Quantum Break [XO] (by Remedy) *large images*

One way to make the game really challenging is to remove any sort of aiming assist for both the weapons and the powers, and play the game on hard difficulty. It's really fun this way, every mistake is on you and you have to learn to use the powers with precision instead of just spamming them (with auto aim it usually targets enemies instead of where you are aiming). And when you pull one great combo off you feel like a badass, i really like the time powers in this game :)
 
Someone playing Alan Wake in the game :D
awj4p1u.jpg
 
Just watched the third episode, it's getting better and better! I also found all collectibles which affected the show a bit (small details and differences like Until Dawn). Game is great fun, although heavy in narrative (i like that, doesn't hurt to play something different once in a while).
 
I haven't had much of a chance to play. Even in act 2, there are some visual sequences that are just crazy. It's very much a remedy game. If you don't like their other games, you probably won't like this one, but it's not my fault if you're an idiot. Image quality is definitely not great, in a lot of ways, but when you start getting into sequences where time is stuck, and you're fighting those enemies with the special suits that allow them to avoid your time powers, the amount of weird stuff that's going on makes it a treat.
 
I've been reading every journal entry + listening to the logs to try and follow the story completely (time travel kinda makes things hard to follow). I've got to say I'm hooked, on chapter 4 right now and some times that are happening are great but the game fails to explain what is happening exactly in the cinematics.
 
The game does it's fair share of hand holding, one thing i really didn't like about The Order is here in full force as well. The game will let you run only when it wants you to, it will force you to walk whenever it wants you to, it will only let you use your powers when it needs you to. As a result it feels very scripted and controlled, some parts from chapter 4 really frustrated me (not challenging, just not fun). I can sort of understand the mixed reviews now, the game has some very obvious flaws but it's a shit ton of fun. Just chapter 5 left for me :)

Major story spoilers up to that point
Why did they have to kill Beth, she was a great character :-|
 
Okay, finished it. Almost found everything (97% completion)
qbpsp9v.png

qb1afql6.jpg


Some of my thoughts, fresh out of the oven. Let me start with the good points first:
  • Great audiovisual experience, a game that works despite its flaws (which are many) visually and has amazing sound design. You have to play this on a good surround sound system or a good pair of headphones to appreciate just how good it is.
  • Great time travel story with little to no plot holes. Even if the game doesn't play along with contemporary physics laws it doesn't make time travel seem like magic, consequences and limitations are still there, well thought out story as far as time travel is concerned imo.
  • Some of the episodes in the TV show were great (episode 2 and 3 for me)
  • When the combat works, it puts a smile on your face, it's simply too much fun sometimes!
And some bad points:
  • When the combat doesn't, it's very frustrating (some parts of chapter 4 and 5 for example). The game doesn't work well without the time powers, and in the later stages of the game it actually tries to dampen the impact these powers have in combat (by either removing them or making them useless) and that just doesn't work in its favor. I'd say combat in general is hit or miss, sometimes it's pure bliss and sometimes it glitches out and you're stuck and die for no reason. The AI is also very simplistic, most of the time you'll die because you did a stupid mistake rather than the AI doing something smart.
  • The game also has the worst final boss fight in recent memory, it's like it has a checklist of bullshit features: random AOE one hit ko, bad checkpoints, enemies that make what's fun in the game (the powers) useless, scripted instant death sequences... Yeah, whoever designed that really hates the player.
  • When the TV show doesn't work it's not interesting at all, and it even has some very cringe worthy moments
    The "nerd" guy acting like a hero to impress the girl, the "macho" guy shooting dudes left and right in front of the pregnant wife like nothings happening
  • The "walking sections", "running sections", "now you can use your powers sections" don't work for me, it feels like you are restricted at all times to what the game wants you to do. That exists in pretty much every game but in QB, like The Order it's very in your face, and really annoyed me sometimes.
Going into spoiler territory now
I think the story had great momentum up until they killed off Beth (which along with Will was the best/most interesting character in the game). At that point i realized i didn't really give a shit about Jack, or Paul and the rest of the story after mid-way chapter 4 was not very interesting for me (although Jack going back to save Will was pretty cool). Surprisingly, every single plot twist was obvious from a mile away, nothing really surprised me in the story, which i didn't really expect to happen (being a time travel story and all). In addition, think the game ended way too fast and that it needed at least one more TV episode to tie things together. I also feel like some characters were killed just for the sake of shock factor rather than actual character motivations, it feels like the game tries to make you feel emotion without actually earning it.

Overall, i think of QB in the same way i think of BvS; I had a fun time, i definitely recommend playing the game but it has some very obvious flaws which I can't ignore. And i'm also planning on playing the game again when MS/Remedy fix it on PC to see what did i miss with the junction points if i chose the opposite :)

Some non-spoilery screenshots from the PC version (only major difference should be texture filtering)
http://abload.de/img/13kuorj.jpg
http://abload.de/img/14psro5.jpg
http://abload.de/img/150frax.jpg
http://abload.de/img/16yfp4d.jpg
http://abload.de/img/17k5pvb.jpg
http://abload.de/img/188tode.jpg
http://abload.de/img/19qeq8y.jpg
 
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^It may look very good in motion, especially with those time bending effects which break the image in myriad cool ways, but in these screens it looks like a game with heavy Instagram filters and very bad IQ :( !

Will get it sometime later in a sale or so to give it a try but I feel no urge to play it from what I have seen, as of now. Good that it has come to PC, cos atleast I won't miss out on experiencing it myself.
 
RenegadeRocks said:
^It may look very good in motion, especially with those time bending effects which break the image in myriad cool ways, but in these screens it looks like a game with heavy Instagram filters and very bad IQ :( !

Will get it sometime later in a sale or so to give it a try but I feel no urge to play it from what I have seen, as of now. Good that it has come to PC, cos atleast I won't miss out on experiencing it myself.
Click to expand...
Those screenshots are not representative at all of the game 90% of the time...Anyway the Xbox version is currently the way to go..better to wait for the PC version given it's current state..
 
 
Clukos said:
What? Here are the PNG captures, straight from the game
http://abload.de/img/1c1rbl.png
http://abload.de/img/2h7oem.png
http://abload.de/img/3e3p9v.png
http://abload.de/img/4utqvw.png
http://abload.de/img/5qspaw.png
http://abload.de/img/6spr5m.png
http://abload.de/img/78lo0q.png
http://abload.de/img/9zgp7z.png
http://abload.de/img/11rjqq3.png
http://abload.de/img/12xfoek.png
http://abload.de/img/13f8pkk.png
http://abload.de/img/14jir4m.png
http://abload.de/img/15hyp0d.png
http://abload.de/img/162ureb.png
http://abload.de/img/17ptoyz.png
http://abload.de/img/18doo8q.png
http://abload.de/img/19r9ohx.png
http://abload.de/img/207tqit.png
http://abload.de/img/214wpnb.png
Click to expand...
I was talking about your Jack Joyce "zoomed in" facial shots which I assume is what he was referring to in his post.
 
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Putting cut scenes aside, how does it compare to The Division (for those that have both)?
Excluding cut scenes but considering objects,lighting,environment, zooming in.
Cheers
 
CSI PC said:
Putting cut scenes aside, how does it compare to The Division (for those that have both)?
Excluding cut scenes but considering objects,lighting,environment, zooming in.
Cheers
Click to expand...

The Division: More dense geometry, more stable lighting, better lod on both PC and consoles, higher res shadows/volumetrics, more detailed animations and blending between animations (QB just swaps between animations, from what I've seen it doesn't blend different animations, could be wrong but that's what i think), better image quality and texture filtering on X1 as well as aliasing (temporal supersampling used in TD looks great). QB: More impressive material shading (especially when reflected area is not occluded), significantly more impressive VFX, a generational leap in cutscene facial/body animation (TD looks bad by comparison), better AO (very good coverage), when not looking straight at low res volumetric sources, which can look quite jarring at times, lighting overall is superior, even if it is not stable (screen space reliant, especially GI). Both have strong positives and negatives, overall i'd say The Division is more balanced visually, while Quantum Break can wow more in some moments :)
 
Clukos said:
The Division: More dense geometry, more stable lighting, better lod on both PC and consoles, higher res shadows/volumetrics, more detailed animations and blending between animations (QB just swaps between animations, from what I've seen it doesn't blend different animations, could be wrong but that's what i think), better image quality and texture filtering on X1 as well as aliasing (temporal supersampling used in TD looks great). QB: More impressive material shading (especially when reflected area is not occluded), significantly more impressive VFX, a generational leap in cutscene facial/body animation (TD looks bad by comparison), better AO (very good coverage), when not looking straight at low res volumetric sources, which can look quite jarring at times, lighting overall is superior, even if it is not stable (screen space reliant, especially GI). Both have strong positives and negatives, overall i'd say The Division is more balanced visually, while Quantum Break can wow more in some moments :)
Click to expand...
Just some clarification (I agree with everything else..mostly):
- QB only "swaps" animations when in cover/crouching and aiming (this was a design decision by Remedy) others are sped up on purposes (reloading animation) . Everything else is vastly superior to TD. As a matter of fact QB uses Natural Motion's Morpheme which is still the best characters animation middleware on the market.
- GI ( & specular ) isn't screen-space (LSAO & Reflections are)
 
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Clukos said:
Not sure about that, turning off SSR on PC has this result

Off: http://abload.de/img/1iar7d.png
On: http://abload.de/img/2doo8n.png
Click to expand...
Everything is clearly explained in the Siggraph paper that you have already read ;-) https://mediatech.aalto.fi/~ari/Publications/SIGGRAPH_2015_Remedy_Notes.pdf

The final output is a blend of the Large Scale Lighting (irradiance volumes with Precomputed light transport + Specs) and Screen Space Lighting ( LSAO+ SSR +SSSpecular). Once you disable SSR it unfortunately looks are only left with the Large Scale Lighting (your first Screen shot)..GI is clearly still present
 
Yeah GI is definitely still on (there's a separate option for it in the menu as well), but some of it is lost due to screen space lighting, quick example
ssgi68pyo.jpg


My point was that it looks weird in comparison to the more stable lighting in The Division
 
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