• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

God of War Ragnarök – Hands-on gameplay report

FeralEcho

Member
Well he's right on that aspect.

Playing games on an OLED looks 10x better than any traditional LCD panel.
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.
 

OZ9000

Banned
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.
I'm surprised to hear that.

Every single thing looks so much better on my LG C1 77" TV.

I was blown away at how good even older games like Spiderman looked.
 

FeralEcho

Member
I'm surprised to hear that.

Every single thing looks so much better on my LG C1 77" TV.

I was blown away at how good even older games like Spiderman looked.
Maybe it's a matter of taste or getting used to it..idk.
Out of curiosity,can you post a pic of your settings for it?
 

samoilaaa

Member
More forced walking and going through cracks?

Lol fuck this shit. I absolutely hated that in the original game. In fact, that is a bigger crime than the fact the graphics look the same. To make this game on the PS4 is the worst decision ever.
well people seem to enjoy that , thats why games are more than just games these days , i gave up on the 2018 one because of all the forced walking and boat sailing , in the end i struggled to finish it for the story

i dont mind cutscenes or forced walking but not at every step for every little fucking thing , for example the cutscene with freya where you have to carry a boar to her place , was that slow walking really necessary , couldnt we have just skip to her place ?
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
FfmZ4aAX0AYGEj7
PS6 remake confirmed already??

The hyperbole in this thread surpasses even my expectations.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Not to be too negative, but it's a pretty sad list of bullet points. Looks very similar to the last one, other than some added verticality.

Luckily the last one is great, so even if it's just more of that - that is going to likely be awesome. I pre-ordered, but still not hyped at all. I'm sure it'll be good though.

I do think the story and spectacle elements really need to deliver though to truly hit GOTY. The gameplay seems very similar to the last one.
It was a very well received game. Why are you expecting them to change their formula?
 

iHaunter

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.
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.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Those SH pictures are not IG screenshots, just well done concept arts (the first one may be a cinematic capture, not real time). I don't see the point comparing these to actual IG screenshots of different games with totally different atmosphere, setting and goals.
They are all real-time.

But good to see people think they are concept art or straight up CG because that proves how far real-time graphics have come.
 

Gaelyon

Gold Member
They are all real-time.

But good to see people think they are concept art or straight up CG because that proves how far real-time graphics have come.
Well may be you're right but those last two pics are stills and nothing say they're anythings but concept arts. Is there any source where we see this in animation ?
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
GoWR: “they haven’t changed this game enough”

Final Fantasy XVI: “this doesn’t even look like final fantasy anymore wtf”

Will be interesting to see how people respond to Zelda next year
Zelda and From Software are immune to criticism from the industry. Both will release the same shit again and again and it will be praised as genre defining and industry shifting.

GOW2018 incredible so im down for more of the same with sharper graphics and more enemies :messenger_spock:
 
Zelda and From Software are immune to criticism from the industry. Both will release the same shit again and again and it will be praised as genre defining and industry shifting.

GOW2018 incredible so im down for more of the same with sharper graphics and more enemies :messenger_spock:

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
 
The pics for sh2 are 1080p, not 4k, so they are both compressed.

I just used a pic that someone posted in the topic to show the great graphic of ragnarock, i didn't checked the res, it's not like i searched for a bad screen on purpose.

i'm searching for 4k screens of ragnarock as we speak.

edit:

official 4k screens

God-of-War-Ragnarok_2021_09-09-21_002.jpg

God-of-War-Ragnarok_2021_09-09-21_003.jpg


Not sure about you, but for me rocks both from close or far away don't look too hot (since we are talking about rock details)

But these discussions are pretty mute, ragnarock is probably gonna look much better on our oled tv, but it is the same for sh2 remakem, no yt video or official screen can make justice when it comes to judgying micro-details.

Are you for real?

These shots are way more impressive than that outdoor SH2 pic you captured, lmfao
 

wvnative

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.

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.
 
Zelda and From Software are immune to criticism from the industry. Both will release the same shit again and again and it will be praised as genre defining and industry shifting.

GOW2018 incredible so im down for more of the same with sharper graphics and more enemies :messenger_spock:
Yeah... although I would say rockstar seem to be most critic. I think gta4, 5 and rdr2 have 97 metacritic and rdr 1 is 95.

Honestly I am always bothered when a game gets 95 + on metacritic as a consumer its completely useless to have 100 + outlets all saying the same thing.

BUUUT I get particularly sick when roxkstar games get that treatment considering there terrible controls and dated as fuck mission design.

Rdr2 getting away with that shit in 2018 felt like some serious bullshit.
 
Lighting, asset quality, character models, all look better in SH2.

Lighting, no.

Asset quality, no. There's nothing impressive about the asset quality of the environments. It has nice looking fog and weather, but the detail in the environments? No

Character models - no, look at Henry in TLOU 1 Remake in the jail.
 
Lighting, no.

Asset quality, no. There's nothing impressive about the asset quality of the environments. It has nice looking fog and weather, but the detail in the environments? No

Character models - no, look at Henry in TLOU 1 Remake in the jail.
Im with you, the fog covers up so much and its strange to see SlimySnake SlimySnake say it looks so much better when they were so critical of it in Horizon.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
It's a barren realistic city, you are not gonna see the amount of stuff on screen that you see here or in other ragnarock pics

FfmJLoJWAAAD1y8


but it doesn't mean that textures are less detailed., just look at the rocks on the left and in front of kratos in this pic, does that looks like incredible textures to you?

especially when horizon does this on a fucking open world? you can zoom on both and the result doens't change.
x8y8oo2mdsh81.jpg



sh2 looks pretty good to me

z2iy63g2luu91.jpg

u4lz04g2luu91.jpg
I think all 3 look good in their own style.

Looks so much better than GOW:R it's not even funny. Ragnarok looks like a PS4 game.
Crazy that a PS4 game can look better than most games in the industry that are out right now.
 
Last edited:

Turk1993

GAFs #1 source for car graphic comparisons
This game has the potential to be GOTG or atleast one of the GOTG's. The improvements over the first game looks and sounds solid. While graphically its not the best looking game on PS5, it still looks amazing and has high fps modes going by DF. Can't wait to see the badass boss battles and the final face off.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Im with you, the fog covers up so much and its strange to see SlimySnake SlimySnake say it looks so much better when they were so critical of it in Horizon.
I like fog and smoke effects. When needed. I am playing Arkham Knight on PC with Nvidia's enhanced smoke effects and they look fantastic. Pretty sure ive mentioned it in a couple Gotham Knights threads so far. Ive repeatedly praised Returnal's fog effects since last year.

Horizon does it to hide its draw distance and texture deficiencies. Silent Hill is doing it because the whole town is covered in fog. And they use really high quality fog simulation at that. It's not faked like it was in the PS2 era. We know for certain that is a design choice to keep the atmosphere consistent with the original and not a trick to hide the draw distance because we have seen that nanite can completely fix the LOD issues that have plagued last gen games. We saw it in the UE5 PS5 demo, in the Matrix demo, and the valley of ancient demos on PC. UE5 has no problem with draw distance so we can be sure that the fog in in Silent Hill 2 is a design choice, not a fake one to hide stuff like this.


Oh god I hate fog in the new Horizon trailer. It's everywhere just like it was in the first game. I hate it in the PC version. I actually went out and bought Horizon on PC last week because I saw a video of it running without fog but it turns out the guy is selling the mod for a $10 monthly patreon. It's clearly there to reduce the rendering load and i hate it. They shouldve had an option on PC to remove it altogether.

However, it is one of the few next gen things in Returnal that sets it apart. It's not fog to save on performance, it's thick and has physics of its own. You can see fog disperse as you move through it especially in the first boss fight. In that sense, it's truly volumetric.

You can see it in this gif.

LCfMbGa.gif


The volumetrics in the second level look stunning. Sadly the game never looks this good after this level.
1621015237932.gif

GOW's last gen draw distance is really disappointing. Ive seen this in last gen games over and over again where devs either blur out detail in the distance or use fog/haze to hide the lack of it. The mines are probably just a 50 yards away and completely lacking detail as if Kratos has glaucoma or something.

I was hoping devs would look at what early gen games like Ratchet were doing despite running at native 4k 50 fps, but it seems they are simply allowing themselves to get shackled by the base PS4 GPU and arent creating a dedicated PS5 version and then downporting it on PS4. See how Ratchet's environments have way better detail in the distance and only use the fog/haze techniques to blur out the details for objects way in the background. UE5 obviously doesnt even need to do that but forget UE5. We cant even match Ratchet anymore.

fr5t0jd.jpg

p0zvkUl.jpg
2MIA6Yq.jpg
cd6yxc8.jpg



And I know this triggers a lot of people, but i went through youtube videos of all these games to capture screenshots with youtube compression to keep the comparison fair.

RDR2's fog at night in St. Denis works really well with street lamps illuminating the foggy atmosphere. It's brilliant when it is there by design.

 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I like fog and smoke effects. When needed. I am playing Arkham Knight on PC with Nvidia's enhanced smoke effects and they look fantastic. Pretty sure ive mentioned it in a couple Gotham Knights threads so far. Ive repeatedly praised Returnal's fog effects since last year.

Horizon does it to hide its draw distance and texture deficiencies. Silent Hill is doing it because the whole town is covered in fog. And they use really high quality fog simulation at that. It's not faked like it was in the PS2 era. We know for certain that is a design choice to keep the atmosphere consistent with the original and not a trick to hide the draw distance because we have seen that nanite can completely fix the LOD issues that have plagued last gen games. We saw it in the UE5 PS5 demo, in the Matrix demo, and the valley of ancient demos on PC. UE5 has no problem with draw distance so we can be sure that the fog in in Silent Hill 2 is a design choice, not a fake one to hide stuff like this.






RDR2's fog at night in St. Denis works really well with street lamps illuminating the foggy atmosphere. It's brilliant when it is there by design.


The volumetric fog in Returnal looks fantastic as well, reacts to physics and gets very thick in some rooms. I was impressed, especially at 60fps.

Also an Unreal Engine game.
 
Last edited:
Horizon does it to hide its draw distance and texture deficiencies. Silent Hill is doing it because the whole town is covered in fog. And they use really high quality fog simulation at that. It's not faked like it was in the PS2 era. We know for certain that is a design choice to keep the atmosphere consistent with the original and not a trick to hide the draw distance because we have seen that nanite can completely fix the LOD issues that have plagued last gen games. We saw it in the UE5 PS5 demo, in the Matrix demo, and the valley of ancient demos on PC. UE5 has no problem with draw distance so we can be sure that the fog in in Silent Hill 2 is a design choice, not a fake one to hide stuff like this.
1) you dont know if fog was used to cover up draw distance in Horizon nor do you know if it was a design choice.

2) the fog in SH2 does match the theme of the game so it probably was a design choice however, it still could be used to cover up technical difficulties like you are so sure of in Horizon.

My point, you are picking and choosing when tech is used to hide something based on your own bias with no technical backing whatsoever. This further cements the idea that you prefer next gen only titles even if the cross gen comparisons are technically superior because of an agenda you personally have agains cross gen games.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
My point, you are picking and choosing when tech is used to hide something based on your own bias with no technical backing whatsoever. This further cements the idea that you prefer next gen only titles even if the cross gen comparisons are technically superior because of an agenda you personally have agains cross gen games.
If you want to believe in nonsense like that then fine, i cant change your mind.
 
you think gow looks better than silent hill lmao. Clearly your oblivious to detecting the obvious.
Based on the limited amount i have seen from both yes i think GOW looks better. I have yet to load both up on my PS5 and 4k hdr set so maybe that changes but ill definitely be looking forward to both either way and wont be letting a grudge about cross gen weigh me down.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
wont be letting a grudge about cross gen weigh me down.
Again absolute nonsense. I have repeatedly said the HFW, a cross gen game, is the best looking game out there.

Oddly enough Horizon FW looks better than Ratchet, Demon Souls and pretty much every other so called next gen only game out there. At least in the 30 fps mode which just goes to show how talent these devs are and how other next gen only games have basically phoned it in so far this gen.

I think Ratchet's ray tracing implementation is the best we've seen on consoles.

I think Horizon looks more visually spectacular at times. it's a very schizo game. Some areas look stunning, some dont.

Yep. I have and I had this to say about it the other day.

It's the best looking game on consoles right now,but Avatar clearly looks better and is pushing CPU, SSD and GPUs in ways Horizon FW just couldnt due to its cross gen limitations.

lol I think HFW looks better than Ratchet. Werent you telling me Ratchet looks better? Or was it Gymwolf?

PC - Cyberpunk RT
Xbox - Flight Sim
PS5 - Horizon FW

We have seen three next gen ps5 exclusives so far and they look meh compared to the matrix and other UE5 demos. Hell, HFW looks better than all of those games. even ratchet in its fidelity mode. I also dont know why the fuck halo looks so ordinary but Forza Horizon comes very close to HFW.

So you keep telling yourself whatever helps you sleep. At least I dont think the poor LOD in the distance shown below was by design.

Yep, the PS4 limitations on the GPU budget and the RAM budget really hold back the PS5 version.

The gif above I made from the DF video which features a lot of stunning areas, but it still has a lot of areas that have these really poor LODs in distant objects.

FMOkGR5WUAckE6J


V5jkyu8.jpg


It's like Aloy has poor eye sight which blurs out everything in the distance thats not all foliage.

Unreal Engine 5's Valley of the Ancient demo doesnt have this problem. The detail in the distance is preserved.

SE7CzsQ.gif
 

CamHostage

Member
The GoW IP needs to be treated like a prestige IP and should’ve been given the next Gen treatment. The sequel already took longer to make than the original reboot which makes no sense whatsoever. Either the game was in development hell or Sony didn’t scale up the SSM team and split it to make Cory’s new IP which is MIA. Either way, gow deserves more than just more content, more bosses and better progression.

But have you not played God of War 2, God of War Ascension, or God of War Ghost of Sparta?

This duology is a little different because it ended up being split across platforms (and Sony kind of screwed up expectations by having the new game announcement during its big "Future of PlayStation" showcase unveiling PS5, as well as not labeling it cross-gen when it confirmed plans for Miles Morales/Sackboy/H:FW,) but this is how the GoW games have tended to work out: a revolution, and then a refinement.

I mean, it'd be nice if this was a GoW3-scale devastator, but it's not how it worked out. The original plan was to have GoW Ragnarok in hands in 2021 (supposedly... knowing GoW, it would have missed that date and come out in March of 2022) and was announced in the launch. That's kind of closer to how God of War 2 was handled (except there wasn't a PS3 version, until the "Remastered in High Definition" God of War Collection.) than either the full-fledged GoW3 or GoW 2018, which each launched several years into the lifespan of the console. Had GoW:R been announced in 2019, released 2020 or early 2021, and had been billed more as a PS4 game with a PS5 upgrade, then the messaging would have made more sense, but of course that timing would have not been possible.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom