The powerful younger brother of the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 4 Pro(PS4 Pro) is set to launch in just a few days now, and we finally know more about what Infamous: Second Son and First Light players can expect from the upcoming console.
In an official PlayStation Blog post, Jason Connell, the tech art lead at developer Sucker Punch stated that the game benefits from the PS4 Pro’s upgraded hardware in a number of ways, one of which is HDR support. If you have a TV that is HDR-ready along with a PS4 Pro, you’ll get much more realistic-looking lighting and exposure effects than ever before, Connell said.
We wanted the art direction and tech to reflect realism in a way that immerses players in the damp, rainy streets of Seattle, we did a lot of work to ensure our sky, sun, and light sources felt like the real thing. So why is HDR such a big deal now? This patch, along with an HDR capable TV, pushes those crazy bright values even further.
Yes, that means looking at the sun or sky in our game feels extremely bright, providing a level of contrast I’ve never seen in our game before, the vibrancy of the sky and lighting creates some really striking and beautiful moments. Furthermore, this particular feature will work on the standard PS4 as long as you have an HDR capable TV.
Additionally, Connell mentioned that the superpowers that Delsin and Fetch wield in the game and its expansion are improved, so much so that it even surprised the developers themselves.
The powers look amazing. Delsin’s smoke powers and Fetch’s neon powers are particularly impressive, watching the original effects now in 4K and HDR, I notice details I didn’t even know existed.
For example, when Fetch does a ground pound, waves of brilliantly flickering particles erupt in all directions. We even improved photo-mode to let you pause on powers. My favorite is winding up Fetch’s ultimate neon bomb and then quickly activating photo mode to pause and observe the thousands of emissive particles bits forming around her.
The $400 PS4 Pro, which will also feature a replaceable 1 TB hard drive, will launch on November 10. Second Son/First Light have already been patched to support PS4 Pro. However, they’re not the only games getting PS4 Pro updates, as there are numerous others that have or will get updates.
