[PS3] God of War III Pre-Release

[Brad Grenz]

Also, this screen here

Looks just like the , what was that, the Caverns with the puzzles level in Uncharted where you see the Spaniards for the first time..... !

He looks etched from marble there!

 

[Betanumerical]

(Posting from PS3 so serious limits . Will tidy up later) Alpha to to coverage? All in all, I wouldn't say there were any technical innovations here, but it's a bit unfair to keep expecting developers to invent brand new methods all the time. The lighting and shadowing isn't pushing the limits of what console games achieve. The scope of the 'level' though, and the attentnion to detail, looks on par with Uncharted when the paint effect isn't being applied, which is quite some achievement. Anyone expecting a complete realtime AO engine will be disappointed. Anyone wanting an action game probably has a lot to look forwards to, especially if we see the engine develop as many do.

AFAIK the trailer is from a build thats nearly 2 years old, I don't see it fair to judge the game based on a trailer that is very old.

 

[Neb]

AFAIK the trailer is from a build thats nearly 2 years old, I don't see it fair to judge the game based on a trailer that is very old.

Why would they show now a 2 year old trailer and screenshots from same build and yet they showed a bland trailer some months ago?

Doesn't compute..

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Still, I really wish Laa-Yosh would come back with observations about the backgrounds!

I've never denied the detail, there's obviously a LOT of work in the scenery, but I still believe that the tech isn't as good as you'd expect and the general look, the art direction is lacking. There's still hope that in time they'll be able to get everything together, polish up the assets and lighting and add some post effects but so far it looks less then what the sum of its parts should be.

 

[slider]

I've never denied the detail, there's obviously a LOT of work in the scenery, but I still believe that the tech isn't as good as you'd expect and the general look, the art direction is lacking. There's still hope that in time they'll be able to get everything together, polish up the assets and lighting and add some post effects but so far it looks less then what the sum of its parts should be.

I thought it was fine. It's certainly coherent/consistent (to me at least).

In fact, on a related note, I'd prefer if it wasn't heavily stylised to catch people's attention. But I must remember that this is/will be(?) a very small segment of the game. E3 may show some more environments.

 

[Daozang]

I remember some site had a screenshot comparison of Haze and Crysis in similar settings and locations, and a lot of the commentors were convinced that Haze was pretty close to Crysis, and even exceded it in places. Yet we all knew better when we got to witness it for ourselves.

I feel GoW3 looks better than HS if only for its fluidity. HS had some impressive visuals, but it was a slideshow. It's a terrible shame that a character that moves so fast with such attention to animation is only drawn at slideshow pacing. Maybe if there was motion blurring, it would have been more aesthetically pleasing, but it didn't even have that to save it.

Comparing this screenshot from GoW3 to this one from HS, I don't see a great difference in detail, but Nariko's in the speed stance there, so you know in motion, you wouldn't see any of the details on her anyway. One thing that really impressed me about the GoW3 trailer was how they wanted you to see the little details. The high contrast (which some people take issue with) makes everything stand out sharply in motion, so you can make out those pores in Kratos' skin or the musculature of the undead warriors, even in motion.

Now, I expect some people will say GoW3 should not be compared to HS, but the similarities are undeniable, and GoW3's producers have made references to Kratos' weapon-switching as being similar to stance changes, HS' primary game mechanic.

And on a final note, just look at this pic and try to remain unimpressed. Kratos' shoulder armor has similar shader characteristics and polygonal detail as some of the artifacts in Drake's Fortune, and I thought those looked amazing on the screen, all by themselves with just a 2D HUD behind them.

Why do I see, in the case of HS, a muddy and blant ss with low res textures and in GOWIII a superbly lit ss that only lacks in self shaddowing?
I don't know guys, I think you nitpick alot. Of course that is a trademark for this site
I think that the game has great graphics, that will satisfy the majority. I hope that the gameplay will be less button mashy than the previous.

 

[RudeCurve]

(I also find those huge gauntlets kinda ridiculous).

I found it cheesy. I prefer the gaunlet in Prince of Persia.

 

[ultragpu]

Shifty, not sure if you've noticed this yet. In this capture it's apparent to me that Kratos and the enemies are casting multiple shadows of themselves, something I've never seen in video games before. It leads me to think that maybe there're some kind of AO goin on or what?

 

[deepbrown]

You mean the non CGI trailer?

It kinda boggles my mind how simpler stuff get passed on as "unbelievable". If they think "seen the best graphics ever created" the ymost have come straight from xbox/PS2 era games jumping straight to GOW3.

Umm...a trailer that says "real-time gameplay" then...

Just so they know it's not CGI. The scale of the action with the artstyle would impress most consumers.

 

[Jugix]

http://i44.tinypic.com/2uzqh3b.jpg

Is that really 720p@2xMSAA render? Seems too clean from aliasing.

 

[Neb]

Shifty, not sure if you've noticed this yet. In this capture it's apparent to me that Kratos and the enemies are casting multiple shadows of themselves, something I've never seen in video games before. It leads me to think that maybe there're some kind of AO goin on or what?
http://i39.tinypic.com/zy7yoj.jpg

That doesn't look like AO at all. If anything I would say multiple lightsources casting shadows (2). Although how the shadows fall and direction makes it seem really strange.

 

[Neb]

Is that really 720p@2xMSAA render? Seems too clean from aliasing.

I though that comment only reffered to the video not separate screenshots.

Umm...a trailer that says "real-time gameplay" then...

Just so they know it's not CGI.

Why eve nput that since it doesn't look anywhere near CGi type graphics. and looking at the new screenshots inline with standard this-gen games. Dont be to fooled by the darkness (night etc) in video that covers flaws and such.

The scale of the action with the artstyle would impress most consumers.

Most likely. But about scale, what scale? 2D backdrops, ~50 enemies and some giant collossus?

To little showcased to talk about scale.

 

[patsu]

I think he meant everyone's fighting on the back of a Titan (and the Titan has a separate AI). We'll need to see what happens next. Whether everything we saw will slip off the Titan when he moves abruptly, and whether the transition is seamless, etc.

 

[deepbrown]

I though that comment only reffered to the video not separate screenshots.



Why eve nput that since it doesn't look anywhere near CGi type graphics. and looking at the new screenshots inline with standard this-gen games. Dont be to fooled by the darkness (night etc) in video that covers flaws and such.



Most likely. But about scale, what scale? 2D backdrops, ~50 enemies and some giant collossus?

To little showcased to talk about scale.

Any consumer gameplay trailer should have "in-game graphics." - these are people who are playing Wii's and PS2's.

I didn't say it IS the most technically advanced, graphically best game - I'm saying the average consumer will think it is.

And are you kidding about scale? The whole battle was fought on a giant colossi who is in turn climbing a mountain. I'm sorry, but that's scale on massive proportions.

 

[BadTB25]

I've always loved that God of War is willing to push boundaries. After Ninja Gaiden 2, I'm hoping the gore will be pushed forward yet again.

The scale appears to be epic as well and I hope the trailer is just a small snippet of what is to come. I also noticed that Kratos moves a lot quicker than the previous games which is a real good thing.

I'm going to have to dust of GOWII and go through it again.
I wonder what new mythological creatures will be interpreted for GOWIII.

 

[joker454]

Shifty, not sure if you've noticed this yet. In this capture it's apparent to me that Kratos and the enemies are casting multiple shadows of themselves, something I've never seen in video games before. It leads me to think that maybe there're some kind of AO goin on or what?

Sports games do multiple shadows due to multiple light sources during night games in stadiums, like this:

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360...league-baseball-2k8-20080227093814091-000.jpg

It's not related to AO in that GoW shot, the shadows are on flat ground that should have similar ambient exposure to the non shadowed areas of ground. There must be two shadow casting light sources in that pic, or it could just be a glitch. Or maybe it's a temporary effect, like that big dudes attack creates a big light source that temporarily ads a second shadow casting light.

 

[Zassk]

The things that struck me were

1) terrain seems to be very low detail, but a lot of games seem to be going this way, the pendulum has definitely swung away from Kameo's terrain in 2005 and toward better character models.

2) lighting looks unfinished to me, I would imagine there will be some kind of consistent shadowing eventually, which makes me think there will probably be HDR eventually as well.

3) why do skeletons spew blood? this really stuck out to me, surely most viewers of that trailer will find bleeding skeletons odd.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Shifty, not sure if you've noticed this yet. In this capture it's apparent to me that Kratos and the enemies are casting multiple shadows of themselves, something I've never seen in video games before. It leads me to think that maybe there're some kind of AO goin on or what?

There is nothing special about that, haven't you played any sports games lately? If played at night, all players (atleast on all the EA sports games) will cast atleast 4 shadows from various spotlights at all times...

 

[Betanumerical]

Why would they show now a 2 year old trailer and screenshots from same build and yet they showed a bland trailer some months ago?

Doesn't compute..

Shit I read soemones post wrong this trailer seems to be from a build in fall? so its farily new.

 

[slapnutz]

Little picky but I hope they can improve the chains around this forearms. At least use some kind of displacement/parallax mapping since its a 3rd person game with QTE which means we'll be seeing a lot of the character.