Preface: I'm interested in this game. There's a lot I'm excited about, both in terms of tech and design, that we've already seen even from just the little bits shown. There's a lot of potential with the premise in terms of the story and writing. I understand the kind of time crunch developers are under for launch window titles, and I know expectations are hyper-sensitive at the advent of a new hardware generation. So bare in mind, this is just reaction to the state of affairs in the video here, and we're deep in nitpicking territory, but I'm noticing a lot of little stuff. A lot of this isn't about technology, just nuance to priorities and execution for this particular build of this particular game.
At 2:05, we see leaves beautifully cascading down...above the trees. The behavior/appearance of that grapple hook looks to be the same solution I've seen in early Quake 1/2 mods, which is effective for gameplay, but looks a little odd in a modern context. Steady pop-in on ground detail/geometry and shadows in the near distance is pretty noticeable outdoors. At 2:44 we see strange clouds of dust kicked up when the enemy AI is "activated." At 4:52 we see three characters on x-ray react to to a grenade by shouting "Hit the deck!" but none of them do anything more than shuffle slightly, certainly not diving away from the danger. All of the AI "announcements" seem as canned as a game like the original Half-life, where the speech gives the impression something is happening when it often isn't, and it's a little too clear for the player compared to how it should sound coming through the environment. Bullet momentum doesn't seem to transfer info animations as much as previous games (the dead soldier falling uphill, toward the player's fire at 6:10). The AI look simply dumbfounded starting at 6:37, and the two soldiers not being fired at are confused and still searching for the player despite being less than fifteen feet away from gunfire. All the friendlies at the crash site appear to have the same face, which is weird but understandable. The mangled rag-doll made me think one of the dead allies was a survivor until I looked closer. More odd behavior as the AI happily ignores the player and turns to face a wall to expose his back at 8:18.
At 2:05, we see leaves beautifully cascading down...above the trees. The behavior/appearance of that grapple hook looks to be the same solution I've seen in early Quake 1/2 mods, which is effective for gameplay, but looks a little odd in a modern context. Steady pop-in on ground detail/geometry and shadows in the near distance is pretty noticeable outdoors. At 2:44 we see strange clouds of dust kicked up when the enemy AI is "activated." At 4:52 we see three characters on x-ray react to to a grenade by shouting "Hit the deck!" but none of them do anything more than shuffle slightly, certainly not diving away from the danger. All of the AI "announcements" seem as canned as a game like the original Half-life, where the speech gives the impression something is happening when it often isn't, and it's a little too clear for the player compared to how it should sound coming through the environment. Bullet momentum doesn't seem to transfer info animations as much as previous games (the dead soldier falling uphill, toward the player's fire at 6:10). The AI look simply dumbfounded starting at 6:37, and the two soldiers not being fired at are confused and still searching for the player despite being less than fifteen feet away from gunfire. All the friendlies at the crash site appear to have the same face, which is weird but understandable. The mangled rag-doll made me think one of the dead allies was a survivor until I looked closer. More odd behavior as the AI happily ignores the player and turns to face a wall to expose his back at 8:18.
