The topics to be discussed are many, also for this reason we decided to divide our analysis into two distinct parts. The first deals with the section shown during the Sony E3 press conference, the second focuses instead on what happens in the subsequent phases and it is precisely on this second segment that our technical analysis is grafted.
We already dedicated an article to the demo, a few days after E3, but now we can confirm it: the aspect that immediately catches the eye is the sharpness of God of War III, a detail that can hardly be grasped in the compressed videos available online.
The quality of the textures already seemed to us to be of excellent quality, the special effects are used carefully, as is the lighting. The code appears to be using a 2x anti-aliasing filter but, similar to what happens in Killzone 2, the correct choice of colors adds an additional glossy effect.
In the second half the use of effects by the developers is further highlighted, the lighting of each individual pixel combined with the high quality of the textures produces some interesting results. The texture filtering is of excellent quality, the only flaws to highlight concern the definition of some edges and the reduction of alpha buffers, but the impact of the image in its entirety makes these details overshadow.
Moving on to discuss the frame-rate, it is imperative to take into account the fact that the code now dates back to several months ago. Obviously it is reasonable to expect an improvement compared to what we saw during the demo, nevertheless it should be noted the presence of the v-sync and therefore the total absence of tearing on the screen, while the frequency stands at an average of 36.81 fps, with a peak minimum of 24 and a maximum of 56. The result is not bad overall, but bringing the game to a fixed 30 fps would have produced a more consistent overall look and a more reliable response from the control system.
As you will have understood, there are some defects that the developers have certainly taken care to correct in these further months of work. The fact that this is a rather old build suggests that there will be steps forward, an expectation that can be fully shared given the success that the franchise has been able to carve out over time and the consolidated experience of the guys from Santa Monica.