I think it’s likely the right call to lock it to 30 on Xbox though maybe a 40fps mode would have been possible like Ratchet and Clank had on PS5, it’s a bigger difference in responsiveness than you’d think. (33% faster!)
I also think not including SSR was probably smart, it can look really good at certain angles or stills but the effect is never quite coherent when you are actually playing the game due to occlusion and disocclusion. The dynamic cube maps will give a more grounded and sensible look to larger reflective surfaces even if you are technically sacrificing higher quality reflections.
None of the moves they made are a huge surprise to me, Bethesda as a rule generally tries to prioritize immersive and self consistent visuals over absolute fidelity. You can get used to 30fps, it’s hard to feel immersed when the frame rate is bouncing up and down.
I think it’s likely 30 fps is the norm specifically because of the Xbox s. In all likelihood they could have made a 60fps version but they know ultimately it’s the low hanging fruit that must be developed for.
I don’t think it was a factor at all, they are both very very close in terms of CPU power (the series S is the same CPU run 200mhz slower), which MS did so any game could easily be run on both by just dropping some graphical fidelity and calling it a day. The fact that they didn’t even try to have some kind of unlocked or 40fps performance mode on the X suggests they are very CPU bound, and the PC system requirements reflect this too, requiring at least a 6 core CPU. I think a lot of gamers with 4 core CPUS are going to be screaming about how the game is “unoptimized” when the reality is just that there’s a lot of stuff going on, and yes, 4 core CPUs are starting to become practically vintage at this point.
Gamers always want to have their cake and eat it too, if you expect games to always get bigger and better then expect to need a bigger and better computer to match.
I also reckon that as this generation finally starts releasing games that push the hardware, we’ll start seeing 30 fps games release more often. 60 fps was nice while games were still multi-plat but I can’t see that commitment being sustainable if we want to see what a Series X can really do.
