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Unread postby El Chaos » 27 Sep 2014 18:06

http://www.bethblog.com/2014/09/25/the- ... ts-within/

On the heels of our Gone Gold announcement, we’ve put the final touches on the recommended PC requirements for The Evil Within. These specifications are listed as “recommended” as they are the settings we’ve determined ensure that your gameplay experience plays as intended by the development team.

Note: We do not have a list of minimum requirements for the game. If you’re trying to play with a rig with settings below these requirements (you should plan to have 4 GBs of VRAM regardless), we cannot guarantee optimal performance.

Recommended PC System Specifications
  • 64-bit Windows 7/Windows 8
    i7 with four plus cores
  • 4 GBs RAM
  • 50 GB of hard drive space*
  • GeForce GTX 670 or equivalent with 4GBs of VRAM
  • High Speed Internet Connection
    Steam account and activation

    *It’s worth noting that the 50 GB of space required is for the PC install. When the installation is complete, the game will take up ~41 GB of HDD space.

Speaking of space (and by your request), here are the install sizes for the console versions of the game.
  • Xbox One — 40 GB HDD Space
  • PlayStation 4 — 40 GB HDD Space
  • PlayStation 3 — 7 GB HDD Space
  • Xbox 360 — 7 GB
    Note: The Evil Within requires a mandatory install to the Xbox 360’s HDD or a USB 2.0 (or higher) flash drive.
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Unread postby ChevRage » 30 Sep 2014 05:53

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Unread postby infernovia » 07 Oct 2014 03:53

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Unread postby Some guy » 10 Oct 2014 20:15

The Evil Within is locked at 30FPS on PC
http://www.vg247.com/2014/10/09/the-evi ... fps-on-pc/

Sherif Saed wrote:The PC port of The Evil Within will be locked at 30 frames-per-second, just like the console version, Bethesda has confirmed.

the-evil-within-ca-14-600x338.jpg
the-evil-within-ca-14-600x338.jpg (48.14 KiB) Viewed 16460 times

Despite requiring a hefty PC to run it on recommended settings, The Evil Within will still be locked at 30FPS on PC, similar to the Xbox One and PS4 versions.

Bethesda confirmed this and much more in a forum post. “Shinji Mikami and the team at Tango designed The Evil Within to be played at 30fps and to utilize an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 for all platforms,” it reads.

“The team has worked the last four years perfecting the game experience with these settings in mind.”

Bethesda added that it will provide a list of debug commands that would let you unlock the game’s framerate and aspect ratio, though it warned that they’re not recommended or supported.

The publisher also added that the 4GB VRAM requirement on PC is due to new-gen consoles having 8GB of unified ram. The PC version being an identical port, is why it requires this amount of VRAM.
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Unread postby El Chaos » 13 Oct 2014 21:27

The World Within trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkttaEAy4pw

Exploring Psycho Break with Adam Sessler: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... xCgz-EHvC6
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Unread postby El Chaos » 26 Oct 2014 12:40

"Is it possible to run The Evil Within on PC at a locked 1080p60? Not even an overclocked i7 and the fastest GPU on the planet can manage it": http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... at-1080p60

Face-off: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... n-face-off

John Linneman wrote:Is this the end for id Tech 5? As it stands there aren't any other products in the pipeline with the engine behind it - that we're aware of, at least. Its utilisation has proven to be an interesting experiment and the fact that it produced two console games capable of holding a solid 60fps is impressive. However, The Evil Within clearly shows that it's not right for every development environment. The team at Tango Gameworks has made some impressive changes, with id's engine pushed in brand new directions, but we can't help feeling the underlying technology is ill at ease with the demands placed upon it.

Does The Evil Within manage to rise above its performance issues and live up to its potential? Well, yes, it's a solid and interesting game. Of the two console builds, PS4 gets the nod - the higher resolution is welcome and the game simulation is more closely linked to the renderer, meaning less stutter than the Xbox One version. However, while improved over the Microsoft console, the PS4 game still feels highly under-optimised. Indeed, as things stand, with the possible exception of Thief, The Evil Within probably has more performance issues than any other title we've tested on the new wave of consoles - and that's a real shame, as there's a remarkably good game here let down by its surrounding technology.

That being the case, those looking for something closer to the best possible experience should really opt for the PC version, provided you have the requisite hardware to at least match and exceed PS4 performance - a modern Core i3 processor matched with something like a Radeon R9 270 or a GeForce GTX 660 should get you to 1080p30 with a consistent performance level. Liberating the game from its overbearing borders and narrow field of view improves the experience, plus there's the opportunity to scale beyond 1080p for those who own higher-resolution displays. But even here, it's clear there are profound optimisation issues. We like to think of the PC as the platform capable of powering its way to the best possible gameplay experience, with 60fps gameplay a key component, but for now at least that's completely off the table, and that's a real shame.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... never-play

John Linneman wrote:With day one patches swiftly becoming the norm, it's easy to forget about the code pressed to the disc that actually ships to stores. Throw almost any modern single-player game into your console and it'll probably play just fine out of the box, even without an internet connection. This ease of use is what console gaming was founded upon, but the waters are becoming muddied. It's one thing to issue a patch designed to add a bit of polish to the end product, but it's something else entirely to ship a virtually broken game to store shelves. That brings us to The Evil Within - version 1.0.

We already know that the frame-rate in the current 1.01 version is rather unsteady throughout the game. What you may not know is that this is actually a massive improvement over the 'gold master' that's actually pressed onto the retail disc. As our coverage last week was based on digital delivery versions of the game we bought from PSN and Xbox Live, the issue didn't really come into focus for us until our personal physical copies arrived a few days later.

However, as you'll see in our performance video below, version 1.0 actually runs 30 to 40 per cent slower than the same game running with the day one patch. Scenes that manage to deliver an even 30fps in version 1.01 lurch along at an awful 20fps instead. Dips and stutters in the current version drop all the way down into the teens. It's so low, in fact, that we needed to modify the values of our frame-time graph when creating the performance video, in order to accommodate gameplay pauses of up to 100ms (and even then, sometimes The Evil Within stalls still further). No matter how poorly something like Daylight or Thief ran on PS4, the unpatched version of The Evil Within makes those games look positively smooth by comparison.

It gets worse. The original release doesn't even operate at native resolution. We pegged version 1.01 at 1920x768, delivering 1:1 pixel mapping by displaying at 1080p with large black bars framing the action. Version 1.0? It runs at 1600x900, anamorphically squished into a 1920x768 window. This approach produces a noticeably blurrier image, though it's still sharper overall than the patched Xbox One version. What's baffling, though, is that even with a lower resolution, the performance is so much lower all around than the patched product.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3Z_xRCt6w
Strolling through bits of the first few chapters reveals the dramatic difference between the patched and unpatched releases. The initial version 1.0 release of The Evil Within surely must set some sort of record for lowest frame-rate in a retail PlayStation 4 title.


On top of all that, there are additional pauses and issues with texture streaming present in the original release. Texture pop-in is present in the patched version but rarely becomes an issue, while the original version is just a mess in this regard with much more obvious popping throughout. Cut-scenes that once transitioned smoothly from shot to shot now stutter as textures load in. Combining this issue with the poor performance and blurrier image quality produces an experience that feels borderline unplayable. Let's put it this way - it's virtually impossible to smoothly aim your weapon when the gameplay frame-rate is sitting pretty at 15fps.

What makes this issue somewhat worse is the fact that the PS4 patching system could result in some players spending time with the unpatched version of the game, negatively impacting their first impressions of the game. By design, the PlayStation 4 only triggers the download of a patch once a retail disc has been started for the first time. Only at this moment are users alerted to a potential patch requiring one to immediately return to the OS, quit the game, and restart it after the initial boot sequence. The idea is likely to get players into the game as quickly as possible. However, this does rely upon the initial version of the game being presented in a playable state.

So what is the takeaway from this? Well, looking at things in a more positive light, it's clear that the development team performed a bit of miracle here. To think that they shipped the game in this condition with the expectation that they could squeeze another 30 to 40 per cent of performance out of it by the launch is quite amazing. The final patched version has significant performance issues, but when you look at their starting point it suddenly feels like quite a remarkable accomplishment. The game has been in development for quite some time, but this certainly suggests that the team wasn't yet ready to ship. With such dramatic strides made between version 1.0 and 1.01, it certainly seems possible that the development team could improve things further and potentially clean up the remaining issues. We hope that it is given the opportunity to do so - especially when considering the lacklustre PC version of the game.

More importantly, this highlights an issue that has been building since patches were introduced on consoles; the notion that the 'gold master' is no longer the final code, and that games are shipping as unfinished products. Sure, multiplayer games are never going to be just right out of the gate and patches are inevitable in that space, but The Evil Within is a single-player experience through and through. There are people whose entire gameplay experience with The Evil Within could be completely compromised by this issue if they don't take the time to install the patch - but, more to the point, there are users who simply don't have their PS4s connected to the internet at all. They may be a minority at this point in time, but they don't deserve to play the game in this state. We can't help but wonder how this version of the game made it through Sony's QA department.

Certainly it seems that we are tiptoeing into something approaching the 'always online, always connected' scenario that Microsoft championed at the Xbox One launch - a scenario that a great many gamers categorically rejected. If version one of The Evil Within represents what a developer and publisher are willing to commit to disc, and what the platform holder's QA departments are willing to accept, we can't help but feel that we're on a slippery slope here. One day in the distant future, those servers delivering the patch updates may not be there any more. Version 1.0 of The Evil Within may be the only PS4 code available - and that's certainly not the way we would like to revisit the game.
Last edited by El Chaos on 28 Oct 2014 20:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby Bread » 27 Oct 2014 14:50

The Evil Within Rap by Dan Bull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF_LESnz39U
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Unread postby Bread » 28 Oct 2014 23:45

I started playing it this morning and finished chapter 1. I haven't seen most of the mechanics (haven't fired a gun yet) but I really like the dreamlike B-movie atmosphere.

What convinced me to get it was listening to this podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMS9tQCUf0
(I'd recommend listening without watching the video to avoid spoilers. The beauty of the game is, apparently, in repeatedly throwing unique situations at you.)

I was a bit worried that my PC might not have been capable of running it well, since I wasn't sure I met the minimum requirements (they say i7 or equivalent CPU, I have an i5) and people on the Steam forums are complaining that a patch is desperately needed. But it runs fine for me. The graphics options are all to the best settings, except the anti-aliasing is set to FXAA. I didn't know what that was, turns out it's a cheap approximation of proper AA (http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/12/what-is-fxaa/). The game also has a grain filter over everything (this can be reduced in the settings).

I haven't messed around with the settings outside of the game's menu. So I'm getting the massive black bars. I doubt my PC could handle this at 60 FPS. (My PC specs: i5-4430 @ 3GHz, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series with 2048MB GDDR5.)

Here's a video with info on 'fixing' the aspect ratio and FPS limitations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaG8xplgjic

***FOV FIX Download***
Flawless Widescreen includes a plugin for this game :
http://www.flawlesswidescreen.org/#FW...

Screenshot : http://abload.de/img/sinttulohsqgf.png

***How to remove Black bars***

-Select the game from Steam library, right click on it and select properties.
-Add "+com_allowconsole 1" (without quotes) to Launch Options.
-Run the game and open the console with "insert" key.
-"r_forceaspectratio 0" (without quotes) if you want to completely disable the black bars.
-"r_forceaspectratio 2.5" if you want to get the black bars again with the default size.

***How to remove the 30fps cap***

-Select the game from Steam library, right click on it and select properties.
-Add "+com_allowconsole 1" (without quotes) to Launch Options from General tab.
-Run the game and open the console with "insert" key.
-"r_swapinterval 0" (without quotes) for fully unlock the fps.
-"r_swapinterval -1" (without quotes) for 60fps cap.
-"r_swapinterval -2" (without quotes) for 30fps cap, this is the default value.

***How to skip the intro video***

-Select the game from Steam library, right click on it and select properties.
-Add +com_skipIntroVideo 1" (without quotes) to Launch Options from General tab.


PC Specs
2500K @ 5Ghz + GTX 970


I might try setting the FPS to 60 before continuing with chapter 2. I'm not going to change the aspect ratio, though. The publisher said that 2.35:1 is the way it's supposed to be played, so I'll accept that, at least for this first playthrough. Altering the game's framing can let you see stuff that you're not supposed to, like Mona Sax's geometric nipple (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=43099723).

One more note about the game's performance: don't be too alarmed if you see massive input lag in the main menu. I did, but in-game there's only a very slight delay.
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Unread postby Bread » 30 Oct 2014 07:54

http://steamcommunity.com/games/268050/ ... 4874716649

With this update, players with high-end PCs will be able to go in to their settings and toggle between running the game with a 30 FPS cap or a 60 FPS cap. Additionally, players will be able to disable the letterbox "black bars" in the game settings -- allowing you to maximize your screen's real estate.

Update Notes
  • Frame lock settings added
  • In settings, you can now toggle between a 30 FPS and 60 FPS cap.
  • Letterbox setting
  • UI toggle to disable the letterbox bars
  • Fixes gameplay issues when running at >30 FPS
  • Fixes for visual issues associated with removing letterbox framing
  • Achievements now work when console is enabled
  • Fix for game starting in windowed mode on first run
  • Minor localization fixes


Since these options now have the official blessing, I turned off the letterbox bars and bumped up the FPS limit to 60. I played through chapter 2 like this, and the performance seemed the same (fine). I didn't notice any framerate improvement, so I just turned on the FPS counter and found that I was only getting around 40. So I'll continue the rest of the game with it locked to 30.
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Unread postby icycalm » 06 Nov 2014 01:18

So you decided to play Shinji Mikami's latest game because of a podcast?

And you figured out a way to play the game at 40fps, but decided to go with 30 instead for no particular reason?
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Unread postby Bread » 07 Nov 2014 21:48

I'm keeping it at 30 FPS because the higher rate I could get wasn't consistent, or noticeably better, and the game has now crashed a few times. My system is overheating, so I'm treating it gentler until I properly fix the issue. But it still crashed last night anyway. Fortunately it autosaves, along with manual saving.

That podcast really convinced me to get it sooner rather than later.
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Unread postby icycalm » 11 Nov 2014 04:17

http://culture.vg/reviews/in-depth/psyc ... 4-ps4.html

And a rather similar tl;dr version of the above opinion can be found here:

http://www.learntocounter.com/forums/in ... 8#msg77988

Duderino wrote:I've been playing this and I think I'm about halfway through now. It's a disappointing game. The presentation is superb, with great lighting, cool environment designs, that lovely camera sway when you walk, and the aspect ratio which adds an oppressive feeling. But the story hasn't been very interesting so far (which isn't surprising, but it doesn't even have the humorous B-film appeal of Mikami's previous games), you jump between environments in a way that makes the game feel disjointed — I get that it's supposed to feel like Sebastian is going insane, but it just hurts the pacing — and the action feels like a stripped down version of modern Resident Evil combat.

The enemies are basically Ganados (they look similar to them, they move like them, they have the same variations and the same attacks), but there are no Plagas popping out of heads and increased player mobility makes them less interesting to deal with than in Resident Evil 4. The environment layouts also feel taken out of RE4, but again, the freer movement combined with the enemy design means you have less of a reason to think about tactical positioning, which makes the stage layouts less meaningful. You can throw matches on enemies that have fallen over to kill them (and any enemies in contact with them), which is sort of like a more useful version of the head stomp from Resident Evil 5, but you don't have any of the other contextual melee attacks. You can stagger enemies by shooting them in the right spots but it doesn't open them up to anything. There's stealth, but it's as basic as it gets and is rarely useful or necessary after the beginning of the game. And while the mobility is increased compared to RE4 and RE5, movement is still very basic. You can move freely in any direction and walk while shooting (not very useful because the aiming goes to shit when you do), and there's a sprint which is limited by a stamina bar, and that's it. No dodge rolls or side-steps or anything like that.

Again, it feels like the systems in recent Resident Evil games with a lot of the cool elements stripped away, and barely anything there to compensate for that. Just mediocre, mostly useless stealth and a crossbow with special bolts (explosive, blinding, freezing etc.) that can be set as proximity mines (haven't found that function very useful, to be honest). Boss fights so far have been a joke.

It's certainly not a bad game, but it's by far the worst Mikami has directed since P.N.03, and I honestly don't know if I can even recommend playing it.


They are both well-written and logically argued, so I have quite a bit of confidence in them.
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Unread postby ksevcov » 11 Dec 2014 18:45

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2014/12/the ... iving.html

DLC Takes Hold

If you’ve already completed The Evil Within, you probably have a number of questions about the ending. If you haven’t finished yet – hurry up, as part 1 of the game’s three-part Season Pass, The Assignment, will release in early 2015. The Assignment is the first of two DLCs centering on Detective Castellanos’ mysterious partner, Juli Kidman. In 2015, we will reveal more information on Part II of her story, The Consequence, as well as our final DLC featuring The Keeper. Stay tuned, and consider yourself teased with this Vine.

Dying for a little more information? This week we caught up with the game director for both The Assignment & The Consequence, Tango Gameworks’ John Johanas

• Some of the main game’s biggest questions surround Juli Kidman? How do you balance answering some of those questions with keeping parts of the game’s story open-ended/mysterious?

That was a tough one! We approached the DLC from the perspective that, while Juli is enigmatic during the main game, there were additionally lots of other mysteries about the world and the characters that could be cleared up or hinted at by playing as her. She is a character who seems rather “aware” of her situation, after all.

Early on, we listed the things that we wanted to answer and ones we wanted to keep open and worked around that. We definitely leave some of the mysteries open, but I feel we shed a lot of light on the lore of Ruvik, STEM, and the characters while asking (and answering) a whole new set of questions regarding Juli and her mission.

• Can you share any advice Mikami-san has provided in directing the content?

I would say one of the major things Mikami-san helped with was creating a focus. It’s easy to get carried away with everything that you want to do and things you want to expand on from the main game, but he has a very keen eye in spotting where you are straying from that goal and is quick to point it out. There were certain aspects he requested from us from the beginning of development, but from there he helped us steer it into something we feel is creative and unique while satisfying fans of the main game.

• In directing the Juli Kidman missions, have you taken inspiration from other DLC missions released for other games? If so, which ones?

I’m actually a big DLC guy so I struggled a lot in early planning with which direction to take it in. How many levels and what’s the pacing? Do we add new weapons or mechanics? Since we decided early on the character was going to be Kidman, I wanted the DLC to play different rather than having it feel like just a character skin. My favorite DLCs have been ones that give the player a new spin on gameplay, while still feeling connected to the main title.

Some notable DLC’s that may or may not have influenced things:

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall/ The Brigmore Witches
Enslaved: Pigsy’s Perfect 10
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction

• Are there any specific areas of the main game that served as inspiration for the DLC content?

Probably two of the biggest inspirations were Chapter 5 and 9. Chapter 9 had you uncover past stories by solving puzzles and exploring and there is a lot of that in the DLC. Overall, Juli’s adventure is rather story driven — Juli tends to “discover” these things by her actions and by solving puzzles. But at the same time, the atmosphere and progression is similar to Chapter 5, where you were trapped in a very oppressive area and the “horror” element was at its strongest.

However, I would say there’s quite a bit of variation in her encounters so I wouldn’t want anyone to think “Oh, it’s just another Chapter XX.” Even the “horror” element has a different feel! Juli’s experiences are much more dark, lonely, and claustrophobic.

• How does playing as Juli feel different from playing as Sebastian?

Well, from a character perspective, I would say she’s much livelier than Sebastian was in the main game! Her story is a bit more personal than his as well, so there’s a bit of banter and commentary as you play.

• Are you able to hint at the time frame of the DLC content? Does it take place before, after, or during the main game’s story?

We took a “Rashomon” approach to things with Juli’s campaign in the sense that “each person sees things differently.” In real life this is true, but inside STEM you can imagine how warped things would get!
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Unread postby ksevcov » 17 Feb 2015 17:41

http://www.bethblog.com/2015/02/17/be-a ... -in-march/

As we put the final wraps on our trailer for The Evil Within’s first add-on, The Assignment, we wanted to give a little tease of what to expect when the content releases this March. Stay tuned for updates!


Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZimAuIC22UY
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