Oliver Mackenzie
@oliemack.bsky.social
Video producer/writer, contributor at Digital Foundry. Past work at various news companies and nonprofits.
The PS5 Pro has had a mixed first year, with plenty of games that impress - and plenty that don't.
It's been one year to the day since the launch of PlayStation 5 Pro, so... was it worth it? John, Tom and Oliver discuss the best, the worst and the middling of Pro software and look ahead to 2026: youtu.be/7MJ6bnJ0WmI
November 7, 2025 at 5:44 PM
The PS5 Pro has had a mixed first year, with plenty of games that impress - and plenty that don't.
Not a big surprise. Launching during the fall is going to suffocate adjacent releases though during a very busy period, and I'm curious to see how publishers handle it.
BREAKING: Rockstar has delayed Grand Theft Auto VI again, pushing the highly anticipated game from May to November 19, 2026. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ Is Postponed Again — to November 2026
The release date for the game had previously slipped to May 2026 from fall 2025
www.bloomberg.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Not a big surprise. Launching during the fall is going to suffocate adjacent releases though during a very busy period, and I'm curious to see how publishers handle it.
Please check out the brand-new Digital Foundry website at www.digitalfoundry.net! Some interesting features already from @samred.com and the team, along with forums and links to everything we do.
Digital Foundry
Digital Foundry was founded in 2004 and specialises in technical analysis of video games and hardware, using our own bespoke tools for frame-rate analysis – covering everything from console, PC and be...
www.digitalfoundry.net
November 6, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Please check out the brand-new Digital Foundry website at www.digitalfoundry.net! Some interesting features already from @samred.com and the team, along with forums and links to everything we do.
The Outer Worlds 2 is a strong technical experience for RPG fans, and it’s fine enough across the consoles. But if you have a choice between console systems, I’d pick Series X.
Today on Digital Foundry, it's our review for The Outer Worlds 2 - technically solid with good performance on Xbox consoles, but PlayStation needs some work. PC review with optimised settings coming soon: youtu.be/zkhp-FUuC7s
October 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
The Outer Worlds 2 is a strong technical experience for RPG fans, and it’s fine enough across the consoles. But if you have a choice between console systems, I’d pick Series X.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #236 is live, discussing experiences with the ROG Xbox Ally X, Black Myth Wukong's performance mode changes on PS5, the PS5 Pro mini-refresh and much, much more: youtu.be/WhQ5289lBWY
October 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
DF Direct Weekly #236 is live, discussing experiences with the ROG Xbox Ally X, Black Myth Wukong's performance mode changes on PS5, the PS5 Pro mini-refresh and much, much more: youtu.be/WhQ5289lBWY
With good image quality and excellent performance, there are few faults in the console versions of Battlefield 6.
Battlefield 6 - Oliver delivers an in-depth breakdown of every game mode running on every console version: PS5, Pro, Xbox Series X and Series S - youtu.be/cSHXPw5afmg
October 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
With good image quality and excellent performance, there are few faults in the console versions of Battlefield 6.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #235 "drops" today ahead of schedule, talking Microsoft reconfirming next-gen Xbox consoles, Yooka Re-Playlee impressions and more rumours of a current-gen/Switch 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 remaster: youtu.be/1TkdxhLRxdc
October 12, 2025 at 2:06 PM
DF Direct Weekly #235 "drops" today ahead of schedule, talking Microsoft reconfirming next-gen Xbox consoles, Yooka Re-Playlee impressions and more rumours of a current-gen/Switch 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 remaster: youtu.be/1TkdxhLRxdc
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
Today on Digital Foundry, a DF Direct Special talking about the new technologies discussed in the recent Project Amethyst update, along with answers to our questions from Mark Cerny himself. Exciting times ahead! youtu.be/Ru7dK_X5tnc
October 11, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Today on Digital Foundry, a DF Direct Special talking about the new technologies discussed in the recent Project Amethyst update, along with answers to our questions from Mark Cerny himself. Exciting times ahead! youtu.be/Ru7dK_X5tnc
Battlefield 6 is a strong technical effort on PS5. It's not aiming for ray-traced perfection, but it looks good and runs at a blistering clip.
Battlefield 6! We've got lots to say about this and we'll need more than one video to do that - but for now, general thoughts about the game and a focus on the PlayStation 5 version, courtesy of Oliver: youtu.be/B8EuSu_n9b4
October 9, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Battlefield 6 is a strong technical effort on PS5. It's not aiming for ray-traced perfection, but it looks good and runs at a blistering clip.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #234 is now live, talking Xbox Game Pass price rises, Austin Evans' new PS5 Slim teardown, remarkable perf boosts in Baldur's Gate 3's native Linux Steam Deck version and much, much more: youtu.be/Sj5TyrHDspU
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
DF Direct Weekly #234 is now live, talking Xbox Game Pass price rises, Austin Evans' new PS5 Slim teardown, remarkable perf boosts in Baldur's Gate 3's native Linux Steam Deck version and much, much more: youtu.be/Sj5TyrHDspU
In this post-Moore’s Law age, I think the latest Pro iPhone is a relative triumph, as a great all-round phone with excellent tech. And it blasts through our suite of AAA iOS games with ease.
iPhone 17 Pro - Oliver reviews Apple's latest flagship, with a range of benchmarks and some genuinely impressive boosts to gaming performance versus prior models: youtu.be/M3w-j7Wtbvo
October 5, 2025 at 4:31 PM
In this post-Moore’s Law age, I think the latest Pro iPhone is a relative triumph, as a great all-round phone with excellent tech. And it blasts through our suite of AAA iOS games with ease.
t.co/37huD6Q9mT
Lots of details here, but key takeaway (for me) is that day one MS games have gone from $17/mo one year ago to $30/mo today. Some marginal benefits to the cost increase, but the catalog expansion is not impressive.
Lots of details here, but key takeaway (for me) is that day one MS games have gone from $17/mo one year ago to $30/mo today. Some marginal benefits to the cost increase, but the catalog expansion is not impressive.
October 1, 2025 at 2:35 PM
t.co/37huD6Q9mT
Lots of details here, but key takeaway (for me) is that day one MS games have gone from $17/mo one year ago to $30/mo today. Some marginal benefits to the cost increase, but the catalog expansion is not impressive.
Lots of details here, but key takeaway (for me) is that day one MS games have gone from $17/mo one year ago to $30/mo today. Some marginal benefits to the cost increase, but the catalog expansion is not impressive.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #233 is live, discussing the Marvel's Wolverine gameplay reveal, Saros, Deus Ex Remastered, Forza Horizon 6, Silent Hill f on Xbox, the Borderlands 4 Switch 2 delay and much more: youtu.be/ZADoJKL2sGc
September 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
DF Direct Weekly #233 is live, discussing the Marvel's Wolverine gameplay reveal, Saros, Deus Ex Remastered, Forza Horizon 6, Silent Hill f on Xbox, the Borderlands 4 Switch 2 delay and much more: youtu.be/ZADoJKL2sGc
Silent Hill f is a beautiful UE5 effort that marries moody looks with (mostly) good performance. Unfortunately, PS5 Pro needs a fast fix for its flickering woes.
Silent Hill f - reviewed today on PS5/PS5 Pro. An impressive new series entry from Konami with clean image quality on base along with tight performance, but some unfortunate reconstruction (PSSR?) problems on PS5 Pro: youtu.be/fGsZCA-G6-8
September 22, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Silent Hill f is a beautiful UE5 effort that marries moody looks with (mostly) good performance. Unfortunately, PS5 Pro needs a fast fix for its flickering woes.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #232 is available now ahead of time owing to upcoming embargoes, talking Dying Light: The Beast performance on PC and PS5, FSR 4 tested on RDNA 3, and the big Intel/Nvidia deal: youtu.be/APk9y9SLNVE
September 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM
DF Direct Weekly #232 is available now ahead of time owing to upcoming embargoes, talking Dying Light: The Beast performance on PC and PS5, FSR 4 tested on RDNA 3, and the big Intel/Nvidia deal: youtu.be/APk9y9SLNVE
Super easy iPhone 17 Pro pickup experience at the beautiful new Apple store in Vancouver. I don’t mind the orange, but silver feels neutral and nostalgic.
September 19, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Super easy iPhone 17 Pro pickup experience at the beautiful new Apple store in Vancouver. I don’t mind the orange, but silver feels neutral and nostalgic.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #231 is live, discussing Borderlands 4 performance issues, Nintendo Direct, the excellent GeForce Now 5080, the mooted PS6 detachable BD drive and hands-on time with Xbox Cloud Streaming at 1440p. youtu.be/2v1ST5qMoaY
September 15, 2025 at 5:03 PM
DF Direct Weekly #231 is live, discussing Borderlands 4 performance issues, Nintendo Direct, the excellent GeForce Now 5080, the mooted PS6 detachable BD drive and hands-on time with Xbox Cloud Streaming at 1440p. youtu.be/2v1ST5qMoaY
The Switch 2 is a surprisingly capable machine, but key UE5 tech - Nanite, Lumen, and Virtual Shadow Maps - have yet to make an appearance on Nintendo's hybrid. That may portend trouble down the line for future UE5 Switch 2 efforts.
Switch 2 vs Unreal Engine - Fortnite, Cronos + Split Fiction Tested - The Full-Fat UE5 Experience?
YouTube video by Digital Foundry
youtu.be
September 13, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The Switch 2 is a surprisingly capable machine, but key UE5 tech - Nanite, Lumen, and Virtual Shadow Maps - have yet to make an appearance on Nintendo's hybrid. That may portend trouble down the line for future UE5 Switch 2 efforts.
Big improvements to draw distance on Akiva in the new Star Wars Outlaws patch - looks much better now! Seems like the day 1 code was bugged. (Ignore image quality/performance as this is internally recorded footage.)
September 10, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Big improvements to draw distance on Akiva in the new Star Wars Outlaws patch - looks much better now! Seems like the day 1 code was bugged. (Ignore image quality/performance as this is internally recorded footage.)
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #230 is out now, discussing Switch 2's ray tracing debut in SW Outlaws, Switch 2 cart speeds, 007 First Light's gameplay debut, Hollow Knight: Silksong and much, much more: youtu.be/TMWPIT7F5e4
September 8, 2025 at 3:48 PM
DF Direct Weekly #230 is out now, discussing Switch 2's ray tracing debut in SW Outlaws, Switch 2 cart speeds, 007 First Light's gameplay debut, Hollow Knight: Silksong and much, much more: youtu.be/TMWPIT7F5e4
Outlaws is a top-tier Switch 2 port that proves the system’s current-gen bona fides.
Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2 represents a technical milestone for the system - hardware RT (even in handheld mode), DLSS and intelligent, often unnoticeable cutbacks vs Series S. A remarkable release! Check out today's video: youtu.be/XlKCBGzrB1I
September 5, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Outlaws is a top-tier Switch 2 port that proves the system’s current-gen bona fides.
Helldivers 2 is mostly fine enough on Xbox, barring a few odd problems. The game’s more fundamental technical faults remain unaddressed however.
We're looking at the eagerly awaited Helldivers 2 port for Xbox today, stacked up against the PlayStation 5 original. Aside from a weird colour/brightness issue on Xbox, Series X is much the same as PS5 - but where does that leave Series S? youtu.be/-wlV4PlJczo
September 2, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Helldivers 2 is mostly fine enough on Xbox, barring a few odd problems. The game’s more fundamental technical faults remain unaddressed however.
Would anyone like to play some Helldivers 2 with me for a Digital Foundry video on the new Xbox version? Ideally someone with Helldive or Super Helldive difficulty unlocked and proficient gameplay. Could be one person or a group of people. Any platform on your end is fine.
August 28, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Would anyone like to play some Helldivers 2 with me for a Digital Foundry video on the new Xbox version? Ideally someone with Helldive or Super Helldive difficulty unlocked and proficient gameplay. Could be one person or a group of people. Any platform on your end is fine.
Wukong is a confusing, unusual Xbox Series port. Configuration quirks define this game’s performance on console systems.
Black Myth: Wukong reviewed on Xbox Series X and S. In a world where we've come to expect platform parity between X and PS5 with small variances, this port makes some baffling choices. And how does Series S fare? youtu.be/0-10490qd8s
August 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Wukong is a confusing, unusual Xbox Series port. Configuration quirks define this game’s performance on console systems.
Reposted by Oliver Mackenzie
DF Direct Weekly #228 is a Gamescom special - Elden Ring and FF7R Switch 2 impressions, our games of the show, Microsoft's shader compilation solution discussed, Valve Fremont console specs, Kirby Air Riders and more! youtu.be/N0SW7R5H5wY
August 25, 2025 at 3:15 PM
DF Direct Weekly #228 is a Gamescom special - Elden Ring and FF7R Switch 2 impressions, our games of the show, Microsoft's shader compilation solution discussed, Valve Fremont console specs, Kirby Air Riders and more! youtu.be/N0SW7R5H5wY