The Friday Inbox debates whether the Unreal Engine 5 demo on PS5 is real footage or not, as one reader enjoys Disgaea 4.
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Unreal graphics
So many people seem to be misunderstanding the fact that Unreal Engine 5 isn’t supposed to be released at all until 2021, and non-Epic games using it aren’t likely to show up until 2022 at the earliest. And expecting full games to instantly look like a small slice tech demo is resolutely absurd.
It took until only just recently for games to catch up the Unreal Engine 4 tech demos from 2012-2013 in visual fidelity. It will be the same here. Sony’s marketing has pulled off a serious coup here if they can convince people that PlayStation 5 launch games are actually gonna look like this. (Though the blowback when people discover the truth could be equally immense.)
Microsoft’s first showcase might have been rather underwhelming, but at least it was honest to what launch period games will actually look like.
Anon
GC: There won’t be any blowback because this is exactly what happens every generation, with every console, going back at least as far as the PlayStation 2.
Action and reaction
I’m really starting to enjoy the back and forth blows between Microsoft and Sony and thinking of the behind the scenes marketing strategy… it’s starting to have shades of what happened at the start of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox launches when Sony had the great, ‘Here is how you share games on PlayStation’ advert.
Microsoft had been doing great, with an excellent deep dive into the console. Then for some inexplicable reason someone decided to hit the hype button, repeatedly promising ‘gameplay’ and failed in spectacular fashion. In steps Sony with that incredible Unreal Engine 5 demonstration, it cannot be luck or coincidence this arrived after such a big Xbox misstep and it surely cannot be from the same minds behind the Mark Cerny send us your ears message!
The big one I’m waiting for is the pricing… who is going first and who is going to come along the day after and go here is our pricing and it’s this much cheaper! Do you think Microsoft will put a copy of that Unreal Engine 5 demonstration in the same envelope that has the P45 for the current marketing department? I like to think so!
Rob
Retro turbo boost
So I was wondering about something with regards to the next gen consoles and was hoping you could answer. Now I’m not technically minded at all, but when they say it’ll be the end of loading screens for next gen games does that mean for games made for the new console or any games, i.e, any that can be played due to backwards compatibility?
This question popped into my head as I’m replaying XCOM 2 at the moment, a great game with horrible loading times!
Liam
GC: That’s a good question, which neither company has addressed yet. We’re going to guess that the loading will be improved but unless the game is patched to specifically take advantage of the SSD it won’t be as fast as actual next gen games.
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Unnecessary extras
Nice video of Unreal Engine 5. It looked great. We won’t see it in action for years tho’, but Sony are notorious for showing games many years before they launch so nothing new there.
I noticed it isn’t running in native 4k, as per Digital Foundry. It looked great but I found this odd. Especially for a tech demo. The Xbox Series X has more teraflops but I’m not sure it has enough to run this demo at 4K. I was expecting all games to run at 4K on next gen consoles. Didn’t people make a fuss when the Xbox 360 didn’t run games at 1080p? Well we will see in the coming months but maybe these aren’t 4K boxes after all.
Jez
GC: Neither Sony or Microsoft has promised 4K for all games. It’s an unnecessary and resource-hungry indulgence that really shouldn’t be seen as a priority for any game.
Marketing numbers
Unless manufacturers are about to bombard the market with TVs that can take advantage of the feature I feel I’m I missing the benefit of next gen consoles outputting frame rates of (at least potentially if not in practice) 120 or above?
I imagine the vast majority of consoles are hooked up to TVs that operate at refresh rates of 60Hz as opposed to expensive 144Hz monitors. In which case the ability to exceed 60fps will be irrelevant?
Conversely if someone has a 144Hz monitor then aren’t they more likely be a PC gamer?
I guess it’s better to have a feature that’s not needed as opposed to the other way round but are there big living room TVs out there that do have allow for higher screen refresh rates? If so do any readers out there have one and are they looking forward to the XboxSX (My suggested abbreviation for the console from here on in) and PlayStation 5 even more so as a result?
Meestah Bull
GC: Along with 4K, it’s marketing nonsense more than anything else. 60fps is all you need and, as you point out, all you can perceive on any kind of reasonably priced TV.
Air quotes
I must be the only person not drooling over the supposed Unreal Engine 5 footage supposedly running on an actual PlayStation 5. I simply don’t believe that it isn’t pre-rendered or played on a PC with far higher specifications than the console itself has.
Has everyone been so quick to forget the Watch Dogs debacle, among others? The industry has lied far too many times with ‘gameplay footage’ that has been seriously downgraded for release for me to even consider trusting them anymore.
Andrew Middlemas
PS: Have just finished Journey To The Savage Planet. Beautiful, brilliant little game that excited me more than all the next gen trailers put together.
Not for public consumption
OK, the tech demo looked nice, I will give you that. Did we see however any real innovation or leaps forward?
What we did get however was 1. Character design and architecture dating from 1996 (Tomb Raider). 2. Crude level signposting that is now so familiar, that all sense of awe and explanation has long gone. And finally number 3: a hidden load as the main character squeezes through a small gap! (Really?!). Please stop with the tried and tested templates and show us some real progress.
James
GC: It’s not a game, it’s a tech demo. All it was supposed to do was look nice.
Stranger things
I would like to talk about how much I’ve been enjoying Disgaea 4 recently. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks, but despite some quibbles with it, I really love it. The cast is really strong and they might be the best in the series and lead Valvatorez may well be the best they’ve ever had. Though I haven’t played the third entry – was Mao better?
Disgaea is always better when it’s being completely bonkers and this is truly bursting out of its straightjacket! The moment Val actually believed he might be just a part of Fuka’s dream was especially hilarious. I’m not really sure about them ditching the weapon mastery system – and why is it taking me so long to get Omega Heal and beyond? But, like I say, quibbles.
I have to give special mention to Troy Baker’s performance as the sardine-loving vampire. Adorably deranged but with a hint of genuine menace underneath, it somehow reminds me of David Jason’s portrayal of Count Duckula, in well, the show of the same name. I would be surprised, if as an American actor, Baker has ever seen a cult British animation classic – but hey, stranger things have happened!
Sardines!
DMR
Creasing up
Great news about Paper Mario: The Origami King, well… as long as it’s actually any good that is. I think I’m unusual in liking Super Paper Mario on the Wii just as much as the first two but I haven’t played one since then due to the bad reviews.
I am more than ready for a good new entry in the series. The innovative looking battle system makes me hopeful this will be it, especially if Nintendo are saying it will be more strategic. The new more open environments look lovely too and the Samus helmet joke made me chuckle. All in all a good trailer, let’s just hope the full game can back it up.
Ryan O’D
GC: At least Super Paper Mario was purposefully different to the other two, it’s the games after it where things really went downhill.
Thousand times better
Absolutely delighted with the announcement of a new Paper Mario title, especially with the release date being so soon. OK, so the series has noticeably declined since the superlative Thousand-Year Door (still the funniest game I have ever played) but The Origami King certainly looks like a step in the right direction.
My main concern is whether the combat system will be engaging enough to sustain the length of the story, as that is certainly one area that has lacked in recent entries.
Azrael
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New tech, old gameplay
Colour me impressed with the Unreal Engine 5 demo. Impressed but not excited. Graphics certainly have come a long way since I started gaming on the C16 (not a typo), but I see it like an upgrading of an old CRT TV to a HD ready TV. The picture looks nicer but doesn’t change the content in any meaningful way to me.
And this is my main gripe. What new gameplay will this deliver? Can those particle physics and destruction physics engines bring something new to gameplay? Aside from a few genres I can think of, I can’t think of many which can really take advantage of the various technologies Unreal Engine 5 uses; and even then this assumes they can implement them in the way I am imagining.
However, I suspect we’ll see the current gameplay formula with better graphics. Will we see new gameplay elements which couldn’t be done before? If we’re incredibly lucky. That’s not to say we won’t have good games; we will. But something genuinely new and innovative because of the graphics? I remain sceptical.
Obakasama
GC: You can’t think how super realistic destruction effects could help create new gameplay? That seems an odd example to use.
Inbox also-rans
So from the two minute trailer you could tell that the game Origami King isn’t as funny as previous entries in the Paper Mario franchise. Isn’t the trailer supposed to be a medium to showcase the game’s potential, not a stand-up routine?
Alek Kazam
GC: When you watch a trailer for a comedy movie isn’t it supposed to make you laugh?
Aegis Defenders is free on PC on Humble Bundle for the next 48 hours. You just have to subscribe to their newsletter, download the game, and unsubscribe. They give you a Steam code.
Andrew J.
Engines are all very well but what about some decent games?
Anon
This week’s Hot Topic
The question for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Ishi, who asks what are the most impressive video game graphics you’ve ever seen?
With the next generation of consoles fast approaching what’s the most impressed you’ve been up until this point? Was it purely because of the technical achievement or did the art design and camera work play a part as well?
What kind of things are you generally impressed by in games when it comes to visuals and what are you hoping will become possible in the next gen that is impossible, or very difficult, at the moment?
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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
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