Sony PlayStation: release date for Ragnarök and VRR for Forbidden West

0
127

The reboot of the God of War series in 2018, which was very well received by critics and players alike, will be followed by God of War Ragnarök in late autumn of this year, as Sony has now announced. Horizon Forbidden West was released in February, but is now being updated with new graphics options.

A new trailer reveals the release date

In God of War Ragnarök, players once again accompany Kratos and his son Atreus to the far north, where this time they meet Thor, the god of thunder. The journey begins on November 9, 2022 exclusively on PlayStation 4 and 5, a new trailer reveals. Although the predecessor is now also available on the PC via Steam (test, test of FSR 2.0), this will not apply to the sequel, at least for the foreseeable future. Although Sony has repeatedly confirmed that it is also increasingly developing for PCs – in 2025 half of its own productions should appear for PCs and mobile phones – but this has so far only applied to a very limited extent for triple-A titles.

God of War Ragnarök aims to give players more equipment and skills for Kratos; Atreus should also become more useful and versatile. Furthermore, it is already known that all nine worlds of Norse mythology will be visited in the game, so this time Vanaheim, Svartalfheim and Asgard are also part of the game.

Four editions with unknown costs

From July 15, 2022, the game can be pre-ordered in a total of four editions. Sony is already luring buyers of the standard version with additional cosmetic content; the Digital Deluxe Edition has more and a digital art book and the soundtrack. Physical bonuses also come with the Collector's Edition, such as a 40 centimeter replica of the hammer Mjolnir and a steel book. The Jötnar Edition adds a record, a ring and a fabric card, among other things. Sony has not yet released any information about the prices, but shows the contents of the latter two variants in an unboxing video.

  1. God of War Ragnarök Jötnar Edition (Image: Sony)

Image 1 of 4

God of War Ragnarök – Collector's Edition (Image: Sony)
God of War Ragnarök – Digital Deluxe Edition (Image: Sony)
God of War Ragnarök – Launch Edition (Image: Sony)

It is noteworthy that although the two physical collector's editions come with Steelbooks, Sony does not include any Blu-ray discs – instead there are download codes. The publisher also points out that buyers of the PlayStation 4 version cannot count on a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version. In contrast to previous titles, a fee of 10 euros is due for the upgrade. The last free upgrade came with Horizon Forbidden West.

Horizon Forbidden West gets new graphics modes

The same title is another PlayStation 4 and 5 exclusive game whose predecessor Horizon Zero Dawn (review) is available for PC. Nevertheless, the title on the PlayStation 5 offers graphics options, which will be expanded with patch 1.17 to include some “highly requested features”. What is meant is a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), which the console has only supported since the end of April, and a High Refresh Rate (HFR) mode. In particular, VRR improves resolution scaling at 60 FPS, i.e. the automatic and dynamic adjustment of the render resolution with a constant target frame rate.

In HFR mode, in combination with VRR, up to 120 FPS should theoretically be possible thanks to the unlimited refresh rate. However, the first players report an average of around 75 FPS, and occasionally the frame rate rises above 80 FPS. In turn, there is a constant 40 FPS in the new “Balanced” graphics mode. However, developer Guerrilla does not comment on its actual resolution. In the “Performance” profile, the game was displayed on the PlayStation 5 with 3,200 × 1,800 pixels with checkerboard rendering and 60 FPS so far, whereas in the “Resolution” mode native 3,840 × 2,160 pixels are offered at only 30 FPS.

The update also includes many other adjustments and numerous bug fixes. The patch notes on Reddit provide an overview.