The latest update for GeForce NOW has added a new overlay showing detailed statistics for ongoing streaming sessions, a tool that would be quite useful for PlayStation Portal had Sony thought about it. Two versions of the overlay are available as you can see in our new Alan Wake 2 video. Again, path tracing is in action in the following footage and all graphics options are maxed out. Since we recorded the gameplay with Mirillis Action! there might be more visible compression than usual.

On Gamersyde, we've always tried to show you as many systems as possible, including cloud gaming solutions. Stadia was given some coverage back when it was still alive, but NVIDIA's GeForce Now too about a year ago. With the release of Alan Wake 2, we thought it would be worth checking out how the game fares on the service, as not everyone can afford a high end PC these days. True, the subscription is costly, even more so as you still have to purchase the games in order to play, but it's still much less expensive than getting a brand new config with one of the most powerful NVIDIA GPU. We have recorded some footage of Remedy's new title with all graphics settings maxed out, even path tracing. Clearly it's a night and day situation compared to what we played locally on our RTX2080 Ti, though streamed 4K is not as sharp as the real thing. NVIDIA's service is pretty impressive technically and even a very dark game like Alan Wake 2 looks great. Obviously, it's possible to notice some artefacts in the darkest areas when playing on an OLED display in the dark, but honestly for those who can afford the subscription and not a powerful rig, this is the perfect way to play the game.
Note: Our subscription to GeForce Now Ultimate was offered by NVIDIA but I paid for my own copy of Alan Wake 2.

More Alan Wake 2 coverage with this time the PC version running on what is now a mid-range configuration. Even when lowering the resolution to 1440p with somehow optimized settings, it's difficult to maintain a steady framerate. No FPS counter or any sorts of statistics in the video as, for one, the EGS and the game weren't too happy with our usual overlay, and secondly we find it interesting to let you base your opinion, not on metrics, but on your own criteria. Tomorrow, we'll have one more video of the game fully maxed out on PC thanks to GeForce Now. Not to spoil anything, but it's pretty impressive that it would work so well with such a clean image.

As promised a few days ago, we can now offer you some proper video coverage of Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5. The PC version will come next, though as davton and his RTX 4090 are still unavailable, I will take care of it and show you the game on a mid-range PC with optimized settings. I'll also be able to show you path tracing in action thanks to NVIDIA's GeForce Now but all this will come in due time. For now, you can enjoy Remedy's work on rasterisation, which makes the game shine even without ray traced reflections or lighting.

I don't have access to my usual set-up for capture but I did record some gameplay footage of Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5 thanks to the console itself. It's not as high quality as usual (hence the YouTube format only) but it's good enough to share. You will get some super HQ footage next week when I'm back home and we should even be able to show you the PC version by then. I also plan to capture the latter via GeForce Now so people can see what to expect from path tracing even if they don't have a recent GPU. As for today's video, the first one shows an optional activity starring Saga Anderson while the second one focuses on Alan Wake as he's still stuck in the dark world, in a pretty well-known US city. There are of course no story-related spoilers included.

In an ideal world, we would have been able to deliver an awesome Alan Wake 2 video on PC with path tracing, 4K and high framerate. See, we were sent a PC copy of the game two days ago so it was supposed to work out. Sadly, davton ran into a serious professional problem and I had to tell him to forget about Gamersyde until it gets sorted out and he feels better. I was also sent a PS5 version of the game, but I'm away from home on vacation. The good news is I took my console with me, the bad one is that I can't capture any footage so all I can share are my impressions on the game and this version and a bunch of screenshots I took as a small compensation for the absence of proper videos. It's not much but considering the circumstances there was nothing else we could do. Videos will probably come next week so chances are you'll already have started the game by then, but our hands are tied.

We've been waiting for Alan Wake's sequel for so long that the Alan Wake 2 video releleased for the Game Awards almost feels like a dream. We sadly won't be able to play the game until 2023 but we want to belive it will be worth it, don't you?