PS5 Exclusive Returnal Graphics Analysis - A Visual Showcase For Sony's New Console
1,202We’re still very much in the early days of the ninth console generation. Over on the Xbox and PC, The Medium recently came out as a ninth-gen exclusive. While it's a fixed-perspective title in the vein of the early survival horror games, there’s a lot to find in common: we’re seeing remarkably asset quality across the board, judicious use of ray-tracing, and a post-process pipeline that isn’t compromised by sub-native buffers and low sample counts.
Returnal (and The Medium) signpost where ninth-gen visuals are headed: we’re looking at higher-fidelity models, no-compromise texture quality, and tasteful use of ray-tracing, as we get past the “puddles everywhere!” phase.
It’s not exactly a night-and-day difference. But it’s not easy to see how well the base PlayStation 4 would run this game, and that’s a good thing: PlayStation exclusives are starting to move beyond vintage 2013 hardware.