Death Stranding 2 graphics thread - Next-gen doesn’t start until Kojima says so

Is Death Stranding 2 the best looking game of all time?

  • Yes

    Votes: 168 53.8%
  • No

    Votes: 144 46.2%

  • Total voters
    312
The actual gameplay segments don't look any more impressive than what we've seen this generation. Doesn't look better than this.


That looks like shit. Somebody had to say it so I guess it will be me. /sigh

When the DF review of Death Stranding 2 comes out it will prove you wrong, but nothing will ever prove me right because nobody cares about an Avatar game from Ubisoft.
 
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Here's the thing that changed my opinion, and was explained to me by a very smart guy who I worked with years ago.

Kojima's trick is that he's extremely concerned with balance in his visuals. And this is a thing you see in everything he's made going back at least as far as MGS.

Around the time of MGS2 he just sort of casually mentioned that his philosophy was medium level of detail for world, for characters, everything. Which was simplifying what his process is, but fundamentally correct.

In essence what he meant was this: Never expend effort on creating detail in areas where the viewer's eye isn't drawn to. The composition of the image -and this is particularly true in cutscenes- draws the player's attention to key focal areas. Typically these aren't that numerous, 2 or 3 elements, so the majority of effort is extended on getting these right. All the space "between" can be shaded in at lower levels of fidelity, particularly by using the VFX and shading pipeline, with the goal to create a balanced whole.

What this does is to trick the eye into perceiving more detail and complexity than there actually is, whilst keep things performant. This latter element is important because these are moving images, and keeping things relatively fluid helps the overall perception.

If you want to understand this better I suggest watching the entire Halo Jump cut-scene from MGS3 (ideally on PS2) and pay particular attention to how every shot is relatively simplistic but always comes across as greater than the sum of its parts because of composition, vfx and motion in a handful of key areas,

There's a lot of sleight-of-hand in what he does, and that's a huge part of why his titles are so visually distinctive.
 
Yet literally nobody gave a shit, and the game sank without trace within a week of launch.

Sure Hellblade 2 looks good but its blowing its entire render budget on single facial rigs! Which is basically the most basic-bitch sort of cut-scene, albeit done extremely expensively,

Sorry but I have to consider things holistically, everything from art-direction through dynamics, animation, scene complexity, and then finally render tech and material quality, DS2 based on the trailer footage is just better because its far more complete.
We are talking about graphics here… Not if the game is relevant or not… That's another topic. The Order 1886 was the king for the past gen and almost nobody gave a shit about that game.
 
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We are talking about graphics here… Not if the game is relevant or not… That's another topic.
Better to ignore the playstation fanboys, they are never gonna accept that hb2 is the graphic king now, even in a topic about graphic with a title like that...

We have a dedicated topic to discuss high level graphic that is almost fanboy free.
 
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We are talking about graphics here… Not if the game is relevant or not… That's another topic. The Order 1886 was the king for the past gen and almost nobody gave a shit about that game.

Graphics for me are the WHOLE image, a MOVING IMAGE. Loading up a single model with as many shaders and bones in the rig as possible isn't impressive technically or artistically.
 
Better to ignore the playstation fanboys, they are never gonna accept that hb2 is the graphic king now, even in a topic about graphic with a title like that...

We have a dedicated topic to discuss high level graphic that is almost fanboy free.

It's really not...characters look great they need to get rid of black bars and that hazy blurry filter and do a remaster maybe on ps5pro
 
It's really not...characters look great they need to get rid of black bars and that hazy blurry filter and do a remaster maybe on ps5pro
What game are you talking about my dear?

Hb2? don't be silly, it's definitely the current graphic king for anyone who doesn't have a big S marked on fire in their asses.

The best argument you have is that it's a (barren) open world vs a far more restricted game, but i doubt this stopped people from praising unchy4 or tlou2 compared to the best open worlds back in the days, i saw too many people comparing tlou2 with cyberpunk, so DS2 doesn't get a pass in a discussion about pure graphic.
 
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Yeah DS2 characters aren't even from the same generation as Hellblade 2, quantum leap behind.

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Obviously not in the same league! ds2 is 3 generations being that amazing senua model!!!
I think you are mixing overdetailing and characterization for what are more realistic but less characterized humans in ds2

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Their games would look exactly the same regardless of engine, because the engine simply displays what you plug into them.
From isnt suddenly gonna change their artstyle, textures or design by changing engine.

Capcom with RE Engine and even MT FrameWorks could certainly produce absolutely incredible graphics but their artsyle/budget/direction leads them down the path of their games looking a certain way.

People seem to not really understand what game engines actually do.
While alot of Unreal Engine games have the "Unreal" look, thats the devs fault, because if you look at something like FighterZ or Guilty Gear, theres no way you would know that is an Unreal Engine game.
Ori doesnt look like a Unity game.

You get out what you put in.....Capcom and From changing to Engine X isnt going to change their artstyles because if their vision is Style Y then the engine will produce Style Y.
This comment is not about Art Style. An Engine that runs under 1080p on Consoles is bullshit on Consoles. Capcoms Engine is bullshit for Open World Like Both Games have proven and that was not because of the Art Style
 
Yet literally nobody gave a shit, and the game sank without trace within a week of launch.

Sure Hellblade 2 looks good but its blowing its entire render budget on single facial rigs! Which is basically the most basic-bitch sort of cut-scene, albeit done extremely expensively,

Sorry but I have to consider things holistically, everything from art-direction through dynamics, animation, scene complexity, and then finally render tech and material quality, DS2 based on the trailer footage is just better because its far more complete.
Christian Bale Swag GIF
 
This comment is not about Art Style. An Engine that runs under 1080p on Consoles is bullshit on Consoles. Capcoms Engine is bullshit for Open World Like Both Games have proven and that was not because of the Art Style

Well you said "looks shit on Console" so I assumed you were talking about the look of the games NOT the performance.



Errrr Dragons Dogma 2 runs a 2160p with horizontal scaling.
Elden Ring runs at 2160p with lows of 1500p when stressed.


Why is UE5 cut out of the race......Split Fiction runs amazingly on consoles at 1800p60, you have any evidence it would run at a higher resolution if using Decima?
Are you assuming these exact same teams working in Decima would have their games running at ~4K60 with their artistic vision kept intact, by switching engines?
Are we assuming even Death Stranding 2 is running anywhere near 4K60?


Im going to assume your post is based purely on conjecture or are you also assuming Guerilla is also going to be co-development partner on From and Capcom games in the event they licensed out the engine to Capcom and From?
As I said before I dont think alot of people actually know how Engines work and assume they can be some sort of magic bullet to do things.
Having an expensive gold nibbed fountain pen doesnt suddenly make you a great calligrapher.
 
It's top 3 for sure, let's wait until it launches though.
Also for people commenting the gameplay for the millionth time, we get it, you scroll on tiktok 8h per day and your attention span is similar to a teenager with ADHD, you can play lol and scroll on tiktok when you are waiting to respawn.
 
Yeah DS2 characters aren't even from the same generation as Hellblade 2, quantum leap behind.

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I said this before, western devs like add wrinkles and imperfection to skin to characters to make them look beat up and desperate to survive while most Japanese devs like make characters skin almost perfect because they value their characters to be attractive over realism and grounded.

Then again when comes to tech and graphics I have zero clue but thats impression I get when I look at character models.
 
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I wonder if they will use Horizon Forbidden West's custom AI image reconstruction method or whether they will use PSSR on the Pro?
 
Well you said "looks shit on Console" so I assumed you were talking about the look of the games NOT the performance.



Errrr Dragons Dogma 2 runs a 2160p with horizontal scaling.
Elden Ring runs at 2160p with lows of 1500p when stressed.


Why is UE5 cut out of the race......Split Fiction runs amazingly on consoles at 1800p60, you have any evidence it would run at a higher resolution if using Decima?
Are you assuming these exact same teams working in Decima would have their games running at ~4K60 with their artistic vision kept intact, by switching engines?
Are we assuming even Death Stranding 2 is running anywhere near 4K60?


Im going to assume your post is based purely on conjecture or are you also assuming Guerilla is also going to be co-development partner on From and Capcom games in the event they licensed out the engine to Capcom and From?
As I said before I dont think alot of people actually know how Engines work and assume they can be some sort of magic bullet to do things.
Having an expensive gold nibbed fountain pen doesnt suddenly make you a great calligrapher.
LOL. Forget it. You are really good talking very much around that what the other person meant. That's a really great skill but makes it absolutly pointless answering to you

They scale from such low Resolutions that Dragons Dogma, Monster Hunter,… look like Shit on Consoles and in Performance Mode they look even more Bad. Horizon and DS Look extremly crisp and detailed and run great even in Performance. No upscaling from 700p helps a lot. Horizon has much effects, big creatures, and a much bigger Open World than Monster Hunter. It is very comparable. But MH looks like one gen back.

And yes: Split Fiction looks more crisp than what we know of Unreal5, but is doesn't use some of the more powerful Tools the Engine has (lumen…). It looks crisp but far from impressive. It Looks like a smaller Titel - what it is.
 
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Obviously not in the same league! ds2 is 3 generations being that amazing senua model!!!
I think you are mixing overdetailing and characterization for what are more realistic but less characterized humans in ds2




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The hair looks like shit frankly, especially the beard, what the hell is even that
 
Extremely confused that this is even a question, and even more confused by the poll results lol It looks good but nowhere incredible or impressive to the point of being the best looking game, I just find it ... regular looking, I don't know. Not that it's a problem, we reached a point in graphics where I care more about art direction and optimization rather than pure tech.
 
Can you point me to those 'regular looking' games?

Because if Death Stranding 2 looks regular to you, I'd love to see what you consider extraordinary
The most impressive game for me is still RDR2, when you take into account the visuals, all the tiny details, all the NPCs with their own behaviour and schedules, the world constantly evolving in real time etc...

As for other games, I don't know, I just don't see what makes death stranding 2 look so different from most others AAA we have nowadays. Maybe I'm slightly biased because I know the game won't be for me (I played the first one and I will never trust Kojima with a game again lol), but even trying to be objective, I just don't find it that special looking.
I also think the characters don't look good, they have a very... doll / plastic look.
 
Extremely confused that this is even a question, and even more confused by the poll results lol It looks good but nowhere incredible or impressive to the point of being the best looking game, I just find it ... regular looking, I don't know. Not that it's a problem, we reached a point in graphics where I care more about art direction and optimization rather than pure tech.
Is a PS exclusive game... The game is going to be God here until it announced for Xbox.
 
The first one was boring as fuck. It was a walking simulator. I had more fun playing Hellblade 2!
 
Extremely confused that this is even a question, and even more confused by the poll results lol It looks good but nowhere incredible or impressive to the point of being the best looking game, I just find it ... regular looking, I don't know. Not that it's a problem, we reached a point in graphics where I care more about art direction and optimization rather than pure tech.

In that regard this will be head and shoulders above games like hellblade 2 lol
 
The first one was boring as fuck. It was a walking simulator. I had more fun playing Hellblade 2!

Oh boy, here we go again...

C'mon boys, try - at the very least - being somewhat original , this whole "walk sim" shit ain't gonna fly anymore - especially after declaring (completely unironically to boot) Hellblade 2 as a "game", have some some self awareness ffs 😉
 
Hellblade 2 character models have much more detail on them but from what i've seen, a significant part of the game is barren world with lots of fog and very limited depth of view. In the end i think its possible both games have a similar number of polygons on screen, they just use them in different ways.
 
youtube compression. Destroys a lot of details
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It completely misrepresents detail but I don't know if it destroys the detail. Probably de-emphasizes the detail for smoother playback.

Doing a quick edit on the shot only with its own detail - this is minimum of detail that is present in the image that can be emphasized.
 
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In that regard this will be head and shoulders above games like hellblade 2 lol
With this I agree simply because Hellblade 2 doesn't really "count" (or at least not in the same category) for me given how linear, scripted and cinematic it is. It looks pretty, but... it's not really interactive or explorable, so it doesn't actually impress me. It might be a technical showcase, it's not an interesting one for me because I'm more impressed when beauty is also mixed with interactivity, gameplay and exploration. If it's too much of an "interactive movie", it doesn't feel as impressive to me, the very low FOV with the charcter to the side of the screen is also a big turn off for me.
 
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