God of War Ragnarok is about to be released in less than a week, and the first hands-on reactions from the people that are testing the game suggest noise issues. Reviewers are sharing lots of positive notes about the look and feel of God of War Ragnarok on PS4 compared to the higher-definition counterpart on the PlayStation 5. However, the player might rather hear than see the difference due to louder fan noise.
Soon-to-be-released God of War Ragnarok is the latest iteration of Sony's PlayStation-exclusive action-adventure franchise. In this title, Kratos and his teenage son Atreus take on some of the most iconic Norse gods and make alliances with others. God of War Ragnarok is a continuation of the franchise's Norse era that started with the 2018 PlayStation 4 game sharing the title with the original God of War game.
God of War Ragnarok is the first multi-platform title in the franchise since God of War 3, released for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. This brings along challenges that studios don't have to deal with when designing exclusively for one console. Now that reviewers have gotten their hands on God of War Ragnarok, an issue with loud fan noise has surfaced. According to Kotaku's reviewer, the game seems to be running just fine, especially considering that the PS4 is an almost decade-old gaming machine, but the fans are oddly loud. The game was making the launch-dated PlayStation 4 howl the entire time.
The graphics are not going to be on par with the latest-generation console, but one wouldn't expect that either. The fact that Sony has managed to the make the game run fairly smoothly on the PS4 that is bound to be fading out in the coming years is admirable. Even the details have been retained well in the 1080p version. However, this seems to also mean that the hardware is working overtime to deliver the player a smooth visual experience.
As God of War Ragnarok doesn't support cross-platform saves, the reviewer started a new game, which lent itself perfectly to comparing the game versions to each other. While the graphics are surprisingly sharp, they say that the console "screamed" the entire gaming session. This wasn't just a regular hum, the noise was louder than the reviewer remembers ever hearing the console make.
Usually, it is not a good sign when a console is making such a huge effort to keep up with cooling. That means that the PS4 is on the verge of overheating and could potentially damage itself. However, it didn't produce any other noticeable problems and the game seemed to be performing well during the three-hour gaming session. It can't be ruled out that this might have been an issue with a specific console, but it certainly won't hurt to clean the fans of the PS4 before jumping into God-slaying.
God of War Ragnarok is scheduled to release on November 9, 2022, on PS4 and PS5.
Source: Kotaku