Topic: Returnal

@Kidfried @MatthewJP Congrats for beating the game. That must feel like a massive victory for the both of you.

It's definitely worth going for Act 3 and by now you will be super good so you should just charge through it!

@CJD87 Really miss playing this game as well. I was actually tempted to fire it up the other day just so I could experience how good it is all over again but got lots of other games on the go so held off. I'm going to leave it a while to see if we ever do get any DLC and if not I might just go ahead and delete my save just to play it through again.

Yeah I'll definitely be continuing to play on.
I usually trade in games after finishing them, and only ever keep hold of real masterpieces. Returnal will be staying.

@MatthewJP @Kidfried Sorry for the late response, but congratulations! Act 3 is worth it, and very little grinding is needed, as what you are looking for is a guaranteed spawn in your run.

@MatthewJP Careful mate, the guys on here will soon convince you to join 'Club Platinum'...! But honestly, if you're still having fun (+ can stomach some tedious RNG/collectables) then its worth a shot.

Paid 70 £GBP for this at launch, and don't begrudge paying full price. I just wish patch 2.0 had existed earlier ha...

I’m planning to go back to it at some point; I need some more good screenshots for the yearly forum competition if nothing else!

@Kidfried For sure. I definitely agree. Few things can give one a sense of immediate accomplishment like a well crafted gaming experience.

Out of curiosity, during your epic final run through Biomes 4, 5, and 6, did you do it all in one sitting or did you use the new suspend/save feature? Just curious if you had success by breaking it up. I’m of two mind on it. The few times I put the PS5 in rest mode during a run (prior to the current update with the save feature) I sometimes went back in and found I had lost my edge and was no longer ‘in the zone.’ But also there are times the sheer fatigue (mental and physical) of a long run was making me sloppy and I did better if I took a break.

How did it go for you? All at once, or broken up? How long (in-game time) was that final run?

@Kidfried I remember doing a few runs through B6 with a much lower proficiency weapon for the same reason. You get really attached to a gun if you are doing well and it almost matters more what the traits are than the level of them.

I also always kept away from things like the coilspine shredder or pyrocaster even if they were of a high level just because I was never accurate enough.

It does sound like the suspend a run feature has been a success though so that’s no bad thing. I am still glad I did it without in the sense that it added to the peril of the game but I wonder I do wonder if things would have played out any differently if it had been there when I was playing it.

Doing act 3 now, I've collected the fragments from 1-3 and beat nemesis again and got a little cut scene.

It was like visiting old friends, going back to biomes 1-3

@Kidfried The music is amazing, and the whole soundscape of the game really. I'd also say it's the best use of 3D audio on any PS5 game so far. Out of all the biomes B4 seems to bring everything together the best there.

@Kidfried @render See, in the Oscars you have the distinction between music and audio. If there was a specific audio award then Returnal would win that hands down as it properly pushes the 3D audio and has a very interesting soundscape. I wouldn’t say that the music was really all that memorable though outside of the Biome 4 boss. It was more the sound mixing and general ambience that impressed me.

@render @kidfried couldn't agree with you more. The sound work is fantastic. Biome 4 I play the most and even climb to the boss just to hear the rising sounds of the organ. Overall my game of the year, sad it wasn't even nominated.

@nessisonett There is a specific audio award and Returnal is nominated for it

@Voltan There we go then!

Hearing about the audio almost makes me want get a Pulse headset. Almost, but I'd rarely use it beyond for games like this now that I have Returnal.

@KilloWertz I literally never used headphones with my PS4 but I started using them a bunch with the PS5. I'm just plugging in the wired headphones I already owned, because they're pretty good and I don't really need another pair.
The DualSense's built in microphone does a surprisingly decent job too, effectively eliminating a need to own a dedicated gaming headset.

@Voltan I would only use them for select games that have really good atmospheric audio, like Returnal or on Xbox like The Medium or Hellblade. It's cheaper to just take people's word for it instead.

@nessisonett For me it is a memorable soundtrack. It's got a certain sound to it all of its own which really helps builds the atmosphere of the game. Yes a lot of the music is incidental but there's always that underlying theme to each biome and at certain times in the game the music lets itself be known. If you listen to the soundtrack then it's amazing how many of the tracks you will know even if you don't think about them at the time of playing the game. The Crash, Murals and Dream Already Seen are some great pieces.

Anyway I'm not judging this thing so I'll leave that up to someone who knows what they are talking about 😂

@Kidfried You said it better

@Kidfried @render I agree completely, the sound design and music is fantastic. I would sometimes spend a few minutes just listening to the wierd alien sounds around me.

Another vote here for sound design and music. I rarely notice the music in the games I play, unless the game highlights a musical sequence, but I did notice the audio design and the really strange and alien sounds like the popping, squishing, suction, clanking … just so many unique sound effects.

And an endorsement here for headphone gaming. For PS4 and PS5 I use headphones 90% of the time. It keeps things more immersive, even when there’s not 3D audio in play. My corded cans sound great but the Pulse 3D sounds maybe a smidge better and the wireless nature of them makes them infinitely more comfortable and hassle free.

My only regret is that using headphones obscures the neat little tricks that game designers put in the games to use the DualSense speaker.