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God of War Ragnarök – Hands-on gameplay report

CamHostage

Member
I’d rather wait another year or two and get a real next Gen game from Sony’s best studio than wait until 2027 to get their first next Gen game.

You would have wanted one game in 2024/2025 instead of two games in near that same period?

I guess I get that ultra level of standards of expectations, but they're games, not masterworks in a time capsule waiting to be unleashed. Stuff needs to be produced, people need to work, and this is how the SSM schedule shook out.

Sony Santa Monica's "first" next-gen game probably won't be a God of War. They have other stuff going, it's a "1.5 Studio" and they have Barlog's project on deck, which is very likely experimenting with all the new technology that second-wave 2023/202X games are working into their engines this gen like virtualized geometry and a tile-based streaming system and dynamic GI and all the fun stuff. They've also suffered great setbacks (including the Stig game cancelation and his departure in 2014,) and God of War projects have saved the studio from themselves and this idea that they need to be exceptionalists at all costs. (Had they not pivoted to GoW 2018 immediately after Stig's project fell apart, the studio may have not made it, and had a GoW sequel not been fast-tracked after 2018 despite Barlog again moving on to the next thing, again they might have had trouble, or might have had to dip into this new territory of "remaking" their past hits as tentpole new titles.)

They go into some of the dark times in the Raising Kratos documentary (also, they show the "Internal-7" project for a sec 8 minutes in.)




I'd love for SSM to have been ready for this gen right at the start, or to be at that same level of cranking speed that got two GoWs out in the PS2 era (despite the first game being 5 years into the PS2's lifespan; they did Kinetica on PS2, although a lot of studios did 3 games or more a gen back then,) or two GoWs out on PS3 (and GoW Ascension gets forgotten a lot as the not-GoW3 God of War, but at least it tried something unique with multiplayer.) However, they haven't been on that trajectory for a while (very few studios have been quick like that in recent times, unfortunately... one, really, Insomniac) and this is where they are now. They missed 2021 (and are way later into 2022 with their first-in-gen project than everybody had hoped) but it's done and now they gear up for the next thing.
 
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People act as if developing games is like putting something on an assembly line in factory. As if its no big deal for devs, espeiallly on the level of SIE to put out games of this caliber and polish. Marvel just pushed back their entire line up of movies they announced a couple of months ago already.

People don’t account for the human element of game development. We had a global pandemic that forced everyone to pack their shit up and work from home. If you watched the last GOWR behind the scenes video they put out they talk about how they had to have less people doing motion capture because of it. Everyone got their asses kicked the past two years and people thought since we got a bunch of games in 2020 when the pandemic started that its effects werent gonna be felt in gaming. These are the actual residual effects of the pandemic.

I remember a developer, maybe it was Barlog saying that its a miracle any game launches with how hectic it all is. Then add to the fact that the game also has to be innovative and high quality consistently.

Not to mention…..



Aka shit happens and the game was supposed to come out last year with horizon fw and gt7, but shit got pushed back. It’s commendable that despite everything that happened Sony still managed to have a consistent output of games 1st and 3rd party.

I don’t see any of their upcoming big single player games being cross-gen after this point and I doubt they ever were.
 
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ABnormal

Member
People act as if developing games is like putting something on an assembly line in factory. As if its no big deal for devs, espeiallly on the level of SIE to put out games of this caliber and polish. Marvel just pushed back their entire line up of movies they announced a couple of months ago already.

People don’t account for the human element of game development. We had a global pandemic that forced everyone to pack their shit up and work from home. If you watched the last GOWR behind the scenes video they put out they talk about how they had to have less people doing motion capture because of it. Everyone got their asses kicked the past two years and people thought since we got a bunch of games in 2020 when the pandemic started that its effects werent gonna be felt in gaming. These are the actual residual effects of the pandemic.

I remember a developer, maybe it was Barlog saying that its a miracle any game launches with how hectic it all is. Then add to the fact that the game also has to be innovative and high quality consistently.

Not to mention…..



Aka shit happens and the game was supposed to come out last year with horizon fw and gt7, but shit got pushed back. It’s commendable that despite everything that happened Sony still managed to have a consistent output of games 1st and 3rd party.

I don’t see any of their upcoming big single player games being cross-gen after this point and I doubt they ever were.

There is also to take in consideration that at some point they decided to end the north saga in this game, and the project became much bigger. If it would go as planned before, as the second chapter of a trilogy, it would be completed one year before.
 
There is also to take in consideration that at some point they decided to end the north saga in this game, and the project became much bigger. If it would go as planned before, as the second chapter of a trilogy, it would be completed one year before.

Yeah, Cory said with the way game development is going they didn’t want to take 15 years to do another trilogy. If they had made this part 2 of 3, part 3 would be out in 2026 and look like a completely different game again. Sometimes you just gotta strike while the iron is hot and not draw things out for the sake of it.

I also feel like being a trilogy is what hurt the story of HFW. The entire 3rd arc just felt like a set up for the next game.

The other benefits is unlike some other games these two games can be played back to back on both systems, complete. No need for a remaster, remake, or back-port, a nice double feature series
 
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Either you were doing something very very wrong, or something was very very wrong with your unit. OLED's look better in every way.

BUT I still went back to LED due to burn in.
I don't know how anyone could go back to Led from Oled. Nothing wrong with Oled whites either. When I was first getting into TVs I was obsessed and tried out high oled and led tvs and Oled is so much nicer.
 

wvnative

Member
I don't know how anyone could go back to Led from Oled. Nothing wrong with Oled whites either. When I was first getting into TVs I was obsessed and tried out high oled and led tvs and Oled is so much nicer.
Make no mistake, I miss the PQ of my oled, but my mind is at peace. It's not oled level but my X95J certainly isn't ugly.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Do we have confirmation what what we saw was in engine/gameplay? Or mock up cinematic?
no confirmation but i doubt it was a mockup cinematic since they go into details about the over the shoulder camera in the PS Blog along with info on motion capture for facial animations and screenshots that look in game. Even if its a cinematic, its a realtime one.


And it's always the same gymwolf and slimysnake who derailed countless amount of threads with their stupid graphic fetishism
Go back and read the discussion, and tell me if it was ME who derailed it. All I said was in reply to a person who didnt like hearing 'more of the same' from the previews. I actually defended the game and said they were never going to reinvent the franchise just one game later. I called the first game pretty much perfect and that its hard to top perfection. All I said was that they couldve given us a HZD to HFW style upgrade WITHOUT going next gen like TLOU1 to TLOU2 and then it turned into a graphics discussion. Even then I did NOT bring up Silent Hill.

I actually ignored James' first post about Silent Hill looking better (hardest fucking thing ive had to do all week) and only engaged in another poster's queries about whether or not SH2 was realtime or a concept art. I ignored several more replies to me before finally deciding to reply to people accusing me of having some kind of agenda even though my GOTY last year was It Takes Two, a cross gen game, even though I got shat on for daring to say Hades was a better rougelike than the next gen only Returnal, and even though I tout HFW as the best looking game every chance I get.

So yes, at that point, I decided to go all in. But even then I wrote and deleted several posts with fancy Matrix and Unity Engine Lion gifs because of fear of derailing further. I even chose not to reply to Cam Hostage to prevent it from derailing even more and yet here we are.

Lastly, I can assure you, it's not just Gymwolf and I. The first few pages of this thread were full of people voicing their disapproval. Gymwolf and I just stick around to engage in discussion with you lot since I figured the nice thing to do to a person replying to you would to actually reply back. Something that from now on I will avoid.

The first game runs at a locked 4kcb 60 fps on the PS5. This one should be similar.


lots of people in the thread arent too pleased by it. you're not alone. it's the second game of the reboot, they were never going to reinvent the franchise again just one game later. tying themselves to last gen kept them from giving this game a TLOU1 to TLOU2 leap we all wanted. Though they couldve still done U1 to U2 or HZD to HFW caliber leap, but the first game was as close to perfect as you can get so hard to top perfection. Maybe if they downgraded the base PS4 resolution to 900p or even 720p to get 50-100% more GPU power back that they couldve put into visuals like HFW did but doubt it wouldve changed gameplay or level design.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
no confirmation but i doubt it was a mockup cinematic since they go into details about the over the shoulder camera in the PS Blog along with info on motion capture for facial animations and screenshots that look in game. Even if its a cinematic, its a realtime one.

Man I hope so, I thought it looked fantastic and was exactly how I envisioned a modern remake of SH2 to look like.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
OLED has terrible whites. It blooms and destroys everything on the screen. That's why I was waiting for Sony's QD-OLED. Fixes that issue. You can't even watch a movie with subtitles at night, it's so bad. Had the LG C1.
It’s individual pixels being lit, light illuminates it’s surroundings. It’s a matter of display coatings. How would another Oled display tech mitigate that ?
 

Dibils2k

Member
I actually believed this...so I paid 1500 dollars a year ago and got a 43inch CX...Reverted back to my LGuj63led after a month of fucking around with every setting in the CX...The colors on the oled are hot garbage,it has pure blacks but terrible banding,the only thing it's got going for it is the clarity,It's a super clean picture all around...but unless you're planning on playing exclusively in 4k i don't recommend an oled.I play even my PS2 in 2022 so my LG LCD is incredible,especially colour wise.Best colouring I've ever seen on a tv...and no don't use the warm setting for brightness on the OLED or any tv for that matter unless you walk around with piss in your eyes,it's not the best setting no matter how much these tech channels tell you it is.Nor is colouring at anything higher than 55,everything looks like a Disney anymation otherwise.
mate i used to be a Warm 2 color hater.. but now i cant go back to medium or cool, they look so wrong! but it took me some time to get used to, now everything looks way more pure

Also OLED isnt for everyone, if you want a overbrightened picture then LED will always pop more, to me i hate local dimming and HDR is ruined by local dimming, with it dimming dark areas that also dims small bright elements

At the end its what you prefer but to me OLED is far superior with ABL being the only real annoyance for me, i do think OLED owners can be annoying with their hyperbole lol
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
The thing is Elden Ring and BoTW are probably in my top 10, if not my top 5 at this point but the hyperbole around both games have started to come of disingenuous to me. I feel like a large segment of the population really just kind of feed off the metacritic scores more than they think they do.

If a game scores a 95 or above you really can’t ever say shit about them. They are just forever criticism proof
95? GOW 2018 is a 94 and you can say the same about it. Criticism is not allowed - oh well, it is, except a full defence force is ready to strike as soon as they smell a thread with the slightest criticism to their Holy Grail of Gaming.

EVERY SINGLE great game has hyperbole around it, and stans ready to silence any valid criticism.
Didn’t you just open a thread about “squeezing through cracks”, after all? That’s exactly what we’re talking about here. Squeezing through cracks is the “weapon durability” of cinematic games - one feature that’s been overblown by detractors, but can still be a valid point of criticism.

It must be said though, the blatant hyperbole from “journalists” and “critics” is doing wonders in keeping the flames ablaze. Some of these discussions may be a little chiller, but Twitter is a thing.
 
Go back and read the discussion, and tell me if it was ME who derailed it.

I actually ignored James' first post about Silent Hill looking better (hardest fucking thing ive had to do all week) and only engaged in another poster's queries about whether or not SH2 was realtime or a concept art. I ignored several more replies to me before finally deciding to reply to people accusing me

Lastly, I can assure you, it's not just Gymwolf and I. The first few pages of this thread were full of people voicing their disapproval. Gymwolf and I just stick around to engage in discussion with you lot since I figured the nice thing to do to a person replying to you would to actually reply back. Something that from now on I will avoid.
Yep i take some blame for the derail as well. Thats why i stopped posting. Not just your fault for sure.
 

tommib

Member
Call me a psycho, but i'm happy that we have human enemies with red blood instead of those wood zombies with orange shit:lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Imagine the heavy attack with R2 on humans...


ad35dc32bbfd5df9-600x338.gif
If nothing else, we share a love for realistic bloody gore.
Rainbow Six Bro GIF by G2 Esports
 
Please don't make a funny God of War game, please don't pander to the Uncharted crowds with humorous banter between Atreus and Kratos.

Please don't build a story around Kratos dealing with the "will of his teenage son".

Please remember that Kratos is evil, and 100% a villain.
Kratos now does flower fetching mini quests tho...

The angry/revenge Kratos is pretty much done, and it's a good thing; one note characters - and characters who don't exhibit growth/change - are boring.
 

SLB1904

Banned
Please don't make a funny God of War game, please don't pander to the Uncharted crowds with humorous banter between Atreus and Kratos.

Please don't build a story around Kratos dealing with the "will of his teenage son".

Please remember that Kratos is evil, and 100% a villain.
Kratos ain't no villain. What you on about?
Kratos didn't go in a killing rampage because he wanted to.
You and your weird takes lol
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
The last game was a 9.5 for me, and that's with me feeling like the game didn't end somehow. Hopefully this one I can give a 10!
 

Bragr

Banned
Kratos now does flower fetching mini quests tho...

The angry/revenge Kratos is pretty much done, and it's a good thing; one note characters - and characters who don't exhibit growth/change - are boring.
No, it's the writing that determines how interesting a character is, not growth or change, that's just a tool.
 

Corpsepyre

Banned
From the Gamingbible preview:

There's a real savageness to the Thor fight that somehow makes even 2018's God of War look tame in comparison. It's a brutality that extends to the rest of the game. Kratos hardly tickled people to death in the last game, but here, he's impaling, decapitating, and all-round going in on his enemies like they personally left a poo under his pillow. This was no accident.

True enough, the "executions" Kratos can pull off on stunned enemies feel way more visceral. You can tear off heads, chop bad guys clean in half, and slice them up like there's no tomorrow. Sheth explains this wasn't something they were able to explore too much in the 2018 game, but Kratos' ultra-violent streak really is back with a vengeance in Ragnarök. This is a tired old soldier who isn't fighting because he wants to, but because he needs to. And that makes all the difference.

I was anxious for the game, but now sign me the fuck up!
 
The way the game is designed, you're not even allowed the freedom to simply jump onto objects...but you think Kratos is gonna just hop down there and tear up that whole patch of land?

This is a ps4 game, it's not that kind of party.

I'm not saying he's going to go down there and explore. Maybe as the game progresses he will visit those areas?
 
I'm not saying he's going to go down there and explore. Maybe as the game progresses he will visit those areas?

Sure that is entirely possible..games have done that since Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania on NES when you look at the castle from afar.

But that doesn't change anything I've said about those 2 vistas that were being compared visually with no context as to why they look that way.
One is actually there in real time and the other one isn't, period.
Not to say the illusion doesn't look pretty, but context is everything.

Even if From Software were as talented on the visual front as Sony Santa Monica, there's no way Elden Ring could be as detailed given how the game is designed and how big it is.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
What? Lol
Clearly different lighting, textures.
"Color grading" lmfao
Educate yourself.




Theres some harder lighting used as well, but this is mostly colour grading.

And yes, hard light is a term.
 
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SLB1904

Banned
Educate yourself.




Theres some harder lighting used as well, but this is mostly colour grading.

And yes, hard light is a term.

Jesus christ what's wrong with you.
The update version has the moonlight reflection. Look at the texture on Freyas leather.
The reflection on her skin. That's not color grading. We both know you are wrong but you going to try die on that hill lol
 

Whitecrow

Banned
Jesus christ what's wrong with you.
The update version has the moonlight reflection. Look at the texture on Freyas leather.
The reflection on her skin. That's not color grading. We both know you are wrong but you going to try die on that hill lol
You are wrong mate. Take a relaxing pill.

The lighting engine did not make that scene on itself. Artists spend a lot of time tweaking that lighting (hue, brightness, saturation...) to enhance each scene.

Theres such thing as color theory and how different colors can bring different emotions, so to speak.

So no. That scene is not a product of having better lighting or whatever. Is product of a team of artists choosing carefully that colors specifically.
 

Umbral

Member
Out of fear of spoilers, is there any mention of them addressing the critiques from Matthewmatosis’s Case Study video? I know they watched it and acknowledged it. I’m wondering if they implemented or addressed anything he discussed.
 

SLB1904

Banned
You are wrong mate. Take a relaxing pill.

The lighting engine did not make that scene on itself. Artists spend a lot of time tweaking that lighting (hue, brightness, saturation...) to enhance each scene.

Theres such thing as color theory and how different colors can bring different emotions, so to speak.

So no. That scene is not a product of having better lighting or whatever. Is product of a team of artists choosing carefully that colors specifically.
Just say it.
UPGRADE
it won't hurt i promise
YawnOwz.jpg
DXCngQu.jpg
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q76Ne0r.jpg
 

mitchman

Gold Member
So glad to hear that. I recall hearing for a while that C9 owners got shafted and LG wasn't going to update it or something.
I have the B9 and it's still great and supports HDMI 2.1 (full 48Gbps bandwidth), VRR, 120Hz and all. Not in a rush to upgrade it, tbh.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I have the B9 and it's still great and supports HDMI 2.1 (full 48Gbps bandwidth), VRR, 120Hz and all. Not in a rush to upgrade it, tbh.
Same, now that I know it supports these features I'm more than happy to get around another 3 years of out it. Will upgrade around the time the C4-C5 launches.
 
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