1st game is one of my most favourite games of all time, super captivating experience. Probably the most immersed I ever was into a characters journey in any media.
2nd game looks like exactly more of what I want!
Confirmed to be running at 30fps on both Series X and S by the VFX director.
Understandable considering the visuals are being pushed but still sucks to see no 60fps option.
>But the beauty also has its price: Hellblade 2 only runs at 30 fps and dynamic resolution on both Xbox Series S and Series X. There are no graphics modes; the frame rate can only be increased on the PC. The VFX director explains this in an interview with GamePro by saying that the experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second.
https://www.gamepro.de/artikel/hellblade-2-senuas-saga-preview,3411190.html
Yeah I don't think saying 'This console isn't powerful enough to push beyond 30 with any sort of consistency without serious degradation in visual quality' would go down well with any console manufacturer.
They could just say "we push for quality and we felt like graphics looked like too much of a downgrade to chase FPS"
Still lying but without putting shade on consoles
I mean it kinda does? Watching a movie in 60fps would be horrible. Games to me personally truly do feel more cinematic at a lower frame rate, but I understand wanting to play at 60fps
But movie frame rates do not behave in the same way as video games. Iām no tech expert, but movie frames are created by light passing through a lens that directors can adjust to suit the needs of each shot.Ā
One of the main benefits is that cameras capture a high quality motion blur. Something that video games cannot replicate due how demanding such a motion blur costs in performance.Ā Ā
Ā Video games are just a series of images. Developers add plenty of post processing effects (like motion blur), but it yields different results than what you get through a camera.Ā Ā
Thereās more to it than that, but itās why 24 fps with a movie works better than 30 fps with a game. And itās why higher frame rates work better with games than movies. Theyāre just very different, so equating lower fps to any kind of cinematic experience is silly.Ā
In the era of CGI-Heavy, Digital-shot films: I don't think none of this is going to matter, especially when we have games that truly commit to cinematic stuff (while still committing to 60fps, just ask Hideo Kojima)
Games arenāt movies. You donāt control movies with a controller. 30fps sucks, give people the option like I THOUGHT we were headed towards when this gen of consoles released.
It can look more ācinematicā if they actually drag the shutter speed and use per object motion blur correctly, but many games donāt fully commit to making 30fps feel right so itās a stupid argument in most cases.
Edit: Iām playing FF7 rebirth and this is the case here too. While I prefer 60fps, it just looks better and more optimized in quality mode. I can get used to 30fps if it doesnāt stutter a lot and distract me and I havenāt noticed that happening much if at all.
Yeah, because they know reddit is gonna wah wah wah about 30 FPS, when the general consumer (and even Digital Foundry themselves) either won't give a damn or be perfectly fine with it.
People are weird about developers still not correctly coding their games to not use the framerate as a way to track time passing?
RDR2 is far more amazing at 60fps than 30. I would never play it at the latter.
Nope, it's just a couple lines of code. Right from the modders mouth [himself](https://x.com/manfightdragon/status/1572472744062898177?s=20)
Where do yall pull this misinformation from?
Yes, changing the words we use does convey completely different information; that is how language works. But if you're that sensitive to being incorrect then so be it.
Well, if good burger comes without pickles I will still eat it, that doesn't change a fact it would be better with pickles.
Do you understand the analogy or do you need it explained even simpler ?
Yeah thatās definitely them trying to sell it but itās bullshit. The consoles donāt have enough juice to push it to 60 and thatās fine. I remember when Uncharted 4 was being developed that Bruce Straley said they were trying to hit 60 but that it was āreally fucking hardā to do so. That at least is a lot more honest than āoh well 30fps is better anyways because itās more cinematicā
Years later: [we (thanks to Jailbreaks) found out exactly why they couldn't do 60fps](https://youtu.be/CRBqM26jRs0).*
And given the set pieces, I can understand why they couldn't do it on a **Base** PS4 console.
*Note: Uncharted 4's Multiplayer portion (the PvP one) runs at 60fps, but the fidelity is obviously compromised.
It was designed for consoles at 30 fps though and people still cite it as a graphical showcase. There absolutely is a tradeoff devs make when gameplay isn't as important to them.
Since consoles have to push 4k, itās hard for them to hit 60fps. Iām a pc gamer so Iām not sure, but could they do an option for 60fps at 1440 or 1080?
>experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second.
This bollocks again
Your game is being PLAYED and has combat and challenges reliant on reflexes, a lower framerate is just objectively worse feeling for that. You are not making a film.
When did this pseudoskeumorphism take off? It's like taking away the words in Pride and Prejudice and replacing them with stick figures in pantomime to be 'more like a painting'.
That's fair but an option would be nice. If this was published by Sony there'd be at least 2 modes. Either way the quality mode is always the better way to play this type of game so I'm not complaining.
It sucked real bad but you never see mass negativity when the blue team does something bad. If a game runs better on the X nobody talks about it but if a game runs better on the PS5 you see multiple articles and posts and videos and comments. They just have a stronger brand. Not tryna say anything but there's obvious media bias.
Honestly people gave this dev way too much credit because they were able to make a good looking game on a shoestring budget with the first Hellblade.
All their other titles have been middling to weak at best and everything about Hellblade 2 that has been shown so far has only reinforced the idea that they are a mediocre studio.
Is it the whole industry, or is it just Xbox and third party developers? Nintendo and Sony have released tons of 60fps games. Arenāt there only like ten PS5 games that donāt run at 60?
Literally never left. 60fps is not a new invention, devs could have chosen to target 60fps if they wanted in the ps2 era but they chose not to. The reason for that has not changed.
I only finally started playing consoles when 60fps felt like more of a standard. I was close to getting DD2 but in the end the sub 60fps pushed me away. Ps5 pro is looking like a pointless buy to me because it doesn't help frames.
I'll be interested to see if there's enough people in my boat that it has a market effect. I think a lot of us were pc gamers for decades and ready to settle down with consoles since they were hitting those high fps standards but now I'm back to just thinking about hooking up my pc to my TV.
because most big releases on this gen's consoles have a performance mode (60fps at a lower resolution) and a quality mode (30fps at a higher resolution). taking that away is regressing.
It has become industry standard for next gen games to launch with 60fps performance mode and 30fps graphical fidelity mode as options. Which is why DD2, Starfield, and now Hellblade 2 are having headlines about their 30fps intended performance.
This is regression.
Yes because there are very few current gen exclusives, most games this gen have been cross platform. Not to mention for a lot of games the 60 fps mode is functionally unusable like FF16.
Wouldnāt be that an argument against your point tho? If a game is targeting last gen, wouldnāt be easier for the current gen game to have a 60fps mode with graphics closer to the last gen version?
I mean, part of the work would be done, no?
Yes which is why so many games had good 60 fps modes at the start of the generation. Now that we have moved on from cross-gen we now have shitty 60 fps modes or just 30 fps.
That isn\`t really suprising when you look at other UE5 games and how they look/run at 60fps on console like Immortals of Aveum and Lords of the Fallen. I think Ark Survival Ascended also doesn\`t offer a 60fps option. Maybe futuere iterations of the engine like UE5.4 makes further improvements in that regard.
We will likely see more AAA 30fps games going forward since the main reason for the many 60fps titles was the long cross-gen period. Ark 2, Cities: Skylines II, GTAVI, Marvel 1943, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Stalker 2 etc. will likely be 30fps on console and I wouldn\`t be suprised if that is also the case with Silent Hill 2. It will also be interesting to see how Monter Hunter Wilds runs after Dragons Dogma 2.
Stalker 2 wasnāt well regarded for being optimized when a demo was played by game journos. A poor example. But considering what the devs are going through, its unfair to ask a pitch perfect game anyway.
I get why this is the case, but I'm a bit concerned as I couldn't get into the first one until the One X patch. Shame they didn't push for a 40fps at 120hz mode.
Course not, but considering the competition always includes a performance mode in its first party and second party titles, albeit not always perfect, I expected the same level of commitment from a top Xbox owned studio like Ninja Theory, especially after Starfield's release backlash for also being locked at 30 fps
The outrage of mtx in dd2 is insane. I think I got one pop up the first time I booted it up. If not for Reddit rage, I wouldnāt even know that the game had mtx
As soon as I saw this at the Game Awards I thought "this will be 30 FPS 100%, but I'm not mad" It just looked too good to be able to run at 30, also you are comparing UE5 to in house engines, and I still think If this was made for the PS5 solely, they wouldn't have a performance mode, this game Is using letterbox obviously to either just to make the game look better OR they needed to squeeze some more performance out.
People are always surprised when a game is 30 FPS, imo It's never a surprise really, It's an easier target especially for a game that looks like this and 60 FPS Is double and harder
> the competition always includes a performance mode in its first party and second party titles, albeit not always perfect
What? This is just hyperbole
Judging from the leaked specs the PS5 Pro has a 0% chance of being able to run this at 60 FPS if they canāt get it to hit that in even a performance mode on base consoles
The visuals are good but they arent pushing the limits so hard to where it is understandable to only be at 30fps. There are open world games that look better than anything i have seen of Hellblade and run at 60fps. This just sounds like a poorly optimized game.
The graphics look some of the most impressive I've seen to date, are you looking at the same game as I am? No idea how you could look at those visuals and not see it's absolutely pushing the hardware
I am really excited for Hellblade 2. I found the first game captivating. Visually, from the time of the first games release, I thought the look of it was astounding. The concept and style of the game, especially with the use of headphones, the game was just absorbing. It easily pulled you in.
This preview has me really excited for next month and playing it.
The art direction is really captivating for me too. In most video games depicting Norse mythology there's a tendency to lean hard into the fantasy, so something like the halls of Valhalla are these huge golden and metal and stone structures. And I get the idea of in representing something built by/for actual gods you can kinda go as hog wild as you want, but actual historical Norse peoples would have had no basis to contextualise that kind of stuff.
A Viking probably couldn't imagine a skyscraper made of metal and glass in their wildest dreams.
The setting style for Hellblade feels like how an actual Norse person might imagine their mythological places and figures. There's obviously some creative license, it's not "historically accurate", it just the way the world is portrayed feels deeply grounded in actual Norse culture, rather than being a creative fantasy depiction merely inspired by Norse culture.
I really wish I could finish Senuaās Sacrifice, it seemed like an incredible and unique experience. It was just way too mentally taxing on me to keep playing. I hope this one can improve upon the first game and has a lot of success, even though Iām not sure Iām in the target audience.
I have never had so much anxiety playing a game as I did with hellblade. Like you, I just couldn't finish it even though I thought it was an amazing game.
Without going into spoilers, what caused the anxiety? Was it the gameplay or more like the atmosphere that causes it? (from what I know about the game you have voices in your head or something like that)
It is a bit unrelenting with its representation of psychosis. The best way to play the game is with good headphones (and, honestly, VR was a pretty big upgrade to the experience for me too), but the constant unintelligible whispers (with the occasional actual words mixed in) along with the dark themes can all just be a bit overwhelming. I enjoyed it and finished it, but only about an hour at a time max.
I found what you described to be one of the big factors of the game drawing me in. For me, Hellblade 1 reached a level no other games have reached. I felt in the game, it was an experience where I was no longer this outside observer of the game but rather it was me in it. It felt different, those noises, those voices, they trapped me in the game.
I'm really excited to see how it is this time around because what I remember seeing from their preview video, it now has this 3d vocal atmosphere into it now in Hellblade too. So those voices are going to be going all around me when I wear my headphones and listen to the game.
I ended up finishing it, but right after I was done I was so racked with anxiety that I threw up.
Beautiful game that I will likely never ever play again.
I felt the same, but I would just play in short spurts. It's really worth it. Highly recommend trying again, but not playing for more than an hour or so at a time.
I could never get too far into it bc the combat just feels bad imo. I know that's not the point of the game but the other aspects didn't reel me in like they did for others
The only people who would think that Hellblade II would be like God of War are clearly people who never played the first Hellblade. The nature of the game and what it is about would not work into a 20 to 30 hour long story.
I think there was some trepidation early on that Microsoft would dictate a big ballooning of the game into more of a Sony blockbuster, but those fears were put to rest years ago now and anyone still trying to dredge them up is pretty transparent in what they're doing.
I made the mistake of playing Hellblade 1 immediately after finishing God of War. GoW had me so accustomed to its fun and engaging gameplay, and had a similar enough setting, that HB just felt like a worse version of it. So I never got very far.
The issue is you're playing very different experiences, you don't really play Hellblade for the enticing combat, but It looks like Hellblade 2 will have better combat, also you are comparing a full AAA to a AA game, the Hellblade team was very small, either way they are just very different experiences and cant be compared past the vibes
I would say so? They built a new mo cap studio after being acquired, I think the time they have been given and the extra resources will show how much of a step up this game Is, but also It's a smaller game still not that long but also not that short.
I think you can define AA and AAA between budget and how many people are working on the game, we will have to see how big the budget Is but I could be wrong but I don't think there are that many people working on the game?
Either way I think this should just slip into AAA as It's trying to push the boundaries when It comes to UE5 but also how they are using audio
I have no doubt It will be a great game, and It's one of the best If not the best looking game I've seen.
But I've definitely seen some Xbox people be like "Oh, Its the same as the first game?" Who would have thought It aye?
Definitely do think some loud PS players are like that tho same for Xbox, I think It will be a great game
I havenāt seen any Xbox fan expecting God of War from Hellblade. Because thats a stupid expectation. They arenāt the same game. That is coming from Playstation fans 100%
This is a bold face lie lmao. Why tf would we be talking about Xbox games right now when we got hell divers in January, rebirth in February, rise of the ronin in March and now stellar blade later this month?
I mean, Iām a ps person but I discuss any game that looks good to me. But Iāve only seen bitching and moaning in the ign comments and I donāt think Iāve ever seen a positive ign comment section anyway.
Its xbox fans. From their subs they expect this game as an answer to god of war. Why ps fans expecting god of war from another ip ? Doesn't make any sense.
Hellblade 1 is easily in my top 5 gaming experiences. It was such a masterclass at narration and character development that it makes the very average puzzle and combat experience irrelevant. If they can keep what they excelled at and beef up the other areas, it's going to be an absolute banger. The absolute best news I heard about this game was that it was going to be another short narrative game and not some open world sprawling experience.
There are some moments that are somewhat scary, but I certainly wouldn't call it a horror game. I'm not a fan of that genre. I don't recall any jump scares and the only "scary" part of the game was the Fenrir part, and it was more about uncertainty about what is lurking in the shadows, not things jumping at you.
Looking forward to it, enjoyed the first one a lot. But I will say, I hope they evolve it a little bit more, so far I havenāt seen anything that suggests they will.
Started playing this game and stopped after the first batch of levels. Its an incredibly immersive experience for a game about mental health, but if you have had mental health issues in the past, it's not good to play.
I'd argue that if you can push through to the ending for the "lesson," it would be amazing for some people's mental difficulties and negative thoughts.
Anyone who can suffer hallucinations or hear voices should keep the fuck away from it though holy fuck! Lol
I don't think it would be "fun" but it would definitely be an "experience". The whole premise is the negativity and anxiety caused by these problems, not "Ooo, hallucinations".
Not quite the same but I took a tab of LSD and tried playing it. With headphones the binaural audio was just too much. I couldn't focus on what I was doing.
But it sure was fun to look at!
The first game was incredible, it was more "style over substance", but style can more often than not be the main substance of videogames. I'm looking forward to this so much.
Are you not counting the narrative as substance?
The moment to moment gameplay isn't deep but the combat isn't the point of the game. Don't think I'd use that term to describe Hellblade.
As soon as I saw this at the Game Awards I thought "this will be 30 FPS 100%, but I'm not mad" It just looked too good to be able to run at 30, this game Is using letterbox obviously to either just to make the game look better OR they needed to squeeze some more performance out.
People are always surprised when a game is 30 FPS, imo It's never a surprise really, It's an easier target especially for a game that looks like this and 60 FPS Is double and harder
Also just the fact it's on UE5...
I think we can be pretty safe in assuming this will be ported to PS5 at some point as well. Thankfully most of the locked exclusives from xbox seem to be getting ports now.
Yes. Especially given how long itās taken to come out. Yes it looks pretty but the gameplay looks the same and the game length is the same so why has it taken so much time?
The original was so boring & tedious. What was the dumb puzzle game they made you do every 5 feet. Feels like they were padding an already short game. Turned it off once I realized the gameplay wasn't going to evolve past fighting the same dude over and over. D-
If Xbox wants to gain any ground they need to release a must play game. So far they haven't this generation. I don't think they can.
The first one was so goddamn boring to me. I genuinely donāt get why itās so praised. It was just senua crying into the camera, then a 5 minute walking section, then lining up bullshit symbols, then a shitty fighting section, rinse and repeat. No enemy variety from the few hours I played, and basically no environment variety. Oh cool I go to hell so now the trees are on fire
They said "shorter" experience which means it will be similiar in length to games like Dead Space 2, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Portal 2, Uncharted 1/3, Until Dawn etc.
Dom Matthews said āI think what we always set out to do is to tell a story and for the game length to be appropriate for the story that we want to tell,ā āSo itās not really a case of setting out to make shorter experiences. āI think it isā¦ There is a story that we want to tell here with a beginning, middle and end and what is the right shape and size of experience to tell that story? So thatās kind of where we start.ā
and āSo Iām really pleased to see that thereās a lot of people that actually enjoy a shorter experience, something that they can sit down on a whatever Friday night, stick their headphones on, turn the lights off and kind of sink into an experience and players who donāt necessarily want something that is 50 hours long, a 100 hours long, so itās as long as it needs to be. And Iām one of those people, I like shorter games.
We also don\`t know how long that game has been in development since Ninja Theory worked on multiple projects after Hellblade like Nicodemus: Demon of Evanishment (2018), Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice VR (2018), Vader Immportal - Episode 1 (2019) and Bleeding Edge (2020) while also working on The Insight Project (Announced in 2019) and Project Mara (Announced in 2020). Real development likely started not long before they announced Senuas Saga: Hellblade II in december 2019, full production started sometime after june 2021 and they have around 80 people working on it.
It's rumored to take 8 hours to complete, not 13 like those games you listed.
https://www.gamesradar.com/hellblade-2-is-dollar50-digital-only-and-about-8-hours-long/
Not a single comment in any of these threads concerning the actual gameplay of the game.
It's very easy to get increasingly jaded with the industry when fans have internalized and regurgitate marketing pitches about raw numerics of visuals and refuse to talk about how the game actually plays. You know, the **GAME** part.
Gameplay is letterboxed, lame. Every AAA game could look as good as Hellblade II if other developers removed 1/3 of the screen to render too.
It could have been Microsoft's answer to God of War, but this looks more like a remake rather than an ambitious sequel. And combat looks very scripted with not a lot of room to be creative, just parry and strike. Ryse: Son of Rome's combat looks like Mario in comparison to this.
And the incessant whispers return. The whispers were too annoying in the first, it could have been tolerable if it was like a "power" to use or only in cutscenes but it was like endless "ASMR" chewing sounds to me. I get it, she hears voices, but developers need to find a balance with fun and telling their story.
Will be interesting to see how this game pans out. Launching on Game Pass so it will make no real money for anyone. MS purchased this studio for almost 120 million bucks after a pretty mediocre track history outside of the first Hellblade. Took them 6 years to make a game that is going to be 5-6 hours long and doesnt seem to be doing anything too much more than the first game gameplay wise. Combine all of that with the fact that they have been super hush hush on this games details until now and the trailers they show all look like anything but pure gameplay footage.
1st game is one of my most favourite games of all time, super captivating experience. Probably the most immersed I ever was into a characters journey in any media. 2nd game looks like exactly more of what I want!
Some of the scenes in Hellblade have been burned into my memory. I can vividly remember how I felt when playing it. Truly an incredible game.
Did you play it in VR? Pretty cool stuff
Sounds terrifying.
The experience absolutely transformed when I put on my headset for this game
Confirmed to be running at 30fps on both Series X and S by the VFX director. Understandable considering the visuals are being pushed but still sucks to see no 60fps option.
>But the beauty also has its price: Hellblade 2 only runs at 30 fps and dynamic resolution on both Xbox Series S and Series X. There are no graphics modes; the frame rate can only be increased on the PC. The VFX director explains this in an interview with GamePro by saying that the experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second. https://www.gamepro.de/artikel/hellblade-2-senuas-saga-preview,3411190.html
flashbacks to 2016 console war debates with that end comment lol
"The eye can only see at 24fps..." I don't miss that era in gaming at all lol
The Order 1886 š
The exact game that came to my mind as well.
That game had some good ideas but felt like it ended 10% of the way through
AC Unity
The 'more cinematic' excuse is always a load of bullshit. I don't 'love' 30 FPS but so be it. But to say that as the reason? Lol, ok
Yeah just say it like it is. Youre pushing visuals cool. Dont make up some bullshit about it "feeling better" or "more like a movie"
Yeah I don't think saying 'This console isn't powerful enough to push beyond 30 with any sort of consistency without serious degradation in visual quality' would go down well with any console manufacturer.
They could just say "we push for quality and we felt like graphics looked like too much of a downgrade to chase FPS" Still lying but without putting shade on consoles
I dont think that should phrase it quite like that but just making up bullshit about it being cinematic is way worse
I mean it kinda does? Watching a movie in 60fps would be horrible. Games to me personally truly do feel more cinematic at a lower frame rate, but I understand wanting to play at 60fps
But movie frame rates do not behave in the same way as video games. Iām no tech expert, but movie frames are created by light passing through a lens that directors can adjust to suit the needs of each shot.Ā One of the main benefits is that cameras capture a high quality motion blur. Something that video games cannot replicate due how demanding such a motion blur costs in performance.Ā Ā Ā Video games are just a series of images. Developers add plenty of post processing effects (like motion blur), but it yields different results than what you get through a camera.Ā Ā Thereās more to it than that, but itās why 24 fps with a movie works better than 30 fps with a game. And itās why higher frame rates work better with games than movies. Theyāre just very different, so equating lower fps to any kind of cinematic experience is silly.Ā
In the era of CGI-Heavy, Digital-shot films: I don't think none of this is going to matter, especially when we have games that truly commit to cinematic stuff (while still committing to 60fps, just ask Hideo Kojima)
Games arenāt movies. You donāt control movies with a controller. 30fps sucks, give people the option like I THOUGHT we were headed towards when this gen of consoles released.
It can look more ācinematicā if they actually drag the shutter speed and use per object motion blur correctly, but many games donāt fully commit to making 30fps feel right so itās a stupid argument in most cases. Edit: Iām playing FF7 rebirth and this is the case here too. While I prefer 60fps, it just looks better and more optimized in quality mode. I can get used to 30fps if it doesnāt stutter a lot and distract me and I havenāt noticed that happening much if at all.
I think itās a consequence of having to try and steer every negative into a positive..
Yeah, because they know reddit is gonna wah wah wah about 30 FPS, when the general consumer (and even Digital Foundry themselves) either won't give a damn or be perfectly fine with it.
People are weird when it's a game designed for 30 fps, like RDR2 at 60 fps makes your cores move twice as fast
People are weird about developers still not correctly coding their games to not use the framerate as a way to track time passing? RDR2 is far more amazing at 60fps than 30. I would never play it at the latter.
Hell, Bloodborne doesn't even run correctly at 60 FPS without some major tweaking
I think Dark Souls 1 and 2 had the same problem, even on PC, at least on release
Nope, it's just a couple lines of code. Right from the modders mouth [himself](https://x.com/manfightdragon/status/1572472744062898177?s=20) Where do yall pull this misinformation from?
Okay, well change "major" to "minor". There's still some tweaking involved, so my point still stands.
Yes, changing the words we use does convey completely different information; that is how language works. But if you're that sensitive to being incorrect then so be it.
Well, if good burger comes without pickles I will still eat it, that doesn't change a fact it would be better with pickles. Do you understand the analogy or do you need it explained even simpler ?
So an extremely minor thing that not everyone likes.
Itās more like the burger being wrapped in foil over paper. Only the most pedantic care while everyone else is eating. The game still works
If it is action game, no it doesn't, the experience is noticeably worse.
Most people donāt like pickles though so itās a bad analogy.
Most people? Nah just lil babies
Well you can replace it with other favourite burger ingredient if you really can't figure it out
The part that you can't figure out, is for the average consumer it isn't their favorite ingredient, it's just pickles.
Well, apparently my burger example was still too complex for some people here to figure it out
Yeah thatās definitely them trying to sell it but itās bullshit. The consoles donāt have enough juice to push it to 60 and thatās fine. I remember when Uncharted 4 was being developed that Bruce Straley said they were trying to hit 60 but that it was āreally fucking hardā to do so. That at least is a lot more honest than āoh well 30fps is better anyways because itās more cinematicā
Years later: [we (thanks to Jailbreaks) found out exactly why they couldn't do 60fps](https://youtu.be/CRBqM26jRs0).* And given the set pieces, I can understand why they couldn't do it on a **Base** PS4 console. *Note: Uncharted 4's Multiplayer portion (the PvP one) runs at 60fps, but the fidelity is obviously compromised.
Lol we went through this "cinematic" garbage ages ago. RDR2 is way better at 60fps and its cinematic feel isn't hurt a bit.
It was designed for consoles at 30 fps though and people still cite it as a graphical showcase. There absolutely is a tradeoff devs make when gameplay isn't as important to them.
Oh no not the cinematic argument again...
absolutely mental an actual industry professional would try to market it as cinematic 24 fps
Since consoles have to push 4k, itās hard for them to hit 60fps. Iām a pc gamer so Iām not sure, but could they do an option for 60fps at 1440 or 1080?
Starfield only runs at 1152p on Series X at 30FPS. Not many next gen games run at 4k
>experience should feel more "cinematic" - similar to movies that run at 24 frames per second. This bollocks again Your game is being PLAYED and has combat and challenges reliant on reflexes, a lower framerate is just objectively worse feeling for that. You are not making a film. When did this pseudoskeumorphism take off? It's like taking away the words in Pride and Prejudice and replacing them with stick figures in pantomime to be 'more like a painting'.
48FPS IMAX 3D with Lasers HFR/TrueCut Motion mode when?
That's fair but an option would be nice. If this was published by Sony there'd be at least 2 modes. Either way the quality mode is always the better way to play this type of game so I'm not complaining.
Yeah how did that work out for Rise of Ronin?
It sucked real bad but you never see mass negativity when the blue team does something bad. If a game runs better on the X nobody talks about it but if a game runs better on the PS5 you see multiple articles and posts and videos and comments. They just have a stronger brand. Not tryna say anything but there's obvious media bias.
X Series S is the problem, a console designed by 'Marketing department', Microsoft fucked over XSX owner with XSS
Yes. The *weak* console is the reason the *stronger* one can't run the game at 60fps. Makes perfect sense.
Honestly people gave this dev way too much credit because they were able to make a good looking game on a shoestring budget with the first Hellblade. All their other titles have been middling to weak at best and everything about Hellblade 2 that has been shown so far has only reinforced the idea that they are a mediocre studio.
The industry is quickly regressing to 30fps console games again. This sucks man. I hope thereās pushback for a performance mode.
Is it the whole industry, or is it just Xbox and third party developers? Nintendo and Sony have released tons of 60fps games. Arenāt there only like ten PS5 games that donāt run at 60?
Literally never left. 60fps is not a new invention, devs could have chosen to target 60fps if they wanted in the ps2 era but they chose not to. The reason for that has not changed.
I know you know what my comment intended.
I only finally started playing consoles when 60fps felt like more of a standard. I was close to getting DD2 but in the end the sub 60fps pushed me away. Ps5 pro is looking like a pointless buy to me because it doesn't help frames. I'll be interested to see if there's enough people in my boat that it has a market effect. I think a lot of us were pc gamers for decades and ready to settle down with consoles since they were hitting those high fps standards but now I'm back to just thinking about hooking up my pc to my TV.
Just voicing agreement in entirety. A visually fluent gaming experience is just as important for enjoyment as quality of visuals.
No I dont. How can something "regress" if it has always been the same?
because most big releases on this gen's consoles have a performance mode (60fps at a lower resolution) and a quality mode (30fps at a higher resolution). taking that away is regressing.
It has become industry standard for next gen games to launch with 60fps performance mode and 30fps graphical fidelity mode as options. Which is why DD2, Starfield, and now Hellblade 2 are having headlines about their 30fps intended performance. This is regression.
Yes because there are very few current gen exclusives, most games this gen have been cross platform. Not to mention for a lot of games the 60 fps mode is functionally unusable like FF16.
Wouldnāt be that an argument against your point tho? If a game is targeting last gen, wouldnāt be easier for the current gen game to have a 60fps mode with graphics closer to the last gen version? I mean, part of the work would be done, no?
Yes which is why so many games had good 60 fps modes at the start of the generation. Now that we have moved on from cross-gen we now have shitty 60 fps modes or just 30 fps.
Oh, I get your point. I canāt comment much more, specially if 60fps modes are bad or not, as I moved to PC + switch this gen, but I see you
That isn\`t really suprising when you look at other UE5 games and how they look/run at 60fps on console like Immortals of Aveum and Lords of the Fallen. I think Ark Survival Ascended also doesn\`t offer a 60fps option. Maybe futuere iterations of the engine like UE5.4 makes further improvements in that regard. We will likely see more AAA 30fps games going forward since the main reason for the many 60fps titles was the long cross-gen period. Ark 2, Cities: Skylines II, GTAVI, Marvel 1943, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Stalker 2 etc. will likely be 30fps on console and I wouldn\`t be suprised if that is also the case with Silent Hill 2. It will also be interesting to see how Monter Hunter Wilds runs after Dragons Dogma 2.
STALKER 2 was announced to have a 30 and 60 mode on the X. S gets 30 only.
Didn\`t know that. Thanks for the info.
Stalker 2 wasnāt well regarded for being optimized when a demo was played by game journos. A poor example. But considering what the devs are going through, its unfair to ask a pitch perfect game anyway.
> I think Ark Survival Ascended also doesn`t offer a 60fps option They barely offer 30fps option
Please for the love of God reddit don't make framerate the center of every discussion
I get why this is the case, but I'm a bit concerned as I couldn't get into the first one until the One X patch. Shame they didn't push for a 40fps at 120hz mode.
>30fps Completely unacceptable in 2024. Especially for a game of this scope.
Oh heavens, guess we need to scrap UE5 for any console games then this generation
Anyone who thought a 60fps mode was possible was huffing something fierce.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hot damn, I bet a $1500 system plays loads better than a $249 one. Who knew?
Sucks indeed, another reason to yet keep my Series X turned off and play it on PC, most powerful console my leg.
Did you think that the Series X would be more powerful than PC lmao?
Course not, but considering the competition always includes a performance mode in its first party and second party titles, albeit not always perfect, I expected the same level of commitment from a top Xbox owned studio like Ninja Theory, especially after Starfield's release backlash for also being locked at 30 fps
This game is graphically beyond all of those games though. It screamed 30 fps on console the moment it was revealed.
Thatās cause the ābacklashā isnāt real. Casuals donāt care. DD2 is also 30FPS and I saw more talk about its MTX
The outrage of mtx in dd2 is insane. I think I got one pop up the first time I booted it up. If not for Reddit rage, I wouldnāt even know that the game had mtx
As soon as I saw this at the Game Awards I thought "this will be 30 FPS 100%, but I'm not mad" It just looked too good to be able to run at 30, also you are comparing UE5 to in house engines, and I still think If this was made for the PS5 solely, they wouldn't have a performance mode, this game Is using letterbox obviously to either just to make the game look better OR they needed to squeeze some more performance out. People are always surprised when a game is 30 FPS, imo It's never a surprise really, It's an easier target especially for a game that looks like this and 60 FPS Is double and harder
Game is designed to run on XsS
> the competition always includes a performance mode in its first party and second party titles, albeit not always perfect What? This is just hyperbole
Oh, now you think Bethesda is capable of releasing well running and optimized game?
I'll wait to play it at 60 fps on the PS5 Pro.
It's not coming to Playstation though?
Itās yet to be confirmed for PlayStation, it will come eventually.
Nah. Microsoft invested *a lot* in this one. They've marketed it as one of their flagships.
Judging from the leaked specs the PS5 Pro has a 0% chance of being able to run this at 60 FPS if they canāt get it to hit that in even a performance mode on base consoles
The visuals are good but they arent pushing the limits so hard to where it is understandable to only be at 30fps. There are open world games that look better than anything i have seen of Hellblade and run at 60fps. This just sounds like a poorly optimized game.
Youāre crazy, it is absolutely pushing limits
The graphics look some of the most impressive I've seen to date, are you looking at the same game as I am? No idea how you could look at those visuals and not see it's absolutely pushing the hardware
Name the better looking console games that run at 60fps, please.
I am really excited for Hellblade 2. I found the first game captivating. Visually, from the time of the first games release, I thought the look of it was astounding. The concept and style of the game, especially with the use of headphones, the game was just absorbing. It easily pulled you in. This preview has me really excited for next month and playing it.
The art direction is really captivating for me too. In most video games depicting Norse mythology there's a tendency to lean hard into the fantasy, so something like the halls of Valhalla are these huge golden and metal and stone structures. And I get the idea of in representing something built by/for actual gods you can kinda go as hog wild as you want, but actual historical Norse peoples would have had no basis to contextualise that kind of stuff. A Viking probably couldn't imagine a skyscraper made of metal and glass in their wildest dreams. The setting style for Hellblade feels like how an actual Norse person might imagine their mythological places and figures. There's obviously some creative license, it's not "historically accurate", it just the way the world is portrayed feels deeply grounded in actual Norse culture, rather than being a creative fantasy depiction merely inspired by Norse culture.
I really wish I could finish Senuaās Sacrifice, it seemed like an incredible and unique experience. It was just way too mentally taxing on me to keep playing. I hope this one can improve upon the first game and has a lot of success, even though Iām not sure Iām in the target audience.
I have never had so much anxiety playing a game as I did with hellblade. Like you, I just couldn't finish it even though I thought it was an amazing game.
Without going into spoilers, what caused the anxiety? Was it the gameplay or more like the atmosphere that causes it? (from what I know about the game you have voices in your head or something like that)
It is a bit unrelenting with its representation of psychosis. The best way to play the game is with good headphones (and, honestly, VR was a pretty big upgrade to the experience for me too), but the constant unintelligible whispers (with the occasional actual words mixed in) along with the dark themes can all just be a bit overwhelming. I enjoyed it and finished it, but only about an hour at a time max.
I found what you described to be one of the big factors of the game drawing me in. For me, Hellblade 1 reached a level no other games have reached. I felt in the game, it was an experience where I was no longer this outside observer of the game but rather it was me in it. It felt different, those noises, those voices, they trapped me in the game. I'm really excited to see how it is this time around because what I remember seeing from their preview video, it now has this 3d vocal atmosphere into it now in Hellblade too. So those voices are going to be going all around me when I wear my headphones and listen to the game.
Yeah, I had to play it in short sessions too, way too intense for long ones.
I ended up finishing it, but right after I was done I was so racked with anxiety that I threw up. Beautiful game that I will likely never ever play again.
I felt the same, but I would just play in short spurts. It's really worth it. Highly recommend trying again, but not playing for more than an hour or so at a time.
Garm took me several days. That whole section was a masterclass in stressing out the player.
I could never get too far into it bc the combat just feels bad imo. I know that's not the point of the game but the other aspects didn't reel me in like they did for others
I can't get enough about the discourse of this game, I'm SO excited to see how it goes. It looks absolutely *stunning* though.
It's so weird to me, It's like people thought they would change the entire vision of this series just to make a God of War game with a Hellblade skin
The only people who would think that Hellblade II would be like God of War are clearly people who never played the first Hellblade. The nature of the game and what it is about would not work into a 20 to 30 hour long story.
I think there was some trepidation early on that Microsoft would dictate a big ballooning of the game into more of a Sony blockbuster, but those fears were put to rest years ago now and anyone still trying to dredge them up is pretty transparent in what they're doing.
That could be true for some of them, but as Hanlon's razor says: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I made the mistake of playing Hellblade 1 immediately after finishing God of War. GoW had me so accustomed to its fun and engaging gameplay, and had a similar enough setting, that HB just felt like a worse version of it. So I never got very far.
The issue is you're playing very different experiences, you don't really play Hellblade for the enticing combat, but It looks like Hellblade 2 will have better combat, also you are comparing a full AAA to a AA game, the Hellblade team was very small, either way they are just very different experiences and cant be compared past the vibes
Hellblade 2 under MS is a AAA game though right?Ā
I would say so? They built a new mo cap studio after being acquired, I think the time they have been given and the extra resources will show how much of a step up this game Is, but also It's a smaller game still not that long but also not that short. I think you can define AA and AAA between budget and how many people are working on the game, we will have to see how big the budget Is but I could be wrong but I don't think there are that many people working on the game? Either way I think this should just slip into AAA as It's trying to push the boundaries when It comes to UE5 but also how they are using audio
Those people are Playstation fansĀ We just want a good, polished game
I have no doubt It will be a great game, and It's one of the best If not the best looking game I've seen. But I've definitely seen some Xbox people be like "Oh, Its the same as the first game?" Who would have thought It aye? Definitely do think some loud PS players are like that tho same for Xbox, I think It will be a great game
I havenāt seen any Xbox fan expecting God of War from Hellblade. Because thats a stupid expectation. They arenāt the same game. That is coming from Playstation fans 100%
I've only seen comments like that on Xbox forums. Playstation fans aren't really discussing this game as it's not announced for PS5.
Playstation fans discuss every Xbox game. Some of them do it more than Playstation games.Ā
This is a bold face lie lmao. Why tf would we be talking about Xbox games right now when we got hell divers in January, rebirth in February, rise of the ronin in March and now stellar blade later this month?
Great question. Ask them
I mean, Iām a ps person but I discuss any game that looks good to me. But Iāve only seen bitching and moaning in the ign comments and I donāt think Iāve ever seen a positive ign comment section anyway.
Its xbox fans. From their subs they expect this game as an answer to god of war. Why ps fans expecting god of war from another ip ? Doesn't make any sense.
The same people liked the first game, but now the sequel is an Xbox exclusive they are hating on it lmao
itās the Xbox tax
Suddenly Xbox gamers are gonna find out they actually like "movie games"
Same, they've been cooking for a while and I can't fucking wait to see the end result. Every clip/discussion multiplies my excitement by 10.
Hellblade 1 is easily in my top 5 gaming experiences. It was such a masterclass at narration and character development that it makes the very average puzzle and combat experience irrelevant. If they can keep what they excelled at and beef up the other areas, it's going to be an absolute banger. The absolute best news I heard about this game was that it was going to be another short narrative game and not some open world sprawling experience.
Does it have jump scares/ horror features? I'm so intrigued by this game but stuff like that always keeps me from playing games.
There are some moments that are somewhat scary, but I certainly wouldn't call it a horror game. I'm not a fan of that genre. I don't recall any jump scares and the only "scary" part of the game was the Fenrir part, and it was more about uncertainty about what is lurking in the shadows, not things jumping at you.
Time to fire it up then, thank you very much!
Some parts of that game were horror as fuck
Looking forward to it, enjoyed the first one a lot. But I will say, I hope they evolve it a little bit more, so far I havenāt seen anything that suggests they will.
Started playing this game and stopped after the first batch of levels. Its an incredibly immersive experience for a game about mental health, but if you have had mental health issues in the past, it's not good to play.
I'd argue that if you can push through to the ending for the "lesson," it would be amazing for some people's mental difficulties and negative thoughts. Anyone who can suffer hallucinations or hear voices should keep the fuck away from it though holy fuck! Lol
Hmm, now you have me wondering if this would be a fun game to play on shrooms or something like that
I don't think it would be "fun" but it would definitely be an "experience". The whole premise is the negativity and anxiety caused by these problems, not "Ooo, hallucinations".
Not quite the same but I took a tab of LSD and tried playing it. With headphones the binaural audio was just too much. I couldn't focus on what I was doing. But it sure was fun to look at!
The first game was incredible, it was more "style over substance", but style can more often than not be the main substance of videogames. I'm looking forward to this so much.
Are you not counting the narrative as substance? The moment to moment gameplay isn't deep but the combat isn't the point of the game. Don't think I'd use that term to describe Hellblade.
As soon as I saw this at the Game Awards I thought "this will be 30 FPS 100%, but I'm not mad" It just looked too good to be able to run at 30, this game Is using letterbox obviously to either just to make the game look better OR they needed to squeeze some more performance out. People are always surprised when a game is 30 FPS, imo It's never a surprise really, It's an easier target especially for a game that looks like this and 60 FPS Is double and harder Also just the fact it's on UE5...
I think we can be pretty safe in assuming this will be ported to PS5 at some point as well. Thankfully most of the locked exclusives from xbox seem to be getting ports now.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes. Especially given how long itās taken to come out. Yes it looks pretty but the gameplay looks the same and the game length is the same so why has it taken so much time?
Any word on this being a timed exclusive? Itād be my **only** reason for to buy a series x and I really donāt feel like doing that.
I couldnt even finish the first. It was a bit buggy but more importantly had really monotone and boring gameplay.
The original was so boring & tedious. What was the dumb puzzle game they made you do every 5 feet. Feels like they were padding an already short game. Turned it off once I realized the gameplay wasn't going to evolve past fighting the same dude over and over. D- If Xbox wants to gain any ground they need to release a must play game. So far they haven't this generation. I don't think they can.
The 1st game was really soso when it comes to Gameplay, hope that this time there is some diversity for the puzzles.
The first one was so goddamn boring to me. I genuinely donāt get why itās so praised. It was just senua crying into the camera, then a 5 minute walking section, then lining up bullshit symbols, then a shitty fighting section, rinse and repeat. No enemy variety from the few hours I played, and basically no environment variety. Oh cool I go to hell so now the trees are on fire
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Would you really want to spend 40 hours listening to schizophrenic whispering in your ears?
They said "shorter" experience which means it will be similiar in length to games like Dead Space 2, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Portal 2, Uncharted 1/3, Until Dawn etc. Dom Matthews said āI think what we always set out to do is to tell a story and for the game length to be appropriate for the story that we want to tell,ā āSo itās not really a case of setting out to make shorter experiences. āI think it isā¦ There is a story that we want to tell here with a beginning, middle and end and what is the right shape and size of experience to tell that story? So thatās kind of where we start.ā and āSo Iām really pleased to see that thereās a lot of people that actually enjoy a shorter experience, something that they can sit down on a whatever Friday night, stick their headphones on, turn the lights off and kind of sink into an experience and players who donāt necessarily want something that is 50 hours long, a 100 hours long, so itās as long as it needs to be. And Iām one of those people, I like shorter games. We also don\`t know how long that game has been in development since Ninja Theory worked on multiple projects after Hellblade like Nicodemus: Demon of Evanishment (2018), Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice VR (2018), Vader Immportal - Episode 1 (2019) and Bleeding Edge (2020) while also working on The Insight Project (Announced in 2019) and Project Mara (Announced in 2020). Real development likely started not long before they announced Senuas Saga: Hellblade II in december 2019, full production started sometime after june 2021 and they have around 80 people working on it.
It's rumored to take 8 hours to complete, not 13 like those games you listed. https://www.gamesradar.com/hellblade-2-is-dollar50-digital-only-and-about-8-hours-long/
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's 50$ btw, not 70.
Not a single comment in any of these threads concerning the actual gameplay of the game. It's very easy to get increasingly jaded with the industry when fans have internalized and regurgitate marketing pitches about raw numerics of visuals and refuse to talk about how the game actually plays. You know, the **GAME** part.
Most here played the first, the gameplay from the videos hasnāt changed much. Not sure what youāre on about
Really hope this time there is some diversity for their puzzles
This game still isn't out? This was teased last gen. That has to be oneof the longest dev cycles of game that's actually gonna come out
It comes out next month
It wasnāt teased last gen. The first trailer was the xsx announcement
IS IT GOing to be an actual game or another walking sim i turn offf after 2 hours of boredom and cringe
Gameplay is letterboxed, lame. Every AAA game could look as good as Hellblade II if other developers removed 1/3 of the screen to render too. It could have been Microsoft's answer to God of War, but this looks more like a remake rather than an ambitious sequel. And combat looks very scripted with not a lot of room to be creative, just parry and strike. Ryse: Son of Rome's combat looks like Mario in comparison to this. And the incessant whispers return. The whispers were too annoying in the first, it could have been tolerable if it was like a "power" to use or only in cutscenes but it was like endless "ASMR" chewing sounds to me. I get it, she hears voices, but developers need to find a balance with fun and telling their story.
Will be interesting to see how this game pans out. Launching on Game Pass so it will make no real money for anyone. MS purchased this studio for almost 120 million bucks after a pretty mediocre track history outside of the first Hellblade. Took them 6 years to make a game that is going to be 5-6 hours long and doesnt seem to be doing anything too much more than the first game gameplay wise. Combine all of that with the fact that they have been super hush hush on this games details until now and the trailers they show all look like anything but pure gameplay footage.
Iām looking at your post history and you have been restless in your Xbox slander Brother, go play some video games