The Thursday letters page explains why the PS5 Pro is worth it for certain gamers, as a reader is dubious about the Life Is Strange TV series.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Ignoring the Call
A reader made a good point the other day, about how we haven’t had any Call Of Duty rumours in months, even though this is usually the time of year when they happen. I believe he’s right in thinking it’s because Activision warned off leakers. I’m curious as to why they chose now to do that, after all these years, but you’ve got to assume it’s to do with Black Ops 7 being so hated and not a big seller.
I’m not sure what stopping rumours is going to do for the next one’s popularity but maybe they think that knowing everything about it in advance was draining some of the excitement away. I can understand that thought but I think Call Of Duty is going to have a real struggle generating any hype from now on.
The last rumour had the next one being yet another Modern Warfare, but this time set in Korea. I don’t know what you need to do to make Call Of Duty exciting again but that’s not it for me. Especially as I’d bet a fortune that it’s going to be predictable enough to have an extraction mode.
Even though it’s yearly, it seems like ages since Black Ops 7 and it’s only become more irrelevant since then. I just feel the franchise isn’t popular or fashionable anymore and it’s going to take more than another Modern Warfare to turn that around.
Morph
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My good father secreted me out the castle
It looks like next month they’re going to be filming Elden Ring in Conway Castle in North Wales, which my bus to work goes past every day.
Hopefully I’ll be able to see some sort of indication of what they’re using the location for, even if I don’t get a glimpse of any actors because they’ll probably be in the castle itself.
It’s a bit weird seeing my local news site mentioning Castle Morne and Stormveil, but it’s probably a good indication the journalist knew what they were talking about.
If I do spot anything I’ll be sure to send in pictures.
Euclidian Boxes
GC: Please do.
Free Pass
Great news about Game Pass prices being changed. Basically, I haven’t paid for Ultimate for over five years now or ever. I have been getting Microsoft Reward Points religiously all this time. I can’t get the points for playing on a PC, as I don’t have a PC – Chromebook doesn’t work. So I have missed out of a lot of points there on a daily basis.
I was exchanging my reward points. 12,000 would get you one month of Ultimate. In September they removed that from redeem system. I can, however, exchange my points for a Microsoft gift card and 6,200 points for a fiver, and so on. That now sits in my account waiting for this Friday at the lower price of £16.99, as my subscription expires on Friday. Points literally make prizes.
Woz G
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Interactive TV
Just wanted to know what GameCentral and its readers thought of the upcoming Life Is Strange TV series?
I’m not too bothered if the actresses don’t look too much like Max and Chloe, as I’m more concerned about the writing and if they can elicit the feel of Arcadia Bay using scenery and the soundtrack.
I mean, they have got to get Syd Matters’ To All Of You song in there somewhere, right? And at least some stuff from Angus and Julia Stone.
What is going to be interesting, though, is how they incorporate the choice mechanic from the game.
Will viewers have to vote using their TV remotes or phones at the appropriate time when the action on-screen pauses for about 30 seconds?
I feel that if its fails to impress and they mess this up, ‘that action will have consequences’.
LeeDappa
GC: They don’t look like themselves in the newer games, so what chance did the show have?
Download options
When I wrote in the other day about the free games on Epic Games Store there was a bit of confusion in the Underbox. To clear this up: there is a separate Epic Games Store application for PCs and a separate Epic Games Store app for Android tablets and Android mobiles.
Sometimes they give away the same game on mobile and PC each week and sometimes they give away different games. From your PC or your Android/mobile you need to go to this link to download the Epic Games Store for that device. So if you go to that from a mobile it gives you the option to download the mobile app or if you go to that link on PC it gives you the option to download the PC application.
On mobile you have to allow the Epic Games Store app to install on your Android device because it is classed as a third party app, it is not available on Google Play Store unfortunately. This week was an especially good week, as on PC you had Stone Of Madness and on the mobile app you had Broken Sword The Shadows Of The Templar: Reforged. Those game are free still, until 4pm today.
When it gets to 4pm on the mobile app on a Thursday, it can be quite slow to show the new game sometimes, so you might have to wait 30 minutes possibly or more. On PC sometimes the game lists on time and sometimes it is a few minutes late. I don’t know if it might be glitchy because so many people are accessing the free games at 4pm. I only use PCs and Android phones, so don’t know the process for iOS computers and devices. Hope that helps.
Andrew J.
PS: When you go to the website above on PC it has a Download button for the Epic Games Store application and on my Android mobile it has a Install button for the Epic Games Store app.
Performance Pro
RE: Olli and whether to get a PS5 Pro. I’ve got a Pro and it’s now doing exactly what I was after but going by your letter I think its unique selling point of no comprise 60fps means it’s not the machine for you. The machine was designed and advertised as a performance mode/resolution upgrade, not a graphics upgrade.
The PS5 Pro will not give ‘more’ graphics than the base PlayStation 5’s quality mode. It will give you the base PlayStation 5’s quality mode graphics suite and resolution, which were sacrificed in performance mode on the base PlayStation 5, but at 60fps and not locked at 30fps through a much beefier GPU and the PS5 Pro exclusive upscaler PSSR.
At launch, it utterly failed to do this as PSSR was pretty much broken. But it was updated recently and the results are very good, with the upscaled PSSR imagine often now showing better clarity and detail than the base PlayStation 5 quality mode, while running at higher frame rates.
Of course, the PS5 Pro will run games far better than your current PlayStation 4 or the Switch 2 you’re also considering. With the PSSR update there’s clear gains from base PlayStation 5 too.
But if you’re happy with 30fps or a graphically/resolution stripped back performance mode on base PlayStation 5 then I’d get a Switch 2 and in the meantime wait for the base PlayStation 5 to go on sale again. With the PS5 Pro now costing £790 you’d get both the other machines for that price in a sale and not have to miss out on anything.
On the idea of the Pro or any new machine offering an exclusive graphics mode, I think the only thing on the market the current consoles can’t do is full path tracing. My gut feeling for the next consoles is the blurb will feature AI and path tracing as features.
Simundo
GC: You’re probably right.
TFI Friday
With Saros giving 48 early access, meaning it will be available on 28th April, when can we expect your review?
Returnal is my favourite game of this generation, and I really hope they don’t make Saros too easy or dumb it down to make it more accessible.
Lizardpudlian
GC: We’re actually allowed to tell you this one, it’ll be Friday morning.
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One and only
Great article on the ongoing identity crisis at Xbox, and I totally agree that the Xbox 360 was Microsoft’s first and probably only legitimate shot at usurping Sony.
I worked in games retail during that generation and while my experience was very specific to a small town in Northern Ireland, it really felt like many jumped from PlayStation 2 to the Xbox 360 and it was going to be mainly Xbox going forward.
A game like Call Of Duty 4 would sell five to 10 copies on Xbox for every PlayStation 3 copy, and everyone seemed to be on Xbox Live for online multiplayer, despite it being the only one that cost money (remember when Sony’s online was free!?)
The Xbox One reveal was undoubtedly a disaster, but I think it’s the lack of new and exciting exclusive IP over the years that really sank the brand; the first Xbox obviously had Halo, as well as Fable, Forza Motorsport, etc… then Gears Of War was huge on Xbox 360, but I feel like they never really hit those heights again.
A quick look at their line-up for this year, which is pretty strong, and it’s these same franchises, only now you don’t even need an Xbox to play them.
Nintendo got a lot of stick during the Wii U/3DS era, much of which was deserved, but that’s where evergreen titles like Splatoon and Super Mario Maker were first made and they didn’t even entertain the idea of PC ports.
If Microsoft were to properly utilise all those developers they bought to either create new, interesting AAA IP or work on established ones (I’d love a Halo by Id Software or a MachineGames Call Of Duty campaign) they could regain that mindshare among players, but I suppose their jettisoning of exclusivity means it won’t do much to coerce people into buying their consoles.
Also, a Netflix for games was never going to be as popular as they anticipated. I could have told them that.
ANON
GC: Thanks for your comments. It’s often underappreciated how badly Microsoft handled its first party studies at the end of the Xbox 360 era, shutting some down and letting others decline unnecessary. Rare was stuck in Kinect jail for years during all that. We feel that was the start of the rot.
Inbox also-rans
I reckon that is Kojima’s new Xbox or, at least, part of it – probably the power unit or fan.
Shambling Reg
GC: We like to think it’s a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. But green.
If they remake another Assassin’s Creed game and it’s not the second on they’re crazy. I’ve never met anyone that didn’t think that was the best of the original ones.
Focus
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