Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 [XBSX|S, PC, XGP]

[Frenetic Pony]

I was quite disappointed in this effect to be honest. It looks ok enough in motion during the scene, but considering how much better it was in the initial trailer, it's a big downgrade. I understand why they did it, but it's a shame that the original effect wasn't included in a higher setting option.

Giant screen filling alpha effect make frametimes sad

Billboards don't help, but low res alpha effects are generally the "solution" that works today
the ability to heavily VRS both alpha/volume and normal geometry that's being obscured by closer alpha/volume would help a lot

 

[see colon]

Yep, that was one of the first potential culprits I tried to eliminate. Even with it off the artifacting still happens.

Yeah, after I posted that I was playing some more and noticed it as well. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's a stand out poor visual effect.

 

[Dampf]

I really can't believe how amazing this game looks on my near 5 year old laptop.

Geometric detail, lighting, character rendering, textures, animations, cinematic effects, particles all off the charts. This is truly CGI quality. I'm really blown away!

 

[see colon]

View attachment 11384

I really can't believe how amazing this game looks on my near 5 year old laptop.

Geometric detail, lighting, character rendering, textures, animations, cinematic effects, particles all off the charts. This is truly CGI quality. I'm really blown away!

I feel the same way. I played most of it on a laptop with a 1660ti at low setting using XESS, and I can't believe how nice it looks throughout. You can definitely break the illusion using photo mode, but only because they allow unrestricted access to photo mode in scenes that have a lot of tricks, like the 2d flames on the giant in the cave. There's a part of that battle where you throw a spear, and turn around to run and I entered photo mode and everything behind Senua had been culled already. The giant, all the NPCs, and the fire were all gone. A few seconds later, and everything is back, carefully placed for the nest look back at the giant and the people fighting it. It's really smartly done and I don't think mort people would be able to see the tricks without photo mode at all.

Also, all of the close ups oh Senua's face are fantastic. Especially when rain is trickling down, collecting dirt and getting muddy. I honestly thought those sections might be prerendered when they showed them off in the trailers. But again, you can enter photo mode and look at the detail during these scenes. This game is real treat when it comes to graphics. I played it on the low preset and it's still one of the best looking games I've ever played.

 

[cheapchips]

. There's a part of that battle where you throw a spear, and turn around to run and I entered photo mode and everything behind Senua had been culled already. The giant, all the NPCs, and the fire were all gone. A few seconds later, and everything is back, carefully placed for the nest look back at the giant and the people fighting it. It's really smartly done and I don't think mort people would be able to see the tricks without photo mode at all.

That's a fun observation. I bet the game's packed with stuff like that. The transitions that happens infront of the camera are outrageous enough.

 

[Nesh]

According to some news HB2 is underperforming financially and I partly blame Gamepass for it for reasons I mentioned before. This game needs every penny possible to break even.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

"News" LOL. Nesh. Please.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

According to some news...

You need a link.

 

[see colon]

According to some news HB2 is underperforming financially and I partly blame Gamepass for it for reasons I mentioned before. This game needs every penny possible to break even.

What is the criteria to determine how well it is performing financially? Is it only accounting for Steam sales? Do they have access to Xbox numbers? Windows store? New Gamepass subscribers?

If we are conceding that Microsoft/Xbox are more interested in getting/retaining Gamepass numbers than they are selling games, and those numbers are not reported with any regularity, then how can we know what the financial impact is? Hellblade is, I think, more of a game that will get people to get a free/$1 2 week trial or whatever the offer is. It's up to the rest of the library to keep them. I don't think we are at the point where we would even know the financial impact of Hellblade 2 because if 10 million people sign up for a free trial and drop out of Gamepass afterwards, that wouldn't help at all. We couldn't possibly know what impact it has until those trials run out.

 

[Karamazov]

View attachment 11384

This is truly CGI quality.

You're going to summon VFX_Veteran !

 

[Riddlewire]

Hellblade is, I think, more of a game that will get people to get a free/$1 2 week trial or whatever the offer is.

Does that exist any more?
They used to offer that after you'd been unsubscribed for 3 months. But I haven't seen that deal in almost two years.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Does that exist any more?

14 days for $1/£1, and then it auto-renews

 

[Nesh]

You need a link.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II debuts with fewer players than Redfall and Hi-Fi RUSH on Steam | LevelUp

Ninja Theory's new project also failed to surpass the record of the franchise's first installment

www.levelup.com

 

[see colon]

Does that exist any more?
They used to offer that after you'd been unsubscribed for 3 months. But I haven't seen that deal in almost two years.

If I go to Xbox.com/gamepass in a private window, it has a button that says "Join now $1". It used to be for $1 for 3 months, then $1 for one month, and now I think it's 14 days Which is enough time to beat Hellblade 2.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What is the criteria to determine how well it is performing financially?

I presume that's explained in the linked news article...

 

[see colon]

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II debuts with fewer players than Redfall and Hi-Fi RUSH on Steam | LevelUp

Ninja Theory's new project also failed to surpass the record of the franchise's first installment

www.levelup.com

From the article

At this moment, it's unknown how many units Ninja Theory's new project has sold since its release earlier this week. The only indicator we have on hand is the data from the statistical site SteamDB, where we can extract very interesting information.

So Steam only numbers, with a qualifying statement that they don't have the whole picture.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II launched with a peak of 3982 concurrent users on the Valve platform. Although these are solid figures for a single-player experience and it's likely they will increase as we approach the weekend, they are below the record of 5653 simultaneous players achieved by Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice back in 2017.

Hellblade 1 wasn't launched into Gamepass day 1. In fact, it wasn't even on Xbox or Switch at that time, only PC and PS4. It also launched at a $29.99 IIRC, compared to the more expensive $49.99 of Hellblade 2. It would take 1.666 copies of HB1 to have the same financial return of one copy of HB2 sold on Steam. Based on those concurrent numbers, HB2 generated $199k from those concurrent players while HB1 only generated $169k. That's, what, and 18% higher return just from Steam, with unknown numbers coming from Windows store and Xbox

Of course, Steam data is just one piece of the puzzle, as we still need to account for the number of console players and users enjoying the title on PC through Game Pass. Thus, it's impossible to know if the commercial performance of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II aligns with Xbox and Ninja Theory's expectations.

So we don't know if it's a disappointment, because we don't know what the expectations are. So how could we know if it is underperforming?

Not from the article, but if we are extracting data from public facing sources, HB2 has an all time high of Twitch streams at 112k, HB1 never reached 84k, about a 35% increase.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The linked article is nonsense. Shame on you Nesh. You know better and I'm calling you out.

 

[Nesh]

The linked article is nonsense. Shame on you Nesh. You know better and I'm calling you out.

Eh, I hope you are joking

 

[XboxKING]

If I go to Xbox.com/gamepass in a private window, it has a button that says "Join now $1". It used to be for $1 for 3 months, then $1 for one month, and now I think it's 14 days Which is enough time to beat Hellblade 2.

14 hours is enough to beat it 3 times lol

 

[QPlayer]

People should stop evaluating Steam data for games that are in Day1 Gamepass. We have ~30 million GP subscribers. It is also possible that HB2 increased GP subscriptions by hundreds of thousands, creating new customers.

Only MS knows which games are performing and how successful they are, from the downloads and subscriptions associated with them.