Death Stranding (DC) [XBSX|S, PS4, PS5, PC]

This sounds very complex and ambitious. I wonder if they have managed to pull it of properly

I think it will, but not in the Hollywood way that's bizarrely expected of Kojima's work.
Kojima likes to build over complicated sci-fi-fantasy barroque stories to serve as analogies or parables to real world political and cultural phenomena. Despite the excessiveness and the storytelling being too long winded and often preachy, they are reasonably clever most of the time.
I feel what he is going for is commenting on the polirized political landscape of current America, and how ghosts from the past can still affect the present, specially when people insist in clinguing to them and bring such dead ghosts back to life.
Build bridges not walls kind of thing. Can't get more in your face and clichè than that, but the fucker will still find ways to bring in some slightly less obvious ideas into it and give you some food for thought, even if most of it is fith-grade level of pseudo-intellectualism. The fact the guy is japanese migh bring some unexpected perspectives to it too, although his messaging seems to be very strongly aligned with a very particular worldview that informs 99% of western movies, tv and games nowadays.

I suspect he'll have as much to say about social media and how it's an enabler for increased polarisation.

I look forward to such themes being covered in a game featuring a magic ladder and a character called Die Hard Man. Oh, Kojima. :love:
 
Does that mean PS4 @30, PS5 @60 ?

;)

Yeah, kojipro is no stranger to 60 where hardware is appropriate, lowest hanging fruit in porting etc and especially with online mode they would consider this. I recall, hmmm, was that sebbi or somone else with lecture how 60fps helps with engedgment in online games.
 
Maybe that’s what the game is about. Beings from other dimensions who came to make the game about themselves.

I have no idea what I just watched but bloody hell it looks good.

I don’t agree that it looks ‘too good for ps4’. I think it looks great, but nothing we haven’t already been shocked by Horizon zero dawn - I got that Decima feeling for sure and honestly this isn’t any better looking than that. In fact I think HZD has a few things still going for it which this one doesn’t show so far - namely the huge enemy models and crazy particles.

Really amazing art and direction, that’s Kojima for you.

Got that HZD feeling too, which isn't a bad thing at all. DS wont best HZD, another direction the the art that is.

PC version

A pc version isn't out of the question yet, i think it was going to be pc in the beginning?
 
Kojima likes to build over complicated sci-fi-fantasy barroque stories to serve as analogies or parables to real world political and cultural phenomena. Despite the excessiveness and the storytelling being too long winded and often preachy, they are reasonably clever most of the time.
I feel what he is going for is commenting on the polirized political landscape of current America, and how ghosts from the past can still affect the present, specially when people insist in clinguing to them and bring such dead ghosts back to life.
Build bridges not walls kind of thing. Can't get more in your face and clichè than that, but the fucker will still find ways to bring in some slightly less obvious ideas into it and give you some food for thought, even if most of it is fith-grade level of pseudo-intellectualism. The fact the guy is japanese migh bring some unexpected perspectives to it too, although his messaging seems to be very strongly aligned with a very particular worldview that informs 99% of western movies, tv and games nowadays.
Some themes in his games were "too much" for the average gamer to grasp. And I like it how he risks by provoking and challenging the comfort zones of the player deliberately.
Often he makes the player do what he likes only to remind him that "he participated in something wrong and the game knows it".
I dont think Kojima makes a plot that serves only as an excuse for the game. He literally respects the video game potential as a serious medium of communicating messages.
Each of his games had many significant things to talk about. Especially MGS2 challenged the player's beliefs and made him sit in an "uncomfortable" situation where his personality and sense of identity were questioned.
It was hard to follow if the player was just someone who wanted to sit and have mindless action. But the ending of MGS2 was like the video game version of Krishnamurti.
MGSV's focus on language is not by accident. It is actually real how language affects perceptions, how it is used as a tool for submission and conquer, how it maintains culture, how it carries elements of history and past experiences etc etc. These are subjects covered by linguistic studies. They weren't invented by Kojima as pseudo-subjects to make a game.
I dont think I ve ever played a game in my life other than the MGS series that blended imaginary plots and real subjects so well in an effort to also pass some significant messages.

Btw I think Death Stranding may be an amalgamation of all the ideas he ones had but he couldnt implement fully. For example it brings back moments of the Sorrow boss "fight". Killing in MGS3 had consequences and this one seems to do the same in a similar more expanded manner.
 
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Read Dead Redemption 2 actually looks better than this (besides facial animations). Their shaders are just not good (specular levels are way to high& skin shader is simply bad), lighting is also meh.
As somebody who's been working on shaders nearly every day for 2 years straight..there's unfortunately nothing physically accurate in what we call PBR/PBS..it's still all approximation and every material still has to be manually tweaked (especially specular levels if no specular map is used) depending on the lighting engine etc...This seems like and artistic choice here as everything seems to be made to look as close as MGS as possible (yes there's also no spec occlusion in there).

I don't know about having a physically accurate shading or technically good lighting but as somebody who has being gaming since more than 30 years I want to say that MGS5, even with its graphical flaws (mainly because being multiplat needing to run at locked 60fps even on consoles), is probably the most realistic game of this generation on consoles, while being open world-ish and running at locked 60fps on potato CPU.

Most others big games on consoles (The Witcher 3, Horizon, Far Cry; even Uncharted 4, TLOU or RDR2 to some extent) look like animated cartoons compared to MGS5 IMO. I am barely exagerating to make my point clearer.

The only game I have played that can compete with MGS5 realism in most areas is... Gran Turismo Sport.

Well, precedent with this team is there, ps4 vs ps3, 60vs"30" versions of MGS5.
Yep. 60vs~20 indeed.
 
I’d say it’s Decima through the eyes of a great director and very, very talented artists!
They sure are extremely talented alright, but without a technically sound engine their vision would be compromised. For Kojima to go on a world tour for the perfect engine is reason enough for it.
The gameplay animation on DS looks just as robotic as it did in MGSV, the combat in particular looked pretty bad.
The combat looked underwhelming I agree but at least it doesn't take Sam 5 seconds just to pick up a cup, 10 seconds to get on a horse. And even if we compare them in cutscene the ones in here looked world apart in asset quality, animation and effects.
 
Decima engine, huh? The game looks absolutely nuts. One of the best-looking games I've ever seen.

The art style and characters look like a movie. I remember the hype around facial animations like that of Kara by Quantic Dream, and I never liked that, it didn't look real nor convincing to me. But this?? It makes Kara and so on like a joke. Gosh....., my hats off to Kojima.

p.s. it seems like the trailer has broken all the videogames trailers records. Perfect game for PS5, imho
 
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Yeah gpu particle, lit particle, volumetric fog and cloud are fucking nuts in this game.
Imagine a new Killzone game returning to its dark and gritty roots, this is what we should've gotten in SF.
 
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