News Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, and Sonic All Stars Racing on Xbox to receive a FPS boost on Xbox Series consoles

[Dreadknux]

Just announced on the Xbox 20th Anniversary stream. These three games have been backwards compatible on Xbox consoles for a while now, but FPS Boost is something a whole lot of us were asking for. It basically modifies the original game in such a way as to improve framerates beyond the original game's performance.

For games like Sonic Generations, Unleashed and SART, which rely on speed (obviously), this is huge news.

News story is here; more games have been given FPS Boost as well but the Sonic games are obviously the important ones for us here. 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/15/22782755/microsoft-xbox-fps-boost-mode-37-new-games

[The Deleter]

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/15/22782755/microsoft-xbox-fps-boost-mode-37-new-games

Quote

Microsoft is enabling its Xbox FPS Boost mode on 37 more games today, bringing the total well beyond 100 games. Titles getting FPS Boost include the entire Gears of War franchise, the original Assassin’s Creed, Alan Wake, Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas (the full list of games getting FPS Boost is available below).

The FPS Boost feature for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles is designed to make existing games run better. While Microsoft has improved frame rates with some backward-compatible games, the FPS Boost feature improves older games without developers having to make changes.

Apparently this is the last update to the Backwards Compatibility the consoles are getting, so Sonic barely made it in.

edit: ah damn was a second too slow lol

[Kazhnuz]

Wow, this is impressive. Nice work, it honestly makes me want more the XBox Series X now than the PS5. So it means that we can play all boost game at 60FPS on the XBox Series X XD

[Blue Blood]

That's really cool. Shame that there are no resolution boosts though. Generations will still be easy superior on PC as a result. But hey, 60fps Unleashed is nice. 

[MH MD]

I must be dreaming...

[Chili Dawg]

Disneys Chicken Little tho

[Shane]

2 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

That's really cool. Shame that there are no resolution boosts though. Generations will still be easy superior on PC as a result. But hey, 60fps Unleashed is nice. 

Generations has a resolution boost, actually.

[Sega DogTagz]

Now if only I could find a next gen console to buy, I'd be in business.

 

lol

[BadBehavior]

Great feature, sadly I already staked my claim in the console wars by snagging a PS5. Which means the only mainline 3D Sonic game I can play on that without subscribing to PS Now is Sonic Forces.

 

Yay.

[John43]

2 hours ago, MH MD said:

I must be dreaming...

Just wow. I have said it five times already. I want a Series S as my next gen console to experience THIS alone. Jaw on the floor. It makes me so happy to see Unleashed get this treatment

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Torn about Unleashed for XBox Series X/S.

On the one hand, buttery smooth FPS.

On the other hand, it's on a console that I don't have and don't really want to spend money for or need, and it's not on PC.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Oh boy! Disney's Chicken Little can be played at 60fps!!!

This was a great surprise to get today. Generations and ASRT is a good bonus, even if they were already playable at 60fps on PC, but Unleashed is a real stand-out. Finally being able to play it at full 60fps without any hitches or drops just makes the game feel all the more better. Personally played it on a Series S and can confirm that the performance there is fantastic, both during the daytime and nighttime stages, and while it might be my imagination, it looks a lot better here too compared to the PS3. Definitely going to sit down for a full playthrough again. 

[The Deleter]

Werehog is looking kinda hot with the new FPS boost as well

The squash and stretch is still there and looks as good as ever if not better, but the speed of the attacks really stands out a lot better now that we can actually see what's going on with each individual animation. It almost makes me feel like I would enjoy fighting in the game now, rather than avoiding it as much as possible, just to see what I could pull off with each of the combos the game has under the hood, as the enemies resemble more of a playground than an outright hassle now.

Bonus points for the framerate not chugging as soon as more than 5 enemies show up on screen, and the QTE takedowns look easier to manage than before.

[Nix]

I played Sonic Unleashed and tripped up like 5 different times because some madman mapped the homing attack to the boost button instead of the jump button. 

It's neat that the game got an FPS boost. By far the smoothest way to play the game; even beefy rigs have trouble emulating Unleashed properly. I wish Microsoft could've improved its image quality as well. Auto HDR/Dolby Vision makes the colors pop a bit more, but it's really lacking in image clarity. Still prefer playing on RPCS3 thanks to all of the QoL changes you can mod in, but it's nice to have an official way to play that's good enough.

[KHCast]

Really wish they’d do a remaster for these so PlayStation players can experience these games with this smoothness. The only option we have is playing it through PSNow, and…yeah fuck that 

[VO.SUPER]

Gotta say, even the werehog looks less clunky in 60 fps. I almost want a Series X just to see Unleashed performing well.

[Dr Ryan]

Just given Generations a go on Series X and... F me it's good. Having played it a few months ago at 30fps and 720p and now seeing it at 60fps 4K (it looks 4K anyway!)... the difference is unbelievable!

[JezMM]

This is pretty dang cool - admittedly at first the Jungle Joyride didn't wow me because I'd already seen it at 60 FPS via the Unleashed Project once I upgraded to a beefier PC a few years back, but seeing the Werehog, which I've only ever experienced on original hardware, having entire fight sequences with such a buttery smooth framerate, really put into perspective how cool this is.

I dunno when my household will invest in a Series S/X - Xbox One managed to last it's entire run without a single exclusive interesting me, but I look forward to playing this if that day comes.

[Blue Blood]

23 hours ago, Shane said:

Generations has a resolution boost, actually.

Really? Do you have a citation for that? 

Either way, whilst that's cool, it's Unleashed that really needed the boost. Generations with a framerate and resolution boost on consoles is still not going to be up to scratch with the PC version. A welcome bonus, yes. But not ideal.  

[Dr Ryan]

5 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Really? Do you have a citation for that? 

Either way, whilst that's cool, it's Unleashed that really needed the boost. Generations with a framerate and resolution boost on consoles is still not going to be up to scratch with the PC version. A welcome bonus, yes. But not ideal.  

I have played it and it is bumped up to 4K and HDR by the looks of things. Looks amazing.

[Blue Blood]

16 minutes ago, Dr Ryan said:

I have played it and it is bumped up to 4K and HDR by the looks of things. Looks amazing.

I'm not very familiar with the Series X/S, so correct me if I'm wrong. But aren't they merely upresed rather than actually output at a higher resolution? It's not at all different to the framerate situation. The game is only coded to output at a certain resolution and framerate, and that won't be changed without a patch. The increased power of the newer systems meant that Unleashed would run at a stable 30fps, but it's framerate wasn't increased until that was explicitly changed in a patch. 

[NegaMix]

@Blue Blood When Sonic Generations was originally added to the backwards compatibility list, it was one of the few Xbox 360 games to be given the "One X Enhanced" treatment, which patches the game to give it a native 4K resolution if played on an Xbox One X or Series X. (At least, I'm pretty certain it's native. I could be wrong, but considering how crisp it looks on my TV and multiple searches failing to bring up anything denying it, I'm willing to believe it is.)

It's disappointing that Unleashed never got the One X Enhancement, because Generations looks incredible with the better resolution, coupled with the Series consoles' HDR and FPS boost. Unleashed still gets the latter two at least, but the lack of 4K resolution is a shame.

[Shane]

It's native thanks to the wizards at Xbox, but I forgot to add that it's only 4K on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X. On Xbox Series S it's 1440p.

[McGroose]

I remember being amazed seeing the Unleashed Project turn what was once a powerpoint slide of a level in Adabat into a buttery smooth experience. Now I'm seeing it in the original game and that same feeling is still present.

6 minutes ago, Shane said:

It's native thanks to the wizards at Xbox, but I forgot to add that it's only 4K on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X. On Xbox Series S it's 1440p.

1440p is good enough for me, is it still the same exact ~60FPS that the series X has?

I'm considering getting a series S eventually, but not an X because of the price and I can't find the things anywhere. I really don't care about 4K, especially for the really new games. 1080P is fine, but 60FPS for everything is a must unless it's a clusterfuck like Cyberpunk. 

[NegaMix]

2 hours ago, McGroose said:

1440p is good enough for me, is it still the same exact ~60FPS that the series X has?

Yes it is. Both Series consoles get FPS Boost (I think there's like, one game that only has it on the Series X, but it's not Sonic) so you'll still get the performance upgrade on Series S. And from what I've heard, it's a pretty stable framerate on there too.

Though it should be noted that Unleashed's graphics resolution was unchanged from the original release, unlike Generations. So no matter the console, it'll be running at either 720p or 1080p (I forget which one it had on the 360).