Yawnnn next showing will be late 2024 by the time we get anything of substance it'll be 2025. This shit is another Crackdown 3.
Hellblade 2 gets new look at GDC 2023
- Thread starter John Elden Ring
- Start date
Well I mentioned HFW above saying I think it's about equal. We are reaching a point (have reached?) where these companies can basically capture all the nuance of various facial expressions. Once you hit that point I am not sure how much better you get in that respect. So yeah, it looks really good, and it's great tech, but again, it's not a game. It'll be great to see it inside the actual game.
To quote young George Lucas "A special effect is just a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing."
And that's how I feel about graphics. Graphics without gameplay is just an incredibly boring thing to me at this point. I played Metroid Fusion this past week on the Switch, and that game with its GBA graphics is still more fun than 98% of games released today with "modern" graphics. It was certainly more fun than Hellblade 1, so I imagine it's going to still be a better game than Hellblade 2.
Bottom line. If you're a PS person, don't poo-poo the visuals because it's tied to an Xbox game. But if you're an xbox person, don't hype these demos up like it's beyond anything ever seen. It's definitely not, and you would know that if you actually played some current games.
And if you're just a general gamer my guess is your reaction is "cool" and you move on to actual products you have to play.
I don't think the differentiating factor will be the tech/fidelity of the facial animation going forward... it will be down to the art direction to get it to look natural. The hellblade 2 footage has a little bit of uncanny valley but I think it's maybe intentional? Based on the subject matter.Well I mentioned HFW above saying I think it's about equal. We are reaching a point (have reached?) where these companies can basically capture all the nuance of various facial expressions. Once you hit that point I am not sure how much better you get in that respect. So yeah, it looks really good, and it's great tech, but again, it's not a game. It'll be great to see it inside the actual game.
To quote young George Lucas "A special effect is just a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing."
And that's how I feel about graphics. Graphics without gameplay is just an incredibly boring thing to me at this point. I played Metroid Fusion this past week on the Switch, and that game with its GBA graphics is still more fun than 98% of games released today with "modern" graphics. It was certainly more fun than Hellblade 1, so I imagine it's going to still be a better game than Hellblade 2.
Bottom line. If you're a PS person, don't poo-poo the visuals because it's tied to an Xbox game. But if you're an xbox person, don't hype these demos up like it's beyond anything ever seen. It's definitely not, and you would know that if you actually played some current games.
Well, it's a tech demo of their UE5 facial animations capture and implementation. UE5 became available last year, so they are now making the game and will take a while.
GDC is a place for devs to teach each other techniques, tools, engines or best practices, to make networking and deals. Not a place focused on marketing games. They were marketing/showcasing Unreal Engine instead.
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they making it from 2019? they said already, that they ported from UE4 to UE5. it is nothing new.
No. In E3 2021 its game director said they were in preproduction, and that still had to do a meaty vertical slice before moving to full production. I assume what they did show in December 2021 was that vertical slice, which could be completed or not.
The game tech is UE5 and wasn't ready, so probably they didn't move to full production until a few months before UE5 release assuming they had priority access and could use the stuff a few months before public release. Before that, they obviously worked with UE4 because UE5 didn't exist.
Before E3 2021 they were doing preproduction (early game design, prototypes, story, researching tech or making the concept CG they shown as teaser) and/or working in other games. But the full game production didn't start until very late 2021 being super optimistic or early 2022 being more realistic.
This week they shown a tech demo video without background, if the game would have been far into development they'd have shown an ingame cutscene or something. At least a video with some game environment as background.
Well I mentioned HFW above saying I think it's about equal. We are reaching a point (have reached?) where these companies can basically capture all the nuance of various facial expressions. Once you hit that point I am not sure how much better you get in that respect. So yeah, it looks really good, and it's great tech, but again, it's not a game. It'll be great to see it inside the actual game.
To quote young George Lucas "A special effect is just a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing."
And that's how I feel about graphics. Graphics without gameplay is just an incredibly boring thing to me at this point. I played Metroid Fusion this past week on the Switch, and that game with its GBA graphics is still more fun than 98% of games released today with "modern" graphics. It was certainly more fun than Hellblade 1, so I imagine it's going to still be a better game than Hellblade 2.
Bottom line. If you're a PS person, don't poo-poo the visuals because it's tied to an Xbox game. But if you're an xbox person, don't hype these demos up like it's beyond anything ever seen. It's definitely not, and you would know that if you actually played some current games.
For me the promise of Hellblade II is that it might play close atmospherically to some of the '80s Eastern European post-apocalyptic and dark fantasy films I've become fond of. There aren't a lot of games going for that type of thing at this scale of production value. It does seem like it'll be the type of game really carried through in large part to its atmosphere though, so if that doesn't do it for you, the game probably won't be to your tastes.
I've seen some weird AF takes from people on both sides about this. From saying the new footage is a downgrade from the 2021 gameplay (it's not), to saying HBII makes HFW look like an indie game (WTF?). It's just annoying that the worst of console warring seeps into even the actual games themselves, especially when they're exclusive to a certain console.
Yeah, I feel art direction and creative liberties are going to be the differentiating factors between the games that look "pretty good" and those that look otherworldly.
I think Ninja Theory can be one of those developers able to show that sense of smart creative choice, emphasis, restraint, etc. But some of the mouth motions in this new trailer weren't reflective of that. I've heard that maybe it was intentional to show off the tech, but I don't think they needed to do it if that was the case. Or at least, maybe show a bit more of her body's movement.
That's probably another reason I prefer the start of the new trailer versus the part that mostly mimics the 2019 footage: it was a really good display of both subtle facial animations and body movements.
If the game were coming out anytime soon, we'd of gotten some actual gameplay by now. And I mean something more involved than what was shown in 2021. If there isn't gameplay at the June showcase, then this game probably isn't coming until late 2024 at the earliest.
Why doesn’t Ninja Theory advertise the actual gameplay? It looks nothing like this
E3 2021 Gameplay
Meh Hellblade 1 was OK but very repetitive and restrictive. I believe 2 will be more open but much of the same.
The first one was made as an experiment with a small team and with limited resources. Almost like it was an indie game.
What makes me confused is that they went from that to a triple A game with “look at that high res clouds, face animation etc…”
So I assume a lot of pressure and expectations are being put upon the studio.
I don't go by what Microsoft or the devs say, well I never take it for face value. This will still be restricted in scope/gameplay for sure but with better graphics and a little more open. We've heard tales of grandeur before, to then end up with a lump of shit like Crackdown 3. Different devs but still a common theme with games under Microsoft.
You are right, not the first time Microsoft used very misleading information or trailers. Actually they still do trailers that turns to be nothing like the game.
I just think the game might not be even close to be 50% complete. They announced it on 2019 and I doubt they were already working on it.