Returnal - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - PC version officially confirmed

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Saint of Killers
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PostReturnal - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - PC version officially confirmed
by Saint of Killers » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:06 am







It’s this sort of bullet-hell pedigree and heritage that Housemarque made its name with, combined with the studio bringing story to the forefront like never before that has me so excited to play more Returnal and see where on Atropos it’s going. Early on, it appears to be combining the satisfying loop of action and discovery that Hades offered with every new run married with a striking space-marine aesthetic. The inspirations and influences are clear to see, but Returnal is still very much a Housemarque game at its core, and that’s what has me wanting to play and indeed die, again and again.

https://www.ign.com/articles/returnal-the-final-preview


Since Returnal is among the first PS5-exclusive games, I’d be remiss not to address its next-gen bona fides. Yes, Returnal is gorgeous, certainly better looking than most PS4 games, and boasts the blistering load speeds you’d only find on a machine equipped with a solid-state drive. (Returnal cold boots—the time it takes to go from the game’s dashboard icon to actually playing—in under 20 seconds. In game, even fast-traveling doesn’t trigger a loading screen, at least within the first biome.) It’s all very impressive in terms of internal hardware, but the real draw here is how the game feels—literally.

https://kotaku.com/returnal-feels-like- ... 1846735864


When it comes to how Returnal performs, the game has been a pretty flawless experience for me. I haven’t had one crash or major gameplay disruption in the five hours I have played so far. The only issue I had was that I got trapped in a pool of acid and had to dash out of the way as I respawned to stop myself from getting trapped again.

But, the game looks and performs flawlessly. Running at an eye-watering 4K 60 FPS with ray-tracing enabled, Returnal might be the prettiest game I have seen on PS5, especially as the dark world of Atropos is excellently accented by the bright, neon attacks released by enemies flying and scuttling about.

https://www.psu.com/news/returnal-hands ... y-punches/


Trailers and chats with the dev on the game can be found on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HousemarqueGames/playlists

Last edited by Saint of Killers on Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:41 am, edited 38 times in total.
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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Zilnad » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:59 am

If this gets 9s I'm going to break and buy it.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Buffalo » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:06 am

Bullet hell shooters absolutely stress me out. No dice from me...not that it matters :x

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Mafro » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:09 am

Running at an eye-watering 4K 60 FPS with ray-tracing enabled

Interesting.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Rubix » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:28 am

Zilnad wrote:If this gets 9s I'm going to break and buy it.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Saint of Killers » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:34 am

EuroGamer preview is up:

Returnal shows that Sony can still be weird and daring - Next machina.

There's been understandable concern recently about Sony's reported obsession with blockbusters that are too big to fail - the God of Wars, the Horizon: Zero Dawns and the god-forbid-it's-real The Last of Us remake - so it's quite remarkable how Returnal has arrived within mere weeks of the story like some kind of rebuttal. This is one of the most daring, dazzling and straight-up different big ticket games to come from Sony since Death Stranding.

Is it any good? After half a dozen hours scrambling through a game dense with systems and mystery it's hard to say. Is it interesting? Abso-fucking-lutely.

...

Returnal is unlike anything Housemarque has made before, a third-person shooter that plays out with the cinematic scope you'd typically find in the output of compatriots Remedy. It's a lavish production, dense in atmosphere and as much a showcase for the PlayStation 5 as anything we've seen to date (4K60 aside, this does wonders with some of those next-gen gimmicks too, the DualSense and 3D Audio combining for an out there experience that would do William Castle proud).

This isn't the Housemarque you might know from Resogun or Nex Machina yet it's also exactly like those boutique classics, mixing demoscene flex with arcade precision but on a much grander scale. There's an intensity to the action, a readability to enemies and attack patterns, an immediacy that all harks back to the hard-edged classics of the arcade, but the spectacle is something else; Robotron with raytracing, the resulting action worthy of an Amiga classic that plays out like Ridley Scott in crisp 70mm on the big screen.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021 ... and-daring

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Zilnad » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:42 am

God, that's some high praise :datass:

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Photek » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:18 am

Is it any good? After half a dozen hours scrambling through a game dense with systems and mystery it's hard to say. Is it interesting? Abso-fucking-lutely.


Bit of a weird line this, the rest of it has good impressions though.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Saint of Killers » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:18 am

twitter.com/BlessingJr/status/1385060324202586118



Some saying this has DualSense implementations which gives Astro a run for its money.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Saint of Killers » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:29 am

High quality footage courtesy of Gamersyde:

https://www.gamersyde.com/video_returna ... 49_en.html

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by jiggles » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:14 pm

Photek wrote:
Is it any good? After half a dozen hours scrambling through a game dense with systems and mystery it's hard to say. Is it interesting? Abso-fucking-lutely.


Bit of a weird line this, the rest of it has good impressions though.


Not sure what’s weird about it. They’re saying there’s so many systems and unsolved mysteries after 6 hours that they can’t judge it yet. It’s hard to say *any* game is actually good while you’re still in the process of discovering what it’s all about.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Lagamorph » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:16 pm

So this isn't yet another bit of Souls-like shite right?

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by OrangeRKN » Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:21 pm

Lagamorph wrote:So this isn't yet another bit of Souls-like shite right?


It's a rogue-lite third person shooter with bullet hell influence and a sci-fi aesthetic, so no?

It sounds great from all these previews. One day maybe I'll be able to buy a PS5 and play it!

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Pedz » Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:35 pm

Was looking to grab this digitally, why are no stores doing decent digital prices online? Well, I can't even see any stores doing it online at all.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by jiggles » Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:08 pm

Just buy cheap psn credit from Shopto. (The £35 ones have the biggest discount, iirc)

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Pedz » Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:25 pm

jiggles wrote:Just buy cheap psn credit from Shopto. (The £35 ones have the biggest discount, iirc)


Good point. Cheers.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Saint of Killers » Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:38 pm

Mafro wrote:
Running at an eye-watering 4K 60 FPS with ray-tracing enabled

Interesting.


No one has been able to clear this up. Almost as many places saying one over the other :fp: I'm genuinely not fussed about RT when it's at the cost of fps or other immersive elements (like I prefer having a city with more cars and people in Spider-Man than RT on windows) but if it doesn't effect performance? It's a nice bonus. (Especially when it the sun is hitting the icy streets...)

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Captain Kinopio » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:39 pm

Are the dual sense implementations in Astrobot really the high watermark of what we can expect? I wasn’t especially bowled over by it. Control was better imo.

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by jiggles » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:15 pm

WRC9 is the best of the best, but I’m so baffled as to how anyone could think it’s better in Control than Astro’s Playroom that I can’t help but conclude that you’re taking the piss

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PostRe: Returnal - PS5 - Housemarque - April 30th - "Hades x Aliens x Metroid" - Hands-on previews now live
by Captain Kinopio » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:24 pm

Dunno, Astro just felt gimmicky. I don’t get why people adore those games so much.

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