The Monday Letters page discusses the difficulty of keeping up with long-running series, as one reader suggests Xbox makes its own portable.
To join the discussions yourself, please email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
online battle
So the hype is starting to build for this year’s Call Of Duty, and since it’s a Modern Warfare game and not in space or WW2 or whatever, I’d imagine it’s going to be a lot more successful than last year . But will it really? A lot of people haven’t seen the series lately and I have to admit I haven’t played it much since the last Modern Warfare came out.
Maybe I’m just weird, but instead I’ve been playing a lot of Battlefield 2042 lately. Unlike the apparent majority, I didn’t hate it at launch and while the updates aren’t game changers, it’s slowly getting better.
For me, though, it doesn’t really matter if it’s the best Battlefield or not, because that style of play just suits me better. The more people in a match, the greater distances, the vehicles, the more emphasis on team play – it all seems much more interesting to me.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s better than anything Call Of Duty has done in recent years and that includes Warzone. I know the numbers don’t support that, but that’s how it is for me. Wondering if anyone else agrees.
Kimble
Smash Bros. kart
I’ve played the new Mario Kart 8 DLC tracks and they are really great. Waluigi Pinball and Kalamari Desert are just fantastic and I really like the new Sydney circuit too. The whole season pass is good value for money too, so I’m happy to just sit back and wait for them all to come out.
I find the lack of anti-gravity odd though, as this is the main selling point of the main game, but as GC says, Nintendo doesn’t seem interested in that, they just want to promote Mario Kart Tour.
I’m wondering what will happen to the next numbered game though, as I’d rather they keep the more realistic graphics of the original game. However, I’d forgotten how many non-Mario characters are in the game, so I’m thrilled that the Smash Bros. will be, but with karts. Considering how long it will likely be before we see a new Smash Bros. now seems almost a certainty.
Ishi
One company to rule them all
So if Sony bought Square Enix, they would definitely make Final Fantasy exclusive to PlayStation, wouldn’t they? I know that would make less of a difference than something like Call Of Duty or Elder Scrolls, considering the series is already tied to the PlayStation it still seems like a bad thing to me. We should have less exclusive offers over time, not more.
I actually blame Microsoft for this, since they started this whole company, not just developers, but entire publishers. I realize they haven’t done it yet, but Sony getting revenge with one of similar size is completely understandable. Even though I wish it didn’t happen.
The danger now is that in the next few years we will see all publishers pick up by one or the other. The companies, or at least their executives who make a fortune off it, don’t care and I have no doubt that a monopoly investigation will stop this.
There’s already talk of EA and Ubisoft, and after them and Take-Two, that’s about it, given the consolidation that there’s already been in the industry. It doesn’t happen that often in Japan, but if Sony buys Square Enix, all bets are off. Can’t wait for Disney to come over and buy who’s left…
Benson
Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Xbox Series P
With the news of the new portable console Tencent, I wonder why Microsoft never tried to make something similar. They’re not pushing their cloud gaming too much right now, while it’s still early days, but I’d be surprised if once it gets going they won’t try to push something similar.
They could basically make their own version of the Switch, except you wouldn’t need the doc, and it would basically always run games that look as good as a good PC. I’m sure they’ll pick a terrible name for it, but otherwise I’d love to see what Microsoft would do differently than everyone else when it comes to wearable designs.
Microsoft lost a bit to Sony on controller designs of this gen, so maybe they can try out some new ideas this way. I would be interested.
Denshan
The Spider-Man Defense
I think the unspoken problem with these Marvel games is the problem of deciding who to fight. Spider-Man almost got away with this by implying that he doesn’t kill any of the goons he fights (although he would totally give the moves he uses), but in everything else it’s always just fighting robots, which is weak , but there is a reason for it.
I’m sure Disney doesn’t want to portray their heroes as killing hundreds of unlucky people, but that’s exactly what would happen in the average video game. The Iron Man suits are filled with lasers and missiles and who knows what, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use it as much as a tazer. So who is he going to fight? Robots, I bet. It was in the VR game.
And who will Black Panther fight? Maybe they can get away with the Spider-Man defense, but he can’t lock people up or throw people out of the way. He only has evil big claws that have only one purpose. So… probably robots again.
The only other option is aliens, but that’s hardly justifiable anymore if they all start screaming and screaming like humans when you kill them. At least with Thor, they can have monsters and demons, which are harder to sympathize with.
Deckard
New reality
Talking about Inbox backlogs recently, I’m trying to clear my backlog of PlayStation VR games in preparation for selling and purchasing PlayStation VR2 next year. I recently completed GNOG, an excellent puzzle game that can be played in VR or non-VR, and it’s published by Double Fine. One more trophy to get!
I also started with MaskMaker, which is a very clever puzzle/mystery/adventure from the folks who made a Fisherman’s Tale, which was excellent but very short. I hope the PlayStation VR 2 will be backwards compatible for games that I missed and hopefully it will improve on the games originally made for PlayStation VR1, because with some games the resolution is a bit demeaning because it’s so low.
I haven’t got Moss: Book 2 yet, having enjoyed the first game because I was hoping to get a physical version like I did with the first game. The motion controllers on MaskMaker can be pretty bad at times, but I hope with the new PlayStation VR2, the new controllers will work more precisely.
Andreas J.
PS: The free game on the Epic Games Store is currently Unrailed! it is an interesting game where you play co-op with friends trying to lay a track to keep the train moving, procedurally generating the scenery. I liked Railroad Tycoon on PC 20 years ago, so this game sounds quite interesting.
Super, smashing, delicious, wonderful
I have to say that I am very impressed with MultiVersus. Considering the quality of most free-to-play games and how eager they are to scam people, it really doesn’t do much wrong.
The most surprising thing is that after all these years of copycats, the only Super Smash Bros. is a free game with Batman and Shaggy. I wouldn’t say it’s better, there isn’t quite the same depth or smoothness, but it deserves the comparison today. Who knew that the effort to get your game right could pay off?
Rosco
Earlier on…
Now that I’ve finally gotten around to playing Halo Infinite, I’m going to have to whine about gaming knowledge. I’m not talking about creating a deep backstory and environment for a single game, I’m talking about lore spanning multiple games and other media.
A story that spans multiple games is bad enough. I’m almost 50, I sometimes forget what I did last week, let alone remember the plot of a game I played four or five years ago. Memorizing characters and plot points going back to the days of the original Xbox is just a non-starter for me.
Then you add the other media. Plot developments that take place off-screen in books and graphic novels. I like a good game, but none of them really captivated me enough in terms of plot and character to want to read books about it.
The end result of this is that I enjoyed some elements of Halo Infinite, but had very little idea what was going on. A quick look at YouTube taught me that I need to watch a video of an hour or more to understand Master Chief’s history.
With the development times of triple-A games getting longer, I can only see this getting worse and I can only imagine how confusing this can be for a new generation of gamers who weren’t around before the original Xbox releases. Even something as plotlite as Gears Of War now requires a reasonable knowledge of what happened in the previous games in order to be able to follow what happens in the last one.
In the future, if you develop a series of games based on one story structure, narrow it down to a trilogy and then restart or quit or make each new game more standalone or at least add an option to see what’s happening. has happened so far before embarking on a new adventure.
Tigers3 (gamertag)
Inbox is running too
It only took me 14 years, but I just realized why the main character of Mirror’s Edge is called Faith. Leap of faith.
JB
I’d be all for Nintendo turning Zelda into a role-playing game, at least for one game, just to see how it works. These folks who want it to be exactly the same every time would kill the series if Nintendo ever listened to them.
Boggart
This week’s hot topic
The topic for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cosmo, who asks what is your favorite video game universe?
Which game or franchise do you think has the most interesting fictional universe? Is it because of the lore, the characters, the art design, the gameplay, or something else? What is a good fictional world and how has your choice improved the games it has been played in?
Have you explored the game world in media outside of video games, such as books and comics, and do you think it’s interesting enough to be adapted as a TV show or movie?
Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
The fine print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes on the weekend. Letters from readers are used on a merit basis and can be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600 word Reader feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which, if used, will be featured on the next available weekend.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to do so follow us on twitter.
MORE: Weekend Hot Topic: The Best Graphics Ever Seen
MORE: Games Inbox: Catching Up in 2022, Tomb Raider Single Player and Spider-Man PC Prize
MORE: Games Inbox: Nintendo Switch as the best-selling console ever, Deathloop on PS5 and Tomb Raider puzzles
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk
To make it easier to submit letters to your Inbox and Reader’s Features without sending an email, use our Stuff Stuff page here.
For more such stories, check out our Gaming page.
0 Comments