The Thursday letters page thinks a Nintendo DS replica would be a good idea, as a reader laments the ugliness of the PlayStation 5 console.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Strange story
I don’t know where to start unpacking this news about The Elder Scrolls 6. Asha Sharma must’ve watched it for what… half an hour? I’d say two at the absolute maximum but somehow she knew the story was the best part of it? Most people I know have no idea what the overall story was for Oblivion or Skyrim and pay no attention to the main missions, so this must be one heck of an upgrade. Somehow, after Starfield, I don’t believe her.
And then we found out that to get into the offices she had to get past a giant inflatable rat, protesting that 800 people have been laid off recently. 800! And she just walked past that and then put out a blatantly fake tweet afterwards, presumably thinking nobody would find out about the rat. Because giant inflatable rats and 800 red flags are a common sight in front of most office buildings nowadays.
Then we come to the name of the game, which I think probably is eight characters long. I also expect that Hammerfell is the setting, even if that’s not the name, because it’s been leaked and rumoured too many times by now and a desert and water setting makes sense after the snowy theme of Skyrim.
Although given how old that game is now, I’m not sure it matters what the setting is. The important thing is to just get the game out there, and I believe that’s one thing Asha Sharma does understand. She’s clearly put it on a fast-track and I’m now fairly confident it’ll be out by 2028.
Bentley
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Rules for thee, not for me
I hope all these games companies using AI to replace creatives are flops and whoever is making these decisions feel the consequences.
I think it would be quite amusing if at some point the shoe is on the other foot and shareholders opt to replace the senior executives of a company with AI.
After all I feel you’d have more success with ChatGPT with using prompts like ‘Develop a marketing strategy for x game’ or ‘How can a games developer maximise profits without cutting staff’? than ‘Write dialogue for a character in x game?’
matc7884
GC: Sam Altman was recently asked why CEOs are never replaced and incredibly his answer was because want to know the people who are in charge of a company.
Thrashed with the ugly stick
You might have already announced this news and I’ve missed it, but Xbox are bringing out a green Xbox Series X to mark the 25th anniversary of Xbox. The Xbox Series X25 looks super cool. I can’t imagine the machine will be cheap even if people manage to get hold of one. Xbox have brought out some desirable and interesting limited edition consoles. I particularly like the Crystal Xbox and the R2-D2 Xbox 360,
Aesthetically at least, I think Xbox easily beats PlayStation this generation. OK, the Xbox Series X is just another box but the PlayStation 5 looks like a huge liquorice allsorts that’s been stepped on. In visual terms I’ve never gotten used to Sony’s present console and I doubt I ever will. Easily PlayStation’s worst design. Best design? Probably the slimline PlayStation 2, that console was truly elegant and an understated asset to any living room.
Michael Veal
GC: It’s undoubtedly an ugly console but what always gets us is how wobbly it is on its stand, when laid horizontal. It’s a terrible design.
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The wrong IP
All the reviews so far seem pretty good for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls but I don’t think it’s going to be a hit. There doesn’t seem to be any hype for it at all and I agree with your review, when you said the designs just aren’t anime enough. They either needed to be regular or all-out different but they’re neither and I don’t think that’s going to please anyone.
For me personally, I just can’t get over the fact that it isn’t Marvel Vs. Capcom 4. I would buy that in an instant, I’d pre-order it, but this I’d only consider if it was cheap and a few years down the line, with lots of DLC and perfect word of mouth.
I feel Sony was foolish to go for Marvel as the tie-in for a new fighting game when there already is a famous Marvel fighting game series. They should’ve picked some other IP, like The Boys or something. I’d say DC but Warner Bros. owns that, so presumably it’s never happening with anyone but them. Heck it doesn’t need to be superheroes, they could make Masters Of Teräs Käsi 2!
Korbie
Marky Mark Payne
Just thought I’d finish Max Payne, a game I’d started in 2018 and I’m now wondering why they never did a John Wick style film in the Max Payne world.
It’s got all the style and exotic locations and obviously I’d like to see them all full of bullet holes and brain matter.
The Mark Wahlberg version was awful and surprisingly dull so it would be nice to see the third game be adapted to the screen.
Bobwallett
May the Schwarz be with you
Some interesting comments about licensed games in the last few days and I have to agree that being licensed is almost a guarantee of quality nowadays, which is very different to how it used to be. It’s pretty obvious why, because if you’re going to spend all that money on the licence you’re not going to make your money back unless it’s a good game.
As a big fan of XCOM, but only moderate of Star Wars, I’m definitely going to get Zero Company, no question, and I look forward to your interview with the developers (when can we expect that?). Interesting that it seems so positive and Galactic Racer is also apparently good. Add in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle and Lucasfilm really has been on a roll, but what I wonder is does it really help them?
Both those franchises are at the absolute lowest points in their existence and no matter how good the games are I don’t see them changing how people think about them. I also don’t think any of the games are going to be particularly big. That’s more that the Star Wars ones are fairly niche genres but at the end of the day I don’t know how much money is being made from any of this.
Not that that’s my concern but I fear this current hot streak may be coming to a swift end soon.
Noddy
GC: The interview will probably be on Monday.
Business as usual
With all the praise for the reasonably priced pre-orders for GTA 6 I predict a backlash once the games released and there’s tons of paid DLC and microtransactions for skins and extra items, etc. pushing the price up into the hundreds.
I hope I’m wrong but I think the cheap entry price is a gateway to a more expensive game.
Mark Matthews
GC: There hasn’t been any backlash in the last 13 years that all that’s been going on. Perhaps Rockstar will push things too far with the new game, but they’ve had plenty of time to work out what people will and won’t put up with.
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Handheld hardware
I would be perfectly fine with Nintendo releasing a DS/3DS style handheld, if it was used for porting all DS and 3DS games, ideally with some resolution and frame rate buffs. If they can release a recreation of the Virtual Boy – which nobody ever owned and has no good games – I really don’t see the problem with releasing a DS equivalent.
You could emulate on the Switch 2, but I don’t think there’s any satisfying way to do it. It’d be awkward to hold if you do it do it vertically, and it’s going to seem weird when you can only use the touchscreen at the bottom. There’s no way to make that work on TV either, which is probably why Nintendo has never done it. It just needs specialised hardware; there’s no way round it.
It doesn’t get talked about a lot nowadays, but the DS was a really important console. Since it came out before the Wii it saved Nintendo from the failure of the GameCube and it has a ton of games that only work properly on it, and which are not easy to remaster or move to any other format.
I would class it as one of my favourite consoles ever and am very happy to know it’s the second-best selling of all-time, behind the PlayStation 2.
The library of retro games on Nintendo Switch 2 is getting really good but the DS and 3DS is a massive hole and that needs to be filled as soon as possible, in my opinion.
Nester
Inbox also-rans
Nice to see Ghost Of Yōtei get some more story DLC. I feel the game is a bit underrated overall. It may not be all that original, but it’s better than the first one and the best samurai game that I’m aware of.
Walker
I’m guessing Tom Holland is never going back to Uncharted now, considering he didn’t seem to enjoy it even at the time. But now after the year he’s had I can’t imagine he’d ever do another, which is a bit of a problem for Sony when the first film actually did quite well.
Hostum
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