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[dark10x]

to me, the IQ of the Halo 3 shot >> than the IQ of the Haze shot.

You really like that pixelated, noisy look in the Halo 3 shot? It's so messy.

Of course, that looks like a full 1280x720 pixel Halo 3 shot and we know the game does not run at that resolution so I'm wondering where that actually came from.

 

[Vaandaviii]

In this forum it seems that only AAA games are worth playing. Everything else is crap.

C'mon, this is not Killzone 2 techwise but looks solid and plays ok, and has 4 player cooperative. I deserves more than the "buhhh crap!!!1" label.

I wish the game was released on X360. At least it would get the praise it deserves, not stupid and exaggerating crap-labeling fanboyism

 

[plagiarize]

You really like that pixelated, noisy look in the Halo 3 shot? It's so messy.

Of course, that looks like a full 1280x720 pixel Halo 3 shot and we know the game does not run at that resolution so I'm wondering where that actually came from.

gamespot... apparently

haze is blurry everywhere in that screen, Halo 3 just has some jaggies on the edges of things. i've never liked artificially sharpened or artificially blurred images as some people do... and if the trade off is jaggies i'd take the jaggies.

obviously i'd prefer no blurring and no jaggies... but that's a pretty rare thing these days.

as i say, i haven't played Haze yet. i don't pretend to know how it looks in motion but you choose the screenshots for the comparison and i was only talking about the IQ of the two shots you picked nothing more, nothing less.

i know it's really hard to find a real screenshot of Halo 3, but without calling in the pixel counters, i'm not familiar of there being any 1280 x 720 shots without anti aliasing. that'd be a very weird interim bullshot.

i think this is a genuine shot...

and even with all the jaggies i'd still give that the nod as having better IQ.

 

[Aeon712]

Just tried the demo and I enjoyed it.

 

[Dural]

Well, gee, if you know "any number" of of people who are actually good soldiers, then they must all be good soldiers. I guess that whole Abu Ghraib thing must have been a dream.

Wow, unbelievable.

I guess because seven soldiers at Abu Ghraib acted like asses they all must be idiots. Why not actually meet some real soldiers rather than have your perception of them made up by hollywood and the media.

 

[acm2000]

I wish the game was released on X360. At least it would get the praise it deserves, not stupid and exaggerating crap-labeling fanboyism

well, its ps3 exclusive "for now"

 

[meddow]

man.....

not good......not good at all.

Still looking for an FPS on my ps3 to take me away from halo, come on ps3 u can doooo it!

 

[Yagharek]

Just finished the demo then, I quite like it. Surely not the most impressive looking game but it controls smooth and runs smooth. Might give it a rent or I mihgt buy, depending on time. It's certainly not the clusterfuck that some people Ive spoken to allude to.

 

[AgentOtaku]

played through the demo a couple more times on Hard ...yeah, this still seems like a solid title and I especially like the "Nectar Disruption" part....just make sure your standing in the dead center of the encampment (first time I hadn't)

 

[Definity]

Damn, this thread is moving fast -

Can someone list all the modes available for play in the demo please?

 

[AgentOtaku]

Damn, this thread is moving fast -

Can someone list all the modes available for play in the demo please?

just Single-player and Coop.....gonna try and play Coop this weekend

 

[BobsRevenge]

Damn, this thread is moving fast -

Can someone list all the modes available for play in the demo please?

Single player and online co-op on the same map.

 

[AmMortal]

This game felt underwhelming to me. Nothing to actually capture attention. Maybe it's the KZ2 footage. I quite like the Idea of the whole game, but it wasn't put into practice the correct way. Felt Generic. Much like most shooters lately.

 

[drakesfortune]

In all honesty, I DO feel that this blurry look would have worked better for something like Halo 3 than the selected display mode.

I mean...

This [Haze]has a soft almost "CG-like" appearance...


...but Halo 3 is just jaggy as hell...

I have to disagree. I think the Halo shot looks better. If you could go somewhere in between the Halo and Haze shots you'd have a happy medium, but I too think that from those two shots Haze looks like an SD game being upscaled. It's way too blurry. I haven't played the game yet, but from those shots I'd definitely prefer the Halo IQ (even if it did saw into my cornea), and I'm a PS3 only type guy.

I wonder if Haze is doing the same goofy blur that Lost Planet did?

 

[dmshaposv]

This thread was comprised of:

* SOMETHING SOMETHING GRAPHICS SOMETHING SOMETHING *

 

[sajj316]

This thread was comprised of:

* SOMETHING SOMETHING GRAPHICS SOMETHING SOMETHING *

nice! I actually remember this movie!

 

[AlphaTwo00]

"dont judge a game by its demo"

give me a fucking break, what else are you supposed to judge it by? Hopes and dreams?

If I'd listened to you, I'd miss out on Burnout Paradise.

 

[Nightz]

Played the demo and actually enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing spectacular, but I really liked the co-op aspect of the game.

 

[mattiewheels]

the story has potential to be really cool, but that terrible dialogue has me VERY worried...

 

[Sho Nuff]

1 2 3 I'M THE BAD MC
DELETING THIS DEMO AND GOING BACK TO UT3

 

[DeadGzuz]

Is the sole Haze shot even a screen grab or is it a digital camera shot?

 

[Halvie]

Duh guy! The naked man pyramids at Abu Ghraib def mean all our soldiers are piles of shit.

 

[FabCam]

I don't get the hate. It's not the best game I've ever played but it's a solid 8/10 IMO. If the online vs. modes are good, I don't see any reason to not buy it.

I also love the GFX. Just because it's not different shades of grey with shiny rocks doesn't mean it's bad. The colours are a breath of fresh air IMO.

 

[Dark Octave]

Played it last night. The nectar is the whole hook of the game? That's what differentiates it from every other FPS? Weak. Enemies glow and I could move a little faster. Wow. Whatever Timeshift got, this will get a .5 less on average. You heard it here first.

 

[Mammothtank]

"Hey...hey...hey...hey."

Navi and semi-pro boxer pilot seperated at birth?

I'm definatly going to pick this up May 20th. Plenty of time to co-op my way through the campaign on Hard and resell it to dedicate myself to MGS4 single-player and multi-player.

It is funny that Mantel soldiers need necter to help pinpoint enemies in camo, yet the enemy does just fine without necter because Mantel soldiers are aurgmented with bright yellow.

I also noticed that you can't seem to be killed when going berserk from an overdose...at least not through friendly fire...interesting.

Jungle is also nice looking. Not as nice as Uncharted, but better than 90% of other games with jungles.

It's also fun to steal teammate's necter when they're not looking. At first I thought it was the ability to give your own necter to a teammate and thought, "Oh, that's a friendly thing to do for a friend in need."...then I read closer and saw it was to take their necter, lol.

 

[hteng]

i really hope the final product doesn't look like the demo, the gameplay was alright but graphics were very very bland, it looks like a a PC game from 2 years ago, it doesn't even look like what was shown before, disappointed

 

[Ceb]

I liked the cutscenes and thought the exaggerated dialogue worked surprisingly well.

Don't really like the feel of the gunplay though. Injecting nectar to spot enemies becomes a routine chore quickly. I don't like how they put aiming on R3, grenades on L1 and wasted the L2 button on melee.

I was cautiously optimistic before, but the demo was a turnoff.

 

[FabCam]

Don't really like the feel of the gunplay though. Injecting nectar to spot enemies becomes a routine chore quickly. I don't like how they put aiming on R3, grenades on L1 and wasted the L2 button on melee.

You can customize them. I changed it to the CoD4 PS3 controls. Best FPS controls ever made IMO.

 

[Ceb]

You can customize them. I changed it to the CoD4 PS3 controls. Best FPS controls ever made IMO.

Thanks, that should make it more enjoyable. Ironsight aiming with L1 feels so natural.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

I think it's alright but I wouldn't buy it. It's a compotent shooter that should appeal well to a lot of people.

 

[Remy]

Played it last night. The nectar is the whole hook of the game? That's what differentiates it from every other FPS? Weak. Enemies glow and I could move a little faster. Wow. Whatever Timeshift got, this will get a .5 less on average. You heard it here first.

What I remember reading about the plot and the moral choices they were trying to work into the story is why I'm still interested in the game (although I haven't had a chance to try the demo yet).

Here's a bit from Gamasutra:

GS: In one of the gameplay sequence you showed in the Haze demo, the helmet fails and the player briefly perceives the horror of reality, the real violence of war, hidden behind the sanitised video game world the Mantel soldiers experience in their suits. This sequence reminds me of a powerful scene in John Carpenter’s They Live, where the hero, by fitting a pair of special glasses, discovers the truth: politicians or journalists are in fact horrible aliens, ad-panels reveal slogans such as "OBEY", "BUY" or "NO SEX UNTIL MARIAGE". How did you came up with this "hidden reality" idea ? What kind of war movies did you get inspiration from?

DL: Apocalypse Now was probably the biggest single inspiration for the concept of Haze. Although Haze also has some superficial similarities to the film, the main inspiration drawn was the idea of presenting a story in a war rather than a story about a war. The strongly anti-war message that Apocalypse Now carries is also something we were interested to see in a game, as, if anything, games mostly tend to celebrate war. And how better to explore that message than to put the player in a very stereotypical game world to begin with, and then to start stripping it away?

As you point out, the idea that Mantel are manipulating their soldiers' perception of the war to maintain control over them has wider parallels with other movies, such as They Live, The Matrix and Equilibrium, although none of them were a direct influence over the game.

GS: In a lot of games (MGS2, Half-Life 2, Killer 7, FEAR), the player realizes that he’s manipulated, that he’s a kind of puppet, that he doesn't know exactly why or who he fights. How do you think Haze is different from these games?

DL: I think that one of the things that distinguishes Haze is the way that the player's fight to escape Mantel's manipulating influence brings with it a completely new way of fighting. When you join the Promise Hand to take the fight back to Mantel, you'll not only have access to new weapons and vehicles but also new abilities, which unlock extra layers of tactical depth to the game that previously were hidden to the player. Perhaps most interestingly of all, many of those abilities are only possible by exploiting Mantel's greatest strength -- Nectar -- and using it against them.
I think the other thing that marks Haze out is that the theme of manipulation doesn't end with the player changing sides -- it's a continuing theme throughout the game. But you'll have to play the game to find out exactly how!

Shame it sounds like the demo doesn't get this plot device across?

 

[DeadGzuz]

IGN has some new pics, they don't look like the old bullshots.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Haze US demo tomorrow if it wasn't already known...

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/05/07/haze-lifts-on-psn-demo-tomorrow/

 

[AgentOtaku]

You can customize them. I changed it to the CoD4 PS3 controls. Best FPS controls ever made IMO.

yeah I did this as well...but then I kept changing it to other configurations...so much fun having the actual choice to do so!

...now just give me back Dpad support Free Radical!

 

[sajj316]

Haze US demo tomorrow if it wasn't already known...

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/05/07/haze-lifts-on-psn-demo-tomorrow/

Wonder if there are any difference in the US version. Probably not. I downloaded the EU demo last night and give it a whirl. Mix reaction. Maybe its a demo of another level focusing on other aspects of the game that haven't been explored yet in the EU demo.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

What I remember reading about the plot and the moral choices they were trying to work into the story is why I'm still interested in the game (although I haven't had a chance to try the demo yet).

Here's a bit from Gamasutra:



Shame it sounds like the demo doesn't get this plot device across?

I was freaked out for a split second.

It felt like the stuff they did in Geist/Eternal Darkness. IN a good way.

 

[danwarb]

You really like that pixelated, noisy look in the Halo 3 shot? It's so messy.

Of course, that looks like a full 1280x720 pixel Halo 3 shot and we know the game does not run at that resolution so I'm wondering where that actually came from.

That Halo 3 picture isn't 1280x720. It's 1152x640.

 

[Deepblue]

Just to be fair, did you notice the resolution of that shot? Yep, 1024x576. I suppose it was accurate afterall.

The additional blur simply has to be due to anti-aliasing. There's no way this game doesn't use some form of AA (at least selective). On my display, the game is quite blurry, but has a very clean appearance. Most edges seem very smooth (even the foliage isn't bad). I don't think the textures have necessarily been cut down from that above shot either, it's simply a matter of distance.

The game is such a visual mixed bag. There are aspects of it that look pretty nice (the HDR lighting is actually really nice), but at the same time, plenty of ugly bits as well.

In all honesty, I DO feel that this blurry look would have worked better for something like Halo 3 than the selected display mode.

I think that has far more to do with the color-pallete in your Halo 3 shots. Floodgate, Cortana, and the "in-the-shadow" sections of Tsavo Highway are really smooth looking because the colors tend to blend more.

 

[FabCam]

Shame it sounds like the demo doesn't get this plot device across?

There are big hints to it. I'll give some examples. It might be spoilers, so if you don't want to know the story of the demo, skip it:

-Right at the very beginning you have a massive advantage over the rebels, they're canon fodder as you can see them through the leaves and have superior power

-This is also shown by the voice work. You whole team are cocky and act as if killing these guys is every day work and isn't much effort.

-When the going gets tough, you just call in your planes to bomb the area. You're standing on a cliff (totally safe) looking down onto where all the rebels have just been obliterated by superior power.

-When you get to the bombed area, it's totally destroyed. The rebel camp is a burning ruin.

-This is when you lose your Nectar (or it's disrupted). You then see the true picture. You hear the screams of the injured rebels. Everything turns greyish and dark. Blood stains all over the floor. It's pretty startling.

-Now is when you meet your first trooper without Nectar. He tries to persuade you that the screams were just an animal, but he's obviously hiding something. I would assume that some of the troopers know what's really going on.

-When you find the crashed plane, your guys are more interested in the lost Nectar than the injured pilot.

-When you speak to the pilot, he knows the truth. He keeps asking if you can see him (as with Nectar you can't see dead people).


I might be looking too much into it, but the glorification of war came across really well from the demo.

 

[AgentOtaku]

There are big hints to it. I'll give some examples. It might be spoilers, so if you don't want to know the story of the demo, skip it:

-Right at the very beginning you have a massive advantage over the rebels, they're canon fodder as you can see them through the leaves and have superior power

-This is also shown by the voice work. You whole team are cocky and act as if killing these guys is every day work and isn't much effort.

-When the going gets tough, you just call in your planes to bomb the area. You're standing on a cliff (totally safe) looking down onto where all the rebels have just been obliterated by superior power.

-When you get to the bombed area, it's totally destroyed. The rebel camp is a burning ruin.

-This is when you lose your Nectar (or it's disrupted). You then see the true picture. You hear the screams of the injured rebels. Everything turns greyish and dark. Blood stains all over the floor. It's pretty startling.

-Now is when you meet your first trooper without Nectar. He tries to persuade you that the screams were just an animal, but he's obviously hiding something. I would assume that some of the troopers know what's really going on.

-When you find the crashed plane, your guys are more interested in the lost Nectar than the injured pilot.

-When you speak to the pilot, he knows the truth. He keeps asking if you can see him (as with Nectar you can't see dead people).

I might be looking too much into it, but the glorification of war came across really well from the demo.

very nice observation...especially the last two points

 

[dark10x]

I think that has far more to do with the color-pallete in your Halo 3 shots. Floodgate, Cortana, and the "in-the-shadow" sections of Tsavo Highway are really smooth looking because the colors tend to blend more.

I love how you managed to dig through this thread simply to respond to a supposed attack on Halo 3. :lol

I was only commenting on the image quality. I think Halo 3 is a much better looking (and playing) game than Haze. It was one of my favorites from last year.

That Halo 3 picture isn't 1280x720. It's 1152x640.

Ha ha, my mistake. That explains why the pixels did not appear to be scaled. I simply didn't check the image resolution.

 

[DeadGzuz]

There are big hints to it.

Nice job, it seems the writing isn't as dumb as some of the people playing the demo.

 

[sajj316]

There are big hints to it. I'll give some examples. It might be spoilers, so if you don't want to know the story of the demo, skip it:

-Right at the very beginning you have a massive advantage over the rebels, they're canon fodder as you can see them through the leaves and have superior power

-This is also shown by the voice work. You whole team are cocky and act as if killing these guys is every day work and isn't much effort.

-When the going gets tough, you just call in your planes to bomb the area. You're standing on a cliff (totally safe) looking down onto where all the rebels have just been obliterated by superior power.

-When you get to the bombed area, it's totally destroyed. The rebel camp is a burning ruin.

-This is when you lose your Nectar (or it's disrupted). You then see the true picture. You hear the screams of the injured rebels. Everything turns greyish and dark. Blood stains all over the floor. It's pretty startling.

-Now is when you meet your first trooper without Nectar. He tries to persuade you that the screams were just an animal, but he's obviously hiding something. I would assume that some of the troopers know what's really going on.

-When you find the crashed plane, your guys are more interested in the lost Nectar than the injured pilot.

-When you speak to the pilot, he knows the truth. He keeps asking if you can see him (as with Nectar you can't see dead people).


I might be looking too much into it, but the glorification of war came across really well from the demo.

Ahhh, now that you pointed it out, especially the comment about the soldiers being cocky in war.

 

[Deepblue]

I love how you managed to dig through this thread simply to respond to a supposed attack on Halo 3. :lol

I was only commenting on the image quality. I think Halo 3 is a much better looking (and playing) game than Haze. It was one of my favorites from last year.


Ha ha, my mistake. That explains why the pixels did not appear to be scaled. I simply didn't check the image resolution.

I certainly didn't see it as an attack. I did however see your post quoted and as I was going through campaign a bit earlier (collecting footage for some cam-shots) it caused me to think about how the more muted levels in Halo 3 certainly seem to have better percieved IQ.

 

[Y2Kev]

Demo has cool smoke effects :\

 

[zoku88]

Haze US demo tomorrow if it wasn't already known...

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/05/07/haze-lifts-on-psn-demo-tomorrow/

Good, I'll be the judge to see if it's blurry or not. Why are those IGN shots so sharp?

 

[Loonz]

I've played the demo a while ago. After that this game isn't nothing special for me: it looks bland and generic (sometimes downright ugly), its gameplay is as shallow and bland as its graphics, and the spanish dubbing is pathetic . Bad bad bad...

I really wanted to like it, because a loved to death Timesplitters 2, but I couldn't. If the Multiplayer is the best that this game has to offer, Free Radical had to allow us to try it. That could redeem the game.

 

[BobsRevenge]

There are big hints to it. I'll give some examples. It might be spoilers, so if you don't want to know the story of the demo, skip it:

-Right at the very beginning you have a massive advantage over the rebels, they're canon fodder as you can see them through the leaves and have superior power

-This is also shown by the voice work. You whole team are cocky and act as if killing these guys is every day work and isn't much effort.

-When the going gets tough, you just call in your planes to bomb the area. You're standing on a cliff (totally safe) looking down onto where all the rebels have just been obliterated by superior power.

-When you get to the bombed area, it's totally destroyed. The rebel camp is a burning ruin.

-This is when you lose your Nectar (or it's disrupted). You then see the true picture. You hear the screams of the injured rebels. Everything turns greyish and dark. Blood stains all over the floor. It's pretty startling.

-Now is when you meet your first trooper without Nectar. He tries to persuade you that the screams were just an animal, but he's obviously hiding something. I would assume that some of the troopers know what's really going on.

-When you find the crashed plane, your guys are more interested in the lost Nectar than the injured pilot.

-When you speak to the pilot, he knows the truth. He keeps asking if you can see him (as with Nectar you can't see dead people).


I might be looking too much into it, but the glorification of war came across really well from the demo.

Exactly. When I heard the dude asking if I could see him I almost got shivers. The voices in the bombed out area were creepy as hell too. Its like all the suffering there was too much for the nectar to block out. Really well done effect.

The only problem I had was the stereotyping of people from the south of the US. I know using that dialect has a stereotype of ignorance, but they really exploit it and it feels cheap.

edit: also not being able to walk up some barely steep ground didn't make sense and took away immersion.

 

[FabCam]

The only problem I had was the stereotyping of people from the south of the US. I know using that dialect has a stereotype of ignorance, but they really exploit it and it feels cheap.

I don't think the voice work is particularly good, but the meaning behind it is pretty interesting.

 

[a.wd]

If I'd listened to you, I'd miss out on Burnout Paradise.

I didn't think that game was the pinnacle of the series either!

The Ideas behind Haze ,globalisation of corporations and the glorification of war are great, but to get to them you have to trawl through bad game?

I like games with story, but when the gameplay graphically and mechanically doesnt measure up, then there is no point story adds to the game. I did like the moment when he "perceived the truth" but it didnt change the other poor bits of the game. imo.