*God Of War 3 Thread v2.0 + Interview Stig Asmussen

I really have to finish 1 and 2. The odd thing for me about 3 is the mixed feelings I have about the violence. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've never had a problem with violence in a game before. Some of the clips just seem to cross the line, for me, and I'm reading reviews where people loved the game, but made note of some of the violence as being disturbing or unsettling, or being taken aback by the violence against women. Playing GTA4 it just seems so cartoony, and you can choose not to do those things. The stuff in God of War, you can't avoid, and it's delivered in a brutal and relentless fashion. Maybe they can come out with a version where Kratos just knocks people out, or punches them until they learn the error of their ways, shake hands and exchange emails.

 

I had the same feeling, but playing the GoW3 demo with a friend changed my mind. We laughed and talked about the violence as we walked out from my office after the demo. ^_^

I think it depends on how they mix all the elements. We groaned at the violence, but talked about Greek Mythos, GoW 1 and 2 as we played. You definitely don't want a young kid watching the gameplay. At the same time, the violence can be tamed by mixing with other experiences (e.g., curiosity, the landscape and so many other stuff happening in the background).

I sure hope GoW3 is not a litany of mindless violence. GoW1 certainly had more depth than that.

 

Well, if anyone doesn't want to play GOW2 before GOW3 (myself, for time reasons really), then do yourself a favour and watch the 'GOW in 5 minutes' video in IGN. Hilarious.

 

Wow indeed. Without commenting on the uber AA applied to those images, they game looks amazing.

 

Is that by any chance the real time MLAA or supersampled bullshots?

 

Probably not supersampled. The 5th shot still shows same poor texture filtering on the ground. The MLAA does look awesome.

 

It's amazing how much you guys can tell from a few screenshots ! I mean I can't even tell whether Kratos is angry or not. XD

If these screens reflect the true quality of the AA, then it's holy mother of god (good) sh*t indeed. Would love to see the game in action on a big screen TV.

 

Well it's rather obvious that the game will look more like this than those uber AA'ed shots. Don't get me wrong, still amazing, but i'm just trying to put things in perspective here.
Actually, if a game like GOW can have that IQ level with all that's happening and the amount of detail in each frame, at that framerate, with the lighting it has, then there is no excuse for most other games to have worse IQ or having to render at lower resolutions. My opinion anyway.

 

The MLAA is real. You'll see tomorrow from Digital Foundry.

 

Well then there really is no excuse for a lot of other games to be released at sub-HD resolutions, or with no AA, or both... Especially seen how this MLAA was glued in the game relatively late (last 12 months?).

 

/Heading Off-Topic...

 

They look good but someone on GAF mentioned that the original size for those were huge.

 

What the hell ... the boss in that link looks almost exactly like one of the bosses from Demons Souls.

 

I saw the screens from DF they look pretty much exactly like these, so it's not bullshots, it's MLAA =)

For comparison purposes with this shot http://i46.tinypic.com/2vb293t.jpg - DF shot -

 

Didn't you play the GoW3 demo ? It's not a boss fight. ^_^

Anyway, Phalanx is a common military formation in those days.

Oh boy, I can remember the music when I first fought the Phalanx boss in Demon's Souls.

 

Here are some native captures of final GOW3 game. Great art and some places really shine well like the heart location with godrays.

http://www.gamereactor.se/bild/?textid=21410&id=205078


Review link.

http://www.gamereactor.se/recensioner/21410/God+of+War+III/

 

You can see specular/shader aliasing on armor/surfaces and small details in shot from 'openpandora.info' link but it is absent in the tinypic one. That is something SSAA gets rid off. Still looks really clean in stills either way.

 

Unfortunately jpg compression is blurring out some fine texture detail and edges in those screenshots. Still looks great though.
Here's the link to GameTrailers HD review, shows some very impressive cinematic scenes, my jaw dropped, beware of spoilers in the video though.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-god-of-war/62753

 

This has to be the most ambivalent I've felt about a game's graphics. Some of the stuff is truly incredible, the scale, the seamlessness, the amount of stuff going on, the general level of detail... Very impressive technology there.
But I still really don't like the art style. The lighting is all around the place, far too much of small level contrast from too much normal mapping / speculars, making everything just too busy. The sense of depth in still images is a mess sometimes, too. UC2 is still the more visually pleasing game.
In fact, the first two GOW games are more beautiful to me, too, the lack of normal/specular shading actually benefits them and the hand painted textures work a lot better there.

And the violence is too much for me too, even from what we've already seen - the final game probably has even more, and worse, stuff going.

 

I suspect if you replay GoW collection now, you'll see the differences more clearly. I played GoW 1 a couple of weeks ago. Compared to these screenshots, it's like comparing a 50 year old beauty to the same girl at 20.