Is Uncharted 4 the generational leap we were hoping for? Downgraded from E3 (sidebox in the article)

First impressions of the Uncharted gameplay reveal? By the standards set by existing titles on the current-gen consoles, Naughty Dog's sampler is exactly what we were expecting - dynamic, beautiful and technically brilliant. Unfortunately, for some, the focus is on a game that looks significantly different to the one revealed at E3. Put simply - has the game been downgraded? Has Naughty Dog under-delivered judged by the standards it set itself just a few months ago?

We suspect that the developer would view such comments with disappointment bearing in mind the incredible attention to detail seen in such a small sample of in-game action. However, the gameplay seen here clearly demonstrates a different, less detailed Drake model that doesn't appear to be lit with quite the same level of fidelity as in the trailer. Then there's the fact that the gameplay runs at 30fps right now - not the absolutely flawless 60fps seen in the E3 trailer, and the target Naughty Dog set for itself. It's still not entirely clear if this is the new target or whether the developer is still aiming for 60fps as originally stated.

Part of the problem here is the ambiguous wording used by Naughty Dog for its E3 reveal. "All footage you see in the trailer was captured completely in engine. That's Nathan Drake rendered in 1080p full glory using the power of our PS4 engine," said the E3 blog post text. "The following footage was captured directly from a PlayStation 4," pronounced the trailer itself.

But the question posed by the incredible teaser was simple: is that what the PS4 will be generating in real-time when we sit down to play the game next year? The trailer text seems totally unambiguous: yes it is. The blog text says "in-engine" - which skirts around the fact that the engine may be used to generate offline renders, in which case we can't help but feel that the teaser's wording is suggesting that the footage is something that it isn't. As far as we know, Naughty Dog never used the magic phrase "real-time" on the record (though GamingBolt had a comment, apparently from the developer, that seemingly says otherwise).

With the arrival of gameplay footage, the teaser can now be seen in context - we hope that the final game surprises us with a fidelity matching the teaser, but we suspect that the original footage may indeed have been rendered offline within the engine. That's a shame in some respects because, for some, the discussion now isn't about how great the game looks - and let's be clear here, Uncharted 4 is often stunning - but rather about how it falls short compared to its initial reveal. On a general level - and not singling out Naughty Dog in particular - perhaps it's time for an end to 'in-engine' trailers? Show us the visuals running as we'll actually see them in-game - it's what we really want to see.

Missed this^

I have a question for you guys.

Does the underside of your balls get as prickly as mine does?

edgecrusher said:

I have a question for you guys.

Does the underside of your balls get as prickly as mine does?

Well, it itches sometimes.

Dvader said:

Just wait till batman doesn't look like the trailer on ps4. Even gameplay can lie, it's clearly running on super pcs in those trailers.

Digital Foundry should do the Zelda U demo next:

• Crap textures
• Empty overworld
• Repeated trees

I do feel very silly reading an in-depth tech report of a video, for a game that's like a year away (UC4). But this is what gaming is these days. Micro-analyse the pixels, bitches.

edgecrusher said:

I have a question for you guys.

Does the underside of your balls get as prickly as mine does?

As yours? No.

I own everything I want, oh well...

MS sends a nuke at Sony after the SFV announcement. MS will publish Rise of the Tomb Raider, so sorry PS4 no Tomb Raider for you anytime soon.

WAR!!!!!!!

robio said:

Question for the PS4 owners. How bad are the network hacks? Seems like I see an article about something bad going on with the PSN but I've not really heard grumblings about it from people I know.

I refuse to use my credit card with them anymore.

Sorry man, it's true.

Where's a link stating MS is publishing Tomb Raider. I can't find anything about that.

Ravenprose said:

Where's a link stating MS is publishing Tomb Raider. I can't find anything about that.

Tweet by Greenberg, who is an idiot, so maybe he is being an idiot.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=948208