I don't really idenitfy with the people saying this game doesn't look impressive. The scale, the particles from every explosion, the hugely detailed character models, the seamless transitions from area to area with little or no loading, the rain and reflections on the ground, all of it just masterful
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Arkham Knight on PS4 is a technical tour de force - Digital Foundry
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It's easily the best looking open world game out right now imo, maybe second to Witcher PC (though once AK PC isn't garbage it might get the edge again). inFamous and Unity are both leagues below. Unity in particular runs like garbage on PS4 and I really didn't find it impressive at all.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I mean, it's been a full year, I'd be pretty disappointed if games weren't beating it visually.
EDIT: Sorry Bish. (._. )
AC:U runs at 900p and sub 30FPS. To call it visually impressive over another game that was 1080p and over 30fps day one regardless of those two major things is pretty disingenuous, if that's the right word.
A lot of games that consistently take a dive in FPS aren't really something I'd consider "visually impressive." It took a drop in frame rate and resolution to reach that kind of visual, so what's impressive about it? That it looks nicer in pictures?
Not comparing it to B:AK. Mainly meant AC:U.
CouchMaster
Member
I actually think that Infamous SS has aged quite poorly so far outside of the cutscenes and particle effects. And ACU is a great looking game regardless of framerate issues and 900p. I certainly think that what i've seen of gotham looks infinitely better than Infamous. I mean come on.
It looks clean in that small gif but the IQ isn't as clean and nowhere near as crisp as Second Son. Batman may have more stuff going on on the screen but it is kinda robbing it of that pristine look. But I guess that was the intention of the developer, to give it a dirty and hopeless look to go with the story.
airmangataosenai
Member
Yeah yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sure I wasn't the first, second, or tenth person to make the joke.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
...what? TW3 is a travesty performance-wise on the PS4. Ok, "travesty" might be a bit much, but it gets absolutely terrible when there's a lot of alpha effects on screen. Locked 20fps for prolonged periods of time isn't acceptable. And neither is the state of the PC version of this, of course.
Some of the best water I've seen in any game period. I went down to the water's edge and just took a bunch of pictures. It's incredible.
What really gets me though is the scale to density ratio of the world. Infamous was pretty, and it was big, but it felt really empty and static. Arkham Knight has so much destructible junk everywhere, driving the Batmobile feels like I'm playing Red Faction, minus the large-scale building destruction. And every NPC seems extremely detailed.
All this with barely noticeable pop-in (usually just grass) and super fast traversal in a large city, solid 30 framerate (save when crashing into a ton of physics objects in the Batmobile, but that only lasts for two seconds at best), and full HD.
Honestly, it's hard to be that impressed with other games after playing this. I'm sure there are titles that can beat it in individual categories, but I don't think there's an open world that runs this well and looks this good.
Not to mention the animation...
The only thing that tends to look a little wonky is the hair, but its still a step above a lot of other games.
What really gets me though is the scale to density ratio of the world. Infamous was pretty, and it was big, but it felt really empty and static. Arkham Knight has so much destructible junk everywhere, driving the Batmobile feels like I'm playing Red Faction, minus the large-scale building destruction. And every NPC seems extremely detailed.
All this with barely noticeable pop-in (usually just grass) and super fast traversal in a large city, solid 30 framerate (save when crashing into a ton of physics objects in the Batmobile, but that only lasts for two seconds at best), and full HD.
Honestly, it's hard to be that impressed with other games after playing this. I'm sure there are titles that can beat it in individual categories, but I don't think there's an open world that runs this well and looks this good.
Not to mention the animation...
The only thing that tends to look a little wonky is the hair, but its still a step above a lot of other games.
Being the one reviewers play is more important.
Nevertheless, congrats to Rocksteady on another victory. The studio is amazingly well run.
flipswitch
Member
BrokenIcarus
Member
Wow that's some crazy graphics.Indeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
BlackNinja
Banned
Agreed. I am really happy for the PS4 gamers. I could tell from the footage that this game was going to be sick graphically. I'm glad it turned out to be true.
I have a bad feeling that the PC version (the one I have) will probably be a few months. They have a lot to fix, with performance on texture streaming, the harder of the lot.
Keep up the impressions!
dr guildo
Member
Best water ever seen in a game imho !
Watchdogs and GTAV beaten !
Really, really impressive !!
Does nobody else get intense slowdown speeding around Founder's Island, or taking part in multiple vehicles chases?
I had barely a technical hitch in the first couple of hours in the game, like the Digital Foundry analysis shows, but as the city becomes more and more dense with things I frequently have instances of major slowdown while speeding around with the Batmobile.
I had barely a technical hitch in the first couple of hours in the game, like the Digital Foundry analysis shows, but as the city becomes more and more dense with things I frequently have instances of major slowdown while speeding around with the Batmobile.
To be fair, in Watch Dogs and GTA V you can travel on the water.
Killzone 3 also had great water, but it was also non-interactive.
Pop
Member
Indeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
That is impressive. Hot Damn!!!
Halph n Halph
Member
Yes. Using the rises and troughs on the river rapids in GTA to actually direct the boat or ski, and yet keeping it looking so realistic was impressive.
Not taking anything away from AK water though, that looks real.
Melchiah
Member
Indeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
Damn! I've played it for two evenings, and have completely missed that. I'll be ogling at the pretty water tonight for sure.
I got to spend a little time playing this on PS4 last night and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a bit impressed with it. Really looks great and the performance seemed to be a lot more stable than reading this thread had me expecting... even with some of the busier looking high speed sections (eg those weird Scarecrow nightmare missions). Extreme close ups on stuff like the Batmobile's wheels shows some really visible jaggies though, and the IQ (Whether by design or not) looks kind of... off(?) at times maybe... could just have been me but it looked kind of 'grimy' in parts.
Overall though, really really nice looking game. Definite contender for best looking open world game on consoles right now.
Yeah, this sounds about right to me. Infamous SS is still a real looker for sure (and very possibly on par with AK on a purely surface level) but AK has so much more going on in it's city and is so much more densely designed and detailed that it's easy to see why people would be more impressed visually with AK. That said, the IQ in Infamous looked to me to be cleaner looking, which is a big plus in it's favour imo. Batman seems to easily be the better game though, so that's an even bigger plus in it's favour
I'd ask why Infamous SS even came up here at all, but seeing so many Crossing Eden posts makes it easy to figure out :/
Overall though, really really nice looking game. Definite contender for best looking open world game on consoles right now.
Yeah, this sounds about right to me. Infamous SS is still a real looker for sure (and very possibly on par with AK on a purely surface level) but AK has so much more going on in it's city and is so much more densely designed and detailed that it's easy to see why people would be more impressed visually with AK. That said, the IQ in Infamous looked to me to be cleaner looking, which is a big plus in it's favour imo. Batman seems to easily be the better game though, so that's an even bigger plus in it's favour
I'd ask why Infamous SS even came up here at all, but seeing so many Crossing Eden posts makes it easy to figure out :/
Indeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
Anyone else imaging Wave Race with this water?
A quick search of Youtube shows someone upload a minute long video showing the sea here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAGmsJomTYM
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Disengenous is not the right word, because resolution is not the determining factor for game visuals, as Ryse will tell you. Also, the game looks quite good in motion as well. Also finally finished the downloads and started playing AK, definitely the best looking open world game i've seen. Holy shit videos don't do it justice. Batman even gets lit by the challenge icons when he gets close. And rain seems to react to different lights in the environment as well. Goddamn. Literally my only gripe is the lip sync.
Dictator93
Member
I see too many inconsistencies in the physical presentation to consider it the best looking or most technically proficient. It does not even have global shadowing (quite obviously).
Holy shit! This may the best looking water I've seen in a video game. GTA 5 am cry! XDIndeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Besides the lip sync, the only other issue is that sometimes the rain doesn't go all the way down to street level but appears as soon as I go up. Exiting and restarting seemed to fix that though.
Not untrue but I think they've done some insane things with the engine here. UE3 still leaks through but the overall presentation is one of the best I've ever seen as a whole. The animation, post-processing effects, particles, transitions between everything, etc.
I love the gorgeous particle lighting. When using the winch the smoke produced by the tires is fully lit up by the lights on the Batmobile. The way the rain and smoke are lit is just beautiful.
It doesn't have global shadowing but many areas DO use decent shadow maps that cast nicely across the character so it doesn't really feel out of place. I haven't been this wowed by a game's visuals for years. Looks very close to the Samaritan demo (excluding the shadow quality).
Cowboy Dan
Neo Member
What the hell? I feel like I'm looking at rendered cgi right now.Indeed. I had to make a video of it when I went to down check it out.
While I don't share that sentiment exactly I do think this game is what other games set in cities are going to be judged by in the future.
What plays a bit in their favor is the lack of dynamic Time of Day but other than that they achieved something very very impressie in a game without loading screens.
I would summarize it as a very coherent vision with strong execution.
You know, between this and something like AC Unity with its baked GI, I'm starting to change my mind on dynamic time of day. I don't really need it in most games - I don't think it's worth it.
I'd rather see environments finely tuned for specific conditions. The Witcher 3, for instance, often looks very bland to my eyes with its solution to lighting.
Obviously there are genres where it makes a LOT of sense to have time of day but it's definitely not necessary in all cases. Time of day wouldn't make sense for Batman, for instance, but it's pretty important to The Witcher 3.
I agree with you. Just to tick a checkbox is wasted when you can have a stronger vision by just placing it at night or at day time.
I think the best examples for a dynamic ToD are The Witcher 3 and Dragon's Dogma. But there it doesn't just change the way the world looks, but it also has gameplay changes. (DDogma more drastic than TW3, IMO.)
I guess that is what I mean. There are certain lighting conditions that are not very visually impressive in TW3 but that's the dynamic and one-lighting-solution-has-to-fit-all things.
Infamous Second Son, despite not being dynamic ToD but rather narratively decided ToD also has certain times that look quite worse than others.
dr guildo
Member
I totally agree with all of your thoughts about TOD !
Except it doesn't run well on any platform.
Confirmed: fucking up three ports > fucking up one.
You more a fan of highly refined and controlled presentations vs jankier but more dynamic ones I take it?
I'm torn myself. When playing through moments of The Witcher where time cycles though, depending on my location, I'm usually left awestruck. Those highs have yet to be matched by any game in existence.
Batman on the other hand, is almost always impressive looking thanks to how well manufactured the environments and presentations are. It's close.
I've been playing it a lot since I got it Tuesday because of time off from work for a surgery.
The game is gorgeous. everything I hit at this point I expect to slow me down and throw me back, but it all just crumbles so beautifully under the Batmobile. I've had parts of the game looks almost like one of the cutscenes from Arkham City.
It's easily my GOTY so far. So much of it looks like a true next gen game, but it also plays stupidly well. I love this game.
The game is gorgeous. everything I hit at this point I expect to slow me down and throw me back, but it all just crumbles so beautifully under the Batmobile. I've had parts of the game looks almost like one of the cutscenes from Arkham City.
It's easily my GOTY so far. So much of it looks like a true next gen game, but it also plays stupidly well. I love this game.
ColdDeckEd
Member
So did rocksteady use the ps4 as the baseline? Judging from the results it looks to be that way. Sucks about the PC version though but i'm sure it will be fixed in time.
Dunno, but the really weird thing about this situation is that in E3 2014 they showed the PC build instead of PS4 at Sony's press conference (confirmed by Rocksteady's Dax Ginn)
http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/batma...e3_ps4_conference_demo_was_running_on_pc.html
so my guess is Rocksteady started on PC then shifted focus to PS4/consoles somewhere around that time.
Yeah, I'm really drawn to very tightly designed presentations that tackle every angle in a very refined manner. This was why I found Metal Gear Solid 2 so damn impressive back in the day. Arkham Knight follows that type of design philosophy.
I can appreciate more dynamic systems, of course, but when it comes to opinion I definitely prefer a more polished but more limited experience. The Witcher 3 has its moments but the general presentation is rather poor in my eyes despite what it's doing. I find some of it impressive but ultimately unappealing.
So, nobody else has had any slowdown playing the game?
That's the strangest thing. I've had sub-20fps dips driving around in the Batmobile on Founder's Island and in the other areas of the game during the latter half, especially when you are chasing a vehicle and multiple vehicles are around you.
It's some of the worst performance I've seen in a game this generation of PS4 and to have nobody else notice is making me wonder if it was something unique.
That's the strangest thing. I've had sub-20fps dips driving around in the Batmobile on Founder's Island and in the other areas of the game during the latter half, especially when you are chasing a vehicle and multiple vehicles are around you.
It's some of the worst performance I've seen in a game this generation of PS4 and to have nobody else notice is making me wonder if it was something unique.
It's one of the best performing games this generation and probably the best performing we've had in the past year, something must be wrong from your end.
Also sub 20FPS means less than 20FPS, so unless you mean sub 30FPS that's just untrue.
OccamsLightsaber
Regularly boosts GAF member count to cry about 'right wing gaf' - Voter #3923781
I actually think that Infamous SS has aged quite poorly so far outside of the cutscenes and particle effects. And ACU is a great looking game regardless of framerate issues and 900p. I certainly think that what i've seen of gotham looks infinitely better than Infamous. I mean come on.
I really wouldn't take much to create a more detailed open world game, than I:SS. It was as bare bones as open world games go. I hope Sucker Punch will take a note out Rocksteady's book in their next game.
A couple of people have repeated this, but in every gif or video I've seen, it's Arkham Knight that looks comparatively lifeless. I mean, aside from the graphical aspects, are there actually even randomly roaming or living NPC's in the world, cars, traffic etc? All the streets look devoid of ordinary life? Besides the enemies that is.