Is Bloodborne the next-gen Souls you've been waiting for?

[Administrator]

Despite its frame-pacing issues and long load times, Bloodborne is still very much worth the rush of commotion it's receiving this week. The game sits high in the hierarchy of quality PS4 exclusives, its only real competition in the gameplay stakes coming via From Software's very own remaster of Dark Souls 2, due out next week. With a new enemy layout, improved lighting and 1080p60 gameplay, the remaster's bid for relevancy is strong, but does Scholar of the First Sin keep up on technical grounds, or does Sony's exclusive steal the show?
Similar to Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne lives up to its resolution promise. A close pixel count shows a true, native 1920x1080 title at work, and save for the pixel crawl on the game's fences and fur shaders, the results are often impressive. However, a heavy chromatic aberration effect is applied to Bloodborne: mimicking the qualities of a low quality lens, the effect applies a distortion to anything from the embers of a bonfire to the chrome flash on a wagon-wheel, and splits light into its constituent colours.
It's fair to say this post-process trick won't be to everyone's tastes. Reportedly using Silicon Studio's Yebis 3 optical effects suite (also seen in Final Fantasy 15) the sheer strength of this filter can distract. At range, it heavily blurs the edges of the screen, and also exaggerates any pixel-crawl evident across tight-knit cobblestones and fences. This side-effect is the game's only real visual shortcoming, as the rest of the game - between the dynamic lighting and the sharp texture-work of Yharnham's streets - looks exceptional.
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