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The Last Guardian

2016 has already seen dozens of big games, simply information technology'due south not finished just yet. This calendar week, PS4 players finally get an opportunity to play The Terminal Guardian – the third game to exist led past famed auteur Fumito Ueda. It's been a long 9 years since development began, just it's meliorate late than never.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Ueda'due south previous projects on the PS2, take a well-deserved reputation for pushing video games forward. They weren't really technical showpieces, but the stellar fine art management, attention to particular, and clever utilise of game mechanics made them disquisitional darlings.

The Terminal Guardian started out as a PS3 title in 2007, and was shown off for the first fourth dimension at E3 2009. Years passed, Ueda left the employ of Sony, a new generation of consoles hit, and endless rumors of cancellation popped upwards along the way. But despite all of the challenges and criticism, the game is finally finished. That alone is a feat worth celebrating regardless of the quality of the actual product.

Over at IGN, the game scored a 7/10 — a "Expert" rating. The tone, characters, and music all score loftier marks, only the development issues still evidence through. The camera is frustrating, the controls can brand you pull your hair out, and those two issues make solving puzzles a real hassle.

With 62 reviews counted in Metacritic, The Final Guardian is sitting pretty at 83/100. It seems that, on the whole, most critics were able to overcome the game's flaws to thoroughly relish the 3rd (and likely terminal) installment of the Ueda-Sony union.

Unsurprisingly, the game ships with support for both the base of operations PS4 and PS4 Pro. Complicating matters further, the PS4 Pro runs the game differently depending on whether or not you're using a 4K UHD Telly. At that place'south no in-game setting for resolution preferences or HDR, listen you – it must be manipulated manually at the OS level.

So, what'due south the best mode to run the game? Eurogamer'due south Digital Foundry captured footage from all three scenarios, and found that the performance varies wildly. The base model is frequently running in the mid-20s, and the PS4 Pro at 4K (rendering at 3360×1890) is simply mildly improved. However, the PS4 Pro at 1080p delivers a nearly locked 30fps – the preferable option.

While the lackluster frame rate isn't entirely unexpected from this team, it'southward disappointing that they couldn't rally to striking a solid 30fps on the most pop version of the hardware. And when you consider its history as a terminal-gen game, the inability to continue the frame rate stable is difficult to overlook.

In terms of art direction, we have no complaints. Merely with blurry textures and relatively basic geometry, it doesn't look like a make new current-gen championship. It'south more along the lines of a remaster of a game that never even came out. It bums us out that The Last Guardian looks and feels dated, but at to the lowest degree nosotros no longer have to talk over it every time E3 rolls effectually.