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Digital Foundry: Deathloop on PC/PS5 is not pushing technical boundries, and that's OK.

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
This ain’t it snake.

it’s like only being able to enjoy films with the budget of a Disney marvel film, which I hope isn’t the case.

tech is here to deliver an experience and it doesn’t have to be bleeding edge to do so. Many people will vote Deaths Door in their game of the years this year.

the game seems to run mostly solid With a few odd launch glitches and bugs, like every game.
a tech analysis site should have the knowledge to look at the whole picture. Budget etc and make an informed analysis based on that.
Alex can enjoy a 2D platformer from the 80s if he wants. I really have no problem with it, but a technical review should not be subjective. That's what real reviews are for. Gamespot and IGN gave this game a 10 out of 10. Do you see me in that thread trashing the game for its graphics? Do you see me complaining about those scores not taking into account the last gen visuals? Because those reviews are subjective, it really doesnt matter what the budget or graphical prowess of a game really is.

Things are different when discussing technical aspects of a game. Their title of video literally says DF Tech Review. The video screengrab says Technology Review. It is not about whether or not the game is a Game of the Year contender or a cult classic many people will remember ten years from now. It's about what tech it is pushing and as a big AAA next gen only game, it cannot afford to look a gen behind last gen games.

The DF team gets paid to leave their bias at the door. They do not get to say hey the game is fun so Im gonna give it a pass. As you know, I am a Sony fan, but If I always came in and allowed my Sony bias to cloud my judgement and give Deathloop a pass just because its a PS exclusive, you wouldn't really respect my opinion, would you? And I am just a random forum poster. DF is literally the only technical reviewer around. They are so big that Sony and MS give them embargo'd briefings on hardware ahead of time. Devs have confessed to watch DF reviews. Now all of a sudden, Devs see this review and say wait, why does Deathloop get a pass and my game got trashed for not looking next gen enough? Why is a DF technical reviewer letting his bias cloud his judgement?

The next Call of Duty looks awful. Awful for a last gen game. Awful for a cross gen game. Awful period. Now what if Alex plays it, and finds that it is actually a fun game to play. Then decides to give the game a pass for its last gen graphics. Instead of comparing it to the Year 1 CoD game from last gen, Advanced Warfare which looked sufficiently next gen.
 

Cryio

Member
Thought this part of their Deathloop technical analysis needed its own thread simply because of how ridiculous it sounds.

This is a technical analysis of a game by a publication that only does technical analysis.

Full Quote:


The first and the last sentences have absolutely no place in a technical review of the game. I can understand Gamespot or IGN giving it a pass for last gen graphics, but DF's only job is to critique visuals. If they dont do it, no one else will. And they feel it's OK to do the bare minimum for a game selling for a $70 next gen price tag.

As we look ahead to an unprecedented 2nd year of cross gen games this year, it's important to have game journalists hold these studios to a higher standard and critique sub standard looking games. Alex is the writer of this piece, and he had no issues criticizing a studio for what he considers to be decade old character design. Well, this game looks literally a decade old and he seems to have NO issues with it.

Absolutely insane.
What a horrendous take on the subject IMO.

Would most people be happier in 2012 if Dishonored was more technically accomplished? Sure. Was anyone actually bothered that Dishonored was a stylistic, though technically simple Unreal Engine 3 game in late gen for X360/PS3? Nope.

Were people impressed by Dishonored 2 visuals, given all the systems running the background, scale of levels, possibilities of approach, dual-protagonist gameplay styles AND variations based on chaos level? YES, there were IMPRESSED.

Is Deathloop EVEN BETTER looking than Dishonored 2 while still having a ton of systems working at any given moment? Yes. So what's the problem?
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
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PS3
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Ahh yes, the browngrey-ish era of gaming - when every game had the same "filter", cause a bigger color palette needed more ressources and the console hardware wasn't able to deliver.
Nice comparison 👍
 
Alex can enjoy a 2D platformer from the 80s if he wants. I really have no problem with it, but a technical review should not be subjective. That's what real reviews are for. Gamespot and IGN gave this game a 10 out of 10. Do you see me in that thread trashing the game for its graphics? Do you see me complaining about those scores not taking into account the last gen visuals? Because those reviews are subjective, it really doesnt matter what the budget or graphical prowess of a game really is.

Things are different when discussing technical aspects of a game. Their title of video literally says DF Tech Review. The video screengrab says Technology Review. It is not about whether or not the game is a Game of the Year contender or a cult classic many people will remember ten years from now. It's about what tech it is pushing and as a big AAA next gen only game, it cannot afford to look a gen behind last gen games.

The DF team gets paid to leave their bias at the door. They do not get to say hey the game is fun so Im gonna give it a pass. As you know, I am a Sony fan, but If I always came in and allowed my Sony bias to cloud my judgement and give Deathloop a pass just because its a PS exclusive, you wouldn't really respect my opinion, would you? And I am just a random forum poster. DF is literally the only technical reviewer around. They are so big that Sony and MS give them embargo'd briefings on hardware ahead of time. Devs have confessed to watch DF reviews. Now all of a sudden, Devs see this review and say wait, why does Deathloop get a pass and my game got trashed for not looking next gen enough? Why is a DF technical reviewer letting his bias cloud his judgement?

The next Call of Duty looks awful. Awful for a last gen game. Awful for a cross gen game. Awful period. Now what if Alex plays it, and finds that it is actually a fun game to play. Then decides to give the game a pass for its last gen graphics. Instead of comparing it to the Year 1 CoD game from last gen, Advanced Warfare which looked sufficiently next gen.
You better not watch an nxgamer technical review or you might have a stroke.
 
Alex can enjoy a 2D platformer from the 80s if he wants. I really have no problem with it, but a technical review should not be subjective. That's what real reviews are for. Gamespot and IGN gave this game a 10 out of 10. Do you see me in that thread trashing the game for its graphics? Do you see me complaining about those scores not taking into account the last gen visuals? Because those reviews are subjective, it really doesnt matter what the budget or graphical prowess of a game really is.

Things are different when discussing technical aspects of a game. Their title of video literally says DF Tech Review. The video screengrab says Technology Review. It is not about whether or not the game is a Game of the Year contender or a cult classic many people will remember ten years from now. It's about what tech it is pushing and as a big AAA next gen only game, it cannot afford to look a gen behind last gen games.

The DF team gets paid to leave their bias at the door. They do not get to say hey the game is fun so Im gonna give it a pass. As you know, I am a Sony fan, but If I always came in and allowed my Sony bias to cloud my judgement and give Deathloop a pass just because its a PS exclusive, you wouldn't really respect my opinion, would you? And I am just a random forum poster. DF is literally the only technical reviewer around. They are so big that Sony and MS give them embargo'd briefings on hardware ahead of time. Devs have confessed to watch DF reviews. Now all of a sudden, Devs see this review and say wait, why does Deathloop get a pass and my game got trashed for not looking next gen enough? Why is a DF technical reviewer letting his bias cloud his judgement?

The next Call of Duty looks awful. Awful for a last gen game. Awful for a cross gen game. Awful period. Now what if Alex plays it, and finds that it is actually a fun game to play. Then decides to give the game a pass for its last gen graphics. Instead of comparing it to the Year 1 CoD game from last gen, Advanced Warfare which looked sufficiently next gen.
Really beginning to doubt whether even you fully understand what you are arguing about. DF did do the promised technical review. They measured and presented resolution data, frame rate data, tested the modes, the differences between the modes, commented on issues such as the peculiar sun shadow issue without RT, frame pacing in RT mode. THAT'S the technical review that you are so trying to not see. There is nothing really much to add, as right as it says in the title, Deathloop does not push many technical boundaries. It doesn't have many new or noteworthy technical feature, nor does it fail in performance. It's just... Fine.

You seemed to demand that they say the game does not look good. Looking good or not is their subjective opinion. If they think it looks good artistically despite being technically mediocre, that's their call. NOBODY not least you can say they are not allowed to say that. As everyone, they are allowed a subjective opinion. Especially after they also hit all the usual technical stuff.

What a weird thing to argue about lol.
 
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Neo_game

Member
IMO DF are given benefit of doubt way too much and I do not think people should care too much what they say. Some of their work I guess is not bad as most people do not notice while playing it. The only good thing from DF is that they can report if the game is having performance issue or gfx bugs which dev can fix via patch and may be is not even aware of it. Art style is a very important and subjective criteria which play a big role in overall visuals.
 
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I'm ready for this cross gen anger to be over and done with. It's fine if you sequester yourself to your own community, but it's irritating seeing it pop up every day.

Do we need this thread for most games? Arkane games have always looked cartoony. It's been in development for awhile. It's getting great reviews. Calm down.
 
4 pages of people arguing if the Direct Foundry crew is allowed to enjoy and sharing their joy of playing games or not...
This place is worse than the pits of hell.
 
Nonsense. The best looking next gen game out right now has a cartoony non-photorealistic art style and it looks a generation ahead of Deathloop, other last gen games and two gens ahead of those KZ2 gifs and Ratchet's own PS3 games. Art style has nothing to do with the technical boundries DF is willing to let slide in Deathloop's case for some bizarre reason.

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Even Uncharted was very stylized compared to TLOU which was aiming for photorealism. Didnt stop ND from making Uncharted a technical powerhouse.
Sweet Baby Jesus. How the fuck did Insomniac pull this off.
 
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