inFAMOUS Second Son [PS4]

a photo mode option in a game is a great way to explore all aspects of the scenery and see where it lacks detail, but here, there seems to be high details everywhere even in tiny things you would never notice without this mode.
 
a photo mode option in a game is a great way to explore all aspects of the scenery and see where it lacks detail, but here, there seems to be high details everywhere even in tiny things you would never notice without this mode.

Yup. The notion of don't worry, nobody will see it apparently doesn't exist at Sucker Punch. I am truly stunned at the details of the textures and models in this game.
 
ISS IQ at this point is unmatched by any current console game ...which is amazing at this early stage of PS4 development. The game isn't perfect, but it's a wonderful start in the right direction on showing what the PS4 is capable of doing.
 
But is photo mode really representative of the game engine?

Remember GT had photo modes that looked more spectacular than any in-game graphics.
 
But is photo mode really representative of the game engine?

Remember GT had photo modes that looked more spectacular than any in-game graphics.

Yes. No additional level of AA or any other non in-game engine effects.

The only thing you can adjust is filters (Instagram style) and DOF. That's it...
 
But is photo mode really representative of the game engine?

Remember GT had photo modes that looked more spectacular than any in-game graphics.

Yes, it is fully representative of game engine.

Photo mode is just messing with cameras and little effects, game still runs at full speed. There is no special rendering mode that produces final image [like in GT games, 4-5secs of black screen while engine works on high-quality effects], user just need to take basic screenshot with Share button.
 
Took some fab pics today. Feeling so good ! Never really saw the city like this before. Now that the camera can be moved around, I am seeing things in a new light with the focus on the environment and not on the gameplay.
 
Never really saw the city like this before. Now that the camera can be moved around, I am seeing things in a new light with the focus on the environment and not on the gameplay.

I think this is illustrative of how looking at screenshots really gives very little real feel for how a game looks during play.
 
They were going for the feel of the city, not physical accuracy. As someone who's never been to Seattle, I can't say I was bothered by any of it.
It's iconic skybox imagery, major geometric art, which is a significant part of how something feels; I understand why the game doesn't structurally look much like Seattle outside of a few landmarks*.

I'm just surprised that a developer from the Seattle area would so significantly alter the striking figure that Rainier cuts in the sky; I'm not surprised that someone who's never been to Seattle wouldn't take issue with it. :D

*Speaking of which: wow at the space needle.

ISS IQ at this point is unmatched by any current console game ...which is amazing at this early stage of PS4 development. The game isn't perfect, but it's a wonderful start in the right direction on showing what the PS4 is capable of doing.
It is quite good, but now having played it, I'm going to maintain disagreement with your statement about there being no visible pixel crawl or shimmering. Large objects typically do fine, but the game does provide a fair amount of skinny detail that breaks down pretty much how you'd expect. And the rasterized planar reflections (used occasionally for things like buildings reflected across the water) most certainly experience loads of undersampling.
 
It is quite good, but now having played it, I'm going to maintain disagreement with your statement about there being no visible pixel crawl or shimmering.Large objects typically do fine, but the game does provide a fair amount of skinny detail that breaks down pretty much how you'd expect. And the rasterized planar reflections (used occasionally for things like buildings reflected across the water) most certainly experience loads of undersampling.

I guess I have a higher tolerance (or level) for shader aliasing, noisy edges and poor sampling when the overall IQ is quite high. GTA V shimmering and poor AA drives me crazy "because it's so damn obvious". ISS to me isn't obvious enough for me to notice. Not saying from a technical standpoint it isn't there ...but it's not enough for me to neg (-) it on.

But yes, from an overall IQ standpoint, ISS is currently winning in spades. But that's my opinion...
 
So I finished the game up.

Overall pretty good. The large environments lent themselves well to the combat model. The side missions and stuff needed to be there, but they feel like they should be more interesting somehow (obviously doing that well would crank up development budgets).

Boss fights were maybe okay. They sometimes felt like they overstayed their welcome. The last one
felt like a bit of a joke in terms of visibility and camera
.

Graphically, the game is reasonably impressive. Nearby stuff maintains a very good level of detail, and if you're not glancing around the screen while you move around you might not notice the significant LODing going on. The lighting model is clearly accounting for a lot of stuff, and I want to applaud Sucker Punch for the decent-looking soft ambientish shadowing. Surfaces with a mirroring effect aren't perfect, but they clearly did a lot of juggling to achieve a (usually) good-looking and affordable result; one thing that stuck out is that screen-space reflections tended to be fairly soft and transitioned in on a blurred edge, which helped tremendously in making the wiping artifacts less obvious (though it does so by making the SSR less powerful and versatile). Water looks like crap, distant objects look like crap.
IQ is mostly very nice, and ISS keeps the eighth-gen temporal supersampling train rolling. Things look sharp, and details are reasonably stable in motion. The motion blur is a bit annoying.

Not bad / 10
 
today I got 3rd power in the south part of the city and WOW! So much fun! I thought that Neon is best, but this new power is incredibly satisfying for both combat and traversal!

What a game!
 
today I got 3rd power in the south part of the city and WOW! So much fun! I thought that Neon is best, but this new power is incredibly satisfying for both combat and traversal!

What a game!


I just got here last night, keep returning to this game and really enjoying it. That fight to get those powers was pretty crazy btw, but I didn't hate it (I generally do with such type of fights). Man, you get some serious speed though, and I though Neon was fast.

It's a really good game!
 
I'm close to my first platinum, all that remains is to finish the game with ~4-5hr of gameplay.
ISS was my 2nd plat, Lego Marvel Super Heroes was my first :) Mercifully ISS is an easy plat as you can do most of the stunt plats at the end of either play through! A couple had me scratching my head tho ;)
 
I'm not sure what the effect is called, when you look at a bright light source and then away, the game mimics you eyes re-adjusting. ISS does this really aggressively and I find it incredibly jarring. Especially when you're constantly swinging your view from light to dark.
 
Back
Top