The Thursday letters page is curious about Warhorse’s Lord of the Rings game, as a reader is dubious that Nex Playground has a long-term future.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Likely candidates
So Sony is moving its not-E3 State of Play back a week to June, just days after deciding not to put its single-player games on PC. I’m going to take that as a positive sign, personally.
I’m sure Wolverine will be the focus but I also expect to see Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, something God Of War related, and probably the Marvel fighting game. There’s surely got to be something new though and that’s what I’m most excited about.
Now that Bluepoint are no more we’ve kind of lost our prime candidate for a developer that hasn’t done anything for a while, but there’s always the Days Gone team and the Astro Boy lot. I just really hope we get some kind of IP but, if I’m honest, I think the most likely reveal is for a new Uncharted.
I’m not against that idea but I think Naughty Dog were probably right to get out when they did and that it’s going to be very difficult to do anything new with the concept.
Focus
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Quiet megaton
This fashion for boring game announcements is really getting me down. GC were one of the first to point it out, with Sony being one of the worst for it, but now everyone seems to think just putting out a tweet is all you need to do to announce a game. How far we have come from E3.
That was quite the megaton annoucement Warhorse had, with a new Kingdom Come and a big, open world Lord of the Rings game and… I felt absolutely nothing finding out about it. Because I was told and shown absolutely nothing and the developer couldn’t be bothered to make it seem exciting.
I’m especially interested to see if the Lord of the Rings game covers the events of the books/films or if it is going to be set in a different age of Middle-earth. I don’t really mind either, as long as it’s good, which I would very much expect from Warhorse. Just please give us a trailer, or something, to latch onto next time.
Qwos
Three-way fight
So now we’ve got all three console manufacturers lined up for showcases this summer, even if the Nintendo Direct one is still a rumour. Gaming always benefits from when Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are competing, and since all three of them are vulnerable, in different ways, at the moment, I find that very encouraging.
I’m not going to try and guess exactly what they’ll show, in terms of anything brand new, but I would have thought that all of them realise they’ve got to make an effort this year. That’ll mean lots of talk about who has ‘won’ E3 or not-E3 or whatever we call it now, which is great for the one that comes out on top.
I think that’s a good thing. If Sony in particular realise they can end up looking worse than both then I think that’s the best way to motivate them to make an effort.
Korbie
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Arcade perfect
What an interesting letter from Tim Keeling, about needing to repair coin-op arcade games, and what a cool hobby to have. Regarding video game cabinets, I would have assumed that they were tough simply because any object left in the hands of the public would automatically receive rough treatment. Just imagine all of those wrenched joysticks and those buttons mashed in frustration.
Back in the arcade days, I vaguely remember seeing somebody playing a Track & Field cabinet with a couple of ping pong balls attached to their palm, so they could work the buttons faster.
Good to hear that Tim has a Defender cabinet. The Star Wars game, especially the cockpit version, was indeed great but Defender had everything for me. The game was exciting to play and offered cool visuals, plus nothing else sounded like it. That cabinet sounded mean.
My least favourite game in the arcades was probably Dragon’s Lair, which was expensive to play and just a series of quick time events. There were better Laserdisc arcade games. I remember enjoying the Mach 3 cabinet a lot.
Consoles are neat and convenient, but it must be great to have several full-sized arcade cabinets in your home. Although it sounds like the machines need a lot of upkeep.
Michael Veal
Out of time
I don’t believe for a second that we’ll ever see a new Deus Ex or TimeSplitters games. Who is going to make them for a start, given what Embracer has already done to those developers? And when are they going to come out? A good game costs at least five years to make nowadays and a new Deus Ex would definitely need that and more.
So this would be a next gen game? I’ll be honest, I don’t see Embracer lasting that long, unless they decide to make it with AI or some nonsense. I’m just waiting for the first company to try that and I actually encourage it, because hopefully it’ll put everyone off it so much that we’ll never have to live with the fear again and they can stop laying everyone off every five minutes.
Lentz
Quickly forgotten
Now Forza Horizon 6 is out on Game Pass I’ve been having a go and enjoying it a lot more than Forza Horizon 5. I’ve got up to the first showcase and that immediately made up for the lacklustre offerings from its predecessor.
In the run up to Forza coming out I was discussing with some people other arcade racers and the dwindling options.
Split/Second: Velocity was fondly recalled, alongside the stupidity of the release dates with Blur that ruined both their chances.
Fortunately, Microsoft’s approach to backwards compatibility meant that I could dig out my copy of Split/Second on the weekend and have a good go on it.
It still holds up pleasingly well. The graphics are still pretty decent, although I’m less keen on that yellowy sheen that reminds me of the first season of 24 for some reason.
The central gimmick of triggering various explosions and catastrophes around the tracks, like scenes in an action movie remains a delight. The risk/reward of immediately hobbling an opponent or saving for a large three charge to scupper multiple racers or dramatically alter the course is wonderful.
There is some egregious rubber banding though, and a track map would help too, but overall I think it’d be popular if it got a re-release, even without a remake/remaster overhaul.
Sadly though, Disney dipped out of making games shortly after it came out and it’s unlikely to see a sequel. But I would love to see another developer do something similar, maybe we could get a much-needed new Burnout and include the spectacular over the-top-chaos of Split/Second.
Euclidian Boxes
Studio sequel
For anyone who, like me, was a little disappointed by Saros, at least in terms of anything that wasn’t the gameplay, the director of Returnal has set up his own company. I think him having left was why Saros didn’t hit quite the same spot in a lot of ways.
Not sure from their annoucement what sort of budget their first game will be getting, but if it’s relatively low we might be something from them sooner rather than later.
Johnson
Whale bait
I’m highly suspicious of the Nex Playground – it smacks of a product designed to convince Microsoft or some other tech big hitter to buy the company and give the owner a job and some stock options, before leaving to set up a new company so they can sell it to a big hitter, in order to get a job…
From reading Cory Doctorow’s book, Ens***tification (don’t know if you can print that), earlier this year it seems that the whole modern tech industry is built on that merry-go-round.
I can’t put my finger on why I doubt them so much. Maybe the fact you have to subscribe if you want more than five games, and can’t simply buy them. But so many things are subscription-based now when it should just be a one-time purchase, so there must be more red flags in there for me.
Mark my words though: Microsoft will buy that tech soon, they’ll close the service, and everyone who forked out hundreds of hard-earned coins will end up with an expensive plastic box.
Maybe it will be used for Kinect 2.0 on the Xbox HAL.
FoximusPrime81
Inbox also-rans
If Fable looks as good and plays as well as Forza Horizon 6 we are in for a real treat.
Dirtystopout
GC: It’ll almost certainly have better combat.
I wonder if From’s next game will end up being another Amored Core. It doesn’t seem that long since the last one but it seems more plausible than having a big scale game, like Elden Ring, and The Duskbloods on the go at the same time.
Smithers
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