Sony God of War to receive PS5 "enhanced performance" graphics mode tomorrow

[SaysWho?]

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Its reception confirms my bias that showing strong men who have genuine emotional bonds with other characters is all a game needs to get a glowing reception for its characters which says an awful lot about our standards for games, media, and men...  

 

Yeah, that was it. It's not that your criticism might be wrong; it's that everyone else has lower standards and easily falls for strong men getting emotional.

 

[Kal-El814]

Just now, SaysWho? said:

 

Yeah, that was it. It's not that your criticism might be wrong; it's that everyone else has lower standards and easily falls for strong men getting emotional.

 

 

That’s not what I said at all, but protect that brand my guy!

[SaysWho?]

Just now, Kal-El814 said:

 

That’s not what I said at all, but protect that brand my guy!

 

It's exactly what you said. 

 

"confirms my bias that showing strong men who have genuine emotional bonds with other characters is all a game needs to get a glowing reception for its characters"

 

Nobody thought through their praise of the story and charters. They just need that and they'll robotically fawn over it, while you have the advanced criticism.

[Kal-El814]

Just now, SaysWho? said:

 

It's exactly what you said. 

 

"confirms my bias that showing strong men who have genuine emotional bonds with other characters is all a game needs to get a glowing reception for its characters"

 

Nobody thought through their praise of the story and charters. They just need that and they'll robotically fawn over it, while you have the advanced criticism.

 

I straight up said it was confirmation bias for me, and I had the emoji and everything indicating I wasn’t being all that serious.

[Kal-El814]

1 minute ago, SaysWho? said:

Nobody thought through their praise of the story and charters. They just need that and they'll robotically fawn over it, while you have the advanced criticism.

 

I would never suggest that my criticism is “advanced” lol.

[SaysWho?]

Just now, Kal-El814 said:

 

I straight up said it was confirmation bias for me, and I had the emoji and everything indicating I wasn’t being all that serious.

 

Suuurrreeeeee. 

[Kal-El814]

4 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

 

Suuurrreeeeee. 

 

Also I think I’m probably more inclined than most to think that kids these days are fine, which I hope your board supermemory will verify, so even if I WAS doing anything other than telling on myself, the odds that I’d conclude that the kids are the ones out of touch on anything are... not gweat.

[SaysWho?]

5 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Also I think I’m probably more inclined than most to think that kids these days are fine, which I’m hope your board supermemory will verify, so even if I WAS doing anything other than telling on myself, the odds that I’d conclude that the kids are the ones out of touch on anything are... not gweat.

 

I can confirm this happened November 2017.

[Dodger]

21 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

You definitely don’t need those moves on the hardest difficulty, either. It’s been a while since I played, but I remember my issue being that a lot of the moves seemed to increase your positioning ability, either by kicking you back, or pushing enemies back... and I just never felt like any enemy required that level of management.

 

It’s still a very good game, I just don’t think it’s a masterpiece or anything. Its reception confirms my bias that showing strong men who have genuine emotional bonds with other characters is all a game needs to get a glowing reception for its characters which says an awful lot about our standards for games, media, and men...  And if you put that in an well produced game people you can just rake in the awards.

 

 

It's a very well produced game and the basics of it are all good. Basic combat and controls are good. It manages to be fun most of the time. But it's definitely not perfect, and while I hate to go there, I think the industry now has a massive pro Sony bias that will lather up a PS studios game as long as it's pretty and the acting is decent. Everybody hated Kratos before this game as being a one dimensional unlikeable psychopath, and we forget about all of that because now he has a beard. 

 

He treats his son like absolute garbage 90% of the time and treats taking his son to scatter his wife's ashes like going to get a root canal. Then Atreus becomes a massive jerk and then suddenly stops because he saw a vision of himself being a jerk when the party goes back to Hel. 

 

I'm enjoying my time with it and it looks and performs great on the PS5, but much like TLOU2 it isn't one of the greatest games of all time. Just a great game that looks good and is fun most of the time. 

[BloodyHell]

6 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yeah, this shit is real. Again it’s always well acted, but by the end of the game... I fucking get it, Kratos sucks at storytelling.

 

God of War 2 is probably still the best in the series. It’s less ambitious than some of the stuff that came after it but I think it’s the best at understanding what it wanted to be and really focusing on delivering that specifically.

 

God of War 2018 is almost always very good, it’s just a bit too ambitious and a bit unfocused. 

God of War 2 is a hack and slash full of absurdity and nonsense though. GoW 2018 is a masterpiece in most people's eyes. Don't love it, thats fine. But GoW2 better? Thats Episode 9 was good levels of bad opinion.

[Paperclyp]

3 hours ago, Dodger said:

 

 

It's a very well produced game and the basics of it are all good. Basic combat and controls are good. It manages to be fun most of the time. But it's definitely not perfect, and while I hate to go there, I think the industry now has a massive pro Sony bias that will lather up a PS studios game as long as it's pretty and the acting is decent. Everybody hated Kratos before this game as being a one dimensional unlikeable psychopath, and we forget about all of that because now he has a beard. 

 

He treats his son like absolute garbage 90% of the time and treats taking his son to scatter his wife's ashes like going to get a root canal. Then Atreus becomes a massive jerk and then suddenly stops because he saw a vision of himself being a jerk when the party goes back to Hel. 

 

I'm enjoying my time with it and it looks and performs great on the PS5, but much like TLOU2 it isn't one of the greatest games of all time. Just a great game that looks good and is fun most of the time. 

I don’t know if it’s Sony specific. Sony just happens to have most of the tech savvy AAA studios right now, and it just seems like those games get crazy coverage. 
 

Like if you stripped God of War of its top of the line production values and were left with the bones of its battle system and the rest, I just think people view this game very differently. And I know that that production value is significant and meaningful for the experience, but 20 hours in I start to care less and less about that and more about, hey, is what I’m actually doing all that fun + is the story being presented to me propelling me forward? And the question to both of those questions for me was yes! But not like good lord this is one of the best things I’ve ever played level - not even close. 

[Kal-El814]

16 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

God of War 2 is a hack and slash full of absurdity and nonsense though. GoW 2018 is a masterpiece in most people's eyes. Don't love it, thats fine. But GoW2 better? Thats Episode 9 was good levels of bad opinion.

 

GOW 2018 is absolutely more ambitious than the games that preceded it in the series. But GOW2 succeeds at everything it attempts to do more so than GOW 2018 does. And yeah, it’s fucking dumb, sure. Kratos fucks women until they cum health orbs, he’s a complete moron 100% of the time, etc. But the action is better in GOW2, the pacing is MUCH better in GOW2. Does the story have aspirations as lofty as 2018? No, but again, I’d say argue that GOW2 better realizes its raison d’etre better than 2018 does.

 

Kratos has another wife fridged, her motivations area largely unknown, the primary motivation of the antagonists is unclear, etc.

 

GOW 2018 is a REALLY GOOD game, I just don’t think it succeeds at what it attempted to do as well as GOW2 did. I suppose it gets a couple more points for being more ambitious, but I’d rather have a tighter, better executed game than one that aims higher and doesn’t hit the mark quite as true.

[Phaseknox]

I personally feel that God of War (2018) starts off really strong with a tightly focused narrative, directed linear levels and great pacing with a few fun puzzles to figure out just enough to break up the combat. After playing so many bloated games with optional filler content I liked that it was a little more directed and focused, but several hours in it becomes bloated with optional filler content as well and basically starts to feel like a Ubisoft game.

 

It goes overboard with collectables, items, lore, puzzles, realms, unlockables, upgrades, etc. Most of it feels like filler to me, and the game would have been better just sticking to what it originally started out as IMO. One of the things that I like so much about The Last of Us is its organic feel. The environments, puzzles, situations, etc. are realistic instead of like they were made to be video game levels. There's not a ton of collectibles floating/glowing in the areas, or optional side stuff that doesn't really fit in the world reminding you that you're playing a video game every step of the way. You feel like you're playing out a real situation with real people in a real world. And that's how God of War (2018) starts out, but when it opens up the world turns into a somewhat artificial feeling video game one with optional side things to do everywhere. It basically becomes another "modern" action adventure game that sort of wants to be an RPG too but ultimately feels like a mismatch of the two. This is God of War, I just want to traverse somewhat linear environments slaughtering waves of enemies and solve the occasional environment based puzzle. I don't want an open map to explore with tons of little objective icons scattered all over it taking me away from the set pieces, scripted events and brutal combat. Most of the side stuff seems like filler to me, and feels somewhat out of place IMO. I don't think that it needs half of the optional collectables, enhancement items, lore and side content that it has. And there's way too much time spent tinkering with stuff in the menus and at shops IMO. I think that I spent more time in menus in this game than I have in RPGs.

 

The story, characters and combat are its strongest aspects. Mixing in open world and RPG elements felt like an afterthought to me. It's like they included that stuff just because they felt like it's what every game needs these days. It's not, The Last of Us proved that. Sometimes a game works better as a directed linear experience that doesn't stray from the story and characters. I feel that the game would have worked better if it stuck to the basics instead of trying to be something that it's really not. And like I stated before, they went overboard with collectibles, items and upgrades. Half of the stuff in the game is throwaway, and just makes you spend way too much time in menus for slight variations to everything. RPGs aren't even as bloated as this game is with useless enhancements, items and upgrades.

 

But despite my complaints, I still really enjoyed the game. The good definitely outweighs the bad, and it stands out as a memorable experience. I plan on playing it again since I enjoyed it so much the first time, and I’m really looking forward to the next game.

[Spork3245]

Strong Markot vibes itt.

[Kal-El814]

4 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

Strong Markot vibes itt.

 

BRB drinking bleach

[legend]

16 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

You definitely don’t need those moves on the hardest difficulty, either. It’s been a while since I played, but I remember my issue being that a lot of the moves seemed to increase your positioning ability, either by kicking you back, or pushing enemies back... and I just never felt like any enemy required that level of management.

 

It’s still a very good game, I just don’t think it’s a masterpiece or anything. Its reception confirms my bias that showing strong men who have genuine emotional bonds with other characters is all a game needs to get a glowing reception for its characters which says an awful lot about our standards for games, media, and men...  And if you put that in an well produced game people you can just rake in the awards.

 

I would speculate that well performed and presented characters is generally all you need to evoke strong sympathy regardless of their archetype or eschewing of one.

[Kal-El814]

3 minutes ago, legend said:

I would speculate that well performed and presented characters is generally all you need to evoke strong sympathy regardless of their archetype or eschewing of one.

 

Kidding aside for a moment, I would say that is probably true in general, with some notable exceptions on account of misogyny, racism, etc.

[best3444]

Any impressions from the update?

[Bloodporne]

13 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

God of War 2 is a hack and slash full of absurdity and nonsense though. GoW 2018 is a masterpiece in most people's eyes. Don't love it, thats fine. But GoW2 better? Thats Episode 9 was good levels of bad opinion.

Like I said, I actually really like GoW 2018 but its stilted air of maturity is actually more absurd and silly to me especially in context of its gameplay. At least the old games fully knew what they were and went with it. GoW 2018 thinks cheesy daytime soap cliches equal emotional depth and I admit it actually made me laugh regularly. It's not that I'm against attempts at advancing seriousness, maturity or quality in videogame writing but I thought everything about the father/son/dead wife cliches beat me over the head with 'WE ARE MATURE AND STRONG MEN ALSO CRY, LEBOWSKI'. Ironically I actually think the segments in either the first or second game that show Kratos' family and how much their loss has turned him into a deranged psycho were more poignant (well as far as this series goes in general) especially because it wasn't as forced. 

 

I think GoW2018 is at its absolute best when it just shuts up for once and lets you explore, fight and discover cool lore. It's a big reason why I actually liked the side content like the treasure hunt, or whatever they're called, islands and so on the most. And again, I'm not trying to shit on the game at all, I think the Mature GoW thing was a noble effort and obviously a lot of people absolutely love it but the story, Nu Kratos and the kid didn't work for me. I remember beating the game and even as someone who doesn't necessarily care about videogame stories thinking oh...that's it?  

 

Edit: I'll also add that absurdity and nonsense are a lovely aspect about videogames to me so there's that.

[Dodger]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

Any impressions from the update?

 

It looks and runs great, though I don't notice a huge difference from the PS5 experience before. But if you only played it on the PS4, it looks great in 4k and now you get a smooth 60 fps. I haven't noticed any performance problems. 

[stepee]

I’ve waited so long for Kal to deliver a really bad take, I thought I would be happier when it happened.

[Kal-El814]

Just now, stepee said:

I’ve waited so long for Kal to deliver a really bad take, I thought I would be happier when it happened.

 

Bro I thought you read my posts.

[best3444]

49 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

It looks and runs great, though I don't notice a huge difference from the PS5 experience before. But if you only played it on the PS4, it looks great in 4k and now you get a smooth 60 fps. I haven't noticed any performance problems. 

 

Awesome. Thanks.

[SaysWho?]

3 hours ago, stepee said:

I’ve waited so long for Kal to deliver a really bad take, I thought I would be happier when it happened.

I feel like so many of his takes are that these discussions just routinely go into ribbing each other. :P 

 

4 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

Like I said, I actually really like GoW 2018 but its stilted air of maturity is actually more absurd and silly to me especially in context of its gameplay. 

2018 is simultaneously a more mature story but a funnier game than the previous ones. I don’t remember a lot of funny parts of the original games, but the dialogue between he and his son, the dwarves chemistry with Kratos, and the head and his tales were fantastic. 

[Joe]

So forgive my stupid question, but how does this work once I get my PS5? As in, I just download the digital PS4 copy and the game automatically patches itself for PS5?

[stepee]

5 minutes ago, Joe said:

So forgive my stupid question, but how does this work once I get my PS5? As in, I just download the digital PS4 copy and the game automatically patches itself for PS5?

 

You just download the digital copy and it will be the version patched to support this, ya.

[Joe]

7 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

You just download the digital copy and it will be the version patched to support this, ya.

 

I also just found out that PS Plus now includes a library of PS4 games. So out of the loop lol, but shit is about to get real.

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, Joe said:

 

I also just found out that PS Plus now includes a library of PS4 games. So out of the loop lol, but shit is about to get real.

 

You have a regular ps4 or a pro before?

[Joe]

2 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

You have a regular ps4 or a pro before?

 

Regular, but we sold it a couple months ago.

 

Edit: I also did not beat a single game I had on it for some reason lol. I really need to play TLOU.

[stepee]

1 minute ago, Joe said:

 

Regular, but we sold it a couple months ago.

 

Niiice. I’m jealous of people who are going from regular to the 5, you get an awesome full gen upgrade then. Gonna be a kick ass upgrade yo.

[SaysWho?]

26 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Niiice. I’m jealous of people who are going from regular to the 5, you get an awesome full gen upgrade then. Gonna be a kick ass upgrade yo.

 

I was tempted several times to get a PS4 Pro but held out, figuring at least my PS4 could play just about everything fine and that there was nothing I had played that performed so poorly that it detracted from the experience. I'm actually amazed at how it worked out because Control is a game I heard performed mediocre on last gen platforms, and now here's Control on PS+! 

 

I don't think I would have regretted getting a Pro, but I definitely don't feel like I was shafted, either. 

 

Good for @Joe

[Joe]

I just realized if I activate my PS Plus on Thursday, we should be able to snag the Feb games right before the month ends. Sweet deal!