The Friday letters page is surprised Xbox Game Pass and game subscriptions weren’t more popular, as a reader wonders what Naughty Dog’s next movie is.
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Repeat offender
Is it me or was that Mario Kart Direct completely pointless? We barely learned anything new at all and I’m struggling to work out what the point of it was. The game looked great, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t look any better or worse than it did two weeks ago. If you didn’t think it was worth the money the first time around this wouldn’t have changed your mind one bit.
I was really looking forward to the Direct and it was just a big nothingburger. It makes me think that the talk of Nintendo losing its touch might be right – not in terms of the console or games but the marketing. It’s just all so confusing and poorly planned. Mario Kart World should be an easy buy at any price, but Nintendo’s salesmanship has been terrible.
You might not think that matters, especially to someone clued in to gaming, but it’s worryingly familiar to the Wii U, which no one really understood before it launched and sold next to nothing, compared to its predecessor. I hope for Nintendo’s sake that history is not going to repeat itself.
Stagllan
Rush to judgement
So, that Nintendo Direct was a waste of time, huh? I was expecting them to announce all sorts of exciting new features and modes and instead they confirmed there’d be a Battle mode. OK… I never thought there wouldn’t be.
I’m also a little disturbed at just how many remade tracks there are. I know a lot of them are very different from the originals but if that’s the case why not just make something completely new? The open world looks great, but I dunno… suddenly I’m not sure I trust Nintendo anymore.
The lack of pricing information, the endless small print that keeps making everything worse, and now a Nintendo Direct that had virtually no new information. Another reader said that they’re acting like they’re doing all this is in a rush and that’s why they’re so badly prepared. But why are they in a rush? They had eight years to prepare!
Plainjohn
Monkey King
I just finished Black Myth: Wukong. Have to say it is one my top three games on PlayStation 5; only other games that come near are Elden Ring and Returnal. I found the gameplay and bosses to be brilliant, difficulty level was just right, and progression with new spells and attacks keeps the game interesting. The designs of many areas and bosses are great.
What let the game down a little, but for me was easy to get past, were the number of invisible walls and maybe the game is a little too big, but there is enough variety to keep you going. Anyone who is on the fence I would suggest to give it a go and I am surprised it’s not talked about more. I had a lot of fun with the game, it’s the type of game where you want to keep coming back for one more go.
I also enjoyed the Chinese influence on the game, it leads to different environments and designs for characters and story. The animations between chapters and songs were a great addition. I am already looking forward to see what they make next.
Carlos
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Movie deal
The thing I wonder about Naughty Dog is are they trying to get movies made out of all their games now? Uncharted and The Last Of Us have already been adapted and have been successful, so I find it very hard to imagine that there’s not already internal plans to make something of Intergalactic too.
It’s doubly likely with Minecraft reigniting Hollywood’s interest in video game movies and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony insisted that whatever Naughty Dog makes has to be something that can be turned into a live action film. Seems pretty limiting to me, but they’ve brought this on themselves.
Maybe they’ll be asked to help out with the inevitable Crash Bandicoot film. They could make the game tie-in too!
The Bishop
Strange behaviour
This is just getting silly. Why don’t the Zelda remasters have cloud saving? What possibly reason could there be for not including it? It surely can’t be a technical issue, seeing as every game on every other console works, no matter what kind of save system they have (not that Zelda, or any other Nintendo game I’m aware of, saves in any kind of peculiar way).
And how can you announce a feature during the reveal and then quietly remove it from the website two weeks later? Is it a mistake to say it could do VRR or was it a mistake to remove the mention of it from the website?
I’m sure the tariffs must’ve knocked Nintendo for six but none of this stuff has anything to do with that, so I’m really not sure why they keep acting so amateurish. It’s not like them.
Focus
Another world
I’m surprised to still find readers writing in about buying a VR headset, even a PlayStation VR2, in 2025. I would’ve thought that it was obvious that the whole push for VR has basically been a huge failure. Very clearly for Sony but although it’s sold okay, I don’t think anyone can claim that Meta Quest has made any real impact or that any of its games have proven to be breakout hits.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is good and all, but it doesn’t seem to have sent people running out into the streets in order to try and buy a VR headset, but then I don’t think anything would.
I don’t see how anything can get over the fact that you look stupid wearing them and playing games, and they’re extremely antisocial.
Maybe one day they’ll shrink things down so it’s just like putting on a pair of sunglasses but that’s still not going to change the fact that the whole thing is designed around blocking out the rest of the world and making you think you’re in a different one.
That’s all well and good but in reality it’s very disruptive. My girlfriend gets upset with me enough just playing on the TV, she’d hate if I was writhing about in the living room with VR, not even aware she’s there.
Plusie
Wild conclusion
Just a thought but is there anyone out there who actually sits through the cut scenes and pays attention to what’s going on in Monster Hunter Wilds?
I can’t do it.
The combat and gear upgrades are great but apart from those it’s all very cringey.
My avatar looks like a roadie for Frank Zappa, I can’t look at it.
Chevy Malibu (PSN ID)
GC: We agree entirely but unfortunately Capcom are convinced that that new focus on storytelling is one of the reasons why Wilds was so successful.
Time is money
It truly is wild to see that Game Pass has gone from the most important thing about Xbox – to the point where even the head of Microsoft had his bonus tied to it – to ‘just another option.’ Something only hardcore gamers appreciate and is largely ignored by other people.
I don’t think this is Microsoft’s fault. I would’ve bet on it being a huge success. In fact, when it was first announced I remember feeling that it was unfair that Microsoft was doing something Sony and Nintendo couldn’t afford to and so were going to take over the industry by ‘cheating’.
We can see how that panned out now, but it really is surprising to me that it wasn’t more successful. It has always seemed excellent value to me, although the boast of every first party Xbox game never really worked as well as it could because Microsoft has always had such trouble pushing out great games, especially compared to Sony and Nintendo.
Would it have made a difference if there were games like The Last Of Us and God Of War on it? Maybe but I don’t think it would have been enough.
What we know now is that most people don’t have time to play multiple games, and they’re not interested on taking a chance on games they don’t know, especially indie games, even if they’re free. I wouldn’t have thought people were that unadventurous, but I guess that, ironically, the only way to find out is to try it.
I’m sure Game Pass won’t be going away but I don’t see how it, or anything like it, can ever be a hit. Streaming will make it more convenient, but it isn’t going to magically give people another two hours in the day to play games.
Cranston
Inbox also-rans
Interesting Inbox suggestion from Zeiss, that World War 3 will arrive before Fallout 5. Given Microsoft’s preference for augmented over virtual reality, perhaps they’re waiting for exactly that and will make the next Fallout a HoloLens-exclusive, fully immersive ARG. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase killer app.
astropause
I’d rather keep to Switch 1 for now, because you have to download the games. Anyway, if I try and buy new games for Switch 1 now a lot of them are to download, so I can’t buy new games for Switch. On the Switch 2 you have to download games, they cost too much money so I’m out.
Anon
GC: You don’t have to, unless it’s an indie title. But alas, only around 10% of game sales are physical nowadays.
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