The Tuesday letters page is baffled as to how Sony made its mistake with Helldivers 2, as one reader wants another Doom.
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Day 60
Gaming is a strange thing, because if you look at the cost of everything when it’s brand new it sure does seem expensive. £400+ consoles and video games that cost anything up to £70 – or more if you’re buying a collector’s edition. But I just bought a PlayStation 5 and three games for £300, which I consider a great deal.
Obviously, it was second-hand but if you wait only a relatively little time you can get anything video game related for massively cheaper than it used to be. Most games started to get significantly cheaper after two months, especially if they flop, and most sales are full of really good bargains.
I’m probably not telling anyone reading this something they don’t know but ever since I decided to never buy anything day one again I’ve been a lot happier… and richer.
Especially as you have the added benefit that the game works properly by that point (usually) so it’s a win-win situation as far as I’m concerned. The only time that would ever make sense to me to buy day one is if it was an online multiplayer game, where I understand you can fall behind if you’re not there from near the start. But since I don’t like that sort of game it’s not a problem.
Seriously, to anyone reading this I would say never buy day one again and always wait so that you can buy three games for the price of one.
Omi
Schoolboy error
That Helldivers 2 news is just bizarre. Sony having a PSN account as a requirement isn’t overly shocking and not really something to get mad about.
However, as the publisher you’ve got to assume Sony were the ones responsible for publishing the game in the 100+ counties where they don’t even operate. That seems like a really basic rookie mistake. Surely you’d have a list of countries that you’ve done all the checks for compliance with laws and any potential taxes owed, that you’d also expect to be the same for all games and PSN. Not randomly 100 extra.
Tim
GC: Completely bizarre. Now imagine the sort of salary the people that made those decisions must be making.
Nobody knows
I really don’t understand the point of articles like that Digital Foundry report on the PS5 Pro. For the three people on the planet that understand everything they’re talking about I guess it’s fine but even then the whole thing, as far as I can understand, can summarised as follows: ‘We’re not sure what it can do.’
As GC said, arguing over tech specs is the most pointless thing ever. The only thing worse is watching tech demoes and expecting actual games to look like that (anyone remember the Unreal Engine one for the PlayStation 5? Yeah, don’t remember any game that look that good recently).
The other thing is that it seems early reports about the PS5 Pro being a smaller step forward than PS4 Pro are true, so we’ve learnt nothing new. And in any case, all this effort over increasing the resolution – it barely made any difference from 1080p to 4K, let alone anything higher.
Leo Taylor
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We’re not Doomed
It is a very odd thing that Bethesda still haven’t announced anything for a third Doom game. I don’t think the last two were massive sellers, but I didn’t think they did badly and I thought both of them were very good. I’ve lost interest in Call Of Duty and other online shooters but I thought they updated Doom perfectly, to have a lot of modern features and yet still a very old school feel.
Has there been any rumours or anything of a new game? Even if there isn’t, what are id Software doing these days? I remember when they were the hottest developer around and while they’re not that anymore I still rate their stuff and would be interested in anything new they do (but I hope it’s another Doom).
Vesta
GC: There was a reference to something called Doom Year Zero in some official documents from Microsoft’s court case with the FTC, but that was from before they bought Bethesda, so anything could’ve happened since. Either way, it’s a mystery what id Software is currently working on.
Chalk and cheese
Activision x Nintendo is not a team-up I ever expected to hear about but reading that story about Donkey Kong I’d completely forgotten about Skylanders. I got a few of them for my boy and they were actually quite good games. The toys were a con, of course, but at least the game underneath was worthwhile.
I’m sure the toys to life thing is what stopped people from taking them seriously as games but I can see Nintendo having seen them and thinking Vicarious Visions could be the next Retro Studios. I’m guessing they found out they weren’t quite that good though and that’s why it never went ahead.
Interesting to hear now and sad to think the developer is now just reduced to making DLC for Diablo. (Vicarious Visions, that is, not Nintendo!).
Josh
The beginning
I know I’m a fool but I’m immediately excited to know that it’s Nintendo’s investor meeting next week. They’ve got to say something about the Switch 2 then, right?
I know it won’t be much, probably just ‘We are making a new hardware, which will be released within the next 12 months’ but that’s still the start of it. Official acknowledgment that there is a new console and that it’s going to be out relatively soon.
My best case scenario is that this month, a reveal of what it is at E3 time, and then a very detailed Direct in the autumn, before a launch in February or March. That’s probably a bit too optimistic but I feel it’s not impossible and still roughly what we’re looking at.
This year has been an absolutely downer so far, despite the release of a few good games, so I’m hoping this will be the start of a roller-coaster of, mostly entertaining, nonsense and fan theories. Let the speculation and the unnecessary vague statement from Nintendo begin!
Winston
GC: It’s very likely it’ll be something like that, but even that’s not guaranteed. It is Nintendo, after all.
Cereza redux
If the Switch 2 being more powerful is going to open up a wave of remasters, which I’m sure it will, then I hope that includes the Bayonetta trilogy. Playing Stellar Blade has really made me hanker for Bayo with the same quality of graphics and while we’ll never get that we could at least get a good remaster, with high frame rate and improved textures, etc.
I’m gutted Hideki Kamiya has left PlatinumGames though, because it either means we’re not getting anymore Bayonetta or they won’t be as good. Speaking of which, it seems ages since we’ve heard anything from them. You’ve got to wonder whether they’re going to make it much longer, with no new releases or hits.
Onibee
Tomb Raider: Arkham Knight
I’m not against the idea of an open world Tomb Raider but my worry with this and Resident Evil is that they haven’t been able to come up with any actual new ideas and so ‘make it open world’ becomes the next best thing. We’ll see, I guess, but it seems like that bandwagon get’s a bit rickety now.
What I definitely do like though is the non-lethal combat idea. I don’t know how it’s going to play out – maybe a bit like Batman: Arkham? – but I feel it’s absolutely needed after Lara became a serial killer in the new games. Seriously, Rambo has nothing on her and I really don’t know why they went that route.
Why would an archaeologist be so keen on murder? Indy had the excuse of Nazis, but I always felt that the moment Lara stopped reacting to all the deaths is when the first game, and the whole of the reboot trilogy, became less interesting.
The recruiting allies thing could be good too, my only problem being Lara’s supporting cast has always been rubbish and not only do I not want to see any of them back but I have doubts about the same people being able to come up with anyone better.
We’ll see though. I’m quietly optimistic at this point and if it is unveiled this summer that would be great. It seems ages since we have a proper reveal about something we know nothing about.
Trepsils
Inbox also-rans
I’m so upset Mark Strong isn’t doing the voice in Space Marine 2. That was by far the best bit in the original and I was playing just to hear him and his ridiculously gruff voice.
Dander
I know everyone liked that Leslie Nielsen in Resident Evil video one, so here’s Buzz Lightyear in Mass Effect by the same guy.
Ancel
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