With Microsoft’s long list of poor messaging and poor decisions this week, combined with rumors of behind-the-scenes problems with some of its top games, one frequent point that keeps coming up is how much weight has been thrown behind Xbox/PC/Ultimate Game Pass.
The Digital Foundry verdict on the technology of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Such a good looking game, best graphics this gen so far
" When the camera zooms in for a close-up, the level of detail is such that it left me guessing whether I was looking at real-time graphics or a pre-rendered cutscene. Thankfully, with Photo Mode being available at any time, you can easily confirm that they are, in fact, real-time.Of course, it's really the animation you experience while playing that impressed me the most. The expressions visible while engaged in combat or simply exploring really help bring the characters to life. "
As a story-focused game, characters and character rendering play a significant role in the presentation. However, while the pre-release media largely focused on Senua herself, Hellblade 2 features a surprisingly large number of other humans. It's without doubt one of the games defining visual features - the character rendering in Hellblade 2 sets new standards, delivering sequences that, at times, almost resemble actual filmed scenes with real actors. This is one of the first examples of a game that stands up against the promise of the UE5 demo The Matrix Awakens. The scenes feel very natural and realistic in a way that manages to somewhat sidestep the uncanny valley almost completely.
So, the other day I was talking about how DF lies, and their bias. I said cross-reference what they say with other videos and you'll see that what they say is dishonest.
You can see here, that frame-rate is section is hidden near the end of the video and it's one of the shortest sections and of course the segment they show is all 30 fps and they of course don't show any series s footage, but they specifically say it holds 30 FPS "flawlessly".
"It does reach this target flawlessly in my experience with virtually zero hiccups - it runs at 30fps and 30fps is exactly what you'll get from start to finish."
Now watch this video
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
Here it drops to 21 fps for example
https://youtu.be/UNwO6WZD0c...
I just used these videos because they were already posted on N4G and Analista De Bits it above questioning about legitimacy, but you can find other people who will also show that the game drops frames regularly, especially on series s.
OMG! You caught them Lying hard because the game frame dips from time to time to 29 frames per second and at one point it drops for flash at 21 FPS.
Clearly, they are trying to hide something and the 99% of the time that the game holds 30 frames doesn't mean squats in a saying with VIRTUALLY Zero hiccups.
As you can see by the several comments in the video you posted people are venting their anger about how well the Serie S is holding up and how well the game is running across the board
But I guess MS probably paid the users to Shill for MS also since it's your narrative
By the way, let me inform you that 87% of Steam users who got this game are recommending it!
https://store.steampowered....
Must be shilled too right?
Petebloodyonion
OMG! You caught them Lying hard because the game frame dips from time to time to 29 frames per second and at one point it drops for flash at 21 FPS.
I did catch them lying, thanks for noticing.
The problem isn't me. The problem is that you're O.K. with it because they are lying in a way that supports your personal opinion.
darthv72
Get mad at me because I catch them being dishonest? I'm the bad guy, not the people who are actually lying. Man, the world we live in today is absolutely backwards, it's the bizarro timeline...
If I wanted to take the time I could show you that this isn't the exception, they constantly lie and mislead people in their videos.
But you’d be fine if it was a PlayStation Studios game they were reviewing…
Einhandler is triggered. Can’t handle an Xbox game getting praise. 🤡
Incredible graphics..this is finally next gen graphics. It’s an experience more than a game. You can fault it or accept it and embrace what it gives you. It’s like Sony 1886.
(Summary)
- Takes advantage of everything UE5 offers
- Final game 'lives up to the lofty expectations' of the 2019 reveal
- Character rendering sets new standards and nearly resembles movie sequences with actual actors
- Leverages Unreal's Meta Human 5 to bypass the uncanny valley feel
- DF were left guessing whether some cut-scenes were in-game or real life footage (photo mode shows they're all real time)
- Character detail and how light / specular etc reflect on it praised
- A lot of the visual make up is tied to the post-process effects
- No option to disable things like CA, DoF etc but it's all suitable to the games presentation
- Soft filmic image quality and wider FoV praised
Resolution and Visuals:
- DRS 1296 to 1440p (w/ black bars 964 to 1070p). Series S will be covered in separate video
- 'Not sure if adding more pixels would make a difference to the filmic quality'
UE5 Features:
- Lumen is used extensively for direct and in-direct lighting, a lot of real time changes and shadows etc all update accordingly
- 'Phenomenal stuff'
- Lumen does a better job than traditional real time lighting system for indirectly lit areas like under ramps etc
- Lumen reflections used in combination with SSR for water bodies. Some water bodies can show SSR artifacts when moving camera
- 'Anyone looking at the game in motion will be impressed even if they do not understand the technical reasons'
- Unreal's fog is used effectively, fog lights up with light sources and runs at high quality
- Water effects and waves are praised. ' Absolutely stunning'
- Nanite is extensively used and eliminates visible pop-in even during scene transitions
- Minimal repetition or tiling, uses photo-grammatory
- Some assets like tree branches can show low resolution when zoomed in with photo mode, however
- Fine shadow detail is retained even when zooming extremely in thanks to Unreal's Virtual Shadow Maps
- Shadow quality is not always perfect and can show cracks in some instances but very consistent by and large
- Not the first UE5 game to use all these features, but by and far the best looking game to do so.
Performance:
- 30 FPS but the performance is locked and never dropped in John's testing on Series X
- DF tested the game on their Series X - similar - PC to see how much performance could be gained over 30
- 4K with DRS, they were able to stay locked at 30 FPS on High
- DRS 1440p with 60 FPS target sees game play at high 50s with more drops in cut-scenes
- DF thinks based on this test, SX can do 60 FPS with a more aggressive DRS target
- However, PC version can show massive frame time stutters that the Xbox version does not in the same areas
- DF summary: 60 FPS is theoretically possible, but for a stable 60 they might need to drop settings a lot
Audio
- Headphones are needed for Binaural audio effect that the game uses extensively
- DF thinks it is 'incredibly engaging'
Trailer Comparison:
- They compare the Giant fight trailer with the same area in the final game
- Final game has lesser lens distortion and difference in how the flame is lit
- The flames felt more 'fluid' in the demo versus the final game, otherwise no difference in the segment noted
- DF thinks Ninja Theory 'reached their goal'
- Praise the polish, presentation etc.
Excellent work from Ninja Theory to get the Series X to finally flex it´s 12TF muscles to the max!
Thanks for the summary, @PrinceOfAnger.
Cheers!
If they achieved this level of quality their first time using UE5... I can't wait to see what their next game is going to look like.
Remember the trailer release and ppl didn't think it was insane footage cause it looked too good
Ubisoft recently shared more details about Assassin's Creed Shadows protagonists, confirming that both of them will romantically attract and be attracted to different types of people.
Feudal Japan DEI LGBTQ+ Samurai, sounds very accurate for the time period. Surely a decision made only with historical accuracy in mind.
You have no idea what you are talking about, bet you didn’t know nobunaga was bi-sexual. Or ran maru his is often depicted as androgynous was a “beautiful boy”.
So yeah, feudal Japan had tons of lgbtq and kawaii enough… A BLACK SAMURAI! All without the need of offending a Caucasian because the world is diverse.
This story has cracked me up so much! Bravo Ubisoft, bravo! 🤣. So last week everyone was upset that in the long-awaited first Assassin’s Creed: Japan game the protagonist is black. But NOW he is also LGBTQ+ ! It’s like the Ubisoft creative team sat around a table and said “How can we best impress our Kotaku/IGN/Polygon friends and antagonise gamers? Let’s make it woke x 100!’ And then they all silent clapped!
Just you wait until the Star Wars: Outlaws details come out, there better not be anybody complaining about Kay Vess’ dating preferences and the gay droid armies.
Lexreborn2 is right
Go read up on Japan's feudal era homosexuality and bisexuality was a very common thing in that time.
I just have to laugh because the same people complaining about this are the same ones crying about wanting "historical accuracy". When it's clear most of the whiners don't even know history themselves.
Oh yeah!!!! What about being inclusive???
I'm sorry
..please replace the word inclusive with stupid.
Thanks… I was originally going to write Samu-Bi but then I realized it was right there already so it works better
You have to understand they’re incapable of writing a good story so this is the best they could come up with
The final character of the Street Fighter 6 year one DLC, Akuma, is now available to download on all formats.
Well fancy that. A Forbes article with common sense.
Microsoft's only shot to get more gamers, being the devils advocate, is to go Mobile and free to play with ads to grow their fan base. With maybe a subscription to games like cod on Mobile to get more to buy in what they are offering.
But mobile isn't like consoles or PC at all. You can't charge huge amounts for games because that platform is used to cheap or free content. Can't go to Nintendo and Sony with game pass because they'(competitors) aren't stupid to destroy their own platforms with Microsoft's rental service. And PC gamers dabble with it but they're fine with Steam and other, similar offerings. Casuals are their target but do casuals really care because up to this point, they haven't.
They put themselves in a bind and I'm not sorry for them in the least. When you kill your own sales of hardware and software, you groom your base to not buy but to rent, and do everything you can but do what works for Nintendo and Sony in creating games that grow the industry, this is the results. Dead last.
Why was/is it so hard to just make great games and from that, EARN respect that would lead to an increase in consumers? Never made sense how stupid they are when they had the finances to compete and pretty much outdo Nintendo and Sony combined. They just chose greed and annual fees and lack of effort instead.
Home console sales seemingly peaked with PS2 20 years ago. Even if a console does outsell it now, it's going to be by a small amount.. like, what I mean is we aren't suddenly going to get a console that sells 400 million units out of nowhere. So yes, I think the article is spot on with their assessment.
Microsoft 365 had 155 million subs in 2018. Today it sits at just shy of 300 million. The games industry was never going to be able to have growth at those levels, not to mention how much more expensive development is.
MS went all-in with Game Pass (and Xbox Series S) and now they're stuck. The model has failed and it's difficult to see what they do from here. They either carry on digging in, kill it completely (which will be a PR disaster for people who have paid to stack up years of service or purchased a Series S with the promise of being able to play all games this generation) or copy Sony and do away with Day One Game Pass and change their Series S policies.. Option 1 & 2 kills Xbox off overnight and Option 3 makes it utterly irrelevant.
The future of everything is subscription. Or at least that's the plan they have for us. Own nothing, rent everything.