Thanks for noticing the acoustic rendering features we put in Alex! If you really want to hear the ERs and pseudo-LRs shine through though, you could fire the assault rifle while turning on the spot. Even with TH-cam's stereo fold down you can hear the different reflection points render with their own physical-based filter states. All the best, Robert Bantin (Snowdrop Audio Architect).
You guys did an absolutely incredible job with the sound design, even on my lousy headphones and on PS5 (although the PS5 is such a lovely little beast that it looks like it does get away with reactive audio in some games). Every creature's location rendered precisely enough that I can follow animals just from *the sound* of where they are, which in an Ubisoft game with relatively minimal UI is actually kind of important. Since I often use the relatively minimal Exploration mode for my UI, to give this old Avatar movie fan the feel of being a Na'vi. Kudos for the incredible tech work from all teams when it comes to getting Pandora right.
Don’t comment often, but I had to shout it for all to hear: playing this game on XSX and Atmos with my HT setup is beyond any experience I’ve had in any game. Please know you guys did such a great fucking job and should set the precedent for all future games out there!
Audio still seems to remain such an underappreciated part of games. I feel like ever since Microsoft dumped hardware audio with Vista things took a downward spiral, as features like Creative's EAX got nuked (and they gave up on ALchemy). I could even tell the difference right on the desktop with Windows sounds. Thank you for creating something we can point to to show people what good audio in games sounds like, without even needing a HRTF setup.
The power of raytraced audio is underappreciated currently, I'm very excited for how it will be developed and utilised further. It has the potential (especially in VR) to add striking and captivating realism to games.
I had suspicions about this game but WOW, this looks absolutely phenomenal! Ubisoft finally stepping up their visual and audio presentation. Also makes me very excited for next Far Cry game as it is also going to use the same engine!
Snowdrop engine has always been ahead of it's time. Just look at how good Division 1 and 2 still look to this day. I'm happy to see it getting modern updates and cannot wait for Division 3!!!!
Its funny, when I was first playing this I was kind of left with the impression that this could FINALLY be a game that represents an actual 'next gen' overall level of improvements. If so, like the foundation of what will come. Hearing about all the details of just how impressive this engine is handling all this explains why I felt this way I think.
The Snowdrop engine team should be given a prize. They handled the DX12 transition way better than many of their counterparts (cough Frostbite), very capable of large open-worlds, great multiplayer capacity, versatile (this engine was used to make the South Park game) and very beautiful. Bonds well for the Star Wars game.
@@xBINARYGODx I too noticed that, wtf does bond well mean haha. but yes does bode well for the star wars game, honestly its the dream star wars/ space exploration game I have been waiting for
@@Glotttis when you buy a ubisoft game you know what you are going to find, and still did better than expected, in some areas only a little and in others a lot
Your review is honestly what got me to buy the game. The idea that there are quiet moments in equal measure to combat encounters was very appealing to me.
@@willuigi64everyone is so cynical. God forbid a game is just a good game…. Nope, that means it’s “mid” or “trash” Some folks just can’t enjoy something for what it is. It’s sad.
@@fuzzy3932I agree. Nowadays if a game isn’t perfect, you will be judged if you enjoy the game. Not every game needs to be perfect, nor do they need to score a 9/10 to be considered “good”.
probably because the algorithm didn't think it was relevant to you. i'd been seeing plenty of videos for it, especially over the past two or three months, but I also am on youtube often for na'vi language videos and streams. I almost didn't get the game, thought it would be just "pretty to look at" but when I heard how well the language was spoken in the title song I preordered almost immediately. 13 years and I have never seen spoken na'vi that didn't get micro analyzed for every flaw. The title song? It's the subtitles in the video that are typoed. The rest of the game truly reflects that same level of care.
I did not expect this game to go so hard visually. And the sheer amount of foliage alone and excellent lighting is pretty awesome. It really is a stunning game.
I love walking through woodland and looking at the ferns and moss on trees etc. I think I’m going to love just wandering around the game world, I’ve never seen such high quality detail on such small assets before. It really does make the game stand out from its peers.
Yeah. Only small complaint I notice from the video is that the small plants seem to be a bit over animated. They seem to move a bit too much. If it's supposed to be the wind, you can't tell from which direction it is coming.
His points about the gameplay loop are interesting, you're kinda forced to keep crafting and upgrading your gear, you do get given gear pieces via story missions but not enough to sustain the way the levelling system is formulated. Late game gets tough if you don't have good gear.
This game basically just drops in almost out of nowhere and ends up being the most visually impressive game released this year if not in the history of gaming so far. Well done Massive.
It's not all the impressive looking imo. It's the lighting for me. Lighting looks really flat in a lot of areas. I'd take something like cyberpunk 2077 pathracing over this. Or the witcher 3 with rtx. Could even make a strong argument for crysis 3, AC unity or fuck it even just heavily modded skyrim. If the lighting was nicer then I might see why people are impressed by this but so far it just looks like foliage everywhere + raster lighting. Kinda reminds me of far cry graphics stylistically.
not for me i have been following it for 3 years since it was announced. i thought it would be good but it has execeded my expectatations which is rare these days its a game that shouldent be but it is.
this water wettness effect on objects inside water is sooo nice, such a small detail but it actually makes this one of the best water surfaces ive seen in video games
Right?? Also when I was walking through the creek at the very start when you enter the forest I looked down into the water and was like, _damn_ those rocks are covered in fuzzy algae they look so good lol
I’m not a hardcore gamer, but this is the only game I can walk around in for hours without actually playing it. Just enjoying it and get away from the real world. Nothing beats this game at night! The sounds from the world around you. Plants,animals,and the music. I just love this game! A huge thanks to the developers for making this masterpiece 😍👌🏻
Hats off you Ubisoft for delivering a pretty stellar open world on both PC and console that runs perfectly. Crazy Ubisoft being the one to get this right at the tail end of the year
its shocking that they have put out a game with no problems on day one its ubisoft one of the publishers that do not have a good track record. but the game has been in development for 6 years which shows if you put the time in you get great results most of the time. sadly most games have a 2 year development if that and its not enough time.
Wgym crazy? After rockstar and sony its Ubisoft who always creating awesome looking openworlds Not to mention Division, now look at AC Unity, its 9 years old a NO ONE was able to create such dense city with insane amount of npcs
the natural world in this game is just unreal, this is what i used to dream of as a kid, i know ''graphics dont matter'' but to a lot of ppl they really do, just wandering around this is spectacular
@@khalidkhalil5437 lots of people believe that. Usually it's because they don't have the hardware to run games at 2K/4K at max settings or they don't play single player games. Hardcore multiplayer gamers don't care much for visual fidelity, and on all the eSports titles they usually run all the settings on low to achieve max FPS.
Looks awesome, I kind of wish they'd make the engine available for licensing of not only to challenge UE and unity :) also pretty cool to go through all this for a movie based game where they could just bank on the title
Licensing an engine requires a lot more work than just making one - you need to build a lot of user friendly tools, write doccumenation, have customer support and all of that requires constant maintainance. That why most studios dont license their inhouse tech.
@@wingedhussar1453Unreal Engine is worse imo. Been saying it ever since UE5 was announced: it is an overhyped engine. It won't be in the top 5 best engines of the generation and studios such as CDPR fucked themselves by switching to UE5.
@@vickie_g Lol as a dev, even I sometimes find myself too lazy to write documentations for my code. Also god knows how many pieces of code of their engine consists of hacks and smart workarounds. Just look at Quake 3 Arena's Fast inverse Square-root operation and its famous "WTF" comment.
@@cormac8613Have you seen the gameplay trailer? It doesn't even look half as dense, reactive or varied as this game. I'm also sure that ark won't be as optimised as Avatar, considering its UE5.
honestly i wasnt impressed by the trailers and gameplays and i still think graphics is bad but plant interactions and audio that Alex showed made me consider playing it
Kudos to Massive Entertainment and all the teams that worked hard on this one. Really enjoyed playing last night, and thanks Alex for bringing attention to stellar efforts with your reporting.
I can’t believe it’s from Ubisoft. Ubisoft used to be one of the best in pushing graphics and then they got stale till they dropped this game. It’s genuinely a very good game and I am actually enjoying it compared to their other titles.
@@Lord_ofcinder Honestly, I think Massive Entertainment is the best studio Ubisoft has right now. This game, plus Star Wars Outlaws coming next year? That’s impressive!
Keep in mind, this is running on a $2000+ GPU. Personally, yes, it looks nice at these settings, but not nice enough to make me run out and spend two grand on a GPU alone.
@@MrAnimescrazy With 4090 and 7800X3D, in Native 4K it's in the 20's -40's. Looks absolutely gorgeous but to make it playable I use FSR3 ultra quality + frame gen = 55-90fps. FSR3 looks better than DLSS, which is softer and I like sharpness...
Finally, someone who doesn't think the game is just far cry with Avatar characters. Well done for the professional observation. It feels and plays so much differently. Way too many unfair comments out there!
The people who say that haven't played the game ...... Plus they are from the "I hate everything in my life" crowd .... I really can't understand how people can go through life that damned miserable all of the time ......
Now that they’ve announced the division 3 watching this makes me even more excited because regardless of how you feel about the game as a whole you can’t deny that the worlds they built for the division look and sounded great so seeing that they have massively upgraded the engine I am beyond stoked
I am so happy RT audio is being used, it's something iv hoped we'd see more of by now. Audio cant have a big compute cost but the effect of good audio on a game/film is massive. I hope we see some more videos for this game, maybe a comparison to UR5? Super cool to see a engine push graphics so hard that's not Unreal, id like to see more engines covered.
Most gamers dont give a f**k about audio quality unless they have sound problem, like muffled audio, stuttering, static, missing bass , etc, most gamers are not audiophile
@@mrbobgamingmemes9558 Oh of course I agree. With that said I appreciate the effort massive put in even more because it is a niche market they are catering too.
This is one of those very rare circumstances where I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and entirely not attracted and/or captivated by the visuals , or at least the aesthetics in this game, definitely some very very impressive tech on display but I just do not enjoy looking at it, strange.
Much of the foliage especially the leaves look very plasticky, also most assets look low poly compared to UE5 games that recently came out, Nanite just completely shits on this. Besides the interactivity and physics which are good I feel the same way.
@@SuperBallani if you've played 1, you've played them all. They rarely deviate from their formula. AC, Division, Far Cry, Ghost Recon... Are all similar at their core
@@HacksawJimThuggin Open world games usually have something to do in them, an enemy to fight, something to take over and make yours or make free. AC's play very differently to the Division, FarCry plays very differently to all of them. At their core the loop is similar, because what else are you going to do in an open world game? People want to shoot or kill things and feel the progression. Why is this wrong?
I've been trying to play this on pc. Not having much luck though as I can't move 10 feet without my jaw dropping and me having to hit up photo mode. Think I've taken 60 plus screen shots, all wallpaper worthy, in first 3 hours. When a storm hits and the skies are grey with high winds... omfg Was really disappointed that no one had made a big enough deal about how special this is... until now 😊
Snowdrop delivers the same visual quality as Unreal with half the performance cost. if this game was made with Unreal 5 it would've been a performance disaster
Seems like specific angles looks amazing but during actual gameplay it looks like a generic bog standard current gen game. I could also make a trailer of scenic RDR2 mountain shots and it'll look absolutely incredible with woodlands in the foreground. Literally just as good as this. One game requires FSR3 to run smooth, the other doesnt. One game uses ray tracing to artificially increase the demand because game devs work hand in hand with GPU manufacturers. The other runs great on a 1660ti lol. Seriously though, during actual gameplay, that ray tracing is doing absolutely nothing for you or the game. You have to go on youtube and watch some youtubers pixel peep to justify the worst aspects of capitalism.
I'm looking forward to your analysis on the FSR3 implementation in this game. There's talk that it's vastly improved from the first games the tech was demoed in.
Hmm FS3 that could be what is cause the chromatic red / green image after image weirdness on edges possibly. if it is that should make it easier to track down the issue.
@@michaelmcnamara3866 I was a bit skeptical that Steve's colleague whose name I forget could deliver as good DLSS content. But he's more than proved himself and I agree that I might just defer to their opinion over DF on such matters.
Only reason I care is I got a free key with my laptop. I cant play until xmas though. Looking forward to this being the first game i play on my laptop.
It's so ironic how the Visuals make me want this now, just like the movies. Just shows how beautiful this fictional world is and how good of a job they did replicating it here.
I've had so many moments in this game, where I just stop and look in awe at the world. This is the forest I as a kid dreamt would one day be in a game. Now it is here.
Stepping out into the world for the first time after you escape the RDA facility is a true Crysis moment. The only other game to do that recently is Doom Eternal when you teleport into Urdak.
The future is looking great for Massive and The Division fans. The Division has always been one of the best looking games despite not having the latest and greatest tech. Massive shows that they can do cutting-edge tech while complementing them with very much needed details and art style.
Despite crashing every hour of gameplay for my pc, (Please don’t make fun of my outdated graphics card) this is one of the only games to make me say “oh wow” out loud and actually smile. Climbing the rookery was one of the most immersive, awe-inspiring, beautiful thing I’ve seen in a video game.
Whoever says this game is reskin, mod, farcry jungle they are clowns nothing more. It's absolutely different experience and phenomenal game. Massive and Lightstorm did great job.
Truly a visual masterpiece, this might be the first time I’ve been completely blown away just from the graphics of the game, and it is well polished as well haven’t noticed any major glitches or bugs. Honestly I was not expecting that, I haven’t watched any avatar movies and this my first time getting into anything avatar yet it still holds my attention and interest. The team that worked on this game should give themselves a pat on the back, you all have truly created a masterpiece. Thank you.
At 8:32 the ground with all the leaves is impressive ! First time I see something like this in a video game ! I would like to see a ground like this in RDR 2 PS5
The water suffers from a "Swimming pool" effect. Its like the ripples are too evenly dispersed and move too quickly, Almost feels like its scaled wrong for the type of water thats being shown. Thats about the only visual element I see that takes me out of just being absolutely stunned by a live scene in this game.
I thought the same thing. Felt like my video was playing at 1.5x speed (or higher), but it wasn't. Hopefully they'll correct this in a patch, along with the other visual discrepancies Alex mentioned.
The environments are absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It definitely is a bit cookie cutter mechanics wise from far cry. But this is definitely through and through a good Avatar game.
Check the part at the end of the video “how it plays” Honestly, this is the sentiment that I’m catching in a lot of reviews. If you turn off all the HUD and just go full immersion, this game, hits the right marks! This is the first game in a long time, I’m seriously tempted to double down, and buy on release. Might be an early Christmas present to myself. Although that said I’m not sure whether I can personally justify spending 70 quid on one game. That’s a hell of a lot of money. I might just wait till January and it will probably hit the sales at some point. But that said, I kind of want to support a game like this. It seems like the devs intentions were good, trying to focus on the right stuff, really trying to make an immersive game.
I gave the exploration mode that Alex recommends a try. Try to find my comment on this video for a full impression of it as a brand new player. The short version is that it can sometimes leave you hanging and I wish it did a little more with in-game context clues. Exploration mode is great 9 times out of 10 though. I'm gonna keep at it but it can be tricky for reasons external to the gameplay itself.
I also thought that this Avatar game reminded me very much of Crysis, it looks incredible, love just discovering it. The only thing I don't like so much is the water.
The water moves too fast. I wonder if it's just a technical physics/framerate limitation or if the team actually thought it looked right. If so, they need some distance or a third party.
This makes me really want a division remaster. The concrete jungle. The snow falling. Accumulating and melting. All the different lighting in the game. Would be amazing.
Can we stop with the "one of the best looking games this year BS'" this is THE best looking ever made. In the history of videogames. Even as someone who is very much over Ubisoft games, I'm buying this just to look at it on my 12900k/4090 and Samsung OLED monitor. There will be copious masturbation.
It's Far Cry in Pandora, but oh man it's the best feel good game I've ever played! The random events and fighting is some of the best Ubisoft has ever done. If you think open worlds are overwhelming, skip this it's the most overwhelming map yet, but if you can conquer your fears, my god is it rewarding!
Ah cool. Doing a video on the game on the platform less than 4% of the players play the game on. Makes sense. So this is the hollywood tech channel, making content for YOURSELVES.
What I like about the team at DF is they look at game a bit differently. Alex's description of what he likes about the game and how he enjoyed it was very much in line with my thoughts. I find this kind of analysis is missing from most reviews.
It honestly drops frames very noticeably on Series X but I'm still enjoying it immensely. It's a great open world sci fi game, and it's nice to get one of those this year after all.
For me it only has ever dropped once. I did notice it runs alot better on performance mode as when I got to the grasslands everything was flickering and dropping textures but going to performance mode definitely stopped it
@SubaruWRC1996 I'm on performance mode as well, and it drips quite a bit during rainstorms. On quality I was choppy in general. I expect some improvements will be made but it's already a great experience.
It's heavy as f* on PC too, should require a lot less from the hardware according to the visual fidelity, the water looks really weird for the most part
I think you need to reassess the visual quality of the first Avatar movie... it is dated af. The blue people praying for Ripley scene... visually awful to look at
The night time bioluminescence of the plants reminds me of the bright colorful neon lights and particle effects of Infamous Second Son, loved the lighting in that game.
So was I. Very rarely do I play a game and go "wow". When I stepped out into the forest for the first time, I just sat there and looked. I was stunned. Absolutely phenomenal!
The engine scales so well. The PS5 version obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles but is still extremely nice looking and runs well with so much detail on display. Also, thank you Massive for the FOV slider - something Ubi does not usually implement in their other first person console games.
The most visually mind blowing and mind boggling game of the decade! This shit blows everything else out of the water! Every tiny little detail to every grand cascading is vista just insanely beautiful and the lighting is just insane and pulls it all together so well! Playing with Unobtanium settings on my RTX 4080 and having a blast and even with Ultra settings it looks insanely good already. The RTGI is just incredible and the shadows are next level. Every little plant, blades of grass and even the tiny little moss growing on trees have shadows, it's UNREAL (actually it's SNOWDROP!) XD. The world is SUPER immersive, traversal is WILD with its freedom, fluidity and verticality, the gameplay overall feels really great (love the unexpected depth and scope of the cooking, crafting and gathering system) and Exploration Mode is the cherry on top that makes questing super immersive, tough and satisfying when you actually find where you need to go WITHOUT a floating quest marker, just using your brain cells and decoding the map with clues! A true Navi simulator for all the Avatar fans out there who have been wanting to feel like a Navi for over a decade. Here's your chance, don't miss it! Lots of love to the MASSIVE team from a huge fan!! Hope this game does amazingly! PS: The Hunter's Guide has really turned me into a zoologist and botanist overnight, brings a whole another level of immersion to the game!
The Division is still one of my favorite-looking games, the Snowdrop engine is incredibly capable and the way that they flex their technical muscles with an art team to match was incredible. This looks like a worthy new game in that lineage. Super stoked to try it. Your description of it as closer to Crysis than Far Cry has me wanting to buy it.
The title of this video alone is impressive enough. And that alone just made me realize how much I appreciate DF. These guys have a massive impact on my life, more than I would like to admit.
Love to see a competent in-house engine. I'm not a fan of a potential all-Unreal future so I always give bonus points to studios who still maintain their own tech.
One thing that helps me to enjoy this game is that I haven’t played a single FarCry game since the first one around two decades ago. So I’ve missed out on the FarCry-specific things that makes this feel tired to many, and thus this game is SO much fun
Thanks for noticing the acoustic rendering features we put in Alex! If you really want to hear the ERs and pseudo-LRs shine through though, you could fire the assault rifle while turning on the spot. Even with TH-cam's stereo fold down you can hear the different reflection points render with their own physical-based filter states. All the best, Robert Bantin (Snowdrop Audio Architect).
You guys did an absolutely incredible job with the sound design, even on my lousy headphones and on PS5 (although the PS5 is such a lovely little beast that it looks like it does get away with reactive audio in some games). Every creature's location rendered precisely enough that I can follow animals just from *the sound* of where they are, which in an Ubisoft game with relatively minimal UI is actually kind of important. Since I often use the relatively minimal Exploration mode for my UI, to give this old Avatar movie fan the feel of being a Na'vi. Kudos for the incredible tech work from all teams when it comes to getting Pandora right.
Don’t comment often, but I had to shout it for all to hear: playing this game on XSX and Atmos with my HT setup is beyond any experience I’ve had in any game. Please know you guys did such a great fucking job and should set the precedent for all future games out there!
Audio still seems to remain such an underappreciated part of games. I feel like ever since Microsoft dumped hardware audio with Vista things took a downward spiral, as features like Creative's EAX got nuked (and they gave up on ALchemy). I could even tell the difference right on the desktop with Windows sounds.
Thank you for creating something we can point to to show people what good audio in games sounds like, without even needing a HRTF setup.
The power of raytraced audio is underappreciated currently, I'm very excited for how it will be developed and utilised further.
It has the potential (especially in VR) to add striking and captivating realism to games.
Hi Robert, does the game support dolby atmos for headphones on pc?
6:40 "Pandora at night is lit up not only by the moon" - Pandora is the moon here, it is lit up by it's planet =)
Check the Note in the bottoming left when I say that
I had suspicions about this game but WOW, this looks absolutely phenomenal! Ubisoft finally stepping up their visual and audio presentation. Also makes me very excited for next Far Cry game as it is also going to use the same engine!
As far as i know next AC is not using Massive's engine.
And Star Wars Outlaws too! Good riddance to Dunia tbh
@@boris3973 nobody mentioned assassin's creed here
@@zedus4042 i could have sworn you did...
Snowdrop engine has always been ahead of it's time. Just look at how good Division 1 and 2 still look to this day. I'm happy to see it getting modern updates and cannot wait for Division 3!!!!
Beautiful work I don’t have a PC so i’m very eager to hear how the PS5 handles this game.
Its funny, when I was first playing this I was kind of left with the impression that this could FINALLY be a game that represents an actual 'next gen' overall level of improvements. If so, like the foundation of what will come.
Hearing about all the details of just how impressive this engine is handling all this explains why I felt this way I think.
14:36 What is that ghostly effect around the plant on the lower left near the crates?
whatever you might think about the game, the graphics are next gen without a doubt
being one of the enviroment artist that worked on this game, this warms up my heart to hear!
Yeah man Skyrim climb the hill with Charged crysis Jump, Such brave design bro
Fantastic work! Thanks for all the effort and hours of labour to bring this to life.
@@ac3d657such negativity get laid bro
@@ac3d657 that is not what an environment artist does lol
You helped create something jaw dropping and gorgeous. Be proud!
The Snowdrop engine team should be given a prize. They handled the DX12 transition way better than many of their counterparts (cough Frostbite), very capable of large open-worlds, great multiplayer capacity, versatile (this engine was used to make the South Park game) and very beautiful. Bonds well for the Star Wars game.
It's also the engine used for the two Mario+Rabbids games.
bodes * and yes, I hate myself for having typed this
Seek. Help.
@@xBINARYGODx I too noticed that, wtf does bond well mean haha. but yes does bode well for the star wars game, honestly its the dream star wars/ space exploration game I have been waiting for
@@ac3d657🤣🤣
One of the best looking games I've ever experienced. Literally just wandered around for hours exploring the unbelievable scenery
You forgot to mention that after you were done checking out some plants you proceeded to do same-y mundane missions with mind numbing gameplay.
Why did you change the title of your video though?
@@Glotttis when you buy a ubisoft game you know what you are going to find, and still did better than expected, in some areas only a little and in others a lot
@@Glotttis😂😂 so true
For some reason I read "scenery" as "sorcery". Tbh, getting this level of visuals from Snowdrop feels like sorcery.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Game is just insanely looking and I very much enjoyed playing it compared to some of their past titles.
Doesn't quite sound like this is saying much.
@@thealgerian3285 Should it? They're just saying it looks nice and was more enjoyable than past titles from the dev
Your review is honestly what got me to buy the game. The idea that there are quiet moments in equal measure to combat encounters was very appealing to me.
@@willuigi64everyone is so cynical. God forbid a game is just a good game…. Nope, that means it’s “mid” or “trash”
Some folks just can’t enjoy something for what it is. It’s sad.
@@fuzzy3932I agree. Nowadays if a game isn’t perfect, you will be judged if you enjoy the game. Not every game needs to be perfect, nor do they need to score a 9/10 to be considered “good”.
It's crazy how much better DF's capture looks than anything I saw from Ubi before launch.
I agree this wasn't even on my radar until this df deep dive. Super impressive.
Yes, this time PR was really weak. Even AC Mirage have more cool trailers than Avatar
@@JakeMoran09 no doubt. Its only on EGS though so that's a no go for me. Maybe it will come to Steam at some point, bummer
Holy wow seek help
Honestly yeah I was considering skipping but this game looks super dope here in DF's tech video. Trailers were probably from console versions.
It's rather mindboggling how little marketing the game has gotten given the IP and the amount they have invested in its development for like 6 years.
probably because the algorithm didn't think it was relevant to you. i'd been seeing plenty of videos for it, especially over the past two or three months, but I also am on youtube often for na'vi language videos and streams. I almost didn't get the game, thought it would be just "pretty to look at" but when I heard how well the language was spoken in the title song I preordered almost immediately. 13 years and I have never seen spoken na'vi that didn't get micro analyzed for every flaw. The title song? It's the subtitles in the video that are typoed. The rest of the game truly reflects that same level of care.
Now if only the game wasn't generic and boring :c
Snowdrop is a very underrated engine. Division looks really a good looking game without much performance issue.
I played a lot of Division 2 with my brothers, underrated game and looks great IMO. Particularly always liked how fire looks in that game.
💯
@@sparkydeltorro Division 2 looks amazing and so much attention to detail and the gameplay is fun as hell and not to mention I get to play as Hunk!
Yep, division was revolutionary back in 2016
This is the best engine I’ve seen that balances beauty with playability. In Division 2 everything is so clear and easy to see/play.
Would have liked to see more of a comparison as to what the unobtainium settings actually change
I guess there wasn't enough time
That sounds like something that will be touched upon in the optimised settings guide.
Yea he said that he only found out about them after he had the video basically finished.
@@leonro i hope so. its running well on my 2080ti system but i would like to hear alexes recomendations as then i know what the settings do.
Don't bother, they are shills, shilling their ubisoft shareholder connections
I did not expect this game to go so hard visually. And the sheer amount of foliage alone and excellent lighting is pretty awesome. It really is a stunning game.
I love walking through woodland and looking at the ferns and moss on trees etc. I think I’m going to love just wandering around the game world, I’ve never seen such high quality detail on such small assets before. It really does make the game stand out from its peers.
Yeah. Only small complaint I notice from the video is that the small plants seem to be a bit over animated. They seem to move a bit too much. If it's supposed to be the wind, you can't tell from which direction it is coming.
And still you get people who will tell you that it "looks the same as 2015 games" and that its "unoptimized"
@@damara2268 The kind of people who would say that are the ones who said "this looks lame" when the trailer came out.
His points about the gameplay loop are interesting, you're kinda forced to keep crafting and upgrading your gear, you do get given gear pieces via story missions but not enough to sustain the way the levelling system is formulated. Late game gets tough if you don't have good gear.
This game basically just drops in almost out of nowhere and ends up being the most visually impressive game released this year if not in the history of gaming so far. Well done Massive.
It's not all the impressive looking imo. It's the lighting for me.
Lighting looks really flat in a lot of areas.
I'd take something like cyberpunk 2077 pathracing over this. Or the witcher 3 with rtx. Could even make a strong argument for crysis 3, AC unity or fuck it even just heavily modded skyrim.
If the lighting was nicer then I might see why people are impressed by this but so far it just looks like foliage everywhere + raster lighting.
Kinda reminds me of far cry graphics stylistically.
@@trevorveillette8415low quality bait
not for me i have been following it for 3 years since it was announced.
i thought it would be good but it has execeded my expectatations which is rare these days its a game that shouldent be but it is.
Nope... I love Cyberpunk like it's my child and Frontiers of Pandora slaps it silly graphically.
Hell no, its not even close to the most visually impressive game ever, lol
this water wettness effect on objects inside water is sooo nice, such a small detail but it actually makes this one of the best water surfaces ive seen in video games
Yes that impressed me the most ! Also the way it connects to the land !
@@ectoplasma5 yeah exactly it looks right.
Right?? Also when I was walking through the creek at the very start when you enter the forest I looked down into the water and was like, _damn_ those rocks are covered in fuzzy algae they look so good lol
Too much water
UBISOFT is cool again?
I’m not a hardcore gamer, but this is the only game I can walk around in for hours without actually playing it. Just enjoying it and get away from the real world.
Nothing beats this game at night! The sounds from the world around you. Plants,animals,and the music.
I just love this game!
A huge thanks to the developers for making this masterpiece 😍👌🏻
Hats off you Ubisoft for delivering a pretty stellar open world on both PC and console that runs perfectly. Crazy Ubisoft being the one to get this right at the tail end of the year
Love to see a comeback
Hats off to Massive. Ubisoft's gameplay is supposedly what hampers this game.
its shocking that they have put out a game with no problems on day one its ubisoft one of the publishers that do not have a good track record.
but the game has been in development for 6 years which shows if you put the time in you get great results most of the time.
sadly most games have a 2 year development if that and its not enough time.
@@editing5157fully owned by Ubisoft since 2008, Massive IS Ubisoft
Wgym crazy? After rockstar and sony its Ubisoft who always creating awesome looking openworlds
Not to mention Division, now look at AC Unity, its 9 years old a NO ONE was able to create such dense city with insane amount of npcs
I played the game for a few hours, it looks stunning. And the sound design is super immersive!
the natural world in this game is just unreal, this is what i used to dream of as a kid, i know ''graphics dont matter'' but to a lot of ppl they really do, just wandering around this is spectacular
graphic dont matter? huh?
@@khalidkhalil5437 lots of people believe that. Usually it's because they don't have the hardware to run games at 2K/4K at max settings or they don't play single player games. Hardcore multiplayer gamers don't care much for visual fidelity, and on all the eSports titles they usually run all the settings on low to achieve max FPS.
The Unobtanium settings bring my 4080 to its knees, but it’s so cool to see how far it can scale!
The game pushed my 4090 at ultrawide and whilst using DLSS. It's also made me realise that my 12900k needs to go. It's bottlenecking my system.
does it add any visual difference or does it just simply push LOD settings to the max?
@@originalityisdead.9513what are going to replace it with? A ryzen 7 9800x3d?
@@CaptToiletthey likely don’t know or care. it’s just about pushing the specs to the max.
I wish he woulve done more comparison shots
Another reminder that we don't need games made in UE5.
Looks awesome, I kind of wish they'd make the engine available for licensing of not only to challenge UE and unity :) also pretty cool to go through all this for a movie based game where they could just bank on the title
Licensing an engine requires a lot more work than just making one - you need to build a lot of user friendly tools, write doccumenation, have customer support and all of that requires constant maintainance. That why most studios dont license their inhouse tech.
Unreal engine looks better more like cgi
@@vickie_g "write documenation", the hardest part..
@@wingedhussar1453Unreal Engine is worse imo.
Been saying it ever since UE5 was announced: it is an overhyped engine. It won't be in the top 5 best engines of the generation and studios such as CDPR fucked themselves by switching to UE5.
@@vickie_g Lol as a dev, even I sometimes find myself too lazy to write documentations for my code.
Also god knows how many pieces of code of their engine consists of hacks and smart workarounds.
Just look at Quake 3 Arena's Fast inverse Square-root operation and its famous "WTF" comment.
Looks better than every UE5 title so far. Kudos to ubisoft for properly utilising the snowdrop engine.
The foliage in this game is just glorious. No other game comes even close this.
Ark ascended foliage looks considerably better. It's hard to compete with Unreal engine 5
@@cormac8613 no
@@cormac8613Have you seen the gameplay trailer? It doesn't even look half as dense, reactive or varied as this game. I'm also sure that ark won't be as optimised as Avatar, considering its UE5.
Crysis did it in 2007
Forbidden west...
This is the most amazing looking game I've ever seen.
Why does the lighting still look so flat?
The audio work is the most exciting thing for me, I had no idea they were doing that kind of work but it's super impressive!
honestly i wasnt impressed by the trailers and gameplays and i still think graphics is bad but plant interactions and audio that Alex showed made me consider playing it
ok, later Alex compares it to Crysis, thats quite a recommendation
Yea the audio is good, reminds me of how Battlefield 3 sounded 12 years ago.
Ray traced audio already existed in other games.
@@manoftherainshorts9075Wave traced, not ray traced.
Cool that this is not Unreal engine 😊
Wasn't going to get this game but this video sold it for me.
Kudos to Massive Entertainment and all the teams that worked hard on this one. Really enjoyed playing last night, and thanks Alex for bringing attention to stellar efforts with your reporting.
Massive so underrated. Been doing hit games for as long as I can remember.
i would send them a gift basket if i could.
If only game was as good as it looks lol, but it's yet another Ubi$hit clone.
Darn... I feel like I'm looking at some high quality UE5 forest tech demo. Such a tasty looking game.
UE is trash in reality
I can’t believe it’s from Ubisoft. Ubisoft used to be one of the best in pushing graphics and then they got stale till they dropped this game. It’s genuinely a very good game and I am actually enjoying it compared to their other titles.
@@Lord_ofcinder Honestly, I think Massive Entertainment is the best studio Ubisoft has right now.
This game, plus Star Wars Outlaws coming next year? That’s impressive!
@@NintendoGamer2011 Holy crap, I know. I can’t wait for Star Wars: Outlaws.
Keep in mind, this is running on a $2000+ GPU. Personally, yes, it looks nice at these settings, but not nice enough to make me run out and spend two grand on a GPU alone.
This game was not on my radar at all, now I am making it a priority. Great job devs, and great job Alex for showcasing this game!
Probably my favorite Massive game and one of the best looking games of the year. Gave the 7800x3D and 4090 a workout on 'Unobtanium' settings-
What frames are you getting at native 2k and native 4k with max settings? Then what frames are you getting with frame gen, dlss etc.? Thanks.
I have the same setup. I'm gonna have to try this game as much as i don't care for avatar.
@@bustercherry8734you can get it from steam and then ask for a refund after you tried it
@@MrAnimescrazy With 4090 and 7800X3D, in Native 4K it's in the 20's -40's. Looks absolutely gorgeous but to make it playable I use FSR3 ultra quality + frame gen = 55-90fps. FSR3 looks better than DLSS, which is softer and I like sharpness...
@@nabushdinosaure damn ok thanks for the info and what about native 2k with everything maxed out?
Opinions shared tastefully, beautiful graphical showcases with exceptional quality on TH-cam. Thank you, Alex
Finally, someone who doesn't think the game is just far cry with Avatar characters. Well done for the professional observation. It feels and plays so much differently. Way too many unfair comments out there!
It is just far cry with avatar characters, its not a good game, keep coping
@@russia4biden221look at ur name pls
It is not far cry with avatar characters,its a good game,i support your statement
duality.
The people who say that haven't played the game ...... Plus they are from the "I hate everything in my life" crowd .... I really can't understand how people can go through life that damned miserable all of the time ......
Now that they’ve announced the division 3 watching this makes me even more excited because regardless of how you feel about the game as a whole you can’t deny that the worlds they built for the division look and sounded great so seeing that they have massively upgraded the engine I am beyond stoked
I am so happy RT audio is being used, it's something iv hoped we'd see more of by now. Audio cant have a big compute cost but the effect of good audio on a game/film is massive.
I hope we see some more videos for this game, maybe a comparison to UR5?
Super cool to see a engine push graphics so hard that's not Unreal, id like to see more engines covered.
Considering how bad the average user's audio equipment is, no surprise that companies don't prioritize that.
Most gamers dont give a f**k about audio quality unless they have sound problem, like muffled audio, stuttering, static, missing bass , etc, most gamers are not audiophile
@@mrbobgamingmemes9558Considering how vertical this game is, I love that it has proper Atmos support.
@@krisiscovesounds interesting, but i dont know if it make difference in games on average audio device used by gamers
@@mrbobgamingmemes9558 Oh of course I agree. With that said I appreciate the effort massive put in even more because it is a niche market they are catering too.
This just make me more excited for Star Wars outlaws
I can't wait to see how their new Star Wars game looks running on this engine.
Same
OMG yes, cant wait.
This is one of those very rare circumstances where I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and entirely not attracted and/or captivated by the visuals , or at least the aesthetics in this game, definitely some very very impressive tech on display but I just do not enjoy looking at it, strange.
Much of the foliage especially the leaves look very plasticky, also most assets look low poly compared to UE5 games that recently came out, Nanite just completely shits on this. Besides the interactivity and physics which are good I feel the same way.
I can't believe they actually made an amazing Avatar game. Wow, absolutely stunning.
8:50 this is parallax occlusion mapping right? Using real geometry would be insane
Ubisoft are great when it comes to making great looking games...It's the gameplay that they struggle with.
The gameplay is fine, now go back to walking around in the dark with a torch or a sword.
I disagree, their games also have very consistently very very solid gameplay, in fact i would they are some of the best in the Open world category.
@@SuperBallani if you've played 1, you've played them all. They rarely deviate from their formula. AC, Division, Far Cry, Ghost Recon... Are all similar at their core
@@HacksawJimThuggin Open world games usually have something to do in them, an enemy to fight, something to take over and make yours or make free. AC's play very differently to the Division, FarCry plays very differently to all of them. At their core the loop is similar, because what else are you going to do in an open world game? People want to shoot or kill things and feel the progression. Why is this wrong?
I've been trying to play this on pc. Not having much luck though as I can't move 10 feet without my jaw dropping and me having to hit up photo mode. Think I've taken 60 plus screen shots, all wallpaper worthy, in first 3 hours.
When a storm hits and the skies are grey with high winds... omfg
Was really disappointed that no one had made a big enough deal about how special this is... until now 😊
This should be in VR I mean this looks good
Best comment so far
i have avoided VR as i dont like wareing a huge device on my head but for this game i would go for it.
pick a small device, there are sizes for everyone's taste.@@stephenmeinhold5452
Snowdrop delivers the same visual quality as Unreal with half the performance cost. if this game was made with Unreal 5 it would've been a performance disaster
Seems like specific angles looks amazing but during actual gameplay it looks like a generic bog standard current gen game. I could also make a trailer of scenic RDR2 mountain shots and it'll look absolutely incredible with woodlands in the foreground. Literally just as good as this. One game requires FSR3 to run smooth, the other doesnt. One game uses ray tracing to artificially increase the demand because game devs work hand in hand with GPU manufacturers. The other runs great on a 1660ti lol. Seriously though, during actual gameplay, that ray tracing is doing absolutely nothing for you or the game. You have to go on youtube and watch some youtubers pixel peep to justify the worst aspects of capitalism.
I want to see this game in VR
It would be a great way to complete the Cycle
That would be the only thing that gets me to buy it. Otherwise its Just another boring movie adaptation.
I'm looking forward to your analysis on the FSR3 implementation in this game. There's talk that it's vastly improved from the first games the tech was demoed in.
Hardware Unboxed did a video. They seem impressed. I'd actually written it off based on their initial verdict and others.
@@formulaic78 yes I watched theirs. I want to see Digital Foundry's analysis and opinion specifically though.
I trust HW Unboxed for a better unbiased opinion. I've really grown skeptical of DF videos of late.
Hmm FS3 that could be what is cause the chromatic red / green image after image weirdness on edges possibly. if it is that should make it easier to track down the issue.
@@michaelmcnamara3866 I was a bit skeptical that Steve's colleague whose name I forget could deliver as good DLSS content. But he's more than proved himself and I agree that I might just defer to their opinion over DF on such matters.
The greatest Alex compliments equate to the frequency of Crysis 1 comparisons haha that’s a good thing to me!
I installed the game on my AM5 with RX6950x
I'm 72 years old and just had to see it. It's a bit complicated to play for me 😅
this is a spectacular looking game
I paid no attention to it leading up to release, all of the sudden I'm really interested in trying it
Only reason I care is I got a free key with my laptop. I cant play until xmas though. Looking forward to this being the first game i play on my laptop.
It's so ironic how the Visuals make me want this now, just like the movies. Just shows how beautiful this fictional world is and how good of a job they did replicating it here.
I've had so many moments in this game, where I just stop and look in awe at the world. This is the forest I as a kid dreamt would one day be in a game. Now it is here.
Stepping out into the world for the first time after you escape the RDA facility is a true Crysis moment. The only other game to do that recently is Doom Eternal when you teleport into Urdak.
This feels like promo material.
Good god… these developers really out did themselves with the floral density.
The future is looking great for Massive and The Division fans. The Division has always been one of the best looking games despite not having the latest and greatest tech. Massive shows that they can do cutting-edge tech while complementing them with very much needed details and art style.
Despite crashing every hour of gameplay for my pc, (Please don’t make fun of my outdated graphics card) this is one of the only games to make me say “oh wow” out loud and actually smile. Climbing the rookery was one of the most immersive, awe-inspiring, beautiful thing I’ve seen in a video game.
No way this is a multi million unit seller, I really don’t understand who this is for.
i dont know why but it sill looks bad ....
Whoever says this game is reskin, mod, farcry jungle they are clowns nothing more. It's absolutely different experience and phenomenal game. Massive and Lightstorm did great job.
Truly a visual masterpiece, this might be the first time I’ve been completely blown away just from the graphics of the game, and it is well polished as well haven’t noticed any major glitches or bugs. Honestly I was not expecting that, I haven’t watched any avatar movies and this my first time getting into anything avatar yet it still holds my attention and interest. The team that worked on this game should give themselves a pat on the back, you all have truly created a masterpiece. Thank you.
At 8:32 the ground with all the leaves is impressive ! First time I see something like this in a video game !
I would like to see a ground like this in RDR 2 PS5
I mean, it looks nice, sure. I still think it look suitably gamey. Something like Horizon from last year looks a bit more refined.
18:47 80 FOV, really Alex? 🤔
The water suffers from a "Swimming pool" effect. Its like the ripples are too evenly dispersed and move too quickly, Almost feels like its scaled wrong for the type of water thats being shown. Thats about the only visual element I see that takes me out of just being absolutely stunned by a live scene in this game.
I thought the same thing. Felt like my video was playing at 1.5x speed (or higher), but it wasn't. Hopefully they'll correct this in a patch, along with the other visual discrepancies Alex mentioned.
The environments are absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It definitely is a bit cookie cutter mechanics wise from far cry. But this is definitely through and through a good Avatar game.
The game looks great, but I don't like the Atmospheric Perspective And the rocks don't look good.
UBISOFT ACTUALLY DELIVERED ON GRAPHICS VS TRAILER 😂 AND BOY DOES IT LOOK AMAZING 💙 NOW IMAGINE WHAT SPLINTERCELL REMAKE IS GONNA LOOK LIKE!!!!
"Remake" because they are creatively bankrupt ....
Check the part at the end of the video “how it plays”
Honestly, this is the sentiment that I’m catching in a lot of reviews. If you turn off all the HUD and just go full immersion, this game, hits the right marks!
This is the first game in a long time, I’m seriously tempted to double down, and buy on release. Might be an early Christmas present to myself.
Although that said I’m not sure whether I can personally justify spending 70 quid on one game. That’s a hell of a lot of money. I might just wait till January and it will probably hit the sales at some point.
But that said, I kind of want to support a game like this. It seems like the devs intentions were good, trying to focus on the right stuff, really trying to make an immersive game.
I gave the exploration mode that Alex recommends a try. Try to find my comment on this video for a full impression of it as a brand new player. The short version is that it can sometimes leave you hanging and I wish it did a little more with in-game context clues. Exploration mode is great 9 times out of 10 though. I'm gonna keep at it but it can be tricky for reasons external to the gameplay itself.
I also thought that this Avatar game reminded me very much of Crysis, it looks incredible, love just discovering it. The only thing I don't like so much is the water.
Agreed, the water doesn't look right. Waterfalls I like though.
The water moves too fast. I wonder if it's just a technical physics/framerate limitation or if the team actually thought it looked right. If so, they need some distance or a third party.
7:38 Here I see it pink! While this is red 7:53
This makes me really want a division remaster. The concrete jungle. The snow falling. Accumulating and melting. All the different lighting in the game. Would be amazing.
Can we stop with the "one of the best looking games this year BS'" this is THE best looking ever made. In the history of videogames. Even as someone who is very much over Ubisoft games, I'm buying this just to look at it on my 12900k/4090 and Samsung OLED monitor. There will be copious masturbation.
For once I'm very intrigued by a Ubisoft game. It's been a while.
Thank you for this Alex. Now I just need to decide whether to get the Xbox Series X or PS5 version since I don’t have a uber PC :-)
From what I've heard from other reviews the game takes full advantage the DualSense controller if that helps with your decision.
get it on the ps5, this game uses the dualsense like no other
It's Far Cry in Pandora, but oh man it's the best feel good game I've ever played!
The random events and fighting is some of the best Ubisoft has ever done.
If you think open worlds are overwhelming, skip this it's the most overwhelming map yet, but if you can conquer your fears, my god is it rewarding!
I've tried it on my RTX 4090 PC and my PS5 and can barely notice any differences. So nearly everything in this video also goes for consoles.
This game is further proof that Unreal Engine is terrible.
Ah cool. Doing a video on the game on the platform less than 4% of the players play the game on. Makes sense. So this is the hollywood tech channel, making content for YOURSELVES.
What I like about the team at DF is they look at game a bit differently. Alex's description of what he likes about the game and how he enjoyed it was very much in line with my thoughts. I find this kind of analysis is missing from most reviews.
Cringe. Seek help
It looks good, just a shame it's locked onto EGS and Ubi's awful excuse for a store on PC.
It honestly drops frames very noticeably on Series X but I'm still enjoying it immensely. It's a great open world sci fi game, and it's nice to get one of those this year after all.
For me it only has ever dropped once. I did notice it runs alot better on performance mode as when I got to the grasslands everything was flickering and dropping textures but going to performance mode definitely stopped it
@SubaruWRC1996 I'm on performance mode as well, and it drips quite a bit during rainstorms. On quality I was choppy in general. I expect some improvements will be made but it's already a great experience.
Glad you're enjoying it! :D.. I only play games on PC.. so was curious: Does it have Ray Tracing on Series X?
It's heavy as f* on PC too, should require a lot less from the hardware according to the visual fidelity, the water looks really weird for the most part
@@DwarfNobleit does, surprisingly
I think you need to reassess the visual quality of the first Avatar movie... it is dated af.
The blue people praying for Ripley scene... visually awful to look at
a comparison between console and PC would be great and a comparison between unobtanium and ultra setting would be great too.
The night time bioluminescence of the plants reminds me of the bright colorful neon lights and particle effects of Infamous Second Son, loved the lighting in that game.
The game is beautiful and fun to play, I went in with low expectations and was blown away once I stepped out into Pandora.
So was I. Very rarely do I play a game and go "wow". When I stepped out into the forest for the first time, I just sat there and looked. I was stunned. Absolutely phenomenal!
Is it just me or does this game look really meh? the visuals don't seem any better than games from 4 years ago...
The engine scales so well. The PS5 version obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles but is still extremely nice looking and runs well with so much detail on display. Also, thank you Massive for the FOV slider - something Ubi does not usually implement in their other first person console games.
The most visually mind blowing and mind boggling game of the decade! This shit blows everything else out of the water! Every tiny little detail to every grand cascading is vista just insanely beautiful and the lighting is just insane and pulls it all together so well! Playing with Unobtanium settings on my RTX 4080 and having a blast and even with Ultra settings it looks insanely good already. The RTGI is just incredible and the shadows are next level. Every little plant, blades of grass and even the tiny little moss growing on trees have shadows, it's UNREAL (actually it's SNOWDROP!) XD. The world is SUPER immersive, traversal is WILD with its freedom, fluidity and verticality, the gameplay overall feels really great (love the unexpected depth and scope of the cooking, crafting and gathering system) and Exploration Mode is the cherry on top that makes questing super immersive, tough and satisfying when you actually find where you need to go WITHOUT a floating quest marker, just using your brain cells and decoding the map with clues! A true Navi simulator for all the Avatar fans out there who have been wanting to feel like a Navi for over a decade. Here's your chance, don't miss it! Lots of love to the MASSIVE team from a huge fan!! Hope this game does amazingly!
PS: The Hunter's Guide has really turned me into a zoologist and botanist overnight, brings a whole another level of immersion to the game!
The Division is still one of my favorite-looking games, the Snowdrop engine is incredibly capable and the way that they flex their technical muscles with an art team to match was incredible. This looks like a worthy new game in that lineage. Super stoked to try it. Your description of it as closer to Crysis than Far Cry has me wanting to buy it.
Given the lack of comparisons to Horizon Forbidden West, neither Alex, nor the PC crowd in the comments have played it yet.
The title of this video alone is impressive enough. And that alone just made me realize how much I appreciate DF. These guys have a massive impact on my life, more than I would like to admit.
Love to see a competent in-house engine. I'm not a fan of a potential all-Unreal future so I always give bonus points to studios who still maintain their own tech.
One thing that helps me to enjoy this game is that I haven’t played a single FarCry game since the first one around two decades ago. So I’ve missed out on the FarCry-specific things that makes this feel tired to many, and thus this game is SO much fun