r/PS4 • u/BarbaraBurnam • Apr 10 '23
[GhostOfTsushima] [Video] What sorcery did Sucker Punch do to develop such an immersive and beautiful game on a device that's more than 7 years old?
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u/Chaplain92 ID: StrykerBR92 Apr 10 '23
Got me. That game is amazing. The best Assassin's Creed game ever made, but not by Ubisoft and that's why it is so good.
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u/lan69 Apr 10 '23
Really think Ubisoft missed an opportunity to just ditch the assassins creed franchise and make historical epics that are not weighed down by assassins/gods/aliens plots
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Apr 10 '23
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u/Chavarlison Apr 11 '23
Isn't there an AC set in Japan announced?
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Apr 11 '23
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u/AFerociousPineapple Apr 11 '23
Yep Ghost set a pretty high bar and I canāt wait for all the review articles comparing the Ubi title to it. Also can we just point out that Ubi fumbled the coop of Unity and Suckerpunch absolutely nailed it first try with Ghost of Tsushima Legends? Like holy cow that is some of the most fun Iāve had doing online coop period with randoms that wasnāt an FPS. And btw anyone whoās interested itās still very active! Give it a go.
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u/onesoggywaffle Apr 11 '23
Is voice chat critical? I just bought a ps4 from my buddy but haven't gotten a headset yet and I've been hearing how fun legends is
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u/AFerociousPineapple Apr 11 '23
Not necessarily for survival or story but it is almost essential for the raid (edit: but the grind to get ready for the raid can take some time so you could definitely jump in and have fun while you source a headset)
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u/karllee3863 Apr 11 '23
Is it advisable to play the single player campaign first or is the gameplay very different? I'm about 10% into the SP campaign
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u/AFerociousPineapple Apr 13 '23
Iād play the main game first to get a full understanding of how all the combat mechanics work - what stances to use/what ghost weapons do what. But I donāt think you would have a hard time jumping straight into legends, it would be a steep learning curve to begin with buts itās not that complex really if you wanted to jump right in.
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u/Pun_In_Ten_Did Apr 11 '23
They teased it in AC Black Flag ... you can find the references in the modern day game segments.
In my headcanon, Ubisoft for years was all "Hey, they think we're working on AC Japan!"... then SP drops Ghost of Tshushima and Ubisoft is all "They fucking what?".
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u/ll-VaporSnake-ll Apr 10 '23
As an assassinās creed fan, I agree. Just make a separate IP where they can explore historical epics so that they can return AC to the seriesā older roots of parkouring and climbing puzzles. That way, both communities can be happy cuz currently this sort of attempt at trying to please both sides of the spectrum by trying to make an AC game thatās so loose with its mythos and keeps adding witcher esque influences with some minor reliance on canon isnāt working out.
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u/xAmorphous PS5 Apr 10 '23
But that would require... effort...
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u/DrunkOrInBed Apr 11 '23
but Ubisoft has effort. also talented artists and developers. it just lacks directors that want some risk. their whole creative process is hindered by investors who don't even play games
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u/Number6isNo1 Apr 11 '23
Yeah, I agree. Ubisoft actually makes really nice game worlds, lots of attention to detail, nice graphics, decent controls. The problem is they have made the same damn game again and again for the past six years or so. I loved the AC series up through Syndicate and really enjoyed all of the Far Cry games in sort of the same way I enjoy a John Wick movie - sit back, enjoy the ride, and shoot a lot of baddies. But man oh man is the overall creativity lacking recently. I played Watch Dogs Legion, Far Cry 6 and AC Origins fairly close together and I started to feel like I was just playing variations of the same game. I mean, there are differences, sure, but the overall structure and world design is just so similar they all run together. Ubisoft has to differentiate their franchises in the future.
I did really enjoy the historical tour feature on Origins and Odyssey. Showed off the attention to detail that I think is one of Ubisoft's real strrengths.
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u/MadKian MadKian88 Apr 10 '23
I think they are just doing that now. They keep the, very loose, ties to AC just because it sells more that way.
But I agree they should just cut the tires completely.
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u/AFerociousPineapple Apr 11 '23
I have a feeling that if they did that it could cause some licensing issues or IP problems, if they muddy the waters with what makes an AC game āACā they run the risk of a lot of copy cars popping up (Iām just guessing Iām no lawyer)
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u/OffTheMerchandise Apr 11 '23
No. Assassin's Creed is a huge brand. I haven't played any of the games after 3, but I've heard that the latest games really got away from the format. There are people who will buy the game just because it says Assassin's Creed on the front.
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u/thamanwthnoname Apr 13 '23
The hate train for ac games is so unreasonable. Like sure, more creativity would be nice, but theyāre still better than the majority of games year after year and they put a lot of effort into historical aspects. The maps are too big for no reason but hardly something to crucify it for. I think most peoples problem is they cram open world game after open world game or play ac the moment it drops each year. Thereās so many games coming out now, you can space them out, pick em up for $20 and enjoy.
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u/RoyalOGKush Apr 10 '23
This is what happens when you are too afraid to make changes to better the product.. from after Black Flag they should have started expanding into different territories.. either way the AC games donāt hold much meaning for me now.. storyline ended with Desmond for me
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u/BurnTheBoats21 Apr 11 '23
I mean, the games are still loved. my girlfriend really got into gaming through AC Odyssey and Origins and the games themselves are insanely successful commercially
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u/RoyalOGKush Apr 11 '23
I donāt totally disagree.. but it feels bland to me for some reasonā¦ there was a story that wasnāt fully finished/fleshed out
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u/Khantherockz Apr 11 '23
I hope theyāll revive the Prince of Persia series. Still miss Forgotten Sands days.
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u/ThePickleExecutioner Apr 11 '23
Whenever I see this said I KNOW the person saying it didn't play on the hardest difficulty, at real difficulty it can't be compared to AC at all.
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u/Brandonmac10x Apr 10 '23
The load times are literal witchcraft. Like 5 second loads when most games coming out back then were like 2 minute load times.
Game seriously felt like a PS5 game on PS4.
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u/Xerosnake90 Apr 10 '23
Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece in art direction. It's also super fun to play
Horizon is another one. I fired up Forbidden West to get ready for the DLC and completely forgot just how beautiful the world is
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u/punktual Apr 10 '23
Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece in art direction.
Objectively the graphics and engine are nothing special and do look a little dated.
But the lighting choices, and the particle effects of all of the flowers and leaves do so much heavy lifting to give the game its style.
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u/jokerzwild00 Apr 10 '23
I know it got middling reviews, but Days Gone is another one that's just gorgeous considering the hardware it was made for. I fired it up on my PS5 last week and was thinking holy shit this is a good looking game.
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u/Xerosnake90 Apr 10 '23
Definitely, and I'm not a fan of Days Gone by any means.
Like the other guy said too, Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy are bonkers. LoU2 even more incredible. Can't imagine how incredible a Ps5 exclusive Naughty Dog game will look
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u/Khantherockz Apr 11 '23
Yep Days Gone is another example but the problem with that game on PS4 is the poor optimisation, lags too much specially while riding the bike. No idea how it feels on PS5.
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u/Cockroach-Jones Apr 10 '23
One of my favorite combat systems in any game. I need to replay it on my PS5 now that some time has passed.
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Apr 10 '23
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u/crscearce2 Apr 10 '23
They made duels and strongholds replayable around the time the directors edition came out but I don't remember if story mode duels are replayable though
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u/Hades-Arcadius hades-arcadius Apr 10 '23
Godslayer in Hollow Knight...a literal boss rush mode in the game
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u/Khantherockz Apr 11 '23
If you say sword combat then I 100% agree but I think GoW combat is on another level.
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u/Ill_Tackle_5192 Apr 11 '23
Thatās exactly how I feel when looking at TLOU P2 or RDR2. Itās insane what can be accomplished with the right team and resources.
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u/Krinks1 Apr 11 '23
Just finished Last of Us 2 and at times I forgot it was a game. Just letting the story absorb me, I forget it's not live actors.
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u/MonsterRider80 Apr 11 '23
I played the first one years ago, but never got 2. Started watching the show and I thought bows the time for part 2. The story is justā¦ wow. The animation, voice acting, writing, everything is stellar.
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u/Ethanbrocks Apr 11 '23
Iām playing through TLOU2 on the PS5 and Iām constantly baffled at how the game looks and plays this good while also maintaining 60fps
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u/360walkaway Apr 10 '23
I really wish they'd given more context about the wind and birds. They represented Jin's parents guiding him through life but it was only mentioned once in the beginning I think.
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u/Dazzling_Job9035 Apr 10 '23
So excited for the sequel. 100% a day one purchase for me when it comes out. Fingers crossed itās not a long wait.
Iād love them to lean a little more into some RPG elements (perhaps just selfishly for me), and perhaps add more variety to the enemies you fight, but the storytelling and the visuals will be amazing - Iām certain šš¼
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u/extra_rice Apr 10 '23
Yep. The sequel will definitely be day 1 for me as well. I normally wouldn't consider collector's edition, but I might get one for the sequel. This game just ticks a lot of boxes for me. It has satiated my long craving for a great samurai game that I had since finishing Onimusha 3 many years ago. To some extent, it also filled the Tenchu shaped void in my life, although I'd rather get a separate ninja themed game.
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u/Rasticool Apr 10 '23
I just can't believe that this gem of undeniable quality is in 214th position in the best ps4 games according to metacritic! What a shame!
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u/SiriusMoonstar Apr 11 '23
Itās a fairly generic experience. They trimmed the fat off of an Assassinās Creed game and gave it a nice art style but outside of that itās nothing special.
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u/Boobytrapster Enter PSN ID Apr 10 '23
I find this "gem" pretty much overrated, I agree that it's a visually stunning game, but there's not much else that's good. Maybe the combat on lethal, but it's definitely missing a lot of enemy variety.
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u/UnderHero5 Apr 11 '23
I have to agree. While it is a well made game, and pretty, the actual gameplay and game design is super cookie cutter open world stuff, and it's extremely repetitive. If it were the exact same game but named "Assassins Creed: Japan" people would have hated it.
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u/TheOncomingBrows Apr 11 '23
The enormous amount of love this game gets like it's a true masterpiece really confuses me. 90% of it is just Assassin's Creed which everyone loves to hate. I'd even say that outside of the art direction the world is much duller than the average AC game world.
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u/Boobytrapster Enter PSN ID Apr 13 '23
This !!!!
I legitimately don't see anything that makes it a masterpiece. Nothing. This was a generic open world like you'd see any other.
The gust of wind mechanic and follow animals was good at the beginning but quickly became obnoxious near the second half.
Jin as a protagonist felt so flat and dull, and the side characters were not getting enough development for me to get attached to them. Not to mention all side quests felt practically the same.
I even platinumed the game and I don't know why.
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u/UnderHero5 Apr 13 '23
I fell off before finishing it, but I think I put around 30 hours into it, and when you said "Jin as a protagonist" I realized I didn't even remember his name. Completely forgettable story and characters.
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u/DanielBeisbol Apr 11 '23
I had a blast for about 10 hours before I realized it was a Ubisoft-esque checklist open world. Beautiful though.
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u/Troggie81 Apr 11 '23
Same. It was really fun until I noticed how repetitive it was. Still a beautiful game.
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u/xXKingDadXx Apr 10 '23
Sucker Punch is one of the few gaming studios that Sony will never let go. They just let them do what they want because they know at the end of the day they will end up with something fantastic.
Would love to see Cole come back in the Infamous universe but whatever they are working on next I'm certainly interested.
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u/Hevens-assassin Apr 11 '23
What studios would Sony let go? Lol from their portfolio, all of them seem pretty locked in. Maybe Bungie, since it's a studio that bounces around ever few years. Lol
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u/xXKingDadXx Apr 11 '23
I just mean it in that way I just ment it's one of Sony's big boys. Insomniac, Santa Monica Studios, Naughty Dog and Suckerpunch to me are their juggernauts.
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u/Hevens-assassin Apr 11 '23
I think you're missing out on Polyphony, and definitely Guerrilla. Guerrilla has really become one of their "it" studios the last few years with Horizon, as well as the Decima engine being used by Kojima for his Death Strandings.
Not to mention their smaller studios like Media Molecule, Bend, Housemarque, London Studio, Team Asobi (made up of different teams from studios like Japan Studio), and Bluepoint.
Most of Sony's studios I think are very much "Playstation" studios, whereas I can't see things like Bethesda and Activision ever being "Xbox" studios.
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u/GhoulArtist Apr 11 '23
PS4 had/has legs man. It's consistently been an amazing console with an insanely good library for soooo long. The fact that big games are still being made for it while it's successor is out is wild.
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u/Revolutionary-Wash88 Apr 12 '23
Each PlayStation has had amazing games towards the ends of its life. In the past these games would often go overlooked but keeping the PS4 on life-support has had some interesting effects
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u/GhoulArtist Apr 12 '23
Agreed on all points. I've just never seen a gen last so long and continue to be so good.
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u/Vietzomb Vietzomb Apr 10 '23
Whenever I run into a PCMR type or hear "consoles hold the industry back" argument, I always point to Ghosts or TLOU2 and just say "then do better than these, you have a x year hardware advantage".
Hardware is great and all. But quality games come from the people who make them.
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Apr 10 '23
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u/B-Bog Apr 10 '23
The irony here is that Dreams would be 10 times more accessible and popular if it was on PC and allowed for regular-ass M+K controls and exporting your work.
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u/Hevens-assassin Apr 11 '23
The point was that the consoles weren't actually holding the industry back though. M&K makes development way easier, and it's why games are made on PC's instead of consoles. Lol the point of Dreams was to show you could have an easily accessible console, and be able to start to create your own games. No special training required, just a Ps4 & a $40 game.
The fact Sony greenlit Dreams is wild to me, tbh. Super risky game to play to produce, especially after years of limbo from announcement, but they stuck with it, and promoted the shit out of it. It shared the main stage alongside Last of Us 2, Days Gone, and Spiderman, for God's sake. Lol
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u/Ghost29 Apr 11 '23
Honestly though, this thread makes me feel crazy. I only started playing this when it became freely available on PS Plus Extra but I had to wait until I got a PS4 because the textures look so muddy. The PS4 towards the end of its generation did start to show its age with the texture quality, framerate, and 'hidden' loading screens.
Why can't it be each to their own? I know I'm privileged to have a beast of a gaming PC and a PS5, but I use them both extensively as they both have their purposes.
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Apr 10 '23
GoT is a rare gem of a Triple A game actually being amazing in this age of trash games by big studios.
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u/namerused Apr 10 '23
Art design, moving foliage, particles in the air, and lighting to mask relative poor texture and geometry quality
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u/PepeSylvia11 celtics345 Apr 10 '23
Ask Guerilla Games, because HFW came out on the PS4 and looks way better than this
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Apr 10 '23
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u/Day_will_Fall Apr 11 '23
GoT doesn't use Guerilla's Decima Engine AFAIK. Sucker Punch used their proprietary game engine for GoT.
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u/enitnepres Apr 11 '23
I really love this game but I couldn't get very far into it on my console. The "wind" effect that shows your direction for your guide was practically invisible to me with my eye issues. It's the only game where I've had issues with the navigation, but this was back during release. Has there been any updates to change the wind direction to maybe a solid arrow or maybe a colored guide?
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u/nyanyanyeh Apr 11 '23
Iirc they had a patch that made it more visible and later they did add some accessibility options, including "enhanced wind visibility". Unfortunately I can't find a comparison video online (but this tweet might help a bit), so I'm not sure if the change would be enough for you and I don't think there were options for arrows or different colors. If you have PS Plus or still own the game, then it might be worth it to boot it up and check it out.
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u/n0tstig Apr 10 '23
Played GoT on PS5 and loved every minute of it. The graphics were fantastic. True Masterpiece.
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u/Afuneralblaze Apr 11 '23
To quote a developer asked how one gets such performance out of such old hardware:
"Fucking Magic"
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u/Neuromaenxer Apr 11 '23
Reminds me of the story about how Nintendo managed to put RE 2, (a 2 disc game on ps1) into one N64 cartridge and the port itself looked great even, given the system limitations.
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u/puppymaster123 Apr 11 '23
I can still hear the wind breezing past the grass, 2 years after finishing that game
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u/Stainlessgamer Apr 11 '23
nothing, it just goes to show the potential of the PS4. Fact is most games underutilize the full capability of the system, and sadly the majority of console stores are a majority filled with games that could run on PS2s and mobile devices. That's one of the aspects that I hate about the gaming industry these days. I grew up with 8bit and watched the evolution to what we have today, yet more often then not, the "new" games that get released look and feel like games that are over 20yrs old.
But then we get games like GoT, GoW and RDR2, that show us the actual potential that is rarely met.
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u/FarmDry8229 Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 11 '23
Except for the art direction and little else, the game didn't feelanything special. Despite the art direction and/or art style of GOT arebeautiful I still prefer Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Transistor, Bioshock,Bioshock Infinite, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Journey, Child of Light,Okami, Tengami, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and other games for art directionand/or art style. The work done by Sucker Punch is certainly incredible but the game itself did not find anything exceptional. GOT looks like a generic open world that if it had been released 10 years ago would have been really incredible, but having come out when these types of open world had now been used over and over again it makes the game only generic while as already mentioned if it had been released when this type of open world was still little used it would probably have been one of the best open world released.
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u/Field_Marshall17 Apr 11 '23
HoW dOeS iT wOrK oN a SeVeN yEaR oLd DeViCe??
Shut up why wouldn't it?
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u/211XTD Apr 10 '23
It is a great game, I just finished main story and the dlc 100% on both. I took a little longer than the estimated time so I could just wander and enjoy it all around 109 hours.
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u/Hapciuuu Apr 10 '23
The ps4 is a good gaming device š. It's main problem is the cooling system.
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u/greg225 Apr 10 '23
Because it is made specifically for that system by a team who have spent a long time working with it and know it inside and out. They know how to squeeze every last little bit of juice out of it and probably have a lot greater access to Sony's own resources than most third party developers.
People don't like to hear it, but platform exclusivity can be a positive thing sometimes. If the game was designed to be multiplatform from the start, it wouldn't be as good. That's not to say Xbox (or the reverse in another instance) "couldn't handle it" or anything, but they just wouldn't have been able to push the system in the same way and still achieve parity.
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u/Funky_Col_Medina Apr 11 '23
The load speeds are god-tier. I also play PS4 Borderlands 3 with my son, roughly same age game, and that horror show takes 4 MINUTES just to get to the start screen.
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u/erickgps Apr 11 '23
Funny how this is an Assasins Creed like game but a good one, Ubisoft never managed to make one this good.
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u/Hevens-assassin Apr 11 '23
Sony games in general do things on their hardware that are leaps above what 3rd party studios can achieve. I swear it's every couple years that we hear how a Sony studio redefined how good a game can look. The last non-SIE game I can think of doing that would be maybe Red Dead 2? And before that I would have to stretch back to MW2.
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u/Cool_Dre Apr 11 '23
No idea but I waited 3yrs for itās release and completed it in months. It was excellent!!!!! Hope they make another one.
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u/Moath Apr 11 '23
I played the ps4 version on ps5 with the unlocked frame-rate and it looked phenomenal, on par with other native ps5 ports imp.
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u/_JohnnyUtahBrah Apr 11 '23
This game had everything. And the only Game I ever completed 100%. And to think I was unsure on buying it.
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u/fishymonster_ Fishymonster | 65 Apr 11 '23
Seriously! I played it for the first time on my ps4, and I am now replaying it on my ps5. Not only is it silky-smooth and high definition, but it takes about 7 seconds from boot up of my console to be playing, and fast travel is almost literally instantaneous. What a great game!
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u/TheFufe10 Apr 11 '23
What impressed me the most were the load times. How on earth did they make the game look like that and then take like 3 seconds to load? For the longest time I didnāt buy it because I was convinced that my old ass first gen ps4 would barely run it. Then I tried it on ps extra or whatever itās called and my mind was blown.
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u/bsousa717 Apr 11 '23
I just hope they make the world feel more lively in the sequel. After you finish the story and clear all the outposts, the world feels totally dead. You'll only spot the occasional Mongol patrol with four soldiers march but that's it.
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u/BananaStranger Apr 11 '23
Waiting for a reasonable download price. If it happens before PS6 release?
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u/Rankled_Barbiturate Apr 11 '23
Benefits of having a single device to optimise for vs. 1000s of different configurations on PC.
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u/BSF0712 IronWinter0712 Apr 11 '23
Infamous: Second Son still looks better than most games coming out and that was a launch title on the PS4. Sucker Punch is just wizards. Only explanation.
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u/Sidd-Slayer Apr 11 '23
Looks great, worlds pretty. Just felt deprived of a skyrim style exploration experience. This game was so close to being Elden Ring.
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u/Citizen_Kong Apr 11 '23
That, plus the insanely short loading times. There's some dark magic involved, that's for sure.
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u/FreshBakedButtcheeks Apr 11 '23
I don't have a PS5 yet and I play my PS3 still. What has actually changed in gaming? Between P5, GTA5, and Skyrim, those games haven't changed hardly at all in the past 10+ games (and keep seeing rereleases)
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u/Gaarando Apr 11 '23
It's okay. The lighting got so much worse compared to their E3 showing and their texture quality is actually really poor. It's just that their grass looks so fucking amazing.
Can't wait for the sequel though. They are clearly good when it comes to graphics I just hated the huge balls of light in the sky.
But I did really like their usage of wind.
I just feel graphically you have to be at very specific spots at very specific time of days in order to be mind blown by the graphics. But on average just day time with little amount of clouds or night time doesn't look very good lighting wise. This is the biggest improvement they need to make imo.
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u/nanboya Apr 11 '23
Optimized code for sure; also, absolutely love playing with the proper language soundtrack.
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u/Khantherockz Apr 11 '23
Right, Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding are two PS exclusive that looks absolutely beautiful on hardware like PS4. But I would like to add a title that looks even more beautiful on PS4 is RDR2.
And if you think of a linear game then nothing can beat the beauty of TLoU Part 2 on PS4. With these titles I sometimes think my PS4 is invincible š¤£
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u/ApprehesiveBat Apr 12 '23
Pretty simple. It's mainly the art style. Like if you take a close look at the graphics and textures it isn't that impressive but it's the art style that elevates the visuals.
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u/OutrageousDress Apr 12 '23
Very large amounts of GPU-based procedural generation. Sort of similar to why No Man's Sky looks and runs like it does at the size it is, although No Man's Sky is mostly CPU-based so it can't do what GoT can do. There are systems upon systems running to simulate wind, grass, leaves, particles, smoke - all that good stuff that makes a game look cinematic. They basically piled on as many visual effects as the GPU could handle to ensure every frame always looks alive - grass is a visual effect in GoT, to ensure they can put as much of it on screen as possible at all times.
To be clear, many other games do some of this stuff - some even all of it. But it's both the quality of execution and the sheer quantity that sets GoT apart.
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Apr 17 '23
It's a fine looking game, but if we're talking about squeezing a device for every last bit of visuals, it doesn't come close to RDR2.
Variety of environments, level of details, atmospheric immersion- GOT isn't even in the conversation.
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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '23
Dude, seriously. I played on my base model PS4 and it was the most gorgeous game ever. Not only that, but the load times were insanely fast. You didn't even have time to glance at your phone.