Why Avatar had to be next gen only

Well at least someone is trying to do something fresh with the new gen!

https://www.ign.com/articles/avatar-ubisoft-massive-open-world-details

Flying fast in a detailed world:

"[New consoles allowed] us to have much better object detail up close to you," explains Stefanove, "but also when you're flying high up in the air – to have a lovely vista and far-distance rendering, where we can even use the ray tracing to do shadows super far away, you know, three or four kilometers away from you."

Detailed spaces can be closer together (less need for empty areas):

"It's not just the old 'I'm taking this slow walk as I enter into the place because we have to stream everything in'," explains Jansén of the benefits to his maps, "it's little subtle things that people don't think about, which is how close together are all the places in the world. If you look at, with the old hard drives, they had to be spaced out very far [apart], because you had to stream out the old and stream in the new, so it just created a formulaic world. So, there's a ton of stuff like that."

Better npc AI

"Technology is everything," says Jansén, "it's what allows us to realize our dreams as designers. It's what allows us to tell our stories, and to create the immersion and the escapism that we want. It's not just about escapism, it's about danger as well, because Pandora is a beautiful place, but it's also a dangerous place. So, the wildlife, the AI, the way that they track you, the way that they attack you, the advances in technology and the way that we are taking advantage of the power with our in-house Snowdrop engine is allowing us [to] do amazing things that would not be possible [otherwise]."

Better ai from Ubisoft? lol give me a break.

"to have a lovely vista and far-distance rendering, where we can even use the ray tracing to do shadows super far away, you know, three or four kilometers away from you"

They had trouble doing rt shadows a few feet from your character in Watch Dogs Legion and all of a sudden they're aiming for RT'd shadows 4km away. lol f'ck off Ubisoft.

How does one get baited by Ubisoft in 2021 still? I DON'T KNOW.

The most easiest part by far when it comes to developing games is... talk and making big promises.

Have a listen to this 5 minutes video. THIS is whom is developing the game. This developer doesn't get it at all.

Good, any games releasing in 2022+ and still aim for last gen consoles is a freaking joke…

Why does previous shortcomings mean they can’t make something better now with an engine that is next-gen only?

I get that there’s a lot of marketing spin here. But it’s a fact that this is a next-gen only game. A third party company like Ubisoft has less reason to do that than Sony/MS does. So I think that’s worth something at least.

I think what happened to CP2077 has dissuaded a lot of manufacturers from trying to push the limits on last gen hardware, since 95% of CP2077's issues were only issues on PS4/XBO.

The fact it's first-person-shooter doesn't bother me, I'm just not excited about playing an Avatar game itself and really turning it into a franchise at this point is a stretch. Avatar 2 was supposed to be released in 2015 but now into 2021, Over a decade for a sequel and a game was the last thing on everyone's mind.

@davillain-: It's going to be a FPS ..thanks for the heads up as that's an easy pass for me.

This Game interests me more than horizon forbidden west,not that I am a fan of the avatar movie,it was ok,but the game world looks good and it has flight mechanics, something horizon was rumoured to have but doesn't.

Kinda like how Shadow of Mordor Nemesis system is exclusive to PS4/xbone... but a version of the game without that system still releases on PS360...

I am all in for next gen only ver. I think devs should not be hindered by legacy platforms like PS4/xbone/Switch/Switch Pro.

Didn't even know about this game. Another Ubisoft open world game. Based on an old and quite bad movie.

Not sure if it's ever been easier to pass on a game.

We'll see about the AI. Sounds like typical hype .

Gta San Andreas had flying .... so yay?

We'll see. I can't remember the last time a Ubisoft game really felt like a high quality product.

Reads and is nothing but hype.

Ubisoft is a one-trick pony.

We know their games will look good, I'm not even impressed by its graphics because we know it'll be mindblowing.

What I want is a good game, you know, an actual game that feels good to play. Not doing the same side quest a 100 times over, that's not fun gameplay.

Fill the world with interesting characters and events.

Be shite.

Sparklers to distract you from it.

The same side quest 100 times is just gaming. The not being fun to play is the real critique.

I agree with that! But I do think exploration is enjoyable on its own in Ubisoft games. And better AI and a more beautiful world will help that part of the experience.

I thought the second point was the most interesring. It sounds like that will affect the very structure of the game world. Like instead of having gameplay spaces (like I assume outposts etc) seperated by nothingness, they can have a more consistent world. I’m curious to see if this difference will actually be noticeable in the final product or not.

First person I did not expect with all the flying. I thought those blue creatures (forgot their name) were more acrobatic and not big into fire arms (except bows). So I always assumed it would be a third person game. Interesting 🤔

Kind of disappointed to hear that it’s a first person game but I did really enjoy the Avatar movie so I am interested in seeing how this game turns out.

They'll have a dumbed down Switch port. Don't worry.

Bu-bu-but... no generations, games will all be crossgen, can be scaled back and whatnot.

One could say every game is built upon repitition, true.

But a good game can still keep things interesting. A good game mixes up things even 3/4ers into the game.

True, the exploration is interesting in Ubisoft games. And I love visiting worlds in Assassin's Creed because they are based on real time periods and locations.

Some things that bother me though: the quality of the NPCs. Both in standing out and providing unique characters. But I also feel the animations are a step down from Bioware RPGs and even Ubisoft's own AC: Unity.

It's Ubisoft. Nuff said!

@Sushiglutton: I agree, it's something fresh. Can't knock that. A lot of people wanted to know if a game would be developed after seeing the movie. It has some potential, I mean there's a lot to still be answered about the game and we won't know until it's out. I have a little bit of faith in it after playing the Assasins Creed games. Ubisoft is not a bad developer by any stretch.