After the layoffs back in February Sony Santa Monica finally seems to be getting back into a hiring trend, with six developer positions offered at the moment of this writing, and a new career opportunity ad seeking a Senior Staff Animator/Motion Capture Expert gives a glimpse on what you can expect from the animation of the studio's upcoming game.
God of War Ragnarök is already being hailed as game of the year material, but it's creation was anything but easygoing. GQ talks to Sony Santa Monica's Cory Barlog and Eric Williams about the making of a PS4 & PS5 classic.
Well those fears were misplaced.
I've put in about 8 and half hrs so far, finding every chest doing any side quests I come across.
The game plays amazing and looks amazing, Santa Monica have knocked it out of the park again!!!
Oh and yes the side quests are as good as the reviews have stated so far, have completed and honestly they may have ad well been main story quests.
Seems harder than gow 2018 aswell, so it's defs worth while trying to clear areas out before moving on.
It reminds me of ninja gaiden in the sense that even the lowest level enemy can kill you if you're not paying attention to what you're doing. He can't afford to straight around being cocky have to be on the ball
On normal or easy mode? When I started the last game I started on hard. I was killed in one hit until later when I got stronger.
Made the valkyries a royal pain fighting for first time though lol.
Wondering if starting this on hard mode too is a Good idea
@lucian229
Yes start on hard. From what I've heard lower difficulties start okay but then drop off to very easy. I usually play all my games on hard to accommodate that inevitable decline in difficulty as you get stronger and more experienced with the game.
I'm playing on hard, but not really hard.The one above normal. Seems like a good challenge. Died a bit in those 3 guys mini boss by the watch tower but doing well.
I snapped my Ninja Gaiden (for the og xbox) disc in half literally 30 minutes in. Then went out a bought a new copy the next day, and then went on to beat it three times.
Good times.
Seriously, I was doing great once. Just in a flowstate. Then all of a sudden a single Nightmare kills me. smh.
That’s great to hear the dude quests are that good. Have a great time man!!
I cannot even fathom what it’ll be like when the wife and I boot it up for the first time…so anxious!
Just started and I can already tell it’s going to be a masterpiece. SSM are an incredibly talented team.
It unlocked for me at 10.30 last night. I thought I'll just have a quick turn.
Well 2 and a half hours went in the blink of an eye and I got 4 hours sleep before work.
Amazing and wow (for just 2 hours) I like the sound of that haha. Music to my ears!
Continue enjoying it! I’ll be playing later tonight, BUSY day ahead for me and the family, but we’re all itching to play😄
If I’m not mistaken (and memory serves me right) Naughty Dog thought the same thing with The Last of Us… And we all know how that was a special game back in 2013! So, knowing just 3 months ago they thought it was not good, yet their desire to hit “Perfect” much like their brothers (Naughty Dog) never has them take the easy route, still work so incredibly hard at their craft - being the veterans overall that this team is, along with I assume new fresh talent, this teams love, passion, care, fire and respect for this game and it’s characters etc. and their love for the fans (in wanting to deliver us a great game) really has, no surprise, paid off.
With hard work, the right mindset and loving what you do, respecting the art of games etc. you will get success. Sony’s first party studios continue to show this again and again. Simply unmatched talent.
The trailer for God Of War Ragnarok was a masterclass example in trailer design, packed with plenty small details while still not revealing to much.
Haha, like what you did there with the “SSM/SMS/SSMS.”
I can’t wait either, SSM will amaze us all over again, and possibly break our gamer hearts😭😂ԅ 57;
It was a masterclass of a trailer, showcasing one of the most badass looking game trailers I think I’ve possibly ever seen! It didn’t give away too much, stunned us, hyped us up even more and showcased that this sequel could very well (I’m just saying, it’s possible, but I’m not saying it’s 💯set in stone) surpass the masterpiece that was 2018’s gem and masterpiece of a game, in storytelling and fantastic gameplay design etc.
The scope and scale of Ragnarok is reminding me of, based on this trailer, Uncharted 2 (not that Uncharted 2 left it’s linear scope and went wide linear, of course that was Uncharted 4) but in the fact that Uncharted 2 cranked up EVERYTHING from Drakes Fortune to Among Thieves to an 11 in its bombastic nature, gunplay, set piece moments, cutscenes, etc. and Ragnarok is bringing that here, in its own unique way, but with a more living, breathing world in certain aspects; which is so neat and welcome.
SSM has been silently polishing this game up and perfecting it to a level I can’t imagine, wizards, I tell ya.
I wanna see Sindri and Brok fight against evil😁
One the best studios in the world. Only some that don't have a sony machine doubt in the quality of their work.
Game studios like Sony Santa Monica and Digital Cybercherries aren't taking player abuse lying down anymore.
Why as a developer would you Interact with the community anyway? Throw out the trailer with the release date and don't engage, is it that hard? From multiplayer to grouping in mmo's you'll get abuse & the moment you indulge the comments or make the trolls aware that it's having some "impact" you've essentially lost.
"Is harassment getting worse?" If you choose to look for it, yes.
Extra monetization In your game upsetting you? It's not Becky the developer's fault, Devs are obligated to milk that game dry for shareholders & It's your choice to purchase said game, even if you were misled the lesson learned is not to purchase anything In the future from said studio.
*Twitter/FB/IG are not good for your health.
Exactly, it's the same with the ego leaker articles, just don't click them as there full of BS 99% of the time plus why ruin the surprise of a new ip game announcement, trailer, event or release date etc.
Take GoW for instance, it missed it's 2021 release year but it was never delayed or in trouble going into 2022 as it never had a date to be delayed yet we had all the hate from the community, misinformation, YT influencers talking BS etc.
I bet you're the type of people who say that if women don't want to get harassed by men outside then they should just stay home. Congrats here's a cookie
@TheCaptainKuchiki
I bet you're the type of person who likes to put words in people's mouths and act like they really said those things when they really didn't so you can climb atop your high horse and gain that oh so important moral high ground.
Congrats, but I'm keeping the cookie.
Dang, he took @Kaii's cookie. It's cool. He didn't want those calories anyway.
That's a false equivalency. If he had said "If you don't like the responses, don't be on Twitter at all and never post anything" then you'd have an argument. He's not saying never be on Twitter. He's just saying do not dignify these ridiculous posts by a bunch of overgrown children with a response. I agree.
Except nobody says that lol...other than you..you're legit the only person who I've heard make that claim.
Developers are humans and they deserve to be respected as such. If an immature person send them a d*** pic, that imitate person deserves to be shamed 24/7
That's what they should do. This lady should have posted the dudes d*** Pic back on Twitter for everyone to see.
It's not a pretty situation, but what you are saying is a double edged sword, from one angle yes the attention gives people power and influence changes in the industry, if one of the developers ran from the abuse then it makes the abusers think that they can make changes, but it's their fault, in the first place developers shouldn't have to handle this situation, but at least you should limit the damages if you can, the problem is not everyone are capable of not giving the abusers attention and power, some people can handle it and render them powerless, but others can't, which may lead to horrible mental consequences, this is a LOSE LOSE situation!
A side note, nothing will be solved if we cheery pick the entitlement we want to fight against, hundreds of articles will be made in these situations, yet these outlets would call developers disrespectful if they made a game hard and would keep quiet if death threats were sent against a eastern developer with a different culture, if we show people that there's a way to run away from consequences then they will be encouraged to abuse!
If you've poured your heart and soul to create something you're passionate about, why wouldn't you want to engage with the very people who will appreciate your work? Some fans will always take it too far and that's really sad but developer interaction is important, especially for games with a long lifespan and continued development.
I can't really talk for most gaming communities but I've been an avid FF14 player for a good few years now and I love the way Yoshi P and his developers communicate with the community. Something goes wrong, he straight up apologies and explains what happens, none of that corporate hogwash that crap companies like EA would churn out.
As a videogame developer you are obligated to subjugate your fanbase and make sure they never step out of line and when they do you have to put them in their place or revoke their Fan Card.
Good on them. The gaming community is made up of some of the worst people there is.
I've been gaming since the NES days and honestly, I've Nevered encountered gamers anywhere near that bad. It's usually just "my console of choice is better than your console!"... Nothing to do with developers and all, so I find it very difficult to believe that it has gotten this bad....
Every community has some of the worst people. I know someone whose car got flipped because his license plate had a rival sports team on it.
Did you bother to read the article or just see the God of War thumb nail and decide to single out one fan base? The article mentions Hypercharge, Battlefield and Return to Monkey Island which are not just Playstation games as well as this quote, "employees at Activision Blizzard, who are demanding that management better protect customer support and community management developers who receive increased abuse whenever bad news hits the company." So again its not just the Playstation community so you can stop trolling.
The internet brings out the worst in people. If you got most of the toxic community members face to face I'm positive they would be to scared to run their mouths in such a way.
It’s 50% insufferable greedy gamers and 50% overbearing advertising. The game creators and publishers create the game as well as the fanbase. Them becoming zombie greed vampires is a symptom of how much games get shoved down our throats on a daily basis.
No it isn't. Literally every community is like this. It's called being human. I don't understand why you shine a light on an extremely small portion of a community and use this as a brush to paint the entire community with.
It's like saying 2% of black people have a criminal record there for all of them are criminals.
Why don't you just use the tools of the platform you are on and block and report toxic fans. Not use the blanket term or make the implication that ALL fans are toxic.
That laterally helps nothing and only drives further divisions and animosity within the fanbase and with the developers.
We know where that road leads to, apathy.
When people don't care, the industry dies.
The exact same thing happened with the comic book community. Creators turned on fans, fanbase became divided and became tired of defending themselves from blanket statements. Your paying customers became apathetic, the comic book industry died.
Developers/Creatives literally gain nothing by attacking their paying customers. You would think would be common sense but apparently that's in short supply these days. There's so many examples of this ending badly.
They should realpy think twice before continuing down this path.
Replies(2)
Oh for godsake.. just shut up and make good games and release them when you said you would without any delays and then the other side will shut up and pay for it and everyone is happy. Oh and also don't pay attention to dumb s**t online .. is that so hard ? What are these people children ?
Crying about things you have no control over is the definition of being a child. By not ignoring the trolls, you’re just giving them more power because they thrive on attention. You think a strongly worded message against trolls and toxic asshats will make them stop what they’re doing?
When you get death threats and harassment they recommend you don’t publicly cry about them because it just gets worse. That’s how trolls work. “Don’t feed the trolls” is actually the grown up answer lol.
What else are you going to do ... cry like a b.... when playstation fanboys don't get what they want when they want it?
Ignoring a problem that you'll never solve and doesn't hurt anyone in a significant way is the answear.
To everyone saying “just ignore them”, there is no reason entitled gamers should be sending death threats to developers because their fucking game was delayed.
These entitled pieces of shit are at fault here, and shouldn’t be given a pass. You don’t like a game, don’t buy it and leave it at that
What are you going to do about it though? What are they going to do about it? How are you going to stop it exactly? Ignoring it is the only rational option. Ignoring ignorant people isn’t “getting a pass”. Nothing hurts a troll more than indifference. They move on to feathers that can be rattled.
Statements like this just give them a pass which is wrong. "How are you gonna stop them?" lol - maybe if we stop normalizing it and simply accepting horrid behavior by calling it out over time it can be improved.
The takes on here are wild to me. The post below literally like "Words shouldn't hurt you when the come from someone who doesn't even have a face". Like why are people trying to defend people being shitty on the internet?
Just because these kids can hide behind their keyboards doesn't mean that that behavior HAS to be tolerated. They should be called out.
You still didn’t answer how to stop it. “Maybe if we call it out it will eventually stop”. No, it won’t. It never has. I don’t condone death threats and harassment lol. Crying about it won’t solve anything. Giving them attention is what they want.
All public figures have to tolerate harassment. It comes with the job. You don’t hear about 99% of it because they know how the internet works. If you think the threat is credible you contact authorities. If it’s just some annoying prick you mute them and report them. The absolute worst thing you can do is cry on Twitter (a cesspool) about your trolls. It’s like flies to shit. I bet the dick pics in Santa Monica’s inbox grew 10 fold after they publicly mentioned it lol. That was just dumb. You are not going to reach these idiots with a scathing article of moral superiority. This kind of shit doesn’t do devs any favors. It doesn’t do anything but let the author sniff their own farts and preach to the choir.
We all agree that what they do is wrong but there isn’t a solution aside from ignoring them and moving on with your life. It’s unfortunate but it is what it is. It’s not “normalizing shitty behavior” when shitty behavior has always been the standard. Humans suck, adapt and overcome. That’s just my opinion and final thought before I stop caring again lol.
I disagree. The best way to fight a bully isn't to ignore them and let them get away with it - that makes them feel powerful and incentivizes them to keep doing it.
The solution is for everyone in the room to laugh at them and make them feel small. It's still a sort of indifference but it conveys that they're weird and should be embarassed, which will actually make them less likely to do it. Basically, we all need to roast the trolls to a fine crisp, haha, along with the those online who encourage this stuff without getting their hands as dirty.
@lucas
I disagree. It’s not the same.
The best way to deal with a bully is to beat the living shit out of them. Physical violence must be met with physical violence. This isn’t physical violence or a bully. It’s annoying internet trolls.
Are you going to hunt down and beat the shit out of every internet troll? No lol. Could you roast them enough to get them to stop? No. “The entire room” is what exactly? The entire internet lol? Good luck getting more than 10 people to give a shit.
Engaging with a troll is only giving them what they want. It doesn’t matter if you are crying or laughing at them. They got a rise out of you which is the entire point of their sad existence.
There is a practical solution which is ignoring them. And there’s an emotional non-solution which is feeding them and giving them what they want while pretending you are fighting back. It sucks but that’s the options.
The fact people are disagreeing with you says it all. Apathy is just as bad. How hard is it for people to just be decent?!
Gone are the good old days where we can just be disapointed and then move on when games are delayed.
Kratos incoming!
PS4 is a Super Computer
Animation is truly fascinating to me,
I remember when Resistance Fall of Man came out, I once set up a split Screen match and just watched the movement animation of the Chimera!
Expected from Playstation as always.
As expected coming from a top studio