What is the best gaming console?

Monday’s letters page asks what the future holds for FromSoftware and Soulslikes, as one reader has an unlikely theory about Emio.

To join the discussions yourself, email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The best of the best
There’s been a lot of reminiscing about the Xbox 360 lately, in light of Microsoft’s questionable plans for its future, and I have to admit I look back on the old console with a lot of fondness. Some have said it’s their favorite ever, which got me wondering if it was mine too.

It’s definitely up there. I think the other big contenders are the SNES, the PlayStation 2, and the Switch. The SNES, while definitely the best of the retro era, clearly doesn’t have a lot of the genres that are on other systems, including computer systems at the time, so for me that’s out of the question. The PlayStation 2 is the absolute golden age of the early 3D phase, but going back to the games can be a bit of a culture shock.

The Switch is probably the overall winner, but since it’s still around I’ll pretend that means it doesn’t count. So in my opinion, the Xbox 360 is the best console ever, or at least the best retro console. It was innovative, had great exclusives, and a huge variety of game types – exactly what you’d expect from a classic console.

Microsoft should have built on that and added more Japanese support, but unfortunately they focused on Kinect instead and nothing from them was ever as good again. Still, no one can take the Xbox 360 era away from them, because it’s still my favorite.
Frankie

Scary bargains
Regarding the letter to the editor about their cheap games bundle last Friday. I saw that SOMA is on sale on the PlayStation Store for £2.39! I don’t think anyone can say no to this opportunity. The Amnesia collection is also going for £3.59. These deals are valid until July 17th.

There’s also a Frictional games bundle, which includes the aforementioned plus Amnesia: Rebirth and Amnesia: The Bunker for £51.79, but I’d recommend being patient as both of these games have also been heavily discounted individually in the past. These deals seem to only apply to PlayStation 4, so I’m not sure if they’ll be playable on PlayStation 5, but I can’t imagine why not.

If you’re worried about getting your little ones dirty, the money you save can easily cover the cost of laundry detergent.
D Dubya

Main class: These are excellent deals, we recommend them both. Not all of the Amnesia games are good, but The Bunker is the best since the first one. They all work on PlayStation 5.

Exclusive rumor
At the risk of being completely off base with the vague live-action teaser for ‘Who is Emio?’, I predict a local multiplayer game that encourages households to have more than one Switch to get the most out of the game.

Something along the lines of Cluedo, a kind of murder mystery.

I know it’s a wild guess, but the live-action trailer showing someone with a bag over their head could be any of us, and the close-up of the four fingers could indicate the number of players.
Bad editing

Main class: Have you ever considered working as a video game rumor monger?

Please email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Home rivalry
To me, Xbox is about to give up on the console market and if the rumors are true and they’re only interested in North America, what’s the point of a new console? I know they’ve said they’re working on it, but they do a U-turn every three months.

Now that Game Pass is out on Amazon Fire Stick there is no need for another console from them. It will be much cheaper to bring Game Pass to other devices which is a shame since Sony is the only home console on the market that they could charge what they wanted for PlayStation Plus and their games.
David

Nonsense talk
I bought the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door because my TV no longer has a SCART port. It was a good way to play the game again.

Does the original have that annoying blub sound when people talk? I don’t know what else to call it, but it’s just so annoying that I have a hard time playing it – I’d rather have silence.

It’s terrible.
Simon

Main class: Yeah, it’s the same as always. If you don’t like that, make sure you never play Banjo-Kazooie.

Retro rocket
Rocket Knight Adventures: Resparked just arrived this Friday, in the mail, from Limited Run Games. I had pre-ordered it for the PlayStation 4 ages ago. It’s a crime that the original title never found a home on a 16-bit mini-console. It comes with three games: the two Mega Drive installments and the SNES version of the sequel, which I don’t think was ever released here? Anyway, I never owned a SNES back in the day, so this was new to me.

The SNES title seems to be business as usual, except the bad guys now look like dogs. Or jackals, maybe. Also, in the first level, they can transform into their dog form from rocks! Creepy.

There was also a fun comic book. A roommate of mine had never seen the giant mech boxing match, so I decided to show him the game. I’m in my early 40s now and haven’t played any of the games in at least 15 years. I was very rusty and had to use the rewind function liberally! It probably didn’t help that I started it after 9pm.

It’s still a lot of fun, even though my middle-aged bones protested afterwards. Loudly. It’s probably the best thing Konami has done in a long time. I mean, they had to at least allow it, right?
DMR

Main class: Sparkster was released in Europe in 1994.

Virtual upgrade
I see there is a free update for the Gorn PlayStation VR game for PlayStation VR2, which GameCentral wrote a good review about.

This is the first time I have a free update on PlayStation VR2, because you either have to pay to upgrade or there is no option. I will gladly pay to upgrade if it means that PlayStation VR games I have purchased are playable on PlayStation VR2. Here is a trailer for Gorn which is quite humorous.
Andries J.
Currently playing: The Touryst (PS5 version)

Change of environment
So I’ve finally finished Shadow Of The Erdtree and that means I’m now up to date with all my FromSoftware games and any Soulslikes I’m interested in at the moment. Since it’s still a while until the next one, I thought I’d take stock of where we are with the genre and what I’d like to see next.

My first thought is that I definitely think the open world works. I was against it at first, but by mixing in legacy dungeons I found it worked perfectly and added a lot more options to how you approach things. I would like a different setting though. While I did dig into the lore and figure out what was going on, it wasn’t all that different from Dark Souls and I can’t see what George RR Martin would have added to it.

Personally, I agree that it’s long overdue that we see a sci-fi setting. There are plenty of ways From could maintain a gothic feel with sci-fi and while there is some question as to how the combat would work, given that you don’t want to be shooting people with a laser from a mile away, I’m sure they can come up with something.

Recently we had Dune, which relies almost entirely on melee combat, so all you have to do is find an excuse and you’re in. Warhammer 40,000 is also heavily melee-focused, even Jedi and lightsabers, so I don’t think that would be too much of a problem.

Steampunk could also be a good compromise, or maybe an alternative fantasy setting like underwater or ancient Greece where all the myths are real. What I’m saying is that Elden Ring perfected the gameplay, in my opinion, so now it’s just a matter of varying the presentation.
Slimeball

Inbox-also-rans
I like the idea of ​​a reverse Switch Lite for Nintendo’s next console, with more power but not portable. I can’t imagine they’d do that. They’ve never been interested in attracting that kind of audience or needlessly expensive hardware.
Janssen

So not really related to games, even though they’ve certainly inspired and appeared in many games since then. But what order would you put these four, arguably the best action movies: RoboCop, Die Hard, Aliens, and Predator? (That’s my order, by the way.)
Liam

Main class: That’s tough, especially since RoboCop has qualities that go beyond just an action movie. But hey… Aliens, Die Hard, RoboCop and Predator.

Please email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes on the weekend. Reader letters are used on a merit basis and may be edited for length and content.

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