God of War – the sequel to 2018 for PlayStation 4 – has finally received a patch for PlayStation 5, and in common with similar updates for Days Gone and Ghost of Tsushima, it opens the door to a classic game that has 60 frames run per second. – and in common with the other Sony juggernauts of the first party, the impact is indeed transformative. It’s almost like the last piece of the puzzle: the original version was hugely impressive with its 4K graphics, extreme detail, phenomenal lighting and excellent performances. A virtually flawless 60 frames per second is the latest to thrive for a game that has pushed PS4 and PS4 Pro to its extreme.
In fact, before we talk about the raw performance figures, we should probably pay attention to what you can improve the quality of life. Taking so much out of the latest silicone, Santa Monica Studio accidentally ran head-on into another problem – the cooling design of PS4 and PS4 Pro. God of War has actually become our choice for testing the power, acoustics and thermal performance of PlayStation hardware. Especially on the noise front, this game has made the fans turn around to a noticeable degree, depending on the repetition of the hardware you have. Beyond what happens with the software, God of War on PS5 is a much more enjoyable experience simply because a nuanced story of deep loss and parenting unfolds without high fans running at maximum speed in the background.
And when I returned to God of War, it struck me how risky this title would have been for SIE and Santa Monica Studio. A number of ventures here pay off spectacularly. A series that started life as a technologically modern arcade fighter with setbase bosses has slowed down, here’s a true story and full-fledged characters. By comparison, the older God of War titles almost feel like exaggerated word-of-mouth legends. Regardless, Santa Monica Studio moved on, the story moved on and maybe the audience moved on as well.
A deep dive into the execution of God of War – PS5 takes center stage, but there is also an interesting story to tell on PS4 and PS4 Pro.
The point is that the franchise is re-encouraged and not restarted. I say this because everything that made God of War so epic in previous episodes is still there in 2018 – the fantastic environments, the giant beasts, the intricate, violent battles – and of course, the modern version of Santa Monica Studios. But while the studio has clearly moved on, God of War 2018 is a game that respects its technological legacy to get the most out of its generation of console hardware. The 1.35 patch for the game is fascinating – the 4K and 1080p modes of the Pro version (aimed at 30fps and 60fps with varying degrees of success) have disappeared, replaced by straight 30fps and 60fps modes that still 2160p chessboard version used. It’s not surprising that the 30fps mode is completely closed from start to finish, which clears up a relatively small slowdown on PS4 Pro, but the revelation here is how solid the 60fps experience is.
Let’s put it this way: during one hour and 45 minutes of playing time, only 33 frames dropped out of a total of more than 378,000 – and that was in a non-playable track. I did not even notice it to be honest, as the ‘handheld’ camera used by God of War is a bit contradictory by nature. You can expect the smallest achievement to drop elsewhere within the adventure, but nothing you are likely to notice. We often talk about ‘closed 60 frames per second’, but there are usually exceptions to the rule – God of War is basically flawless and combined with a presentation like this, it’s an experience not to be missed.
Days Gone – another PlayStation Plus Collection title – also has a huge 60 fps upgrade for PS5.
However, there is still a bit of spice in the story, as it was actually possible to play God of War on the chessboard 4K 60fps from the first day of the PlayStation 5’s hardware launch. In common with a handful of other games – such as The Last Guardian – version 1.0’s gold master code is basically operated with an unlocked frame rate. It’s not ideal on PS4 or PS4 Pro, as it exceeds 30fps anyway, and this presentation style was laid out on a day without Santa Monica Studio having zero spots during the review period. But the gold master disk code still has it and PlayStation 5 utilizes it, effectively delivering the same result as you see with the 1.35 patch.
Of course, this has caused problems: if your storage games come from later code, it will not work. On top of that, you missed the bug fixes and optimizations that Santa Monica Studio made with the title after launch. The unlocked rate also provides interesting data: we can accurately compare the scalability of the 1080p and checkerboard 4K on PS4 and Pro systems and how well the developer balanced the performance on both consoles. On Pro, it’s also possible to compare 1.0 4K unlocked performance with 1.35’s 1080p mode and get an idea of scalability there. I always assumed that the performance mode could not close up to 60 fps due to CPU limitations on the last generation hardware, but the comparison indicates bottlenecks across the board.
Ghost of Tsushima – yup, 60 fps on PS5 and much improved as a result.
But it’s the PlayStation 5 experience that’s central here, and to be honest, it’s great – and also easily accessible. If you own a PS5, chances are you own the game by default. God of War joins the similarly enhanced Days Gone in the PlayStation Plus collection, a series of games that PlayStation 5 owners receive as bonus extras when they sign up for Sony’s subscription service. Both games are refreshed and revitalized with their 60 fps upgrades, and while not part of the same collection, I highly recommend visiting Ghost of Tsushima as well – it’s great. It’s just a shame that The Last Guardian does not yet have to be patched for 60 fps on PS5 – we know this is possible because the disk code does it and the increase in performance is even more profound, as we discussed in the past. It would be great to see that this game gets a similar update, but realistically we have to accept that transferring older titles to the most recent SDK is not always that simple.
And of course there’s the elephant in the room. What’s up with The Last of Us Part 2? Why did the Naughty Dog email not receive a similar 60 fps upgrade? What we can say with some certainty is that the other titles are pretty easy to unlock, to give you that extra frame rate – but it does not accept that it is that easy for other games. Different engines are assembled in different ways. If you look at the attempt to run Death Stranding at a high frame rate on a computer, and the problems that Horizon Zero Dawn is also experiencing, it’s clear that removing a 30 fps cap may not produce the automagic results. does not guarantee. I wonder if Naughty Dog might be doing a full remaster in a similar vein to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered – but I’m sure everything will become clear in the fullness of time.
Meanwhile, it goes without saying that the revisit of God of War on PlayStation 5 is an experience to enjoy and that it sets the stage nicely for the sequel, which will apparently be released later this year. If there is one possible criticism you can have with this patch, it is that although it exerts the power of the PlayStation 5, it is still the same game with the same visual features – it is a pure performance improvement. Ragnarok will be designed with the hardware in mind – and the prospects are water tooth.