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BLOODBORNE Impressions Thread : And so the Nightly Hunt Begins

TheMink

Member
If anyone of you play this demo and walk straight past items, i swear I'm going drop you like 3rd period French.

Seriously though, what the hell are peoples problem?


NG++++++ i know what the item is and its shortsword, i still pick it up.
 
I suspect the undergrounds of the city and maybe a suburban area?. Wasn't there an open area before entering some gates from the leaked trailer or not?
But yeah i agree that the majority of the game will be spent on the City which i'm totally fine.

I reckon you start off the game in Yarnham exploring its various locales and then come to the realisation that there is no cure in Yarnham and proceed outside, to the rest of the world to find a cure.

image_bloodborne-26032-2994_0002.jpg

I mean this doesn't look like it could be near the city at all with those backdrops. It looks like you're heading to a rocky terrain.
 

Persona7

Banned
More like Miyazaki micro-manage the art in his game. Most of the time, he will asked the artists in the assigned areas to give him illustrated concepts of what he want in that area. He will explained beforehand to the artist of his own conception. This is the impression from the interview in Dark Souls artbook featuring Miyazaki and three people responsible in the art department.
that makes sense, I should have a look at that art book.
 

cackhyena

Member
I've never really played a Souls game, and I'm a puss when it comes to anything remotely freaky like this, but I can't help but be interested in this one for some reason. Two things I find strange, though. One is for all the detail in the environment, it's kinda off putting to me to not be able to manipulate anything in it. Second, kinda long the same lines is the enemies. As soon as they are dead and on their way down, they are suddenly an not object to be moved/batted around any more...until they are on the ground? Just seems weird to me.
 

Molemitts

Member
Two things I find strange, though. One is for all the detail in the environment, it's kinda off putting to me to not be able to manipulate anything in it. Second, kinda long the same lines is the enemies. As soon as they are dead and on their way down, they are suddenly an not object to be moved/batted around any more...until they are on the ground? Just seems weird to me.

Generally in Souls games there's lot of stuff in the environment that can be broken by rolling in to or attacking them, kinda like the pots in Zelda games. Sometimes they have items in them, if that's what you're talking about.

The ragdoll body physics have always been very weird, It was different in Dark Souls 2 where you couldn't move the bodies about at all.
 

Avadon

Neo Member
Finally some clear uncut footage. Damn this game is gorgeous

So the "covenant" symbol is just the Vial counter?

the upper left corner number? yes it's the vial counter, you just loot them from your enemy's, and no, you can't destroy all the objects in the environment
 

MrHoot

Member
So hey, back from gamescom, and here are my impressions on BloodBorne so far.

I was lucky enough to have a trade pass which means I got in early before most people and got to try it without too much wait. I say this, because you get to play only 5 minutes. And if you know what 5 minutes means for a souls games (as in being absolutely piss poor), you understand why I didn't have to wait 2 hours and why I probably wouldn't have.

With that in mind, do consider that with such a short time, I believe it's almost impossible to formulate what the game will actually be like. I noted a few cool stuff (and some less cool) but if anything, it just made me curious of what's behind the rest of the game.

So by now you people know the locale where the demo took place. What I noticed is that the world seems already way more detailed. There's lots of little touches here and there which made the world pop a little bit more.

Graphically, it's pretty. It's not the most visually impressive thing like the order and whatnot but it certainly does a very very good job at what's it's trying to convey (damp, sinister victorian-type town).

Funny enough, a lot of the sounds and sometimes effect were just straight off taken from the souls games. Ladders and the "molotov cocktail" make the exact same sound. The effect for the molotov itself is very similar. Animations are also reused sometimes like climbing and whatnot.

The thing I liked the most is when I got to that first big alley after climbing the ladder. You're kind of on this double level street and below you, you see these villagers roaming about with torches, prowling in the night, obviously looking for someone, or probably you. I really liked that and it kinda falls in line with, i guess, what the devs said about npcs actively looking for you across the city. You'll have to pay more attention to ennemies as it'll be easier for them to sneak up on you.

Combat is very similar to Souls yet has that one little difference in that you have no shield, and the shotgun instead. Meaning that instead of the usual block/dodge, wait, attack, you can go for a much more aggressive playstyle of sidestepping (that sidestep by the way, really cool. It replaces the lateral dodge and you have a nice control over it), shooting mid range ennemies and slashing away close ones.

Other than that, the combat and control scheme is pretty much like a souls game. Lock on with R3, attack and such, use items. I didn't manage to make my machete in a badass scythe like in the trailer.
I did notice that if you press left and right on the pad, my left hand would switch between the gun and a torch, and my right would switch between the machete and bare-handed, so that pretty much confirms an inventory and multiple weapons and whatnot.

By the time I got a grip of how to fight the enemies though, it was already over. I was really disappointed by not being able to try more. But that's gamescom for you.

My BIGGEST worry so far though is the framerate. The game is struggling to keep it around 20 fps most of the time (I don't think it ever really reached 30 while i was playing) while there weren't a lot of stuff happening. It was almost too low sometimes for me to be able to play properly, especially considering now that the combat is much more aggressive. If they don't optimize this, it's gonna be very bad when it releases. And From doesn't exactly have a track record in that departement and I dunno how much Japan studio is helping them on that so fingers crossed.

A minor complain, on the other side, but which I feel can be almost more important, is that so far what i've played made it almost too much like a souls game. A good souls game, mind you, a very good one. But the amount of reused sounds and sometimes animations, you'd think "Dark souls 3/Demon souls 2/Whatever souls" could easily be a subtitle but they called it bloodborne just to make it sound less repetitive.

If anything, pleased with what I saw with some reservation. Honestly, I just want to see more gameplay and new ennemies that aren't humanoids
 

MrHoot

Member
Any impressions the lighting - does it make up from the disappointment of Dark Souls 2?

So far on the graphical side, everything just seems better. Better shaders and textures and lighting.

Although I haven't run in a situation where I have to use the torch for example. In the area I played in, everything was clear enough to just roam around normally

But it's certainly a good looking game, and definitively prettier than Dark souls 2 there's no doubt about that
 

Ateron

Member
Sorry if I've misunderstood, but what makes you think these games are running on Unreal?

Sorry, my bad. It was short for Uncharted 4, as in, if From and other devs not known for pushing visuals can do this, imagine what the kings of console graphics can and will do. That's why I was making a loose comparison to UC4, maybe what we saw can really be achieved by them (OT and all, sorry)
 

Ateron

Member
Hmm, regarding those impressions on the fps, I hope they iron things out. I'm hoping they manage to get it running at 30 at all times. Since this game promotes agressive playtstyle the framerate has to keep up, otherwise it will be a mess.

There's still maybe 6 months to polish things up, and that build may be a month or two old, no? So I'm gonna try to stay optimistic about it.

Truth be told, even though I'm one of those guys easily bothered by fluctuating fps, it never bothered me in Demon's (even though it clearly had some), so maybe it won't be too bad in person.
 

Amir0x

Banned
from playstation blog link:

Wooden boxes is the most I've seen.

Yeah that's the same thing I heard, "liberal" use of what is in city bounds... but that the majority takes place in the city. Either way, awesome if you're right. I hope there's a country awaiting me outside ;P
 

Lucent

Member
here is the second video, the blue light ruined the footage but those two videos are the best I got

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6g2yYmt08o

Man...even in these videos, you can tell just how much of a leap from last gen this game has taken. It looks really good. All they have to do is polish it up and get it to at least a stable 30fps and I'm good.

Also loved how those villagers just swarmed him and punished him. The lighting off of all of their torches was really cool. Really can't wait for some direct feed.

And lol at the random chair just sitting outside.
 
Hmm, regarding those impressions on the fps, I hope they iron things out. I'm hoping they manage to get it running at 30 at all times. Since this game promotes agressive playtstyle the framerate has to keep up, otherwise it will be a mess.

There's still maybe 6 months to polish things up, and that build may be a month or two old, no? So I'm gonna try to stay optimistic about it.

Truth be told, even though I'm one of those guys easily bothered by fluctuating fps, it never bothered me in Demon's (even though it clearly had some), so maybe it won't be too bad in person.
The framerate has significantly improved between the 3 builds we've seen of the game so far, and they still have 6 months to iron things out, I don't expect 30fps with no dips whatsoever but I wouldn't be worried about the performance of the game.
 
This is purely speculation/wishful thinking but I don't Sony would allow it to be released if the framerate was bad enough to hurt the game. Definitely won't get 60 FPS and it'll probably dip in some sections but I'd imagine Sony understands that the crowd this game appeals to is (for the most part) the crowd that cares about game feel and performance
 

Wagram

Member
Doesn't matter how good it looks or how awesome it plays if it runs at sub 20 fps. Please allow them to polish it Sony rather than pushing it out the door for some agenda.
 
Does the director really handle all the art in the game? FROM SOFTWARE typically outsources a large majority of the art design and has a small team of art people on staff.

I wonder what engine this is though. If I remember correctly the phyre engine was falsely attributed to being used in Demon's/Dark and Dark Souls 2 uses a completely new engine that they were planning to re-use for next gen.

It doesnt look like whatever engine they used in Dark Souls 2 is being used for this one. Things look alot closer to what was in Demons/Dark1. Good thing IMO.

Also that footage looks great. No one is talking about the amount of Locked Doors! In that one video I saw maybe 5 different directions you could go, or arrive from the other side on. I'm so excited to have that sprawling interconnected world design back again!
 
I really hope the lighting doesn't get downgraded in the final version.

Seeing as this is directed by "Big M" I doubt the lighting will be downgraded. I think he puts too much emphasis on atmosphere in his games.

He'd probably rather let the game run at 2fps, than take something away that is very important for the atmosphere ^^
...now I'm scared D:
 
Doesn't matter how good it looks or how awesome it plays if it runs at sub 20 fps. Please allow them to polish it Sony rather than pushing it out the door for some agenda.

In just two months since E3 they've already managed to make a pretty big improvement over the framerate in that build. The game still has another six or so months of development to go.
 
I really hope the lighting doesn't get downgraded in the final version.

All the footage you've seen is already running on a PS4.

Not Dark Souls 2, that was running on an unspecified machine, that obviously offered more power than the old gen sisters.
 

Avadon

Neo Member
Man...even in these videos, you can tell just how much of a leap from last gen this game has taken. It looks really good. All they have to do is polish it up and get it to at least a stable 30fps and I'm good.

Also loved how those villagers just swarmed him and punished him. The lighting off of all of their torches was really cool. Really can't wait for some direct feed.

And lol at the random chair just sitting outside.

yea the game looks great, it's not the best ps4 game out there, but it looks really good and you can tell it's a current-gen game and not a cross gen or something, also I love the art direction
 
It doesnt look like whatever engine they used in Dark Souls 2 is being used for this one. Things look alot closer to what was in Demons/Dark1. Good thing IMO.

Also that footage looks great. No one is talking about the amount of Locked Doors! In that one video I saw maybe 5 different directions you could go, or arrive from the other side on. I'm so excited to have that sprawling interconnected world design back again!

The engine has no bearing on the art direction of the game. This is the same engine, just with different assets.
 

BumRush

Member
FPS question:

Bloodborne is currently my most anticipated game. Complaints of FPS issues have me a little worried, though, as sub-30 and not locked could be brutal for a game designed around aggressive play and "no room for mistakes". Knowing NOTHING about game development, can FPS be fixed (improved?) in 6-7 months without sacrificing other things (Resolution, IQ, lighting, etc.)??
 

Drencrom

Member
FPS question:

Bloodborne is currently my most anticipated game. Complaints of FPS issues have me a little worried, though, as sub-30 and not locked could be brutal for a game designed around aggressive play and "no room for mistakes". Knowing NOTHING about game development, can FPS be fixed (improved?) in 6-7 months without sacrificing other things (Resolution, IQ, lighting, etc.)??

Yes, that's what FROM basically did with Demon's Souls, it ran like shit at shows before it got released.
 
The engine has no bearing on the art direction of the game. This is the same engine, just with different assets.

By "look" i mean animations and the weight everything seems to have to it not art direction. I can tell from the walking animations to the unlocked roll that whatever engine they used or modifications they made in Dark Souls 2 arent being used here. Which is a good thing.
 

cackhyena

Member
FPS question:

Bloodborne is currently my most anticipated game. Complaints of FPS issues have me a little worried, though, as sub-30 and not locked could be brutal for a game designed around aggressive play and "no room for mistakes". Knowing NOTHING about game development, can FPS be fixed (improved?) in 6-7 months without sacrificing other things (Resolution, IQ, lighting, etc.)??
Sure. If a game this far out has problems of that sort, it's not some insurmountable problem. Unstable/undercooked builds brought to shows are the norm, not the exception.
 
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