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[DavidGzz]

Both leaked reviews were a 9.3? Weird. Hope it does well!

 

[Northeastmonk]

I love it how the game is on the top charts of Amazon and people still call it a sleeper hit. That’s not exactly a sleeper hit if you ask me. Maybe for a review they didn’t see turning out to be good? A sleeper hit reminds me of Chronicles of Riddick back on Xbox. A game that probably didn’t get a lot of attention at first, but more people started sharing their thoughts of the game. I have it preloaded and ready to go. I’m just way more excited for Village. I’ll be excited to get more time with it after Village.

fextra is probably a very reliable source since they are use to difficulty and strategy in the games they focus on.

 

[Rac3r]

Fuck it. I pulled the trigger on a Walmart preorder because it's guaranteed delivery on release. Amazon is sold out in my area and wont guarantee a copy until mid May. Fingers crossed that this game delivers because I was originally going to wait for a sale but my FOMO kicked in.

 

[Fredrik]

Maybe they aren’t horny little children and view their work in a not super horny way?

I just want things to look nice, unless you make an enemy I see no reason to not try making characters look as good as they possibly can. I would do the same if it was a man, dog, cat, whatever. Call me shallow.

 

[Dr Bass]

I just want things to look nice, unless you make an enemy I see no reason to not try making characters look as good as they possibly can. I would do the same if it was a man, dog, cat, whatever. Call me shallow.

You have the depth of a Petri dish.

Does that insult work?

 

[leo-j]

8 am reviews come out!

 

[Dr Bass]

Already bought it earlier today and it’s loaded up.

Hope it’s good!

 

[MaxwellParrish]

Hades was $39 and I got 150hrs so far...

Hades main story is around 20 hours, and main + extras 45 hours. Nobody was talking about how many hours you can be entrateined by Returnal, because this is a completely subjective value...

 

[existensmaximum]

Wow, I managed to order this game for 499 SEK (€50/$60) instead of 799 SEK (€80/$96) which is the ordinare retail price for this game here in Sweden. A couple of hours later, the retailer raised the price so either it was a mistake or a very temporary campaign. Either way, I'm very happy

 

[Raonak]

I just want things to look nice, unless you make an enemy I see no reason to not try making characters look as good as they possibly can. I would do the same if it was a man, dog, cat, whatever. Call me shallow.

You're literally shallow if you chose your games based on the attractiveness of characters.

For me, the appearance of a character has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a game.
Old protagonists, women especially, are rare in games, it's quite cool to have something different for a change.

MGS4 is the best MGS game, and that has a fucking OLD MAN WITH A GRANDPA MOSTACHE~!!


Funnily enough, both old snake and selene have great asses.

 

[Fredrik]

You have the depth of a Petri dish.

Does that insult work?

Nah I googled it and it was still kinda deep I’m admittedly a weakminded soul when it comes to beauty. I’ve tried making ugly characters in character creators but nah can’t do it other than to test what to tool can do, even my male Khajiit in Skyrim looks hawt lol

 

[eyesabitdull]

Sorry rant incoming

Fuck this paying $70 to feel good and support the dev shit ..it’s a fucking money grab to offset the loss of the console and has nothing to do with the dev or Sony’s decision to make a sequel to a new ip game

did you feel good paying $70 for a cross gen dlc title that has about 5 hours of gameplay.
in the age where digital titles are starting to overtake physical discs there is no justification outside of a money grab charging $70 (120 aud) for new release games

in the 90s you could loosely argue cartridges/manuals and region based games added to the cost of a game but these days you get a disc which probably costs cents to manufacture and a plastic cover...it’s region free and has no manual

hyped for the game but not hyped for that price...if there was not such a drought of games you would see many people simply waiting until it came down or if your on the green side you would simply pay fuckall and be playing first party games on game pass day one....charging $70 for a new release game vs free is not a great business model and will come unstuck once there are more first party titles in the wild.

Here, let me help you with money woes.

 

[eyesabitdull]

There is a patch coming but If someone told me "this was the easiest game I ever played" and right next to him a person said "this is the hardest game I ever played"
I would not bat an eye at either. Well maybe the first one lol.
The RNG can be really wide(though it among other things is being patched.) and while some can be mitigated there are some fucking doooooozies that I ran into that had me laughing out loud when they dropped or when I got them randomly and I was like...oh my god that's going to be a deal breaker for some folks lol

Oh man, seeing this message made me think your review is out by now.

I'd ask for more clarification on what you mean in the message above, but i'll assume i'll get the answer once the review is out!

 

[Fredrik]

You're literally shallow if you chose your games based on the attractiveness of characters.

For me, the appearance of a character has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a game.
Old protagonists, women especially, are rare in games, it's quite cool to have something different for a change.

MGS4 is the best MGS game, and that has a fucking OLD MAN WITH A GRANDPA MOSTACHE~!!


Funnily enough, both old snake and selene have great asses.

You’re missing my point, I definitely don’t choose my games for the look of the characters, I would buy this day 0 if I could find a PS5, game looks friggin awesome, but no doubt if I was a designer I wouldn’t have designed the main character like that.
And Snake is hot come on!

 

[Alex Scott]

I have 2 budgets: PC and PS5. I've already spent a lot on the PS5. And I know Returnal isn't my cup of tea (die-n-repeat). I tried Hades and returned it after 30 mins..

Don't tell me you bought a PS5 from a scalper.

 

[recma12]

Fuck this paying $70 to feel good and support the dev shit ..it’s a fucking money grab to offset the loss of the console and has nothing to do with the dev or Sony’s decision to make a sequel to a new ip game

did you feel good paying $70 for a cross gen dlc title that has about 5 hours of gameplay.
in the age where digital titles are starting to overtake physical discs there is no justification outside of a money grab charging $70 (120 aud) for new release games

I feel your pain and would prefer games to be cheaper, Returnal is 80€ in EU PSN btw, in general but come the fuck on....
If the PSN price is an issue for you, go physical. I ordered Returnal for 64€.
Nobody is forcing you to keep the disc, sell the game on eBay when you are done and you will get a huge chunk of money back.

That said, I don't like when games are judged on price like that BEFORE the reviews are even out.
If Returnal really is 30-50hrs and gets 9s across the board I think the AAA pricing is justified. If you feel like that is too much, the sales will come eventually.

But let's not act like 60 is some magical number that is absolutely perfect while 70 is the biggest scam in history.

And bro, Sony announced their 80€ shit last year in September. No need to get mad now.

 

[Raonak]

You’re missing my point, I definitely don’t choose my games for the look of the characters, I would buy this day 0 if I could find a PS5, game looks friggin awesome, but no doubt if I was a designer I wouldn’t have designed the main character like that.
And Snake is hot come on!

The thing is... if you were an experienced designer/artist, you would likely intentionally want to create weirder and more unique characters if you had the chance. Perfection... is creatively boring.
older characters are quite interesting because they have way more detail in the way their faces move.

If you were part of the marketing of the team, you would design the character to be a young hot chick or some buff space marine to appeal to the normies.

It's actually very impressive that sony actually let housemarque make a game with such a "unattractive" character,
it meant they had creative freedom and could dismiss the focus tests. that's something to be celebrated imo.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Lol nope, game looks hot but no extra suit can get Putin with a booty interesting, sorry!

Imagine if they had actually designed a beautiful character, a new Samus or Lara, missed opportunity for sure. I don’t get what they were aiming for with this character, worst one so far this gen, after Craig.

Haha! I like that Putin with a booty.

But honestly, I'm 100% with her and I think people are exaggerating. Also astronaut females aren't usually Playboy models.

You're literally shallow if you chose your games based on the attractiveness of characters.

For me, the appearance of a character has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a game.
Old protagonists, women especially, are rare in games, it's quite cool to have something different for a change.

MGS4 is the best MGS game, and that has a fucking OLD MAN WITH A GRANDPA MOSTACHE~!!


Funnily enough, both old snake and selene have great asses.

Seems like devs toss a great ass as a compensation.

 

[xrnzaaas]

What’s a fist boss?

You fight with your fists, because you can't operate a gun.

 

[smart_brazileiro]

To put it in perspective, a team of 20 or so people made FFVI in 18 months. Nowadays a typical AAA game may need a team of 200 people and 5 years to make. If the average salary is 100k per person, that's $100 million just in salaries. That doesn't even include marketing, employee benefits, voice acting, etc.

You're obviously not a finance guy.

 

[Banjo64]

I don’t know that she’s ugly, but I find her face unpleasant to look at. I’m not one to complain about how games are making female characters less attractive, but the thought of looking at that face during cutscenes is a real drag for me.

 

[recma12]

To put it in perspective, a team of 20 or so people made FFVI in 18 months. Nowadays a typical AAA game may need a team of 200 people and 5 years to make. If the average salary is 100k per person, that's $100 million just in salaries. That doesn't even include marketing, employee benefits, voice acting, etc.

I think you don't even have to go that far back in time.
I played Dead Space, great game btw, on Xbox via BC last week. Game came out in 2008, so 13 years or 2 generations ago.

And it takes like 20 mins to see the difference in budget compared to a current game. Jumps out at you immediately.
There is few cutscenes, most dialogue is done via intercom and audiologs, no multiplayer, no motion capturing, tons of reused assets (corridors, enemies) and I beat the game in 8hrs on normal.
Cost 60€ back then.

Nowadays we expect 100 hour open world games to have animated face, cinematic cutscenes and a few years of support via patches. All at 4K60fps and god forbid Digital Foundry says it drops to 50fps in some places.

So yeah, 80€ for day one, digital games (the most expensive option tbf) is not outrageous IMO.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Not enough ammo....lol

They usually say nonsense to give low scores to good games, even though if the problem doesn't exist.

 

[Arun1910]

Said I was going to pre-order this after the last gameplay preview but decided to be sensible and wait for reviews.

Too busy with work to play it straight away anyway but I will be able to download this by Friday regardless.

 

[TheTechnician]

Toward the complaints about Housemark made Selen less attractive or less of a Woman:
Here is Anne Beyer , the german Actress who plays her.

So we see that even the real Person has quite some androgynous features.

She really has that academic look to her and I think that's realy fitting here. As the astronauts we saw in real life so far all fell in that direction rather that let's say looking like Pamela Anderson..

 

[TonyK]

I must say, and I'm not joking, that her face is one of the main things it makes difficult for me to spent 80€ in this game day one. And it's not because is a woman or old, I'm 46yo myself, it's because I don't like how it looks, it's not pleasant to look. It's similar to Control main character's face: original live action actress is pretty, ingame face is weird. Same with Avengers (I'm playing that just right now), models are incredible, faces are weird even if all the fine detail is there.

So, it's not exactly a problem about being a mature women, I will play a game with Helen Mirren with no doubt, but because the face have something unpleasant to look at from a graphical/artistic point of view.

 

[Arun1910]

I love it how the game is on the top charts of Amazon and people still call it a sleeper hit. That’s not exactly a sleeper hit if you ask me.

I get what you mean but also this game has not had a massive marketing push at all. I haven't seen massive talk around this game anywhere, trailers and gameplay just kind of drop out of nowhere with no hype build up.

I think that's what people are alluding too when they say it's a "sleeper"

 

[Haggard]

Unfortunately, I don't think so. I think Sony will do everything they can to keep their games full price for many months or years, similar to Nintendo. I think we've been spoiled on quick AAA price drops on PS3 and PS4 and that it's coming to an end.

Demon's Souls is still $70. Miles Morales and Sackboy have not seen price drops either, and I don't think they will anytime soon.

That's why physical copies are so important, the used market.
Demon`s Souls is already available for 30-40 Euro on ebay....

I´m not going to support 80€ retail prices anytime soon.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Toward the complaints about Housemark made Selen less attractive or less of a Woman:
Here is Anne Beyer , the german Actress who plays her.

So we see that even the real Person has quite some androgynous features.

She really has that academic look to her and I think that's realy fitting here. As the astronauts we saw in real life so far all fell in that direction rather that let's say looking like Pamela Anderson..

I'm glad that they chose her because she fits well as an astronaut. And she also looks decent and nowhere near ugly. I for one don't like playing with a female character in general, but when it's portrayed as a stripper on Neir that literally makes me skip the game totally.

I've read zero complaints about that.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Do we know if the suits will be exclusive to the pre-order?
Or can we unlock them in the game?

No idea, really. But the preview copies had them.

 

[Azurro]

You're literally shallow if you chose your games based on the attractiveness of characters.

For me, the appearance of a character has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a game.
Old protagonists, women especially, are rare in games, it's quite cool to have something different for a change.

MGS4 is the best MGS game, and that has a fucking OLD MAN WITH A GRANDPA MOSTACHE~!!


Funnily enough, both old snake and selene have great asses.

You know what, this is such a dishonest criticism. You are not morally superior nor artistically elevated because you like ugly characters (old man Snake wasn't an ugly character either, what a bad comparison).

Which is a shame because I was watching I first 45 minutes of it on PlayStation Access and it looks great, it really made me want to give it a try. Graphics are great, gameplay seems interesting, graphics are great. It's just that, my god, why did they have to make her such an ugly character? Fucking shitty ideologies, they are just interested in destroying the enjoyment of others.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Toward the complaints about Housemark made Selen less attractive or less of a Woman:
Here is Anne Beyer , the german Actress who plays her.

So we see that even the real Person has quite some androgynous features.

She really has that academic look to her and I think that's realy fitting here. As the astronauts we saw in real life so far all fell in that direction rather that let's say looking like Pamela Anderson..

She looks better than the character. Give me her face instead. I’d be fine with that. If this were an actress playing a role, then I understand the limitation, but it’s a video game character. I don’t need a sexualized or model looking character, but I also would prefer not to have to watch cutscenes of an unpleasant looking face. Yes, it’s unpleasant for me to look at that face.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

This one has little to do with ideology but credibility. A real-life astronaut is by definition a nerd, and no one in the world would think of that as a hot chick. To me, the character design is extremely bold.

Likewise Ripley or the medical chief from Event Horizon, who is the clear inspiration for Selene.

If you want ideology, go see what they did to MJ in Marvel's Spiderman. THAT is political agenda.

 

[GymWolf]

I predict an inferior version of Remedy's Control

but with better reviews since its an exclusive title

Even if the shooting can look a bit similar, the game are pretty different tho.

 

[Bramble]

So we've gone from this being a AA one and done game to now realizing it will get good scores but not buying it because of the looks of the main character. What happened to gamers?

 

[killatopak]

I've read zero complaints about that.

Because context matters and sometimes the nuances of these characters gets ignored in favor of just taking them at face value.

 

[shubik]

Ahhh GAF feeling uneasy about a female character because she looks like a normal grown woman instead of a real live fuck doll. Whenever I read comments like this I can´t help myself butt wonder how some of you goblins look like and if you also wonder if your appearance is "pleasant" for others you gotta love it... I think I´m getting to old for this forum.

Anyway... Does anybody know when the reviews go live today?

 

[Bramble]

Toward the complaints about Housemark made Selen less attractive or less of a Woman:
Here is Anne Beyer , the german Actress who plays her.

So we see that even the real Person has quite some androgynous features.

She really has that academic look to her and I think that's realy fitting here. As the astronauts we saw in real life so far all fell in that direction rather that let's say looking like Pamela Anderson..

I might have misread, but a while back I read somewhere that the Brienne of Tarth actress voiced Selene. What was that about?

 

[GymWolf]

The hot takes about hades are fucking hilarious

 

[Bramble]

Ahhh GAF feeling uneasy about a female character because she looks like a normal grown woman instead of a real live fuck doll. you gotta love it... I think I´m getting to old for this forum.

Anyway... Does anybody know when the reviews go live today?

Just like with other games, OpenCritic has a countdown timer.

 

[Okamiden]

This one has little to do with ideology but credibility. A real-life astronaut is by definition a nerd, and no one in the world would think of that as a hot chick. To me, the character design is extremely bold.

Likewise Ripley or the medical chief from Event Horizon, who is the clear inspiration for Selene.

If you want ideology, go see what they did to MJ in Marvel's Spiderman. THAT is political agenda.

Sigourney Weaver in her prime is actually an attractive and charismatic woman tho. Just imagine if we had Ripley with looks of Returnal main. I doubt she would be as iconic and recognizable. Looks matter in a much more ways than just sex appeal.

 

[kretos]

lol @ some ppl in this thread

"OMG she's ugly how can i jerk off to her now"

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Because context matters and sometimes the nuances of these characters gets ignored in favor of just taking them at face value.

What's the context of having a stripper protagonist "saving the world"? Why she's nearly naked? How does that help the character fit in such dangerous worlds? Same with the other slut Bayonetta.

That's one reason I usually hate playing as a female because they're usually unrealistically sexualized and don't fit the context of the game.

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

You're literally shallow if you chose your games based on the attractiveness of characters.

For me, the appearance of a character has nothing to do with my enjoyment of a game.
Old protagonists, women especially, are rare in games, it's quite cool to have something different for a change.

MGS4 is the best MGS game, and that has a fucking OLD MAN WITH A GRANDPA MOSTACHE~!!


Funnily enough, both old snake and selene have great asses.

I’d agree with you if I wasn’t forced to watch cutscenes. Let me turn cutscenes completely off and I have no complaints. Otherwise, her unpleasant looking face is a real concern for my enjoyment of the game as I’ll be forced to watch it. I’d have the same complaint if it were an ugly character model for a dude. I’m not looking for a model or hypersexualized characters, but I don’t want to feel the need to look away from a character’s face because I find it harsh and unpleasant.

This one has little to do with ideology but credibility. A real-life astronaut is by definition a nerd, and no one in the world would think of that as a hot chick. To me, the character design is extremely bold.

Likewise Ripley or the medical chief from Event Horizon, who is the clear inspiration for Selene.

If you want ideology, go see what they did to MJ in Marvel's Spiderman. THAT is political agenda.

I just did an image search of female astronauts. It was hard to find one less attractive than the protagonist.

female astronauts - Google Search

 

[tommib]

Ahhh GAF feeling uneasy about a female character because she looks like a normal grown woman instead of a real live fuck doll. Whenever I read comments like this I can´t help myself butt wonder how some of you goblins look like and if you also wonder if your appearance is "pleasant" for others you gotta love it... I think I´m getting to old for this forum.

Anyway... Does anybody know when the reviews go live today?

It’s really embarrassing stuff. They want a manga fuck doll in everything.

A middle-aged astronaut still needs to be fuckable and make me horny otherwise I won’t play what’s supposed to be most interesting and fresh game of the year. Nope, I can’t stand looking at her middle-aged face even if I spend 90% of the time looking at her back and legs.

 

[Bonsaibäumchen]

God how I hate that price argument.

Everyone wants huge AAA Titles with the best graphics, physix, localized in every fricking language ever spoken, with all new features supported that exist nowadays but dosn't want to pay the neccessary price for it.
What the fuck is wrong with you guys?

How do you guys think is this gonna work out for the industry?

 

[killatopak]

What's the context of having a stripper protagonist "saving the world"? Why she's nearly naked? How does that help the character fit in such dangerous worlds? Same with the other slut Bayonetta.

That's one reason I usually hate playing as a female because they're usually unrealistically sexualized and don't fit the context of the game.

Spoiler

She’s Intersex. She has a dick but a woman’s body. In lore, she has always been harassed and bullied due to this. She wants people to know she is a woman so she wears a very revealing dress for a woman making them focus on her womanly figure instead of her being intersex. Plus add in her being half a shade and other various stuff.

 

[Panajev2001a]

God how I hate that price argument.

Everyone wants huge AAA Titles with the best graphics, physix, localized in every fricking language ever spoken, with all new features supported that exist nowadays but dosn't want to pay the neccessary price for it.
What the fuck is wrong with you guys?

How do you guys think is this gonna work out for the industry?

They also want new IP’s, they want companies to take risks, they ignore how smaller companies taking risks can only work out with a very high reward as a prize (betting on 15 million sales at $30 is quite unwise / impossible to scale to the entire industry), etc…

You do not have to buy it before it goes on a sale, but do not complain if you end up liking it and Sony does not green light a sequel. Choices == consequences.

 

[GymWolf]

I cant say much more due to the embargo. But I don't think its a game breaker but I DO see some people for sure being very frustrated in a way that is not as normal for roguelike/roguelites as in the past and of course in combination with people seeing a 3rd person shooter and thinking "oh I know how to play these"

As they have stated there are "rare" permanent upgrades(they stated so in the PlayStation blog post today I just wanted to verify so I am not saying something I shouldn't)
I just think it's less that and a bit more wide RNG. I mean shit dude some people are going to love trying to find combinations and then dying way into a section. Others not so much ahaha.

Also that quote from Fextra about length. Ya no lies detected on that I can see folks going ages and ages. We will see what others say.

Is the progression between runs nowhere near hades tier?!

How about content? Is it at least comparable with hades or dead cells?!

 

[TonyK]

It’s really embarrassing stuff. They want a manga fuck doll in everything.

A middle-aged astronaut still needs to be fuckable and make me horny otherwise I won’t play what’s supposed to be most interesting and fresh game of the year. Nope, I can’t stand looking at her middle-aged face even if I spend 90% of the time looking at her back and legs.

Again, it's not because she is old or ugly, real live action model for Returnal character is fine, it's about how they solved the 3D face. Black Widow in Avengers game is a hot and young girl and she is uglier than Returnal main character 3D model. I think they are putting too much emphasis in showing character's face when there is something off on her, not the girl, again, the 3D model.

I love Dead Space, for example, I loved to play with that character. And then, in Dead Space 2, they showed his face, and it was really ugly (from an artistic point of view), and that fucked the character for me. And that it's not related to if the character is young, old or handsome, I rather prefer to play with a character with the face of the old man from Silent Hill 3 than with the face of Thor in the recent Avengers game.

So stop with this generalization that all complaints about her face or Control's character face, are coming from people that want to jerk off over sex dolls characters.