. .

The Xbox Series X appears to have the most comprehensive range of upgrades. Of the three consoles, this is the only one to retain both the quality and performance modes of the last generation versions – and both are improved. Quality mode targets 30 fps with a dynamic resolution window of 1512p to 2160p, delivering the sharpest picture quality and consistency of any console version, but with a lower frame rate limit. Its performance mode aims for 60 fps, mostly achieving with a dynamic resolution range of 1080p to 1440p.

The PlayStation 5, on the other hand, gets a single mode, targeting 60 fps and doing so at 1200p locked with post-process buffers of 1440p. This is a more limited upgrade considering that the standard backward compatibility of the existing last-gen code delivered 1080p, but the extra pixel count and post-processing precision is certainly welcome. Finally, there’s the Xbox Series S – it’s a huge upgrade from the One S version, again targeting 60 fps. No resolution metrics are provided in the patch notes, but we do see a dynamic resolution window between 720p and 900p, relying on Unreal Engine 4’s time scaling to give the perception higher pixel count, more effective in more static scenes. .

These are the basic patch specs, but how do they play out? Well, Fallen Order has always had issues in terms of asset streaming, causing hitches and stutters. This is something that has happened on all versions of the game, even the PC version, and it’s interesting that in 60fps modes there are still issues here on all systems. To be clear, overall in-game performance is relatively consistent at 60 fps, but the hitch is most noticeable in the traverse and sometimes in the cutscenes. The PlayStation 5 might feel a smoother feel overall, but all versions show the problem. For its part, the X series is capable of delivering the highest resolution visuals and if stuttering is an issue for you, the 30fps quality mode cleans up most of it. As for the Xbox Series S, it’s the less stable version of the game – in addition to the streaming challenges, it features areas where it also seems GPU limited. It’s still a big improvement over the unlocked frame rate of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X performance modes, but it’s the least impressive upgrade of the bunch.

Overall though, this is an interesting upgrade worth checking out, especially since the game comes with EA Play and by extension it should therefore be available on Xbox Game Pass. Although divisor, we rather like the game, which combines great production values ​​with quality gameplay and nuances of Metroid in the way access to different levels gradually opens up. The new patch doesn’t quite fix all of the tech issues the way we would have liked to see, but it’s definitely the best way to experience Fallen Order on consoles and we recommend you check it out.