Topic: Revisiting #PuddleGate

Most of us know what #PuddleGate was. I'm not here to go over all the ins-and-outs. But looking back on it all, I have come to the conclusion it was an orchestrated lie.

I believe this entire thing began with a Reddit thread that caught some likes. There were many, many valid points, call-outs and concerns, not restricted to water physics. That hardly sounds like the internet "crying over puddles." We've all been around the internet in forums, chat boards and YouTube comments... So, a question: Did any of you actual see anyone upset over puddles? I haven't. And I looked, both at the time of and before making this thread. And then there was the Digital Foundry analysis, confirming, yes in fact, there WAS a downgrade. They point out many downgrades, not just the way reflections are produced off water... then just call it something else in the end.

I'm fascinated by revisionist history. Either thinking and analyzing the things that are on the record, or examining the phenomenon of trying to change the truth as we remember it. This time, it's the former. I think fanboyism exists. And in [modern year] given the state of our industry, I think outlets that pushed this lie (like DF) were just scared of being the ones on the outside.

What do you guys think? Am I alone in that I didn't see this wave of haters freaking out over puddles? Did I watch a different video of DF knocking Spider-Man over its many downgrades from the original trailer, just to call it "artistic choice"? Is this a case of the mandela effect? Or am I just way off base?

@isturbo1984 In my opinion, it was a significant visual downgrade.

There can be many reasons why they decided to 'change' the puddles in that area - it could be that the 'budget' for those puddles were better used for something else, better lighting, shadows, AO etc. It could be that they were too 'ambitious' and having to make 'cube maps' for 'every' rooftop puddle just to ensure that they had the right reflections was just too much work to meet the 'deadline' and therefore changed the 'puddles' so they could use a more 'generic' cube map for more rooftop puddles, it maybe that the performance on retail (not Dev kit) PS4's wasn't quite stable enough.

All in all, whether its a 'downgrade' or just part of the 'developmental' changes and optimisations that were needed to ensure a smooth performance, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change the story, the game-play etc and if we hadn't seen the 'puddles' before, no-one would of complained about the puddles after.

I do think its a bit of a joke really - devs, publishers, fanboys etc will never say its a 'downgrade' because of the 'negativity' that word has - even if ultimately, it meant the game released as a polished, stable experience. A downgrade sounds like it must therefore be 'worse' and 'visually' it is - but overall, it could still be a positive to the player as it means a better, smoother, more polished experience overall. When taken like that, its an 'upgrade' to the game to 'downgrade' some aesthetic choices in favour of Game Play stability/polish etc.

Some people are either too defensive or too argumentative, trying to find anything to have an argument. It doesn't matter whether they were 'downgraded' or not, the 'reasons' behind the change etc, it has no impact on the final game - its not as if they completely changed 'Peter Parker'... Oh wait... LOL