God of War [PS4, PC]

[TEEDA]

I play too on 1080p on PS4 Pro. I will not buy a 4k TV before HDMI 2.1 compatible TV if for example PS5 launch in 2020 but next year we have HDMI2.1 TV I will buy one and it will be my PS4 Pro and PS5 TV...

yup same , playing on my sony 46w905a 1080p and won't buy a 4k tv before next eyar probably. I m gonna see how good the sony Af8 oled is by the end of the year or wait like you for PS5.
I tried the supersampling mode but don't see anything different really so just deactivated it and enjoying the game. I might try the performance mode on the pro on my next playthrough to see how it compares.
So far i m really enjoying the game. Just been a bit disapointed by the boss fights ( i mean the pattern to beat them ) but the first boss encounter is still the most memorable for me at the point of the game I am in.
Also enemies variety and design I like it so far, but just not fan of the reskined ones.

 

[djskribbles]

Beat the game lastnight... what a game. Took me about 25-30 hours and I wasn't bored once. Definitely gonna go back and do more quests and exploring. Game is so good.

It's games like this that make me not care so much about next gen. I'd be perfectly happy with this level of quality at 60fps on a consistent basis, and I'm just playing on a standard PS4.

I can't wait for GoW5 or DLC.

Late edit: Sorry I can't stop gushing about this game.

After beating it, I'm shocked at how good the end game is. There is so much to do in this game and there is so much stuff to grind for. It's everything I wanted in Destiny... in GOD OF WAR. I NEVER would've expected that. This series has changed so much for the better. It has blown my expectations out of the water and it is easily my game of the generation, even though I have sunk so many more hours into Destiny. I literally have no complaints (well I did experience a few audio glitches, but meh).

Spoiler

When you guys can, go to Niflheim and get the Ivaldi's armor. It's not too hard to obtain considering it's one of the best epic armor sets in the game. It makes you extremely powerful.

Once you get it, you can keep grinding Niflheim to get materials to upgrade the gear.

I just realized that certain skills have bonus perks if you meet the stat requirements. It blows my mind how incredibly deep this game is.

I just beat the Valkyrie in muspelheim to get the item to upgrade blades of chaos to level 5 and my Kratos is an absolute monster now. .

The valkyries are the toughest enemies in the game, but it makes it so much easier when you have good gear and stats.

Here's a pic of my Kratos:

 

[Recop]

What's good about God of War is that the game only continues to get better and better because the gameplay gets deeper as you progress in the game.

 

[ultragpu]

I really wish we get a NG+ at some point, the continuous upgrade and grind would be kinda wasted if we can't use them for more fights other than late in the game. Surely with the amount of depth this game offers I feel like it is designed for a NG+ right from the start.

 

[djskribbles]

What's good about God of War is that the game only continues to get better and better because the gameplay gets deeper as you progress in the game.

Yeah the character progression and end game are excellent in GoW.

The structure of the missions is also very well done. There's the main story, which has 'normal' difficulty, but then there's side missions/enemies that are completely optional, some of which are extremely difficult and are meant for the hardcore players and reward you with very good loot.

High-end items are also extremely difficult to upgrade because they require rare items that make you grind certain things to acquire. This is what most hardcore Destiny fans want, and I still can't believe I'm finding it in GoW. The end game in this game puts Destiny 2 to shame.

I really wish we get a NG+ at some point, the continuous upgrade and grind would be kinda wasted if we can't use them for more fights other than late in the game. Surely with the amount of depth this game offers I feel like it is designed for a NG+ right from the start.

NG+ would be nice, but I have a feeling there's gonna be DLC. Did you return home after the credits? I urge everyone who has completed the game to do so if you haven't already.

 

[DieH@rd]

Game director said that they did not plan for any DLC. They put everything they wanted in the base game.

As for the script, he has an approach that he cannot properly provide hints and buildup if the entire story is not well mapped. This game is just a 1st part, there will be sequels.

 

[London Geezer]

Finished. Wow. How hard is the platinum on this one?

 

[djskribbles]

Finished. Wow. How hard is the platinum on this one?

Spoiler

Very hard, for the simple reason that the 9th Valkyrie is a pain in the ass. I only attempted to beat her twice, but I could only get her to about half health, and my Kratos is level 9 with very good stats. Mind you, I'm not the greatest at reading attack patterns. She seems to have more attacks than the other Valkyries though, I think she's sort of a combination of the other 8.

 

[ultragpu]

NG+ would be nice, but I have a feeling there's gonna be DLC. Did you return home after the credits? I urge everyone who has completed the game to do so if you haven't already.

The tease of

Spoiler

Thor

makes me want to skip 3 years to the sequel already.

 

[London Geezer]

The tease of

Spoiler

Thor

makes me want to skip 3 years to the sequel already.

I was actually quite surprised when the game ended

Spoiler

and I realised I wasn't going to see/kill Odin or Thor... And that tease at the end, that was a bit painful

They better get the next one out quick.

To go back to the graphics, that tree of life temple where you can access the other realms, in my opinion is literally the prettiest thing I've ever seen in a game ever, especially when it powers up and what looks like millions of particles fly around everywhere, plus the leaves and the branches moving like they do, the volumetric lights, everything about it. Simply put, the prettiest thing I've seen in a game, by far.

 

[ultragpu]

I was actually quite surprised when the game ended

Spoiler

and I realised I wasn't going to see/kill Odin or Thor... And that tease at the end, that was a bit painful

They better get the next one out quick.

To go back to the graphics, that tree of life temple where you can access the other realms, in my opinion is literally the prettiest thing I've ever seen in a game ever, especially when it powers up and what looks like millions of particles fly around everywhere, plus the leaves and the branches moving like they do, the volumetric lights, everything about it. Simply put, the prettiest thing I've seen in a game, by far.

It truly is something on the next level graphically, possibly inspired by the movie Avatar I reckon. To me

Spoiler

Tyr's Vault

that entire level rivals it in prettyness. Again they have to be seen in HDR to fully realize the artist's vision.

 

[London Geezer]

Ah, one negative thing is that the HDR implementation is a bit shit. At times the sytem gets completely confused and either gets the black levels wrong (crush), or elevated, or the highlights are completely washed out - until it gets back to normal and everything is fine. While most of the time it's great. It's just not consistent at all.

And the HDR calibration system is just useless. For a first party, you would expect it to have a system on par with Gran Turismo Sport or AC:O, which are both still the best in giving an actually usable HDR calibration option. Plus, it's insane that a game like Ni No Kuni 2, which has no calibration option at all, somehow still manages to have a kinda better looking, more consistent HDR implementation than GOW.

 

[ultragpu]

I think patch 1.17 was suppose to fix some HDR issues last time I read. I did recall there was one area around one of Odin's secret chamber that the HDR highlights were off, could be a bug. Also yeah the calibration could have been more comprehensive like paper white adjust.
BTW what's your In game HDR settings, could be what's causing some of the issues too. Mine's at 52 Brightness and 50 Contrast, looked superb 99% of time.

 

[Nesh]

I have to say that I am extremely impressed how well even the PS3 model holds up today. It is still one of the best in game models ever created and not very far from what we would expect from today's games

 

[London Geezer]

I think patch 1.17 was suppose to fix some HDR issues last time I read. I did recall there was one area around one of Odin's secret chamber that the HDR highlights were off, could be a bug. Also yeah the calibration could have been more comprehensive like paper white adjust.
BTW what's your In game HDR settings, could be what's causing some of the issues too. Mine's at 52 Brightness and 50 Contrast, looked superb 99% of time.

I had to ultimately settle for 50-50, and even then I literally just noticed something that now actually really pisses me off. My bf is playing this (we got the disc as usual so we take turns) on his shitty 1080p monitor, on his Pro, in the Muspelheim area with all the lava.

Now, I went there yesterday and on my ZD-friggin-9 in HDR, this area was a total mess: the lava looked like a mess of red particles, lots of them, but just a blob of red with no detail. At the time I did think it looked a bit basic, but whatever.

Well well well! He’s playing this area on his shitty SDR monitor and the lava here looks proper, with proper detail, and it kinda looks like lava, not like a red mess like it does on the big tv.

On my ZEEDEEFRIGGINNINE, in HDR? MESS. NOT HAPPY.

I WILL BE FOLLOWING THIS UP.

Yes it’s not MY ZD9, it’s OURS. But he’s not reading this so whatever. NOT HAPPY.

 

[London Geezer]

Is that I’m looking at him play the game. Everything seems to have more detail, in SDR, which is completely crazy.

As I said, whatever you do with the HDR calibration, it never really looks just ‘right’.

I might tweet them. The bloody thing is broken.

 

[Karamazov]

do you mean there's some sort of color bleeding in HDR that might hide details ?

 

[Nesh]

Is that I’m looking at him play the game. Everything seems to have more detail, in SDR, which is completely crazy.

As I said, whatever you do with the HDR calibration, it never really looks just ‘right’.

I might tweet them. The bloody thing is broken.

My pseudo-HDR PC monitor does something similar with HDR content especially when the input signal it gets is not the one it likes. For example my standard PS4 produces a shitty mess at 1080p, but a 4k signal produces a more proper image, Yet some areas do appear to lose some detail. So I am not sure if it is the signal/console settings or your TV's settings that may be producing this shitty mess or if its just the game

 

[DieH@rd]

In new Kotaku interview with Corey Balrog, we got some insights about differences between visuals in E3 2016 unveil and retail. Basically, engine was far from being done.

[after talking about changes in engines between earlier GoW sequels]
"On this one, everything really needed to be redone, because we just had torn the engine apart in so many different ways that when we finally brought the team together, everyone realized, ‘OK, this is not where it needs to be.’ So even when you see E3 2016, the rendering engine wasn’t there, the lighting engine was half-there, the atmospheric engine was half-there. The core mechanics were there, but a lot of the way we were streaming and loading everything was still getting worked out, and figuring out how we were going to get it logistically to work. We knew what we wanted, we just didn’t know technologically how we were going to get it in the right order."

Full interview with many many many other great info drops https://kotaku.com/why-god-of-war-took-five-years-to-make-1825653009

 

[London Geezer]

do you mean there's some sort of color bleeding in HDR that might hide details ?

It’s more like colour clipping, in a weird way. I thought it looked weird when I played it but now that I saw it in SDR it’s really evident. Which perhaps means that even at 50-50, the default setting for HDR, the game does not look as it should. Very disappointing.