Returnal (Housemarque) [PS5]

Cinematic looked interesting but then the gameplay sections seemed to pale in comparison. Hope it has more interesting game play mechanics.

 

It's from Housemarque, so I'm interested.

 

Sounds like a metroidvania type game, if it's gameplay reaches the standards Housemarque have set with there other games it could be fantastic.

 

Some bits of the gameplay look like a bullet hell shoot but in 3d.

 

I didn't get this at all.

 

There is inconsistency between cut scenes and gameplay
It would have also done a lot better with some better animations

 

It was a tad difficult to see what they were going for gameplay wise. The character model for the cinematics was a little weak in terms of quality and animation. Will be interesting to see where they go with this as from this trailer what the actual gameplay was going to be like was hard to tell. I think perhaps they build a bit on the 3D sections in the VR versions of their recent games.

 

I was really excited to see what Housemarque were doing but I felt a little deflated with this one. It's clear some of their arcade roots are in the shooting and so the game may turn out to be really solid to play, but the aesthetic feel very much indistinct.

 

I got fast paced shooter with lots of doging as in side to side movement. I have faith in there gameplay chops.

 

It's funny that it reminded me of the concept Sony Santa Monica dropped before doing Dad of War.

 

The cutscene graphics in this is astounding, probably the best I’ve seen but then the in game section took a nose dive, what’s with that?

 

Small team. In fact the graphics of most these small team games shown is quite impressive.

 

Yeah. Somebody said it recently but Mark Cerny wasn't kidding around when he said he wanted PS5's hardware to be accessible, the graphics/presentation gap between indie developers and AAA studios is rapidly narrowing. Sure, a small team can't spend 1,000 man hours tuning shaders for one scene, but from where we were with most indie 360/PS3 games to where we are even today on PS4, let alone some of what has been shown coming next gen, this is great!

 

It doesn't work as a marketing slogan but "repeat shoving an optimised x86 PC in box" was a great move on Sony's part. Also a not very good marketing slogan is "the growth of digital distribution makes games with medium budgets viable again".

DF speculated that the game's probably UE with Housemarque add-ons. For teams with limited resources, being able to iterate on what you've previously built and having day one off the shelf engines has got to be a huge benefit.

I'd imagine Housemarque had to sit down and figure out how they deliver the whole cinematic/human animation side. Keeping production costs reasonable is going to be a big challenge for these mid sized teams?

 

Existential crisis: do you say "House-mark" or "House-mark-ee"?

 

Yes indeed

 

House-mark.

 

Yup,
that's how I've always said it in my head.

But then again there was quite the period where I pronounced Skyrim like skirim.

 

I pronounce it like I'm French: I omit the "h" and dip the "r." Then I light a cigarette and slash my derivative paintings.