Big step back – Digital Foundry tested Forspoken

Digital Foundry experts tested FORSPOKEN – New items from the publishing house Square Enix. They took the version for the PlayStation 5 on the basis, and the results turned out to be mixed. In some aspects, the game demonstrates excellent technologies, and in others it fails to the level of Xbox 360 and PS3.

Author DF John Lynneman (John Linneman), on this occasion, revived the section “What works and what is not?". Below are its conclusions after testing FORSPOKEN.

What works

Fast downloads. After clicking the New Game button in the main menu, the loading screen hangs only four seconds. And if you choose "continue", then there will be no expectation at all. Rather, you will not notice it, because the load lasts 0.31 seconds. The launch of specific conservation will delay you for 1.32 seconds.

The smoothness of animation. Developers FORSPOKEN We did a wonderful job. Animation of movements, magic and jumping from a magic parkour smoothly flow into each other, even on the ground with a complex landscape. Separate mention is deserved to study the hair – there is a special technology on the Luminous engine for this. The system creates a grid of cards controlled by curve lines, the position of which is determined by computational shaders. This allows you to create a very realistic hair movement – they react both to the movements of the main character Frey and external factors like wind. The whole complex of secondary and primary animations creates an excellent dramatic effect during battles.

Particle system. Animations in combat clashes are perfectly supplemented by various visual effects. Particles accelerated by a graphic processor create a magnificent dance of death with magic, explosions and other effects. At such moments, the game is as close as possible to the offline disposers of CGI, which represented Square Enix.

Weather effects. John Lynneman praised the implementation of fog and volumetric clouds. Many locations in the game are filled with various miasms and gases. Such thick fog allows you to create the right atmosphere. The sky with voluminous clouds looks great, although in some locations the color is not selected very well.

Display modes. The game can boast of a variety of settings. The user is free to choose from six modes of display of the picture: quality, reiterating, performance and one more option for each of the listed modes with optimization for screens with a frequency of 120 Hz.

Special settings. John also noted that the game has many different settings that directly affect how the game will look and work. Many interface elements can be turned off or partially removed. There are convenient functions like car use of healing items.

Character models. The detailed study of the appearance of the French and the smallest details of her clothes creates a very realistic picture. The same applies to NPC – they are definitely drawn and have surprisingly detailed outfits.

Map. The developers managed to create an isometric map of the world convenient for orientation. Each area is presented in the form of a small diorama, which can be considered from all sides.

That does not work

Lighting model. John says this is the most egregious and disappointing part of the game. In this regard FORSPOKEN takes a step back compared to Final Fantasy XV On the same engine that came out six years ago. According to John, the problem is not in bad technology, but in creative solutions of artists. A striking example-locations in New York and in the city of San Pol. Areas with indirect lights have an unhealthy shine. And if the area is flooded with light, then everything becomes unnaturally bright. Areas where light and shadow intersect are too contrasting. This can be observed in games at the Xbox 360, and FORSPOKEN created exclusively for PC and PS5. Now the lighting in the game works worse than in Assassin’s Creed Unity.

Comparison Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014) and Forspoken (2023).

John believes that with such contrast, characters with Xbox 360 would look quite appropriate.

Too bright white stone.

According to John, such lighting should not be in projects for the current generation of consoles.

Shadows. Ray tracing helps to improve the display of shadows – and nearby they look worthy. But if you go out into the open space and look into the distance, then trees, buildings and other objects simply do not have shadows, which is very striking. I suffered from such a problem Halo Infinite.

Asset placement. Buildings and terrain under them are almost not connected. For example, everywhere in the open world you can find at home where the heroine can rest. The models of these houses seemed to be cut into the surrounding landscape. They look alien and this applies to many other buildings in the game.

Implementation of KAT scenes. John saw https://billycasino.co.uk/games/ a lot of problems here. For some reason, some textures are loaded in low resolution. Animations can be strongly inferior as the main gameplay. Even the installation of these moments sometimes causes irritation when the screen is darkened in the middle of the scene without narrative necessity. Another game often forces you to dialogue with your bracelet, and during these dialogs you can’t move – the character just gets in place until the conversation ends.

Image quality. The developers decided to use dynamic resolution with FSR2 technology from AMD. In performance mode, the resolution rises to 1440p, and in quality and reiteraining modes – up to 2160p. But the problem arises: the initial resolution with which FSR2 works is amazingly low. About 50 % lower for each axis. This means that the quality in performance mode can actually drop to 720p, and in quality modes – up to 1080p. Reithing mode indicators are somewhere between these values. The situation does not change if you change the frequency. There is a subsidence of permission both at 60 Hz and at 120 Hz. But John noted that the reiteraining mode at 120 Hz works the most stable, especially thanks to the VRR function.

Performance. DF specialists tests showed strange results. In typical game situations and locations, the game works stably in any of the six modes. There are very small drawdowns, but they are unlikely to upset users. However, there are areas in an open world where performance falls strongly for an unknown reason. This is most clearly visible in a rocky valley. In performance mode at 60 Hz, the frame rate is mainly at the level of 50 FPS or below. And if you turn on the quality mode at 60 Hz, the indicators are barely rise above 20 fps, which makes this region non-granous due to constantly trembling pictures. If you enable the reiting mode at 60 Hz, then the frame rate behaves more stable and maintains the level of 30 FPS. But the drawdings are still sometimes happening. This mode John recommends using.

If you have a TV with a frequency of 120 Hz, it is better to use this advantage. Then in quality and reiteraining modes there will be 40 FPS, and in performance mode the picture will become more smooth due to the wider function of the VRR function.

Summarizing his review, John added that despite the big open world, the game can be passed in 16 hours, if not very distracted from the main plot. Complete passage can take about 40 hours.

FORSPOKEN caused him conflicting impressions. John noted that the final product looks much worse than the trailer that announced the game two years ago when it was still called Project Athia.

January 23, 2023 mouths of tin cows and digging mines – announced by Steamworld Build

January 24, 2023 Microsoft called PlayStation to the court as a defender

FORSPOKEN

The best comments

Shtosh, Arkham Knight is still capable of skilling in visually with a breeze on the batter of the game already 2023.

> Okhaka AAA of varying degrees of goodness

> One average AAA-game comes out

Oh, these aaa, one kinzo, chase the count, but they don’t make games!!111

It is very funny to read about optimization for screens of 120 Hz in the game, which for 2k in 30 frames requires 3070 ..

Put the light source. Pay attention that there are no shadows, the light is as if everywhere. If there were a couple of lanterns, then the heroine and barrels, the walls were lit in different ways, with different shadows

Well, in general, it was sold little, but there was no exhaust, though in the West. In Russia, for obvious reasons (there is no localization, you can’t officially buy) really no one noticed.

So Alexander translated the term Billboard, denoting a sprite with one active side, always looking face into the camera. Like monsters and objects in doom/duke nukem 3d

Lighting is changing. This is noticeable in hair and clothes.
There are glare on the hair in the tracing mode in the mode of the tracing, in the quality mode, the clothes are lighter. And in the performance of the thing, all this is turned off, so the skin looks darker.There is no lighting effects

The problem of Midnight Sans is not a popular genre. No matter how good the gameplay is, the mass player will not include a tactical strategy with the KKI system.

Fifth! large release with killed optimization over the past couple of months. Guys. Well, you e.Dali!

The answer can be found under this video. This, if that, the first demonstration of gameplay. And when the players saw kki-mechanics … In general, the balance of like dizlaiks is quite eloquent. Actually, until the moment of enthusiastic reviews, I deleted this game from my interests, as I suppose, and many others.

The system creates a grid of cards controlled by curve lines, the position of which is determined by computational shaders.

What else for the new technology of "cards"? What is written in the original?

I watched the beginning of the video, the game seems to still have problems with facial animation. It seems to be not. Minimum movement.
Judging by the news, the game simply did not have time to finish.

Those who need only an occasion to get off – not the target audience. If most of those who have paid attention to your game are precisely those who need an occasion to get rid of, then you will have a failure at all, regardless of what mechanics you will have.

If you managed to push your real target audience, then your marketer simply burns up money. The most stupid goal as a scapegoat for poor goods is a client – a client.

For Midnight Suns, it’s a shame, aaa game with unique mechanics – a complete failure, no one even noticed.

The point is by no means the popularity of tactics. The same XCOM and especially XCOM 2 have clearly shown that tactics can be popular. cool and beautiful and at the same time combine watchdogs over the moves.

He himself was not interested in tactics before the exit of the XCOM 2 and considered them boring, too archaic and narrowly profile. But the game literally fell in love with myself and now I try not to miss a single tactic, at least from information. And I think I’m not the only one. Here is the main question in the implementation and partly high class (highly budgets are at least visual). Because for a mass player the appearance of the game plays a large role, especially in complex genres. You must agree to play XCom 2 and GEARS TACTICS or conditional Xenonauts 2 (with all respect, of course). Play the Company of Heroes and the Enemy of the Enemy or the conditional blitzkrieg.

Problems Midnight Sins IMHO 3:

1. KKI system. Not how it is realized, but its very presence. Still, there are prejudices (and often justified) against it, although over the past 10 years there have become much smaller.

2. Plot, namely comics. Marvel Avengers has failed too much and is driving prejudices already 2 games on comics.

3. The main fans of tactics and/or studios still waited for XCOM 3, and by no means KKI on comics, and here many (including as an example) at least half-eyed and followed the game, but in fact it was not needed for them and they wanted another, t.e. The game just flew past the main target audience. And the mass viewer rejected it from paragraph 1 and 2.

Yes, here the detailing of the scene is as if there should not be access to it, and it should remain somewhere behind the obstacles against the background.

The problem is not so much in "incomprehensible" mechanics as in the mechanics of KKI. This immediately gave the impression of an attempt to jump on an inappropriate wave to cut the dough.

Oh God! "Billboard", "Card"! I don’t even know how to quarrel.
On the news I thought there on the crooked shirt just draws. But with your comment it came. There probably something like the wires were made in HL2, only here for the hair.
I wanted to try the rope in the godot, I found instructions, but there are a lot of terrible-frail mathematics. As a result, I found a finished code, played = D
In general, these are not quite sprites, it seems to be different, but the essence is the same, yes.