Topic: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

@JaxonH Putting aside that realistic smoothness from the additional 60fps for 120, and reduction in latency(10ms to 5ms) which should make the controls feel a bit snappier and more responsive as they do with Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remake for PS5 at 120fps, is the 50% reduction in OLED sample and hold motion blur. Are you playing it on your OLED TV, or handheld? That 50% cut in blur on an OLED makes a world of a difference for me. But we all perceive motion differrently, and it might not have quite the same impact for every individual. I'm super sensitive to it. I'm super sensitive to it.

50% is 50% though, and in the end, 120fps is 50% away from having perfect blur-free CRT motion clarity. Next year, spring 2026 OLED & QD-OLED's will support 180hz, which will reduce 66% of OLED motion blur for every 60fps title you throw at it, as long as you have a RetroTINK4K scaler and you're using it's 180hz black frame insertion setting. Once 240hz OLED's drop in the future, that will reduce the blur by 75%.

With 180hz, you're getting just under 13ms lag total compared to 10ms of latency without it, only mild BFI flicker, but you're limited to 1080p max. For me, 66% reduction in motion blur gives you a whole new appreciation for what you're playing, since environmental details, characters, objects(etc) aren't obscured or slathered in nearly as much blur when things start moving beyond a snails pace. I love 4K for gaming, but not if I'm sacrifing that precious motion clarity, like with base 60fps @4K, compared 120fps @1080p. As of now, TINK4K can do a 50% blur reduction, at just under 16ms of lag @1080p for 60fps games with 120hz compatible OLED TV's.

By 2030, the Chief from BlurBusters plans on using some sort of CRT Beam Technology and incorporating it with future TINK Scalers which will get rid of all the blur with 4K compatibility. It basically reinforces or brute forces 960/1000hz to get the job done on 240hz capable TV's. And then Whalla, we've finally regained the glory days of CRT motion but with all of the other amazing benifits with modern QD-OLED technology(Perfect blacks, high brightness, whiter whites, 120fps etc), or whatever future display tech that winds up replacing it.

But ya, 120fps all the way! Putting aside clearer motion, that extra realistic 120fps smoothness should suit the Prime series perfectly.

I would love a 77" QD-OLED, with zero motion blur, with everything running at 4K at 60fps or 120fps depending on the title. But we're just not there yet strictly in terms of motion clarity quality, which is why i prefer to fall back down to 55 or 65". the Smaller the TV the less noticeable the blurring is, but it all depends obviously on far or close you sit as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Prime 4 compared to Prime: Remastered for NS2 offers >
120fps, 1080p, HDR, Greater graphics, HD Rumble 2 & Pro 2 Controller Support. That's a pretty substantial upgrade....Yet if 50% more blur was magically removed from 120fps, and the game outputted at 4K + 120fps, it would look perfect static and in motion. All that's missing now is StereoScopic 3D, but you'd need 4K per eye(8K total) to retain that 4K resolution. lol So in the NS2's case, we'd fall back to 1080p per eye @60fps in order to get that epic S3D effect. But I'd gladly take the latter, as long as the motion clarity was imroved by 50% with BFI or like it is with 120. Ramble Ramble!

@JaxonH That shot is incredible - really excited to see where this game goes. I totally get wanting to replay the opening section, it's a blast. I'm looking at another 3ish hours until I'll be back on the train...

@WaveBoy
I swapped between the two and I could see some minor aliasing at 1080p but really nothing particularly distracting at TV viewing distances. But when I went back to 4K it was still there just not quite so pronounced. I haven't looked at any technical deep dives or anything (avoiding spoilers, I guess opening this thread was a risk) but if I was to guess I'd say that the 4K mode is a dynamic 4K and is often closer to 1440p or something

Basically, to my eye, you don't really appear to lose that much at all swapping to performance mode. If you do I'm probably just too distracted by how good the HDR is to really notice. But you do gain an insane level of smoothness in motion

With that said, I am using an OLED panel so possibly people with less responsive LCDs will have a different experience. But for me 120Hz is the way to go here

So, I'm gonna share my one critique I have of Metroid Prime 4 thus far.

I don't hate the hub world design in theory, in fact I prefer that approach, however, I do think the game's single biggest flaw, in my eyes, is that the desert should have been smaller, and the green crystals should not be required for progression later in the game. If they just removed the green crystal requirement and shrunk the size of the desert by around half, I think this could have been as close to perfect as it gets.

And admittedly, that does put a bit of a damper on my experience. Not to overblow it, but ya, I will say I can at least understand where some were coming from with regard to the overworld. Good in theory, but falls short in execution.

I do, however, stand by the included characters. I just can't figure out why some dislike them so much. But, maybe they can't understand how I do like them so much. So maybe we're at an impasse on that one.

All that said, the game is so good otherwise, even that flaw can't overcome it's brilliance. It may affect where I ultimately rank it amongst the other 3, but we'll see after I finish it.

@Lazz Based on what I've seen, the atmo' in this game is the best this series has to offer yet. The Soundtrack is just bliss. If you're playing this with a cheap sound bar, or worse yet the audio coming from your OLED TV or handheld NS2 Speakers than you're missing out on half the experience.

I'd recommend in investing in a traditional great 5.2(Two Subwoofers) Surround Sound System, or for an easier more compact all-in-one less expensive solution, a Sennheiser Ambeo or Ambeo Plus, or possibilty Samsung's Flagship SS SB system. There's Also Bose & Sonos. yet I just can't imagine the Ambeos/Plus's lack of true dedicated Surround Sound speakers coming close to replicating or simulating the same effect as if you had 2 SS speakers behind you. But it's still probably better than nothing. I love SS. I remember briefly using my 5.1 system, with Super Mario Galaxy 1(Honey Hive Galaxy being the high lite) on Wii in the later 2000's, and it was like being in a virtual audio playground. But i soon later had to switch over to headphones once i moved in with a buddy of mine.

Audio is every bit as important as picture quality, maybe even more imo! Completely caffeinated. lol You went from talking about an aweomse MP4 Screen shot, and i switched gears and took a nice detour into AudioVille. lol

The game runs smooth as butter on handheld. And it’s also one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve ever seen. I’m not that far into the game—about three hours, and have met that one character—but it’s been great so far. It’s very immersive, and I’m excited to see how the game will continue to evolve.

@skywake
Oh for sure. It's so annoying when devs claim 4K, as in native 4K, but it typically translates to Dynamic 4K or 1440p, instead of being a true 2160p. If it is in fact closer to 1440p, than the loss in resolution by opting for 120fps won't bug me anywhere near as much. even though, i can easily spot the difference from 1080 & 1440p on my 65" OLED.

Digital foundry will probably have you covered with a full deep dive, but not without spoilers. And ya, people using QD Mini-LED TV's will have to put up with varrying slower motion response times, so 120fps won't be quite as clear in motion as it would on an OLED. I guess it's just a matter of preference and what's more imporant for you. I personally can't go back to LG's WOLED colour.

They also canned 120hz OLED TV 'BFI', with the LG C1 being the last model to support it. With any 120fps title you had the option to use MotionPro Low, Medium or High. 120fps + Medium cuts down the blur by a whopping 75%, and then into the 80% range with High. Problem is, the LG C1 in SDR already has a dim game mode and you can't afford to sacrfice anymore brightness, so I wouldn't even recommend using 120 BFI. Modern OLED's and QD-OLED's can get much brighter. The C1's game mode is not only dim, to the point where you have to belt up the contrast to 97 to compensate, but WOLED color just isn't anywhere as good as QD Color at it's best, and then you have to deal with all of that out of box shadow detail crushing unless you fork over the money for a Proffessional calibration.

At this point, I'd go for the 55 or 65" Samsugn QD-OLED 'S90F', since the flagship S95F has an anti-glare coating which has a negative impact on picture quality. QD-OLED has fantastic colours, and the back crush can easily be corrected for free in it's service menu according to a YouTuber i follow. Still, black levels will raise in brighter rooms unlike LG's WOLED's.

@WaveBoy I picked up a Hisense U8 65" TV and the Hisense AX512H Soundbar in anticipation of the SW2 - both are pretty nice

@Lazz
That's the exact QD Mini-LED i would go with, the 2024 U88N if that's what you're reffering to, if I couldn't choose QD-OLED, based on what's available. Sure, Hisense has their step up 2025 flagship U8QG, but it's ruined by the higher input lag.

I have a 65" LG C1(With severe burn in. lol), and a smaller 55" Hisense U68N QD Mini-LED. I don't plan on keeping either. lol. Not bad for the money. Still, the QD-Colours, although not quite as good as the U8N's and especially QD-OLED, are much better and far more natural than the LG C1 WOLED's, brightness is crazy high and amazing, ABL is less agressive, and there's zero chance of burn in. Super Mario Oddyssey looks fantastic on this TV. on the C1 OLED? Blugh, perfect blacks and motion motion aside. C1's too dim, and 65" isn't doing the NS1 version Odyssey's Dynamic 900p resolution any favours. Playing it on NS2 though, thanks to it's update, hits about 1800p though.

But the viewing angles as expected are awful, there's a little more motion blur than OLED, The black levels are nice(Supposedly they approach OLED territory with the latest U8QG) with local dimming set to high, but then local dimming always dims down bright objects(etc) on darker backgrounds or makes dark scenes harder to make out, probably from the lack of local dimming zones and slower transitions or whatever. It's annoying. QD-OLED/OLED, since it's self emmsive doesn't have this problem. I'm an idiot for getting the U68N when i could of just spend $400 more and got the U88N. Black levels are like over 3x better, better QD-Colours, 120fps support and improved local dimming. But i treat this set as a secondary whatever display. QD-OLED is going to be my main.

Cool to read people's impressions. Mostly good by the sounds of it.
I've ordered a copy from Amazon! Really look forward to playing, and it's same day delivery, woooo!

I was a bit uncertain because I've realised over time that I'm not really a fan of metroidvanias anymore. I'd rather have rather linear platforming. I guess I'd rather spend more time doing the main stuff of a game, not spending too much time exploring and/or getting lost.

And I know this game will be like that, but I'm also keen on first person shooter games or games from a first person perspective, so I think I'll enjoy it more than a 2D metroidvania.
I have played parts of Metroid Prime 1 and 2, and I finished the third game back in the day, so I do have ideas of what to expect.

@JaxonH Yeah, you said it. The desert is an empty hub whose size feels more dictated by the need for Vi-O-La to take an appreciable amount of time to cross it than by what they actually had to put in there.

I don't think it brings the game down that much, but it was a definite swing and miss for me.

Decided not to start this game until after finals week, so that I can focus on actual important stuff and not get distracted, but man every time I think about it sitting there on my Switch 2 home menu not being played it stings a little lol

@JaxonH
I think it's cool to hate the characters. That's my takeaway from the last couple weeks.

I usually really like Beat 'Em Ups, and I was watching him stream a bit of Prime 4 today, but he was freaking out every time another character had a line. I think he was with the Mackenzie guy. His reactions to the lines were more obnoxious than the lines themselves, so I left the stream.

I feel like it's gone over the edge of acting for some Youtubers at this point.

@rallydefault Yeah, there's way too much emotion being invested in characters who are barely there to begin with.

If you don't like them, just do what Samus does and act like they're not there, at least until they're in danger of getting killed.