Topic: Returnal

@JigsawPieces Yeah hopefully a one off and perhaps not all the crashes are related to the firmware. Housemarque have gone quite quiet on the patch front so I wonder if some of these bugs are just taking a long time to work through or they are spending a lot of time putting in a save system.

Cheers for letting me know about Matterfall, I didn't notice that as well. I had a go on Nex Machina last night and it's a crazy game. So much comes at you all at once it's really hard to see what's going on sometimes, you just have to hope that you aren't going to hit anything as you dash out the way. It gives you 99 continues as you can always keep going after you lose all your lives, but if you have to use a continue then you lose your current score. At least you don't get sent back to the beginning though.

@render Sounds like classic arcade game design except you don't actually pay to continue

@adrianthealchemist Crikey mate, that sounds awful 😳. Hope you manage to get seen to as quickly as possible and that the outcome is good.

I can totally understand why you need cheering up. Looks like R&C will be the perfect game for that. On reading your news I also pushed the button on the purchase so we will have to compare progress 👍. I think @Voltan is also purchasing so that will be cool. I might switch the difficulty up a notch or two just to see how I get on, and then probably turn it down again when I realise that I'm not as good as I think I am!!

@render I'm sure a ton of people here will be playing R&C tomorrow, myself included

@Voltan I don't doubt it, it's gonna be awesome! 😁

I really love the sound design in Returnal. Not just the spatial stuff when you can tell the direction of enemies and stuff, but also the score which sounds brilliantly alien. There is that wicked low frequency bass-y sound which give me goosebumps at times.

@JohnnyShoulder You’re so right. I’ve been listening to the OST every now and then and it’s quite nice to listen to it outside of playing the game. It ties in brilliantly though and really emphasises the mysterious surroundings and atmosphere. Having been playing some Nex Machina and Resogun though it also makes you realise that the soundtrack is a total departure from the music they’ve used in their previous games. It’s a great job all round.

Oh and also my wife just wanted to say that she’s just kicked Ophions ass on her first go, and that’s straight off the back of getting all the keys in B5. She’s pleased as punch.

@render That’s proper well done from her! I have to admit, I did do the same, my first biome 4 clear led to biomes 5 and 6 clearing first time I entered. Which weapon did she use? The Hollowseeker with portal beam totally carried me!

@nessisonett She says cheers 😁. She did indeed use the very same weapon combo. She hung on to a lower proficiency one as it had the portal beam and serrated on it. It’s great for those few rooms with the big sphere things too. I feel like I’ve been outclassed on this game now but won’t be the first time, or likely the last 😂.

@render Portal beam and serrated is my favourite combo in the game! Absolutely shreds those enemies in biome 6 and great for the final boss too.

@render Wow, she's really smashing her way through it!

I made a load of progress last night and almost got to the biome 6 boss, I think, but I got murdered before I could use the key. Maybe next time!

@JohnnyShoulder I really liked the soundtrack too. I quite like ambient music anyway but it did the perfect thing of really ramping up the tension at the right time but being almost un-noticeable when it wasn’t needed. The buildup for Hyperion is still an amazing moment of gaming with the music buildup too.

@render It’s amazing how a run can come together like that. Once I finally beat biome 2 I flew through biome 3 which I’m pretty pleased about as that’s a roadblock for many. Similarly, after 5 I breezed through 6.

@JigsawPieces When doing biome 6 to complete act 3 I think I just sprinted as fast as I could after getting the key to get to the boss. It’s a pretty nasty finish just before the boss!

@nessisonett It's a great combo and it didn't take long to rip through Ophion with it. It's amazing how it can go from feeling like a pretty limp weapon in the first 3 biomes to being all powerful in the last three with some good traits on it. I still like the Rotgland Lobber and the Pylon Driver but the feedback through the controller just makes the Hollowseeker feel so much better.

@JigsawPieces Good work and bad luck at the same time. Biome 6 can be quite tricky as there's a few different points where you'll be facing multi elites at the same time plus those damn jelly fish things that infinitely spawn the smaller but fast moving squid things. It's the one biome where I still have to pick my way through a bit more carefully whereas now I've got the others down I can usually just plough on in there.

@Thrillho You did really well to manage that as at certain points it changes from having to focus on one particular hostile to mobs of them, and that's when it's at its hardest. There was a streamer guy I saw the other day who got so annoyed with the game around biome 5 that he rage quit and just deleted the game right there. Its amusing to watch when you know you've managed it yourself 😆.

@Thrillho I might try that next time Partly it was that curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see what the xenoglyphs said, and pick up the glyphs I saw along the way.

@render Thanks! Yeah, I was definitely having to pick my way through carefully, but it's the typhonops that was giving me the most trouble - after fighting several of them in a row I'd picked up a few malfunctions that I just couldn't shake off.

Definitely loving the higher level hollowseeker with portal beam and (briefly) portal turret! I'm also quite liking the dreadbound, at least in biome 4, now that I've unlocked it. Less convinced about he coilspine shredder - I've found it, but not used it in anger yet.

@Thrillho Yeah the build up to Hyperion is amazing! It is one of those moments when the audio, visuals and gameplay all come together to make an almost perfect crescendo. It happens rarely however and the last time I can think of experiencing was the Guardian Ape fight in Sekiro.

@render Congrats to your wife. I say that through gritted teeth as she has now gone past me! You are right with the weapons, they all feel like how you imagine they should. Just adds to how good the feels to play.

I did try to rush to the the boss in biome 6 yesterday, but just ended getting destroyed and would have ended up with low health, used up all my health consumables and revival things. So won't be doing that again lol.

@JigsawPieces @JohnnyShoulder Just a little reminder that health packs do occasionally appear in the final boss so keep an eye out for them!

It only happened to me the first time but they appear at the back of the arena so you might not notice.

@Thrillho Yeah picked up a couple of those when I first fought it, but half the time there were a load of those purple lasers everywhere which restricted where I could go.

@Thrillho Ooh thanks, I'll try to keep an eye out for that if/when I get there ... while I'm running about like a panicked headless chicken, no doubt!

@JohnnyShoulder That's the thing about that boss - he doesn't really have any fast attacks but does have a lot of stuff you can't dash through. The key is being aware of your surroundings, I guess