400°

Are God of War 3's Cutscenes Pre-rendered? (And no, We Don't Mean "CG")

Split-Screen: "Sony Computer Entertainment recently revealed that God of War 3 will occupy 35 GB of Blu-ray bliss. They then stated that it features no CG cut-scenes so obviously that's not the question here. No, it's every bit as possible that the cut-scenes are pre-rendered."

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FangBlade5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

"Are God of War 3's Cutscenes Pre-rendered?"
And if it is? what the hell is your point?

"Metal Gear Solid 4 occupied all 50 GB of the disc space"
Wrong, MSG 4 size is 33.2GB.

socomnick5187d ago

UC2 used pre rendered cutscenes, uses in game assets adds insane amounts of AA upscales and then renders it.

Halo 3 does the same thing and just about most modern games.

FangBlade5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

Halo 3 uses CG cutscenes, you probably meant Halo Reach.

Darkeyes5187d ago

Does it even matter? In the end it saves nearly 5 Gigs on my HDD and there is hardly any difference between in game and pre-rendered... Pre-Rendered are just cutscenes used to mask loading screens, so that the engine doesn't have to shed resources to the footage... That is why MGS4 had installations and UC2 & GOW3 don't.

gaffyh5187d ago

I actually don't even give a crap, I just want to play it already.

silvacrest5187d ago

totally agree, i honestly couldn't care less, i just want the game

raztad5187d ago

@Fang

I'm wondering the same. What's the point? UC2/R&C do that.

Is this a new bad thing I didnt know about? or just an excuse for an article?

DevastationEve5187d ago

Prerendered just means that what you're seeing is a video saved on the disc and that it's not being rendered in actual 3D graphics. And CG can almost mean the same thing if you use it the way most people use it, but it's not a synonym at all. CG means Computer Generated, which is what they say in film making to distinguish anything that's been made by a computer. CG is usually (duh) a movie in that case, but the graphics themselves can be considered CG as well.

gameraxis5187d ago

"No other reason could possibly explain why the game takes up the amount of space that it does."

really you dumb schmuck? NO OTHER REASON huh?

it couldn't be that the game is the true 20 hours long that the devs said it was, full of high res textures, scripted events and beautiful 4xAA and motion blur. couldn't be that the game is actually as good as everybody who's played it says it is and that's what takes up the space...

now, this guy could be right, but my problem with the article is that line above, "NO OTHER REASON" like this dude has ANY idea of what he's talking about...

damn trolls

dabri55187d ago

Wow, get out much? Way to lose it. Motion blur, AA, and all special effects don't require any disk space besides the code that calls those effects which is hardly anything. Textures, sound, and videos is what takes up disk space. Those are the 3 main things. GOW3 would have to have massive textures, and tons of uncompressed audio to take up that much space. The likely hood that the game uses pre-rendered video using in game assets isn't unthinkable or calling the game bad. Most games do it now. UC2 did it. Was it bad? No so keep you pants. on. The game looks great. At 720P resolution though, even with 20 hours of gameplay, I doubt they are using in game real time videos. BTW Halo 3 used pre-rendered videos with in game assets. Not CGI. No halo game has used CGI. Only the commercials did and they never ever claimed those were from the game, nor would anyone but the dumbest person think it was.

deafwing5187d ago

... for trying to get hits through the use of UN-relenting stupidity.

PLASTICA-MAN5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

Did you develop the game or did you even play any of those? You don't even know how even sony exclusives do! In Uncharted 1, all cutscenes are ingame/real time/the same as what you play but the developpers admitted they added only some minor lightning effects, they are even full of aliasing and not v-synced like the ingame. In Uncharted 2 they added V-sync and AA to the game and they confirmed that their cutscens are 100% ingame/realtime, all the details you see in the game are seen in the cutscenes! They aren't used to hide loading screens like in Heavenly Sword, that game had in engine pre-rendred cutscenes and you can't skip them the first time you watch them. With Uncharted 1/2 and all Jak & Daxter games all the cutsceens are ingame/realtime you can skip them whenever you want or pause them like you pause the game when you play it. All MGS games do also the same;e.g: in MGS4 you can make a pause, see the cutscenes from any other angle, zoom in, see the masks, the costumes you are wearing in the game, shake the sixaxis in the cutscene to remove the texture color you got from octocamo like what you can do when you play. In GOW3, they confirmed the cutscens ar 100% realtime/ingame and not a mask to hide the loading screens like Heavenly Sword. In fact, the loading will be done when you cross narrow areas so the big upcoming areas and titans are loaded with ease! Whatever helps people like you to bash any sony masterpiece and whatever helps you to sleep at nights!
Edit: @ hesido: "MGS4 uses this in only one cut-scene"
So you didn't play any of those games! So by your logic there is NO GAME with realtime cutscenes? Don't mislead people!

Method5187d ago

This is the ultimate form of flattery. You know your game looks incredible whenever people actually think its pre-rendered.

Hanif-8765187d ago

Everyone wants to know why PS3 games looks so good? well, i bet its only because "It Only Does Everything" :-)

hesido5187d ago

@PLASTICA-MAN:

Uncharted 1, and 2 use pre-rendered videos for most of the cut-scenes (they are the ones viewable from the game menu, instantly, no pre-loading of any game data- unlike when you are first starting a game)

MGS4 uses this in only one cut-scene, the scene with the big army and boats and everything, all the rest are realtime, zoomable and pannable.

Let's not mis-inform people.

shazui1235187d ago

UC2 cutscenes are prerendered but do not add anything extra, graphically, than you see during gameplay. No extra AA is added and its not upscaled, its 720p and has fullscreen AA just like in gameplay.

morganfell5187d ago

Doesn't anyone remember the beginning of the GoW III demo? You transition from the menu to a cutscene then seamlessly into gameplay. All in engine rendered in real time.

So begone trolls and stupid wannabe high school journalists. No, okay? Now go back to your last gen console.

Mainman5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

MGS4 has if I remember correctly 2 pre-rendered cutscene's:

The end of Act 3, the river with Ocelot going 'Bang' is pre-rendered. It is however ingame assets, but it saved as a video on the disc (maybe to reduce load times for that part of the game).

The otherone is in the end, unclear on exactly which part, but I think it is the part where the Misouri and Outer Haven are clashing at the beginning of Act 5.
OR
When Snake is in the microwave there is a splitscreen showing the Misouri, that could be the pre-rendered part.

The rest is all in-game. That's why the cut-scene to gameplay go smoothly. Uncharted 2 is like this as well I think, it had the same type of cut-scene to gameplay conversion.

Edit:
MGS4 isn't 50 GB, it uses about 34 GB of data.

Ye Otacon says MGS4 is on a dual-layer (50gb) Blu-ray, but that doesnt mean MGS4 uses up all the available space. To be dual-layer Blu-ray qualified, all the content neds is to be 25.1 GB.

Jinxstar5187d ago

To all of you guys above calling b.s. Either for or against Sony. post links proving your theories. Otherwse it's all just gibberish no one wants to read. Also if your gonna post use real sites and not your friends blog site...

Sarcasm5187d ago

"The end of Act 3, the river with Ocelot going 'Bang' is pre-rendered. It is however ingame assets,"

No, ALL of MGS4 cutscenes were real time. Just press Triangle during the 'Bang' scene and you'll see it still zooms in. Speaking of which, I feel like playing it all over again!

randomwiz5187d ago

They say how it is prerendered because it takes up a lot of space. The e3 demo took up a whopping 2.5gb for only including the blades, one titan, and 3-5 different types of enemies, and virtually no cutscenes, just the camera zooming in and out of different stuff.

raztad5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

There is another article answering the question posed here. Most GoW3 cutscenes will be fully realtime (costumes will appear in them).

@PLASTICA

You called me raztaRd. LOL. Funny stuff. I did the same to another buddy, it was a typo though.

BlackKnight5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

I'm sorry but will people PLEASE get their facts straight here? Do you even know what AA stands for? Do you know it takes less than 1MB of space, possibly even less than 1KB? AA is Anti-aliasing and is a rendering method to reduce aliasing (jaggies). 2xAA, 4xAA, 8xAA or even 32xAA take the SAME amount of "space"; that space being the extremely small line of rendering code. The textures on Kratos alone takes WAY more space than that line of code for AA or even for motion blur.

The space on a disc has almost NO impact on graphics; the only impact would be low quality textures if there is not enough space on the disc for all the game's content or possibly lower poly count character models which is highly unlikely. Every game uses the same models over and over, even games with 50GB of disc space because devs hit the limit of the CPU, GPU or RAM of a console first in that scenario.

HDR, texture filtering, motion blur, Anti-aliasing, depth of field, lighting (expect light maps since light maps are basically projected textures), resolution of the game, draw distance, and so on are SOLELY dependent on the ability of the CPU, GPU and RAM/video memory.

Stop buying into marketing people, you only look like a fool.

EDIT

Sorry catguykyou, didn't see your post on this. Thank goodness there are a tiny, few people on N4G that have at least a basic understanding of how a game renders images. I love N4G for the flow of news but the comment section is filled with people battling their favorite console with NO FACTS OR IDEA of what they are talking about. Just like those who think bluray/50GB space makes a 1080P game possible...you can do a 1080P game with a 1.44MB floppy.

PLASTICA-MAN5187d ago

Here it is (still pending): http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News...
And for gamers only here is the direct link: http://www.playstationunive...

blackmagic5187d ago

There's a lot of good reasons to use a full motion video for the cutscenes... a console has a predetermined amount of processing power but you could use the game engine running on a pumped up over the top pc gaming rig to generate really fantastically impressive cut scenes that seamlessly blend into the gameworld because it's still captured using the game's engine PLUS you can load the next level in the background as a result. It's a pretty nice stealthy way of pumping up the graphics while hiding load screens and preventing disc installs. That would be an advantage of the space on the blu-ray disc. :)

dabri55186d ago

...it still lost me a bubble :(

gameraxis5186d ago (Edited 5186d ago )

wouldn't not knowing about that stuff prove that i actually do get out?

so i guess i confused what takes up memory, it doesn't change the fact that these guys were WRONG, as today's news shows..

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News...

..and when i said that the game could actually be the true 20 hours long, all the textures and sounds that come with that extra gameplay could be the reason it takes up so much space...

dabri55186d ago

"wouldn't not knowing about that stuff prove that i actually do get out? "

-touche'

Despite what we all argue is taking up the space on the disk, the devs say its 20hours long. For an action game like GOW, that's huge. Really looking forward to picking this one up.

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Fishy Fingers5187d ago

I imagine they are, largely for a reason they hit upon in the article, to mask loading screens. I believe it's quite common practice.

This will be my first GOW, looking forward to it :)

UnSelf5187d ago

fish when ur done make sure u at least play GOW 2.

its utterly amazing how good that game is, dont destroy me but im havin atiny bit of a hard time imagining how in the hell is GOW3 goin to be better than GOW 2.

thats how good it was

raztad5187d ago (Edited 5187d ago )

@Fishy

Bro, do yourself a favor and get the Collection. Both games look really good, specially GoW2. It's important to get a grip of the story and the gameplay is incredible.

Pennywise5187d ago

You can make it through the collection by the time this releases... well worth it.

reaferfore205187d ago

Agreed, plus it's only $40 new! Can't beat that sh!t with a stick!

silvacrest5187d ago

if i was him i would play 1 and 2 now, the story is almost like MGS where you should start from the begining to fully understand the epic story

oohWii5187d ago

Does this mean that you can't skip the cut-scenes if you are on your second play through and don't need to watch them again?

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Shaman5187d ago

Yes they are,same as UC2,but they are pre rendered with engine in game assets so its not like they are lying about cgi,its not cgi but its pre rendered.

Dnied5187d ago

You're correct. People also dont realize that the pre-rendered cutscenese are a GREAT thing for games. This allows for upcoming data to be loaded in the background and completely avoids load screens.

@ people complaining, you should hope more developers start doing this. This article has a negative connotation to it like Pre-rendered cut scenes are something the developer did as a copout or something they should hide.

Dnied5187d ago

lol are just randoms on the internet who arent gamers but still read this site? :S

josh143995187d ago

I think there is a load of hd making of videos on the disc aswell and that will take up a lot of space. there is nothing wrong with prerendered videos because they are usually better quality than normal in game and they don't take as long to make as cgi cutscenes which caused ff13 to take so long to be released.

nycredude5187d ago

For everyone who keeps saying that the disc will have tons of video. Most of the making of and stuff that comes with the ultimate edition will be downloaded from psn and NOT on the disc. Check out the ultimate bundle listing. All that space is used up by the GAME!

http://blog.us.playstation....

3sq5187d ago

Here's a method to check it.

When you as Krato wears a special costume and you see that special costume in the cut-scenes then it's not pre-rendered.

But if Krato still wears the same outfit(the normal one) in cut-scenes despite a special costume is selected then it's pre-rendered.

Nike5187d ago

Hm, a very good point. That would explain the cutscenes in Mass Effect 2 which featured the custom costumes. Actually, those would be part of the gameplay then, right? There was some times a loading interval after the cutscene finished but right before I could move around again (it wasn't experienced that much though).

reaferfore205187d ago

Pretty much every UE3 game uses in game assets for cutscenes. It looks good enough to pull it off for sure!

nikoado5187d ago

Does the same logic apply to MGS4 interactive cut-scenes?

In a lot of them, you could change into the view from Snakes eyes and you could also press R1 to watch a flashback.

So were these scenes were not pre-rendered?

beardpapa5187d ago

Sadly I wished the ME2 miranda scenes weren't prerendered. I think those MGS4 scenes weren't prerendered either since they allowed some interactivity, though that's not to say all of the scenes weren't.

reaferfore205186d ago

I seem to remember one or two scenes in MGS4 where you can't manipulate the camera... the one where akiba comes out of the water and takes his mask off comes to mind. I dunno if that's pre-rendered or what but it does look a lil better than all the other scenes.

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70°

The Best Video Game Opening Levels In Gaming History

The Opening Levels that hooked gamers from the outset.

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240°

Ranking Every God of War Game From Worst to Best

Cultured Vultures: Let’s delve into Kratos’ long and rampageous history and find out which games are worth the hype and which are better left buried under the weight of Kratos’s might.

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JL2930182d ago

Both requels over 2 and 3? Clowns. Those are two of the most boring games I've ever played.

Snookies12182d ago

GoW 3 was amazing, but I personally hated just one thing. (This is on me alone, because I was dumb, lol.) I hated that you couldn't skip cutscenes on repeat playthroughs. I had to go back through the game a third time because I missed one trophy accidentally on my way to the platinum... The cutscenes were great the first go round, even the second... But the third was pretty agonizing.

Haven't played Ragnarok, but I still think GoW 4 is a wonderful game in its own right. Not sure how I would stack them up against each other honestly.

Monstieur182d ago (Edited 182d ago )

I don't consider the reboot part of the original series. The original series were high-skill games with combos and rewards for mixing things up.

solideagle181d ago

lol square, square and triangle is the only combo you needed. I have played all of them on the hardest difficulties...

Golfcoachh182d ago

Maybe I’m just old school but I just couldn’t get into the last two. Maybe it’s the slower action and more story telling but the original trilogy was by far my favorite.

Crows90182d ago

It's not that youre old school. They're different genres

JL2930180d ago (Edited 180d ago )

Me either, at all. It's just yap yap yap. They try to be a RPG's instead of being action games like they used to be.

Fluke_Skywalker181d ago

I'd put the two psp games over 3 in terms of story any day. But not over 2.

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TheEnigma313182d ago (Edited 182d ago )

My favorite was part 2 and I think Ragnarok is better that 2018.

Shane Kim182d ago

The newer games are better imo.

ravens52182d ago

There is no worst. Except for Ascension, only cause I didn't play it lol. They are all masterpieces. 1,2,3, 2018 and Ragnarok. 1 of, if not the greatest video game franchise...besides MetalGear.

Snookies12182d ago

Oh wow, I actually forgot that Ascension even existed... I never played it either.

Crows90182d ago

I like ascension. It was different and some interesting combat additions.

darthv72182d ago

If you didnt play it, how could you call it the worst? Its not as bad as the media portrayed it. Honestly the worst are those flash games. they arent even considered true GoW games but in name only. At least Ascension is a real GoW game.

ravens52181d ago

Not saying it's a terrible game. Just mean it's at the bottom of my list. I played a little bit of it. Jus to me, compared to the other main games, it's last.

Fluke_Skywalker181d ago

Ascension is the only GOW game I never finished. Hated it.

Inverno182d ago

Can't agree, older games do so much more than the last two. More weapons, magic abilities, enemies are more varied, level design is also more aesthetically pleasing, and agree with those who say that they shouldn't have removed jumping. Was a time I'd agree, but those old games are so so much better, that they really should've looked into bringing into the reboot/sequels.

Crows90182d ago (Edited 182d ago )

If a game is good then a game is good. Doesn't matter what came before or what comes after.

Inverno181d ago

Of course it matters. If not for what what came before there wouldn't be an after. And if something is great before then you strive to make it just as good if not better, after. I personally don't think there's a fair way to judge the new with the old because the newer games are still essentially a reboot, and went a way different direction. But I still believe the old games did it better. I'm probably bias though since I've been going back to old games and have been finding that they lack all the annoying aspects that devs have shoehorned into new games to fluff out game time.

Crows90181d ago

@Inverno

Im not talking about the passage of time here. Im talking about individual pieces of software. If a game is good then it is good. Thats not a controversial statement. You can compare good with good...sure. But you still end up with good. Now if there is a bad game in the mix and you compare you do end up with some differentials between them...makes sense to compare and see where it went wrong.

But theyre different genres and styles which were individually executed very well.

And no. The new games are not a reboot. Theyre a new direction but simply a continuation.
Tomb raider was a reboot.

Inverno180d ago

The new games are definitely a reboot, and a continuation, it can be both which it is. And a good game might be good, but my point is that if there are things done better before it then there's plenty of room for critiquing and trying to make whatever comes after better rather than just good.

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170°

God of War 3 Remastered Has Sold 4 Million Copies To Date

God of War 3 Remaster has sold 4 million copies since its inception, making the franchise PlayStation's most profitable gamer merch brand.

purple101343d ago

Haha I still remember my brother playing the opening scene on ps3!!!

Yeh he had to put the controller down his heart was beating too fast trying to get past first 10 minutes. He said "it's too much". Best thing I've ever seen in gaming. Haha

robtion343d ago

A great game from an era before things went politically correct and gaming turned serious/'mature'.

It certainly wasn't concerned about upsetting or offending anyone and was more fun because of it.

The boss battles and set pieces still top most games released today.

SullysCigar343d ago

This game was absurdly good for it's time. The very definition of 'epic'.

robtion343d ago

Yes. The graphics were just ridiculous compared to most other games on the market at the time.

masterfox343d ago

I wished Ascension had the same treatment.

Heavenly King343d ago

Ascension SP had some things better than GOW3, and also some things worst than GOW3. But in general it was a really good game, for me it also deserves a REMASTER. The problem per se with the game is that most people were satisfied on how GOWIII ended, so Kratos got his revenge, so in order to rise the interest in the game how have to make it MORE EPIC is that the game did not had the epicness of fighting huge bosses (I guess due to technical difficulties,the game had actually a lot more colors (because the world is not dying like in GOWIII) so it is graphically more demanding that is my guess), but it compensated with having in general a more complex combat system, and an amazing soundtrack. but in general the game needed to be more epic than GOWIII somehow, and that did not happened, after GOWIII people had expectations through the roof. They should have waited and release it for PS4 so the vision of the game is not compromised.

My list of good and bad compared to GOWIII

GOOD: THE COMBAT
The combat was more elaborated, which allows you to be more immersed in the fights. Also every enemy was more resistant, even those that you could usually kill in 2-3 attacks in previous games. THE LAST BOSS is so damn epic!!!, but there is only one moment like this in the whole game.

GOOD: LESS QTEs
I love the fact that "cicle" in the new enemies (killing animations) are not QTEs, in Ascension they are mini-games on their own, depending on the enemy, making it more engaging. You had to dodge and hit when the window was open in order to eventually do the killing blow.

GOOD: The Soundtrack
it has the orginal trilogy musics, but with a new perspective since the game had a new composer. The ST was amazing also the new music written specifically for this game were badass

GOOD: The puzzles actually require you to think.

BAD: There are bad camera angles during the game, like zooming way too out of vista, and then swarming you with "light units" that like I said before had better AI and did not die of 2 attacks. those parts a few, but are a mess.

BAD: EMPTY ARENAS
Other thing that really annoyed me is that when you fight a sub-boss/heavy unit in a big arena; that ARENA WAS EMPTY, it was just you and against the medusa, or against the manticore. They should have zoom in into the action to avoid noticing the void scenario. I guess emptiness was because of the game having a lot more colors (because the world is not dying like in GOWIII) so it is graphically more demanding. My guess is that it was not possible technically, since in most of those cases you had huge vistas or intricate scenarios that needed to be rendered. The fact that the cerberus is smaller in this game disappointed me.

BAD: Only one BADASS EPIC moment, the others moments of the game were great but, they needed to set the bar even higher than GOWIII and they failed miserably.

BAD: The graphics did not improved much. I was GOWIII with more colors, and that's it.

So 4 good things against 4 bad ones. The problem is those 2 last BAD aspects are actually why the game was received so poorly. Everyone expects the next game to have a really BIG improvement in all aspects in contrast to the previous one, and that was not the case in ascension. And also GOW is the definition of EPIC, and that was not there neither. The jump on every aspect from GOWI to GOWII was huge being on the same console, and the jump from GOWII to GOWIII was humongous (obviously because a more powerful console). While the jump from GOWIII to Ascension is too little, and people expected more.

On it's own is a good game; but is not sufficient when GOWIII was released before it.

CrimsonWing69343d ago

I know this is unpopular opinion, but I prefer these over the new ones. I’m not saying the new ones are bad or anything, but they sort of get boring to me, whereas the older games were like non-stop roller coaster rides.

ChiefofLoliPolice343d ago

I love the new ones but I understand what you mean. The older ones had more action and was more arcady like.

MIDGETonSTILTS17343d ago

Ragnarok was not BIG at all… GoW1 had larger set pieces, and it was on ps2.

GoW 2018 had big moments in its own way…. Ragnarok abandoned these aspects though

robtion343d ago

I agree. It was just less serious and more fun.

victorMaje343d ago

One of my all time favourites.

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