The default 30fps on its own is a huge improvement, and even when Xbox One dips beneath the target, it's still a night and day improvement over the original game.

It's all a far cry from the original version of the game on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, where performance wasn't particularly impressive at all - with the Microsoft machine by default operating with near constant screen-tearing. Push the game really hard in traversal - especially during the night - and it can dip beneath 50fps, but overall, this is a compelling way to play (and it's not difficult to imagine a full, locked 60fps on Xbox Series X back-compat). However, Xbox One X makes a pretty good fist of hitting the top-end 60fps - and can stay like that for prolonged bouts of play, with only a clutch of dropped frames. Similarly, for PS4 Pro, the game typically lurks in mid-40fps territory. For the base machines in particular, it's not something we can recommend as the variance in frame-rate adds too much inconsistency to the presentation. However, curiously, the options menu gives users the choice to remove the frame-rate cap, allowing the game to run as fast as it can. All versions are typically locked, with only Xbox One S occasionally dipping beneath the target. Out of the box, the game runs at a capped 30 frames per second, with correct frame-pacing, backed by a nice motion blur implementation that gives the impression of a very smooth level of performance overall.

All of the new features delivered by California-based Sperasoft for this new release are present and correct on all console platforms, with the only notable differences coming from rendering resolution.The vanilla Xbox One and PlayStation 4 operate at native 1080p, while their enhanced equivalents bump the pixel count to 1440p. Let's get the basics of out of the way first. Short of a full-on Bluepoint-style remake, you aren't going to get much better than this. If you're gaming on Xbox One X, much of the game can even play out at 60 frames per second. After the disappointment of the Switch conversion, PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One users get the deluxe treatment: there's carefully updated, more detail-rich artwork, a totally revamped lighting model, a switch to physically-based rendering, temporal anti-aliasing/upscaling and a profound improvement in performance. You've got to give credit where it's due - against all expectations, the new remaster of Saints Row The Third isn't just good, it's very special indeed.

Saints row 2 remastered ps4