The Thursday letters page recommends playing Ball X Pit for free, as a reader gives his review of the Xbox Ally X portable.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Educated guess
Another rumour proves to be bang on the money, I see, with The Witcher 3 DLC. I’ll watch the CD Projekt on Thursday, but I wonder if there’s anything we guess already, about what it’s about. The most obvious guess is that it’s about the death of Geralt, since he’s not the main character in The Witcher 4, but I believe CD Projekt has confirmed he is in the game, just not as the protagonist.
Since he’d already basically retired in the last DLC I think there’s got to be something personal that motivates him into going back out there, and the obvious guess is something to do with Ciri, that will then set up the story for The Witcher 4.
I think it’s a great idea and would encourage other games to do the same thing. Although I do think not making the DLC for PlayStation 4 is cheaping out. That’s the format most people would’ve played it on and a lot won’t have upgraded. But oh well, you can’t have it all I guess.
Focus
More to come
So another day, another top-rated game. Mina The Hollower is 90+ on Metacritic, for most formats, and while I know May was always going to be a busy month it really has been fantastic. Like the reader yesterday said, if it wasn’t for the second half of the year probably being a lot quieter this could be an all-timer.
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Although I’m bit more optimistic than him, as while GTA 6 will be taking all the attention in November, we’ve still got things like Wolverine, Fable, and whatever Nintendo’s cooking up. And that’s just the biggest games, so I’m sure there’ll still be plenty of other stuff too. Oh, and Onimusha: Way Of The Sword too! So yeah, I think 2026 is far from done yet.
Bootles
Who dares wins
Interesting to hear that IO Interactive has such up-front plans for more Bond games. I really like Hitman, so I hope they’re not going to end up overextending themselves. When you publish your own stuff then one failure can be the end of the company, which will be a real shame if this actually turns out to be good.
Despite liking Hitman I can’t say I particularly like James Bond and I admit 007 First Light was not something I was really considering. But the very positive reviews have got me interested and I think a combination of the reviews and supporting IO will push me over. My poor wallet!
Crowbar
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Maximum hype
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one worried about GTA 6 not living up to the massive hype surrounding it.
I’m hoping it’s a good game but it won’t be the end of the world if it isn’t like some have said. I doubt it’ll put a dent in the coffers at Rockstar. $250 million is a few days earnings from their online components from the older games.
I only want the single-player side of it to be good enough that it keeps me coming back after I’ve played the main game. GTA 5 didn’t keep me any longer than finishing the story, trying the broken online mode then selling it, on Xbox 360. I got it free on Epic Games Store but it’s so complicated modding it I’ve never played it.
Hopefully the soundtrack is at least as good as Vice City but as most of it will be more modern, I doubt I’ll still be listening to it 20 years later.
Fingers crossed for November.
Bobwallett
Just one more go
So another Sony live service game bites the dust, eh? I’d never even heard of this one, despite it apparently being a near launch game. So well done on the marketing on that one Sony. It didn’t get very good reviews though, so apparently I haven’t been missing out on much.
I hope Sony has learnt its lesson by now, but I don’t particularly expect they have. We only had rumours the other day that Fairgame$ has had a name change, even though I can guarantee you it will be a flop if it actually comes out. But there’s a 0.000001% it will become the next Fortnite, so Sony has to give it a try, waste millions to make it, and then shut down the studio when it flops. Aren’t publishers smart?
Zeiss
Hotel portable
I might be one of a very rare breed, as the owner of a ROG Xbox Ally X. I’ve had one pretty much since launch. My wife got me it as a Christmas present but ended up giving it to me early. It was a surprise I can tell you.
I haven’t heard much talk about it so here are my experiences with it.
I don’t generally use it at home; it is pretty much just for when my work takes me on my travels. Which is a couple of times a week on average. I don’t use it every night I’m away, as I’m a big football fan and often prefer to watch that. And that believe it or not that is a bit of an issue.
The damn thing loves an update. Seems to be every time you leave it for a week or so it gets inundated with system updates and that’s before you get to game updates. It’s not a problem if I remembered to check before leaving home but often I’m trying to do it over some ropey hotel Wi-Fi. Not quite as bad if the 5G signal is strong.
Other than that, I must say all the games I have played on it have been a really good experience. I spent last night playing Forza Horizon 6 and it ran like a dream. It does take a bit of getting used to the smaller screen and the hand positioning for the controls but after a couple of races I barely noticed it.
I have played a few other games with it and have not experienced any problems. I can’t recall any game crashes or bugs that have ruined a game. Having Game Pass gives me access to cloud gaming and back to the Wi-Fi; if it’s good the games all work as they should.
Battery life, which people often cite as a bad point for this type of handheld, is good in my opinion. I played last night for nearly three hours and it only dropped to 50%, which with a pretty demanding game like Forza Horizon 6 I thought was good.
I picked up a cheap and cheerful mouse and keyboard for it. I like to mooch about on real-time strategy games and that works really well. Steam, Battlenet, and EA Play all work as they should. For the reader who wouldn’t buy a PlayStation 6 unless it had a browser, it’s got one of them too!
Personally, I don’t find the weight a particular problem but my daughter Alex said she found it a bit heavy. She was playing Doom for about six hours!
I have shown it off a far bit and I have to say it gets a pretty warm reception. Most people seem to be impressed with the screen and graphics. They aren’t so impressed when you tell them the cost!
It is an expensive, niche product I totally get that. Some may say a fool and their money, but it serves me very well.
Keep up the good work. The 007 First Light review has really got me interested in it. I had visions of it being a Hitman clone.
Dirtystopout
GC: Thanks.
Free Ball
What a fantastically addictive game Ball X Pit is. It’s only £9 at the moment on the Switch online store.
Plus, it’s free to play until the 30th of May, so there is a couple more days for everyone to try before they buy.
Arteta26Legend
GC: It’s a great little game, that we highly recommend. There was a big, free update in April too, that we never got around to trying, which we assume is included in the free-to-play offer.
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Satisfactory birthday
First of all, happy Eid. Secondly, we’re fast approaching the Switch 2’s first anniversary and personally I’m glad the Switch 2 is doing well sales wise. I love the console and I ardently feel like its library of exclusives nearly a year in doesn’t get the respect it wholly deserves.
I’ve had mine since last September and I was immediately smitten with the dimensions of the hardware, especially that lovely big screen, and the amazingly tactile way the magnetic Joy-Cons slot into the console, which for some reason reminded me of when Ultra Magnus was having his arms and legs slotted back in place after being seemingly destroyed by Galvatron and his goons in the classic 1986 animated movie!
As for the games, Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World alone are both great launch day/window evergreen experiences. Kirby’s Air Riders is a plentiful inventive, feature rich racer. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a riotously, if one-dimensionally, good time in short bursts.
Fast Fusion is an excellent little futuristic racer, and I’d love to see Shin’ en given the keys to F-Zero, personally. Mario Tennis Fever is arguably the best Mario Tennis since the N64 days. Pokémon Pokopia is addictive as hell and one of the highest rated games of 2026, and Yoshi And The Mysterious Book – aka the National Nintendo Geographic – is currently being very well received by critics and consumers alike.
And I haven’t even included all the Switch 2 editions of Switch games, like the wonderfully optimised open world Zeldas! I can even appreciate the leftfield thinking in something like Drag X Drive, even if it didn’t really pan out well. But at least it’s something new and innovative, and really cheap as far as Nintendo games go. Hope Nintendo can just add more colour and personality, and depth, to the formula in a potentially fully realised sequel in the near future.
Then there’s all the fantastic console exclusive Switch games like UF0 50, Pizza Tower, and Night Striker Gear – the latter of which is an utterly superb sequel to the classic 1989 Tatio on-rail shooter, helmed by Hiroshi Luchi, the director of such all-time greats as Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga!
There’s also the stunning looking Star Fox 64 remake next month and hopefully they can maintain the momentum of a release per month, as they’ve been doing since June of last year really. Nintendo and third party console exclusives and multi-platform support on the console has been very encouraging so far, it’s certainly been more robust and resplendently stocked than the first years of the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles, as far as exclusives go.
I mean, time and time again it’s been proven that when it comes down to the wire Nintendo will prove the naysayers wrong by putting out some fire. I just hope we get a sequel to ARMS and Astral Chain this gen, as those were certified bangers as far as I am concerned and there still isn’t anything else that plays quite like them!
GG
Inbox also-rans
So if The Witcher 3 is most likely to be out in 2028… isn’t that exactly around the time The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected? If those two games come out at the same time, after all this waiting, it’ll be hilarious.
Benson
Do you think we’ll get a Star Wars Jedi 3 annoucement this year, GC? It seems ages since the last one.
Tacle
GC: It depends when it’s due out, they’ll want either the annoucement or the launch to be close the 50th anniversary next year.
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