ELEX - Review @ Cultured Vultures

Cultured Vultures reviewed ELEX:

ELEX (PS4) REVIEW – Up, Up and Away

ELEX is one of the most lovably rough games of this year and one that will probably do a lot for open-world RPG fans.
ELEX is, without a doubt, one of the strangest games I’ve ever played, and you kind of need to play it yourself to find out why – it’s an experience. Piranha Bytes’ nutty open-world RPG isn’t quite like anything out there, which is both a strength and a weakness.

The backdrop: Magalan has been ravaged by a crashing comet, which turned society upside down and left everyone in factions with ELEX at the core of all the hostility. It means different things for different people; some nearly idolise it, others want nothing to do with it. The Albs harness ELEX’s properties to give them added strength and abilities, the Berserkers abhor it and rely on magic instead, the Outlaws view it as a valuable, and the Clerics avoid it all costs while also praising their god, Calaan. If you’re still with me and not yet thinking that this sounds like a misguided cross between The 100 and Mad Max, strap yourself in – we’re going to go to some weird places.
[…]
Piranha Bytes have their own way of making games and I am taking nothing away from anyone who enjoys their output, but ELEX is clearly running on some outdated foundations. Its technical problems are plentiful, often dropping to sub-30fps on a vanilla PS4 and threatening to sputter out completely when there’s more than a few enemies on-screen. Movement feels like wading through a lake of custard; cumbersome and far too weighty, which extends to player interactions. Most characters, Jax included, are incapable of showing more emotion than the most basic of expressions. I know living in a post-apocalyptic world is grim, but everyone is so gormless that it’s sometimes hard to care about their plights.

And yet, despite so much going against it, I absolutely could not stop playing ELEX. It’s weirdly compelling in a way that I struggle to define. I don’t know whether it’s the fascinating mish-mash of styles that caught my eye, the scope of what the game tries to do, or just how lovably janky almost every inch of it is, but I struggled to pull myself away from it.

More information.

Gamespot's review on the PS4 was nasty, too.

And yet, despite so much going against it, I absolutely could not stop playing ELEX. It’s weirdly compelling in a way that I struggle to define.

They know how to put subliminal messaging into their ambient sound effects.

Weird on the FPS. Since I have been playing I have never seen slow downs or big dips. I did get a combat stutter bug maybe 3 times but its gone away. Other than that its been easily 5O+ FPS - I capped it at 58. Considering my sometimes choppy times in Skyrim, FO4, and even DOS2 (which I must have a memory leak or something because after about 1-2 hours of playing it starts to slow down to a stutter crawl and I have to restart the game to fix it), this has been one of the smoothest games in terms of FPS I have played.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Weird on the FPS. Since I have been playing I have never seen slow downs or big dips. I did get a combat stutter bug maybe 3 times but its gone away. Other than that its been easily 5O+ FPS - I capped it at 58. Considering my sometimes choppy times in Skyrim, FO4, and even DOS2 (which I must have a memory leak or something because after about 1-2 hours of playing it starts to slow down to a stutter crawl and I have to restart the game to fix it), this has been one of the smoothest games in terms of FPS I have played.

Same here. Around 60 FPS @1080p. Trying to play at 4K was a different story though, a bit too sluggish for my GTX 970. Probably got 20ish FPS then.

They're on a PS4 vanilla. It's pretty crap compared to today's hardware. ELEX is definitely at its best on a PC.

I'm not even sure why are console reviewers talking about FPS.
Isn't current console fetish upscaling 720p to 4K? If they criticized lack of that, I'd understand. Writing about FPS drops on the rubbish hardware components is illogical.

But whatever. All I can say to them is go pro SSD or go home.

I play on a stock Dell 8500XPS desktop, W7 Home Premium, Intel i7-3770 3.4Ghz CPU, Radeon HD7770 2Gb GPU, 12Gb RAM, 1Tb HDD, and SSD for OS. 24" flat panel monitor.

The fans on the video card barely crank up when playing. I don't know what my FPS averages, but I have no problems with lag or stuttering. I'm happy.

GTX 1080, SSD and running at 4k resolution. Haven't logged a bunch of hours yet, but it's been smooth sailing so far.

Originally Posted by Capt. Huggy Face
GTX 1080, SSD and running at 4k resolution. Haven't logged a bunch of hours yet, but it's been smooth sailing so far.

Lucky. I have the rest but using the GTX 970, which @ 4K res requires a few too many graphical settings turned off to get 60 FPS for my tastes.

And I have this big 4K TV too.

Anyone know of a place to get a cheap GTX 1080?

Originally Posted by joxer
I'm not even sure why are console reviewers talking about FPS.
Isn't current console fetish upscaling 720p to 4K? If they criticized lack of that, I'd understand. Writing about FPS drops on the rubbish hardware components is illogical.

But whatever. All I can say to them is go pro SSD or go home.

PS4 pro typically scales to 1800p and then uses checkerboard rendering to get to 4k without much in the way of visual artifacts. This game says it has PS4 Pro support on the box, but I do not believe it is actually in the game yet. A future patch might make it worth having on that console, but for now 1440p at 60fps on the PC is the sweet spot for me.

Has anyone seen a ps4/ps4 pro comparison review for this game yet?

Originally Posted by Fluent
Lucky. I have the rest but using the GTX 970, which @ 4K res requires a few too many graphical settings turned off to get 60 FPS for my tastes.

And I have this big 4K TV too.

Anyone know of a place to get a cheap GTX 1080?

Buy another 970 and SLI them. They are dirt cheap.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
Buy another 970 and SLI them. They are dirt cheap.

Really? Hmm…I'll have to look into that. Thanks.

Edit - Seems like it will work great. But I'm wondering if there's any reason to buy the ASUS GTX 970 Turbo vs. the regular EVGA 970 GTX.

Just make sure the clock speeds on them are the same or very close to your current card

Originally Posted by azsinistar
Just make sure the clock speeds on them are the same or very close to your current card

What azsinistar said.

What I end up doing generally is buying the max card within reason and then when it starts to fade buy another identical. By then its usually wayyy cheaper and skips a couple "new" gen upgrade cards for expensive.

I have two GTX 1080s SLI right now.
Started with one and bought second in Jan.
Prior I had Radeon 390X then crossfired 2 when price dropped.

Unless something significant comes along I think I'm set for a while. I do love the Titan X but no sense right now as the SLI setup is great still. With any luck be able to skip a few generations.

I dont have consoles so I dont feel an ounce of guilt upgrading a PC.
Can't imagine the peeps that have all the consoles and buy multiple games.

A single console game can cost the same as 10 PC games I'd buy, plus they are more interesting anyway as consoles don't have interesting RPGs anymore. Mostly.

Great tip though, @Wisdom. I'm going to snag a 2nd GTX 970 as soon as I get some extra cash.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Really? Hmm…I'll have to look into that. Thanks.

Edit - Seems like it will work great. But I'm wondering if there's any reason to buy the ASUS GTX 970 Turbo vs. the regular EVGA 970 GTX.

SLI does not work with my 1070's in Elex. Does SLI work at all in the game?

Okay here is a video that shows SLI working but in the description he says it's possible but there are glitches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcns2I_aV5s

He has instructions and a link to a SLI profile in the description.

Yeah, I saw that. Hopefully they patch in an SLI profile. I'm wondering now if maybe I shouldn't just try and go for a single card solution rather than SLI… hmm.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Yeah, I saw that. Hopefully they patch in an SLI profile. I'm wondering now if maybe I shouldn't just try and go for a single card solution rather than SLI… hmm.

I would much prefer to have a 1080ti. I suggest you consider another 970 or a 1070ti or 1080 or 1080ti. If you can get a 970 cheap that is obviously…. cheaper. SLI is not nearly so good as it used to be because titles are dropping support for it and even nV and AMD are following suit. It's because DX12 doesn't do it.

I only got two 1070's because I traded up my 970s and the retailer would not allow two vid cards traded for one higher priced card. I got two 970's because back when SLI was much more supported.

In the past MS has said they might release SLI/xfire support update for DX12 that would universally work for all DX12 titles, or something.