God of War Crushes PC Spec Sheets

NewsPCPlayStationSecondJanuary 2022

Jan 12

Kratos dodging a monster’s fiery attack from God of War on PlayStation 5 — (Image credit: Santa Monica Studio)

God of War is a story-rich open-world Metroidvania that brings Kratos into the realm of the Norse Gods, and it is finally getting a PC edition courtesy of Santa Monica Studio. This awesome game expands beyond its PlayStation origins and sets an exceptional standard for PC spec sheets in modern gaming. With so many different PC setups and games that drop framerate to compensate for equipment, the basic PC System Requirement lists no longer accurately represent player experience. The Load Screen covers how the God of War spec sheet is the new standard by comparing it to a few competitors.

It is hard not to see the recent changes in gaming on PC, with some players continuing with 1080p at 60 fps, either by choice or lack of available resources, since graphics cards are still hard to obtain. Other gamers have upgraded to either 1440p (2K) or 2160p (4K) at 120 fps with ridiculous refresh rates depending on their monitors. Even at the higher end of PC gaming, there is a vast difference between component capabilities and player preferences. These variances make it hard to tell how a game will perform on any PC without referencing screen size and expected fps.

Enter developers like Santa Monica Studio with the GeForce God of War spec sheet page. It shows listings for 1440p and 4K at 60 fps at the top end-labeled Performance and Ultra, all the way down to Minimum, which only gives 720p at 30 fps. While that low end may seem pixelated and choppy, the processor and graphics card are five years old. Would gamers be happy just knowing their rig can handle God of War and not identify the performance? The developers may have saved some gamers an unintended headache if playing on low settings.

Other game makers appear to have PC spec sheets that match the depth shown by the God of War specs but fall short in some areas. Look at Techland’s Dying Light 2 PC system requirements page; it offers a range of system capabilities but hides that the list is only for 1080p or Full-HD graphics while mentioning 30 fps for ray tracing. The Ubisoft Rainbow Six Extraction PC specs revealed article shows the same width as Dying Light 2 but extends from 1080p at the bottom to 4K at the top while hiding true framerates by marking them as uncapped. Even CD Projekt Red missed the expected fps on their comprehensive Cyberpunk 2077 System Requirements page. God of War steps up and lists every gory graphical detail without shying away from the truth at the low end.

Then there are the developers who still code their graphics into groups without giving expected framerates or screen size. 343 Industries does this with the Halo Infinite PC hardware specs page by dividing the recommended equipment from Low to Ultra. The required Windows 10 updated version number was more important than the framerate and pixel count. That information is more than what GSC Game World gives on the Stalker2 website, which only lists the minimum and recommended equipment. Even other titles listed on GeForce lack the depth and expanse presented for God of War. The Control PC System requirements page only lists one other group for ray tracing but misses projected visual size and frame count.

The God of War spec sheet does show weakness at the low end with 720p at 30 fps, and that might scare other developers from listing it ever. Not Santa Monica Studio; they gave players so much information that they can tell if the graphical output on their PC is acceptable. The Load Screen team appreciates that kind of honesty from game developers, especially when available equipment is not equal or readily available.