The upcoming open-world RPG “Outward 2” has a “potato” quality mode built into the settings. According to player findings, the image quality settings of this mode are actually lower than the official recommended minimum hardware requirements! In other words, even if your computer configuration does not meet the official minimum requirements, this “potato” mode can still allow you to barely run the game.
What level of picture quality is this “potato” mode?
According to player feedback, the image quality of this mode is probably the level you saw when playing old games more than ten years ago: extremely compressed textures, low-resolution models, and the kind of “just run” visual effects. Some players complained directly and said, “Even my old computer runs better with this setting.” It can be seen that the image quality of this mode has exceeded the bottom line of many people.
Why do developers want to join this model?
The industry speculates that this may be a “guaranteed” option designed by developers to take care of players whose hardware is really not up to par. Open world RPGs often have relatively high hardware requirements, but developers don’t want to completely give up on players with weak hardware, so they designed this mode so that they can at least enter the game. However, this approach has also caused some controversy. Some people believe that this is equivalent to “officially allowing players to experience it at the lowest quality”, which in disguise lowers the overall evaluation threshold of the game.
Player reaction to this mode has been mixed
Some players think this design is very considerate, at least allowing people with insufficient hardware to play the game; but other players believe that developers should focus on optimizing resources instead of designing an “officially abandoned” image quality mode. This kind of discussion is not uncommon in the field of open world RPGs. Whenever a new game is criticized for graphical quality optimization issues, similar controversies will arise.