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Observer |OT| Blade Walker

Zemm

Member
It's up on the UK PSN store. £29.99/£26.99 with PS+

A bit dearer than the Xbox and PC versions.

£7 more expensive than the PC version. Why? Taking the piss. I have PSN credit but not going to waste it on this, will wait for it to come down to where it should be.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
£7 more expensive than the PC version. Why? Taking the piss. I have PSN credit but not going to waste it on this, will wait for it to come down to where it should be.

I've taken to twitter to ask. If they don't have a reason then they can shove it up their arse and i'll buy it for 6 quid in a sale in a year or so.
 

d00d3n

Member
As someone who loves cyberpunk sci fi but hates horror, will I enjoy this?

I am in the same situation and decided to wait. Several of the "dreams" have some kind of monster that hunts you, if I understand things correctly. I was too freaked out to get past the two chase sequences in Resident Evil 7, so I am thinking that this game will probably be too much for me to handle.
 

kaiju

Member
As someone who loves cyberpunk sci fi but hates horror, will I enjoy this?

I would say so. I don't want to spoil anything but even the horror is pretty damn cyberpunk and cool as hell. Some of the jump scares early on are out of the "WTF just happened!" variety.

Like seriously, there are some trippy awesome unforgettable stuff going on. So much fun.

If you're still on the fence, watch this playthrough of the demo.
 

GavinUK86

Member
how are the graphics on PC?

GORGEOUS. Caps to emphasize how pretty it is. But, it's very post processing heavy. CA, lens flares, blurring etc. If you hate all that stuff, you might not like how this looks, but they've done a good job with making it all mean something in regards to the story and setting.

These are from the beginning so there's no spoilers in them. PC on maximum settings.
theobserver-win64-shizaque.png
theobserver-win64-shi67ofs.png
theobserver-win64-shix6okx.png
theobserver-win64-shimupk9.png
 

pakkit

Banned
nice!...how do the PC graphics compare to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice?

More visual effects. Senua's Sacrifice did plenty to create a sense of psychosis, but its Celtic setting limited how far Ninja Theory could go with it. Bloober Team's cyberpunk Krakow is untethered by such limitations. They really throw the entire kitchen sink at the player as far as visual effects go. It's continuously impressive so far.

The models, while good, have nowhere near the fidelity that Senua did in her performance. And the lip syncing in Observer is pretty poor overall. Luckily, it's pretty rare that you'll encounter characters face to face.

Environmentally, however, the game is stunning, and the dream sequences so far remind me of the indie game Naissancee with its wild structures and constant reinvention. Senua's Sacrifice, despite having incredible detail in its textures, didn't build its world for players to mind the details. It's not a game where you'll obsess over a certain object places conspicuously in a room. Observer is that. They've paid attention to making sure each room feels lived in and has certain key items or secrets that tell you more about the inhabitants and their world.

Also Observer runs better on my rig than Hellblade, but that makes sense since its not aiming for photorealism.

EDIT: For those asking about if they should get this game if they hate horror. No. It's definitely terrifying. But there are very few sequences where you can die/fail, so I'm soldiering on. I can do scary as long as it isn't too gratuitous or too much "hide from the horror" gameplay.
 

TitusTroy

Member
More visual effects. Senua's Sacrifice did plenty to create a sense of psychosis, but its Celtic setting limited how far Ninja Theory could go with it. Bloober Team's cyberpunk Krakow is untethered by such limitations. They really throw the entire kitchen sink at the player as far as visual effects go. It's continuously impressive so far.

The models, while good, have nowhere near the fidelity that Senua did in her performance. And the lip syncing in Observer is pretty poor overall. Luckily, it's pretty rare that you'll encounter characters face to face.

Environmentally, however, the game is stunning, and the dream sequences so far remind me of the indie game Naissancee with its wild structures and constant reinvention. Senua's Sacrifice, despite having incredible detail in its textures, didn't build its world for players to mind the details. It's not a game where you'll obsess over a certain object places conspicuously in a room. Observer is that. They've paid attention to making sure each room feels lived in and has certain key items or secrets that tell you more about the inhabitants and their world.

Also Observer runs better on my rig than Hellblade, but that makes sense since its not aiming for photorealism.

EDIT: For those asking about if they should get this game if they hate horror. No. It's definitely terrifying. But there are very few sequences where you can die/fail, so I'm soldiering on. I can do scary as long as it isn't too gratuitous or too much "hide from the horror" gameplay.

so you're saying that overall Senua's Sacrifice has the better graphics as far as textures etc while Observer has the better environmental detail?
 

BearPawB

Banned
Loving this game so far.

Several hours in at this point.

The scare factor isn't very high, but the world building is top notch.

Love it
 

pakkit

Banned
so you're saying that overall Senua's Sacrifice has the better graphics as far as textures etc while Observer has the better environmental detail?

Right, as you'd expect from a FPP game. And Observer has a bigger bag of tricks as far as visual effects/trickery goes.
 

Gold_Loot

Member
Any info on console performance (ps4,ps4 pro, xbo)? Does it run at 60 or 30 fps? Thanks.
Just played a bit on PS4 pro. From what I see, the game targets 60 fps and hits it quite a bit. Usually see the game run at about 50-55 which is fine really.

Only bummer is some hitching when loading new areas but it only lasts a few seconds.

One odd touch is like the filtering and frame rate gets really nutty when you need to take your meds. It's almost like it's by design.
 

gfdoom

Member
Just played a bit on PS4 pro. From what I see, the game targets 60 fps and hits it quite a bit. Usually see the game run at about 50-55 which is fine really.

Only bummer is some hitching when loading new areas but it only lasts a few seconds.

One odd touch is like the filtering and frame rate gets really nutty when you need to take your meds. It's almost like it's by design.

awesome, thanks for the info!
 

wamberz1

Member
A few hours in, just got past
the second dreameater sequence.
This game really has mastered the art of trippy first person horror sequences. Every time I think I'm near the end it keeps going and going... and they're just phenomenal presentation-wise.

While there is certainly jumpscares (and a lot of them) none of them except 2 have really gotten me so far.
 

GavinUK86

Member
Holy shit I just opened
a cupboard door and a fucking suit with a gas mask and shit just fell out and I almost fell off my fucking chair
.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Monster chases? As in SOMA?

They're not chases (more like encounters) and they're not annoying if that's what you're afraid of. They were annoying for me in SOMA, because I felt like they interfered too much with enjoying the story. Here they're okay. Maybe near the end of the game they went a little bit too far
with having to avoid the monster several times in a row
but like I've already said earlier being stealthy in this game is easy. The only thing that might piss you off is that there's an achievement for finishing the game without dying so you must be more careful if you're trying to unlock it, because there are no manual saves.
 
Two hours in and I'm loving it. The VA is a little clunky but otherwise the storytelling is top notch.

If anyone's wondering, this is a genuine cyberpunk story and not just an exercise in aesthetics.
 

Lagamorph

Member
Thought someone had said this was £23.99 on the Xbox store. Weird that it's £26.99 on PSN, and that's only with Plus discount, otherwise it's £29.99 so a noticeable chunk more expensive than the US $29.99
 

Paragon

Member
What's performance like on PC?
Seems to be very demanding. Runs about 35-50 FPS most of the time on high at 3440x1440 with a GTX 1070.
Reducing settings other than dropping the resolution scale to half didn't seem to do a lot, and that results in a very blurry image.

It's frustrating that the game needs modded to support ultrawide, and lacks standard UE4 options like FoV and a resolution scale slider.
Your only options are to change the FoV between Vert- or Hor+ via a config file, and set resolution scale to 'half', 'full', or 'uber' in the menus.
At 'half' resolution scale it's running ~100 FPS most of the time, rather than 35-50.
Though I hate sub-native rendering of any kind, if I could drop it to something in-between 'half' and 'full' resolution, and sharpen the image with something like ReShade, that might be a better compromise.

Since you can't adjust the FoV - only switch it between Vert- or Hor+ (why did Epic have to make the default for UE4 Vert- ?) your only options are a really tight crop or an excessively-wide FoV:
Unmodded: game pillarboxes anything wider than 16:9
standard3ysjg.png


Modded to support ultrawide, Vert-
uw-vert-0dsiq.png


Modded to support ultrawide, Hor+
uw-hor04svt.png
 

psychotron

Member
I knew nothing about this game until I just saw ACG put up a review. Sci-Fi? Horror? I'm all over this!! I love when great games come out of nowhere.
 

Lagamorph

Member
When is this coming to PSN EU?!
It's there now for me.

You have to search for Observer_ rather than just Observer though when using the web store.

Has there been any answer on the the PSN version is more expensive than the Xbox version yet?
 

Anung

Un Rama
I was down to pick this up but that price is just too expensive for me right now so I'll probably just wait for a deep sale.

Layers of Fear is like 5 quid now anyway so I'll just pick that up.
 

tesqui

Member
Beat the game last night. I overall really enjoyed it. I personally don't think it's as scary as Amnesia or Soma. I wasn't going in to be scared though, I was interested in the story and atmosphere and that was all top notch. I think it's also one of the best looking first person horror type games I've ever seen.

The game has a few hide from monster sequences, but it's not as prevelent as something like Soma. I can appreciate that because those sequences are never the best. Thankfully they're pretty forgiving in this game.
 

Exentryk

Member
Just spent 30 mins on this and good lord this game is dripping with atmosphere! And it's all so unique and fascinating too! Can't wait to play more tomorrow.

Btw, anyone wanna buy a Polymath-31A?


ArcticJoyfulCanary.gif
 

nOoblet16

Member
Game seems to have incredible atmosphere and I love cyberpunk.

But..I hate Jump scares and I especially hate "hiDr from monster" gameplay. It's why I never touched Soma despite hearing so much about its story, but someday I'll get it on PC and use that mod that disables all enemies.

As for jump scares I played though Resident Evil 7 and Prey despite that because you atleast become powerful in that game so that after a point it just doesn't matter. But if this is a game that requires you to walk and hide and shit then as much as I want to...I won't play it.
 

Pjsprojects

Member
Wow (good graphics) just played up to getting the first door code...
The game runs well on AMD hardware but as already mentioned no ultrawide support. Also while looking at the ini file I noticed a line for HDR,is this just a default like for Unreal engine?

Not my cup of tea so far but going to carry on just to get out of the block of flats you start in.
 

PaulLFC

Member
I've taken to twitter to ask. If they don't have a reason then they can shove it up their arse and i'll buy it for 6 quid in a sale in a year or so.
Noticed EA are doing this too with NBA - £35 on XBL (£31.50 with EA Access), but over £40 on PSN. Granted, it's EA.
 

pksu

Neo Member
GORGEOUS. Caps to emphasize how pretty it is. But, it's very post processing heavy. CA, lens flares, blurring etc. If you hate all that stuff, you might not like how this looks, but they've done a good job with making it all mean something in regards to the story and setting.

These are from the beginning so there's no spoilers in them. PC on maximum settings.
I almost hope someone would have patented the emulation of CA in video games to avoid usage like this...

Game seems interesting though, might need to pick it up later on.
 
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