The Shepard
Member
A metroidvania sequel hopefully
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Housemarque teasing something for tomorrow
- Thread starter solidus12
- Start date
TerribleAtThisGame
Member
I feel like people completely miss how dark and surreal Quake is because of the Lol Boomer Shooter thing. That game feels like some weird abstract painting of hell to me. Some of the enemies have weirdly unsettling sound design too, it's kind of quiet and hushed like those flying poison spitters. I played the fuck out of the remaster and couldn't get over how intense and oppressive that game is on high difficulty.
tommib
Member
Which is why I always saw Returnal as a mirror update to Quake. Similar soundtracks as well.
TerribleAtThisGame
Member
Returnal's soundtrack is ridiculous.
My absolute favorite is Derelict Citadel's ambient stage sound design. Those biiiiig solitary synth washes with the massive Beksinski art is insane. Then it shifts when you're inside the tower and has this simple melancholic melody peppered in and it's fucking sublime.
I've been keeping an eye out for good "Returnal Level Ambient" type YT videos to see if anyone does kind of an Ambient Tracks Only OST.
PanzerCute
Member
One VR influencer said he heard last year that a PSVR2 version of Returnal was in the works, so I was expecting that..
I am a moron. I know.
This teasing made me reinstall the game, tho. I am a bit rusty but I could still beat the first 3 biomes with no issues.
That game is such a masterpiece!
I am a moron. I know.
This teasing made me reinstall the game, tho. I am a bit rusty but I could still beat the first 3 biomes with no issues.
That game is such a masterpiece!
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saintjules
Member
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tommib
Member
Try Haxan Cloak. Same composer
I was watching Too Old to Die Young and got those dark ambient vibes as well.
Also this:
Lunarorbit
Member
That's pretty mean if that's all that's happening. When you put out a tweet life that you know what people are expecting
Edit : Wait wrong Gif
TerribleAtThisGame
Member
Oh trust me, I was knee-deep in this artist's bootyhole before the game even released just because the synth shit I heard in the trailer had already made me salivate
tommib
Member
That's basically my Returnal experience then. I was really not paying that much attention to it until they showed some gameplay teaser early in 2021 and there were these circling bass synths wrapping the creature sound effects and I was like, wait a minute, what is this music. Oh shit, it's Haxan Cloak, this big producer who worked with Bjork and Ari Aster. That's when I realised Returnal was onto something very special.Oh trust me, I was knee-deep in this artist's bootyhole before the game even released just because the synth shit I heard in the trailer had already made me salivate
tommib
Member
Returnal: Fallen Asteria TPB :: Profile :: Dark Horse Comics
After Helios crashes onto a hostile alien world, Selene Vassos, a lone ASTRA scout must fight for her life against the horrific hostiles tha ...
Zheph
Member
TheDarkPhantom
Member
So the comic was the big announcement? Well, well, well lol
ButchCat
Member
How about ABC? Look man we can disagree on the terminology, yes it's highly polished but it doesn't measure up on the scale of other Sony AAA titles (maybe we should call the others AAAA games) even if they are the ones who funded it. It's a rogue-lite that uses procedural generation to achieve longevity and make up for budget constraints. I commend them for doing this because it works beautifully in the favour of the game.
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tommib
Member
Housemarque had 0 budget constraints producing Returnal. They worked on it for 4 years with a team of 80 people + all the Playstation Studios:
Deciphering the narrative-driven procedural horror of Returnal
Housemarque details its shift to AAA development, after a long history of creating frenetic, arcade-inspired games.
www.unrealengine.com
How PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal is keeping the arcade fires alive
It doesn't really feel like a PlayStation launch without a Housemarque title, whether that's Super Stardust's fine appe…
www.eurogamer.net
They used procedural levels because it's what they wanted to make. Krueger was obsessed with Dead Cells and it fits the arcade nature.
AAA for you means Marvel/God of War narrative type games. This is such a tiring discussion. You can smell the money being thrown at Returnal the moment you start playing it.
AA is what they were making before Returnal.
AmuroChan
Member
Yes, but AAA can have a wide spectrum because there's nothing past AAA. So for argument's sake, let's say the cutoff is any game w/ a budget over $75m is considered AAA. Games that were made at just over that $75m threshold are not going to look the same as GTAVI which has a budget of $1 billion.
saintjules
Member
Yeah, classic bait technique to revitalize social media presence. Oh well, got me wanting to play the game again.
In 2024 money it was.
To be fair - AAA by its very definition is a forever moving goal-post. 20 years ago - 100M budget was a stupid, one in a lifetime insanity that just one company even dared to attempt (and it was a Korean publisher at that). Today - it's not even average for the really big name IPs.
Returnal was just scoped differently - and these 'buckets' are all a spectrum anyway. I would put Returnal right next to Control, Plague's Tale and original Senua - and yes that's more a AA bucket than not.
These were all built with a much tighter focus than 'stereotypical' AAA productions - and they are also better games for it. (Ok maybe not Plague's Tale - but 3 out of 4 isn't bad).
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AltogetherAndrews
Member
Artbook 
ShadyAcshuns
Member
Way to set yourselves up for disappointment...
Mobilemofo
Member
What a fuckin shitter. Art book, and some animation. Coulda spent that time making some dlc but noooooo...
AltogetherAndrews
Member
You mouthbreathing philistines
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Returnal's difficulty was just insane.
TerribleAtThisGame
Member
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
It is tough, but I also found it fair.
For reference, I don't touch FromSoftware games from a 10-feet pole, but I platinumed Returnal. Same with Hades.
The good thing about Returnal, especially compared to FromSoftware games, is that while they are both tough, Returnal explains its mechanics very well. And there are no issues in Returnal that one faces in FS games like fighting the camera, unexplained mechanics, etc.
If you gave up on Returnal because of its difficulty, I'd suggest giving it another go as it's an amazing game!
gothmog
Gold Member
I can only imagine the eyestrain playing Returnal for hours in VR.
And it is a masterpiece. I come back to it every few months and find myself hooked again.
anothertech
Member
The difficulty wasn't the issue. Resetting you so far back if you fail a boss fight was trash tier.
ButchCat
Member
Housemarque had 0 budget constraints producing Returnal. They worked on it for 4 years with a team of 80 people + all the Playstation Studios:
Deciphering the narrative-driven procedural horror of Returnal
Housemarque details its shift to AAA development, after a long history of creating frenetic, arcade-inspired games.How PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal is keeping the arcade fires alive
It doesn't really feel like a PlayStation launch without a Housemarque title, whether that's Super Stardust's fine appe…
They used procedural levels because it's what they wanted to make. Krueger was obsessed with Dead Cells and it fits the arcade nature.
AAA for you means Marvel/God of War narrative type games. This is such a tiring discussion. You can smell the money being thrown at Returnal the moment you start playing it.
AA is what they were making before Returnal.
I am not denying that Returnal was their biggest undertaking yet but having a team grow to 80+ people (fyi MM has 100+ people) as well as support from other Sony Studios doesn't really tell us anything about having constraints in place either. I did however skim through your articles and I stand corrected on the the philosophy behind the procedural connection of the levels.
It may be tiring but there is truth in it. I loathe the modern AAA standard, I think it's rotten, dull and unsustainable but the only distinction between AA and AAA is it's budget and scope. But hey let's assume there were 0 constraints like you said, based on Sony's bland AAA portfolio Returnal is ultimately a smaller game and so it had less push from Sony behind it. Also I love Dead Nation but AA really? Common.
I think there should be an AAAA category because like you said there isn't a ceiling to what is still considered AAA and so the definition has ended up becoming distorted because of the likes of R* and Sony.
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