[PS3] God of War III Pre-Release

[TEEDA]

"The graphical improvements were immediately noticeable: motion blur, depth of field, better lighting and special effects. However, it was the cinematic camera work and the incredibly inspired level design that really left an impression

Remember how impressive Uncharted 2's dynamic set pieces were? Imagine scenes like Uncharted's collapsing building and train, and remove the sense of "reality" that Nathan Drake has to adhere to."

There were some unexpected consequences from my short time with the demo.
Dante's Inferno, which was demoed at the same event, didn't look uninteresting -- it looked downright "last gen," resembling God of War Collection more than Kratos' upcoming adventure

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/18/this-is-god-of-war-iii/

I summed up the E3 demo of God of War III with this opener: "God of War, in HD." That's not a "bad" thing per se, but for a franchise that's been known for pushing the graphical envelope, it simply wasn't enough. Thankfully, my concerns were obliterated last month when I got to play the latest build of the game. It only took a minute or so before I was able to say "this is God of War III -- and what it was always meant to be."

The demo was incredibly short, perhaps two or three minutes long. But that's all Santa Monica Studios needed to effectively demonstrate the scope of their vision. The graphical improvements were immediately noticeable: motion blur, depth of field, better lighting and special effects. However, it was the cinematic camera work and the incredibly inspired level design that really left an impression

Once again, this demo takes place on the Titan, making his way to the top of Mount Olympus. What the VGA trailer failed to capture effectively, though, is how dynamic battles will feel atop a moving giant. Remember how impressive Uncharted 2's dynamic set pieces were? Imagine scenes like Uncharted's collapsing building and train, and remove the sense of "reality" that Nathan Drake has to adhere to.

For some reason, Sony has refused to provide new footage from the game, so I can only describe the experience in words. Taking control of Kratos, I run up the Titan's arm, easily dispatching some skeleton minions. The camera zooms out, and shows a spider-like creature clawing into the Titan, causing it to flail about. As I try to fight this creature, the Titan continues to move, and the world shakes around me violently. The spider spews out a water attack, and after a few dodges and a few clean strikes, the Titan gets stung, I'm thrown off the giant. Hanging on with one arm, I try to climb back up, other arm swinging at the spider, still clinging to the Titan. As I make my way back up, the camera zooms out to show the Titan, and then zooms rapidly back to Kratos, as I continue to fight the "mini boss

Unfortunately, this would be far more exciting if you could simply see how this scene plays out.

There were some unexpected consequences from my short time with the demo.

Dante's Inferno, which was demoed at the same event, didn't look uninteresting -- it looked downright "last gen," resembling God of War Collection more than Kratos' upcoming adventure

. PS3 owners would be wise to wait a month, exclusive collector's edition be damned. Kratos is back

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/18/this-is-god-of-war-iii/

Kratos begins to dash uphill along a wide dirt track. There are three skeletal enemies visible at the end. The wind picks up, blowing dust across the screen. The post-processing motion blur effects are superb and give the whole thing a pre-rendered appearance, even though this 100% certain it's gameplay footage.

The fight continues this way for a while, with the two trading elemental attacks. But then a deep voice seems to moan in annoyance and the ground starts to pitch. Kratos is thrown off-balance as the entire plateau revolves counter-clockwise. The spider-beast seems to be clinging on for dear life too as the camera zooms out to take in the bigger picture.

Oh. My. God. As the camera zooms right out, we realise it wasn't a mountain at all that we were fighting on. It was a mountain-sized Titan Gaia – think a 20 million tonne Kathy Bates covered in grass and leaves - and we've been fighting on her wrist the entire time. Needless to say, the scene does its job. Spectacularly.

The biblically big-boned lady brings her head closer and examines the tiny figure attacking this tarantula-sized critter. Kratos is still throwing everything he's got at his opponent, unleashing combo after combo and following them up with his whirlwind attack.

So what did we think? Spectacular. The entire fight scene, from the choreography, dynamic panning camera shots to the sweeping scale is absolutely megaton.

The footage also finally gives us a tantalising look into how riding the massive Titans will work. Much like Shadow of the Colossus, Kratos’ ludicrously-sized allies are essentially constantly moving platform sections. Clambering all over Gaia looked fun as hell, so we’re mega pumped about getting our hands on these massive beasties and the rest of the game.

2010, say hello to your first potential killer-app

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/latest-god-of-war-3-video-emerges/a-201001181530241032

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't know if anyone ever pinned a size to them, but they were certainly of human proportions, maybe very big people. The largest beings were the gigantes/giants which is what we have Kratos scaling here (at least in terms of scale) and then the cyclops. The Titans as portrayed in Disney's Hercules made for exciting viewing but weren't at all accurate (that said, the Greek's didn't really sweat continuity and I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere they appear mammoth!)

Note : I'm not an authority on Greek mythology and I haven't seen any QI episode that covers this topic yet, so if a more learned man can correct me, please do!

 

[patsu]

I can't find any reference to the Titans' size on google. Some dictionary site did note that the ship "Titanic" was named after them.

 

[tha_con]

I can honestly say B3D is far worse than GAF for criticism. You've seen a handfull of screens (that show off almost nothing) and you're practically crapping on the game.

The DoF is great, it has motion Blur, textures on par or better with pretty much every current gen title, a good frame rate, and tons of scale.

Sorry, but I think judging the screens is nothing short of silly (I'm being nice using this word, you know what I really mean).

Edit: I take it back. B3D is a great place, but I think some members are a bit too technical in their critique, especially when we've only seen one screen. Impressive is impressive, regardless of size, scale, scope, or linearity.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

And the quality and/or design of the artwork can also be judged, even on static screens. Technical features on their own won't make a game's graphics.

 

[scooby_dooby]

The DoF is great, it has motion Blur, textures on par or better with pretty much every current gen title, a good frame rate, and tons of scale.

Sorry, but I think judging the screens is nothing short of silly (I'm being nice using this word, you know what I really mean).

So , you judge the screens, and then immediately say that judging screens is silly.
I don't get it, are you only allowed to judge them if your judgement is favorable? Come on...

Some of you guys are way over sensitive, absolutely no one is doing anything close to "crapping" on the screens. At worst, they are not blown away with the technical merits, big deal..

 

[assurdum]

So , you judge the screens, and then immediately say that judging screens is silly.
I don't get it, are you only allowed to judge them if your judgement is favorable? Come on...

Some of you guys are way over sensitive, absolutely no one is doing anything close to "crapping" on the screens. At worst, they are not blown away with the technical merits, big deal..

Said it isn't impressive to me after play the demo & even judging only the screens is ahem.... The game use hdr, high texture res and target to 60 fps (30 in the struggle scenes). The large scale 'destroy' the details in every game, is technically and logically 'normal'. But however I'm not found not impressive even those shots

 

[L. Scofield]

The DoF is great, it has motion Blur, textures on par or better with pretty much every current gen title, a good frame rate, and tons of scale. .

I was looking at the CES videos and there's no hint of MB usage

 

[patsu]

I am having a headache reading assurdum's post.

EDIT:

I was looking at the CES videos and there's no hint of MB usage

Motion blur is mentioned here:
http://elanimador.blogspot.com/2010/01/unerthing-legend-trailer.html

As far as the screen shots, some of those are newer than others. One thing I can say that is the game does have motion blur, it is just not turned on for these screen shots.

Should wait for more media and other confirmation.

 

[patsu]

Speaking of media...

The developer has obviously added a new mini-game to GoW3 combat. It's called "Where's Krato ?". Took me a while to see he's in the shot.

Does the game zoom from this ant-sized Krato all the way to "life" size in one shot ? Would be interesting to see in real time.

 

[L. Scofield]

Motion blur is mentioned here:
http://elanimador.blogspot.com/2010/01/unerthing-legend-trailer.html
Should wait for more media and other confirmation.

Maybe that guy confused it with DOF. It tends to happen often. But yeah, we should wait to see more recent footage to confirm its presence.

 

[Neb]

Maybe the chap thought the TVs blurring due to response time was 'fullscreen motionblur'?

 

[patsu]

Another mention of motion blur here: http://www.gamesradar.com/f/latest-god-of-war-3-video-emerges/a-201001181530241032

I suggest people stop criticizing others until they have seen the video themselves.

[size=-2]Wait for more official confirmation if you're skeptical.[/size]


EDIT: Actually, TEEDA's Joystiq link claimed motion blur is in the game too:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1382249&postcount=661

 

[ultragpu]

Maybe that guy confused it with DOF. It tends to happen often. But yeah, we should wait to see more recent footage to confirm its presence.

Maybe the chap thought the TVs blurring due to response time was 'fullscreen motionblur'?

The CES demo was the exact same E3 demo that people who has played countless of times on their PS3s. The new build obviously induced all the bells and whistles that we haven't seen. Motion blur, DOF and better lighting just being a few of them. The engine does support object based MB and camera MB anyway as mentioned by the devs ages ago.

 

[ultragpu]

Agree with the art/look comments - lighting, shaders, poly and texture detail aren't too impressive on their own, nor is the level of polish. But man, this scale is huge... and putting all those characters on top of a moving character must be a hell of a programming challenge.

I kinda disagree though, for what geometries are been rendered on screen including all the enemies, kratos, Mt.Olympus, titans especially Gaia and her bush, "OK that came out wrong", the level of poly count are anything but mediocre. The textures are fantastic in quality especially on Kratos and Gaia, if anything they are at least on par with the Shambahala level from UC2. As for lighting and shaders, it's a night level so we wont see the sun and I thought the water effects looked cool even on a screenshot. But you know, that's just me.
And found some 1080p shots too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/playstationblog/4285390764/sizes/o/

 

[the ignoramus]

Looks better than a Team Ninja game.

 

[TEEDA]

Confirmed. The game is 720p Native but supports 1080p upscaling

its been confirmed that GOW3 is 720p native, with support for 1080p upscaling and that the frame-rate will vary between 30 and 60 fps depending on the amount of action on screen.

God of War III is one of the most anticipated exclusive games on the Playstation 3. Sony recently revealed several technical graphical details on their impressive-looking game.
Jeff Rubenstein, the Social Media Manager of SCEA, confirmed on the comment section of the Playstation.Blog that God of War III will run natively at 720p with 1080p upscaling support. Furthermore, Stig Asmussen, the director of the game, revealed in an interview with Arabic gaming site N4GA that his title will have a variable frame rate from 30 to 60 frames per second depending on the amount of action on screen.
God of War III is slated for a March release in North America
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-...run-on-720p-natively-with-variable-frame-rate

.

 

[Neb]

The CES demo was the exact same E3 demo that people who has played countless of times on their PS3s. The new build obviously induced all the bells and whistles that we haven't seen. Motion blur, DOF and better lighting just being a few of them.

Oh I see so the impressions from some sites about motionblur etc was not from CES 2010 but some other event else they could not have hinted for motionblur etc?

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I kinda disagree though

I was talking in generic terms because the post I've replied to was a generic issue as well. You can judge a lot of things from screenshots and tech features on their own won't necessarily make a game look good.

Textures are about a lot more then just the resolution or the amount of detail in them, this is why I refer to artistic or stylistic considerations. But some people get all impressed even if I just take a 4K digital photo of a door and put it on a simple plane, or just project a photo on a head model - so I can see how this is more of a personal issue. I personally prefer hand-painted stuff, although even that is not that specific and can be done in many different styles.

In terms of GOW3, there are lots of impressive tech; but the overall look shows that they're not in such great control of it as they've been on the PS2.

 

[dskneo]

between 30 and 60 fps depending on the amount of action on screen.

crap. This breaks the experience. Its really visible when games drop framerates.