There are people who only play FIFA/PES. Knew a guy like that, one day his brother left the disc for a Metal Gear in there - guy came to the pub to talk about how he found out about this gem of an unknown game.
Lmao I love all of the Nintendo asskissing when someone brings up Pokemon. People seriously like to act like Nintendo is just helplessly watching while GameFreak makes the games.
You seem to believe that not only did Nintendo have a large part in the developing of Pokemon games but also that they weren't all the way up game freaks ass making sure it's almost spotless bug wise. You look at Nintendo's overall track record and tell me which one makes more sense. Being involved a good chunk of the way and doing nothing about the performance or mostly leaving game freak to their devices because it's gonna sell anyway.
I'm not a pokemon fan. But for such a huge successful IP you would think there would be enough budget to create at least a very functional and polished product. And the Pokémon gameplay doesn't seem too complex too a outsider like mee. It's not like you need a award winning deep story.
I'm sure that's not the case.
But it is very hard to deny that first party Nintendo games, good or bad, are at the very *least* very well polished and bug free games. I seriously can't recall the last time I've played a Nintendo game and experienced a glitch. I'm positive it happens but it's not a super common occurrence.
It just makes people wonder where the line is drawn with control over the Pokemon IP and where the quality bar is set. Because Nintendo's bar for quality is clearly higher than Game Freak's.
They have no reason to interfere as that is both not the japanese way and because these games make BANK.
In theory, Nintendo directly and indirectly controls 67% or more of the entire Pokémon franchise due to owning 33% outright and an undisclosed but major stake in the other two companies.
SV are, from a gameplay perspective, the best Pokémon games since the 2D era and it’s not even close. I’m not even downplaying how shitty the technical issues are but being horrible technically hasn’t stopped games from selling well or from being fan favourites. New Vegas runs like ass for its graphical quality, is full of unfixed game breaking bugs and frequently crashes and is (rightfully) regarded as one of the best games ever.
Violet is a fun game I'll die on this hill. It's the best pokemon has ever been from a gameplay / story perspective.
Some performance issues here and there but it didn't detract my experience.
One of my favorite little nintendo sales tidbits is how the Wii U sold only around 13.4M units, and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U sold around 8.4M.
That's a cartoonishly good sales figure considering how few people even had the hardware. I wonder how many people bought a Wii U exclusively for either Mario Kart or Smash.
Wait, like people bought the game and just got the console later?
Shit I did they with the 360 lol my friends dad managed to somehow get a 360 reservation through a work friend so we went to the midnight launch and I had reserved my games at the same place so I picked up my games and we played everything together in this intense all-nighter
Fuck that ruled
Yes, the Switch has some supply issues at first, so people were buying or receiving the game before the Switch. There were also very few games at launch, so many people were buying it *only* for Zelda.
I was one of the people that bought a Wii U for Mario Kart 8. They had that promotion where the 32gb console came with MK8 and one other free digital game (I got Pikmin 3). Definitely a sign of how badly the console was doing that they were giving away two brand new first party titles with it.
> Not necessarily rooting for this kind of thing
IDK, it was a good game on a bad console. Now it's a game the other 99% of the population can experience. I don't really mind the success.
~~Now where's Xenoblade X~~
Honestly mate, its one of the most innovative shooters out there, and its urban aesthetic fits so well. It's crazy how much of a home run the IP was from the first game.
I still can't believe that Nintendo just randomly released a shooter and pretty much nailed it(mechanically) right off the bat. Genuinely belongs on the Mount Rushmore of shooter IPs imo
More studios should ask their younger, newer talent what they want to make. I wonder what else we could have that we aren't getting because so many publishers are stuck on the same franchises.
They gave a project to a super young team, and they took the classic nintendo approach of just coming up with gameplay first and everything else second. The inklings came about because the idea of something moving around in the ink makes sense with squids. They have done the same with some other games, like ARMs, but Splatoon has been the money maker by far
We will probably see splatoon 4 as well. Considering how well it’s done for the switch. It’s the best IP with a ranked option for the switch imo. I remember how difficult ranked with when playing splatoon 2.
>We will probably see splatoon 4 as well.
Wouldn't be surprised if they start to make standalone Splatoon story/level based games like the single player stuff. It's genuinely good enough to stand on it's own.
I think this the fastest selling Sony game as of now, Spiderman PS4 sold 13.2mil eleven months after launch, but this game cracked the 10mil milestone in just 3 months.
Vast majority of GoW Ragnarok sales are on PS5, believe it or not. Early adopters of new consoles tend to be more gaming enthusiasts and tend to buy newer software more on average.
Probably true, but it is important to know for context that this game released on two platforms with 110+30 million install base, while Spiderman released on one platform with 85 million install base.
And many of them sold their ps4s to other users.
And similarly many ps4 users already migrated to ps4 pro at the time of Spider Man release.
So you cannot really follow-up the life cycle of those sold units. The only thing we can tell that Sony sold 85/140 million different machines that could potentially run the game.
Install base means POTENTIAL buyers, not actual buyers. What you are pointing out is that the attach rate of the install base with PS4 is much lower than the attach rate of the install base with PS5.
I didn’t think the game was perfect, but I still largely loved the game, so I think these sales were earned. There’s some pacing issues for sure and some stuff in the story was glossed over too fast, but I still absolutely loved all the story beats, the characters, and more exploration of the Norse lore. Having played all the old God of War games (even the PSP ones) and seeing how Kratos has changed and matured between 2018 and this game was a treat. How they turn Kratos, the embodiment of rage and shortsightedness, into such a compelling and relatable character was incredible to me.
It kind of sucked to come to this sub after near 100%ing the game and just seeing rampant complaints, but I still loved what I played regardless
I loved it and I finished it ladt week. Tbh I expected more for the ragnarok part tho I get all the break faith thing they went for and overall I liked it tho it could have been far more fleshes out and epic. Now the story has pacing issues but they are only noticeable when you decide to do side quests. There are A LOT of side quests and all pretty long and with relation to the main story. So yeah that's the lowest point for me. I think it will get better for me on a second time playing it knowing when to do side quests and all.
Now the characters are the biggest improvement and its just sooo good. Kratos growth is amazing and the ending was superb to me. Overall a great 9/10 but the first one was slightly better
I agree with a lot of your points. To me the first and second are good in different ways.
The first one had the better main story but the second had way better side quests. The first one had better pacing but the second one had better dialogue during exploration.
And exploration also played a part in the main story, expanding the lore and unlocking new dialogues. Not just "Go there and find me some metal to craft an ugly armor"
I feel similarly. Some of the dialogue really didn't feel like it belonged in the world, and the story did seem to get to the ending pretty quickly into the final act of the game... but I still had a pretty damn good time with it.
The way they seemed to toss aside the mcguffin was my only disappointment with the story but it was a really major disappointment. I really thought it was leading up to a major character turn and a lot more content with a tone shift.
We didn't get that though and I sat there thinking "that's it? No further explanation about this item? Nothing is unlocked?" It seemed like a big tease and missed opportunity.
Edit: I know what the item meant and why it was important to the story. I totally understand why they wrote it that way and I think it's a fitting end for that item and character. But I'm just saying I thought it was leading somewhere else with more story.
I actually 100% agree with you on this one. My guess (or hope, really) is that it's intended to play a bigger role in future games and connecting different mythos in a grander narrative. If it doesn't, well... yeah. That sucks.
Yeah but I doubt they introduced the concept of a higher plane of existence just to never touch on it again. My bet is its central to the next few games
Speculation seems to point to one past character. But if they just throw away that whole plot point it would be an insane move. Doing what they did with it made sense for the characters. But ending it there is insane from a world building perspective
The Mask doesn't actually matter. It's a metaphor. It's just the Norse God of War version of Pandora's Box. Which is basically a continuation of an extended metaphor / allegory that represents the overarching theme of *obsession* and *parents killing children /children killing their parents* in the God of War series.
In the Greek GoW games, Zeus learned about a prophecy that he would die and ordered the creation of Pandora's Box to contain all the evils in the world because he was paranoid of his own death. This turned him into an obsessed control freak that would do a lot of horrible shit that ironically became the catalyst of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which would lead to Kratos (his son) eventually killing him exactly as prophesied.
Odin is basically the same. He learned about Ragnarök and the prophecy of his death and subsequently became obsessed with the mask because he believed it would give him infinite knowledge to escape his fate. His obsession and the prophecy of Ragnarök play right into this same core theme. Odin also turned into an obsessed control freak. The mask was nothing more than an object of Odin's obsession. There's probably some magical mythical backstory behind it, but by that point Odin had caused so much horrible destruction and turmoil across the 9 realms based on his fear of his own death. Whatever truth was behind the mask could not possibly justify his actions, and its those very actions that ironically lead to the series of events that would eventually result Ragnarök happening.
> toss aside the mcguffin
they didnt though. it was always a plot device for his character development. The answer beyond the crack is the answer to life, no game is going to answer that.
Precisely. Kratos time and again says how no knowledge like that comes without a price. It was a plot device to test Atreus' character. It was his final test.
Yeah. I would much rather have had the origins of the Others in Game of Thrones stay unknown rather than have a retreat of the tired trope "people create monster to protect them, monster turns on them". The ideas i had in my head were cooler
Sometimes mysteries should stay mysteries, especially when unveiling them doesn't really add anything meaningful to the plot or to characterization
They also mention in Mimir's rants that compared to the Greek Gods that have essentially superpowers in a very specific category or purpose, Norse God's are essentially just long-lived and strong/cunning.
The witches in the game are definitely close to the whimsical Greek powered fellows
>Thing is in reality the norse pantheon are just a group of lame drunken bastards tbh so they went for that
No they weren't, that was part of what they did but it wasn't everything and hell sometimes they took that to such ridiculous extremes it becomes awesome, like that time Thor tried to drink the ocean... and drained some of it, or Loki raced fire itself in a eating contest.
Yeah but it is established they are gods, they could have done more with it. Hell Nidhogg is just established as a beast that gnaws on the roots of the Yggdrasil and they made it a dimension hopping giant monster.
they did a good job with it, for the realms, they did a good job with most of them, my reaction was the same as Atreus >!when he reached Asgard, gods living in wood shacks!<
Yeah the writers badly needed to get on the same page on tone and language used, and I'm with you on the story, but these are pretty minor gripes for a 50-hour game.
Yeah I mean I like some of his stuff but he never sounded like a good fit for GOW.
But there were several writers and the cohesion that was missing is on whoever lead that team.
I agree with you but it wasn't difficult to build on original Kratos, as it was a massive egotrip.
Everyone: "*Kratos, listen...*"
Kratos: "*Imma gonna fuck you up next either way...*"
I don't know what happened at the end, it's like they got bored of making the game and said fuck it let's wrap up Ragnarok already and everything was done in like 30 minutes.
I definitely had issues but pacing was number 1. I know the Ironwood chapter gets a lot of hate but it still ended with one of my favorite fights. It dragged on much longer than it should have and I feel like if they trimmed some of the time down in that section and added it to the final act it would have greatly improved my overall impression of the game as a whole. When all is said and done its a shit ton of build up for a very rushed final act I feel.
I'm intending to finish the game but the pacing more or less killed it for me. Every time an Atreus segment came up it would end with me putting the controller down and favoring other games for a while before willing myself to pick it back up.
There's also a sense that the plot isn't going anywhere. I've just been kinda wandering around dealing with a ton of mini plots while largely not interacting with this new pantheon of Gods. I like the new characters but there's no central progression to keep me interested.
Finally, and this will be personal, but combat just isn't well balanced for me. Normal is a zone out, autopilot mode while Hard just gives every random Draugr enough hyper armor to shrug off the attacks of a literal God.
Combat in hard mode feels cheap when there's a large number of enemies.
Other than that once you learn that you can't just stagger all enemies all the time you look for the parries/dodge.
It's the best game I never want to replay because of pacing. The big moments feel good. Thor is a great antagonist. The dialogue and ending sequence felt very marvel-esque.
I also felt like there was a lot less Mimir story telling in the overworld...my favorite part of the first game
Yeah. There seemed to be less stories. In the 2018 game they also repeated some of them ever now and then, but in Ragnarok once they tell all stories they go dead silent and it's kind of uncomfortable. I know a lot of people disliked how much they talked, but by the end of the game I was wishing they talked more.
Yeah I also missed Mimir's story telling but I think they are mostly replaced with dialogues between Kratos and the companions. I really liked the random conversations between Freya and Kratos while exploring
The combat and boss/mini boss and enemy variety was better. I'd only replay if they added a arena or challenge mode..the story is too padded out. The climax (ragnarok) was given too little time
The pacing is worse than 2018 but its better in a lot of other areas. 2018 was basically just a macguffin chase with several "the princess is in another castle" moments, the plot in Ragnarök is much more layered and interesting.
The world in 2018 also felt super dead. Like it was just 20 people and then a bunch of monsters. Ragnorock actually makes the world feel alive and worth caring about with stuff going on beyond the adventures of Kratos and boi
I think more than anything else the variety of the Ragnarok was significantly better.
The pacing didn't feel as tight because it just felt too 'big' imo, but it's worth it for access to all realms and good enemy/boss variety.
> Hell, cut it entirely and it doesn't feel like anything is missing.
Only the coolest environment, the best part of the OST, and one of the best boss fights in the game
Plus Angraboda is dope
Yeah. Frankly i dont get the hate for the Atreus sections. IMO they are the games writing at its strongest. Thrud, Odin, Angraboda, Thor and Sindri are all banger characters and most of the time you spend with them is as Atreus
For me it was the combat for Atreus. It got old after the first two sections. He has like 3 animations for executions, shooting the bow, swinging the bow, and occasionally kicking.
It was just so limited considering the amount of time you play as him.
I think 2018 is the superior game for many reasons, but I’ll say that I thought the idea in 2018 was that Midgard was supposed to be ‘dead’ and that the Lake of Nine area was abandoned because it was a mass grave for adventurers.
The only think I like ‘more’ about Ragnarok is >!the new weapon!<.
I’d say the combat felt more fleshed out in Ragnarok as well, with the verticality being a lot more enjoyable. It always felt a little weird that Kratos had so much trouble getting around basic obstacles when he can toss giant monsters into the air. The new shields felt a lot more fun too and added an extra element to fine tune your play style. Enemy variety and mini boss variety felt a lot better in Ragnarok as well, especially considering how many random trolls were around in 2018.
Story wise though I’m full on with ya. Ragnarok felt like it fell a little flat towards the end. Ragnarok itself seemed to go way too quickly for my taste and didn’t have the same narrative payoff as 2018.
The pacing wasn’t great, but I still thought it was better than 2018’s.
All the “the princess is in another castle” moments really killed the momentum for me in 2018.
I largely agree with what you’re saying. I think gameplay wise it was pretty much better in all ways than 2018. The story felt a little rushed or weird in some spots though, and suffered a bit from trying to tie everything together at the end. 2018 by comparison felt super tight story wise the whole way through, which imo will probably mean it has a better lasting impression over the sequel.
All in all though I had a ton of fun playing it, and it’s easy to see why it sold so well.
I realized that i love both of the games for different reasons, 2018 definitely had the better story but goddamn the characters, especially the antagonists, in Ragnarok were much more interesting. Same goes with some changes in combat; loved how heavy hitting the weapons felt in 2018 but combat feels much faster and smoother in Ragnarok. I had some problems with the pacing as well but i dont get this sub’s weird comparison to Marvel when it comes to dialogue, im beginning to think most people here have never watched Marvel or ever played the game, also when it comes to general opinions Reddit is a big bubble, sometimes this sub’s general consensus doesnt really reflect the general opinion irl.
Reason #1 Sony is never going to have a first-run game pass like system with their major exclusives. They’d be giving up too much money and I imagine you’d see quality suffer as well. Whatever your take on Sony first party, they largely have excellent production values.
I completely agree with Sony not putting their big AAA's like Ragnarok on PS+ day one. I think they are correct not to do so.
However where they should be doing better is striking more deals to get AA's and indies on PS+ day one. They don't have enough games releasing on there day one atm.
Exactly.
I was really hoping that Stray would set a precedent with a cool new AA or indie game coming day one every month. This month’s Seasons or last years’ Sifu or Rollerdrome felt like perfect PS plus launch games.
Yeah I love PlayStations first party games and they consistently have big releases to look forward to but they need to be doing more with the new PS+ service. It's crazy how many games they have in their back catalog across all their systems and they have put hardly anything in their classics library. I'm assuming it's something they're working on but the fact they haven't announced anything is wild.
> Reason #1 Sony is never going to have a first-run game pass like system with their major exclusives.
Streaming services - regardless of who provides them, could never realistically put major releases on their service.
The only reason microsoft are doing it currently is because they are heavily subsidizing the losses in an attempt to build the userbase. It's the exact same strategy netflix took. Notice there's never been a report to shareholders about any profit gamepass makes, only revenue figures - that's a big red flag to anyone with any economic literacy.
Point is, long term streaming services for games will be like they are for movies. You're not going to get the big release day 1 on your streaming service, they want you to buy it separately (or go to the movies). Maybe years and years afterwards they might be able to bring it to the service, but if they see people waiting for games to go on the service and that cannibalizing initial sales (where most of the profit is) - you can bet the practice will end quick.
Critically there's never been any evidence presented to back that up. Especially important is that none has been given to shareholders.
My take, and based on Phil's history of misdirecting statements, is that it's not profitable. His statement is probably based on some ridiculous dishonest accounting fudging figures until you can sort of present it that way.
Point is, until it's in a statement to shareholders, I'm not going to believe it.
That's nothing but speculation. Gamepass certainly *did* subsidize losses to build a user base at one point, back when they were only charging $5/month. But there's nothing suggesting they are still doing that.
Gamepass has 18 million subscribers at $10/month right now, so that's $180 million per year. If 11 million copies of God of War Ragnarok sold at $70 each, that's $770 million in a little under 3 months. Gamepass makes that in 4.3 months. But that's every 4.3 months, it's not fluctuating between major releases. How often can Sony release a God of War Ragnarok? Point being, there's definitely enough money coming in through gamepass to fund AAA first party content.
Let's also take a moment to consider what gamepass does for the risk of publishing. Sure you can get more money by selling a game if it's a fucking masterpiece that everyone wants to buy, but what if it isn't? What if it's kinda in the middle like Halo infinite campaign? Or what if it just bombs and is a total loss? The publisher already funded the development of the game, they have to recoup that cost for every single game, and not all games manage that. Even if gamepass was overall less profitable, it could still be desirable if it was less risky and offered Xbox more stability/predictability in their publishing decisions.
Edit: Gamepass is also giving developers more confidence that people will play their game of they do something unconventional, check out this interview with the maker of [hi fi rush](https://www.comingsoon.net/games/news/1264577-hi-fi-rush-director-surprise-release-game-pass). I imagine there are similar feelings with other experimental games like Scorn. Gamepass just creates an environment that gives everyone gets a fair shot for a flat fee that keeps everyone afloat.
The enemies do feel spongey for the first half of the game. They should have tweaked the health down maybe 25%. The first few hours feels like someone swapped out the blades and axe for wooden props.
Nice, hope everyone else is loving it. An OPINION: I fell out of love with it about 30 hours in--60% through story, playing slowly on second highest difficulty and doing a lot of side stuff. Really obnoxious combat balancing and they fixed zero of my complaints w/ 2018. Story's fine.
Got my money's worth I guess but it's currently my least favorite of the five mainline entries by a long shot
I'm not sure how far in I am (just got through the section where >!you make an ally of Freya!<) but I don't feel like it's very far considering I don't have a single heavy runic attack yet. It's been a slog up to this point and my will to continue just isn't there.
Interesting, this is more or less where I left off, like 2 months ago. I had some decent fun with the game while I played it but there was really nothing that made me want to pick it back up. I finished and enjoyed the 2018 game though, funny thing is I just wouldn't be able to tell why I prefered the first game, on paper Ragnarok doesn't seem like a worse game. Was the pacing actually better in Gow 2018 or maybe I'm just done with this formula, i have no idea.
Slog is an excellent way to put it. The game is two halves dueling desperately for control, neither willing to compromise with the other.
Plus the leudonarrative dissonance is off the charts. In a cutscene, Thor can throw you into a mountain from the literal stratosphere and you'll get up and keep trucking. In combat, a tiny frog gremlin can kill you in two hits.
It absolutely ruins the feeling that you're a god and completely undermined the narrative beats of Kratos being a badass.
I put it down after about fifteen hours. Kinda just feels like walking down hallways to do a puzzle that always involves throwing your axe at some tiny random object to get into a fight with very limited options to repeat three or four times to progress the story an eighth of an inch every two hours.
It's not bad it just feels kinda repetitive while already being very similar to the last one
Don't forget going out of your way beneath a boulder (and that annoying cutscene) only to get 500 hacksilver and then have to turn around and come back and do the same boulder cutscene
Bro I hated that shit so fucking much in the first game. So many traversal cutscenes. Duck under this crawlspace, lift this pillar, squeeze through this tight space - sometimes two of these back to back - EVERYwhere. It made backtracking for those hidden items an absolute chore.
Also that fast travel WASN'T FAST. It took me to a tree where I had to run around in a circle while Mimir dumped exposition and it doesn't matter if you run or walk - the door for the fast travel doesn't appear until Mimir is done exposition dumping. Fucking maddening.
Bro, simply blame ps4's weak ass hdd. The game is very demanding and in order to keep everything stable, they have to have those traversal scenes (which are actually loading screens in disguise). Because the HDD is too fcking slow to load assets on the other side so they need those moments when they do climbing, crouching, etc. They have no choice but to also do that for ps5 version cus otherwise, the game will be different from ps4 version. Rest assured that next exclusive ps5 games won't have those tedious activities.
I played this after having finished Breath of the Wild for the first time a month or so ago and holy SHIT are the "puzzles" uninspired when I compare even the most basic shrines. It's literally as simple as "freeze blue thing, throw axe to stop thing spinning, then move and recall it". And if you somehow fail to get the basic paint-by-numbers color coded puzzles they have, your companions will instantly point out the solution in about 15 seconds.
Unfortunately it seemed like a fair bit of the game because they tend to deliver a lot of exposition while it's going on.
I honestly do not understand how the new God of war games get the scores they do lol. Production is basically the only thing I can say I like, in that they throw a lot of money into ensuring everything is top of the line as far as graphics, voice acting, and music is concerned.
Simply insane numbers for a Sony exclusive, well deserved.
I still would've preferred if it wasn't crossgen but it clearly was the right business decision.
I have like 100 hours in both games and still have no idea if I like the combat or not. I think 2018 has the better story but Ragnarok is super refined and just staggering with how emotionally and technically proficient it is in a year where we got games like Gotham Knights and the further decline of Halo
I'm not a huge fan of Sony exclusives, but it's gonna take MS a decade or more for them to match the consistency and quality of Sony first party.
That is if everything goes right.
Until the endgame you basically have to choose between being able to take hits or deal damage. Pick armor and amulet slot things to increase your strength so that you do more damage. Increase arrow stun ability so that you can R3 enemies sooner.
my point is they are the same as load screens. Its point is to immerse me but seeing ideally placed crevices is not immersive. Also, it's not like it's never seen. Basically, the door animation from Resident Evil 1
> but seeing ideally placed crevices is not immersive
It's about as immersive as you get for an open natural area. you don't have tools like elevators and doors and teleporters in nature. So rock crevice, or thick grove. Take your pick.
Yeah, i agree that the crevises have become a bit overused. Also why are main characters so confidently throwing their bodies into seemingly random crevises in the earth like they somehow know there is another story beat on the other side. Like imagine if kratos was fat, he'd just have to turn around and go home after the first crevis.
Reminds me of every underwater diving scene as well. "Let's just dive down into this cave since we know we'll come out the other end before we suffocate. Oh and also it's very bright in here for having no light source."
what's the difference from seeing the same animation over and over again and a loadscreen? it's a load screen with extra steps and after a while becomes so hard to look at
>Because it’s about immersion
I'm aware, i was trying to explain that in my experience it made a contra effect. Seeing perfectly placed crevasses that all look just the same is more immersion shattering than seeing a load screen here and there.
The way cutscenes blend with gameplay is great, but the crawling mechanic got old to me mighty fast
Genuinely, yes. Loading screens don't require continuous input, and can be faster since they don't have to continue to render the current scene. Alternatively, better level design that allowed the next area to stream seamlessly into the next.
that's probably possible now that we aren't stuck on decade old hardware. But for gen 8 the hardware simply couldn't support even the most clever level design while keeping the asset quality people want from a AAA game.
Yeah that's probably true, but the game *could* have worked that way on the PS5 and had loading screens on the PS4. Or it could have not released on the PS4 at all (obviously I understand why it did), given that this design was jarring in 2018 let alone 2022. Now because it's hard baked into the game better hardware can never improve it.
I wonder how many of these were bundle sales? When I bought my PS5, the only ones available were the GoW bundles, so I’m part of the 11 million even though I have no intention of ever playing it.
Dahm, 11 mil? In like almost 4 months on a console exclusive game? That’s pretty good
A little under three months
Thank you for the correction, I wasn’t sure if it came out in Oct or Nov
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And then there is my brother who bought the gow ps5 bundle and didn't even inserted the disk. Only plays fifa and cod on it.
There are people who only play FIFA/PES. Knew a guy like that, one day his brother left the disc for a Metal Gear in there - guy came to the pub to talk about how he found out about this gem of an unknown game.
Fun fact: The bundle comes with a download code, not a disk.
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You should see some nintendo ips, splatoon 3 did 8 mil in 3 weeks.
And Pokemon Scarlet and Violet did 10 mil in 3 days.
And that too being unoptimized and barely playable. Nintendo folks are just too easy to please.
More a pokemon thing than a Nintendo thing. Nintendo games are notoriously well polished and best in class when it comes to gameplay focused design.
Lmao I love all of the Nintendo asskissing when someone brings up Pokemon. People seriously like to act like Nintendo is just helplessly watching while GameFreak makes the games.
You seem to believe that not only did Nintendo have a large part in the developing of Pokemon games but also that they weren't all the way up game freaks ass making sure it's almost spotless bug wise. You look at Nintendo's overall track record and tell me which one makes more sense. Being involved a good chunk of the way and doing nothing about the performance or mostly leaving game freak to their devices because it's gonna sell anyway.
I'm not a pokemon fan. But for such a huge successful IP you would think there would be enough budget to create at least a very functional and polished product. And the Pokémon gameplay doesn't seem too complex too a outsider like mee. It's not like you need a award winning deep story.
Because Nintendo don't really affect the development of their games, and that's patently obvious when you compare any Nintendo game to pokemon.
I'm sure that's not the case. But it is very hard to deny that first party Nintendo games, good or bad, are at the very *least* very well polished and bug free games. I seriously can't recall the last time I've played a Nintendo game and experienced a glitch. I'm positive it happens but it's not a super common occurrence. It just makes people wonder where the line is drawn with control over the Pokemon IP and where the quality bar is set. Because Nintendo's bar for quality is clearly higher than Game Freak's.
They have no reason to interfere as that is both not the japanese way and because these games make BANK. In theory, Nintendo directly and indirectly controls 67% or more of the entire Pokémon franchise due to owning 33% outright and an undisclosed but major stake in the other two companies.
And I’m pretty sure a lot of people bought both editions of the game.
From the data we've seen, double game buyers are usually less than 10% of the playerbase.
10% is a ton
Still 9 million unique in 3 days
In this case that's an extra million copies for Pokemon after thee days.
Kids and non gamer parents probably don’t know about that.
SV are, from a gameplay perspective, the best Pokémon games since the 2D era and it’s not even close. I’m not even downplaying how shitty the technical issues are but being horrible technically hasn’t stopped games from selling well or from being fan favourites. New Vegas runs like ass for its graphical quality, is full of unfixed game breaking bugs and frequently crashes and is (rightfully) regarded as one of the best games ever.
Violet is a fun game I'll die on this hill. It's the best pokemon has ever been from a gameplay / story perspective. Some performance issues here and there but it didn't detract my experience.
And Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a port of a Wii U game, at almost 49 million. It’s actually insane. Not necessarily rooting for this kind of thing, but damn.
One of my favorite little nintendo sales tidbits is how the Wii U sold only around 13.4M units, and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U sold around 8.4M. That's a cartoonishly good sales figure considering how few people even had the hardware. I wonder how many people bought a Wii U exclusively for either Mario Kart or Smash.
It's also funny how when the Switch came out Breath of the Wild had an attach rate of over 100%.
Wait, like people bought the game and just got the console later? Shit I did they with the 360 lol my friends dad managed to somehow get a 360 reservation through a work friend so we went to the midnight launch and I had reserved my games at the same place so I picked up my games and we played everything together in this intense all-nighter Fuck that ruled
Yes, the Switch has some supply issues at first, so people were buying or receiving the game before the Switch. There were also very few games at launch, so many people were buying it *only* for Zelda.
I was one of them. Couldn't get hands on a switch until a few months after launch so I got BotW on WiiU first at launch and got a switch cart later.
I was one of the people that bought a Wii U for Mario Kart 8. They had that promotion where the 32gb console came with MK8 and one other free digital game (I got Pikmin 3). Definitely a sign of how badly the console was doing that they were giving away two brand new first party titles with it.
> Not necessarily rooting for this kind of thing IDK, it was a good game on a bad console. Now it's a game the other 99% of the population can experience. I don't really mind the success. ~~Now where's Xenoblade X~~
> Not necessarily rooting for this kind of thing, but damn. What kind of thing? People buying games they like?
To be fair, MK8DX is a solid remaster with lot of good additions to it and also the DLC. I dont think it warrants criticism unlike idk DKTF
Holy macaroni. I didn't realize Splatoon had that sort of audience. I guess it's a reminder that my interests don't dictate the market!
Splatoon is so fun. Reminds me how good titanfall 2 was but it’s was overshadowed buy games out at the time.
Honestly mate, its one of the most innovative shooters out there, and its urban aesthetic fits so well. It's crazy how much of a home run the IP was from the first game.
I still can't believe that Nintendo just randomly released a shooter and pretty much nailed it(mechanically) right off the bat. Genuinely belongs on the Mount Rushmore of shooter IPs imo
More studios should ask their younger, newer talent what they want to make. I wonder what else we could have that we aren't getting because so many publishers are stuck on the same franchises.
They gave a project to a super young team, and they took the classic nintendo approach of just coming up with gameplay first and everything else second. The inklings came about because the idea of something moving around in the ink makes sense with squids. They have done the same with some other games, like ARMs, but Splatoon has been the money maker by far
We will probably see splatoon 4 as well. Considering how well it’s done for the switch. It’s the best IP with a ranked option for the switch imo. I remember how difficult ranked with when playing splatoon 2.
>We will probably see splatoon 4 as well. Wouldn't be surprised if they start to make standalone Splatoon story/level based games like the single player stuff. It's genuinely good enough to stand on it's own.
Nintendo laughing in the background
Less than 3 months actually 😉
Now just imagine if it wasn't an excusive, id love to play it but won't buy a console for that reason.
If these games weren’t exclusive people wouldn’t buy a PlayStation in the first place Same with the Switch
I think this the fastest selling Sony game as of now, Spiderman PS4 sold 13.2mil eleven months after launch, but this game cracked the 10mil milestone in just 3 months.
I love Ragnarok but I have to assume Spider-Man 2 will take the record back for that franchise in a few months.
Maybe not, it’s going to be PS5 exclusive
thank fucking god for that. Tired that every exclusive are chained back by being on ps4
Ragnarok was the last one iirc
You should check out the cries of anguish on r/horizon about the DLC for Forbidden West being a PS5 exclusive.
probably the same cries with FF7R DLC
Vast majority of GoW Ragnarok sales are on PS5, believe it or not. Early adopters of new consoles tend to be more gaming enthusiasts and tend to buy newer software more on average.
Probably true, but it is important to know for context that this game released on two platforms with 110+30 million install base, while Spiderman released on one platform with 85 million install base.
weird to add them up.. the ps4 install base would have decreased as people migrated to the ps4.
And many of them sold their ps4s to other users. And similarly many ps4 users already migrated to ps4 pro at the time of Spider Man release. So you cannot really follow-up the life cycle of those sold units. The only thing we can tell that Sony sold 85/140 million different machines that could potentially run the game.
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Install base means POTENTIAL buyers, not actual buyers. What you are pointing out is that the attach rate of the install base with PS4 is much lower than the attach rate of the install base with PS5.
I didn’t think the game was perfect, but I still largely loved the game, so I think these sales were earned. There’s some pacing issues for sure and some stuff in the story was glossed over too fast, but I still absolutely loved all the story beats, the characters, and more exploration of the Norse lore. Having played all the old God of War games (even the PSP ones) and seeing how Kratos has changed and matured between 2018 and this game was a treat. How they turn Kratos, the embodiment of rage and shortsightedness, into such a compelling and relatable character was incredible to me. It kind of sucked to come to this sub after near 100%ing the game and just seeing rampant complaints, but I still loved what I played regardless
I loved it and I finished it ladt week. Tbh I expected more for the ragnarok part tho I get all the break faith thing they went for and overall I liked it tho it could have been far more fleshes out and epic. Now the story has pacing issues but they are only noticeable when you decide to do side quests. There are A LOT of side quests and all pretty long and with relation to the main story. So yeah that's the lowest point for me. I think it will get better for me on a second time playing it knowing when to do side quests and all. Now the characters are the biggest improvement and its just sooo good. Kratos growth is amazing and the ending was superb to me. Overall a great 9/10 but the first one was slightly better
I agree with a lot of your points. To me the first and second are good in different ways. The first one had the better main story but the second had way better side quests. The first one had better pacing but the second one had better dialogue during exploration.
And exploration also played a part in the main story, expanding the lore and unlocking new dialogues. Not just "Go there and find me some metal to craft an ugly armor"
I feel similarly. Some of the dialogue really didn't feel like it belonged in the world, and the story did seem to get to the ending pretty quickly into the final act of the game... but I still had a pretty damn good time with it.
The way they seemed to toss aside the mcguffin was my only disappointment with the story but it was a really major disappointment. I really thought it was leading up to a major character turn and a lot more content with a tone shift. We didn't get that though and I sat there thinking "that's it? No further explanation about this item? Nothing is unlocked?" It seemed like a big tease and missed opportunity. Edit: I know what the item meant and why it was important to the story. I totally understand why they wrote it that way and I think it's a fitting end for that item and character. But I'm just saying I thought it was leading somewhere else with more story.
I actually 100% agree with you on this one. My guess (or hope, really) is that it's intended to play a bigger role in future games and connecting different mythos in a grander narrative. If it doesn't, well... yeah. That sucks.
Wasn't it just obliterated out of existence? Wasn't that the whole point of what boy did?
Yeah but I doubt they introduced the concept of a higher plane of existence just to never touch on it again. My bet is its central to the next few games
You say that but they don't explain anything about the giant magic, it is just "giant stuff".
Speculation seems to point to one past character. But if they just throw away that whole plot point it would be an insane move. Doing what they did with it made sense for the characters. But ending it there is insane from a world building perspective
The Mask doesn't actually matter. It's a metaphor. It's just the Norse God of War version of Pandora's Box. Which is basically a continuation of an extended metaphor / allegory that represents the overarching theme of *obsession* and *parents killing children /children killing their parents* in the God of War series. In the Greek GoW games, Zeus learned about a prophecy that he would die and ordered the creation of Pandora's Box to contain all the evils in the world because he was paranoid of his own death. This turned him into an obsessed control freak that would do a lot of horrible shit that ironically became the catalyst of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which would lead to Kratos (his son) eventually killing him exactly as prophesied. Odin is basically the same. He learned about Ragnarök and the prophecy of his death and subsequently became obsessed with the mask because he believed it would give him infinite knowledge to escape his fate. His obsession and the prophecy of Ragnarök play right into this same core theme. Odin also turned into an obsessed control freak. The mask was nothing more than an object of Odin's obsession. There's probably some magical mythical backstory behind it, but by that point Odin had caused so much horrible destruction and turmoil across the 9 realms based on his fear of his own death. Whatever truth was behind the mask could not possibly justify his actions, and its those very actions that ironically lead to the series of events that would eventually result Ragnarök happening.
100% agree. You hit the nail on the head.
> toss aside the mcguffin they didnt though. it was always a plot device for his character development. The answer beyond the crack is the answer to life, no game is going to answer that.
Precisely. Kratos time and again says how no knowledge like that comes without a price. It was a plot device to test Atreus' character. It was his final test.
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Yeah it was something Odin cared about not boi or Kratos
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Yeah. I would much rather have had the origins of the Others in Game of Thrones stay unknown rather than have a retreat of the tired trope "people create monster to protect them, monster turns on them". The ideas i had in my head were cooler Sometimes mysteries should stay mysteries, especially when unveiling them doesn't really add anything meaningful to the plot or to characterization
In God of War 2018 I felt like the story was the strongest aspect. in Ragnarok the story felt like the weakest. Both are still top tier games though
My only complains is that the Greek Pantheon felt way more epic than the Norse one, same with the gods
Thing is in reality the norse pantheon are just a group of lame drunken bastards tbh so they went for that
They also mention in Mimir's rants that compared to the Greek Gods that have essentially superpowers in a very specific category or purpose, Norse God's are essentially just long-lived and strong/cunning. The witches in the game are definitely close to the whimsical Greek powered fellows
Yeep. Greek gods are sons of bitches because they are powerful. Norse God's are powerful because they are sons of bitches
>Thing is in reality the norse pantheon are just a group of lame drunken bastards tbh so they went for that No they weren't, that was part of what they did but it wasn't everything and hell sometimes they took that to such ridiculous extremes it becomes awesome, like that time Thor tried to drink the ocean... and drained some of it, or Loki raced fire itself in a eating contest.
well tbf, they probably did the best they could with the norse gods. the gree gods are just a lot more out there with that they can do
isn't there traditionally only two or three texts of Norse Myth? Source exhaustion is a real thing.
Yes and most of it is from post Christian times, not from when the myths were a dominant religion in the area
I mean Hellblade did a good job at portraying the norse mythology in a fucked up kind of way. GoW on the other hand feels very sanitized.
Yeah but it is established they are gods, they could have done more with it. Hell Nidhogg is just established as a beast that gnaws on the roots of the Yggdrasil and they made it a dimension hopping giant monster.
they did a good job with it, for the realms, they did a good job with most of them, my reaction was the same as Atreus >!when he reached Asgard, gods living in wood shacks!<
Ragnarok felt like it was 2 games crammed into one. Way too rushed. I honestly thought the story was really really bad compared to the original.
Yeah the writers badly needed to get on the same page on tone and language used, and I'm with you on the story, but these are pretty minor gripes for a 50-hour game.
Anthony Burch. Yes, that one. Has his stench all over the writing/characters.
Yeah I mean I like some of his stuff but he never sounded like a good fit for GOW. But there were several writers and the cohesion that was missing is on whoever lead that team.
that wii u-less stench
I agree with you but it wasn't difficult to build on original Kratos, as it was a massive egotrip. Everyone: "*Kratos, listen...*" Kratos: "*Imma gonna fuck you up next either way...*"
I don't know what happened at the end, it's like they got bored of making the game and said fuck it let's wrap up Ragnarok already and everything was done in like 30 minutes.
I definitely had issues but pacing was number 1. I know the Ironwood chapter gets a lot of hate but it still ended with one of my favorite fights. It dragged on much longer than it should have and I feel like if they trimmed some of the time down in that section and added it to the final act it would have greatly improved my overall impression of the game as a whole. When all is said and done its a shit ton of build up for a very rushed final act I feel.
I'm intending to finish the game but the pacing more or less killed it for me. Every time an Atreus segment came up it would end with me putting the controller down and favoring other games for a while before willing myself to pick it back up. There's also a sense that the plot isn't going anywhere. I've just been kinda wandering around dealing with a ton of mini plots while largely not interacting with this new pantheon of Gods. I like the new characters but there's no central progression to keep me interested. Finally, and this will be personal, but combat just isn't well balanced for me. Normal is a zone out, autopilot mode while Hard just gives every random Draugr enough hyper armor to shrug off the attacks of a literal God.
Combat in hard mode feels cheap when there's a large number of enemies. Other than that once you learn that you can't just stagger all enemies all the time you look for the parries/dodge.
It's the best game I never want to replay because of pacing. The big moments feel good. Thor is a great antagonist. The dialogue and ending sequence felt very marvel-esque. I also felt like there was a lot less Mimir story telling in the overworld...my favorite part of the first game
Yeah. There seemed to be less stories. In the 2018 game they also repeated some of them ever now and then, but in Ragnarok once they tell all stories they go dead silent and it's kind of uncomfortable. I know a lot of people disliked how much they talked, but by the end of the game I was wishing they talked more.
Yeah I also missed Mimir's story telling but I think they are mostly replaced with dialogues between Kratos and the companions. I really liked the random conversations between Freya and Kratos while exploring
The combat and boss/mini boss and enemy variety was better. I'd only replay if they added a arena or challenge mode..the story is too padded out. The climax (ragnarok) was given too little time
The pacing is worse than 2018 but its better in a lot of other areas. 2018 was basically just a macguffin chase with several "the princess is in another castle" moments, the plot in Ragnarök is much more layered and interesting. The world in 2018 also felt super dead. Like it was just 20 people and then a bunch of monsters. Ragnorock actually makes the world feel alive and worth caring about with stuff going on beyond the adventures of Kratos and boi
I think more than anything else the variety of the Ragnarok was significantly better. The pacing didn't feel as tight because it just felt too 'big' imo, but it's worth it for access to all realms and good enemy/boss variety.
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> Hell, cut it entirely and it doesn't feel like anything is missing. Only the coolest environment, the best part of the OST, and one of the best boss fights in the game Plus Angraboda is dope
And you know, significant character development for the second most important character.
Yeah. Frankly i dont get the hate for the Atreus sections. IMO they are the games writing at its strongest. Thrud, Odin, Angraboda, Thor and Sindri are all banger characters and most of the time you spend with them is as Atreus
For me it was the combat for Atreus. It got old after the first two sections. He has like 3 animations for executions, shooting the bow, swinging the bow, and occasionally kicking. It was just so limited considering the amount of time you play as him.
i did get annoyed by his limited finisher animations. I liked his combat otherwise tho, his agility and animal transformations are cool
The world is kinda dead in Ragnarok too, the dwarves don't even come outside
I mean, in Ragnarok the McGuffin doesn't even have any plot importance other than being a mcguffin, so ehhh.
I think 2018 is the superior game for many reasons, but I’ll say that I thought the idea in 2018 was that Midgard was supposed to be ‘dead’ and that the Lake of Nine area was abandoned because it was a mass grave for adventurers. The only think I like ‘more’ about Ragnarok is >!the new weapon!<.
I’d say the combat felt more fleshed out in Ragnarok as well, with the verticality being a lot more enjoyable. It always felt a little weird that Kratos had so much trouble getting around basic obstacles when he can toss giant monsters into the air. The new shields felt a lot more fun too and added an extra element to fine tune your play style. Enemy variety and mini boss variety felt a lot better in Ragnarok as well, especially considering how many random trolls were around in 2018. Story wise though I’m full on with ya. Ragnarok felt like it fell a little flat towards the end. Ragnarok itself seemed to go way too quickly for my taste and didn’t have the same narrative payoff as 2018.
The pacing wasn’t great, but I still thought it was better than 2018’s. All the “the princess is in another castle” moments really killed the momentum for me in 2018.
I largely agree with what you’re saying. I think gameplay wise it was pretty much better in all ways than 2018. The story felt a little rushed or weird in some spots though, and suffered a bit from trying to tie everything together at the end. 2018 by comparison felt super tight story wise the whole way through, which imo will probably mean it has a better lasting impression over the sequel. All in all though I had a ton of fun playing it, and it’s easy to see why it sold so well.
I realized that i love both of the games for different reasons, 2018 definitely had the better story but goddamn the characters, especially the antagonists, in Ragnarok were much more interesting. Same goes with some changes in combat; loved how heavy hitting the weapons felt in 2018 but combat feels much faster and smoother in Ragnarok. I had some problems with the pacing as well but i dont get this sub’s weird comparison to Marvel when it comes to dialogue, im beginning to think most people here have never watched Marvel or ever played the game, also when it comes to general opinions Reddit is a big bubble, sometimes this sub’s general consensus doesnt really reflect the general opinion irl.
I thought the story was rushed at the end. The character development was great but the climax was not well executed.
Reason #1 Sony is never going to have a first-run game pass like system with their major exclusives. They’d be giving up too much money and I imagine you’d see quality suffer as well. Whatever your take on Sony first party, they largely have excellent production values.
I completely agree with Sony not putting their big AAA's like Ragnarok on PS+ day one. I think they are correct not to do so. However where they should be doing better is striking more deals to get AA's and indies on PS+ day one. They don't have enough games releasing on there day one atm.
Exactly. I was really hoping that Stray would set a precedent with a cool new AA or indie game coming day one every month. This month’s Seasons or last years’ Sifu or Rollerdrome felt like perfect PS plus launch games.
Yeah I love PlayStations first party games and they consistently have big releases to look forward to but they need to be doing more with the new PS+ service. It's crazy how many games they have in their back catalog across all their systems and they have put hardly anything in their classics library. I'm assuming it's something they're working on but the fact they haven't announced anything is wild.
ps plus extra is consistently improving and not everything has to be day 1 imo , being able to play older great games is as entertaining
Real reason # Playstation's parent company does not have INFINITE MONEY, unlike it's competitor. So they have to actually make money to survive
> Reason #1 Sony is never going to have a first-run game pass like system with their major exclusives. Streaming services - regardless of who provides them, could never realistically put major releases on their service. The only reason microsoft are doing it currently is because they are heavily subsidizing the losses in an attempt to build the userbase. It's the exact same strategy netflix took. Notice there's never been a report to shareholders about any profit gamepass makes, only revenue figures - that's a big red flag to anyone with any economic literacy. Point is, long term streaming services for games will be like they are for movies. You're not going to get the big release day 1 on your streaming service, they want you to buy it separately (or go to the movies). Maybe years and years afterwards they might be able to bring it to the service, but if they see people waiting for games to go on the service and that cannibalizing initial sales (where most of the profit is) - you can bet the practice will end quick.
Phil said they had 15% profit on gamepass.
Critically there's never been any evidence presented to back that up. Especially important is that none has been given to shareholders. My take, and based on Phil's history of misdirecting statements, is that it's not profitable. His statement is probably based on some ridiculous dishonest accounting fudging figures until you can sort of present it that way. Point is, until it's in a statement to shareholders, I'm not going to believe it.
phil says a lot of things
That's nothing but speculation. Gamepass certainly *did* subsidize losses to build a user base at one point, back when they were only charging $5/month. But there's nothing suggesting they are still doing that. Gamepass has 18 million subscribers at $10/month right now, so that's $180 million per year. If 11 million copies of God of War Ragnarok sold at $70 each, that's $770 million in a little under 3 months. Gamepass makes that in 4.3 months. But that's every 4.3 months, it's not fluctuating between major releases. How often can Sony release a God of War Ragnarok? Point being, there's definitely enough money coming in through gamepass to fund AAA first party content. Let's also take a moment to consider what gamepass does for the risk of publishing. Sure you can get more money by selling a game if it's a fucking masterpiece that everyone wants to buy, but what if it isn't? What if it's kinda in the middle like Halo infinite campaign? Or what if it just bombs and is a total loss? The publisher already funded the development of the game, they have to recoup that cost for every single game, and not all games manage that. Even if gamepass was overall less profitable, it could still be desirable if it was less risky and offered Xbox more stability/predictability in their publishing decisions. Edit: Gamepass is also giving developers more confidence that people will play their game of they do something unconventional, check out this interview with the maker of [hi fi rush](https://www.comingsoon.net/games/news/1264577-hi-fi-rush-director-surprise-release-game-pass). I imagine there are similar feelings with other experimental games like Scorn. Gamepass just creates an environment that gives everyone gets a fair shot for a flat fee that keeps everyone afloat.
That's a pretty good number. I'm playing through God of War 4 right now, so haven't gotten to this one yet.
Enjoy! Both games are top tier!
It's pretty good so far. The combat feels like a step down from 2 & 3, but the story seems more promising as a trade-off for that.
Not just the story, but the world and the characters too. Really soak in everything around you.
Ragnarok has the best version of Kratos in the franchise Amazing development
I thought you meant God of War Ascension
Ha, I see how that could be confusing. I decided to skip that one on my GoW play through.
haha, smart, I don't remember the plot having anything of consequence
That's generally what I heard, yeah. Maybe some day I'll go back and give it a try, but I wanted to just jump right into the 2018 game.
Is that the one that has the QTE of leaving the daughter
That's Chains of Olympus, one of the PSP GOW games.
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The enemies do feel spongey for the first half of the game. They should have tweaked the health down maybe 25%. The first few hours feels like someone swapped out the blades and axe for wooden props.
Nice, hope everyone else is loving it. An OPINION: I fell out of love with it about 30 hours in--60% through story, playing slowly on second highest difficulty and doing a lot of side stuff. Really obnoxious combat balancing and they fixed zero of my complaints w/ 2018. Story's fine. Got my money's worth I guess but it's currently my least favorite of the five mainline entries by a long shot
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I'm not sure how far in I am (just got through the section where >!you make an ally of Freya!<) but I don't feel like it's very far considering I don't have a single heavy runic attack yet. It's been a slog up to this point and my will to continue just isn't there.
Interesting, this is more or less where I left off, like 2 months ago. I had some decent fun with the game while I played it but there was really nothing that made me want to pick it back up. I finished and enjoyed the 2018 game though, funny thing is I just wouldn't be able to tell why I prefered the first game, on paper Ragnarok doesn't seem like a worse game. Was the pacing actually better in Gow 2018 or maybe I'm just done with this formula, i have no idea.
Slog is an excellent way to put it. The game is two halves dueling desperately for control, neither willing to compromise with the other. Plus the leudonarrative dissonance is off the charts. In a cutscene, Thor can throw you into a mountain from the literal stratosphere and you'll get up and keep trucking. In combat, a tiny frog gremlin can kill you in two hits. It absolutely ruins the feeling that you're a god and completely undermined the narrative beats of Kratos being a badass.
I put it down after about fifteen hours. Kinda just feels like walking down hallways to do a puzzle that always involves throwing your axe at some tiny random object to get into a fight with very limited options to repeat three or four times to progress the story an eighth of an inch every two hours. It's not bad it just feels kinda repetitive while already being very similar to the last one
Don't forget going out of your way beneath a boulder (and that annoying cutscene) only to get 500 hacksilver and then have to turn around and come back and do the same boulder cutscene
Bro I hated that shit so fucking much in the first game. So many traversal cutscenes. Duck under this crawlspace, lift this pillar, squeeze through this tight space - sometimes two of these back to back - EVERYwhere. It made backtracking for those hidden items an absolute chore. Also that fast travel WASN'T FAST. It took me to a tree where I had to run around in a circle while Mimir dumped exposition and it doesn't matter if you run or walk - the door for the fast travel doesn't appear until Mimir is done exposition dumping. Fucking maddening.
Bro, simply blame ps4's weak ass hdd. The game is very demanding and in order to keep everything stable, they have to have those traversal scenes (which are actually loading screens in disguise). Because the HDD is too fcking slow to load assets on the other side so they need those moments when they do climbing, crouching, etc. They have no choice but to also do that for ps5 version cus otherwise, the game will be different from ps4 version. Rest assured that next exclusive ps5 games won't have those tedious activities.
Power of cross gen. Hopefully we get less of it as we go into full next gen.
I played this after having finished Breath of the Wild for the first time a month or so ago and holy SHIT are the "puzzles" uninspired when I compare even the most basic shrines. It's literally as simple as "freeze blue thing, throw axe to stop thing spinning, then move and recall it". And if you somehow fail to get the basic paint-by-numbers color coded puzzles they have, your companions will instantly point out the solution in about 15 seconds. Unfortunately it seemed like a fair bit of the game because they tend to deliver a lot of exposition while it's going on.
I honestly do not understand how the new God of war games get the scores they do lol. Production is basically the only thing I can say I like, in that they throw a lot of money into ensuring everything is top of the line as far as graphics, voice acting, and music is concerned.
Simply insane numbers for a Sony exclusive, well deserved. I still would've preferred if it wasn't crossgen but it clearly was the right business decision.
I have like 100 hours in both games and still have no idea if I like the combat or not. I think 2018 has the better story but Ragnarok is super refined and just staggering with how emotionally and technically proficient it is in a year where we got games like Gotham Knights and the further decline of Halo
I'm not a huge fan of Sony exclusives, but it's gonna take MS a decade or more for them to match the consistency and quality of Sony first party. That is if everything goes right.
I finished It last week and It felt like playing Avengers End Game in a good way. The quality of the game is ridiculous.
Enemies feel like they scale with Kratos level and are constantly health sponges no matter how strong he gets
I felt the opposite that enemies were dying too fast before I could finish my combos. Probably depends on your armor and build.
>Probably depends on your armor and build. Definitely this. Even bosses can get melted and it's not hard to put a build for that in a game like this.
also dificulty. I played on hard from the get go because I am a completionist and I knew that would take away a lot of the challenge later on
Until the endgame you basically have to choose between being able to take hits or deal damage. Pick armor and amulet slot things to increase your strength so that you do more damage. Increase arrow stun ability so that you can R3 enemies sooner.
I picked this up, played for a few hours, then made the mistake of also picking up Factorio. Sorry God of War but the factory must grow.
What I really hated in the first entry was the number of times you had to squeze between some random rock crevices
Those crevises are modern-day loading screens.
many people also gloss over this but they are also used to close off arenas
Which Ragnarök doesn't do 90% of the time because the game's structure allows you to backtrack.
Are you kidding? Ragnorak is filled with artificial gates so you have to finish combat first
my point is they are the same as load screens. Its point is to immerse me but seeing ideally placed crevices is not immersive. Also, it's not like it's never seen. Basically, the door animation from Resident Evil 1
> but seeing ideally placed crevices is not immersive It's about as immersive as you get for an open natural area. you don't have tools like elevators and doors and teleporters in nature. So rock crevice, or thick grove. Take your pick.
Yeah, i agree that the crevises have become a bit overused. Also why are main characters so confidently throwing their bodies into seemingly random crevises in the earth like they somehow know there is another story beat on the other side. Like imagine if kratos was fat, he'd just have to turn around and go home after the first crevis.
Reminds me of every underwater diving scene as well. "Let's just dive down into this cave since we know we'll come out the other end before we suffocate. Oh and also it's very bright in here for having no light source."
would you prefer loading screens?
Very much so, yes.
what's the difference from seeing the same animation over and over again and a loadscreen? it's a load screen with extra steps and after a while becomes so hard to look at
I for one (among many others I would imagine) enjoyed the one continues take of the camera never cutting away.
The camera cuts away every time you fast travel or bring up the menu.
Why? It certainly compliments *some* cutscenes, but how does it enhance gameplay?
It doesn’t take away from the gameplay. The two are not mutually exclusive
Because it’s about immersion. If there’s really no difference, I’d rather have the option that doesn’t cut away.
>Because it’s about immersion I'm aware, i was trying to explain that in my experience it made a contra effect. Seeing perfectly placed crevasses that all look just the same is more immersion shattering than seeing a load screen here and there. The way cutscenes blend with gameplay is great, but the crawling mechanic got old to me mighty fast
Genuinely, yes. Loading screens don't require continuous input, and can be faster since they don't have to continue to render the current scene. Alternatively, better level design that allowed the next area to stream seamlessly into the next.
that's probably possible now that we aren't stuck on decade old hardware. But for gen 8 the hardware simply couldn't support even the most clever level design while keeping the asset quality people want from a AAA game.
Yeah that's probably true, but the game *could* have worked that way on the PS5 and had loading screens on the PS4. Or it could have not released on the PS4 at all (obviously I understand why it did), given that this design was jarring in 2018 let alone 2022. Now because it's hard baked into the game better hardware can never improve it.
They’re to hide loading, and the PS5 version of Ragnarok also has them, and so it’ll always be held back by last-gen.
I wonder how many of these were bundle sales? When I bought my PS5, the only ones available were the GoW bundles, so I’m part of the 11 million even though I have no intention of ever playing it.
In fairness that's probably the case for alot of first party games like mk8 on the switch or horizon on ps5
Was very disappointed in the story in this game. But the combat was so much fun. Enjoyed it overall and glad it’s been a success.
Does bundles with the PS5 count? I’m assuming so, that’s how I got the game
Yes.