Support NeoGAF

[CatLady]

I think a lot of it is just fake concern and being used as jabs by people who will never play this game

There are several people in this thread so desperate to downplay just how stunning Hellblade 2 looks and I think all that fake concern stems from the fact that it's not on their favorite plastic box and/or because they aren't able play Hellblade 2.

I will agree her face is not quite as good as the original reveal, but it is still breathtaking and lightyears beyond any other cinematic games so far this gen.

 

[Sosokrates]

For the sand part we'll need to see the camera closer to the ground to be sure. For the plants it does seem like a downgrade maybe the light need to be in another position. For the rest I will answer tomorrow my phone keeps autocorrecting

Its a silly comparison anyway, its comparing cutscenes to gameplay.
Thought somone would of pointed this out.

 

[kingfey]

No that trolls skin when you first see it does look like some current gen games I've seen. Yes the trailer looked amazing and the environment looks great but it doesn't match the original reveal. It doesn't exceed it anywhere. I'm not sure if it looks better than HW.

HW heavily relies on lightning, to show how impressive the graphics is.

HB2 on other hand shows how the game looks on dark environments.

Both are impressive games.

 

[Sosokrates]

It looks amazing but why would you blame people for being annoyed by yet another example of developers misleading us with a trailer that's better looking than the actual game? It seems like a natural reaction to point out this fact. Like, I get it, maybe you don't mind this practice of downgrading but it's not unreasonable for others to be peeved by it.

Just because the visuals look great and are some of the best I've ever seen doesn't give them a pass. I don't remember the devs coming out and telling everyone who thought the original trailer was how the game would look saying "keep your expectations in check guys, it's not gonna look THIS good!" No, and the reason was because they're trying to generate hype. The devs and MS are consciously trying to mislead with that "running on Series X" mumbo jumbo.

I would love to see just ONCE a game get an "upgrade" at release but of course that never happens.

RDR2 surpassed expectations.

 

[azertydu91]

Its a silly comparison anyway, its comparing cutscenes to gameplay.
Thought somone would of pointed this out.

I don't know some people were adamant that the reveal trailer was just like gameplay. I just want to see less scripted gameplay or another way to tackle this ennemy showing variety in approach, the first one was great but was a bit lacking in the gameplay part and I hoped this one would be way better and that remains to be seen.

 

[kingfey]

I think a lot of it is just fake concern and being used as jabs by people who will never play this game

Spot on. Same as others who mock Sony cinematic games.

When I played tlou2, spiderman and gow, I could feel the characters emotions. Usually these are hard to do in gaming.

 

[Kagero]

Coming from a Sony guy I thought this game looked phenomenal. Haven't felt this way since The Order and that crappy Spartan game from the XBONE. Also, maybe Wukong from this year. Impressive stuff here.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Considering that it is in-game (DF did not say but other people tweeted that it was indeed in game) then I would say that pretty much nailed the cinematic gaming as transitions from gameplay and animation were pretty much seamless. It did not feel like the game at all but rather interactive movies.

 

[kbear]

No that trolls skin when you first see it does look like some current gen games I've seen. Yes the trailer looked amazing and the environment looks great but it doesn't match the original reveal. It doesn't exceed it anywhere. I'm not sure if it looks better than HW.

^ Another one. Check his post history. Only 57 posts but it’s all hardcore fanboying including dropping “M$“ lol.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It looks amazing but why would you blame people for being annoyed by yet another example of developers misleading us with a trailer that's better looking than the actual game? It seems like a natural reaction to point out this fact. Like, I get it, maybe you don't mind this practice of downgrading but it's not unreasonable for others to be peeved by it.

Just because the visuals look great and are some of the best I've ever seen doesn't give them a pass. I don't remember the devs coming out and telling everyone who thought the original trailer was how the game would look saying "keep your expectations in check guys, it's not gonna look THIS good!" No, and the reason was because they're trying to generate hype. The devs and MS are consciously trying to mislead with that "running on Series X" mumbo jumbo.

I would love to see just ONCE a game get an "upgrade" at release but of course that never happens.

Okay, it seems like you're too emotionally invested in a disappointment you more or less set up for yourself because,

1: NT didn't mislead anyone. Everyone was told pretty much from the beginning the 2019 trailer was in-engine. Meaning, they were using the (UE4, mind you) engine to display that content, with typical game logic pared down and highest LOD assets in use (higher than even the highest typical LOD assets for a game's actual gameplay). If there was any misleading, it was coming from people claiming the 2019 trailer was CG, because that would've implied it was not even rendered with the game engine, but instead on a rack of rendering farms and utilizing NURBS, similar to a Pixar CG film.

2: Almost everyone who's been claiming there's a downgrade has failed to display any ability to explain or articulate what elements specifically appear downgraded, in a way that either can't be easily refuted on technical grounds, or doesn't turn out to be a very loaded subjective reading on their part that they conflate as being technical/objective.

And regardless, none of them have made arguments taking into consideration the developer's own artistic intents, in fact some are using that as a way to suggest the developers are hiding glaring, massive visual shortcomings that..they...can't even explain what they are

That's fine and all, but not the point; whether or not it's on par with the earlier teaser. I guess anyone who mentions such differences in other lookers, like Horizon Forbidden West, has an agenda too? Why this game should get a free pass all of a sudden, when these things have been scrutinized for ages?

They might? If they're using similar tactics to try implying H:FW has had a massive downgrade, using stupidly exaggerated language, trying to compare shots that have many subtle nuanced differences as if they represent the exact same thing, imply reducing in character model geometry when the characters look practically the same, etc., then yes at the very least they are in the wrong for that just like the people doing it for HB II.

Also, just because someone may be doing that for another game doesn't justify people doing it with HB II; it's a shitty set of strawmen to argue on behalf of in general regardless of the game being subjected to it.

Clearly I was talking about the looks of the gameplay trailer versus the non-gameplay one.

And in both cases you were wrong.

Shes not deeper.
And the thought did occur that they could be different plants. However translucency in plants is more expensive. It appears in the xsx version of FH5 but not the last gen versions.
Also the individual grains of sand where not seen in the gameplay demo.

Also why dont u apply the same criticism to hellblade 2? The situations are pretty different, different lighting, her skin is wet etc.

I...have been applying that same criticism (I would say defense) to Hellblade II ITT? That's been pretty much 90% of my posts here .

Now, I have to rewatch the Horizon: Forbidden West new footage again but I was making that statement based on the screencaps provided. And the reason why is because a lot of people have been using screengrabs to somehow "justify" their takes on HB II being heavily downgraded, not taking into consideration the things you seem to have mistakingly figured I was not taking into consideration (but in fact have actually been doing the whole time).

Now just to be clear, you ARE talking about the May 2021 footage for H:FW compared to the new footage they showed last night, right? Or are you comparing the May 2021 SoP footage to the June 2020 footage?

 

[Clear]

It looks amazing but why would you blame people for being annoyed by yet another example of developers misleading us with a trailer that's better looking than the actual game? It seems like a natural reaction to point out this fact. Like, I get it, maybe you don't mind this practice of downgrading but it's not unreasonable for others to be peeved by it.

Its not a deliberate thing, its simply the way development works. Please check my posts earlier in this thread as to why it happens.

its going to happen more often than not, but you can see it happen particularly when preview footage is created early in the production cycle. Predicting resource cost for features not yet implemented is not an exact science, and its practically impossible to have all features implemented until very late in development.

Also if you want to get a feel for the sorts of deltas you are likely to see, then you need to analyse carefully each component within each demo sequence. How complex and expansive is the scene geometry, is it a single highly detailed asset or is there loads of stuff that seems likely to be part of a bigger adventure unused in the background. How many "actor" characters are there within the scene, are they interacting with one-another in a manner that seems dynamic and reactive. Same with any actions and fx, do they appear reactive to the rest of the scene or are they canned/pre-calced animations.

These are the most important things to look at, because it never should be forgotten that the goal is the overall impression and experience. Doing stuff precisely -simulating everything- is not necessarily advantageous, what you want is the effect accomplished as efficiently as possible. Because if you can "fake" double the impact for half the cost of doing it "for real", its a no-brainer to go with the illusion.

 

[Sosokrates]

I don't know some people were adamant that the reveal trailer was just like gameplay. I just want to see less scripted gameplay or another way to tackle this ennemy showing variety in approach, the first one was great but was a bit lacking in the gameplay part and I hoped this one would be way better and that remains to be seen.

Because they are either retarded or just trying to shit on the game.

The first HB2 trailer was a tech demo running on a XSX.

Reminds me of this.

 

[Sanepar]

It looks great like the first, but I can't see what is special on this game, Tried the first one 3 times... 4-5 hours and is boring, bad combat, boring puzzles...
Beside graphics nothing holds my attention anim still bad.

 

[sncvsrtoip]

lol I said the same thing as soon as I saw the black bars. I was like this game is FILMIC!!

I am a big fan of Ninja Theory. I loved Heavenly Sword. I even liked DMC, but man Hellblade 1 was a misfire and I really dont like where this is going. This studio is clearly extremely talented, but this is way too on-rails. Shouldve shown some combat sections. The first game's combat was simple but still kinda entertaining and very cinematic. The first game didnt have any of these setpieces so maybe thats what they are trying to show off here.


Yep. Aside from the face, i dont see anything else being downgraded. That gif looks incredible.

Even if its all on rails but keep this level of fidelity + add some varition in environment it will be unmatch graphicaly, I had admiration for Order 1886, I will also have for Hellblade 2

 

[DaGwaphics]

Looks fantastic to me. Will be interesting to see more of it. Face at the end of the trailer looks very good, IMO.

Edit: Sorry for the tiny IMG, IMGBB acting weird today.

 

[Falc67]

I think a lot of it is just fake concern and being used as jabs by people who will never play this game

Cant speak for anyone else. But I’ve always maintained that the original reveal was the best ‘in engine’ graphics I’d ever seen. For a game. Still is. People thought i was console warring in favour of Xbox (when I only have a PS5).

having said that. It is slightly downgraded. Be it gameplay whatever. Still looks great. My only problem is the 4K videos I’ve seen look blurry!!? Am I missing something. It’s making me not want to watch it again.

 

[Sosokrates]

Cant speak for anyone else. But I’ve always maintained that the original reveal was the best ‘in engine’ graphics I’d ever seen. For a game. Still is. People thought i was console warring in favour of Xbox (when I only have a PS5).

having said that. It is slightly downgraded. Be it gameplay whatever. Still looks great. My only problem is the 4K videos I’ve seen look blurry!!? Am I missing something. It’s making me not want to watch it again.

How can somthing be downgraded when its a different thing?

If Phil said : this is gameplay, running on xsx, then yes this is downgraded, but its not, comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Falc67]

How can somthing be downgraded when its a different thing?

If Phil said : this is gameplay, running on xsx, then yes this is downgraded, but its not, comparing apples to oranges.

Don’t care. Doesn’t look as good as the reveal.

Still looks exceptional though. Environments looks photorealistic.

But again. I’m I the only one finding it slightly blurry? What’s the best 4K video to watch on?

 

[kbear]

But again. I’m I the only one finding it slightly blurry? What’s the best 4K video to watch on?

Not just you, I’ve mentioned the blur thing a few times as well. It’s strange. You can see there’s details on her face that we’re not seeing due to the weird blur masking it. At first I thought it was because the video was low res or compressed or something. Maybe they have some sort of filter applied, no idea.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

No that trolls skin when you first see it does look like some current gen games I've seen. Yes the trailer looked amazing and the environment looks great but it doesn't match the original reveal. It doesn't exceed it anywhere. I'm not sure if it looks better than HW.

Really? This legit looks almost real.

 

[HieroglyphicMonk]

HW heavily relies on lightning, to show how impressive the graphics is.

HB2 on other hand shows how the game looks on dark environments.

Both are impressive games.

Yea I have no doubt HB2 is going to be one of the best if not best looking games we see possibly this generation. I really do think that face is terrible though and I bet they upgrade it.

I think expectations are high because of the 1st Hellblade.

Really? This legit looks almost real.

In the dark yes parts of it look great I'm curious what it will look like in the light. To me the clothing and lighting don't look as good as that unreal demo but I think it looks great. I think with mid gen refreshes that will up games from 60-120 fps or 30-60 graphics won't be to big of a deal and gameplay and mechanics should take the biggest emphasis on future games.

 

[Negotiator101]

Like this, for example. It matches or exceeds all non-close up face shots in the initial trailer.

Oh it looks Incredible that's for sure, NT have raised the bar! but when is this releasing?

 

[Gavon West]

It doesn’t look as good as the og video imo - I mean I guess in some ways similar but not as good. I’d be surprised if it ends up looking this good when it comes out tho this is still seems unbelievable to me

See, I can see this kind of comment when they released the teaser two years ago. It was a target. But they specifically stated that this was gameplay. This is how the game will look - if not better.

 

[Gavon West]

Good looking for sure. Perhaps one of the most impressive environments to date. But senua's model is nowhere near the quality of the original reveal. Knew it was too good to be true.

You MUST be high. lol. I dont care if it was downgraded -- it was downgraded to the best looking console game to date! No game even touches this. Like, just look at how natural her hair and clothing sway when she runs. The mo cap is top tier! Not animations - those were actual performances. I'm still shook from it.

 

[Gavon West]

Because her face was one of the primary focuses of the non-interactive cutscene showed. This, however, showcased scripted, player controllable gameplay.

Without getting into the small stuff, there are clearly scenes from this trailer that exceed the first, and then there are aspects that don't appear to match the first, but there hasn't been any actual downgrade to speak of that anyone has been able to convincingly point out. It's an entirely different scene with an entirely different form of lighting. There are many parts of this footage that showcase the quality of the actual character model is still present from the reveal footage, but now you're seeing that model in gameplay interactivity with what appears to be some pretty nice motion blur and whatever other techniques they're using.

You see how amazing her character model is down to cloth and materials and animation when she falls to the ground after they light that fire trap. You again see obvious signs of the quality as she makes it to her destination. People are kidding themselves with trying to downplay how good this looks for actual interactive gameplay. It looked amazing folks.

Truly staggering, yes. This hit in the same way the Bethesda acquisition hit. Like, game changing, ground breaking shit!

 

[93xfan]

Good looking for sure. Perhaps one of the most impressive environments to date. But senua's model is nowhere near the quality of the original reveal. Knew it was too good to be true.

Could be the difference between in game cutscenes and in game gameplay. There’s always a major difference between the 2 models.

 

[oldergamer]

lol, not this guy again

I was asking oldergamer for the link to where Epic stated that the first HB2 teaser was real-time because while the game looks amazing, the facial model downgrade from the first teaser proves Alex's guess that the first teaser wasn't running in real-time. 24FPS was the giveaway, I don't know how people didn't catch on to that.

I dont recall it running 24fps. However the matrix demo is also doing that. That isnt a give away at all. There was some video presentation where epic mentioned it i think.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Looks great without a doubt. Where's the gameplay tho? Like really, most of that gameplay trailer was walking or cutscenes.

Man I'm so tired of the cinematic formula... But game's on the pass, so I'll give it a go as long as it comes to the pc pass too.

For what I little saw of the first one (some friend playing it) that game had some puzzles and combat. I hope this one will be the same or better in that aspect, and not just a walking and watch shit happen sim.

 

[remember_spinal]

People are being too sensitive about the reception of this game because they put so much hope and ambition on it for no reason. The first game was a indie game that happened to look really good and do some interesting narrative things, but the gameplay was very much stuck on a shoe string budget.

people have a right to question the “gameplay” of this because many did not like the gameplay of the first game and was hoping microsoft would be dumping more money into improving its biggest weak spot.

a lot of xbox fans have been saying this is gonna be microsoft god of war or “sony narrative” game and people ignore that sony games actually do have good gameplay. They arenot just these contextual prompts to guide you through the narrative and cutscenes. They have intricate stealth, AI, combo and progression systems.

maybe this game is just not meant to be played that way and it’s probably the sooner the scope is revealed the better.

 

[Werewolfgrandma]

Wrong thread

 

[TheGodfather07]

People are being too sensitive about the reception of this game because they put so much hope and ambition on it for no reason. The first game was a indie game that happened to look really good and do some interesting narrative things, but the gameplay was very much stuck on a shoe string budget.

people have a right to question the “gameplay” of this because many did not like the gameplay of the first game and was hoping microsoft would be dumping more money into improving its biggest weak spot.

a lot of xbox fans have been saying this is gonna be microsoft god of war or “sony narrative” game and people ignore that sony games actually do have good gameplay. They arenot just these contextual prompts to guide you through the narrative and cutscenes. They have intricate stealth, AI, combo and progression systems.

maybe this game is just not meant to be played that way and it’s probably the sooner the scope is revealed the better.

yeah the pressure on ninja theory is too much. they made a interesting indie game depiciting mental illness but i have seen people say they are at a naughty dog or santa monica level and thats just a bit too much pressure. they are not at that level. if anyone thinks so, i would like to know the reasoning.

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

Absolutely incredible visuals. Geniunely might be the best looking video game, in terms of realism, I've ever seen.

Hoping the gameplay is improved in this one. I couldn't finish the first game, the combat and puzzle solving were both pretty boring to me

 

[T0minator]

People are crazy if they don't think this game looks completely amazing and fully next gen. People are also crazy if they think it looks the same as the original reveal. Obviously not up to that level. But it doesn't have to be it's completely amazing what they have achieved I'm hoping for a long expansive experience. The original was hard for me to get into but I'm sure they know they're going to have a way bigger audience with this title. They're going for their best with this one

 

[Represent.]

looks good but im disappointed because of the downgrade. they shouldnt have shown that.

Killzone 2 effect.

 

[Werewolfgrandma]

No downgrade, obvious earlier was "in engine". Game looks fantastic. Maybe best looking I've seen in some aspects. Wouldn't call that gameplay though.

 

[VFXVeteran]

Excellent gameplay video (no HUD)! I see they have highly detailed geometry like in UE5 demo. Weak points are the animation and the characters lack SSS. They have finally cracked fire FX! They were very close in the first one and this iteration, they got it down. Fire is extremely hard to get right outside of using offline techniques and not a single studio has spent money to get it right until now. Very talented studio. Looking forward to playing it.

 

[HieroglyphicMonk]

^ Another one. Check his post history. Only 57 posts but it’s all hardcore fanboying including dropping “M$“ lol.

M$ ok... Funny thing is I think original Xbox had the best gaming library of any console. Last 2 gets of Xbox have made me feel like their games have been going down hill.

 

[itsjustJEFF]

Because her face was one of the primary focuses of the non-interactive cutscene showed. This, however, showcased scripted, player controllable gameplay.

Without getting into the small stuff, there are clearly scenes from this trailer that exceed the first, and then there are aspects that don't appear to match the first, but there hasn't been any actual downgrade to speak of that anyone has been able to convincingly point out. It's an entirely different scene with an entirely different form of lighting. There are many parts of this footage that showcase the quality of the actual character model is still present from the reveal footage, but now you're seeing that model in gameplay interactivity with what appears to be some pretty nice motion blur and whatever other techniques they're using.

You see how amazing her character model is down to cloth and materials and animation when she falls to the ground after they light that fire trap. You again see obvious signs of the quality as she makes it to her destination. People are kidding themselves with trying to downplay how good this looks for actual interactive gameplay. It looked amazing folks.

I agree, it looks amazing.... but it doesn't touch the reveal trailer. Let be real folks, it just does not touch the reveal... we can justify and rationalize all we want. The fact is it does not match the reveal, it just DOES NOT. Be objective, PS/Xbox/RockStar/Ubisoft/EA... it does NOT MATCH. Lets be honest here, If it was Rock Star, Ubisoft, EA and not PS or Xbox it would be shit on even harder and that's the truth. Call shit out for what it is, that's all.

 

[itsjustJEFF]

It's fanboy glasses to point out nuanced contextual differences in two headshots from the two trailers that would in themselves explain why certain details are different, that don't boil down to raging 'OMG DAAHUUNGWAADE!!"?

Also the initial trailer was in-engine. Yes it was "real-time" but not in the way real-time is described when talking about actual player-controlled gameplay segments. And again, another post among many trying (and failing) to use adverbs in a specific, definitive context to imply larger shortcoming between the new footage and the 2019 footage than has actually manifested.

And again as usual, the people who do it, will never specify what they've observed and weighed to come to those conclusions. At least, they don't seem able to mention anything that can't be easily refuted.



Yeah, it is very weird. But also getting more obvious as to why some are taking this extreme POV, the more they keep posting.

That said I still don't see the downgrade in facial animations being mentioned. If there are any, it's only due to the fact the 2019 trailer was in-engine (therefore afforded the highest possible LODs, among other things) while the recent one is gameplay. But the events in the new trailer, even if some are vaguely similar to the 2019 one, have a lot of specifically different, subtle nuances and that goes for both the enemies and protagonists.

In the case of the latter like Senua, that means slightly different facial expressions, including ones that won't be as pronounced as the yelling seen near the end of the 2019 trailer. But really, this is a smaller nitpick and while the two of us may disagree a bit on the faces, you've been legions more reasoned and sensible in that regard than the people who are trying to say the game's clearly had a big downgrade or doesn't look visually impressive whatsoever.



Probably sometime H1 2023. Very late 2022 is a fringe possibility but wouldn't count on that.



Could you guys do the world a favor and learn how emotional states, weather conditions, and lighting conditions affect the minute composition of facial muscles and, therefore, the skin that sits atop of them? 'Ya know kinda like how that stuff causes differences in this thing called "real life"?



To be fair, I wouldn't say this is a downgrade; different part of the ocean most likely, meaning she would be in a location that isn't 100% the same composition as the shot above. She appears deeper under, and therefore shadow will be more pronounced.

If anything the newer shot has more foilage and also due to that increased foliage density, there wouldn't be as many fish freely swimming about. Otherwise geometry density appears exactly the same between the two shots.

Thicc... I agree with you most times, but lest be honest here... if your first response was "that looks as amazing as the reveal" come on dude. If later you had to justify it with "lighting" or "in-engine" or something else... that just making excuses... it is what it is.

I'm a feel kind of guy. I watched the reveal trailer, my feelings "Holy SHIT... that looks amazing" My feelings after that trailer "Oh... that looks good" that's a big difference.

 

[makaveli60]

This was the most nextgen looking thing after Matrix. Though it severely lacked “gameplay” (when you control the character)

 

[Balducci30]

See, I can see this kind of comment when they released the teaser two years ago. It was a target. But they specifically stated that this was gameplay. This is how the game will look - if not better.

I’m willing to be proven wrong I’ve seen downgrades before from gameplay videos

 

[3liteDragon]

I dont recall it running 24fps. However the matrix demo is also doing that. That isnt a give away at all. There was some video presentation where epic mentioned it i think.

Is the Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 teaser truly a taste of next-gen power?

We've seen snippets of Halo Infinite over the last couple of years, but the recent reveal of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 …

www.eurogamer.net

But what if it were real-time? The raw specs of the trailer file itself are intriguing. If you look at the metadata of the video - it is mastered at just 24 frames per second and the actual resolution of the rendered frame between the cinematic black bars is 3840x1608: so a little more than 74 per cent of a 'real' 4K in spatial resolution and at 80 per cent of 30fps. All together, that is 60 per cent of the amount of pixels pushed per second compared to 4K30 - and something that's decidedly easier to render than you may expect.

Normally, you can see distant geometry in-game either deform due to real-time tessellation forming their detail or you can see patches of geometry snap or fade into higher detail as the camera advances. Sure, next generation consoles will see new techniques for culling geometry, or in how they manage level of detail - but the perfection of geometric detail at all distances is an aspect of the trailer that makes me think it is pre-rendered and won't look quite like this in the shipping game. I can imagine the assets looking this good at LODs closest to the camera, but the perfection seen in the trailer would be a staggering achievement.

And the Matrix demo by the way was a LOCKED 24FPS only for the cutscenes, otherwise it was running at 30FPS with drops to frame-rate if you crash your car or do something GPU/CPU intensive. Again, this isn’t a slight at NT or the game itself (which I’ve already said looks amazing & next-gen, anyone saying this looks last-gen is batshit crazy), I literally joined the live-stream when they were halfway through the gameplay reveal & the first thing I immediately noticed was the facial downgrade. Otherwise it looks sick visually & I’m sure the quality will be even better by the time it’s out whenever the hell that is (I don’t think they even put a date let alone a year in this one).

 

[Dr. Claus]

Graphically? Looks really damn good. Not "almost real life" like some warriors believe, nor does it "look massively downgraded" either.

My biggest issue is that it looks... boring. Incredibly boring. I want to see actual gameplay, not continued heavily "cinematic" moments that look like any control we *do* have is constantly taken away.

 

[eNT1TY]

Games have become so good looking for the past few years that the closer they approach photo-realism the more critical we become and the less forgiving is our perception of what is being presented. That is the nature of the uncanny valley. To remedy that they need to up the contrast and color saturation, exaggerate materials' behavior to lighting and the elements, maybe even throw in some added post processed sharpening, oh and up the particle and volumetric effects count by at least double regardless of contextual appropriateness; it works for Guerrila. If they game it up a bit people would praise this game as the visual tour de force it could actually become.

 

[RoadHazard]

Visually this looks very good, but this "gameplay trailer" probably has the least actual gameplay I've ever seen. There's like 2 seconds of actual gameplay here and there and then it transitions into a scripted event. But maybe that's just the game, I haven't played the original.

 

[It's all in the wrist]

That looked awesome. I loved Hellblade, even though I don't generally care for slower games. It was such a surreal experience. The idea that it looks more like an interactive movie than a game is fine with me, I just want to soak it in.

 

[Gavon West]

People are being too sensitive about the reception of this game because they put so much hope and ambition on it for no reason. The first game was a indie game that happened to look really good and do some interesting narrative things, but the gameplay was very much stuck on a shoe string budget.

people have a right to question the “gameplay” of this because many did not like the gameplay of the first game and was hoping microsoft would be dumping more money into improving its biggest weak spot.

a lot of xbox fans have been saying this is gonna be microsoft god of war or “sony narrative” game and people ignore that sony games actually do have good gameplay. They arenot just these contextual prompts to guide you through the narrative and cutscenes. They have intricate stealth, AI, combo and progression systems.

maybe this game is just not meant to be played that way and it’s probably the sooner the scope is revealed the better.

You're right, there. The first game was made on a budget but that's not a reason to question the gameplay because this one isnt on a budget. Their backed by Microsoft and they are 1st party, now. The gameplay will be enhanced. The devs themselves already stated this would be the case. the lead actress went through combat training for two years just for this game. the game is already a stunner in the visuals department. If they stick the landing with combat and gameplay loop, it'll be one of the best 3rd person narrative driven games on Xbox.

 

[LiquidRex]

Can someone confirm the footage was running on a Series console and not PC, also as beautiful as the footage was did anyone think they over used Chromatic aberration, and did anyone feel their eyes were trying to focus on what was happening or was that just me... Note I'm getting my eyes checked this Friday for a single black spot in my vision... Could be a floater but just in case getting it checked out.

 

[Tschumi]

EDIT: Just to add in some clarity to salve the buttholes of those whose buttholes have been chaffed by my opinion: It's certainly a good looking game, certainly a next gen game. I'm just not thinking it's anything envelope-pushing.

So.. I've looked at this and decided that it doesn't look any better than anything else out there, and worse than a few titles. I think the giant's body looks a bit meh, the textures, it's like they just took a normal sized character and scaled it up hugely without keeping the textures right... the cave systems and human figures, i mean caves and beaches aren't very hard to render and this kinda looks like battlefield 1.. Senua looks pretty good, but about as well as you'd expect her to look after where the previous generation took character models in the end (god of war, rdr2, tlou2, etc)... i'm a bit triggered by the whole content of the video too, those spears that are just flaming, no twine or tar wrapped around them, the flames that kick up on the giant's body seem to dissapear instantly for one convenient moment then flare back up again right after... yeah

There you go, i own a series s in addition to my ps5, i couldn't finish hellblade 1 and i probably won't spend money on this, that's my take! cya~

 

[Genx3]

Wait, That's not a CGI movie??