Games Inbox: Will the PS6 be a flop?

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The border
I’ve had a PlayStation 5 for almost three years now and the only exclusives I’ve played are Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and the Astro Bot game, and nothing else interests me. Oh, and a few PlayStation VR2 titles.

I can’t be an outlier. The PlayStation 4 seems like a good choice now, where the games were cutting edge but released relatively quickly and thickly and there was a lot of variety. I see no reason why I should have bought a PlayStation 5 and I have no desire to buy a PlayStation 6. Anecdotally, based on my own experience, I think next gen will fail.

The tipping point has been reached.
thewearehere (PSN ID)

Keep it small
I agree with the ex-Skyrim developer about modern open world games, and really modern games in general, feeling like they were made according to a checklist and committee thinking. And I can easily imagine that this is because there are so many people working on the game that any sense of artistic control disappears. At that point it’s just a production line and no one can know what everyone is doing.

Nintendo and FromSoftware, and most Japanese developers, have much smaller teams than Western developers, you can see that in the credits of their games. It seems like they benefit from that in all sorts of ways. Yes, maybe the graphics aren’t necessarily as good as they could be, but there are so many other advantages to smaller teams.

You can’t make an open world game with a small indie team, but think about what was done with No Man’s Sky and such a small group of people. It can be done, and the end result is better and, I would imagine, more profitable games.
Skooz

Secret harbours
I’m looking forward to the recently announced Donkey Kong Country Returns HD for the Switch, as I never had a chance to play it on the Wii or 3DS. Interestingly, the game already released in HD, with more traditional controls, for the Nvidia Shield in 2019.

The only other Wii games released were Zelda: Twilight Princess, which now feels outdated with the release of all the bells and whistles on the Wii U; Super Mario Galaxy 1, which presumably formed the basis for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection port; New Super Mario Bros. Wii; and Punch-Out!!

We’ve already had a new Mario port, but I imagine either this or Punch-Out!! will be out in the next year or two since the hard work has been done and it’s in Nintendo’s best interest to keep focusing on such a popular console. Are there any other secret Nintendo ports I don’t know about?
ANNOUNCED

Main class: These are pretty secret; they were only supposed to be available in China and weren’t available anywhere else. A little-known fact we can add is that Id Software’s first project was a pitch to Nintendo, for a PC version of Super Mario Bros. 3. Nintendo called it “impressive,” but told them they “didn’t want their intellectual property on anything other than their own hardware.”

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

Wii U too
I agree with reader James that the Switch 2 needs an extra stripe in the toothpaste instead of just more power. A portable device needs less power to have an effective battery. Nintendo games don’t need photorealism, they have artistic flair through professional animation and art abstraction and are better for it.

On-screen pointers, dual screens, 3D, color-coded controllers… it all worked fine, but as I wrote a year ago, Nintendo’s next move should be lightweight augmented specs.

Full VR will never be mainstream, but some sort of partial VR for inventory or maps would be awesome. Thinking back, the second screen on the Wii U gamepad was an underused delight. Maybe a different Wii U-esque secondary gamepad design?

Waiting for new Nintendo hardware is like waiting for a new Coen Brothers movie or a new Stephen King book: you know it’s a product designed with craftsmanship, love, and 200% effort.
Will Sargent

Get out of the way
I agree with Harvey, it’s not been a bad year for games and by this time next year the one game on everyone’s mind will be the massive GTA 6. By this time next year everyone will be counting down the days until that comes out.

I have a feeling it will come out sometime in October, the next Call Of Duty is coming out in December so sales won’t be affected. There won’t be anything big coming out between GTA 6 and about two months, next year is going to be a huge gaming year and it will only be one game.
David

The Evil Pig Returns
For fans of Beyond Good & Evil like myself, the recently released remaster will be available to pre-order on a physical version starting Friday via Limited Run Games. I’ll be picking up the PlayStation 5 version, but the game is also available on Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC in standard editions (but not for PC) and
Collectors editions.

Speaking of Limited Run Games, I’m thinking of getting a physical copy of Tomba! Special Edition. What’s GameCentral’s take on the first and second games? I’ve never played them and would love to give them a shot if GameCentral and readers have a good opinion. The originals are extremely expensive on PS1, so this will be a cheaper way to get a physical copy.

Please note that when ordering from Limited Run Games you will have to wait for them to produce the game and ship it to you after the pre-order period closes.
Andries J.
Just finished: Beacon Pines on PC (was very good!)

Main class: It’s been a long time since we’ve played either of those games. They were certainly interesting at the time, because of their non-linearity, but they were pretty basic platformers underneath.

Cheap travel
I see, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is currently 70% off on the PlayStation Store, which is a steal. I picked it up a while back through the Nintendo Store for a discounted price on the Switch.

I didn’t even know this game existed in 2019! Either way, it’s a mind-bending trip into a reality you’re trying to figure out, after waking up in a rundown hotel room with no memory of what happened before!

There is a dead body outside, behind the hotel, with clues to an incident with potentially major social consequences! But your mind needs to be brought back into order regarding who you are, what you are doing in the environment, and the meaning of your existential crisis. All you see around you is a brutal, pressured society ruled by governments with historically problematic ambitions, including trade and commerce with each other, but also war.

The workers hold union demonstrations and the company’s mercenaries threaten the citizens, which leads to discord and unrest in everyday life. It is an adult game that mainly revolves around a murder investigation, with very brutal topics that include ethical and psychological issues that some may find hard to digest! But you are guaranteed a very far-flung, graphically stunning story.

So clear out that literal mind palace and explore a city where literally anything can happen. The replayability is huge, as different routes and choices allow the story to branch off in so many different ways to find an ending that suits your character. You will never be the same after surviving this gaming experience, that’s for sure.
Aluminum card

No change
Since the game is turning 30 this year, I felt it would be rude not to play Super Metroid (on my Classic SNES Mini) again.

What a great game it still is. I’d love to know what other retro games GC/GC readers still think are as good as they were when they came out?
Adams6legend

Main class: Crazy Frog Racer is still as good today as it was in 2005.

Insultingly low
RE: Shadow Of The Erdtree 9/10 score. 9/10 is an insult to the game.

The cons of your review of Elden Ring: Shadow of Erdtree make no sense TLDR.

How are all:

32 new bosses, 70 new weapons, 10 new shields, 39 new talismans, 14 new sorceries, 28 new spells, 20 new spirit ashes, 25 new ashes of war, 30 new armor sets, 8 new fighting styles and a bunch of new crafting materials, no gameplay innovations? What other innovations do you want, being able to ride a dragon? Being able to sail a boat? Just being unfair, they gave us enough gameplay innovations.

The difficulty is more variable than the parent game, the difficulty is as variable as you make it with your playstyle. As for it being harder, if that’s what you meant, well, it extends beyond Elden Ring’s base game of levels 120-150, so it’s going to be more challenging, everything in the DLC should be harder than the base game.

The worst comment though is that the DLC is unnecessarily unclear to open. The DLC is not a separate story or add-on to the game that you can open separately from the main game, it is an extension of the main game’s story. There is nothing redundant about it, I don’t know much about the lore but Miquella, Mohg and Radahn are all connected to the Withered Arm and the Shadow Realm lore-wise and so it exists as it should, an extension towards the end of the Elden Ring game.

An option to simply skip the DLC wouldn’t make sense. If you’re playing the game with the idea of ​​quickly getting to the DLC after you’ve already played the base game, which you apparently have, then it’s going to feel like a chore to play the base game of Elden Ring, but that’s not how it’s meant to be played. How is that the game’s fault, and why would it negatively impact your review score?

You have to do better.
Valley

Main class: We think you’re way off the mark here, on almost everything; including whether or not 9/10 is a good score. Flying a dragon and sailing a boat would have been a great idea.

Inbox-also-rans
RE: Marvel Vs. Capcom characters. Alex, Saki, Zero, Mega Man X, Roll, Krauser, Soki, Frank West, Deadpool, Nightcrawler, and Black Panther.
Sight

Reader Vander asked what the best arcade racing games of all time are: Sega Rally 3 (Xbox 360), Excite Truck (Wii), and Cruis’n Blast (Switch).
Will Sargent

Main class: Please don’t just write lists, because without commentary they are too boring to read.

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

The small print
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