Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

Maybe its because i watched the trailer on my OLED phone screen but that looked phenomenal. I can still see some last gen roots in some lighting conditions but overall i love it.

The cutscenes look way better than AC shadows. The volumetric lighting is stunning. Draw distance is great. Art style is simply beautiful. Character faces look to have gotten a major upgrade from the last trailer.

I will watch it on my 1080p monitor, but this looks really good.
Yep the face upgrade is night and day.
 
Some AC screenshots to compare against Ghost 2.

The lighting just looks right here. The materials look very detailed. The draw distance is massive and the use of fog is there to enhance the atmosphere, not just to mask the draw distance. Just went back to HFW which still looks stunning on the Pro, but man i straight up hate the fog in that game. This is so much better.

4wb0Fzk.jpeg
A0KdaDQ.jpeg
iuoYWRF.jpeg
 
nah, at least this is a new setting. Spiderman 2 was literally copy pasta of the same city. though spidey did have a really good rt solution which may or may not be lacking here.

like spiderman 2, they are using the ps5 extra horsepower to push the draw distance. its a clear upgrade. lighting is better too. night time lighting is atrocious in that horse charge sequence but it looks great in cutscenes so it may just be that particular shot.

id caution against going too negative on this game. lets not forget AC Shadows didnt look that great in trailers either. i was pretty much the only one cautiously optimistic about it and even i gave up on it during the preview events which had some really shoddy looking footage. wait till you see it running on your pro.

speaking of the pro, i finally traded in my base ps5 towards a pro. they are offering $360 for it, and i need to get ready for DS2, Ghosts and GTA6. I know you hate the thing but now you'll have some support because im not too fond of this thing either lol
I don't hate the Pro. It's honestly nicer than base PS5 in every way in particular it's quiet, looks better aesthetically, and the extra SSD space was wonderful. What I do hate is the absolute disgraceful support this thing is getting from developers and the way Sony in particular has failed to support their own $800 console.

I guess you could say crappy patches we've been getting are because of the 45% gpu improvement and lack of a better CPU though, so in that sense I don't "hate"it but I am disappointed with Sony and Cerny and AMD for not getting better hardware in there, however, I still think that with PSSR and a 3x RT boost that Sony and 3rd parties could still manage to deliver significant graphical boosts with it...if they actually tried.

I also hate Youtubers, Digital Foundry, and gamers (fanboys) for the way they cheer on each game that gets a Pro patch even if it's a total nothing burger of a patch. Every game on Pro gets praised when it comes out online. So many fakes in this industry that helped Sony get away with doing less than the bare minimum. There's been a lot of misinformation and lying by propagandist Youtubers promoting new releases to feed their view counts. On Gaf there's fanboys exaggerating or just repeating the lies they've heard while ignoring faults. Games like Dying Light 2 and Black Myth are considered "great" on Pro because of this when in reality they suck on Pro. Black Myth on Pro might have received PSSR but the end result? A gain of 10 fps over the ps5's Quality mode if you play it with similar image quality in the new Balanced Mode ...thats not good. Sometimes all these devs have to do is issue a statement saying we improved "this and that" and even though those changes did nothing for the game (dying Light 2), that was enough for people. People see what they want to see.

Now that you have one im curious if you even notice differences in some of these games. I know you think Demons Souls, gt7 and Ragnarok got good upgrades but they didn't. Ratchet, Spiderman, and Horizon were good, they even added RT features. AC Shadows, Lords of the Fallen, Callisto and KCD2 were definitely good ones. Space Marine 2 was decent.

I respect your opinions so if you think Ghost 2 looks good I'll give it another look with an open mind.
 
The thing about Ubisoft is that they're the embodiment of generic. I don't think anyone can really argue with that. They're mediocre at everything they do—story, combat, animation, art style, characters, narrative, you name it. Metacritic scores clearly reflect that.

Sony studios, on the other hand, are considered some of the best in the industry, especially when it comes to storytelling. Just compare any Ubisoft trailer—which rarely stands out in any meaningful way—to the recent Ghost trailer. That one grabs you by the soul and doesn't let go until it ends.
Ubisoft the only company pushing next gen tech on console right now so they're rightfully being praised for that. Yeah, the faces of characters are terrible in Shadows but the rtgi and level of environmental detail is better than anything Sony's putting out these days except for Death Stranding 2 and a few games from early in the consoles life. You're talking about great art style, cutscenes and story while we're talking about graphical fidelity. Shadows looks incredible when you're walking around and soaking in the environments. The lighting is responsible for that.

Imagine if Sony was doing RTGi on top of their already great art direction ...
 
Ubisoft the only company pushing next gen tech on console right now so they're rightfully being praised for that. Yeah, the faces of characters are terrible in Shadows but the rtgi and level of environmental detail is better than anything Sony's putting out these days except for Death Stranding 2 and a few games from early in the consoles life. You're talking about great art style, cutscenes and story while we're talking about graphical fidelity. Shadows looks incredible when you're walking around and soaking in the environments. The lighting is responsible for that.

Imagine if Sony was doing RTGi on top of their already great art direction ...
I already covered that. Sure, the shadows look decent when you're roaming around, but beyond that, there's nothing particularly impressive—aside from a few graphical gimmicks like RTGI. Saying the game is pushing graphical boundaries feels like an overstatement, especially since it looks mediocre from almost every angle. Cutscenes make up about 40% of the game, and unfortunately, they're quite painful to watch.
 
I already covered that. Sure, the shadows look decent when you're roaming around, but beyond that, there's nothing particularly impressive—aside from a few graphical gimmicks like RTGI. Saying the game is pushing graphical boundaries feels like an overstatement, especially since it looks mediocre from almost every angle. Cutscenes make up about 40% of the game, and unfortunately, they're quite painful to watch.
Delusional post. 40%. Just wow.
 
Delusional post. 40%. Just wow.
I was also surprised by how poorly the cutscenes were made, especially given how much time was devoted to them. If your game is packed with cutscenes that take up a significant portion of the playtime, at least put some effort into making them better.
 
And it's not just the cutscenes that are the issue—the lifeless facial expressions and awkwardly staged fight scenes don't help either. It honestly feels like a group of amateurs tried to put together a low-budget movie
 
Sony studios, on the other hand, are considered some of the best in the industry, especially when it comes to storytelling.
Can't believe people still make this argument after mediocre storytelling in Forbidden West and Spiderman 2. And what was before that? Bland samurai story in Ghost 1 or stupid revenge story of TLOU2? Y'all need to wake up if you think Sony games have good writing. Sony is not an industry leader in anything at the moment except console sales. The problt is industry as whole fell off a cliff when it comes to writing so people think writing in these games is good or something.
 
Last edited:
I already covered that. Sure, the shadows look decent when you're roaming around, but beyond that, there's nothing particularly impressive—aside from a few graphical gimmicks like RTGI. Saying the game is pushing graphical boundaries feels like an overstatement, especially since it looks mediocre from almost every angle. Cutscenes make up about 40% of the game, and unfortunately, they're quite painful to watch.
You appear from nowhere in the middle of a war and in less than 5 minutes you start a fight against everyone, telling them they are wrong and acting like you know better than anyone else, in the very edgy way favored by darkside shinobis and unpopular teenagers.

Very madara-ish of you, but unlike him, you don't have the jutsus to back up your wild claims so maybe chill out ?
 
Last edited:
Put some more hours into Oblivion... And yeah, I'm going to hold firm to my stance that the game looks pretty great for what it is.

Some more of my shots:

lab8D4V.jpeg
bVTWV2f.jpeg
XzVHwUf.jpeg
NQQXRDC.jpeg
9KOTqZL.jpeg
Yb7BUi8.jpeg
It's beginning to sway me as well, and I'm playing on Series X (not enough space for a 120GB game on my PC at the moment). Bethesda did an amazing job recreating this game in UE5, and that's ever more apparent when I looked at comparison videos of the original game to the remaster/remake. Is it perfect? No, nor do I think it's one of the best looking games of late.

However, I'm finding myself becoming more and more… Entranced by the visuals here. What really started it for me was when I got done meeting with the first monk, he sent me off to find the emperor's son, and there was aurora borealis streaking across the night sky. I dunno, that just made me stop and take it in for a few moments. As a faithful recreation of Oblivion in a new engine, I'd say this game nailed it.
 
AC Shadows is one of the best looking games I've ever seen when it comes to open world environments. If the cutscenes were on Horizons level, or even Yotei's it would probably take a top 3 spot for me.

I will never doubt Ubisoft heavy hitters again.

Bring on GHOST RECON with this fidelity.







redit to Alex11 Alex11 in the OT for these fantastic shots
 
I already covered that. Sure, the shadows look decent when you're roaming around, but beyond that, there's nothing particularly impressive—aside from a few graphical gimmicks like RTGI. Saying the game is pushing graphical boundaries feels like an overstatement, especially since it looks mediocre from almost every angle. Cutscenes make up about 40% of the game, and unfortunately, they're quite painful to watch.

Of course it doesn't look impressive if you play it on Steam Deck or in a potato 🥔 pc papi
 
Last edited:
They definitely went ham with the magenta tint.

Even before the green/blue saturation push needed; this is literally just isolating the warm pinkish hues and pulling them back:

ezgif-747edd8035b3f7.webp


I don't get the obsession devs (and filmmakers) have with blanket tints. Even moreso when it's heavily revisionist. Just robs the image of impact.
 
Last edited:
Some AC screenshots to compare against Ghost 2.

The lighting just looks right here. The materials look very detailed. The draw distance is massive and the use of fog is there to enhance the atmosphere, not just to mask the draw distance. Just went back to HFW which still looks stunning on the Pro, but man i straight up hate the fog in that game. This is so much better.

4wb0Fzk.jpeg
A0KdaDQ.jpeg
iuoYWRF.jpeg
Damn, these shots are beyond beautiful. Looking really great. Now i wanna play AC Shadows.
 
Here:


difference:

This is pretty much what I was looking for in the thread.

I know at some point there would be a reshade that nailed closed enough to visual tone of the original, with maybe just less overdone bloom. Looks good.
 
Expedition 33 is my dream game. Absolutely amazing storytelling, music, and acting. Along with a great new original combat system. I'm in love. So my opinion on the game's graphics might be a bit tainted.

The game isnt pushing those classic nanite models or lumen lighting, but instead relies heavily on art style. It's got this weird bloom/vaseline look to it that is clearly by design, and I can see visual purists being turned off by that. That said, the game still manages to pull some stunning visuals in both cutscenes and gameplay.

I also really like the character designs. Every character looks beautifully detailed. I wonder if they are using metahuman here. It's not as impressive as James in SH2, and the hair has this weird halo dithering effect im not a fan of, but in some shots the characters look absolutely next gen. There were a couple of kids that show up out of nowhere and wow, near photorealistic.

The rocks look great, the trees not so much, but again the game is going for a very different outer worldly look. It works very well in gameplay but it wont win many awards for best technical graphics. Incredible art design though.

Not my screenshot.

GpU93eNXkAAv98g
 
Last edited:
Here are the two kids i was talking about.

I really like how the game looks during combat. Super cinematic despite being turn based. I love the animation and camera work here. How this was made by 30 people is beyond me.

X6LJwrc.gif



WDFuTfO.gif
 
Heavily disagree.
People are only going to get pickier and pickier about graphics as the next generations come around. I think two gens from now when raytracing and nanite is a standard on everything, you will start to see things boil down to just pixel counting and art style.

I think Expedition 33 looks incredible and I think it would only exist in this form due to how far we've come with dev tools and fidelity.
 
I think Expedition 33 looks incredible and I think it would only exist in this form due to how far we've come with dev tools and fidelity.
The game has a force sharpening filter applied and doesn't appear to be render at full resolution at all,making the whole thing looks kinda noisey, and they made dlaa look worse than dlss quality mode somehow.So as you can see,the overall image quality still leaves a lot to be desired,being vocal about a product ain't going to hurt for any consumers you know😛
But yeah as for scenery design and art direction this is indeed very very remarkable,among the best in the industry imo.I mean serously,for making guys like me who wouldn't give a fuck about these types of jrpgs turn-based whatever stuff (and most importantly,the "nitpicking " graphics pimps)turn into "omg can't wait to try this one out", I'm quite sure it can't be the "japanese influence" itself doing any of the heavy lifting here xd
 
For anyone playing Expedition 33, install this mod because the popping when the game really starts is unbearable, you are welcome

 
Looks at the last 2 hours of me playing E33

I just… Don't see where the game looks terrible, honestly. The only two weak points are character hair, which looks better when settings are increased, and the less than stellar DoF/bokeh, which has the appearance of a smartphone lens where it has to fake it due to the sensor being far too small to have real bokeh.

Otherwise? Game looks incredible all around, and is a perfect example of masterful art style being COMBINED with incredible technical graphics.
 
Put some more hours into Oblivion... And yeah, I'm going to hold firm to my stance that the game looks pretty great for what it is.

Some more of my shots:

lab8D4V.jpeg
bVTWV2f.jpeg
XzVHwUf.jpeg
NQQXRDC.jpeg
9KOTqZL.jpeg
Yb7BUi8.jpeg
The game looks phenomenal for a budget UE5 Remake no one knew about until a few months ago and only then if you were on forums and followed leakers.

Is it a good game and if so does it actually hold up? I've never played it.
 
Expedition 33 has a big issue with shadows, they looks very flickery and low res and they happen to be mostly in character's faces pretty often

I dont understand how this is something that the team did not fix. Many cutscenes have proper shadows when the lighting is correct so I dont understand why didn't they change certain lighting conditions during some of the most egregious cutscenes to avoid this issue.
 
E33

Otherwise? Game looks incredible all around, and is a perfect example of masterful art style being COMBINED with incredible technical graphics.
That´s going a bit too far.
You got decent but not outstanding asset-, model-, texture- and animation quality but no nanite, no RT, small arena/corridor-ish levels with rather low object density, mediocre-bad post processing that`s best turned off immediately, some DLAA bugs, oldschool shadow flickering, pop in etc etc.
Music, art and writing elevate this, the tech is nothing more than "solid for the scope and purpose" which is still remarkable coming from such a small team.
 
Last edited:
Expedition 33 has a big issue with shadows, they looks very flickery and low res and they happen to be mostly in character's faces pretty often

I dont understand how this is something that the team did not fix. Many cutscenes have proper shadows when the lighting is correct so I dont understand why didn't they change certain lighting conditions during some of the most egregious cutscenes to avoid this issue.
its an indie game after all. Made by 30 devs. Selling for just $50. There are some rough spots to be expected. Game is still a looker despite those issues thanks to the art design.

DGCd76X.gif


The cutscenes overall look better than AC shadows and most other non-Sony AAA games.
dE2HQOv.gif
 
its an indie game after all. Made by 30 devs. Selling for just $50. There are some rough spots to be expected. Game is still a looker despite those issues thanks to the art design.

DGCd76X.gif


The cutscenes overall look better than AC shadows and most other non-Sony AAA games.
dE2HQOv.gif

Yeah thats true. The game is really good, at first I thought there were too many cutscenes and I wasn't getting into it much but after that I am completely hook now. I need balance when it comes to gameplay and cutscenes so I admit that I am a bit pedantic in this regard

But so far the game is great and at times it looks awesome. I just hope they can polish it a bit more with some patches
 
Last edited:
Look at those screenshots, it looks cheap for a UE5 game. I would borrow you my eyes if I could because yours are letting you down.
It definitely has that indie B game look to it. Especially the very first area which is where those pictures are from. But then you go down and you see like a 1000 NPCs with an insane amount of detail and it begins to feel AAA again. Then the cutscenes trigger and it literally feels like a movie. The prologue in this game is sublime, and nothing about it, including the visuals, is terrible.

The buildings dont too high res and there are some oddities with the way the game is presented, but its a gorgeous game.
 
It definitely has that indie B game look to it. Especially the very first area which is where those pictures are from. But then you go down and you see like a 1000 NPCs with an insane amount of detail and it begins to feel AAA again. Then the cutscenes trigger and it literally feels like a movie. The prologue in this game is sublime, and nothing about it, including the visuals, is terrible.

The buildings dont too high res and there are some oddities with the way the game is presented, but its a gorgeous game.
I think your opinion is heavily influenced by art direction, when ot comes to raw visuals this game is nowhere near great looking. Quality pf assets, materials, lighting, geometry, etc. is mid tier.
 
Last edited:
I think your opinion is heavily influenced by art direction, when ot comes to raw visuals this game is nowhere near great looking. Quality pf assets, materials, lighting, geometry, etc. is mid tier.
Funny when i quote your message it adds one more sentence ???

Still it doesn't change the fact you are wrong, and even an very picky customer would not, in good faith, say expedition 33 looks bad...
 
I think your opinion is heavily influenced by art direction, when ot comes to raw visuals this game is nowhere near great looking. Quality pf assets, materials, lighting, geometry, etc. is mid tier.
Asset quality is weak no doubt. If its using nanite, im not sure where. Im not seeing it.

And art direction can only take you so far. Lighting IS great. There is A LOT of detail in the world. The first level is full of these flowers that are being sold and planted everywhere. its got hundreds of NPCs in each area. All the shops have an insane amount of detail. Compare it to something like FF7 Rebirth or Hogwart legacy's hub worlds and it will become clear that its a clear step up in terms of detail packed in every scene.
 
Top Bottom