Every generation brings with its the promise of new technological enhancements to expand the horizons of video games as a medium, and this upcoming generation, too, is doing that in several ways. One key component in both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X that has been highlighted more than most is their solid state drives, with Sony in particular really emphasizing the benefits of the PS5’s SSD in the lead-up to the console’s launch.

The most important thing, however, is that developers can use that tool properly. Jan Kavan, CEO of CBE Software – developers of the recent first person horror title Someday You’ll Return – recently spoke with us about the PS5’s SSD, and said that while it will, of course, “be a huge benefit”, developers should “think of it as a tool and not a silver bullet.”

“Super-fast SSD again is a game-changer,” Kavan said. “But it’s worth noting, that developers need to think of it as a tool and not a silver bullet. It’s very easy to reach any kind of technological ceiling by abusing resources. So, by itself the PS5 SSD will be a huge benefit if the developers don’t access it as an infinite resource. I can’t wait for the games to cancel loading screens, especially after dying.”

During the interview, Kavan also spoke with us about various other aspects of next-gen hardware, such as how he thinks the Xbox Series X’s Velocity Architecture can help development of open world games, or that the majority of developers probably won’t be using next-gen GPUs to their fullest.

CBE Software’s Someday You’ll Return is out for PC now, and will come to PS4 and Xbox One later this year.

As particularly small development team in terms of manpower, what were the unique challenges and hurdles you had to overcome during the development of Someday You’ll Return?

Well, exactly that! Someday You’ll Return is, as I call it, 2.2 developers’ indie production, because it was in production for 5 years and for the last year, we extended our team from 2 to 3 developers. Since it’s not a typical 3 hours long walking simulator experience, but rather a gameplay-heavy 14+ hours long game, we had to master many different areas of the development process.

You made the decision after the game’s launch to cut out a significant portion of content from Someday You’ll Return in response to feedback for fans- can you talk us through that decision, and the process that led to that?

We’ve been too deep in the process to realize, that some of the content is simply not fun. That’s a bane of tiny indie teams. While we had playtests, the COVID-19 madness greatly disrupted the pre-launch validation period. So when the game got out there and players complained about some of these parts, we took a scalpel and cut away boredom and frustration out of the game by both cutting away the content and also making stealth mechanics optional.

How do you, as developers, strike a balance between listening to feedback from your players and maintaining the vision that you had for your game?

Speaking for myself, I would never compromise my artistic vision of the game, but given my musical background, I am used to reading critiques with a different perspective and I am always trying to understand the root cause of that. In Someday You’ll Return one of the complaints is that Daniel – the main protagonist – is a petty, arrogant person, which is being perfectly reflected by his voice actor. Players are not really used to that and they are very uncomfortable, playing his role. But this was planned from the beginning. In games it’s customary that you have a bad guy, and you spend the whole game trying to defeat them. In our game it’s a main narrative twist. You learn about your character through his own eyes with the forest, the NPCs and other in-game narrative putting a large mirror in front of you.

If anything, your decision to cut content from Someday You’ll Return was indicative that this is a game you want to keep supporting after its launch. Are there more improvements or updates you’re looking to make to the game in the imminent future?

We’ve just released an update 1.3, which adds into a game a possibility to tune radio in special spots to listen to beautiful interpretation of Moravian folk songs. It’s again another layer we are building on top of the actual game.

And, before I forget, this update also adds a whole new optional location with an optional side quest, which makes the game more interesting for another play-throughs. The game has 5 different endings so it’s a good incentive to get back. Some of our players, who are completist, are already over 100 hours in the game and still report that they found something new.

Do you have any plans for DLC for Someday You’ll Return?

At this point we are doing everything as free updates. There might be possibilities in the future, though.

Do you have any plans to bring the game to the Switch?

Not at the moment, the game is too hardware-heavy for a port, so it would require a huge change.

Given that next-gen consoles are right around the corner, have you given any thought to next-gen ports for the game?

That’s something we would love to do. Let’s keep fingers crossed that the game will get the love it deserves and we can afford to make such ports.

What are your thoughts on the PS5’s custom 3D audio engine Tempest? How much of a difference do you think tech like this will make to how immersive games can be?

It will be a game-changer, but it will also depend on the consumer’s side of audio. For me it’s personally the reason I want to work with PS5.

Since the reveal of the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s specs, a lot of comparisons have been made between the GPU  speeds of the two consoles’ GPUs, with the PS5 at 10.28 TFLOPS and the Xbox Series X at 12 TFLOPS- but how much of an impact on development do you think that difference will have?

Outside of AAA not much. Watching the reveals, I even didn’t see that many games utilizing resources we already have now. So, there will be a few boundary pushing companies, like, for example, Naughty Dog, but the majority will have just a comfort of very fast systems.

The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with 5.5GB/s read bandwidth. This is faster than anything that is available out there. How can developers can take advantage of this? How does this compare to Series X’s 2.4GB/s read bandwidth?

Super-fast SSD again is a game-changer. But it’s worth noting, that developers need to think of it as a tool and not a silver bullet. It’s very easy to reach ANY kind of technological ceiling by abusing resources. So, by itself the PS5 SSD will be a huge benefit if the developers don’t access it as an infinite resource. I can’t wait for the games to cancel loading screens, especially after dying.

There is a difference in Zen 2 CPUs of both consoles, with the Xbox Series X featuring 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz, while the PS5 features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz. What are your thoughts on this?

It really depends on what kind of game you make. In Someday You’ll Return I was able to have at peak moments of 10ms / frame at obsolete i7 CPU while most of the time the game ran at 4-6 ms/frame CPU bound. But the variable frequency is a neat idea (if it works properly) because it’s very versatile.

What are your thoughts on the Xbox Series X’s Velocity architecture and how it might make development easier?

This will greatly help large games – especially open world – because streaming is always an issue to deal with. It’s not only about reading from SSD, but also providing the assets for the game. So yes, having hardware-level decompression and asset preprocessing might bring in a very interesting point for the overall smoothness.

So, there is a power difference between the two new consoles, there is no doubt about that. But do you think that power advantage of Xbox Series X will matter, given Microsoft’s cross gen policy? Do you think the Xbox Series X will out-power most gaming PCs for years to come?

That’s an interesting question and ultimately boils down to the price of the console. The console actually comes much cheaper than gaming PC and puts away the compatibility hurdles. The drawback is that it will age very soon, if the progression is steady as we can see now.

So no, it will be always possible to build PC faster than any console, but it will be very expensive and having a ready-made box where players don’t have to solve driver issues or OS troubles might be well-worth the consideration. I, personally, despite having a gaming-ready PC for development, own many consoles and I don’t regret that.

How are you ensuring that your engines/framework/tools are up and running for PS5 and Xbox Series X?

We are on Unreal Engine 4 and Epic Games do an incredible job with the engine. It’s magical that we can work with next-gen consoles out of the box. Unreal Engine 5 is behind the door and we can’t wait to try it.

The PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both shaping up to be impressive pieces of machinery, and it’s clear that both consoles are looking to be significant improvements over their predecessors. That, of course, also comes with expected enhancements like a faster GPU, which the PS5 and Xbox Series X both promise, of course.

While there is a gap between the two on paper, it’s clear that developers are going to have a lot of juice to work with on both consoles- but exactly how many studios will be looking to fully leverage the faster GPUs of the PS5 and Xbox Series X? According to Jan Kavan, CEO of CBE Software – developers of the recently released horror game Someday You’ll Return – not many.

Speaking to GamingBolt in a recent interview, Kavan said that though the faster hardware of both consoles is something that some big AAA studios – such as Naughty Dog, for instance – will make use of, the majority of the developers in the industry probably won’t be pushing the hardware to its limits in that manner.

“Outside of AAA, not much,” he said, when asked about how much impact he thinks the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s faster GPUs will have on development. “Watching the reveals, I didn’t even see that many games utilizing resources we already have now. So there will be a few boundary pushing companies, like for example Naughty Dog, but the majority will have just a comfort of very fast systems.”

Almost as a rule, developers – especially third party studios – rarely get the most out of new hardware in the early years of a console generation. The fact that many publishers and developers are going to choose to release their games as cross-gen titles for some time to come will probably contribute to that as well. If next-gen follows the pattern of this one – and previous ones – hopefully we’ll see third party games beginning to work wonders with the new consoles a couple or so years into the generation.

CBE Software’s Someday You’ll Return is out now on PC, and will launch for PS4 and Xbox One later this year. In this same interview, Kavan also spoke to us about the Xbox Series X’s Velocity Architecture, and how he thinks it will help open world games. Read more on that through here. Meanwhile, our full interview with Kavan will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

Microsoft have been talked up the Xbox Series X’s hardware for a while now, and it’s clear that with all the things working together behind the scenes, together they might have the potential to enable some really impressive things in games going forward. One aspect of the console’s hardware that has been highlighted more than most is the Velocity Architecture, which, thanks to a combination of streaming, decompression, and more, promises some exciting things.

Many developers have spoken about this in the last few months, and another developer who’s impressed with the upcoming hardware is Jan Kavan, co-founder of CBE Software, developers of the psychological horror game Someday You’ll Return. In a recent interview with GamingBolt, Kavan talked about how the Xbox Series X’s Velocity Architecture will be a big benefit to larger and open world games.

“This will greatly help large games – especially open world – because streaming is always an issue to deal with,” he said. “It’s not only about reading from SSD, but also providing the assets for the game. So yes, having hardware-level decompression and asset preprocessing might bring in a very interesting point for the overall smoothness.”

As is the case with most new upcoming tech, the actual impact of what Microsoft are promising with the Xbox Series X’s Velocity Architecture won’t be felt until we see some games actually making use of it, but it’s clear for now that on paper, there’s certainly a lot of potential here. Hopefully we see some of it in action sooner rather than later.

CBE Software’s Someday You’ll Return is out now on PC, and will launch for PS4 and Xbox One later this year. Our full interview with Kavan will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

Microsoft and Sony have laid their cards on the table when it comes to their next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5 respectively. While the former sports an octa-core Zen 2 CPU clocked at 3.8 GHz (which can run at 3.6 GHz with SMT), the latter uses the same CPU but at 3.5 GHz at a variable frequency with SMT. While the hardware still needs to be extensively tested across numerous games, what are developers’ thoughts on the difference?

CBE Software’s Jan Kavan, who developed the first person adventure thriller Someday You’ll Return, said that it “really depends on what kind of game you make. In Someday You’ll Return I was able to have at peak moments of 10ms / frame at obsolete i7 CPU while most of the time the game ran at 4-6 ms/frame CPU bound. But the variable frequency is a neat idea (if it works properly) because it’s very versatile.”

Sony has also spoke a lot about 3D, especially its Tempest audio engine. In conjunction with the DualSense’s haptic feedback and variable triggers, it’s meant to aid in one’s immersion. Kavan says that, “It will be a game-changer but it will also depend on the consumer’s side of audio. For me it’s personally the reason I want to work with PS5.” It would certainly be interesting, if not downright terrifying, to see how horror games utilize this technology.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X are both slated to release this holiday season. Sony recently had its showcase for upcoming PS5 exclusives and third party titles while Microsoft will reveal its first-party efforts in July. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Someday You’ll Return is as much about finding Stela as it is tolerating her father Daniel as he curses, bumbles, and hilariously oscillates between tough-guy rhetoric and incompetent stooge. Daniel is the protagonist, by the way, so we’re already off to a great start.

"Despite a solid opening, one that evokes mystery and intrigue, the actual story begins to grate as soon as you control Daniel."

Billed as a “psychological horror game”, Someday You’ll Return sees Daniel venturing into the forest to find his daughter Stela. Immediately, Daniel paints himself as possessive, self-absorbed, cynical and rude. Apparently this isn’t the first time Stela has run away. However, you’d think, regardless of how many times she has, that our hero would have some genuine concern for his daughter who’s gone missing, perhaps to make him that much more sympathetic. But alas.

As Daniel ventures deeper into the forest, things aren’t quite what they seem. From the outset, he investigates a strange red door into an underground complex and comes face to face with The Beast. Things get a lot weirder afterwards as he falls into a chasm, meets a young girl (who’s supposedly a younger version of Stela) mocking him in a swamp, and other such oddities. How much of this is in his head? How much of it is real?

Despite a solid opening, one that evokes mystery and intrigue, the actual story begins to grate as soon as you control Daniel. The writing with regards to the dialogue and overall delivery makes it hard to get invested. It’s one thing to have an unlikable protagonist who’s probably done some nefarious deeds in the past (besides being a jerk to his likely ex-wife Ida). It’s quite another to just be downright annoying at every single turn.

"Having such poor material to work with is one thing but the voice-acting for Daniel doesn’t do the story any favors either."

Sometimes, Daniel will tell his wife to stay out of all this while he finds his daughter, since it’s what he does (and is hilariously bad at). Other times he’ll remember how spiders gave him grief and upon creating a torch, proceeds to gleefully burn said spiders. This wouldn’t be a weird tangent to go on if, you know, he wasn’t after some stranger who mysteriously disappeared moments earlier. At another point, the heaviness of finding his daughter perhaps finally setting in, Daniel arrives at a tap to wash his hands before cheerfully – and I mean cheerfully – proclaiming “Refreshing!”

While one has to make do with poor material, the voice-acting doesn’t do any favors for the supposedly tense atmosphere. Try not to laugh when Daniel finally arrives at the camp and calls out to Stela, saying he’s come to take her home, much like how Ricky announced his presence on I Love Lucy.

In terms of gameplay, you’ll spend a good portion of your time just walking – or sprinting – through the woods, waiting for something, anything substantial to happen. Sometimes you’ll stop to take calls or check messages when you’re not looking for items. At other points, the monotony is broken up by repairing or crafting rudimentary items and brewing potions via herbalism, with the latter being introduced in chapter 2. Frantic chases, navigating creepy caves, snipping wires – it’s all fairly routine stuff that fails to really entice you.

The crafting doesn’t offer much complexity. Instead of, say, creating or finding tools naturally in the forest, Daniel very conveniently receives his tool set and gets to work hammering, cutting and screwing things without much issue. You’ll place wooden pieces on a broken ladder and need something to keep them in place.

"While it feels more interactive than the crafting system, the herbalism system still doesn’t offer much to get invested in."

Using the hammer magically materializes some nails and voila, ladder repaired, achievement unlocked. The same goes with crafting a torch – all of the ingredients are just conveniently located in one place without any need for actual investigative work. It only serves to disincentivize exploration all the more. Then again, the system barely has time to shine as is.

I found the herbalism system to be fairly decent, though again unspectacular. Gathering different herbs, cutting or crushing parts and mixing them in different ways to brew different potions was fairly simple but neat. It was still pretty situational and really only stands out given how dreary and drab the rest of the gameplay is.

There are some gripes to be had though. Why do I need to gather two copies of the same plant for two leaves? Why, despite having such an extensive herbalism kit, can I only hold two of one plant at a time? Why is there a potion that helps me locate other potions more easily, which is pointless since every herb has a telltale twinkle anyway? While it feels more interactive than the crafting system, herbalism still doesn’t offer much to get invested in. Climbing is also a thing. There isn’t much else to say about it sadly.

In terms of visual design, the lighting, foliage and atmospherics work to create a tone that’s more dark fantasy than straight up horror. It’s well done if somewhat generic. Performance is also fine though being able customize certain aspects like anti-aliasing and frame rates on PC beyond adjusting the quality from Low to Ultra would have been nice.

"You wait for something, anything interesting to happen. When something does, it under-delivers but you can’t really get mad."

You’ll be spending quite a lot of time in the forest so it’s a good thing that the environmental design is decent. Unfortunately, there’s very little reason to go out of your way. For the most part, you’ll navigate preset paths at a brisk pace, rummaging through the narrative and attempting to escape Daniel’s personality whenever possible. It’s mechanically similar to other first person narrative walking sims but fails to really stand out in its own right

That’s because the plot, visual design and environments fail to build an effective ambiance. There should be a pervading air of mystery, if not a sense of dread, as to what’s happened or going to happen. Instead, either due to the lack of urgency, shabby performances, poor writing or lackluster gameplay, Someday You’ll Return feels like it’s spinning its wheels. You wait for something, anything interesting to happen. When something does, it under-delivers but you can’t really get mad. Instead, you resign yourself to seeing what the next set piece has to offer. Wash, rinse, call out to Stela, get mad at your ex-wife, repeat.

Someday You’ll Return seems to have all the pieces in place for an effective horror experience, be it an intriguing setting and decent visuals to unique gameplay systems. Instead, it struggles as a first person adventure game, rife with boring moments, annoying dialogue and cliched sequences. So much could have been done in terms of environmental story-telling, but it feels relegated to documents and books that aren’t all that interesting, written by people that you don’t know about things you struggle to care about.

Keep your expectations low and you might find the story to be a worthwhile distraction. But if you are seeking something more, then opt for a real-life hike in the woods instead of this.

This game was reviewed on PC.