Taking The Last Guardian for a spin on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro, Digital Foundry discovered that PS4 Pro owners running the game at 1080p will experience a smooth 30 frames-per-second. While regular PS4 owners and those running it at 4K will see frame-rate drops.
The Last Guardian has fps drops on the PS4 Pro
There’s a slightly annoying new trend surfacing in a minority of PS4 Pro titles – something we hope that Sony addresses. Specifically, it concerns bespoke Pro functionality that is only accessible if you have a specific display attached – or, more precisely, when the PS4 Pro’s display settings are configured in a certain way.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Dishonored 2 alerted us to this issue, but The Last Guardian is the latest title to present two very different performance profiles without giving users the choice of which one to access.
Boot The Last Guardian with the Pro set to 2160p output and you get a higher resolution presentation. However, run the game with the video output set at 1080p and you access a different mode – full HD output with a markedly superior, much more consistent frame-rate.
And when we say, superior, we mean it. When The Last Guardian lags, you really feel it. For example, an area that plays out at 23fps on PlayStation 4 Pro in its 4K output resolves at a nigh-on perfect 30fps when played on a 1080p screen. And generally speaking, the Pro’s higher resolution mode offers a significantly less stable experience compared to the 1080p mode throughout the run of play.
But the bottom line is this – at no point are players informed of the two options available. Unfortunately, users with 1080p screens can’t access the 4K output mode for super-sampling purposes. But more happily, at least the smoother performance mode can be cajoled into action on ultra HD displays.