Games Inbox: Is the Valve Steam Machine worth it?

The Tuesday letters page discusses the possibility of GTA 6 being cheaper than average, as a reader is very surprised to learn that God Of War Laufey was planned in 2018.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Mostly hardcore
I get that it’s not their fault, but the price of the Steam Machine is so ridiculous I’m surprised they didn’t cancel the whole thing. Although I suppose there’s enough hardcore Valve fans to sell whatever they’ve made so far.

I fear this is a sign of things to come for the PlayStation 6, especially if Sony is going to push ahead with a 2027 launch. The Steam Machine is in no way worth it, because you could just buy a better PC for the same price, but what do you do when the PlayStation 6 is £600+?

I’m not paying that, given I already can guarantee it won’t do much different, and I’d say I’m a pretty committed gamer, so I don’t see who else is going to bite on it.

This just convinces me further that there’s not going to be any PlayStation 6 exclusive games, it’s just going to be cross-gen all the way and spot the difference for the PlayStation 6 version.
Benson

Getting in early
I must say the price of the new Steam Machine was pretty much what I expected and I’m glad I pulled the trigger in January to get my first gaming PC. (Something I delayed since November, which cost me dearly!)

It’s a shame hardware has gone the way it has as the Steam Machine at last year’s prices really was an opportunity for them to shake things up a bit. I imagine there will be a rush on them regardless and they will be all over eBay when they first come out. But you’d have to be mad to order one when you can get a more powerful PC for that price point. Even a PlayStation 5 seems like a better deal and I’m speaking as an avid Steam Deck owner.
James

Weird delay
People talk about Nintendo’s weird choices of games to bring back but Capcom still not saying a word about Devil May Cry 6 has no explanation as far as I can see. There’s been more rumours about a new Ace Attorney than there has been a new Devil May Cry, and even when there is one it’s just a remake.

I’m not going to complain too much because clearly they know what they’re doing at the moment, given how successful they’ve been, but I don’t get it. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it when it’s out though, it’d be bad luck if Capcom tripped up with the one thing that should be an easy win for them.
Vate

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Artificial art
I think it’s pretty obvious that lots of companies are going to try and make games using only AI but I have a hard time imagining they’ll be anything other than complete rubbish. Maybe you could make a match-three puzzler or something but I’d doubt even that.

Anyone thinking it’s possible is basically insulting the whole concept of video games and denying there’s any kind of art or skill to making them. It’s bad enough with movies, but at least then a skilled person can stitch the little 20 second clips together and try and make something from it. It always looks terrible but at least it works on some level. But a game? It’s impossible unless you’re just talking about a map or something.

I have a nasty feeling we’re going to have to wait years, see tons of people put out of work, and waste millions of dollars before publishers realise this.
Stamper

Game not included
Somebody in the Underbox yesterday mentioned about collector’s editions of games being released without a game. I tried to reply but could not because the comments section would not let me post this:

This happened to one of the Xenoblade games on Switch 1, the standard game got released but the collector’s edition was delayed by production delays, so when they actually released the collector’s edition they did not include a game with it as most fans would have bought the game physically or digitally already.
Andrew J.

GC: It’s happened more often than just that. It’s common that the really expensive collector’s editions, with the statutes and whatnot, don’t actually include the game.

Below standard
My guess for the GTA 6 price is that there be one version of the game, maybe the standard version or something else, that’ll actually be cheaper than normal, maybe around £40. I think they will want to lower the barrier for entry, not build it up.

They’ll take something out though, maybe make it only one city or something, because what they’ll be desperate to do is get people onto the online mode. The reality is the story campaign is really only an attract mode for the online. That’s where all the money is and whatever billions they spend making it will be made back tenfold as soon as people start buying microtransactions online.

I’m sure there’ll be more expensive editions, and all the rest, but they’ll be for superfans, not the default. It’s just lucky for Rockstar they have plenty of superfans.

People don’t have a lot of spare cash nowadays but there’s so many that are going to make an exception for GTA 6. Even so, Rockstar will be very keen to get the money rolling in as soon as possible and, in my opinion, they’ll be more than happy to let the superfans subsidise the casuals, who will think spending £100 on a video game is madness.
Tacle

Trailer bingo
Is there going to be a Trailer 3 drop before pre-orders go live? Normally it’s a Tuesday, so if there isn’t one on Tuesday who knows when it’s going to drop.

But I am hopeful it will be the 25th, so they can get everyone talking about it and ordering and, yes, that’s right, I’ll be pre-ordering like I do with all my games.
David

GC: The last two might have been Tuesday but Rockstar gave advance warning for those. Anything is possible but Trailer 3 on Thursday is more probable and just doing it a different day entirely is equally as likely.

Long game
I can’t call the actress a liar, but I am shocked at the idea that God Of War Laufey was originally planned at the same time as the original game. That 2018 game was pretty grounded and serious but they were already talking about adding a talking gelatinous cube as a sidekick for Kratos’ wife (who they didn’t even think to show until Ragnarök)? I find that very hard to believe.

Laufey seems such a sharp change in tone I figured the original plan was to make Atreus the new main character, but then they realised that nobody really liked him, so they switched to his mum instead. I’m fine with that, because I don’t like him either and I’m fine with the combat being more like Devil May Cry, but it does all seem a strange direction to go in, especially if it’s all part of some 10 year plan they had all along.

I do think Kratos has to die pretty soon in one of these games. He needs some kind of big heroic closure to his character, not to be a Sony mascot they dig out every five years. We also need to be shown what’s going on with Earth and what gods actually exist and which don’t.

I’m going to make a wild bet and say no modern religion is going to be featured so I really don’t see were that whole side of the story is going to go. The action in the Laufey trailer looked good but the whole gods from different religion thing made me think of that awful Thor movie with Russel Crowe as Zeus. I’m sure Laufey won’t get that wacky but I’m not sure it’s going to end up making much more sense.
Zeiss

Inbox also-rans
All I can say about the Zelda: Ocarina Of Time remake is that they better make sure the ReDead and Forest Temple are scary. Those sections were great in the original and I’d hate if they’re softened for the remake.
Engles

So another day goes by and no Half-Life 3 annoucement, eh? I hope the Steam Machines problems are going to get that cancelled, if it actually exists.
Ginger

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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