If you compare Larian’s game on PlayStation 5 and PC, you’ll be surprised at how strong it looks on Sony’s console!
Digital Foundry has published an in-depth analysis of Baldur’s Gate 3, and from it we’ve learned that the graphics settings on PlayStation 5 are essentially the same as the Ultra level on PC. Of course, this is not something that can be achieved on all computers (at the right frame rate… because playing a slideshow is not pleasant), as the game is quite graphically intense and has a lot of visual effects. In fact, it’s been over a year since it was released, but a lot of fixes have been made since then to make it more PC-compatible. In Act 3, however, it still has the same problems on both the PlayStation 5 and PC versions.
Even though Larian designed Baldur’s Gate 3 for keyboard and mouse, it’s still great to play with a controller on PlayStation 5 and PC. It’s tolerable at the beginning of the game, and while it’s unfamiliar at first, it’s functional. But later on, as you acquire and use more and more abilities and items, they become more complex, so the interface becomes quite complex over time…
This doesn’t detract from the PlayStation 5’s performance, but it is a little difficult to work with. The game runs natively at 1440p with no upscaling or dynamic resolution, and there’s not much difference between Quality and Performance modes. In performance mode, you’ll see a bit more artifacts (especially where there’s a lot of fine detail), but it’s still aiming for 60 FPS. In confined spaces and during combat, it is there, but it struggles in places. Even on PC, the city is choppy in the third act, let alone on PlayStation 5 (where the frame rate can drop to twenty-something FPS). There’s also frame breaking when the FPS drops below 60, but if you choose quality mode, Baldur’s Gate 3 aims for 30 FPS, but even then the city is choppy in the third chapter because the population is so large…
So you can say that the performance isn’t perfect, but it wasn’t perfect on the PC either!
