The Friday letters page ponders the strange world of video game pricing, as one reader thinks the Nintendo Switch 2 line-up has been a disappointment.
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Natural rhythm
As a big fan of Elden Ring I have been trying to play Nightreign but I just cannot get anywhere. Maybe I’m being unlucky with the matchmaking or something but I don’t get the feeling I’m the only one struggling. I didn’t mind that with the original game, because the open world was so much fun to explore, but with this smaller world I’m not so into it.
I wouldn’t say it’s so much the difficulty though, as the fact that I’m not as into it as some of the other harder games I’ve played. I wouldn’t say I’m that great at games but I would say I’m above average, and have beaten all three Dark Souls games and Bloodborne.
I could never get on with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice though and I think that’s because the game is so dependent on parrying and having a sense of rhythm. I’m terrible at rhythm action games and I’d be interested to see if people that are good at them, but don’t usually play Soulslikes would be good at it.
So for me, I would say Sekiro is the hardest game of the last few gens (I’m sure there’s lots of cheating 8-bit games that are harder). Curious to know what other people think, as I’ve heard some actually consider Sekiro to be one of the easier From games. So if that’s not the hardest what is it?
Zeiss
Luxury item
I’ll be shocked if Microsoft’s Xbox plans for the next gen don’t change at least once more before they properly announce something. The leaks for them are always super accurate, I guess because they’re American, and it makes it obvious how often they change their mind.
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As many have pointed out, all their current plans point towards very expensive hardware, whether it’s home or portable, but this is surprising to me considering how much emphasis they put on Xbox Series S this gen. It doesn’t seem to have worked, so I wonder if the thought now is to go all in on a high end device for the hardcore?
That seems a dangerous path to me, without at least one model that’s reasonably priced. Even Sony has the Digital Edition.
Mentat99
Predictable response
I don’t really agree with Nintendo being able to brick your console, or even just force it offline, just because you used modding hardware but on the other hand I haven’t got much sympathy for those that do, since they must know Nintendo’s attitude to it. You can’t be so into games that you want to be modding your Switch 2 a week after it came out, that you don’t know how crazy Nintendo are about suing pirates and modders.
It’s like those people that make all these unofficial games, like extra Pokémon games and whatnot. How can you not guess what’s going to happen? They say you can never predict Nintendo but that’s not true for everything they do…
Gifford
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Levels of bad
I see you will be able to pre-order Fear Effect 1 from Limited Run Games on PlayStation 5 and Switch 1 physical versions soon.
What is GameCentral’s opinion of Fear Effect 1 and 2? I remember your review of Fear Effect Sedna being that it was an appalling game. I was at school and college in the ‘90s so I missed a lot of games that came out, so have been picking ones up now as remakes or remasters.
I am interested in picking it up if GameCentral think it is any good?
Andrew J.
GC: Sedna is pretty terrible but the originals are just… not very good. It’s a long while since we’ve played them, but we suspect they have not aged well.
The one game
With your review of Survival Kids describing another dud I think it’s fair to say that the Nintendo Switch 2 line-up has actually been pretty bad. Beyond a few ports of old games Mario Kart World is literally the game for it, which is not what I expected from Nintendo.
I know Zelda: Breath Of The Wild was pretty much it for the original Switch 1 but Nintendo were in a much worse position back then. Plus, they at least had Snipperclips as well, which is 10 times better than Welcome Tour.
I guess it’s the problem of games taking too long to make again but I still expected more. Let’s hope Donkey Kong Bananza is good – at least that Nintendo Direct was promising.
Korbie
Always interesting
I loved the look of Romeo Is A Dead Man, Suda51’s latest uninhibited artistic endeavour. That opening cut scene/promotional sequence with the highly expressive, experimental art style instantly piqued my interest, and even at this early stage the combat and enemy design look distinctive and imaginative.
I thoroughly acknowledge that Suda51’s game design philosophy is inordinately peculiar and appeals to a niche demographic of gamers. And there’s a certain level of crudeness and clunkiness in his game’s characters and gameplay mechanics, but his games are almost always irrepressibly fun, charming, and interesting to me.
Something like killer7, which for me is Suda’s magnum opus – with its artistically, thematically, and mechanically audacious design – felt ahead of its time in many ways. I replayed the PC remaster a couple of years ago and was amazed by how well it had aged. It was like Fever Dream: The Game, just magnificently madcap from start to finish. Then there was one of last year’s best indie games in my opinion, Sorry We’re Closed, which felt like a spiritual successor to killer7 in a few key areas.
Shadow Of The Damned and the No More Heroes games are also amongst the funniest, wackiest games I’ve ever played. I guess I just really appreciate that we still have genuine auteurs in the video game industry such as Suda51, Swery65, Hideo Kojima, and a few others (what ever happened to the habitually over-promising Peter Molyneux?).
Galvanized Gamer
GC: Molyneux is supposed to be working on a new god game called Masters Of Albion, but nothing has been heard of it in almost two years now.
Cross-play Kong
I’m betting the SharePlay between Switch 1 and Switch 2 Donkey Kong Bananza will be for an unannounced basic retro Donkey Kong game included as a bonus.
Mark Matthews
GC: It’s not that. The Nintendo Direct said it was a way to control Pauline as a co-op character, with an image of the game playing on the Switch 1. Presumably it’s a cut down version of Bananza, but that’s very odd as the game is not available separately on the Switch 1.
Unfair pricing
I think it’s an interesting point about games being undervalued by sale price. We all want games to be cheap but when the really good ones are being practically given away and the trashiest stuff is charging £20 for a change of clothes you know something’s not right.
You can make an argument that it’s just market forces, and people are paying what they think a thing is worth, but for some reason things have got turned around, so that people aren’t willing to pay full price for many games (how is Mario Kart World not worth £75 – Mario Kart 8 lasted 13 years before it needed to be replaced!).
Call Of Duty gets a new entry every year and it’s always the best-selling game, despite costing £70 and having tons of microtransactions. I don’t know how much some fans are spending on DLC but it must be in the hundreds every single year, and they have the cheek to complain about other games being too expensive!
Why the most unambitious and generic games get a free pass but anything even a bit different is expected to justify itself a hundred times over and be half the price before it’s even considered I don’t know, but I don’t see the situation changing any time soon.
Anyway, please, if you’ve got a PC please try XCOM 2 because it’s so dirt cheap at the moment it’s almost criminal.
Krool
Inbox also-rans
I know it’s been said RE: no other big Switch games this year, but isn’t Professor Layton supposed to be out this year?
Anon
GC: Professor Layton And The New World Of Steam is meant to be out this year but there’s no date. When people talk about no more big games this year, they’re generally talking about first party titles.
The thing that surprises me about Hideo Kojima is how few games he’s actually made. Half of them being Metal Gear does seem a bit of a shame, given they’re all pretty similar.
Eldar
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