The Monday letters page isn’t sure there’s any point to the PS6 and Project Helix, as a reader asks if Shepard was in the new Mass Effect.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Glass ceiling
I just can’t see any reason for the next gen the way things are to go ahead. I guess the original reason was they felt this generation was stagnant in sales of consoles and they wanted everyone to buy the new consoles and thus games, but with hardware shortages it seems pointless.
Then there’s also what in fact can it bring? 8K never took off, in fact terrestrial TV on the whole is still HD, never mind 4K. The only technology change I see is HDMI 2.2 but you would need a new TV for that.
So, basically, we have hit a ceiling in gaming that a new console can’t really improve on. Not sure if it’s a case of being stubborn or arrogance to plough on ahead with new consoles at this present time.
TWO MACKS
GC: If console sales have slowed the companies need a way to reverse that, and traditionally that’s always meant a new generation of consoles.
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Shadows take first place
I finally finished Onimusha: Way Of The Sword after spending way too long on the final boss. Overall, I really enjoyed it, even I found it a bit flawed in places.
At first, everything outside the boss fights felt trivially easy, though the difficulty did pick up as it went on. That said, it starts to get repetitive later on – bosses get recycled and I definitely rolled my eyes a few times at having to clear yet another corruption zone. The exploration and side content didn’t feel particularly rewarding, either.
However, the combat and boss battles are just so good that they make up for most of the shortcomings. It’s a solid 8/10 for me – a bloody good effort from Capcom and a sequel with a few key refinements could be something really special. Playing it has made me want to jump back into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is still the superior game in my book.
Mud
Mysterious choices
Yoshi And The Mysterious Book really is underrated and could have been a classic if a few things had been tweaked. The presentation and music are horrible but underneath all that it’s great game brimming with brilliant ideas (too many to do a boring list email). I think they could had gotten rid of that book, made it into a hub with worlds, and slapped Mario on the title and everyone would have bought it and said how good it is!
Admittedly, that would make it a different game, but the actual game is still great although it just feels half done and could have been more…I don’t know how else to put it.
Simon
GC: The gameplay and presentation (and marketing) are completely at odds with each other. It’s a shame because it’s a great game, but it never had a chance in terms of sales.
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Made in America
While I don’t think gaming as an overall medium is in trouble, I think the North American business model is unsustainable: game budgets are on the rise (driven mainly by employee wages), there’s stagnation in the market (in terms of total potential console/PC customers), and nutters have caused cost of living crises for us proles so we aren’t able to spend as freely.
Most studios in America are based in cities/states with sky-high cost of living (California, Seattle, etc.) where the companies are competing for staff with the big tech companies. If you add ridiculous CEO/executive pay (relative to Japanese gaming companies, for example) on top of that you’re looking at a studio with incredibly high overheads.
Then if a product is targeting the same (stagnant) market, prices are relatively static (since gamers generally don’t want to pay more than £60-70 for a game) and you have one game that can turn a profit after two million sales and one that needs 20 million to break even… the North American developers have a tougher task ahead to stay in business long term. Obviously keeping on top of development time is something that needs to be addressed, but I really think the North American companies are going to struggle unless something changes.
Luckily PlayStation have a diverse portfolio of studios across Japan, Europe, and North America so should be pretty robust. Oh wait.
Magnumstache
GC: That’s all very true, especially the cost of employing developers in the US, which now accounts for the majority of every US game’s budget.
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Creative view
Personally, I would’ve preferred to see Miyamoto take a stronger line against AI, but I think the problem is many creative people don’t speak out that strongly against it because they don’t need it, so they just get interested in the fringe benefits that it offers.
To Miyamoto it’s an interesting bit of tech that might be mildly useful for a few things. He’s not thinking of all the zero-talent people that are going to try and make entire games using it and the undemanding casual gamers that will play them without complaining. Things are much worse than they realise.
Campbell
Emotion controls
On the subject of motion controls, I thought I’d share my experiences of them and explain why I’d never pick them over the option of more regular controls.
Firstly there was Ōkami, always rated highly and a game I was very interested in. However, I only made it as far as the tutorial! There came a section where you had to slice a giant path obstructing boulder at a jaunty angle. I tried and I tried, for around 45 minutes to slice that thing in two, I flicked the wrist, I traced the line on screen, I traced the line on the sensor, I stood back, I got close, I followed the line slowly, I flapped around the Wii remote wildly… nothing worked and as an affront to my efforts I couldn’t even attempt the main game, ‘cos you gotta finish the tutorial first… great!
And despite all its remasters and re-releases, never been tempted by it again!
Then came Zelda: Skyward Sword, there was a part in a temple, or perhaps just in the world, where you swam, so far so easy, but… you had to wiggle the Wii remotes to attack, or possibly boost, or probably both and the green clad fairy boy ended up face down in the salty soil… every time! So, in the end I just avoided enemies while losing health trying to squeeze past them. Next!
Even Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, as an Underboxer stated, on some of the shrines, when I was unlucky enough to discover a motion-controlled ball maze while simultaneously playing in handheld mode… well let’s just say the contortions I had to pull with my wrists to move them bloomin’ balls, can’t play the game if the screen ends up pointing at the floor Nintendo!
However, when it came to Wii Sports all was rosy. Sure my dad can prance along the floor, cross his legs and pull off a lil’ dip before releasing his bowling ball and my man can sit on the couch and limply flick her wrist and they end up with pretty much the same result! But it’s inclusive, anyone can play, flapping the arms wildly works just as well as a more considered shot/return, so that time, they worked as should.
Conclusion, it’s all good fun on a throwaway family game at Christmas, but for a more intricate game, with more precise controls… not for me ta.
big boy bent
Lost Shepard
So horrible to see the footage of the new Mass Effect and to know it will never happen. I know it was all fake and less reliable than a trailer, but it already looked a hell of a lot better than Mass Effect: Andromeda, so there’s that.
Interesting that Shepard doesn’t seem to be in it though, which makes me think they’re not the main character. Although I’m sure they wouldn’t have been able to resist putting in a cameo of some sort. I guess we’ll never know, unless they leak the plot or something, which they might, I guess.
Homer
Unknown actor
I saw an online post implying that actress Manni Perez might be the voice of Lucia in GTA 6. This fact hasn’t been officially confirmed but it did make me think of other voice talent in games and how playing a character in a AAA game doesn’t necessarily turn the actors/actresses involved into major stars, despite gaming being such a potentially lucrative medium these days.
I could name a handful of video game actors, but without deliberately looking them up I couldn’t automatically picture their faces. David Hayter is well known to me because he played Solid Snake but if I walked past him in my local supermarket I probably wouldn’t even realise it. David Bateson is another household name in my mind, since I’m a Hitman fan, but again I have no instant idea what the guy looks like.
Returning to GTA, Ray Liotta was already famous due to Goodfellas before he did Vice City, so he’s probably exempt from this phenomenon, of being a major part of a massively successful entertainment release and yet remaining broadly unknown outside gaming circles.
I thought the bloke who played James Bond in 007 First Light did an excellent job. Again, if I was asked I couldn’t pick him out in a line up. I suspect that actors and actresses at any level probably aren’t overly bothered if they get recognised and are simply happy to get the work.
Michael Veal
Inbox also-rans
I really hope that Arkane do manage to find a way out of their current problems. I have a hard time believing Marvel’s Blade is that far along if they haven’t said a thing about it in four years, or whatever it’s been, but here’s hoping.
Symbal
There is something so calming and nostalgic about a new Half-Life 3 rumour, especially given everything else happening in gaming at the moment. I’ll almost be disappointed if it actually comes out.
Lemon
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