So my take on all of this, FWIW:
a-The footage aired on Spike looked meh. It was dark and grainy and I was watching on a SD television. But the SAME footage shown in screen grabs from this thread- which I guess was taken off an HDTV playing the footage in HD- was 100% ONE of the two GOD OF WAR 3 things I saw when I was in Santa Monica a few weeks ago. It is NOT the thing I was ravings about-as I made clear in a video post a week ago-but I still think it looks darn good. To me, the stuff Spike showed when viewed in the proper resolution looks like a AAA God Of War to me. It doesn’t rock my world but it doesn’t look: meh. It does not rock my world but it does not look: meh. It looks like I’d expect a next-gen GOW to look. It looks like I'd expect a next-gen Gow to look. Granted, the team still has a long way to go and I imagine the final game- in all areas- will look much better. But I still thought it looked good. Fair to disagree but at least you know where I am coming from / where my barometer is set for my expectations or AAA next gen graphics.
b- What I was raving about has not been shown outside of internal Sony meetings. I imagine it will be shown soon, but I have no idea. I also assume that the Spike stuff was turned in earlier than the stuff I saw (that I raved about) as the stuff I saw was for a meeting and didn’t need to be edited, reviewed by Spike,Sony marketing,etc. The stuff I saw that I raved about was probably finished 1-2 days before I got to the studios. The stuff I saw Spike had aleady been turned into Spike so it was 100% older. Not that I thought it was bad- again- just I can see how the new stuff I saw looked further along, for sure. And to give you an idea, the stuff I saw that I looked about raved about 25-30% better than what you see in this thread (the footage played on Spike HD). If that’s not exciting and cool enough for you, fair enough. If that's not exciting and cool enough for you, fair enough. It happened to blow me away and remains the best looking console game I’ve ever seen…beyond Gears 2 which so far is the best looking console game ever released. It happened to blow me away and remains the best looking console game I've ever seen ... beyond Gears 2 which so far is the best looking console game ever released.
c- Fuck you idiots with the painting thing. It's not semantics, it's not a trick phrase. If you know God of War then it doesn’t take much of a leap to assume I meant the footage looked like a painting of the concept art or a realistic, but bold and dramatic Renaissance era style painting. I am well aware a painting can be Andy Warhol style or can be Wind Waker style or can be- as one eloquent Gaffer wrote- simply them wiping their ass on paper and calling that a painting. But come on ... is this something you really want to bust my balls on? We can argue and debate- when the footage comes out- if you agree with me that the footage DOES INDEED feel like a GOD OF WAR painting/GOD OF WAR concept art piece come to life…that seems a fair debate. But do you people really want to keep wasting your time and energy acting as if I was trying to sneak something by you because the term ‘painting’ can encompass all art styles? I think it was pretty clear what I meant. If I had seen something in GOD OF WAR 3 indicated that the art style had changed to a PAINTED Manga style or a painted WIND Watchman style or even something that tried to Emulate the styling painted or one particular neo Gaffer's faecal paste splattered onto a sheet or Charminster, then I would have hinted at something like that ... but I did not so obvious is not it child or child or painting what I meant?
d. Some of the venom aimed at me is amazing. Some of the venom aimed at me is amazing. I'm not out to get anyone, I'm not out to screw anyone over. I'm not out to get anyone, I'm not out to screw anyone over. I was expressing my feelings on a game I had seen. I was expressing my feelings on a game I had seen. It was not PR it was not spin it was not marketing. It was not PR it was not spin it was not marketing. It was being jazzed about some ultra cool graphics and tech and I was sharing that info and excitement. It was being jazzed about some ultra-cool graphics and technology and I was sharing that information and excitement. I stand to gain NOTHING if GOD OF WAR 3 is a success. I stand to gain if GOD OR NOTHING WAR 3 is a success. Hell, I stand to lose more if it is a big hit given that if the game fails- which it will not come close to failure, by the way- but if it DID fail, I look even better because then folks will go, "well, see what happens when Jaffe leaves...the game falls apart" and my stock goes up. Not that I want that to happen and not that that will happen given the talent on that team and what I have seen so far, but all I am saying is: to those who think this was / is some sort of attempt at starting a hype train, use your heads.
Take care EAGER for the footage I saw to come out and then have that discussion / debate.
Later ya’ll…
David
Klar!
