What seemed odd to me is that while I think it looks great in detail and lighting, the animations looks current gen an the stats DF calls out seem like stark negatives to me, yet they are quite impressed with it. Makes me think their bias sourced to loving the game itself is coloring their framing here. The ‘under 1 sec’ load times with the fog thing seems like something to scoff at, not applaud. We were told there would be none of that kinda thing! Weren’t we told there would be no fake obscuring of scenes to load assets in? Why is that fog even there??
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So uh, I’m not really brushed up on framerates and resolution and performance and whatnot. Is this in line with what people were expecting/hoping for?
Edit: I don’t have time to watch the video right now so I’m not expecting anybody to do my homework, just looking for an answer: game look good? Run good? Looks good to me, but I also thought Halo Infinite looked good so I’m curious to know how it stacks up to expectations. I didn’t like Demon’s Souls so it doesn’t make a difference to me materially, just wondering if I’m missing something or if the negativity is mostly sour grapes.
I wouldn’t put too much faith in their marketing speak. I know how RT performance is measured but when those CUs are busy on RT, the rasterization performance will suffer. The scaling of TFs works best when the high end are targeting 4K, but that won’t always be the case. So it’s possible we can see a Series S game running with RT at 720p or opting to exclude RT for a higher resolution.
I’m not so sure about that. This looks leagues ahead of any other Soul type game on current gen hardware. Just look at Sekiro or Dark Souls 3 and compare it to this. It’s a night and day difference in materials, shaders, lighting, textures, etc.
It’s not marketing. It’s how the assets scale IRL. When ya scale down mip maps by trimming mip0, ya save a HUGE amount on memory for those textures. They need less SSD space and less bandwidth for I/O. They also need less space on RAM and less flops to process/render. When the frame res is 1080p, those lost texture details aren’t visible anyhow. Hence, ya scale back CU count to accommodate the output res being 1080p (or lower if ya need to for a sub-4k XSX/PS5 game). There are actually MORE flops per pixel here for XSS than there is for either PS5 or XSX. The RAM/SSD sizes and RAM bandwidth and CU count were all chosen specifically for this use case.
If a game on XSX is sub-4k, nobody cares. It upscales to 4k and if it looks good fidelity-wise nobody minds. That game should scale down to 1080p perfectly smoothly by nixing the mip0’s and changing output res. Instead of 1440p, it might go down to 1080p native instead, or 900p maybe. Even at 900p ya think anyone will notice or care? Not a chance. The audience on 1080p screen and XSS don’t count pixels nor do they notice a few missing.
Bottom line is: More flops per pixel without new bottlenecks on XSS means it will scale better than you think, not worse.
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But you’re looking at a 1440p game on Series X being a 720p game on Series S. I’m not convinced in 2020 that ‘nobody will care or notice’. People noticed and cared in 2013. I know that’s console wars but still…
Honestly, I’m disappointed that it’s 1440p. If PS5 can’t do 4K/60fps for a remake on the beginning of the gen, what can we expect later on? The game looks excellent but I’m disappointed in this aspect.
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Still looks good but the stuff they showed previously was obviously the very best parts.
Raytracing must be heavy on the GPU I’m guessing? I do agree somewhat that 1440p is disappointing though but at least people still have the choice of playing at 4K, albeit at 30fps.
The ppl who noticed in 2013 were looking at games without AA, low quality AF, side by sides ogled by hardcore graphics whores tho. The XSS isn’t selling to these ppl. XSS will sell to casuals and parents wanting a gift for their kids.
Also, ya won’t be seeing many 1440p games on XSX in the first place without reconstruction happening. Remember that there are reconstruction stuff XSS/XSX can do that PS5 can’t due to no ML. I wouldn’t consider DS to look so amazing visually that it should only be doable at 1440p on XSX.
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For first party titles perhaps but I think lots of 3rd parties won’t be using DX12 and thus won’t use VRS etc and not ML and you’ll see that especially in the first few years…in essence still brute forcing games.
Even w/o any of that stuff, you are talking about great IQ for AA/AF by default anyhow on a 1080p screen. Games won’t be 720p on XSS. PS5 having a lower res game doesn’t make its issues carry over somehow to XSX. And again, ya aren’t considering who is looking at these games. Nobody buying a XSS for their 1080p cares about pixel counting in 2020. If they did, they wouldn’t being playing on a 1080p TV in the first place and wouldn’t buy an XSS.
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No its a fair point. I just bought an S anyway to go with my Series X. Can game upstairs now too!
Same, lol. I actually had my microsoft.com pre-order disappear somehow. Never got the confirmation email despite finishing the order. Then 10 mins after I discovered this, I opened a bunch of tabs to randomly hope to find XSS. All sold out (obviously) but figured maybe I’d get randomly lucky. Half an hour later I went to the target.com tab and for funzies refreshed and I shit you not they had just then got an XSS so I got it. lol
Hoping I get both at or very close to launch. 
I only picked up an S today after it drifted in and out of stock on Amazon. Was in two minds but I needed a second controller anyway so picking up the S for £249 made sense when you think otherwise I’d have spent £55 of that purely on a second controller.
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Indeed, but its not just another souls game, its a next gen game, should be held to a different standard. Even looking at the comparison to SOTCR its not a huge leap, nothing like uncharted 3 to uncharted 4.
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But that’s more on From being technologically way below the curve, compared to Bluepoint which is a very tech proficient studio.
(For sure Elden ring will look a lot worse than this remaster for example)
We’ll see if Elden Ring will look a lot worse. 
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You’re correct that it’s a next gen game and is one of the most “next gen” looking launch games of the two consoles. We really won’t be seeing a Uncharted 3 to Uncharted 4 jump from any launch games.
Agreed that Bluepoint is more technically capable. Let’s hope that From improves here next gen.
Which is why I dont understand such praise for it. Its no more impressive then current gen running on a 2080ti.
Man I see some FromSoft slander on here lol Sure their visual fidelity isn’t up to standard with the big AAA but their visual design and art direction is unparalleled in the entire industry. I’ve yet to see enemy and boss design as varied and complex and detailed outside their games. Bloodborne is the single best adaptation of Cosmic Horror in the medium, and both souls and Sekiro have some breathtaking set pieces, be it Irithyll of the Boreal Valley in DS3 or Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro. Demon’s Souls looks obviously much superior on a technical level, but I don’t see how without the groundwork laid down by FromSoft, the game would look half as good. And I’m fairly confident Elden Ring, despite not looking like the second coming of christ will have exceptional design and art direction.
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