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[VisualFidelity]

None of the ps5 or XSX launch titles look very different graphically than what we are currently playing and there is one main reason to blame for this (aside from usual launch title issues), mid gen consoles (Xbox One X and PS4 Pro). We have never had a mid gen refresh during any console cycle like this one, so we are used to bigger jumps in graphical fidelity when new consoles release. The mid gen consoles were not marketed as new consoles, so people dont really see them that way, but they pretty much were. Quick look at Xbox console releases: OG Xbox in 2001. Xbox 360 in 2005. Xbox 360 in 2013. Xbox One X in 2017, and now only 3 years later, which is the quickest turn around for a new console is the Xbox Series X. If we never had the X1X or PS4 Pro, console players would still be playing games at 900p-1080p with lower quality assets and worse framerates. Lets take Halo Infinite for example. Halo 5 was 900p. Halo Infinite is open world 4k 60fps with ray tracing scheduled to arrive after launch. This will make it significantly better looking than vanilla Halo 5, but since Halo 5 was enhanced to run 1800p I believe, the jump seems much smaller now. Remember when BF4 launched on Xbox one at 720p with fps hovering 35-50? Because of the X1X we got BF5 which not only was massively improved graphically, but running 1800p-2160p with a more stable fps. On top of this, we had recent releases like RDR2, LOU2 and Ghost of Tsushima which set the bar really high, but they also had years of dev time on stable hardware.

The good news is the new consoles have the specs to greatly outshine the mid gen consoles and live up to the next gen moniker, but they need time. This is why the UE5 PS5 demo looks more impressive than all next gen launch titles, because its giving you a glimpse at what the future holds and with time, next gen titles will look even more impressive than that. Take a look at DLSS when it first launched, it was crappy at first and now less than 2 years later, its an absolute game changer.

So when it comes to make a next gen purchase, try not to judge next gen on one 8 minute early build of a launch title and think ZOMG NEXT GEN SUCCCKZZZZ and when those immature emotional temper tantrums flair up, just remind yourself that next gen will impress over time and try to contribute something positive to our community, for humanity depends on it. Game on!

**edit if you dont think a simple resolution increase makes a big difference take a look at this video, on a 4k screen (not a tiny phone screen or 2k monitor). 4k resolution brings every scratch, bump, dent, particle etc to life. Also keep in mind some enhanced titles included 4k textures like Gears 5, along with more particles, better draw distance, and more advanced effects like reflections and lighting. Games would look like Nintendo Switch graphics if it wasnt for mid gen refresh.

 

[makaveli60]

I'm so glad I went through the whole gen with the base consoles. Because the differences being only in resolution and framerate for most of the time, I never felt the urge to upgrade. Now I'm ready with a new 4K TV and even if launch games will be mediocre, I'm looking forward to replay my favorites in bigger resolution. Can't wait for nextgen to begin.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I'm so glad I went through the whole gen with the base consoles. Because the differences being only in resolution and framerate for most of the time, I never felt the urge to upgrade. Now I'm ready with a new 4K TV and even if launch games will be mediocre, I'm looking forward to replay my favorites in bigger resolution. Can't wait for nextgen to begin.

Thats a big deal for most people.

 

[makaveli60]

Thats a big deal for most people.

I know. I was just explaining myself.

 

[hyperbertha]

Disagree. The effect of mid gen consoles on graphics were pretty minimal and mostly unnoticeable except resolutions. Next gen should be doing way more.

 

[GymWolf]

Absolutely not.

Games are still made with base ps4 and xone in mind, better resolution and some minor graphical effect are not gonna change this fact.

Also, upgraded consoles still have ultra shitty cpu, so not having major difference in physics with new games is all on devs shoulders.

 

[Freeman]

The main reason is that MS and Sony are dumb and stream it in low bitrate streams instead of finding a decent solution.

Horizon 2 in the 4K video looks legit(it looks great but not so great that you think it's fake), so does R&C and Kena really. The screenshots of Demon's Souls were gorgeous.

Other than that, you could upload something you filmed with a camera, pretend it was the game and people would still say they are not impressed.

Hardware by itself won't do much (unless we are talking about fully RT games), so what we are judging is actually how competent the technical and art department of each studio is.

 

[DarthFeanor]

I would add that console are now basic PCs and almost every game uses the same rendering techniques

 

[HE1NZ]

It's underwhelming because it's more about budget and production design now. 360/PS3 games looked nasty by the end of the gen. PS4/XO games look nice and clean. Midgen updates are very recent too. I think purely visually we hit the ceiling, now it's time for higher framerates, bigger worlds and raytracing, which would enable lazier devs to make good looking games too.

 

[Falc67]

I disagree. Mid Gen refresh didn’t do much more than a resolution/frame rate boost. The games essentially looked the same.

Spider-Man Miles Morales
Horizon Forbidden West
Ratchet Rift
NBA 2K21 Next Gen
Demon Souls
Forza XSX

All look a significant step of from current/mid gen.
Obviously only going by what we’ve seen so far. This could change once we see more.

 

[Freeman]

It's underwhelming because it's more about budget and production design now. 360/PS3 games looked nasty by the end of the gen. PS4/XO games look nice and clean. Midgen updates are very recent too. I think purely visually we hit the ceiling, now it's time for higher framerates, bigger worlds and raytracing, which would enable lazier devs to make good looking games too.

Yep, PS360 games, even the high budget ones like RDR had glaring problems, like a crazy amount of jaggies, pop-ups and so on. The best looking PS4 games don't have those problems anymore, they have a very polished presentation.

 

[Falc67]

It's underwhelming because it's more about budget and production design now. 360/PS3 games looked nasty by the end of the gen. PS4/XO games look nice and clean. Midgen updates are very recent too. I think purely visually we hit the ceiling, now it's time for higher framerates, bigger worlds and raytracing, which would enable lazier devs to make good looking games too.

What ceiling have we hit visually?

 

[Dontero]

Mid gen consoles didn't change anything. Those were exactly the same games but with better res or bit better frame-rate.

The reason why you see similar looking titles is that Lock-hart which is poorly kept secret is only 4TF console that is holding back everyone.

The real jump is not 1,8TF to 12TF like some people think. But from 1,2TF to 4TF.

 

[quest]

Its a combination of diminishing returns and longer development times. Once games come out that have been developed the whole time kits have been out we will see the difference. Then when developers get a second crack at these devices we will really see them shine. The last super jump was the dreamcast. The development times were shorter and the difference between the generations was staggering.

 

[Romulus]

I still haven't seen a game that didn't look like it was running on X1X or PS4 Pro. All games from both conferences seem like slightly boosted last-gen games with the exception of Halo looking run of the mill, or slightly worse.

Not seeing anything next gen in terms of gameplay. Just talk and hype, and the Unreal demo was decent but struggled on PS5.

 

[HE1NZ]

What ceiling have we hit visually?

The 30fps "cinematic" walking sims are already look as good as they get.

 

[VisualFidelity]

LoL at people saying resolution and FPS increases dont make a difference. Go play Halo 3 on vanilla x360 then go play it on PC running 4k 60fps. Its a massive difference.

 

[ZywyPL]

I disagree, the games on Pro/1X don't look any different, they just run at 1440/1600/1800/4K instead of FullHD, that's all, but the graphics are more or less the same. What I think is the reason is that most of th extra power went for High/Ultra settings and sharp textures, as oppose to Medium/Low/off, so basically what the next-gen consoles are showing so far is mostly nothing but what PCs have been doing for the past decade, what was actually being showed in all the trailers and gameplays, and now this what the console players will actually get to play. Which isn't bad considering the consoles price point. I'd say that this will be the most balanced generation ever, where the devs won't have to cut the corners wherever possible to get the games running.

 

[Matt_Fox]

No, the 'big reason' is the longer time it now takes to make a AAA game.

When the PS3 transitioned to PS4 it was around 2 years, now it takes 4-5 years to make a AAA game.

It took 8 years and 2000 people to make Red Dead Redemption 2 (an extreme example), but it illustrates the point of how hard it is for a studio to time the release of their games to the exact day/week/month that a new console launches.

The good news is we will get great games, but it looks like launch day is going to be more about backwards compatibility and enhancing what we already have than anything brand spanking new.

 

[Falc67]

The 30fps "cinematic" walking sims are already look as good as they get.

You think there’s no room to improve the visuals of last of us 2 for example?
We’ve already seen huge improvements via a few PS5 games and on Forza. Even unreal engine 5 visuals.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

LoL at people saying resolution and FPS increases dont make a difference. Go play Halo 3 on vanilla x360 then go play it on PC running 4k 60fps. Its a massive difference.

It's a massive difference in terms of fps and resolution. The feeling and atmosphere of the game doesn't change really

 

[killatopak]

One of the key differences between each generation are also new graphical features.

Ever wondered why all 360/PS3 gen games suddenly used bloom to an exaggerated effect only to turn it down and look great by the end of the console gen? How about tesselation, ambient occlusion etc?

That applies to next gen as well which will be all about Raytracing.

 

[FALCON_KICK]

IMO the problem next gen would lead to budget skyrocketing if games focus on uping the visuals.

PS4 Pro already had the book of the dead Unity engine based interactive demo which already looks next gen. And PS5 has Unreal 5 tech demo which has set the benchmark for next-gen visuals.



Except for David Cage Quantic dream games which are considered as interactive movie games and Rockstar which have the highest budget for their video-games, the visuals have hit a plateau(Book of the dead trailer level) with tradition game engines with the present budget unless every studio shifts to Unreal 5 engine.

The Initiative’s Senior Gameplay Engineer Francisco Aisa Garcia who has previously worked at Naughty Dog and Rockstar made an interesting observation about next gen hardware.

“So I don’t think the big difference will be in how much more powerful it is, but rather in what we do with this new powerline.”

 

[FunkMiller]

I haven’t seen anywhere near enough gameplay yet to reach any conclusions, and I’d say that probably goes for most other people.

 

[xPikYx]

Disagree. The effect of mid gen consoles on graphics were pretty minimal and mostly unnoticeable except resolutions. Next gen should be doing way more.

Agree. Mid gen refresh affected only resolution and partially framerate, but all the rest is developed to run on base consoles, it's always the same story, what makes the difference is the quantity and the quality of the Geometry, take whatever pc's elder scroll and add plenty of 8k textures and better illumination, bump it up to 4k and still it will look old because tge characters are modelled with little Geometry and clumsy animations, if you look at ue5 demo you really see a big jump only because of the geometry, this is the most important thing, Geometry engine on ps5 looks promising but we are far from seeing its potential

 

[SilentUser]

The main reason is that MS and Sony are dumb and stream it in low bitrate streams instead of finding a decent solution.

Horizon 2 in the 4K video looks legit(it looks great but not so great that you think it's fake), so does R&C and Kena really. The screenshots of Demon's Souls were gorgeous.

Other than that, you could upload something you filmed with a camera, pretend it was the game and people would still say they are not impressed.

Hardware by itself won't do much (unless we are talking about fully RT games), so what we are judging is actually how competent the technical and art department of each studio is.

I agree. Both Sony and MS shows were streamed at a low bitrate and only full HD. Seeing Kena or R&C in 4k on my new TV blew me away.

 

[spectyre]

I think the issue is twofold. Longer dev times and tech evolving faster. How can a developer possibly max out tech that's only a few months old?

 

[bitbydeath]

A lot of people seem to say PS5 trailers were CG which doesn’t sound underwhelming at all.

 

[brap]

LoL at people saying resolution and FPS increases dont make a difference. Go play Halo 3 on vanilla x360 then go play it on PC running 4k 60fps. Its a massive difference.

WHOA holy shit it looks clearer and smoother but still looks like a game that came out in 2007

 

[Paracelsus]

WHOA holy shit it looks clearer and smoother but still looks like a game that came out in 2007

This part was borderline unplayable on XBOX360.
In 6 years it'll probably still be one of the top 3 action games of all time, at 8k 120fps or something.

 

[brap]

This part was borderline unplayable on XBOX360.
In 6 years it'll probably still be one of the top 3 action games of all time, at 8k 120fps or something.

We aren't talking about Ninja Garden though. Playing Halo 3 or Vice City at a higher res and fps is basically the same game.

 

[Paracelsus]

We aren't talking about Ninja Garden though. Playing Halo 3 or Vice City at a higher res and fps is basically the same game.

It's two series that didn't improve with the graphical upgrade at all though.

 

[Amiga]

The main reason is that MS and Sony are dumb and stream it in low bitrate streams instead of finding a decent solution.

this
the toughest thing about marketing next gen is they can' show it properly. you need to actually try it hands on for a while then it will sin in.

 

[Freeman]

this
the toughest thing about marketing next gen is they can' show it properly. you need to actually try it hands on for a while then it will sin in.

They are recorded events that they insist on streaming. It's dumb. They either need to find a new format or work with streaming platforms on a solution.

They even keep the original video up for the show instead of replacing it with a proper non streamed one, they only reupload individual videos.

 

[Amiga]

They are recorded events that they insist on streaming. It's dumb. They either need to find a new format or work with streaming platforms on a solution.

They even keep the original video up for the show instead of replacing it with a proper non streamed one, they only reupload individual videos.

I remember this website post higher quality trailers, but didn't find HorizonZD.

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

Stream and download Announcement Trailer from Kena: Bridge of Spirits in very high quality

Stream and download Announcement Trailer from Kena: Bridge of Spirits in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

 

[Punished Miku]

This part was borderline unplayable on XBOX360.
In 6 years it'll probably still be one of the top 3 action games of all time, at 8k 120fps or something.

It's more epic with the slowdown. Feels like you're personally ending the entire spider clan on that stair case, one limb at a time.

 

[Freeman]

I remember this website post higher quality trailers, but didn't find HorizonZD.

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

Stream and download Announcement Trailer from Kena: Bridge of Spirits in very high quality

Stream and download Announcement Trailer from Kena: Bridge of Spirits in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

Stream and download 4K Trailer from Resident Evil Village in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

But at that point people already watched it, if they will keep doing live events they need to figure a way to stream it with a much higher bitrate.

 

[cryptoadam]

Its just harder to translate better graphics especially resoltuion in media now a days.

You see great cgi everywhere . And asset quality is already very high so its more about artistry and time.

The biggest graphical leap is in lighting and reflections which is harder to show in youtube videos and streams.

Games already look amazing and now its more about spending time making all the tiny little details and wasting power on resolution lighting and reflections.

 

[M1chl]

The main reason is that MS and Sony are dumb and stream it in low bitrate streams instead of finding a decent solution.

Horizon 2 in the 4K video looks legit(it looks great but not so great that you think it's fake), so does R&C and Kena really. The screenshots of Demon's Souls were gorgeous.

Other than that, you could upload something you filmed with a camera, pretend it was the game and people would still say they are not impressed.

Hardware by itself won't do much (unless we are talking about fully RT games), so what we are judging is actually how competent the technical and art department of each studio is.

I think that there is somethrottling going on due to pandemic, I could be wrong tho. Also Mixer is dead, which had by far the best quality of stream.

 

[Freeman]

I think that there is somethrottling going on due to pandemic, I could be wrong tho. Also Mixer is dead, which had by far the best quality of stream.

The low quality of the streams really bothered me in pretty much every presentation this year, every State of Plays and every conference, felt like watching is on a potato even at 1080p. It just isn't a proper way to showcase a game.

edit: I'm not even talking about 4K videos, I'm talking about 1080p that actually looks like 1080p and not a complete mess.

 

[M1chl]

The low quality of the streams really bothered me in pretty much every presentation this year, every State of Plays and every conference. It just isn't a proper way to showcase a game.

Are there any decent streming service, because youtube seems like trash generally.

 

[Freeman]

Are there any decent streming service, because youtube seems like trash generally.

I don't know, Twich is also trash.

The event is upload on youtube now and anyone can check to see how ridiculous blurry it is.

Devs don't even that in consideration and don't seem to be making the trailers with that in mind.

 

[M1chl]

I don't know, Twich is also trash.

The event is upload on youtube now and anyone can check to see how ridiculous blurry it is.

Devs don't even that in consideration and don't seem to be making the trailers with that in mind.

Yeah a lot of movement with high frequency details results in shitty picture. I think that MS axing Mixer, before the conference was really big mistake, their streams, despite lackluster showing, were good quality.

 

[Freeman]

Yeah a lot of movement with high frequency details results in shitty picture. I think that MS axing Mixer, before the conference was really big mistake, their streams, despite lackluster showing, were good quality.

Talk about timing.

Still, even having it on mixer(assuming it had good enough quality since I never used it) doesn't really solve the problem if most people are watching it on youtube and twich.

 

[M1chl]

Talk about timing.

Still, even having it on mixer(assuming it had good enough quality since I never used it) doesn't really solve the problem if most people are watching it on youtube and twich.

Sure but it's always nice to have more options : )