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The weird and wonderful visuals of Death Stranding on PC

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Death Stranding is one of the few PlayStation 4 titles to have come to the PC, and it has brought with it a whole host of visual upgrades, some of which are exclusive to certain graphics cards. What exactly makes this version of the game so special? Let’s dive into what the PC port has to offer.

Before you boot up Death Stranding, you’re going to want to make sure your graphics cards are fully updated. Kotaku’s Chris Person put together a hilarious video about what might happen if you don’t. Fortunately, the issue seemingly only plagues the most current Nvidia GPUs, and can be fixed simply by making sure the latest drivers are installed.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Once that’s completed is when the magic happens. Any Nvidia RTX card supports DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) 2.0, which allows for some impressive performance increases even on lower-powered cards — a GeForce RTX 2060 is able to run the game at 4K and optimized settings at over 60 frames per second. How is that possible? This technology sets the game at a lower resolution, then uses an A.I. to process the information of each frame, turning 1440p footage into 4K, for example. That means there’s a ton of headroom on the GPU to process other visual improvements.

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It’s not all Timefall and rainbows with this PC port, however. While this version of the game offers higher resolutions and much higher frame rates, the textures themselves are going to be similar to the console version. This means that running the game on an older GPU with a lower-than-4K resolution monitor is going to look nearly identical to the game on a PS4 Pro, save for a few extra frames per second.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The most important differentiator between the game on PlayStation and the game on PC is the support for ultra-wide monitors. With a 21:9 aspect ratio, much more of the game world is viewable. To take full advantage of this feature, the team actually added in details to cutscenes that wouldn’t have been previously available to see. Yoji Shinkawa, the game’s art director, said the console version felt like watching a TV series, while the PC version on an ultra-wide monitor had a filmlike quality.

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All in all, while it may not push the envelope in terms of graphical fidelity, the PC port of Death Stranding marries fantastic style and art direction with interesting, bold new technology, making for a unique experience — so long as you have the graphics card and monitor to support it.

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Tom Caswell
Tom Caswell
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Professional video producer and writer, gaming enthusiast, and streamer! twitch.tv/greatbritom
One of Game Pass’ best titles leaves PC on August 15 and you don’t want to miss it
Sam Porter Bridges and Fragile holding their foreheads together.

While Xbox Game Pass frequently adds new games to its library, some titles do leave the service every fifteen days. Sometimes, those games are fantastic and PC Game Pass will lose a heavy hitter on August 15: Death Stranding. If you aren't familiar with this game, it, ironically, is a PlayStation console exclusive that's part of Microsoft's subscription service only on PC. Death Stranding first released on PS4 in November 2019 and tells a story about a man who is trying to reconnect a post-apocalyptic while dealing with lots of supernatural threats along the way.

It didn't come to PC until July 2020, before that was followed by Death Stranding: Director's Cut for PC and PS5 in the following years. The version of the game that's available through Xbox Game Pass is based on the July 2020 PC release, although it only came to PC Game Pass in August 2022. After a year on Microsoft's subscription service, the deal is up, and it's going to leave on August 15. Death Stranding is a game with a very compelling and socially relevant story and gameplay not quite like anything out there, so Game Pass subscribers who haven't tried this game yet need to before it leaves the service soon. 
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Death Stranding follows the journey of Sam Porter Bridges, the adopted son of the President of the United Cities of America, as he attempts to reconnect what's left of America with a Chiral Network and save his sister. Of course, this game has Kojima's signature eccentricity, as Sam also carries around and starts forming a deeper connection with a baby in a pod (called a BB) that helps him avoid deadly creatures called BTs and gives him visions of a mysterious figure played by Mads Mikkelsen. On that note, Death Stranding has a stacked Hollywood cast as it stars people like Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Margaret Qualley and features characters modeled after Lindsay Wagner, Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and more. 
I'm not a huge fan of this game's melodramatic dialogue exchanges and arduous pacing that leaves a lot of the most interesting reveals for the end. Still, it undeniably has some prescient themes about how important connection is, something that became even more apparent and relevant in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Few video game writers can craft narratives that are as engaging and memorable as the ones in Hideo Kojima's games. Though what I like most about Death Stranding is its gameplay, which isn't quite like anything that came out before or since. 
For the most part, Death Stranding is a game about delivering packages. It initially seemed like a shocking change in style for the man behind the Metal Gear Solid series, but the connections become a bit clearer to me as I had to stealthily avoid BTs and saw the Metal Gear Solid V-level of freedom the game gives players in making deliveries. To maximize profits from deliveries, I have to balance all of the packages in Sam's possession, keeping a close eye on the terrain, and finding the best ways to get Sam to his destination without damaging much of the goods he's carrying.

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Sam Bridges gives a peace sign in Death Stranding: Director's Cut.

Death Stranding: Director's Cut is coming to Mac, Hideo Kojima announced today during WWDC 23. The news came amid a brief gaming section during Apple's annual showcase, which also introduced a new Game Mode for Macs.

During WWDC's gaming block, Apple highlighted how the likes of No Man's Sky and Stray have made their way to Mac before announcing a dedicated Game Mode for Mac that prioritizes the CPU and GPU and minimizes latency on Xbox and PlayStation controllers. Apple also announced the Game Porting Toolkit for Metal, which should make it easier for game developers to bring their games to Mac.
After all that, Apple introduced Kojima, who said he's been an Apple fan since he bought a Mac in 1994 and confirmed that Death Stranding: Director's Cut is coming to Mac. This enhanced version of Kojima's 2019 hit was previously released for PS5 and Windows, with new missions, features like a firing range and racing, and more.
The Mac version of the game will benefit from utilizing technology like Metal 3 and MetalFX Upscaling, although it doesn't seem like Apple fans should expect anything in the way of new content. That will likely be saved for the game's upcoming sequel, Death Stranding 2.
At the end of his segment, Kojima also stated that "we are actively working to bring our future titles to Apple platforms." This potentially hints at the fact that games like Death Stranding 2 and his Xbox-published title could eventually make their way to Apple's devices.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut will launch for Mac on an unspecified date later this year, with preorders opening soon. 

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Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s sequel should go full Death Stranding
Sam Porter walks across a landscape in Death Stranding: Director's Cut.

During my The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom playthrough, I couldn’t stop thinking about Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima’s one-of-a-kind “strand game” sprung to mind every time I crafted an ingenious device that would let me traverse Hyrule more easily. I felt like Sam Porter Bridges laying down ladders and ziplines to cut through the rough landscapes of postapocalyptic America. I kept joking to myself that Tears of the Kingdom is a strand game. The more I see players sharing their creations, though, the more serious I’m becoming about that claim.

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