The best developers can take controversies and criticisms and poke fun at them and themselves. Bungie has consistently done it with Destiny, adding in small references based on actions that the community takes, such as exploiting loop holes or shooting into a cave in Russia for hours on end. The latest to join the fun is Insomniac. Today’s big headline for the new Marvel’s Spider-Man update may be New Game+ and a new difficulty mode, but slipping in under the radar, we got Spider-Man PS4 puddle stickers added to Photo Mode. Why is that significant? Believe it or not, a puddle was the center of a large Spider-Man PS4 graphics controversy.
It seems that no PS4 exclusive can launch without a tidal wave of criticism over the smallest differences between earlier trailers and the launch trailer. Detroit: Become Human faced accusations of downgraded graphics this year that ended up being nothing more than a compressed trailer from the PlayStation Store. When Marvel’s Spider-Man launched in September, it was hit with the same accusations, with one of the major pieces of “evidence” being puddles that seemed to have dried up since a trailer from a few years ago. It was quickly proven that the visual changes were the result of lighting changes in the scene, and the puddle being less of a puddle was simply an artistic design choice.
The developer wasn’t going to let this one go though. Insomniac’s Gil Doran tweeted out a list of new photo mode features that came with the update. With it, he included an image of the original controversial scene covered in the brand new Spider-Man PS4 puddle stickers.
We have a new patch today! Not only do we have NG+, but we added a bunch of stuff in Photo Mode, including:
stickers
frames
rotation for stickers
shortcut to Photo Mode with the D-Pad…
…and I fixed this for you 🙂 pic.twitter.com/SW7Jxrxab6— Gil Doron (@GilFromUI) October 19, 2018
That’s right, now players don’t have to complain about the puddles anywhere in the game, because they can just add their own, really making each scene pop.
Will you be using the new Spider-Man PS4 puddle stickers in your journey through New Game+? Let us know your thoughts on Insomniac’s self-referential humor in the comments below.