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goopy20 on 01 July 2020
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shikamaru317 said:
goopy20 said:

Wow! Finally something we agree on :) The games themselves need to impress and not the benchmarks as most people won't know or care if a game is running in 1440p or 4k.

Many people seem to think its a good idea to give us options in next gen games. Like a performance mode with higher fps and visuals mode with better graphics settings. But there's a big difference between graphics settings and overall next gen graphics. Higher graphics settings is just some icing on the cake that doesn't have a real impact on how the game plays, its more like a toggle on/off slider like we're seeing on pc and mid-gen consoles. Overall visual fidelity is more about pushing a console to its limits while trying to get the best visuals on screen. For example, HZD2 now seems to have cloud and storm formations that aren't just there for eye candy, they play a role in the story and isn't something you can just toggle on or off. Same thing with physics, ai, npc count, dynamic day and night cycles and overall world/level design.

Whether you were impressed with Sony's event or not, they did show next gen games that are using the extra horse power not just for a bump in resolution/fps and graphics settings, but for core gameplay mechanics like the portal jumping in Ratchet & Clank, seamless underwater locations in HZD2 etc. Those are the things that set next gen console games apart from pc games at ultra settings and that's what MS should be showing in July.   

The only 2 games I saw on Sony's show that looked truly like a generation leap were Horizon: Forbidden West and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. GT7 had a decent graphical leap, but not a truly generational leap, and there was quite noticeable pop-in, which is something many Sony forum warriors were claiming the PS5's faster SSD would virtually eliminate. Project Athia also had a decent graphical leap, but not large enough to to feel like a generational leap imo. Some of the other games shown were cross-gen games, like Kena and Goodbye Volcano High, and looked the part. Others looked cross-gen, even though they're only releasing on next-gen, like Deathloop, Godfall, Ghostwire Tokyo, Returnal, Stray, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Several others didn't even look like cross-gen games running on PS5, but rather current game games running on PS4, like Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars, Solar Ash, Astro's Playroom, and Bugsnax. 

By comparison, here is how I feel about the graphics of the Xbox Series X games Microsoft has shown so far:

Games that look truly next-gen

  • Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
  • Flight Simulator
  • Halo Infinite first trailer (first half only)
  • Scorn
  • The Ascent (it's not a generational leap compared to most AAA games, but it is a generational leap compared to current gen AA top down and isometric games, it even looks substantially better than the AAA Diablo 4 which uses a similar isometric viewpoint)

Games that look like cross-gen games running on next-gen hardware

  • The Medium
  • Assassin's Creed Valhalla
  • Halo Infinite second trailer
  • Bright Memory Infinite (it might not look truly next-gen, but it is damned impressive for a game made by one person)
  • Second Extinction
  • CHORUS
  • Dirt 5
  • Everwild

Games that look current gen (but running at a higher resolution and/or framerate)

  • Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines 2
  • Scarlet Nexus
  • Yakuza 7
  • Call of the Se

Sony didn't really show much to get a good idea of what their games look like. HZD2 was mostly quick cuts of in game cinematics and it was the same thing with Spider man. Ratchet & Clank already looked like a pixar movie on ps4 but the dimension jumping did make it stand out quite a bit, though. For me the big takeaway is that big franchises like Spider man and HZD will be coming out early and will be specifically designed for the ps5. Everybody knows that GG especially, is no slouch when it comes to showcasing the new hardware, so that's already pretty exciting stuff to me. With MS we've only seen a in-game cinematic of Hellblade 2 and the rest all looked like current gen games running on X1X or a pc.

In both cases we need to see more but it's more the different strategies behind both companies that is pretty telling of what to expect. MS simply isn't targeting high-end specs like what's in these next gen consoles. All 1st party games will be on Xone too and the 3rd party games aren't going to require beastly pc specs. We can already see the recommended system requirements for some of these games. Scorn for example requires a GTX750ti, has a GTX970 listed as recommended and there's nothing about requiring a SSD https://store.steampowered.com/app/698670/Scorn/. Sure, it will require a bit more juice than the Xone but it's not like it will be pushing next gen hardware to its limits either.

The two different strategies behind both platform holders is what makes anything Sony will show much more exciting to me than what MS can show. I do love Halo and I can't wait to play it, it's just that I'm not expecting it to be a next gen masterclass when its releasing on xone too. But hey, maybe I will be totally wrong. Maybe Halo Infinite will show up looking like a SNES game on Xone compared to the Series X version and MS will completely blow me away in July. If that's the case they've just been doing a pretty piss poor job at promoting their next gen console, though.

Last edited by goopy20 - on 01 July 2020