The Analog Circle Podcast: Did Spider-Man Receive A Graphical Downgrade?

In this episode Kiaun will be discussing the controversy behind Spider-Man receiving a graphical downgrade. To be a part of the conversation call in at 443-216-9934. Here is the link to the video. https://youtu.be/7fpROy8u40...

[NecrumOddBoy]

No.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

If you look at the before and after pictures, you can clearly see that the recent ones look worse.

So why are you trying to deny it? Happens to most games..

[Silly gameAr]

Because some people aren't as gullible as you are. No offense.

Day one baby.

[bolimekurac]

oh stop it silly gamer, sony pulled a fast one, its been downgraded

[Silly gameAr]

@bolimekurac

I think you're the one that needs to stop it.

[AspiringProGenji]

Why are you also denying there are several parts that look better in the final build? They seemed to do some tweaks but nothing that screams downgrade.

Here
https://youtu.be/fAm-kyypqA...

Happens to most games yet Sony exclusives seem to get the most articles about this, and they never show downgrade

[NXFather]

You know why, but, I think it will be as good as the first one.

[hench07]

Exactly it clearly got an upgrade.

[bolimekurac]

if you call less lighting, less detail, less puddles and upgrade then have fun

[DigitalRaptor]

@ bolimekurac

Less puddles? What is this?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

As far as "less detail" goes, that is absolutely 100% a lighting dependency:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

(thank you ShadowWolf712 for these images)

So, what d'ya know...? James Stevenson of Insomniac Games is telling the truth, and you're playing the fanboy card. Whoops! I guess you forgot to check yourself, so you wrecked yourself. Embarrassing.

[SuperSonic91]

Hitler told all them Nazi soldiers incase they get captured as POW to not keeptheir mouths shut and spew lies to demoralize the Allies' soldiers by the end of WW2.

[Hungryalpaca]

The hell are you on about?

[SuperSonic91]

@hungryalpaca

I am talking about salty sore losers.

[porkChop]

Doubtful. But even if it did, it still looks great in the more recent videos.

[bolimekurac]

doesnt look as good as before and its been downgraded

[AspiringProGenji]

2017 - More puddles
2018 - Less puddles

Big Deal /s

[bolimekurac]

worse lighting, objects moved around because others where removed, puddles are missing and downgraded themselves, suit was downgraded, lighting as well

[UCForce]

And tell me, what about this ? https://youtu.be/fAm-kyypqA...

[ShadowWolf712]

"puddles are missing"

They moved one. Here are several.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

And here's an example of how lighting, just like real life, affects visibility.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

[rainslacker]

Maybe there was less rain on the day that scene takes place???

[rivaldoo777]

Lolllll. PS camp : Cant wait to play this game.
Other camp : plz say this is true plzzzzz !!! Lmao

[rainslacker]

I am enjoying seeing a few people go on and on in any given comment section trying their hardest to convince people that its been downgraded, despite not really offering up any actual examples for proof, or ignoring where it was improved.

I wonder if they think that it will actually affect the sales of the game. If its a console war thing, then I wonder if they think that saying it was downgraded will somehow turn people off the console. I know some are just trying to get a reaction, but at the same time, it's pretty sad seeing some of these people who won't bat an eye at any other game which does changes which can easily be pointed out as a downgrade.

I wonder if Sony fans were so meticulous about MS exclusives when they get "downgraded" if they'd accept the same thing as examples for why the game has been downgraded.

[Stanjara]

This is the reason Cyberpunk isn't shown to the public.

[starchild]

Yep, if some gamers continue to not understand the development process and make such a huge deal about aspects of games that get downgraded developers are going to quit showing us their games early at all. They'll just wait until near release to show any gameplay.

[doggo84]

Ha. Dont even try start that bullshit, you'll fall flat on your face.

There is NO downgrade, now move along please.

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

If you look at the before and after pictures, you can clearly see that the recent ones look worse.

So why are you trying to deny it? Happens to most games.

[UCForce]

So what about this ? https://youtu.be/fAm-kyypqA... Sure, there are some decisions have to make but most of parts have been upgraded.

[mkis007]

A lighting source changed position which explains everything. Dont worry, on release you will get to see plenty of pictures and videos. Just like every ps4 exclusive before it we will show no downgrade.

[DigitalRaptor]

You're wrong. FLAT OUT WRONG.

There's hours upon hours upon hours of gameplay already out there. It proves that the game has improved every time it's been shown. Nice try but try harder next time.

[bolimekurac]

yes there is, objects where moved around so its not the same as before, water is missing, detail is missing, lighting has been downgraded. all in all its a downgrade

[starchild]

By the standard that any other game was judged, yes, there was a downgrade. But it's a normal part of the development process as they fine tune and balance the game. People need to stop making such a big deal about it.

[ClayRules2012]

No. There’s no downgrade.

Same thing happened with HZD. God of War. Detroit: Become Human etc... It’ll continue to happen with Sony’s other upcoming games next year as well. They receive improvements and get an upgrade rather than downgrade.

Have a great Monday everyone!

[bolimekurac]

was god of wars repetitiveness and boring boat rides a upgrade?

[jimbost79]

Wtf has that got to do with a graphical "downgrade"?
I also loved the boat rides with mimirs tales.
And your bringing up repetitivness, when racers are probably the most repetitive games of them all.
Im currently playing fh 2 by the way and think its fkn brilliant

[ClayRules2012]

Lol. Ummm, how is traveling from location to location (to continue the main quests/side quests, and collect things a downgrade? I’m speaking specifically on the visuals being criticized and people claiming a downgrade has happened.

Now, if you found God of War repetitive, that’s fine. I won’t argue with you on that, everyone’s different when it comes to games and the fun factor that they offer to each individual gamer.

But there’s a difference between a game being repetitive and a game having received a downgrade (with graphics and animations) being less impressive than what was originally shown. Also, you could claim downgrade on the gameplay, had you played it during the early stages and found the gameplay to be more refined/solid compared to the finished game, and found things to be really poor in terms of gameplay for like controlling Kratos being clunkyAtreus being unresponsive, AI having been dumbed down, but that isn’t the case.

God of War received an upgrade in terms of details in the environment, the lighting, character model/clothing etc... that’s why I said it received an upgrade.

No hate to you. But your comment doesn’t make much sense & doesn’t reflect what I was specifically referring to in my original comment.

[Silly gameAr]

No, but your sour grapes are a serious downgrade. Find something that makes you happy and perk up.

[jimbost79]

Lol. Ignore the second half if my post. For some reason i thought i was in the fh4 article.
1st part stands tho.

[bolimekurac]

you see the replies ??, thats what we dealt with yesterday with fh4. not fun is it.

[jimbost79]

Lol. Who are "we"?
Spiderman looks great. Fh 4 looks great.
This downgrade thing comes up everytime a new sony exclusive is released.
It will make zero difference to how the game plays.

[UCForce]

I guess you haven’t play the game, have you ? There was no fetch quest in God Of War.

[DigitalRaptor]

Oh... well now we can confirm what your intentions on this article truly are.

Congrats, you just played yourself.

[starchild]

Some things get downgraded and some things get upgraded. It's not like devs just decide "hey let's just make everything we've worked hard making look worse". No, it's part of the balancing and fine tuning process that occurs during development. Those games did have certain aspects that were pared back, but they also had aspects that were improved.

[rainslacker]

Sad the downgraded games still look better than most everything else out there. Well, maybe not sad, but I know it really seems to bother some people.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

All Sony exclusives receive downgrades, it's a known tactic /s

Look at HZD, GOW same things were said - it's always said. But it never has any grounding in fact.

[Whitey2k]

Some pics look better some pics look bad.

On the old build u can see there was no AA and the background looks washed out and blurred in the where the new one has better AA and not blurred etc

[jimbost79]

This again? Happens with almost every sony exclusive.
And "controversy" lol

[starchild]

Uh, it happens with basically every big game. The only difference is you don't have an army of fanboys defending most multiplatform games so they get torn apart the most. People need to understand that games undergo many changes during development and this includes aspects that get "downgrades" and aspects that get "upgraded".

[DigitalRaptor]

There is no downgrade here, like there was no downgrade in those other games that he mentioned. There are puddles of equal measure and other environmental objects distributed across the city, so not having them in this specific scene and calling it a "downgrade" is dishonest. Additionally, lighting indeed does affect the visibility and detail on objects in the scene, so we're going to see that change all across different parts of the game. What is certain, is that this "downgrade" is going to be exposed to be false (if it hasn't already by the folks at Insomniac) by raw gameplay and cutscene footage of the final build on or before September 7th.

No point in shifting who is at fault here, because it doesn't achieve anything.

[bolimekurac]

sony fans will fall for anything and not complain but they will sit around and complain about other console games.
they keep forgetting the flops like lair, order 1886, the killzone lie, HAZE and a few other flops and downgrades.

[UCForce]

Can you say the same thing to Breath of the Wild and State Of Decay 2 ?

[Doabarrelroll]

Dude seriously shut up and go cry in a FH4 article. Everytime a PS game gets released you idot xbots cry downgrade, and everytime your proven wrong.
GOW-wrong
UC4-wrong
Detriot-wrong
Horizonon-wrong

So seriously just stop. Go play your broken lack of content GAAS games while you wait for next gen to MAYBE get some actual GOOD exclusives from MS and let PS gamers enjoy actual games

[DigitalRaptor]

You just exposed yourself as an avid hater, congrats.

[rainslacker]

Really? I haven't seen Sony fans going on at length that MS games were downgraded. You know they make changes to their games as well, which could easily be considered a downgrade based on the same metrics that seem to be applied to this game.

I see some changes to the graphics, but an actual downgrade? Not really. The things they've improved actually increase the fidelity and look of the scene. Taking a short clip, or some screenshots don't actually represent what we'll see on our own TV's, as it won't be compressed, put up on YouTube, or paused to analyze every pixel which can differ from frame to frame.

[bluefox755]

And like clockwork...

[Jinger]

Who cares it still looks great and the gameplay looks great. September 5th roll along please!

[bolimekurac]

what do you mean who cares. just the other day people where trying that with forza horizon 4 saying it was downgraded when it wasnt but here we go with spiderman which is 100% been downgraded, lighting has been changed and puddles are gone and objects as well. So yeah people care when there is a actual downgrade like in spiderman

[Jinger]

Sorry, let me rephrase:

I don't care, it still looks great and the gameplay looks great. September 5th roll along please!

Is that better for you?

[UCForce]

I will say this again, what about this ? https://youtu.be/fAm-kyypqA...

[Jinger]

@UCForce

Actually the scene with the Asian guy clearly shows a downgrade in shadow quality.

There are points where 2017 look better and points where 2018 look better, but all and all the game looks phenomenal and the gameplay looks amazing also and that's all that really matters.

[UCForce]

@Jinger Well, devs have to make decisions, but not a lot.

[gameslayer2411]

There are two people with obvious agendas in this comment section that will completely disappear after digital foundry does its in depth analysis.

[bolimekurac]

if a game was shown with lets say 20 characters on the screen with unreal lighting for 3 years and then when the final game is shown there is only 14 characters in the same scenes with less lighting to boot people here would call that a downgrade, if that example was a xbox game and only 14 characters where on screen when they initially showed 20 then it would be hammered all day long by gamers.
well thats exactly what sony did here with spiderman, the scenes arent just changed because of the sun excuse they gave, objects have been moved around in the same exact scenes, lighting has been downgraded in the same scenes and puddles are completely missing and not as good looking as before and the suit is not as detailed. that my friends is a downgrade. that will not stop us from enjoying it but its the truth yet many of you will continue to rail on xbox as you defend sony . we all know sony has done this before in the past (ie killzone) (lair) etc..

[UCForce]

You keep over criticizing Sony Exclusive games, but not with others. You are really defensive about MS and Nintendo. About Killzone 2, the final version look better than pre rendered trailer. Those are the past and Sony learn their mistakes. Even there is downgraded, but not a lot like last generation.

[starchild]

I can't speak for him, but my position is clear. It's very common for games to have certain elements that get downgraded, but also certain elements that get upgraded. This is a normal part of the development process. I don't like the double standard that is applied though. When Sony exclusives have certain aspects that were downgraded a lot of people just deny it, while when multiplats have certain aspects that were downgraded people blow it up into this huge deal. I think people need to stop making a big deal about it in general.

[UCForce]

@starchild Even there is a downgrade in Spider Man PS4, but not a lot.

[rainslacker]

Sorry, i don't see countless articles or controversies about MS games getting downgraded. Hence, there is much less discussion about it. This is despite the fact that any given MS exclusive can easily be shown to have been downgraded based on the metrics that seem to be applied to this.

I see Ubisoft get these kinds of articles quite often, but it seems every Sony exclusive gets them, and every time this gen, and even last gen, they have been proven wrong time and time again when the game actually releases.

If you have a problem with the Sony fans doing what you think they're doing, then stop being a hypocrite and doing it back to them. Just refute what these Sony fans say in the forums where its the topic at hand. All you're doing is making yourself look like a rabid fan boy, and you've made your agenda perfectly clear. You don't care about any downgrade to this game, you are more interested in trying to serve up some justice to those evil Sony fans who somehow wanted to rain on your parade somewhere else.

You're petty, uninteresting, and can't even form a coherent and in depth analysis of the showings so far beyond what some other twits on twitter can offer up.

[showtimefolks]

This game will get a lot of hate because it's Spiderman and exclusive. If the worst thing about a ps4 exclusive is a downgrade than I will take that over unfinished games or no games for months

[Mylove1516]

Ambient occlusion, soft contact shadows, textures..I dont know...sure the lighting can be changed and make things look different but some stuff has been changed. Its different but I wouldn't call different a downgrade.

[Majin-vegeta]

Back to your bridge trolls.This shit happens every time a PS4 exclusivesive is about to be released yet always end up eating their crow.
https://mobile.twitter.com/...

[gameslayer2411]

Happened with God of War then when it released and looked exactly like previews if not better, everyone knocking it disappeared. Just expect it to be the Norm with exclusives going forward.

[KickSpinFilter]

Like with their bare hands it's kinda gross way to eat crow, but lately every single time.

[rainslacker]

Sadly, they never actually eat the crow. They just ignore the fact they ever mentioned anything, and act like the whole "controversy" never happened. Then they do the same thing again when the next exclusive releases.

It's a vicious cycle, but since they do this kind of thing often with so many different subjects, it makes fan boys pretty predictable.

[Mr Lahey]

Downgrade? All I see is salt. LMAO!

[DrumBeat]

I'll take that for my popcorn, please.

[AK91]

Nope

[Howardr007]

Crapgamer will be all over this like a bald step child on free school meals

[Howardr007]

It's a sad era when we can't just enjoy a damn game without it being torn apart lol

[Realms]

Graphical down grade? If it looks anything close to as good as the Ratchet & Clank remake then I'm sold who cares if it doesn't look exactly like the trailer even the Witcher 3 didn't look like the initial trailer and yet it was still very good.