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Naughty Dog and Ninja Theory?

Hellblade 2 isn't even close to what Naughty Dog can make. It was basically an on rails walking simulator. The combat was even worse and less player driven than the first one. They also removed boss battles from the game, which sucks. It should have had more than Senua's Sacrifice, not less.

Last of Us 2 on the other hand has some of the most dynamic gameplay I've ever seen outside of Far Cry 2 and GTA 4.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
ND games have amazing gameplay.
Anything ninja theory made after Enslaved... is barely a game
 
You can continue to post meaningless emojis and that irrelevant thread. You trolled and got called on it.

For example….. “Smoke and Mirrors” while you stan for a game that has some of the most basic and 1-dimensional gameplay. Yes, your shtick is comedy, I’m aware, but even that doesn’t cover this nonsense.
Well we know what kind of genre-defining game Hellblade series is, so there's little room for disappointment when a new one released.

TLOU2 was an over-bloated ego trip with average gameplay 🤷‍♂️
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
While Ninja Theory remains a Microsoft studio it is.
i see what you did there GIF
 

TxKnight7

Member
"Both studios have delivered some of the best-looking games"

You lost me here, Hellblade is barely a game

Pretty sure you consider Detroit and heavy rain "a games," where you just press X to continue the next cutscene. .. but Hellblade is barely a game?, yeah ok..
what about death stranding? is it barely a game and a walking sim too?.
 
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HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
Pretty sure you consider Detroit and heavy rain "a games," where you just press X to continue the next cutscene. .. but Hellblade is barely a game?, yeah ok..
what about death stranding? is it barely a game and a walking sim too?.
Compared to Naughty Dog’s games, yes, Hellblade is severely lacking. Hell, compared to Death Stranding, it’s lacking. Outside of a few battles, most of Hellblade II is point A-B. If that’s what it was going for, I see nothing wrong with that in a vacuum. Against other games in the genre, there is very little going on.

So, his statement of “barely a game” may be a little hyperbolic, but the sentiment I agree with. It does in fact compare more favorably to games like Detroit & Heavy Rain (which happen to be some of my favorite experiences, btw).
 

xrnzaaas

Member
For me it's sad how Ninja Theory turned completely towards graphics and forgot about the gameplay. It's definitely not healthy, especially if your game costs a lot of money and takes 5 years to make. Hellblade 2 didn't sell a lot of copies and probably didn't generate a lot of "engagement" (and new subs) from Game Pass considering how short and non-replayable it is.

You may not like what ND has done with TLoU 2 in terms of story, characters or pushing certain agendas, but the game still offers solid gameplay and that aspect can still be very enjoyable.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Games like the quarry are more of a game and impressive than the slop Ninia Therory shovels out.

Being impressed by anything they do means you have two brain cells left and they’re both fighting each other to be the last retard left fighting.

I may think Chuck man is a moron but he at least makes video games that are fun to play.
 
"What did DF"--

Stopped reading right there. Who cares what DF thinks? Seriously, just use your own judgement. Most of DF be on some funny shit anyway.

Anyhow...what NT have managed on a small budget is impressive, but what Hellblade 2 turned out to be, with MS's backing, doesn't give a lot of confidence in the studio's ability to compliment pretty graphics with actual gameplay. Hellblade 2 is such a regression compared to the first one; significantly higher budget yet a worst experience somehow. What amount was on them vs. interference from higher-ups at MS Gaming is up for questioning.

ND have shown they can both provide great visuals and solid game systems & events to pair up with those graphics. Visually their best are on par with what NT have put out, but at a much larger and more interactive scale. In the past I'd say that was partly due to larger budget but, again, HB2's budget was quite larger than the first game's. I'd say easily $50 million, maybe even $75 million. It's just as valid to ask "What could Naughty Dog do with just $75 million?" as asking "What can Ninja Theory do with just $30 million?". What could Ninja Theory do with that budget and targeting visuals of a late 1P PS3 AAA title? Would it measure up to something like Uncharted 2? Uncharted 3? TLOU?

Pre-Hellblade 2 I'd of said "possibly". Post-Hellblade 2? I have very strong doubts.

Ninja Theory’s tech capabilities (particularly how they handle motion capture) is certainly up there with the Dogs. Issue is everything else. Gameplay/environmental interaction is sorely lacking and Hellblade II exposed this tenfold.

They just need to refine those two things and go from there!

After Hellblade 2 I'd also say they need to work on their actual storytelling, which regressed heavily compared to the first game.

The fact that

It's inadvertently implied the giants are just figments of their psychosis vs. being real, yet somehow all of these remote villages spread super far-apart have the same myths regarding the giants

just really neuters a good chunk of the story. Also the role of the voices was heavily scaled back in the sequel; they have way less interesting things to say and less pertinence with regard to the story in the things they do say.
 
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Lokaum D+

Member
Pretty sure you consider Detroit and heavy rain "a games," where you just press X to continue the next cutscene. .. but Hellblade is barely a game?, yeah ok..
what about death stranding? is it barely a game and a walking sim too?.
i ll give you Quantic Dreams games are barely games, but to be fair everyone tha buys QD games know what they are getting.

Death Stranding has way better gameplay then Hellblade, this walking simulator rhetoric is a brain dead response from ppl that never actually played the game.
 
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bundylove

Gold Member
Oh for fuck sakes.

Detroid become human
The order
Until dawn
Plague tail series
I can go on forever.

Any of these shits on everything ninja theory ever put out.

Ninja theory sucks ass period.
I am amazed they are still kicking round
 

kingfish

Banned
I doubt ND’s next game will look much better than TLOU2 on the face of it, but I’m sure they’ll build on the incredible, visceral feel of the action. That’s what I’m most excited about, over the visuals.
I bet many people thought the same when they saw Uncharted 4, and yet...
 

TxKnight7

Member
Just download the game, same thing :messenger_blowing_kiss:


The fact that a $10m indie game is comparable to a $300m+ Sony first-party game at all is nothing short of incredible!
It would indeed be, if it were even remotely true.

Which obviously isn't.

Digital foundry: HB1
"Built on a relatively low budget
hellblade senua's sacrifice still manages to rank among the heavyweights in this generation best looking games
"

Vick: no it's not ".

HB1 - gameplay from both, no photomode
this is an indie game from 20 people only

ghHQsgF.jpeg

xUPGVIx.jpeg
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
Ninja theory make average games that look pretty. Always have. Naughty dog make great (sometimes genre defining) games that also look pretty.
 

Mattyp

Not the YouTuber
In my opinion, comparing the catalog and quality of ND vs Ninja Theory is like comparing Ferrari with Kia.
Yeah one built one of the best multiplayer party games ever for bags full of laughs that never get old, the other adapted pay to win tactics if you ever want a chance of having the best they offer.
 
Ninja theory are about as average as you can get. Actually they're below average. What a piece of shit hellblade 2 was.
 
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HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
Digital foundry: HB1
"Built on a relatively low budget
hellblade senua's sacrifice still manages to rank among the heavyweights in this generation best looking games
"
That was also said in April 2018, two years before Part II even released. This review put things in perspective and it's clear that the bar was raised with that game.

Also, those pics are an apples to balloons comparison from a lighting perspective, voiding them.
 
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TxKnight7

Member
That was also said in April 2018, two years before Part II even released. This review put things in perspective and it's clear that the bar was raised with that game.
Yes IK, they said similar thing in more than one article / videos and in different years , but the game was released first time in 2017 same year with Uncharted Lost legacy, i played the PC version.
 
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I don't know, man. Both U4 and TLOU2 were boring as fuck.

Might as well play some FUN GAMES with average graphics than those long ass cinematic bore fests.
 

Bridges

Member
What NT accomplished graphically with Hellblade 2 is extremely impressive, but the game literally put me to sleep. I couldn't finish it despite being a fan of the first game. I actually liked Bleeding Edge way more (even though nobody else did). And DmC played great, I bought it three times. They're certainly capable of making something fun, seems they're more interested in movies these days though. I hope Project Mara proves otherwise.
 

SHA

Member
I played the last of us first and uncharted by default belongs to late 00s, Hellblade on the other hand is something new, I could tell the age gap between these 2 is so big, given that I played the last of us I choose Hellblade over uncharted cause it's irrelevant in front of the last of us imo.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
Hellblade is comparable to The Order 1886 not Uncharted.
True. Because the order looks better than uncharted.

Come at me bro !

This thread about graphics and technical graphics . The OP is right to compare these studios together . Hellblade 2 is boring snore fest that I couldn’t even play more than 1 hour ( surprisingly I didn’t finish it in that hour ) . But from a technical standpoint of graphics ? No game comes close to it. ( again graphics wise ) . Same with the order .

Naughty dog hasn’t release a game since last of us 2 on ps4 unless you want to count the 5$ dolla job they called a remake or remaster which basically probably 2 guys playing with their feet while toggling the upscaler option.

Lets see their new game assuming it come in the next few since their studio is full of woke retards now they can’t produce a trailer since last of us 2 was released .
 
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midnightAI

Banned
True. Because the order looks better than uncharted.

Come at me bro !

This thread about graphics and technical graphics . The OP is right to compare these studios together . Hellblade 2 is boring snore fest that I couldn’t even play more than 1 hour ( surprisingly I didn’t finish it in that hour ) . But from a technical standpoint of graphics ? No game comes close to it. ( again graphics wise ) . Same with the order .

Naughty dog hasn’t release a game since last of us 2 on ps4 unless you want to count the 5$ dolla job they called a remake or remaster which basically probably 2 guys playing with their feet while toggling the upscaler option.

Lets see their new game assuming it come in the next few since their studio is full of woke retards now they can’t produce a trailer since last of us 2 was released .
But are NT 'technically' better though? I'd argue they aren't because it's actually UE5 doing all the heavy lifting, NT are just using that engine to output pretty graphics whereas ND have created their own engine so ND are 'technically' better by quite some way.

And even then, scope and scale matters, technically for the graphics output I'd argue ND's games are better, they run smoother and have much grander scale. I have seen individual scenes made by artists in UE5 which beat Hellblade 2 by quite some way, but they are just that, singular scenes which is much easier to do than large scenes.

So, my point is, it isn't that simple when just saying 'better graphics'
 

cybertailor

Neo Member
This is going to be interesting!
Both studios have delivered some of the best-looking games. I remember playing Heavenly Sword on the PS3, and it was very impressive. I was amazed by everything happening on the screen. was it like 1000 enemies on screen? Then I saw Uncharted 1 for the first time on a French TV channel, not understanding a word! But I was amazed, the game looked fantastic at that time, the water was really nice looking and beautiful! and the Animation during gameplay, I completed the game more than 5 times and got the platinum trophy, it was incredibly hard on "Crushing" difficulty! Then, I remember playing Enslaved Odyssey to the West and thinking to myself, Wow, these two studios might have delivered the best looking third-person games of their time.

Then came Uncharted 4, Hellblade 1, The Last of Us 2, and Hellblade 2. I completed them all, and then I asked myself: How can these developers be compared to each other in terms of technology/graphics? How can a small studio like Ninja Theory be compared to the large team at Naughty Dog?

Let’s take a look at 2016/2017, where Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy, and Hellblade were among the most impressive games on consoles.

What did DF say about Uncharted 4 in 2016?

ENIIMJd.jpeg

" the final game comes very close to matching the quality of the original E3 2014 teaser ".

Hellblade 1 did won some awards for best real-time graphics and more.
a low budget project of only $10 million and from 20 people!

oriY5LY.jpeg


DF:
"Built on a relatively low budget
hellblade senua's sacrifice still manages to rank among the heavyweights in this generation best looking games"

I3LJPAi.jpeg


Then came The Last of Us 2. Although it didn’t win the "Best Graphics" on DF's 2020 list against Cyberpunk and others, the game still looked incredible, the environment, everything, especially the Animations. I can say it was the best-looking game on consoles in 2020, while Cyberpunk was the best on PC.

It was confirmed by John from DF that there were graphical downgrades in TLOU2, but the game still looked amazing.

n8HWDeh.jpeg

02bKtyo.jpeg



Finally, there’s Hellblade 2! Yes, this is the best-looking game I’ve seen in this generation. Was its quality downgraded? Well..It turned out the first trailer was CGI or pre-rendered like the first TLOU2 teaser trailer. What was interesting was what John from DF said about the final game.

UdUyAEB.jpeg


Now, I’m really looking forward to seeing Naughty Dog’s next game and Ninja Theory's "Project Mara" or whatever their next game is

real-time rambling much
 

//DEVIL//

Member
But are NT 'technically' better though? I'd argue they aren't because it's actually UE5 doing all the heavy lifting, NT are just using that engine to output pretty graphics whereas ND have created their own engine so ND are 'technically' better by quite some way.

And even then, scope and scale matters, technically for the graphics output I'd argue ND's games are better, they run smoother and have much grander scale. I have seen individual scenes made by artists in UE5 which beat Hellblade 2 by quite some way, but they are just that, singular scenes which is much easier to do than large scenes.

So, my point is, it isn't that simple when just saying 'better graphics'
Plenty of unreal engine 5 games that are not even close to Hell blade 2.

I didn’t say they are technically better. We didn’t see a single thing naughty dog original release on ps5 .

Keep in mind that hell blade 2 is a ps5 level game . So even when naughty dog release its game, you can’t bring the ps5 pro upgraded graphics into this equation.

And you are right . Naughty dog games are much bigger and overall better game than hell blade 2 . But hell blade when it was announced in 2019 ( Dec of 2019 even so basically 2020) they had nothing but a CG trailer . Last of us 2 was released in 2020 I believe, we are going to 2025 and not a single image is released which makes me think it’s a 2026 game .

Development times matter, staff matters as I believe ninja theory is not even half the staff of naughty dog ( 120 vs close to 500 employees as of 2023, could be more now even )

The thread here is not about what is better game or what is better ambitious. It’s about you putting 2 pictures or small videos side by side, and decide which one looks better ( at least this is what OP is suggesting when he made the thread )

As of now, on consoles ? Nothing is close to hell blade 2 when it comes to graphics .


Just like nothing is close to PD with GT7 in terms of car details
 
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