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I miss being blown away by new-gen graphics....

Wonko_C

Member
So Horizon 2 gameplay came and went aaaand... I can see it coming to PS4 without much sacrifice. Maybe lower resolution, worse shadows, lesser precision effects, no Ray tracing but it will ultimately be the same experience. I don't think we'll be seeing Forza Horizon 2 (unfortunate name coincidence) Xbox One to Xbox 360 levels of downgrade here.
 
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So Horizon 2 gameplay came and went aaaand... I can see it coming to PS4 without much sacrifice. Maybe lower resolution, worse shadows, lesser precision effects, no Ray tracing but it will ultimately be the same experience. I don't think we'll be seeing Forza Horizon 2 (unfortunate name coincidence) Xbox One to Xbox 360 levels of downgrade here.
Horizon 2 is the best looking thing on console right now. It looks better than Ratchet and Clank in my opinion. I think they've got some sort of global illumination going on too with how the characters faces seem to be lit up from the bounce lighting off the sand.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
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EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Uncharted 4 from 2016 still looks good. Horizons thing is graphical powerhouse and remembering open world genius.
 

Rudius

Member
Okay guys....

The new Horizon Forbidden West gameplay actually blew me away. Those are the best visuals I think I've ever seen on any platform. Truly stunning stuff. It also looks like they're using some sort of global illumination too.
To me reaching new heights is not as important as achieving a good baseline. When I watch movies from the 60's and 70's, in good digital conversions, I don't think: "oh God, I wish they use better cameras." The technical quality was good enough for what they were trying to create.

When I saw the concept art of the first Horizon and the game running on PS4 I got the same feeling. The technology was sufficient for them to realize their vision.

But maybe they created the concept arts with the power of a PS4 in mind and thus limited it from the start...
 

Phase

Member
Hellblade 2
Graphically I'm sure it'll look fantastic, and there were some cool environments in 1. But honestly, I can't see them making much more out of what Hellblade is (mechanically) without trying to turn it into God of War or something. The game's fighting was so boring and bad to me that the graphics couldn't make up for it.
 
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Okay guys....

The new Horizon Forbidden West gameplay actually blew me away. Those are the best visuals I think I've ever seen on any platform. Truly stunning stuff. It also looks like they're using some sort of global illumination too.

that's nothing. After 3 years playing basically just VR lower resolution and mostly old graphics, I came back to Horizon ZD in the wake of this and was blown away already. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

last I played it was 1080p, now I played 4K HDR... it's incredibly gorgeous, I think only AC Odyssey is a match, but texture quality probably way lower...
 

Buki1

Member
I miss the early days of PS4 when they showcased Killzone Shadowfall, DriveClub, The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part 2... etc.

Every time they showed something for the PS4, I was floored at how good it all looked.

I get you, but PS3 to PS4 wasnt that much of a jump either. I'm old enough to remember 90s and the shock value of switching from SNES to Playstation - the graphic difference was unreal, games like Tekken, Ridge Racer or Destruction Derby with car parts flying all over after hit was something beyond crazy. And then switching from PS1 to PS2 and seeing fully 3d GTA after playing top-down GTA2... or even seeing Motorstorm first time on PS3 on a LCD hd screen that absolutely killed anything from the low res PS2.

Its sad that we wont see that kind of graphical jumps anymore. I'm still on PS4 cause I dont see anything that would justify switching to next gen.
 

Vasto

Member
What i am saying is that people should be extremely weary of expecting "real-time" footage to look anything like the game. Halo Infinite is an example of that

I am not weary at all for Hellblade 2 because I know what the have done already with the 1st game. Hellblade 2 will be a visual showcase and anybody saying it wont is just in denial and downplaying.

lR0Lluc.jpg
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
You might just not enjoy video games.
I see too many people really stressing too much over graphics, which makes me question do they even enjoy act of playing video games or they just like staring their TV screen and counting pixels all day.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
We can't even trust gameplay demos anymore either:

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You forgot to add that infamous "gameplay" of The Division to the bunch ;) But I think we are already past those kind of practices, the publishers learned already there will always be a huge backslash when they'll show a fake gameplay, the last time it happened was Anthem, so now EA also knows to not to mess with gamets like that.
 

Kenpachii

Member
You forgot to add that infamous "gameplay" of The Division to the bunch ;) But I think we are already past those kind of practices, the publishers learned already there will always be a huge backslash when they'll show a fake gameplay, the last time it happened was Anthem, so now EA also knows to not to mess with gamets like that.

The only thing publishers learned is that pre-ordering is the most important thing u can pull off and with that promise the universe and bullshit as much as you can, u should have seen the dying light 2 stream. holy shit. preorder now guys, preorder preorder.

U can thank that shitter from nomansky for this, and cyberpunk reinforced it completely. hell that whole dying light 2 stream was basically cyberpunk marketing to the teeth.
 
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Elysion

Banned
I haven‘t been blown away by graphics since the PS2/XBox/GC generation, and I mostly blame Sony for that. Their infamous Killzone 2 and Motorstorm trailers from E3 2005 created such high expectations for me that no game to this day has managed to reach. I totally fell for those trailers, and genuinely believed that this would be the level of visuals we could expect from games on PS3. Needless to say, reality didn‘t even come close to my expectations.

When PS4 came out, I thought, „okay, PS3 and Xbox360 were disappointing, but maybe now we can finally get those CG level visuals we saw at E3 2005!“ Alas, my hopes and dreams were shattered once more, because no matter how good some of the games from last gen looked, they still didn‘t compare to those infamous trailers. Now we‘re on PS5, and I‘m still waiting for a game that looks as good. To be fair, we‘re getting pretty close now, and I‘m relatively confident that in a few years we will see games that approach the level of visual fidelity from those trailers. It only took us twenty years, lol.
 
You forgot to add that infamous "gameplay" of The Division to the bunch ;) But I think we are already past those kind of practices, the publishers learned already there will always be a huge backslash when they'll show a fake gameplay, the last time it happened was Anthem, so now EA also knows to not to mess with gamets like that.
To be fair, the original watchdog gameplay trsiler look shockingly good.
 

iHaunter

Member
I see too many people really stressing too much over graphics, which makes me question do they even enjoy act of playing video games or they just like staring their TV screen and counting pixels all day.
A lot of people I see, seem to enjoy measuring pixels rather than play games.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
U can thank that shitter from nomansky for this, and cyberpunk reinforced it completely. hell that whole dying light 2 stream was basically cyberpunk marketing to the teeth.
No Man's Sky team at least made up for their blunder as an indie dev. Cyberpunk team is still on the clock though.
 
I miss the early days of PS4 when they showcased Killzone Shadowfall, DriveClub, The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part 2... etc.

Every time they showed something for the PS4, I was floored at how good it all looked.

Now-a-days though it's like... HEY IT LOOKS THE SAME AS A PS4 GAME BUT IT HAS 60FPS!!!! WOW 60FPS! SO NEXT GEN!

I'm so sick of it.

The last time I was blown away by something for the PS5, was when they showed off UE5. That's pretty much it. Everything else just looks like last gen stuff with some extra detail and 4K resolution.

I must confess though, I've stayed away from any videos or screenshots of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart because I wanna go in with fresh eyes. Hopefully this is the game that really makes me think "Man, now this is what next gen can really do"

What are your thoughts? Is 60fps enough to call it "next gen" or do you really wanna see that graphical leap we've come to expect each new generation even if it has to be 30fps.

If a game looks as good as UE5 demo, I'll gladly play it at 30fps.

In my opinion, Demons Souls Remake was the first game giving this "next-gen feeling" with highter geometry density. Ratchet and Horizon gives something in the same way.

But not compared like the upgrade from Killzone 3 to Shadow Fall. Sounded massive.

The point is, we will see something really crazy only on second next-gen wave, with new geometry meshes technology, more CPU and i/o bound, i.e., graphical engines completely rewrited.
 

Cryio

Member
I'm not blown away by visuals nowadays, but I still get blown away when I see specific effects implemented really really well.

The Last of Us on PS3 has radiosity for example. If you shine your light on a brown wooden box, the sounded area to the box will take that brown hue. Or if you shine your light at a green wall, the surrounding objects will take a green hue. That almost RT levels. The effect is not universally present as far as I could tell, but it's really cool when it's there.

The same effect for example in Gears of War 4 IS ONLY PRESENT in the basement where you find red carpets. If you orient your flashlight on the red cards the entire immediate surroundings get a red hue that looks soooo good.
 

Cryio

Member
I would also say I'm impressed by an effect's implementation in regards to the target hardware.

For Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, besides these games looking good in general, it's downright impressive they can do RT at 60 fps while still keeping 1080p. This is AMD hardware after all, so RT performance isn't as good as Nvidia's, there is no DLSS equivalent and even FSR wasn't present on consoles yet.

FEAR 1, 2005: The level of level destruction + dynamic lights + soft shadows + the amazing A.I. will never not be impressive IMO.

Doom 3, original version, 2004: All UI and text in game isn't jpeg, it's some sort of scalable SVG texture. Basically the UI and any kind of text in Doom 3 is HD AF, as if it was released today. It's extremely impressive. Not to mention, while the shadows in the game are ABSOLUTE in a way only Doom 3 can do it, the way the shadows are perfectly pixel mapped to geometry and the way they transitions on objects that move between light and shadow IS EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE even today. There's no Unreal Engine 3 game (not even Arkham Knight) that has shadows as impressive as Doom 3 for example.

Far Cry 2, 2008: The way fire spreads and destroys everything in its path. How it destroys trees and how tree branches and how those tree branches organically grow back.

Resident Evil 4, 2005: The fact this kind of game was possible on GameCube and even more shockingly on PlayStation 2. From visuals, to scale, to variety, to geometric complexity on characters or enemies, to the cinematic angles

Metal Gear Solid 3, 2004: Snake Eater: Kinda same principle as RE4, but applied exclusively to PS2 this time around.
 
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JimmyRustler

Gold Member
PS5 is the first console that doesn't impress me when it comes to visuals. Remember even during the PS4 release being pretty stunned by Shadow Fall.

At first I didn't even have any real Next Gen games and then when I finally had Demons Souls I was pretty let down as, to me, even FFVII looks better - and that is only a PS4 game.

Well, dimishing returns are finally here I guess. Though maybe the TV industry will bring the next step forward again. HDR was a game changer for me. Playing Horizon with it enabled absolutely blew me away. Curious to see what the future brings.
 

makaveli60

Member
PS5 is the first console that doesn't impress me when it comes to visuals. Remember even during the PS4 release being pretty stunned by Shadow Fall.

At first I didn't even have any real Next Gen games and then when I finally had Demons Souls I was pretty let down as, to me, even FFVII looks better - and that is only a PS4 game.

Well, dimishing returns are finally here I guess. Though maybe the TV industry will bring the next step forward again. HDR was a game changer for me. Playing Horizon with it enabled absolutely blew me away. Curious to see what the future brings.
Try Rift Apart. That’s the only REAL nextgen game existing for the foreseeable future.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
I get you, but PS3 to PS4 wasnt that much of a jump either. I'm old enough to remember 90s and the shock value of switching from SNES to Playstation - the graphic difference was unreal, games like Tekken, Ridge Racer or Destruction Derby with car parts flying all over after hit was something beyond crazy. And then switching from PS1 to PS2 and seeing fully 3d GTA after playing top-down GTA2... or even seeing Motorstorm first time on PS3 on a LCD hd screen that absolutely killed anything from the low res PS2.

Its sad that we wont see that kind of graphical jumps anymore. I'm still on PS4 cause I dont see anything that would justify switching to next gen.
I think ps3 to ps4 was a bigger visual leap than ps4 to ps5
 

WitchHunter

Member
I miss the early days of PS4 when they showcased Killzone Shadowfall, DriveClub, The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part 2... etc.

Every time they showed something for the PS4, I was floored at how good it all looked.

Now-a-days though it's like... HEY IT LOOKS THE SAME AS A PS4 GAME BUT IT HAS 60FPS!!!! WOW 60FPS! SO NEXT GEN!

I'm so sick of it.

The last time I was blown away by something for the PS5, was when they showed off UE5. That's pretty much it. Everything else just looks like last gen stuff with some extra detail and 4K resolution.

I must confess though, I've stayed away from any videos or screenshots of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart because I wanna go in with fresh eyes. Hopefully this is the game that really makes me think "Man, now this is what next gen can really do"

What are your thoughts? Is 60fps enough to call it "next gen" or do you really wanna see that graphical leap we've come to expect each new generation even if it has to be 30fps.

If a game looks as good as UE5 demo, I'll gladly play it at 30fps.
The last time an FPS played with lighting? Doom? I mean we are literally de-evolving.
 

Certinty

Member
Forza Horizon on the Xbox 360 blew me away.

Forza Horizon 2 on the Xbox One blew me away.

Forza Horizon 3 on the Xbox One blew me away.

Forza Horizon 4 on the Xbox One X blew me away.

Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox Series X blew me away.

Basically, Playground Games are the ones who keep blowing me away.
 

Alan Wake

Member
PS5 is the first console that doesn't impress me when it comes to visuals. Remember even during the PS4 release being pretty stunned by Shadow Fall.

At first I didn't even have any real Next Gen games and then when I finally had Demons Souls I was pretty let down as, to me, even FFVII looks better - and that is only a PS4 game.

Well, dimishing returns are finally here I guess. Though maybe the TV industry will bring the next step forward again. HDR was a game changer for me. Playing Horizon with it enabled absolutely blew me away. Curious to see what the future brings.

I played Forza Horizon 4 on my old TV and then bought a new 4K TV with HDR and played the game again. The difference was significant. But I got used to it very quickly, so it was more about seeing the difference in the same game before and after. I wonder it we'll ever experience that from 2D to 3D magic ever again.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I played Forza Horizon 4 on my old TV and then bought a new 4K TV with HDR and played the game again. The difference was significant. But I got used to it very quickly, so it was more about seeing the difference in the same game before and after. I wonder it we'll ever experience that from 2D to 3D magic ever again.
I daresay HDR has more impact when you try to go back again. I just can't stand it.

As for the question if we'll have this kind of magic again... No, I don't think so. Tech will improve no doubt, but it'll be in small steps. So maybe when you look back to todays games in say 10 years you'll go like wow... but having this impression from a new console right off the bat? Nah, that ship has sailed. Except if maybe someone comes up with some new kinda tech that blows the existing one out of the water.... and I doubt that's going to happen.
 
I honestly agree, and go even further back with that. The last generation that truly blew my mind visually was the 7th generation. The leap from PS2 and Xbox to PS3 and 360 was wild. The "leap" from PS3 and 360 to PS4 and One was unimpressive and lame. Most of the time I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if you just showed me screenshots with no context.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
True. I would rather have 1440p with great graphical fidelity than 4k with lower graphical fidelity

Good thing 4K isn’t an actual target for devs worth their salt, upscalling techniques are needed to match 4K TVs, which account for the majority of sales.
 
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