Support NeoGAF

[Roman Empire]

It's not like God of War will be the only game I play on the PS5 but I'm not really surprised by the end result is similar to the first game because, if I'm not mistaken, Cory told on the "behind the scenes" that the scope of the project was too big that they had to cut the story mid-development to fit it in one game.

Think of it like what they did with the Lords of Rings movie trilogy, while we were playing the first game they were already making the second and beyond. In reality, I have no problem with that at all. I bet that what must take a lot of their development after already having the base gameplay foundation are the single-shot cutscenes. That takes a lot of work to do and make it seamless with the gameplay segments on the big set-pieces. I won't downplay their work because it isn't ever that simple, to begin with. I just think some complaints (small animations getting re-used, not a graphical overhaul, combat looking samey) don't hold that well and ended up like a bunch of spoiled people complaining for the sake of complaining.

One complaint I had with the game, and I hope they improve by a huge margin are the enemy types and variation. I hated going up against the same-looking trolls with different colors. There were 5 bosses in the game that were the same troll model but with a slightly different moveset. That needs to change or else the game will get stale fast, especially compared to how much enemy variety every other GoW game had in the past.

 

[Clear]

Well I was surprised at how identical it looks to the last game after 4 years and a new system. Horizon is a much larger jump. That recent enough to not be "weak?"

Horizon is a year older and the engine has had significant work done on it by both Guerilla and KojiPro. Its gotten a pretty good head-start, and the reality is that the original game suffered from more compromised assets than GoW due not only to its age, but the type of game it was.

What exactly are you expecting SSM's engineering and art teams to do differently? GoW is a much more constrained design than Horizon's open-world, meaning that the original assets could be larger, vfx precision could be greater, so on and so forth. You can't assume the amount of headroom for improvement is the same between two dissimlarly constructed titles even if they do have to run on the same base hardware.

Not to mention that the way the production is being managed can skew things greatly. For example, both teams will know that simply running the PS4 code on the PS5 will leave resources untapped. The question then becomes at what point during production is the focus placed on leveraging that resource? A lot of that is going to depend on how much they are struggling to get the PS4 build to hit its performance targets, because obviously thats a trickier proposition than working out exactly by how much the PS5 version is going to exceed that.

 

[Aroll]

I don't know what anyone expected. It's a PS4 game that is cross-gen with PS5. Meaning, it's built first and foremost, for the PS4. So a PS4 sequel looks a lot like the original PS4 game. Shocker?

Seriously what sort of expectations are we putting on these studios. There are 100m+ PS4's out there and PS5 can't even be readily purchased at Retail since launch. We fight every day against scalpers and we aren't even sure if it's something, the 2nd holiday in, that anyone can readily buy.

Why are we shocked?

 

[Punished Miku]

Horizon is a year older and the engine has had significant work done on it by both Guerilla and KojiPro. Its gotten a pretty good head-start, and the reality is that the original game suffered from more compromised assets than GoW due not only to its age, but the type of game it was.

What exactly are you expecting SSM's engineering and art teams to do differently? GoW is a much more constrained design than Horizon's open-world, meaning that the original assets could be larger, vfx precision could be greater, so on and so forth. You can't assume the amount of headroom for improvement is the same between two dissimlarly constructed titles even if they do have to run on the same base hardware.

Not to mention that the way the production is being managed can skew things greatly. For example, both teams will know that simply running the PS4 code on the PS5 will leave resources untapped. The question then becomes at what point during production is the focus placed on leveraging that resource? A lot of that is going to depend on how much they are struggling to get the PS4 build to hit its performance targets, because obviously thats a trickier proposition than working out exactly by how much the PS5 version is going to exceed that.

I apologize for being disappointed in God of War Ragnarok's first trailer. I'm sorry dude. Maybe in time you can find a way to forgive me, though I don't deserve it.

 

[kungfuian]

A huge part of the appeal of Sony games are the cutting edge graphics. Gamers expect big jumps and really pretty games, especially on their new hardware. Take that away and customers are sure to notice.

 

[SlimySnake]

It's not like God of War will be the only game I play on the PS5 but I'm not really surprised by the end result is similar to the first game because, if I'm not mistaken, Cory told on the "behind the scenes" that the scope of the project was too big that they had to cut the story mid-development to fit it in one game.

Think of it like what they did with the Lords of Rings movie trilogy, while we were playing the first game they were already making the second and beyond. In reality, I have no problem with that at all. I bet that what must take a lot of their development after already having the base gameplay foundation are the single-shot cutscenes. That takes a lot of work to do and make it seamless with the gameplay segments on the big set-pieces. I won't downplay their work because it isn't ever that simple, to begin with. I just think some complaints (small animations getting re-used, not a graphical overhaul, combat looking samey) don't hold that well and ended up like a bunch of spoiled people complaining for the sake of complaining.

One complaint I had with the game, and I hope they improve by a huge margin are the enemy types and variation. I hated going up against the same-looking trolls with different colors. There were 5 bosses in the game that were the same troll model but with a slightly different moveset. That needs to change or else the game will get stale fast, especially compared to how much enemy variety every other GoW game had in the past.

If God of War 2 on PS2 is any indication, this game will be full of unique bosses and encounters. GoW 1 lacked variety as well, but GOW2 took it to a level never seen before in a sequel. I dont think I had ever played a more impressive sequel at the time.

Of course, this could also be like Ascension so time will tell.

 

[Klik]

I don't understand why we need crossgen games in 2022. PS5 is selling even better than PS4 and by Q4 2022 PS5 will be available everywhere in stores.

I'm in southeast EU and PS5 is already avaliabe in stores for 700€ with 3 games(morales,ratchet,deamon souls) + 365 psplus..

 

[Clear]

I apologize for being disappointed in God of War Ragnarok's first trailer. I'm sorry dude. Maybe in time you can find a way to forgive me, though I don't deserve it.

Don't apologize, just explain your position better. So at least there's some further discussion to be had.

Disappointment, offense over "over sexualized" characters, whatever; any sort of emotional response might be real to the person reporting it, but in the real world noone else gives a shit when that reaction can't be persuasively justified or at least explained away.

 

[ResilientBanana]

This was literally the worst side-by-side comparison I've ever seen.

 

[YukiOnna]

I don't understand why we need crossgen games in 2022. PS5 is selling even better than PS4 and by Q4 2022 PS5 will be available everywhere in stores.

I'm in southeast EU and PS5 is already avaliabe in stores for 700€ with 3 games(morales,ratchet,deamon souls) + 365 psplus..

Because the PS5 Lifetime and userbase is nowhere near PS4's and still won't be for a game likely launching next year. Given the general reaction to the trailer on Youtube and other popular media sites, they made the right move.

 

[FunkMiller]

I don't understand why we need crossgen games in 2022. PS5 is selling even better than PS4 and by Q4 2022 PS5 will be available everywhere in stores.

I'm in southeast EU and PS5 is already avaliabe in stores for 700€ with 3 games(morales,ratchet,deamon souls) + 365 psplus..