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Completing the quintet, Kojima Productions ensures a feature-rich PC version of Metal Gear Solid 5 launches on cue - taking pride of place next to well-optimised PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions. The Fox Engine is let loose here, with PC opening the gates to a very high preset in the graphics menu, while adding 'support' for 4K gameplay. But what tangible benefit do these enhancements bring over console, and what hardware do you need to get the best out of them?Of course, the game is already optimised well for 60fps on current-gen specs - both PS4 and Xbox One comfortably handing in a gorgeous open-world setting with only a few rough edges. Texture filtering quality falls short, and shadows can appear coarse, but it's a superb showing for Fox Engine in every other sense. Consoles hit a sweet spot in performance and visuals in this regard, and on PC, this close optimisation effort means we can strike a satisfying level of performance even on budget setups.
Much of this hangs on The Phantom Pain's default graphics setting. Running at 1920x1080 with this mode selected, visuals are near identical to playing the game on PS4, and most enthusiast-level GPUs get solid frame-rates straight out of the box. This mode consists of high settings for textures, lighting, ambient occlusion and post-processing - while texture filtering and shadows are left at just medium (perhaps telling of PS4 and Xbox One's shortfalls here). All this combines to give a great-looking game, though there a couple of further tweaks needed to perfectly match the console look.
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