Returnal Runs at 60 FPS in Dynamic 4K with Raytraced Lighting on PS5

do we really need a ps5 pro? for 120fps and that's it? this is fine for 7 years straight

Do we know how long Housemarque has spent on development? They were working on that Stormdivers game after they did the whole "arcade is dead" after 2017. Think they gave up on Stormdivers in 2019 and started up Returnal. If that timeline is correct that is quite amazing to develop their first AAA quality game (in a genre/style new to the dev team) in just a couple years.

This game will have a ton of people converting from "meh, a rougelite" to "we need more games like this" in a matter of days

@Ithinkyousuck Sooooo few games run over 120fps. I would add to that question, if it's really necessary to have a new 2.1 HDMI TV to run the stardard PS5 specs?

@Ithinkyousuck It’s only really native 4K that’s missing. And even then, the upscaling’s getting seriously impressive now.

My only doubt right now is if I buy this digital and play for 2 hours at launch or I buy physical and wait until monday after launch :/

@markkoo I'm playing rogue company and have siege (120fps) downloaded. Rocket league? It's mostly old games. For me it's worth it.

@nessisonett Ya native 4k is a waste of resources with such good reconstruction techniques now. I’d rather devs put the extra resources into things like wild particle effects, which it looks like Housemarque have done here.

@nessisonett Nah. Diminishing returns. 1440p 60fps ray tracing is good enough for. no need to upgrade.

Not many people will have hdm1 2.1 tvs so I just doubt they will make a ps5 pro. This ps5 I almost drained myself for, needs to last over 7 years.

@Ithinkyousuck
Good point. Let's just hope the new lineup of games come sooner than expected

Can't believe this is first year tech. When you compare things like Killzone Shadow Fall at the beginning to Ghost of Tsushima at the end for the PS4, I really can't wait to see how things evolve through this generation

Am I the only person concerned about the LOD pop-in?

Finally something other than ray-traced reflections!

Don't get me wrong, I am all about accurate reflections;, but I feel like ray-traced lighting has a much bigger visual impact than reflections. Just my opinion anyways.

@Jayslow
Housemarque are quick at making games. That's the benefit of AA.

@Voltan I love Hausmarque and the game looks and sounds amazing, but my hate of roguelikes is much stronger. Nothing is going to change that. You think gamers like me will want to pay $70/£70/€80 to play a wonderfully looking and sounding game and have that miserable feeling of having to restart our progress whenever our in-game character dies? No, dude. This is exactly what we hate and no amount of visual, aural or game mechanic splendor will change that. Not touching a roguelike with a 10-foot pole.
I mean, yeah, sure, I'll try it, once it becomes ultra-cheap or comes to ps+ or psnow... and then rage uninstall it. 😂

@Ithinkyousuck i never bought a ps4 pro and dont plan ok getting a ps5 pro. I agree this is enough for me

I just can't bring myself to bring you a game like this where you lose every single item you've earned every time you die

@TheDudeElDuderino isn’t it a Rogue “Lite” though?
Meaning not all your progress is lost.

So there will still be a sense of progression

I just need my games to look as good as they can..i dont need native 4k as upscaling is getting very good as stated before earlier in the comments...60fps is getting to be a requirement but i can still play games in 30fps if they get the frame pacing correct..going to get this as soon as i have time to dedicate to it..

Maybe they should just say DRS (or just say 4k who cares) People like buzz words haha and it's actually better than fixed resolution. 😎

@tatsumi from the hands on "A rogue-lite structure means that you lose most of the stuff you gather upon death, but most runs result in some form of reward".
Rogue-like, rogue-lite... it's all the same rogue-s**te to me. I don't have that much time for games and when I can dedicate some time to play I like my games to respect it.

Still going to wait on more reviews, too much conflicting information. I want to try it, then get reminded of the £70 entry price 🥲 I hope it does really well 🙂

I would totally buy this... Not at $70 tho.

Hyped for this game

That "fever dream" line has put me off. I had one of those recently, after my vaccine. Not a nice feeling.

@Kidfried yes, to each their own, I am just not convinced that Returnal will turn people like me. I may be wrong.
And yes, I also did not buy day1 a number of open world games fir that same reason of wasting my time.

@Ithinkyousuck I've been saying this for awhile now. When the PS4 pro came it was to was so you could play games in 4K as it was getting extremely popular. I don't see what tech is there for a PS5 Pro to be needed. Native 8K? Maybe, but I don't see 8K being at the stage 4K was when the PS4 pro came out.

I think of it comes this year the new Horizon Zero Dawn will be the game to make the PS5 rock and people talk of graphics and the PS5 in that way.
Not saying Returnal or Ratchet and Clank won’t have their moments but open world HZD with the technical masters Guerrilla at the helm, this will be the one at the early stage of the PS5 life cycle.

@JohnnyShoulder PS5 for a combination of items like those certain PS4 games that got PS5 upgrades: steady 60 FPS, stable gameplay for games that PS4 Pro had trouble keeping up with. And of course RTX as an option. Aside from that we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out.

The 60fps makes a discernible difference. When I played Ghost of Tsushima and God of War on PS4 vs PS5, gameplay felt more responsive and made the game control better. Most noticeable in difficult combat sequences.

But surprisingly the #1 next-gen thing about the PS5 IMO is the adaptive triggers. I had no idea I’d love them so much, it’s the first thing I deeply miss when I go from PS5 back to PS4. The haptics are quite immersive like rumble taken to next-level but the triggers are simply outstanding like I want them on everything.

This might be the article that makes me pre-order! I have been coasting alongside the hype train for this one but I think I might have to jump aboard. I love Housemarque but was not a fan of games like the persistence which this makes me think of (albeit way prettier) so was hesitant with RE Village being out a few days later.

@starlokk I don’t if that will ever really be solved. Maybe UE5 will tackle it to a degree?

@TheDudeElDuderino Maybe the fact it’s a very competent shooter will help you overlook the roguelike to a degree? I think with roguelikes it’s mastering the gameplay loop and then dealing with the adventure of it coming with unpredictability?

@JJ2 Tech people usually have to use certain tools to ascertain what res a game is. The problem they face is that no matter the technique, a fresh 4k image is being generated every frame.

Technically impressive, and we're only at the very start of this new generation!
In 3, 4, 5 years time we are really going to see the PS5 sing and it looks like it will be amazing!

@Voltan At last the genre gets the recognition it deserves!

@DeepSpace5D totally agree with you.

There seems to be quite a few people with basic misconceptions of roguelikes/lites. It's just a different structure. If it's a good roguelike/lite, you will always be making overall progress. People complaining about having to replay after death. Isn't that what happens in a 'normal' game? Isn't that what happens after dying in a souls game? You're doing yourselves a disservice by being so blinkered. Good roguelikes/lites have way more variety than an average game and usually way more interlocking systems.

@djdizzy Sorry man, I meant to say i don't see what tech there is for a PS5 Pro to be needed. I've edited my post. Doh! Yeah, I love my PS5, such a massive improvement on my OG PS4. Demon's Souls was such a joy to play with how gorgeous it looked, how buttery smooth it felt with the 60fps and the super quick load times. The controller overall is ace too, feels really comfortable to use.

Day one thank you very much

@Ithinkyousuck I'm with you man ps5 can handle everything I need and that doesn't include raytracing

Preordered yesterday.
This ones got me excited for the first proper next gen game (bar Demon Souls which was a remake).
The shooting looks superb and the aliens varied interesting and tough.
Throw in great graphics and both duel sense and 3D audio support and I’m there.
£70 is steep but I guess that’s what you have to pay for being an early adopter for the next gen.

This is cool. With Hades getting such big and sort of mainstream attention, roguelikes seem to be in the spotlight at the moment.

I'm very interested in this, but this type of game is very frustrating for me. I paid full price for Demon Souls when it came out. I enjoyed it for a while, but eventually bailed on it because I found it too frustrating. I don't get a lot of time to play games and being frustrated isn't how I want to spend that time. So many people loved that game, but ultimately it just p***** me off 😆 Just not my style, I guess.

Still, I'm keeping a close eye on this one for reviews.

@TheDudeElDuderino I think a lot of people will want to play this if only to experience the technical side of it. Out of that lot, some will discover they actually like the formula a lot. Others will hate it but rougelites are actually quite popular these days.
I have my own reservations about starting over every time but this looks fun enough to me.

@Voltan Oh you forgot the €70 thingy.

@Kidfried It does give me Metroid Prime vibes! Such an amazing game. If Returnal is even half as good, we’ve got a winner.

@Flaming_Kaiser I'm not sure that's that much of a deal breaker for most. I could be wrong but the physical version is currently sold out in some places, which looks like people are buying it. Of course that could also mean they had 10 copies, we'll have to wait and see.

@Northern_munkey For me i play on 30FPS a lot but for me it depends on the game a DMC is better with a lower resolution and more frames when im playing that its so speedy i dont need 4K and all that stuff.

@Voltan Im getting it anyway i really want to support this i loved it from the start. But for me the biggest problem was that on Pushsquare. Its like they almost went out of their way to make the game look bad and drive home their €70 point such a pity.

@Flaming_Kaiser I went with physical and I just hope they don't fail to deliver it on release day because otherwise I'm not getting it until the following Tuesday
It's a 5-day weekend for me so it actually matters

Always had a good feeling on this game, but it's shaping up to look like a very good buy. Hopefully it gets reviewed well and plays just a beautifully. That way we can squash all this price tag nonsense. People seemly forget things they buy in life, a packet of cigarettes over two weeks could easily end up costing the same amount.

@Voltan For me its untill i get my PS5 but when insane as i sound i love their stuff and i want to show support.

@PossibLeigh Yeah, I think the descriptor of a ‘rogue-lite’ might be confusing to some. We’ll see when we get full on reviews, but the ‘respawn and play through again’ in this case strikes me more like just a traditional arcade style game, where you try to clear a level and go back to the beginning checkpoint if you die, but I think there will be set points of progression (like the house we keep seeing Selene visit in first person mode maybe?) where you won’t have to repeat everything from ground zero in order progress the story. They have said there is a legit and solid story, so there has to be some kind of start and finish. This coupled with the fact that supposedly the worlds and environments have some randomized procedural generation I think I read somewhere (I hope I’m not making that up) means that the variety of gameplay on each run will actually make the game less repetitive than say a Souls game or a difficult platformer that you have to keep retrying a level or difficult section over and over to get past.

There is supposed to be bosses too, so hopefully they aren’t too tough and too far removed from a respawn point because frustration will get really intense if so.

I’ve never been a rogue-like fan but last year played and really enjoyed Dead Cells. I never really felt like the game was wasting my time. My final run to beat the final boss only took like an hour, but it took me like 15-20 hours of gradual progression and climbing the learning curve to get to that point. There was a unique dopamine rush in the process that I think can be a good alternative to other forms of slow grinding through an rpg or linear progression game.

So yeah, we’re all speaking speculatively at this point, but I suspect the moniker of ‘rogue-lite’ is a soft description. We’ll see.

Hopefully yall can cash in on some commission on this one bc your coverage barrage has convinced me

@Th3solution my understanding is that if you manage to defeat a boss in a biome and unlock the next one, you can then skip ahead directly to that one - however that does mean you'd be starting it with just the pistol.
Also some upgrades seem to be permanent.

@Voltan Ah, ok - thanks for that clarification. That sounds really cool actually. So you have a choice of either grinding from the beginning and bringing weapons through, or starting at your midway checkpoint with just the basic supplies? If there is also some permanent progression stats then I think that’s an interesting trade off. Also, didn’t I see that if you come to your corpse that you recover something, like XP or weapons or some such, like a Souls game?

@Th3solution you can't find your own corpse (not the one from your last run anyway) because the world changes when you die. You can however come across other players' corpses (the game's online component) and choose to either scavenge or avenge them - the latter has you fighting whatever killed them for a better reward.

@Th3solution Ha, fair play, I tip my hat to you, sir. Dead Cells was way too tough for me! I did enjoy my time with it though.

I've read that in Returnal, once you beat a boss you never have to beat it again (which is unlike most roguelites), so that's another barrier to progression removed.

I really do think that this, like Hades before it, is going to popularize the genre with a lot of people who previously dismissed it. I hope those who do change their minds go back and try some of the indie developed influences on this and Hades (which really didn't do much that was new).

@TheDudeElDuderino yeah I'm not a fan of games like that either ,but you don't lose everything and from what I can gather there's portals that can speed you through the level if nearly completed.

@vapidwolf thanks dude, but I have issues man, you know, pent up aggression and stuff. I can't risk breaking the dualsense, not at this stage 😂
Seriously though, my problem is not repetition, hell, I love repetition, my issue is losing weapons, equipment and capability and having to grind all over for it just to die again soon after getting it all back. Rrrrghhhh no. 😅

Boom! I cannot wait!

@Kidfried I’m getting more and more excited.

@TheDudeElDuderino Hi there friend.
If I may just give you my oppinion, there are rogue likes who can be very time consuming, because it does not seem that you´ve made any kind of progress.
Fortunately, there are some who do reward the player just for going for "another run".
A game like Hades is a good example of this: in every run I´ve had of that game, i got more of the characters and the story as well.
Also, I was getting some permanent upgrades, like doing more damage, having more health, getting more items and unlocking more different weapons for me to try.
And get this, there are no repetitive dialogue whatsoever.
Not one! I´m still amazed by that honestly.
The gameplay is really engaging and it´s fun to uncover the story.
Plus the soundtrack is brilliant. I highly recomended it.
And Returnal really feels like the perfect evolution of an arcade shooter it how it´s being made.
Just my two cents.
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@Flaming_Kaiser Hi there friend.
It might sound insane, but way back when, I got my copy of Tekken Tag Tornament 3 weeks before my parents bought me a PS2.
I didn´t know if I would get one, but I still decided to purchased the game since I was very excited to play and I´m a Tekken fan since Tekken 2.
So your not alone on your so called "insanity". Cause I´m one as well 😜
Hope you can get your PS5 as soon as possible so you can play Returnal and all the other awesome games that the system as and will have in the future.
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@Kidfried Hi there friend.
One of us, one of us, one of us, one of us........
Sorry, couldn´t resist it 😜
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

@0niguy.... All I will say to and the other guy is that in 2002 when the Ps4 launched and I was playing Gran Torismo 3. I thought nothing I gaming could be better, I thought this was it in terms of what I will ever need in term of technology when it comes to gaming, it was heaven.

How wrong was I.

@Voltan....... Well that's a turn off..... So, a $70 single player game still has some of its content locked online.

@RaZieLDaNtE hey dude, I appreciate your comment and time. You will be happy to know that I bought Hades on its release (release release, not early access) for exactly the reasons you mentioned and that has been the only rogue-like/lite I like.
If Returnal turns out ot have such a strong story, characters and non repeating script, I will be buying it sooner rather than later. If not, then the arcade splendor can wait for black friday sales.
Cheers and stay safe and healthy.

@RaZieLDaNtE Good to hear and after the way Pushsquare was talking about this title making i really wanted to buy it day one.

They really did make this game look bad with their to expensive for a new IP campaing. Its really annoying and dissapointing that they went so hard on this new great looking IP.

And go out of their way to say that NBA2K had a free upgrade to PS5 in their €99 mamba version.
Also giving Metal Gear Survive a 8. 🤪

@GREGORIAN yeah your totally right..even on PS2 from the start to what FF12 showed end of PS2 was insane lol

@0niguy..... Yeah i remember when the Ps2 what out absolutely killing it, a friend of mine jokingly talked about oh the ps3 and Ps4 and Ps5 were going to be even better, I said to him nonsense with the way gaming was then I said there was no need and they would never be a needfor another playstation system and joked it off. I was shocked when they announced ps3.

@TheDudeElDuderino yes I too have these issues ,I can see myself flinging my dual sense ,especially after a few whiskeys 😁

@TheDudeElDuderino Thanks man, glad you enjoyed.
Hades is great.
SuperGiant games nailed it with that one.
Cheers, stay safe and all the best dude

@Flaming_Kaiser Returnal just speaks to me and Housemarque hasn´t made a game I haven´t ejoyed yet so I´m all in on this one.
And Metal Gear Survive does not exist and can´t hurt you 😜
Cheers, stay safe and all the best friend

@starlokk yes

@RaZieLDaNtE Metal Gear Survive.