Hogwarts Legacy Controversial New Remaster is a Surprise We Didn't See Coming

NVIDIA has found itself in the eye of the storm.

Just yesterday, the company unveiled its new DLSS 5 technology which will bring photo-realistic lighting to RTX 50-Series GPUs - a popular PC component.

The technology is expected to roll out in autumn of this year, so we’re talking September to November.

Essentially, DLSS 5 will step away from AI upscaling, instead using colour information and motion vectors to boost photo-realistic imagery, as outlined by Digital Foundry.

You may be wondering what the problem is, especially as DLSS 5 claims to keep all texture and material assets the same as they are in the base game.

Well, despite that, DLSS 5 appears to transform games into ‘yassified slop’ - and Hogwarts Legacy is among them.

The Upcoming Remaster Transforms Hogwarts Legacy Into an Uncanny Valley

Hogwarts Legacy was one the game’s ‘remastered’ in a series of previews by NVIDIA demonstrating the technology, alongside Starfield, Oblivion Remastered, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Resident Evil Requiem.

The end result, however, looks rather phony with many characters suddenly given flawless skin texture, smooth make-up, and an all-around perfect look.

In the Hogwarts Legacy segment of the hands-on, that’s not precisely the case.

Instead the age lines of Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black and Professor Dinah Hecat become far more pronounced but in a way that just looks overly defined.

You may think the overhaul looks good and, of course, each to their own.

I think the problem here though is that DLSS 5 appears to forget that not everything needs to look crisp, clean, and photorealistic.

Warner Bros

Hogwarts Legacy boasts decent graphics, but it’s not quite as lifelike as, say, The Last of Us Part II or Death Stranding as a couple of great examples that spring to mind.

I’d argue that doesn’t matter though. Have we completely lost our ability to immerse ourselves in a world if a cheek bone doesn’t reflect light in the exact same manner it might in real life?

A quick trip over to the comments section on YouTube and you’ll see exactly what Hogwarts Legacy fans think.

“Can’t wait for my character's face to change from scene to scene,” read one comment.

“Holy uncanny valley,” added another.

“Harry put the AI TikTok filter on this game, Dumbledore said calmly,” read one that made me chuckle.

“Oh boy. This looks so bad I thought I time travelled to 1 April,” remarked one more gamer. Oof.

I wonder if NVIDIA will take this one back to the drawing board or proceed as planned.

I know we all said Hogwarts Legacy was crying out for post-launch content, but this isn’t exactly what we had in mind.