u/Federal-Sir-599

https://reddit.com/link/1ugi6uw/video/poegkwv5to9h1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1ugi6uw/video/9gdrd186to9h1/player

Look how beautiful the foilage textures and density is and how they blow with the wind! same with the fabric meshes! amazing!! LOL

my gaming life that is lol.... You know those stutters and frame drops you get sometimes in a open world game while panning the camera or running in a new direction even though you have loads of headroom? ya it was driving me crazy and one thing I rarely hear mentioned is the fix for it. (for me anyway)

PAGEFILE .... it was by default set to "let windows manage" but since setting it to a custom 32GB, the stutters are GONE. (This is with 64GB RAM)

Started this game last year on Xbox series X and NGL, was a little disappointed in the graphics. Not bad by any means, but looked kinda "mid" with wayyy too much fog/smoke filter.

FFW to this year, and got a new gaming PC a few months ago (RTX 5070ti) and OMG this game actually looks reallly good now! I'd still put it a notch or two below AFOP though... anyhoo, no spoilers I'm only just about to leave Toshara :D

Feel free to chime in below if you can see any improvements but here's what I go after tinkering on RTX 4070 12 GB VRAM (or 5070ti laptop)..... RT is enabled by default and not able to be turned off so DLSS is a must just for RR. RTXDI is optional and takes a MASSIVE hit to VRAM and GPU. I personally don't see much difference On vs Off EXCEPT in the usual suspects for RT denoising (Diffuse Reflections in low light spaces AKA many of the nooks and crannies in Mirogana). Not low, not medium, but only HIGH RTXGI setting will fix those spots. So on a 12gb vram card, you can either use all max settings with RTXGI max at 1080p DLSS quality 60 fps, OR all max settings with RTXGI off at 1440p DLAA 60 fps. And you can play from there with upscaling for more rez or frames. VRAM AND GPU will bottleneck you with RXTGI above 1080p so FG isn't much of an option here.

RTXGI is not worth running at all on medium or low. Same for all the minor settings. You can save some power turning down RT settings but not much and this game actually has a big jump from high to ultra settings on specular reflections.

Personally I think the 1080p "compromised" version looks better, simply for the RT denoising. You'd be surprised how much resolution you don't notice unless playing a MASSIVE screen.

I liked it but think its a tad overrated. Don't think I've ever seen such polarizing graphics. All of the main characters face models look amazing. Same with some detail in some environments. But then you get like 5 different NPCs copied and pasted over and over in each region. Like even GTA3 on PS2 had more NPC variety lol. Low detail foilage and assets in general and ofc the VRAM hog that is Path Tracing. OFC its gonna be somewhat of a hog, but other games have optimized it FAR better. It shouldn't cost me a wopping 2 GB of VRAM just to get RT reflections.

Anyhoo, I did enjoy the story and writing and acting and puzzles. Felt alot like a modern Tomb Raider or Uncharted game, with slightly less combat in favor of stealth. (and I hate stealth, i bumped down the combat difficulty half way through and just boxed my way through the second half lol. More fun to me)

actually NOT bad at 1600p. Still not desireable there though. I can't imagine a scenario where'd id feel a need for it. especially with VRAM being the only bottleneck for path tracing below 12 gb vram., not GPU power... but if i had a 4k display, Ultra Performance is probably doable now with preset L.

Hate the fact that this game has SOO much potential for it to be a masterpiece but falls short in pretty much the exact ways everyone describes...

But first, the visuals, playing on a high end PC and OLED screen. OMG. In my mind, this is the greatest looking game of all time and its not even close. Hellblade 2 does look "better" and more photorealistic, but has a fraction of a fraction of the scope and scale of AFOP. So personally, I put AFOP first, Hellblade 2 second, and all the other "really good looking games" third lol (and will revisit once FateKeeper comes out of early access).

And personally, I would have loved this game alot MORE if it were 3-4x SMALLER with 3-4x less REPETITIION. Sure, side content in open world games are gonna be repetitive. Memory Paintings and Totem sightings get a pass here, but every single research lab, navi camp, and even RDA outposts (for the most part) are all EXACTLY THE SAME. I enjoyed the core gameplay very much, but because its SO BLOATED AND REPETITIVE, I was actually tired of it less than halfway through the main story. And I think alot of people in general would have been much happer without the bloat and gotten a much smaller game. Not even the Assassins Creed games were nearly this repetitive.

My other major complaint was the games economy. I loved the crafting system here. The problem is that you can spend 10 hours hunting down materials to max out your character from crafting, only to be handed a better weapon in the next story mission. Fine, thats how leveling works. But I've never seen a game until now, just not give you a single option on what to do with outdated gear. Every other game I've played in 44 years, you can at the very least, sell it to a vendor AND/OR break it down for raw materials AND/OR currency. Not in AFOP. Yes, you can technically donate it for clan favor, but that literally only pushes up the scale less than 1 percent, so its basically pointless.

Even still, I would have put up with the broken economy and been happy with a smaller game. So for now, its gonna collect dust on my PC until I want to flex in front of my console gamer friends lol. SN: I actually played this on XSX with an OLED TV too, and I'd probably rank it as the best looking console game of all time also.