Alan Wake 2 Update Lets You Disable The PS5 Pro’s Most Defining Feature

Alan Wake 2 has been one of a handful of games that hasn’t gotten off to the best start on Sony’s new PlayStation 5 Pro. Image quality issues, persistent performance wobbles, and challenges with the console’s exclusive AI-upscaling technology, PSSR have all been noted. A new update for the survival-horror game aims to fix most of these issues, some of which boil down to disabling PSSR entirely.

Alan Wake 2 is the first game to allow players to toggle PSSR on or off, with the game falling back to its previous implementation of AMD’s FSR upscaling when disabled. In most instances, PSSR has been an improvement over FSR (which uses linear scaling as opposed to AI-enchanced upscaling), but Alan Wake 2 has been an outlier. In its analysis of the game on PS5 Pro, Digital Foundry observed issues with image quality that FSR handled better. It did, however, note that PSSR was overall a better solution.

It’s clear then that developer Remedy is giving players the option to decide for themselves, letting them omit one of the biggest features of the PS5 Pro entirely if they choose. Included in the patch is a new 40fps mode, too, which balances the image enhancements found in the PS5 Pro Quality mode and the fluidity of the Performance mode if you have a display that supports 120Hz.

Further adjustments to image settings have also been made to the Performance mode to stabilize the frame rate, while other tweaks the to game’s ray-traced reflections should reduce their overall noisy presentation. The update also includes some smaller changes to DLC content, as well as minor fixes across all platforms. It’s available to download now, with the full patch notes listed below.

Improvements and additions

• [PS5 Pro] Added a new “Balanced” graphics mode. This mode requires compatible displays that can achieve a 120Hz refresh rate. The Balanced mode combines PS5 Pro Quality mode settings including raytracing with Performance mode resolution. This mode targets 40fps.
• [PS5 Pro] Slightly adjusted visual settings of the Performance mode to achieve a more consistent framerate.
• [PS5 Pro] Quality and Balanced mode: Adjusted Raytracing settings to achieve a less noisy image.
• [PS5 Pro] Added an option to toggle PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) On/Off.

Fixes

• [The Lake House] Fixed manuscript collectables that showed the wrong page in Saga’s Mind Place.
• [The Lake House] Fixed “Welcome to the Lake House” video collectable missing audio.
• Minor fixes and optimizations.