Hellblade 2 represents the single largest visual leap and most significant technical achievement in videogame history (56K/Mobile No)

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Haint

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The following images are all RAW unedited screencaps featuring me flying the camera around at 50-100fps. NONE are CG videos or Live Action Stills, everything is 100% real time.

The only modifications performed in some case are in-game focus readjusted from moving camera, and in-game exposure boosted to correct the HDR > SDR conversion crushing shadow detail. I did NOT adjust lighting, color, effects, etc..., everything is vanilla gameplay/cutscenes @ default photomode.

Captured on PC High at a mix of 4K DLSS Quality and 4K DLAA. Mods Chromatic Abberation and Letterbox Removed in config.ini, Film Grain and Lens Curvature DOF effect left intact.

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Spent all the dev time on visuals and not the actual gameplay. It was boring as hell to play, and that's coming from somebody that has 2 visual novels in his top 5 games of all time.
 
I had to compare it to Avatar 2, only its interactive. Definitely an insane accomplishment. Literally the only time ever in a game it got good enough to trick me into thinking its just film footage at times.
 
To me it's almost eerily equivalent to The Order back in 2015 (?).

Crap, short, "cinematic experience" of a game, where the developers where clearly almost completely focused on appearances to the exclusion of everything else. They even both have those ridiculous "cinematic" black bars (I just refuse to play ANY game with those on principle, btw).

In many ways both remarkably good looking compared to what went before and yet somehow neither impressed me much at all. I'm just not interested in graphics if the game isn't a fucking GAME first of all. The same with Flight Sim: it's not a GAME. I'm interested in game graphics, not glorified tech demos or niche simulators.

Like, it clearly looks good, but in a way even that isn't news: we've known since the Unreal 5 reveal that the consoles are clearly technically capable of producing photorealistic recreations of some kinds of environments. Ok, cool. Now put that into a proper game and I'll be impressed then. To me this is effectively just an expansion of that first demo in the Land of Lumen or whatever.
 
Dr. Wilkinson said:
Hard disagree.

Counterpoint: leap from the 16-bit generation to Super Mario 64.

No visual leap will ever be as great as that.
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SM64 came out in the second year of the PSX/Saturn generation. We had 3D games for two years by the time it was out. It was revolutionary for its gameplay, how it used analog controls, and the 3D camera that every platformer after it copied.
 
Correct 👍 And since they went with 30fps on console there was no holding back on PC either, I played it on a 4090 rig, looked like a movie, literally, no exaggeration. For me this was the first game where UE5 really delivered.
 
It looks incredible. It's also incredibly boring.

I had more fun playing Pong.

I don't get the hype for these games but hey, have fun!
 
It's a visual tech demo and little else. It fails as a game. Gameplay design took several steps back from the original.

Pretty easy to make a visual tour de force when the rest of the game is an afterthought.
 
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On PC, you may have an argument.


On console, it's the best looking game in existence but I don't know that I'd call it "the single largest visual leap and most significant technical achievement in videogame history". Resolution/IQ/framerate holds it back a bit on consoles.


People saying "it's a movie" or "it's just a tech demo" either haven't played it or are dumb as shit though. I've played many, MANY games with far less traditional gameplay than what's in Hellblade II.
 
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We used to have games like Crysis pushing graphics and physics and having good gameplay on top of that and what do we have now?

A shitty non game with cool faces wow so much progress
 
hououinkyouma00 said:
Spent all the dev time on visuals and not the actual gameplay. It was boring as hell to play, and that's coming from somebody that has 2 visual novels in his top 5 games of all time.
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VNs require reading, that alone makes them different (and in a lot of cases, more compelling) to Hellblade 2.
 
Yes... Hellblade 2 is our The Order moment of this gen... albeit that was at least a better game to play.

Thankfully, its a sign of things to come, soon we will have a lot of games that match that kinda fidelity and are at least fun to play.
 
ManaByte said:
SM64 came out in the second year of the PSX/Saturn generation. We had 3D games for two years by the time it was out. It was revolutionary for its gameplay, how it used analog controls, and the 3D camera that every platformer after it copied.
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It's not like you have me on a technicality or anything the visuals particularly of early PlayStation games were crude and horrible looking and Saturn barely did 3-D at all so really the leap was 16 bit to Nintendo 64. The 32 bit consoles PS & Saturn were really like halfway there go-betweens.
 
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analog_future said:
People saying "it's a movie" or "it's just a tech demo" either haven't played it or are dumb as shit though.
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No, we're just not easily gaslit into believing a game is good. I played it. It's a tech demo. The gameplay IS a complete and total afterthought. You push the stick forward and do nothing for most of the time and combat is nearly impossible to fail.

But feel free to keep believing I'm "dumb as shit" if it makes you feel better about your opinion.

adamsapple said:
Combination of both, I reckon.
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Oh look who also decided to drop in.
:rolleyes:

Genuinely don't understand how you're not perm'd from these boards since your shilling for Xbox is as bad as SenjutsuSage.
 
Looks kind of boring and empty. Aggressive post processing too.

I don't think we will see a major visual leap from developers using commercial mainstream engines. Innovation and advancement will come from in-house engines, like it always did in the past.
 
analog_future said:
People saying "it's a movie" or "it's just a tech demo" either haven't played it or are dumb as shit though. I've played many, MANY games with far less traditional gameplay than what's in Hellblade II.
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It's just a meme at this point. People did it/do it with every single Sony exclusive since the PS3 days despite it being objectively wrong.
 
Avatar: The Way of Water had way better graphics and that experience was dog ****.

I pray to God every night that the studios who pursue high end visuals close immediately, their employees become addicted to bath salts, and publishers around the globe wake up to the fact that anything prettier than Fortnite is a complete waste of time. Amen.
 
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No fucking way is this the biggest leap over whatever game (pick any of the several games leading the pack) that was out before it.

The leap is not at all that exponential to its peers. Glad to know you like it though.
 
It is seriously impressive, and I can't wait for more games with better gameplay to start looking like HB2.

I thought it'd be interesting to compare it to pre-rendered tech with a massive budget from twenty years ago, so here are shots from Beowulf 2007 for your viewing pleasure:

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It is ridiculously impressive and ridiculously unimpressive at the same time. Visuals yes. But the total linearity, unengaging story and non-existent gameplay makes the visuals less impressive than they would have been if there was actual great game to accompany them.
 
Synless said:
No fucking way is this the biggest leap over whatever game (pick any of the several games leading the pack) that was out before it.

The leap is not at all that exponential to its peers. Glad to know you like it though.
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It is though, easily even. Long after after it releases on PS5 it will still be the in the upper tier of graphics this gen.
 
MDSLKTR said:
It is though, easily even. Long after after it releases on PS5 it will still be the in the upper tier of graphics this gen.
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Dudes claim is the single biggest leap in graphics. No fucking way is it easily true let alone true at all. You are dead wrong friend.

The best looking ps1 game to mid-gen ps2 was a bigger leap. The looking ps2 game vs the best looking ps3 game was a a bigger leap. Ya'll need to go back and look at these games.

Is it the best looking game on the market given its controlled and linear design? Yes, it very well could be.
 
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