God of War - The Bear and Badger

stonechalice

This whole spoiler thing in games is starting to get silly. Whilst I couldn't care less about most spoilers in relation to games, the Skill Up review is fucking hilarious. He states at the start of the video that his review is 100% spoiler free, then crams as much unseen footage of the game into the 35 minute run time as possible. The guy is a fucking joke. People defend it because it's not spoiling the 'story', but the last fucking thing many people care about in a videogame is the shit story, What people care about is what they're gonna witness whilst playing through the game, but anyone that watches that 'review' will have all of that spoiled completely for them. The cunt needs to define his definition of a spoiler. I don't get how it's even defensible.

b0r1s

Yep he’s a complete twat for that. I don’t watch any of his reviews after he showed way too much of Returnal.

yourfavouriteuncle

I get through this by only reading reviews. Don’t think I’ve ever watched a vid review.

yourfavouriteuncle

FranticPea wrote:

I'll dust off and update the PS5 for this.

Gonna need a beach towel size duster for that.

stonechalice

Gameplay in this follow up looks as rigid and clunky as it was in the last one Combat still looks clumsy, and general movement looks stiff and cumbersome.

Can't be arsed.

Gamermike

HYPED.

This is going to be god-tier.

Bob

digi wrote:

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Reviews are out and seem to be generally very good rather than excellent which, I guess, is sort of disappointing.

Opencritic - 94
Metacritic - 94

Video Games Chronicle - 5/5
It's rare to have such uncomplicated feelings about a game. To finish something and think, "that's one of the best games I've ever played." But with Ragnarok, it felt obvious. Sony Santa Monica's sequel is a high watermark for the medium and certainly surpasses all first-party games to date on PS5

Gamespot - 9/10
And that's what distinguishes God of War Ragnarok from its predecessor, and most other action games. Despite being a story about warring gods and the end of the world, the soul of the game is something far more sentimental. You may have noticed that I've avoided mentioning the names of characters or describing plot beats, and that was intentional. To talk more about anything or anyone would be to rob you of some of the most unexpected things that God of War Ragnarok achieves with its narrative and the themes they explore. The last game's thoughtful approach to exploring fatherhood was unexpected, Ragnarok somehow manages to feel like an even more personal tale about the complicated nature of families and the people that make them up. For every moment of brutality, there is one of genuine and relatable emotion. How they land will vary from person to person, but there were multiple that left me with tears welling up. If nothing else, God of War Ragnarok further cements Sony Santa Monica's narrative team as one of the best in the business
Click to shrink...

IGN - 10/10
An enthralling spectacle to behold and an even more exciting one to take the reins of, God of War Ragnarok melds action and adventure together to create a new, unforgettable Norse saga. Impeccable writing, pitch-perfect performances, knockout action – it's a complete work of art from top to bottom. Reflecting its core themes, it's everything a sequel should be: respectful of its legendary lineage, but not afraid to take it to exciting new places. God of War Ragnarok is an almighty achievement and creates a new high that makes many of its peers look positively mortal by comparison.

Video Games Chronicle - 5/5
It's rare to have such uncomplicated feelings about a game. To finish something and think, "that's one of the best games I've ever played." But with Ragnarok, it felt obvious. Sony Santa Monica's sequel is a high watermark for the medium and certainly surpasses all first-party games to date.

MP1st - 10/10
I could spend hours upon hours talking about God of War Ragnarok, but at the end of the day, the only thing that should matter to you is if it's any good — and it is. It's better than good; it's a downright masterpiece. I know that word get's thrown around everywhere, and a lot, but I genuinely mean it. The story is beyond anything I would have imagined, and by the time I finished watching every line of credit roll, I couldn't help but give everyone a standing ovation. Like the first game, God of War Ragnarok will forever be etched in my memory as a timeless experience. A remarkable, unforgettable journey that I'll keep talking about for the years to come, and probably for the rest of my life
Click to shrink...

Polygon - Unscored
There is nothing life-changing about the way Ragnarök wraps up, but it delivers the same pleasant satisfaction that I get from finishing a Marvel movie that lets me run on autopilot. Even where the game can be frustrating, rote, and uneven, it's also safe and comforting, like a rerun of Cheers where everyone knows your name and you know that you'll never get thrown out of the bar. God of War Ragnarök, as the sum of its many disparate and often conflicting parts and influences, isn't here to reinvent the wheel. But its single-minded desire to emulate all the hallmarks of an epic Hollywood narrative will remain both its biggest weakness and its enduring source of success. And like many, many Hollywood success stories, it shouldn't feel this weird to say that something of this scope and scale is just OK.

Scoring higher than its predecessor so far.

What’s your point ?

digi

What's yours?

hylian_elf

He’s not making a point, he’s asking you a question.

hylian_elf

They said, I know what your point was, so your retort has a point.

digi

hylian_elf wrote:

They said, I know what your point was, so your retort has a point.

Yeh I don't get it.

Bob

It’s now only 2 metacritc points behind Elden ring for goty so where ever ufu saw these good rather than excellent reviews it’s clearly not holding it back

stonechalice

I can tell just by looking at a few seconds of gameplay exactly what this game is. It baffles me how all these publications come up with such dizzyingly high review scores. It happens every time with games like this. I ain't falling for it this time.

FranticPea

3rd person action adventure innit. I'm in on this though, unlike most others.

TheBoyRoberts

Each to their own I suppose; I rather enjoyed the God of War. Sure, some of the gameplay elements were a little by the numbers and traversing the map did get a little stale before the credits rolled, but the combat felt great, and the story was more than enjoyable.

More than happy with more of the same for Ragnarök.

MattyJ

I loved the first. But the Nextlander guys went in on the number of skill trees and systems and so on in this one, so I've tempered my expectations for when I (eventually) play this.

Kernowgaz

I’d be up for this but have a few games on the go, haven’t even opened Bayonetta 3 yet and fuck £60-70 at the moment

Moot_Geeza

I hope this one ups the spectacle on some of the bosses. GOWIII was the first one I played and the mountain ascent is pretty memorable. The 2018 game could've done with a few more whoppers imo.

superflyninja

I already have Ragnarok installed on my ps5. Very excited for this. Only review I've seen was the gushing ign video. I'm avoiding others now until I play the thing. Thanks for the heads up on Skill Up. Will make sure to avoid.

JonB

I have issues with the first one, but I also realise that some people think it's one of the greatest games ever made, so I'm not surprised by some of the reviews for the sequel.

I'm going to be playing it towards the end of the month, so I'll at least see what all the fuss is about.

afgavinstan

Bounced off the first pretty hard and fast. Missing this one out.

Enjoy, folks.

FranticPea

I got bored halfway through, and I'll probably do the same with this one. But I liked it before I got bored.

drumbeg

Just restarted the first one. Love the first hour. Especially the fight with Conor McGregor. The combat hasn't gelled totally though. Can I get the son to fire the bow at someone I'm not fighting without locking on first?

JonB

I was wondering how it was going to handle the continuous shot thing across platforms with different loading times, and the Guardian review suggests it's by hampering the PS5 version to keep them in line:

2018’s God of War’s most astonishing feat of technical wizardry was constructing the entire game as one continuous shot, with no loading screens and no interruptions, making you feel totally present in the journey. It did this by putting plenty of narrow passageways and low tunnels and other confined spaces in-between its areas, to disguise that the game was loading the next one. Ragnarök repeats this trick – even more impressively, this time, as we sometimes follow different characters and not just Kratos – but on the PlayStation 5 it’s all rather unnecessary, as that console is powerful enough to do away with loading times entirely. The forced moments of slowdown felt strangely ponderous and old-fashioned. I am looking forward to seeing what Santa Monica Studio will achieve without the almost 10-year-old PlayStation 4’s technical constraints to account for.

FranticPea

I read that it was Series S holding it back.

Minnesänger

JonB wrote:

I was wondering how it was going to handle the continuous shot thing across platforms with different loading times, and the Guardian review suggests it's by hampering the PS5 version to keep them in line:

2018’s God of War’s most astonishing feat of technical wizardry was constructing the entire game as one continuous shot, with no loading screens and no interruptions, making you feel totally present in the journey. It did this by putting plenty of narrow passageways and low tunnels and other confined spaces in-between its areas, to disguise that the game was loading the next one. Ragnarök repeats this trick – even more impressively, this time, as we sometimes follow different characters and not just Kratos – but on the PlayStation 5 it’s all rather unnecessary, as that console is powerful enough to do away with loading times entirely. The forced moments of slowdown felt strangely ponderous and old-fashioned. I am looking forward to seeing what Santa Monica Studio will achieve without the almost 10-year-old PlayStation 4’s technical constraints to account for.

So this is a weird one. Cerny mentioned the whole squeeze through gap to hide asset loading thing during his Road to PlayStation 5 technical talk, and it's become this commonly known thing since then. The problem is that this is just one of the uses of the Gap Squeeze and I've seen a fair bit of push-back from devs recently when gamers / journos get hung up on the gap = hiding loading thing.

Yes, the gap squeeze can be an asset dump / load opportunity, but it's apparently far more common for it to be able managing player progression and game pace. How do you funnel players from one combat arena to the next? How do you make sure they don't go backwards once the fight kicks off? How do you separate 2 puzzle spaces? How do you ensure that the player camera is facing in a direction from a tightly constrained space to reveal a surprisingly beautiful vista?

The answer to all the above? The gap squeeze.

The gap squeeze is also useful as it informs the player that the gap = forward, so if they want to finish exploring an area, they should do so now. I often get frustrated when presented 2 "doors" and not knowing which one will trigger a cut-scene / un-go-backable event. The gap squeeze alleviates that.

Point is, it's *most of the time* a creative choice by level and encounter designers.

Is that to say that they don't hide load screens in GoW? No, entirely possible they're used for that too. But GoW's a very deliberately designed game and when there were clearly load screens being hidden, i'd argue it was more obvious - the fast travel replacing mystical realm, for example.

yourfavouriteuncle

I love a gap squeeze, never seen the problem with them. Think they became a widely known issue after that Cerny chat and now we’re all experts on when a game is tricking us by doing something stupid like loading.

Minnesänger

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

I love a gap squeeze, never seen the problem with them. Think they became a widely known issue after that Cerny chat and now we’re all experts on when a game is tricking us by doing something stupid like loading.

Yup.

Minnesänger

Which is fine, because we're on a forum and this is basically pub chat. I'd never be arrogant enough to actually stick this shit in a professional review with so much self-assurance though.

Moot_Geeza

Old fashioned got a lol. Not many games do what GoW2018 did with its constant flow. Does slowing down to squeeze through a gap for 20 seconds really make people yearn for the future? It's all presented as one shot, presumably in 4K at 60fps, surely that's impressive enough to forgive the occasional mind your head bit? There are PS5 exclusives with loading screens, a sequel to a PS4 game that cleverly did away with them four years ago gets a pass for me.

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