Games Inbox: What was the best game at Opening Night Live 2026?

The Wednesday letters is very impressed by The Witcher 3 Remastered reveal at ONL, as one reader feels pity for the GTA 6 leaker.

Making good
I’m shocked that there was an actual surprise at Opening Night Live this year, with The Witcher 3 remaster. Everything else was pretty boring and pointless, so I wish I’d just tuned in to the last 15 minutes, but at least that was good.

I’m one of those people that doesn’t really forgive CD Projekt for the Cyberpunk 2077 launch. They knew exactly what they were doing and they thought they could get away from it, until they didn’t.

I don’t feel they ever really apologised enough but weirdly this feels more like making up for it. I realise the game’s over a decade old now and you can pick it up for pennies, but I still appreciate the free remaster and the free expansions.

Other publishers should remember that being generous and making more effort than they need to goes down very well with gamers. At the moment it seems like publishers are constantly at war with their own fans (naming no names, Sony) so it’s nice to see one that realises we’re the ones that pay their bills.
Xane

Consensus opinion
Read a few Gears Of War: E-Day previews, including your own, and they all say exactly what you’d expect from the trailers: it’s the same old thing as always and kind of pointless. I really don’t know why they made it a prequel, when that side of the timeline is so covered already. Unless they think Dom is such a major draw it just seems doomed to go over the same old stuff.

The semi-open world bits are probably okay, but this needed be something really different. I don’t think anyone cares about the Geras Of War story (Microsoft don’t because they’ve already ignored the cliffhanger ending of Gears 5) so I would’ve set it on another planet, with new enemies and heroes.

What’s good about Gears Of War is the action, not the story, and I really don’t see how a prequel is going to change anything.
St1nger

Busted
I actually feel sorry for this GTA 6 leaker. He’s clearly not playing with a full deck if he can’t see how this is all going to end and it’s really just a car crash in slow motion. A lot of the stuff he’s showing is really boring too. That game shop in the latest clip looked amazing but he just walked in and out and bought some earbuds, he didn’t even try and play any of the arcade games.

Not that it’s not fun to see the game in this kind of detail but is that really something you want to go to jail for? Because that’s where he’s going to end up, no question about it.
Kappa

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Starting a trend
So that’s another big budget turn-based strategy game announced, after Star Wars Zero Company? Well, I imagine something like Rainbow Six Tactics probably isn’t that expensive to make but it’s nice to see anyway. I love to see new games like that, although I’m not sure what’s suddenly got publishers interested in them.

I really hope the Star Wars one does well, because if it’s a hit that could really open things up – maybe even to a new XCOM. Unfortunately, I fear that it’s come at the worst time possible for Star Wars hype and it’ll just get ignored. They should’ve left it for the 50th anniversary next year or at least made it about Andor, the last good thing to come from the franchise.

Can I ask when your review is?
Zeiss

GC: It should be up this afternoon.

Ulterior motives
This bloke releasing GTA 6 videos is really doing my head in. I hope they get him, which you know they will. But by then it’s too late and I bet Netflix are mad, all that money they have paid and most of the stuff has already came out.

I myself am waiting for the Netflix one, I don’t want it in little videos and not only that when he said you can give me some digital currency he’s not doing it because of physical games being stopped, he’s doing it to make cash.

He’s trying 2 be clever, problem is there is always someone smarter out there and when they get him he might want to pack a bag with soap and a towel ready. The one bit that is funny, is he says he didn’t want physical games to end, yet he only wants paying digitally. What a plum of the year.
David

Minority interest
Interested in what they’ll do with The Witcher 3. Tried playing it again recently and it’s aged like a glass of milk. Tired open world design, slow and clunky combat, and a role-playing system that looked after itself and as for the acclaimed storytelling…. yeah, it’s very 2015. I doubt the new expansion will offer much to tweak that given it’s a story set-up, but we’ll see.

With PlayStation 5 and the boycotters. Fair play to those gamers trying to stick it to the man. I wonder if anything will show up in Sony’s online data for it? I don’t expect much to be honest. GC have been leaning into reporting the online chatter, but I’ve barely seen it mentioned anywhere else. Do we know if this is registering outside the ‘terminally online’ usual suspects who organise this kind of stuff? Can’t wait for the conspiracy theories and death threats to start given that crowds form when it peters out.

Anyway, as another reader said, pretty much everyone is digital now anyway, but even more importantly most of those who play games have nowhere near the kind of investment in the medium to boycott. I don’t think a boycott for anything has ever worked? Remember the so-called organised push back against Hogwarts Legacy?
Marc

Secret war
Did you get chance to try Wardogs over the weekend, as it gave the Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta a run for its money over the weekend.

Do you intend doing something with the studio Bulkhead, as they’re a small British studio. I hope they succeed against the big boys.
TWO MACKS

GC: This is the first we’ve ever heard of the game, but thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Constant revenue
I think the letter from CaptKrysis, about the Sony blackout and comparing it to car owners is missing the point.

It’s true players taking part in the boycott will already likely have given Sony a fair chunk of their hard-earned cash. However, Sony want to keep that revenue stream profitable for the foreseeable future. This means players continuing to pay for games and investing in the next generation of hardware whenever the PlayStation 6 releases.

I imagine Sony collect all sorts of data, such as amount of people logged into the network, amount of trophies earned, amount of people accessing the PlayStation Store for them, to made an educated guess of how many people are playing their PlayStation 5 during any given timeframe.

If there’s a significant enough of a drop in player numbers I’m sure this would give Sony reason to have a rethink about their plans.

Personally, I don’t think the boycott will work, as I don’t imagine there’s enough people taking part to have an impact. Also, I guess by this point the PlayStation 6 is well into its development cycle and it would likely be too costly and cause a significant delay to reverse their stance on a digital-only future.
matc7884
PS: Just because I saw some confusion in the Underbox, the Reader’s Feature at the weekend, regarding my predictions for some of the games due to release later in the year was written by myself not ‘dirtystopout’ as credited.

GC: Oh, sorry about that. Looking at the email you sent, you didn’t include a byline, so we accidentally left the last one in from the previous week.

Inbox also-rans
Will you be reviewing Neon Beauties: Hentai Photo Puzzle, which releases on the Switch 2 today?
Anon

GC: We’ll wait for the sequel.

I didn’t realise Mario Kart World hadn’t even been nominated for its soundtrack, that’s crazy. I realise it’s not entirely original but it is amazing and with such a massive track list.
Onibee

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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.

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MORE: Games Inbox: Will the new The Witcher 3 DLC be worth getting?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is the PS5 boycott still happening?

MORE: Games Inbox: Who are the GTA 6 leakers?

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