Anyone planning to jump back into the Overgrown (or Echoing) Ruins in Returnal tonight or within the very near future should either complete their run in that sitting or play something else. Housemarque announced that there is yet another Returnal update in the works and it’s slated to come out quite soon. And this means any players that leave their game in rest mode when this patch hits will be out of luck.
A Twitter update without the Returnal update patch notes
PSA: #Returnal patch and patch notes will go live tomorrow (May 5) at noon PST, 7pm GMT.
Set your #PS5 auto-update off to keep your run.
https://t.co/ICzxVHvCEq— Housemarque (@Housemarque) May 4, 2021
Housemarque did not detail the Returnal update patch notes in the above tweet. But the developer did reveal that the game will be getting its patch around noon PST and 7 PM GMT on May 5. This is exactly 24 hours from when the tweet first went live.
There was probably ample heads up because of issues players ran into short after its launch on April 30. The game saw an update, which kicked everyone who had the console in rest mode off their current run with no warning. The console’s automatic processes essentially killed them a this unfair death led to many players being angry over their forced restart.
Since there were no patch notes, it’s not clear what will be in this mysterious update. Perhaps it could address any of the game’s small issues from audio problems to broken Fabricator to invisible barnacles. These were just a couple of the glitches Housemarque said it was aware of when the last update dropped just a few days ago. Maybe it even addresses the game’s trophy bugs or the randomness of the collectibles.
Players are likely anticipating a more traditional save feature, which was also in that aforementioned list. Lacking a more aggressive auto save system is what led to players getting angry last time as they used rest mode to bypass the lack of saving; a shortcut the game straight up tells players in the very beginning of the game. However, adding in a save system is probably a lot of work and it’s probably not something the team can throw together in just a few days. But, given the severity of the complaints, it’s also possible that Housemarque was able to quickly implement the highly requested save overhaul.
