Three new screenshots of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 have been published as part of a New York Times report which largely digs into Insomniac Games’ attempt to recreate the iconic American city in the game. The images – included in a paywalled article – show how locations like Prospect Park have been recreated, although the Chrysler building will once again be absent like in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, as the Burbank-based developer has been unable to obtain its license yet again.
There’s not an enormous amount of information to glean from these images, but it’s clear that the developer has once again gone all-out with its environmental artwork, and as it’s continuing to iterate on large parts of the same location from its hit 2018 title, it’s really beginning to layer in the detail now. Obviously, it’s expanding the city for the sequel, too, by adding Queens and Brooklyn to the overall sandbox.
Are you impressed by the artistry on display here? Count down the days to the game’s release in the comments section below.
[source nytimes.com]
Comments 58
Has HDR been a very underrated feature in video games, in 4K movies as well, I think it has. I remember getting my first 4K tv around 2018 I think it was (bought a bigger and better tv since then 2.1) and then experiencing my first game in HDR on a base PS4. Everything just popped so much better and the colors were on another level, even on the base PS4 at the time. In most reviews it's all about pixels and fps with HDR rarely ever getting a mention. Maybe I'm missing something as to why or it's simply not as important as more pixels, I dunno, I really like the HDR in gaming and 4K movies
Oh man, those three gorgeous screenshots have just raised my hype level all the way to a nine! Getting really excited for Spider-Man 2 now.
@Beerheadgamer82 agree, HDR has been huge for gaming and it was a huge improvement during the mid gen refresh last gen.
Also, wow, Insomniac know how to make great looking games.
For console games on TV's, I get that. As a PC gamer with a non HDR monitor, refresh rate and G-Sync is king. I assume my mind would be blown if I bought a HDR monitor but on PC, it's not really the key feature. (must add I've seen HDR on my friends TV and it does look nice).
Really does look lovely, is that Coney Island?
That ...actually looks pretty damn good.
@Beerheadgamer82 HDR is something I have really missed on Switch.
Those shots look pretty - an idyllic version of NYC. They should add degradation and despair to make it more accurate with the current time.
NYC without the Chrysler building looks ridiculous.
I actually switched HDR off on the PlayStation 5 as I found that the colours didn’t look nearly as vibrant with the setting on. I played around with it using loads of different games and I definitely feel HDR off makes everything look way better. It may be down to my TV of course, but it is quite new. On Topic, I am really looking forward to Spider-Man 2. October can’t come quick enough!!
@Bionic-Spencer HDR should look more vibrant than SDR, it has much more color depth. It must be something on your TV settings. Try deactivating contrast enhancer if you have a Samsung TV.
Looking great! While I always love the care and attention to detail Insomniac puts in I think the biggest question on everyone's mind is...
how big are the puddles? 🤔
@Bionic-Spencer I experienced this as well on the introduction of hdr ,its the TV settings not console,turn off all the enhancements ,super smooth,dynamic contrast and all that crap and adjust the TV until you get the required display ,there's loads of videos on you tube
Funny, I've just had to cancel and re-preorder SM2 due to card fraud which kinda bummed me out. Seeing this has reinvigorated my excitement for the game!
The Chrysler Building was removed? Unbelievable. As a Chrysler Building enthusiast, this enrages me. Spider-Man 2 is a no-buy for me.
Looks stunning, its easily going to be one of the best looking games on the PS5.
@nessisonett Yep its part of the open world, i think you even see it in the story trailer.
@koffing if the rumours are to be true about the Switch 2 being almost on par with the latest consoles, then I'd hazard a guess it will be having HDR?. Not sure how that would work docked or in handheld though
@Sil_Am it’s not even so much vibrance as colour depth.
Colour vibrancy can lead to colours getting washed out and lesser detail. Always good to set that colour temperature to a warmer setting to really help to show off the depth.
@tallythwack Cheers, I’ll check it out. My TV is a Sony, do I would have thought it would have looked amazing..
The graphics look great, but I never understood all the hype. The first game wasn’t more than a fun, quick in-between for me. Miles Morales has been sitting in my backlog for two years now since I always had more interesting games to play.
@Beerheadgamer82 Switch 2 will be somewhere around the power of a Steam Deck, nowhere near PS5 or XSX — so don’t let gaming sites mislead you. It’s simply power — a 10 watt computer can’t beat a 200 watt computer. Yet.
HDR will matter on the inevitable OLED mode and it would be a win for a lot of people with nice tvs.
@koffing yup rumours are tumours. Apparently the Switch 2 was shown behind closed doors to devs at last months Gamescom, running a better upscaled version of Zelda BOTW
@Beerheadgamer82 yep! some of the press reported it was running Matrix UE5 demo and people extrapolated from that. It’s frustrating bc the gaming press has little-to-no incentive to inform people.
That's weird a building must be licensed to appear in a recreation of a city. Whether the building is named in-game or not, it's there in the city and is part of the scenery whether the owners of the building like it or not.
As someone who grew up in Queens I'm looking forward to the inclusion.👍
@koffing Switch 2 was allegedly demonstrated with the Matrix demo, which ran with 30 fps on PS5. I can’t imagine that Nintendo demonstrated it running with less than 30 fps, so it could perform even better than Series S, with superior image quality due to DLSS 2.
It looks really good.insomniacs games always looks good.spiderman 2 looks amazing as well.word up son
Chrysler building is missing because of a license issue? Since when do we now need permission to show buildings?
Yup HDR10 is a game changer for me. Much more impressive than the jump from 1080p to 4k was.
Wow that does look impressive! Insomniac are on a different level.
@Max_the_German sure, but being able to run Ue5 does not mean it’s as performant as Ps5 anymore than being able to run Witcher 3 meant Switch had the same performance as Ps4. That’s the crucial context all the gaming sites left out. Moores Law just doesn’t work like that. A 2022 computer isn’t going to be as fast as a 2020 computer with 1/20th the electricity.
There are people who are desperate to believe that their game/system of choice is going to demonstrably the best choice in every category. And that’s a fools errand. And we should build a gaming community that celebrates games for different reasons.
I am so glad the board gaming community doesn’t demand the best packaging and design and rules and everything else they go toxic on social media.
These Spiderman 2 screenies are awesome.
Detail seems on par with Ghostwire Tokyo.
A couple of people at Insomniac have said on Twitter that they have polished things even more since those pictures were taken.
Boycott! #NOCHRYSLERNOBUY
Ridiculous:
"deserving or inviting derision or mockery"
Harsh, think it looks great.
@Darude84 you should give miles a chance. It's laughably short. Shouldn't take long at all. I banged out the PS4 version, then the ps5 free upgrade so fast so long ago, I just had to check that it really was a PS4 game as well.
Whilst those screenshots are pretty; I don’t really care so much how it looks (diminishing returns at this point) - just hope it is fun and brings something new to the table since the first 2 games. Not sure how I feel about the same gameplay loop at full price. This is a “wait for a sale” for me.
@Beerheadgamer82 I agree completely. John at Digital Foundry said that he thinks HDR implication in gaming has a bigger overall effect than the switch to HD and I agree. Wait until you see the HDR colors in the PSVR2! Synth Riders and Rez really really pop!
@Max_the_German Agreed. It's outrageous that you need copyright agreements over a building in a city. The Chrysler buildings new owners should be ashamed of their greed.
@HotGoomba It's the buildings new owners who are being greedy. Silly nonsense that a building requires copyright agreement in any case. Yay American capitalism.
Well let's see. Because last time Washington Heights and Inwood somehow do not exist in Marvel's Universe
NYC ends a few steps after Harlem O.O
@Beerheadgamer82 i remember turning on hdr for the first time playing a ps4 game on ps5 , and i was like wow , its crazy how much better it looks. how did i play games with out this before is beyond me.
i can't wait for this game , its going to be insane.
@Bionic-Spencer The issue is that a lot of game has really bad HDR implementation... cough cough Starfield cough cough being the latest offender, so it is going vary from game to game, and the majority of game aren't worth having HDR on. Also, a lot of games actually don't support HDR, so it is relying on PS5 Auto HDR.. You actually have to look online to find what games have good HDR cause the list is so small.
@Beerheadgamer82 some games make great use of it though. Particularly I thought Final Fantasy 16 was great with a lot of contrast, looked gorgeous on my C2
@Dman10 At least since the 90… It just normal stuff like the Empire States building falls under public domain. The Chrysler building was sold to new owners in 2019, and as owners you can copyright the design of the building. The Manhattan White Pages needed permission to depict ''Patience,'' one of the marble lions guarding the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue…
@TheCollector316 Gotta recoup that purchase price some how with it land rent going up to $41 million by 2028…
I can't wait to play as Peter and Miles in the same game and NYC looks better then ever..its going to be GOTY 👍
I've been a bit reckless and ordered the Spiderman PS5 console with the game code.
Getting it tomorrow and I can't wait.
Just have to pluck up the courage to tell 'she who must be obeyed' now !
@Beerheadgamer82 if it really is as powerful as a ps5 as the rumour suggests then I think we got to say that Nintendo left field move this time is getting back into competing with Sony and Microsoft and releasing as full power console. Perhaps with a add.on switch portable which takes the form of Sony q device.
@hypnotoad you can do it! You're the hypnotoad!
@General_Disarray Hahaha.
Nice one mate.
ALLL ABOOOAAARRRD!!!.....The Hype Train now arriving at Insomniac Games!!! Please watch your step and enjoy the ride!!!
CHOO WOOO!!!
Well, I'll be playing that in 2032. Seeing as how I just started the rebooted God Of War from 2018! Yay for late, late, adopters.( My PS3 is finally retired to the closet...)
Playing the spiderman games and actually living in NYC just hits different lol. But now they're adding the borough of queens. Lets goooo
@K1LLEGAL Completely agree with this take. The diminishing returns and safe iterative nature of some of the first party titles is growing stale. Horizon, was the latest example of this but at least had genuinely unique new biomes to explore.
I feel like Sony has this model now that has resulted in a deep consolidation and lack of diversity on the single player front, alongside their doomed to fail attempt to have a larger portion of their portfolio be live service predation in the future.
I feel like with this Spidey, if they just double down on the same gameplay loop, that absolutely grew stale over time if engaging with any of the optional activities, then this will be a hard pass. Marvel stories are pretty generic and spiderman plots often greatly so, and if they don't add different interesting gameplay elements and its just more copy and pasted encounters, attacking from beams, and traversing the same shell of city that you can barely interact with aside from that traversal, it's just not going to be good, despite what the fanhumans rave on about because of love for Sony or the IP.
They really should focus more on hand crafted side missions/quests and perhaps some more interesting environment changes whether that be large indoor sequences, etc, weed out all of the completely pointless repetitive phoned stereotypical open world fluff.
I do wonder who has more power in influencing creative control and project approvals with first party studios. Is it Insomniac, naughty dog, Santa that want to churn out safe iterative sequels milking ips to death because they got a taste of profit that poisons creativity over time? Or is it Sony that says to their owned studios: you will make what we tell you because we have profit targets to meet. Or is it a combination of both? These are such talented studios that garnered their success from truly inspired works for the times, that have seemingly all slowly numbed down to iterative sequel factories.
@TheMightyImp2 I’m still planning to, thanks.
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