THE GAMES GLOW UP
PlayStation 4 hits replayed on PS5. This month: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
As gamers we’re used to overcoming huge odds, whether destroying gods in Persona or cooking the perfect pasta in Overcooked!. But the cult classic Japanese series
Disaster Report is simply about surviving and pulling people through more realistic natural disasters.
The problem was on PS4 the latest entry of the long-running survival series, Summer Memories, was a disaster itself. It’s a unique if somewhat clunky adventure, but only if you can see past the terrible framerate. Appearing to target 30fps, it absolutely tanks whenever disasters are happening on screen, dropping to 15fps on PS4 Pro and even lower on base models, closer to 10fps.
On one hand, the idea of a game running poorly when disaster strikes almost works in a metatextual way, as you scramble simply to figure out what you’re doing as blocky objects stutter by you at snail-like speeds. Yet, that’s certainly not how it was intended to be played, and makes the idea of playing it immediately exhausting.
Thankfully, Summer Memories has been rescued by PS5. It still runs at 1080p, but whatever was causing problems before seems to have been negated by the more powerful hardware. Here, no matter what you’re faced with, you’ll be able to take on threats at 60fps. It’s amazing how a stable framerate can immediately make a game much more enjoyable, whether it reaches the highs of 60fps as in this case, or something lower.
The game might still be a bit janky, but it feels packed with original ideas, and it’s much easier to look past some of those flaws when it can at least run properly. This is the game as intended, now making it possible to enjoy the sometimes harrowing, sometimes goofy eclectic mix that only Disaster Report can deliver on. Plonk on that Santa hat and try to survive.