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PS5 Exclusive Returnal Graphics Analysis - A Visual Showcase For Sony's New Console

Chukhopops

Member
I’m cautiously optimistic about it but it’s because I love Risk of Rain 2 and it looks like it. I don’t know how you can fit story elements into a rogue lite / procedural setup but maybe I’ll be surprised.

I really don’t see how this is a technical showcase though.
 

yurinka

Member
Had my interest till I saw how bland gameplay looked. Definitely not copping at no $70.

Housemarque should stick to what they're great at. This will be on plus fast.
We have seen plenty of gameplay already, it looks mediocre at best.

We are talking about it just because it's a PS5 exclusive, otherwise nobody would care about it.
These guys made very good arcade games before like the Super Stardust series, Outland, Resogun, Alienation or Nex Machina, that got very good reviews so many people are interested to see their next game.

This time they are going AAAish adding roguelike elements, some horror, 3D visuals and apparently some narrative on top of their arcade bullethellish gameplay, widening their their potential market.

The gameplay on their trailers doesn't seem very interesting because they still didn't show a lot of it there, but in the dev diaries it's properly shown and explained. And we see there they keep their gameplay style, but now in 3D. Not sure if it's due to being run in a newer build, or that it has been better compressed but visuals also look better in the dev diaries.
 

Concern

Member
These guys made very good arcade games before like the Super Stardust series, Outland, Resogun, Alienation or Nex Machina, that got very good reviews so many people are interested to see their next game.

This time they are going AAAish adding roguelike elements, some horror, 3D visuals and apparently some narrative on top of their arcade bullethellish gameplay, widening their their potential market.

The gameplay on their trailers doesn't seem very interesting because they still didn't show a lot of it there, but in the dev diaries it's properly shown and explained. And we see there they keep their gameplay style, but now in 3D. Not sure if it's due to being run in a newer build, or that it has been better compressed but visuals also look better in the dev diaries.

I have the last 3 games, I'd say they're a lot better than just good. But this doesn't look like something worth $70.

I'll wait for a price drop and reviews. But as of now I'd rather they'd have stuck to what they're great at.
 

yurinka

Member
I have the last 3 games, I'd say they're a lot better than just good. But this doesn't look like something worth $70.

I'll wait for a price drop and reviews. But as of now I'd rather they'd have stuck to what they're great at.
When I said 'very good' I meant around 85 in Metacritic, which is great specially if you love this type of games.
 

HotPocket69

Banned
This game will be an early exclusive casualty of the $70 dollar price tag and I feel bad for Housemarque because they’re a great fuckin team.
 

edbrat

Member
If the replay value is strong then that will justify the price, like Hades stays interesting for dozens of hours through evolving a relatively straightforward core game and it somehow remains interesting and satisfying to play the same loop again and again. In this case because it's Housemarque and I played the living shit out of Dead Nation and Alienation I'm backing them to get this right, this game is getting day one'd by me. If it's not I'll consider it fair compensation for paying reduced / sales prices for Dead Nation and Alienation, then we'll be even Housemarque!!
 

Gamerguy84

Member
Looks like a decent amount going on screen. Housemarque usually nails gsmeplay which is extremely important to me and the whole reason I can't play R* games as technically advanced as they are.
 

blastprocessor

The Amiga Brotherhood
Looking forward to seeing bespoke engines push the PS5 to it's limits. I'm just not feeling the "next gen" here.
 

Evren01

Neo Member
I am not excited about this game, i expected something better, something potantially iconic game for this console's launch. Returnal doesn't seem a game like that to me.
 

John Wick

Member
If by average you mean gears of war, maybe.

I think it's a little too dark and we can't quite see a lot of detail because of that. Because it's Housemarque and Nex machina was very impressive i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait to see it on my display not just a youtube video.

Although I do agree with the sentiment that $70 is probably nuts.
I've hardly paid full price for any games. If you wait or shop around you will get it much cheaper.
 
Housemarque games never aimed at ultra realistic jaw dropping graphics. The focus always was gameplay.

I don't get this video at all.
They discussed the character model mostly. It’s really good comparatively. The surfaces are very detailed too.

I don’t get how this game doesn’t look graphically impressive to people. What it’s missing, the RT reflection overload? The game is super detailed, no question. I hope they dial it down for a 60fps mode.
 

John Wick

Member
Housemarque games never aimed at ultra realistic jaw dropping graphics. The focus always was gameplay.

I don't get this video at all.
Nailed it! The particle effects are class. People need to get a grip if they think a small team with a small buget are gonna produce ND level graphics. It looks good enough for what it is.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
some nice effects but not the graphical showcase for the console yet. Spiderman MM is way ahead of this
 
😂 ironic that one of the forums biggest xboys saying this while shamelessly promoting gears of war dlc. I love gears, but 5 was easily one of the worst campaigns and the main character (kait) was awful. Since you’ve not played returnal how do you
Know what the character is like?

I’ll bite though. A character is defined more than what they look like and if you’re playing a game solely based on how a character looks then that’s sad.

I don’t like the design I think she’s an old lesbian as well, but a bad design wouldn’t stop me enjoying a fun game (if it’s good).

Any my point still stands. It’s getting boring now seeing the same posts crying about the design, we’ve heard it all before.
Gears 5 was great and Kait is also good. Strongly reject your Gears 5 opinion. Also what Gears has to do with this game? Why bash it?
 
Gears 5 was great and Kait is also good. Strongly reject your Gears 5 opinion. Also what Gears has to do with this game? Why bash it?
Because he brought up gears? And you’ve got to be joking about kait being interesting in 5. But tbh be again who’s playing gears for character development?
 
Because he brought up gears? And you’ve got to be joking about kait being interesting in 5. But tbh be again who’s playing gears for character development?
Maybe you dont. But many fans love characters in Gears like Marus, Cole and Baird. Kait character is no Marcus but she definitely better than JD and i think Laura Bailey did good job as Kait in 5.

Hivebuster characters are also good and iamhoping they will play bigger role in future Gears games. I was down on DLC but after replaying it in coop, i now like it
 
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bender

What time is it?
I've never really loved the game play loops in Housemarque titles as they often feel prolonged. This game really needs a demo since the asking price is $79.99.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
If me being a fan of some gaming console brand makes everything I said "ironic", then this entire forum is just pure irony.

Promoting Gears Of Wars DLC? What does that even mean? I'm just saying this game doesn't even look as good as the DLC of a past gen game. And I'm saying that because somehow this thread has been made to analyse the "visual showcase" of Returnal, which is kind of hilarious seeing how mediocre the game is in that aspect alone.

It's like me opening a thread to talk about the "visual showcase" of The Medium.



On that we agree. But the DLC is completely different, though, and wipes the floor both with Gears 5 and Returnal in graphics, gameplay, character design and so on.

And by the way, the character of Returnal looks exactly like the same type of character Kait is. Similar lesbian Karen haircut and all.




If we lived in a vacuum, you could be right.

But we don't, we live in an industry heavily obsessed with identity politics and the Returnal character looks exactly like the politically charged design they like.
OK so short hair is some lesbian political agenda and not something practical for someone who has to get in and out of a spacesuit every day.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Series S can benefit greatlly with Direct ML technology if devs use it. Its MS and AMD's DLSS style solution
Trying to tackle on to either XSX|S or PS5 similar solutions, in terms of efficiency boost and quality, as DLSS or other ML based techniques when nVIDIA cards have similar or more level of processing power “dedicated” to ML/AI (Tensor Cores) and do not have to use the shader cores stealing cycles from genera compute or graphics seems a bit far fetched... but sure, let’s see what they figure out.

 
I just hope that the frame rate will be a smooth 60.
It's Housemarque so I believe it's going to be.

Otherwise I'm sure this will be a banger!
 
Maybe you dont. But many fans love characters in Gears like Marus, Cole and Baird. Kait character is no Marcus but she definitely better than JD and i think Laura Bailey did good job as Kait in 5.

Hivebuster characters are also good and iamhoping they will play bigger role in future Gears games. I was down on DLC but after replaying it in coop, i now like it
What exactly is your point other than telling me how great gears 5 is? He brought it up and I made it clear the main character in it has barely any development and isn't interesting no matter how much you try to spin it. The game is paper thin on story and probably has the least amount of story in the entire mainline franchise, just when it feels like its going somewhere, it ends. How can a character be interesting or even develop, when the game is thin in that area?

You kinda make my point for me, we shouldn't give a fuck about what a character looks like as long as the game is good.
 

Raonak

Banned
I think the youtube compression really kills the game considering how fast and dark it is.

Very much looking forward to it tho. Housemarqe always make great games.
 

Luipadre

Member
gfx looks pretty meh but i like the atmosphere and the psychological horror aspect of it. Gonna pick it up but not for 80 euro thats for sure
 
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