I don't think they're conspiracies. I'm relatively new to DF, and subbed their channel because I find their technical analysis interesting. I can pick and choose what I care to believe from it, but the content is good IMO.
However, I think their critics have justification for feeling their system of choice is unfairly treated, as there are legitimate inconsistencies in the videos. PS reveal videos got wacky zoom, and speculation on framerates. The showcase demo of the MS show didn't get that same level of detail. We can all agree the game looked disappointing, but you don't need DF to tell you that. The zoom and framerate talk was expected to the same degree as the PS show, even if it meant picking apart a turd. That stink isn't supposed to be DF's concern, they'd merely be consistent in quality of analysis.
Similarly, there were no mentions of what made FF16 look so underwhelming, along the same lines as Halo. FF clearly suffers from poor lighting, among other missing effects, but while Halo got an entire video dedicated to pointing out how the poor lighting impacted the overall visuals, FF received no such treatment.
In the Hitman2 analysis, the worst portion of the benchmark shifted from the easy-to-read frame counter to a percentage based readout, which could be inferred as masking how bad the framerate truly was for an extended portion of that scene. IIRC, that section was also sped up, making the duration of those framerate drops seem less.
These aren't conspiracies so much as these are notable inconsistencies in presentation. I mentioned how trusted review/analyst sites make a point of creating standards when generating their content, as to provide comparable results, and to avoid the impression of bias. DF isn't some upstart review site trying to gain its footing, and establish its reputation. They've been around long enough to know better, and these are grown men who should be open to constructive criticism in order to allow themselves to improve. They don't seem to be heeding any of the feedback, which isn't helping to improve their standing with their critics. They might not care to do so, and that's their prerogative. However, I don't think you can write off criticism of their methods as just conspiracies, because I think that diminishes the claims of bias, that DF themselves have opened themselves up to with their continued sloppy approach to graphics analysis. It is what it is.
Laptop or Surface, IMO. Though I admit I have no idea why a laptop would be shown separate from a PC. Maybe because it's a mobile PC?
blog.playstation.com
