The Tuesday letters page looks forward to Resident Evil Requiem’s release next year, as one reader remembers 25 years of Phantasy Star Online.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
New Year Bond
Merry Christmas to you all at GC Towers. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag this year, to put it lightly, but I’m hopeful that next year will be a good one, as there’s a lot of big budget games that are looking good, rather than a lot of them being disappointments this year.
As a massive Bond fan, I’m really looking forward to 007 First Light, but I’ve got some concerns. As another reader said, the actor looks a bit smarmy and I’ve not heard or seen anything that’s particularly funny from anything they’ve shown so far. The sense of humour in Bond is important and I’m not sure if IO is going to get it right.
I did like the look of the action on the airport bit they showed, which does look in the style of the movies, but I’m less convinced by the racing, which looked a bit fakey.
I hope they work it out though as I’d love to see it become a series that can exist on its own, whether there’s a movie out soon or not. Plus, I like IO so I want them to do well and fun more Hitman games too.
The Bishop
Ghost of Christmas present and future
Merry Christmas to everyone at GC and everyone reading this! Looking forward to getting some decent gaming time in over Christmas, probably to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which I’ve heard enough about now that I’ve got to find what it’s about for myself.
I hope it’s good but what I’m really looking forward to next year is Resident Evil Requiem. I’ve got a really good feeling for that one and I don’t feel I’ve been let down by Resident Evil games since the soft reboot with 7 (well, 3 wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either).
Looking forward to playing as Leon again and seeing just how scary the game is, because Village definitely wasn’t and I’m interested that they’re going in a totally different direction again. It’s my favourite franchise, so I can’t wait.
Soldat
Long-term employee
I really wish I could laugh at the idea of Phil Spencer being given an industry award this year… in a country that doesn’t even sell the Xbox, but it sounds like the whole thing was set up as a joke anyway.
I don’t want to get personal, but the guy has been failing upwards for his whole career. I’m not even saying some of his ideas weren’t good, but when they don’t work out, time and time again, somebody should be having a word.
All I know is that if I lost my company as much money as Phil has his I would’ve been booted out long ago. I imagine if he messes up again, they’ll have no option but to promote him to a quiet desk job.
Tacle
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Negative image
I can absolutely see Warner taking a look at the 40 million sales of Hogwarts Legacy, which were due to it being a proper single-player game with no microtransactions, and immediately thinking the sensible thing to do is turn it into a live service game.
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The way they carry on it’s not hard to imagine that the people in charge of these companies hate video games and want to see the whole industry fail. Every decision they make is the dumbest and most destructive one they can think of.
Why is it when it’s a multiplayer game the follow-up is always exactly the same game with a new hat on but when it’s a single-player game that’s a hit they instantly try to turn it into a multiplayer game. It’s so predictable.
Bosley
Just one more yacht
I was going to argue against Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 having its Game of the Year award taken away from it, especially if it was over some temporary thing they forgot to take out, but if they told the judges they didn’t use it and they did… I don’t really have any sympathy.
They obviously knew it was wrong to use it, or they wouldn’t have tried to keep it a secret, so they can’t really talk themselves out of it. I hate the idea of AI in my games, but I’m already resigned to the fact that it’s going to seep in and companies won’t be honest about it. All so some exec can buy an extra yacht by laying off a bunch of artists.
Benjy Dog
Year of the indie
I’ve been really enjoying your recent indie reviews.
I know some of them are going back to games released earlier this year, that you didn’t have time for, but the below is reviews for the last four months and its quantity and quality is pretty staggering:
Sword Of The Sea (Metro 9/10), Hollow Knight: Silksong (9/10), Hades 2 (8/10), Absolum (8/10), Ball x Pit (9/10), Tormented Souls 2 (8/10), Satisfactory console release (9/10), V-Racer Hoverbike (8/10), Dispatch (8/10), Marvel Comic Invasion (8/10), Routine (8/10), Lumines Arise (8/10), Roboquest VR (8/10), Sektori (9/10), Skate Story (9/10), Ghost Town PSVR2 release (8/10), Look Outside (8/10), Consume Me (8/10), and The Séance of Blake Manor (9/10).
Triple-A games really needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and pull their socks up.
But talking of missed games to review. Do you have The Roottrees Are Dead on the list? I don’t think you’ve reviewed it yet.
It was originally released as a browser game in 2023 but got a remastered Steam release in January this year. So, I think can be counted as 2025 game.
Simundo
GC: It’s not high on our list but we’ll see. We will try and do at least a few more in January, but it’s set to be quite a busy month.
Limited time offer
I’ll be interested to see if Nintendo replace the Mario Kart World console bundle with a different game, or bring it back in some other way, because it really was a good deal. But was it meant as just a thing for early adopters in the launch year or something that was going to carry on, more or less, forever?
I wasn’t intending to get a Switch 2 until at least next year but if I can’t get Mario Kart World half price I’m not sure I’ll get it at all. £75 is a lot of money to pay for something that seems to have quite a few problems. Or maybe this will finally be the trigger for finding out about the DLC?
GalaxyLON
Online fantasy
I am actually a little shocked that Zelda is 40 years old in February and we haven’t heard anything about any kind of celebration from Nintendo. I know we shouldn’t be surprised by them but that’s just odd.
But anyway, I was going to write in to say that Phantasy Star Online is 25 years old this week. Maybe not the most famous game ever but anyone that had a Dreamcast will know just how iconic it is, and how far ahead of its time it was.
It was basically a MMO on a console, at a time when there was absolutely nothing like it. I think at that point the Dreamcast was the only console with a modem and the idea of having an action game that you could play with other people was unknown on consoles.
I remember playing it with friends and strangers and using its clever communication board to talk to people in Japanese, as the game would translate key phrases back and forth.
It had a lot in common with modern games like Destiny, in that you were basically doing the same thing over and over again, although back then that all seemed new and interesting.
I don’t know how much it influenced those games, as it’s not a series I’ve heard anyone talking about much in recent years, but I think it deserves to be recognised as a bit of a groundbreaker. I think there are modern equivalents today but they’re super niche, which is a shame.
Goldie
GC: We had no idea about Zelda either, Nintendo is so weird about anniversaries.
Inbox also-rans
Best Pokémon game on the Switch 2 or 3DS?
LoRd SiNn
GC: That’s a very short question, but okay: Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Pokémon X and Y. Although Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are also good.
Greetings GC and to all readers and contributors I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry gaming Christmas and a happy peaceful New Year. Have a good one everybody and enjoy!
HAJ
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