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Returnal, some new gameplay and interview

cormack12

Gold Member


Summary
Talks about taking the arcade, 2D, top-down mechanics into a proper 3D environment
They are sticking to their strengths but not afraid to be bold.
The last ten years has given them a strong grasp on how to create these experiences
They will be held in mind when transferring to the AAA or Third person genre
There have been interesting challenges as their previous games are all clean in aesthetic and obstacles, and they literally now have an extra dimension, ambition and complexity.
They now have verticality, and need new movesets like jumping (with jetpack), ledge vaulting, hookshot.
Environments are designed to allow seamless kinetic energy traversal
Hookshot looks like it works the same as the one in AC:Syndicate
Focus on a good control scheme
Adaptive triggers - studio is excited to jump on new features. There will be dual functionality on one trigger. Partial press will be traditional ADS, and fully pressed (click) will give you the alternate fire mode. They still provide support for fully customisable controls for those not interested in adaptive triggers.
They have translated the Housemarque bullet hell game focus, focused on creating an avoidance system in 3D (easier to see on a 2D plane the path through the objects), while not making it easy to just 'jump' in the 3D space. So they have designed a unique 3D bullet hell to support the game
They talk about designing around player attention, and how each thing on the screen requires a portion of it so spatial awareness of threats was important to craft for an enjoyable arcade experience
Traditional arcade experience allows you to repeat the same trials and learn and get better to beat that specific challenge. Moving to a roguelike means this will change the focus to player surprise and each game will be different. Even the bullet hell challenges will be layered in slightly different ways
This has also been a learning experience and challenge about stitching all these systems together so they can function in many variations consistently and deliver an engaging experience
 
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Rikkori

Member
Those TAAU artifacts look ROUGH! The unfortunate side-effect of using UE4 but not tweaking the AA enough. Gears 5 & Tactics heavily suffered from those as well when you engaged dynamic res, but to an extent visible without too. Brings the image quality down a lot.
What a shame.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
I REALLY like the sound of this, they’re a developer that I have a lot of time for. It sounds like they’re making some super smart design choices.
 

drotahorror

Member
Lookin good. I'm starting to wonder if they're even focusing on hitting 60fps or not. The more footage they show, the lower the framerate seems. The footage in the first half of the video looks like it doesn't even go past 30. Some of it hits 60 towards the latter half of the video, with massive drops. Hopefully it's because the game hasn't hit that optimization phase.

The name is still silly to me, I think of Urinal, and the price is quite high but maybe the game will deliver.
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Lookin good. I'm starting to wonder if they're even focusing on hitting 60fps or not. The more footage they show, the lower the framerate seems. The footage in the first half of the video looks like it doesn't even go past 30. Some of it hits 60 towards the latter half of the video, with massive drops. Hopefully it's because the game hasn't hit that optimization phase.

The name is still silly to me, I think of Urinal, and the price is quite high but maybe the game will deliver.

First half footage is around 50 or something. It's definitely higher than 30, but isn't a solid 60.

As for the name it's just Return and Eternal and I can't see it as anything else.

Game looks really fun to play though, and I'll definitely be picking it up at some point.
 

fallingdove

Member
Looks beautiful. Looks super engaging. The fluidity of the controls are really going to make or break this type of game. If they nail the controls, I could easily see Returnal landing around an 80 metacritic. High 80s if the story and story presentation are decent.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
This is the most interesting PS5 game to me. A shame it was nitpicked about featuring a woman protag but otherwise ignored. Housemarque deserves much better.
Ellen_DeGeneres_2011.jpg
housemarque-game.png
 
I was hoping for at least a mode with optimized, static level design, but I'll likely pass if all we get is randomness. Still hope it's successful, as the studio does good work.
 

Gold_Loot

Member
Looking good. Love me some Housemarqe. I’m going to have to see what some independent reviewers are saying about this before I jump in at that price point.
 

drotahorror

Member
First half footage is around 50 or something. It's definitely higher than 30, but isn't a solid 60.

As for the name it's just Return and Eternal and I can't see it as anything else.

Game looks really fun to play though, and I'll definitely be picking it up at some point.

Hope you're right about the framerate. Maybe I can think of those 2 words instead of the 1 I think of hah.

I will likely be picking this up day 1.

You could call me a....Housemark. sorry
 
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Boss Mog

Member
Could be good but it won't sell well because they chose to make the protag ugly for whatever reason. TV and movies know this already which is why they employ mostly good looking people for their lead roles. People want to see good looking people, it's just a fact that the videogame industry needs to come to terms with.
 
I'll be honest, I find the player character off-putting, with the potential answer to that problem being she's completely covered in a spacesuit for most of the game. What I didn't realize, until just now, was the game is a rougelike; it's not a preferred genre of mine and is something I only tend to dip into on deep price discounts.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
I love Housemarque and Returnal would have been day one for me but it being a "rogue" like game meaning that if you die on the final boss, you go all the way back to the beginning of the game is a no go for me. If it was based on the level/chapter itself, then okay, maybe I would have more interest but the way it is, nope. Would have preferred Returnal to just be a straight forward fast paced third person shooter where you simply go through every chapter until beating it like a normal game.

If Sony acquires Housemarque, im hoping they expand them to two teams. One for third person shooters like Returnal and a small team for the isometric arcade twin stick shooters.

I want DinoNation damn it!!!! :(
 

Ogbert

Member
Gameplay will be amazing given the dev but Sony are launching it to die with $70/€80 price tag.

I'll check it out in late 2021 when it's on a deep sale.
Yep.

I just don’t see how they can justify that price. I love the developer, but the only titles I really see getting away with a £70 price tag are AAA blockbusters.
 

Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
The name Housemarque alone sold me this game.

But I also realy like what I see and hear about the game.

I hope it's a success for them.

Take my money!
 
unfortunatly i cant touch it i cant see it i dont wann alook at it get it out of my face.. Sorry but i cant...
For the same reason i get sick when i see Gameplay of the newer Doom Titles..
Its of course this Arcade Style Effects Work they use - all this Blue, Red , Yellow Blobs.. they screaming in my face arcadestyle video game ans just like with Doom, that not goes together very well in my Book. It takes me out of the Expirience..
Sorry iam a Sony Fanboy a Pony even - but iwill not touch this not even with Gloves..
iam noping out.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
Looks great. Not a mindblowing game visually, but I'm hoping that's down to the dark, flat-lit levels we've seen so far. I'm hoping we can see some of that world-shifting that was shown in the reveal. Shooter and movement mechanics look great though. I love me some Housemarque, so I'll be there day 1, assuming I can get my hands on a PS5 on Feb 5.
 

MrS

Banned
People better have their expectations in check. I think a lot of people are gonna be disappointed by how this turns out in terms of length, replayability and story. Love HMQ but feel they're writing cheques they can't cash at that price point.
 
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Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
People better have their expectations in check. I think a lot of people are gonna be disappointed by how this turns out in terms of length, replayability and story. Love HMQ but feel they're writing cheques they can't cash at that price point.
Replayability is an important thing for me with their games.

They had good examples in the past with lets say Nex Machina or Alienation but not all of them.
I will hope the best. It does not have to be a long game to be good one.

In terms of story you are right I think.

While they will go bigger then ever with that it won't be the biggest focus given there previous games.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
People better have their expectations in check. I think a lot of people are gonna be disappointed by how this turns out in terms of length, replayability and story. Love HMQ but feel they're writing cheques they can't cash at that price point.
Lol you've already played it and beat the game too?
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Looks great! I love the atmosphere in the cutscenes from the other trailers too

Give me this sci-fi horror day one
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
It gives me the same vibes as Lost Planet did back on Xbox 360. The gunplay and monsters especially. I remind myself of that part in LP1 where he's inside the cave and all those small, flying creatures start to appear. I'm looking forward to it. I hope this is a lot of fun and not a dud.
 
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People better have their expectations in check. I think a lot of people are gonna be disappointed by how this turns out in terms of length, replayability and story. Love HMQ but feel they're writing cheques they can't cash at that price point.

I agree. Looks very samey and generic for some reason. I'm predicting 6s and 7s.
 
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