The Monday Inbox is impressed by how early The Last Of Us Part 2 Amazon reviews are, as one reader gives up on Assassin’s Creed Unity.
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The end of summer
So things are getting serious now in terms of video game delays, what was previously down to incompetence is now down to the coronavirus and I’m beginning to worry that we may not see many more big releases this year. It’s becoming clear the problem is not just finishing the games but whether anyone has any money to spend on them.
My most anticipated game of this year is Cyberpunk 2077, which ironically would’ve been perfect if it had it its original release date this month as it’s the perfect thing to keep you occupied when everyone’s stuck in lockdown. But as many have pointed out, including games execs, the last thing most people are going to want to do as soon as the lockdown stops, hopefully mid to late summer, is stay indoors and play a video game.
And what is Cyberpunk 2077’s current release date? 17 September. That is prime ‘At last we can go out and it’s still reasonably warm out, we better take advantage of it before the second wave of the virus in the winter’. I don’t think anyone would want to work on a game for six years and then have it be a dud, that only becomes successful months later. Even if CD Projekt don’t think like that you can bet lots of publishers will, and I can’t say they’re wrong.
Pascal
Not-PlayStation exclusive
I’m responding to Paulson’s email about the Xbox Series X launch titles. I too find it odd that the console wouldn’t launch with anything besides Halo Infinite.
I really enjoy Halo but the series has definitely lost its edge with 4 and 5. It’s not the killer app that the series once was and Microsoft surely know that.
What does surprise me is that the console wouldn’t launch with Forza Horizon 5. That seems like a blindly obvious, crowd-pleasing (and Dom-pleasing) move. It doesn’t seem hard to argue that Horizon and Ori are the Xbox’s jewels in the crown these days.
But perhaps I’m not reading between the lines, and ‘Xbox-only launch title’ means Horizon 5 might also launch on PC at the same time.
So let’s hope Microsoft are being coy.
Dom
GC: Xbox, first and foremost, refers to the brand nowadays, rather than the console. Anything that comes out as an Xbox exclusive is automatically also released on PC. So strictly speaking it’s a console exclusive, or more specifically a not-PlayStation exclusive (considering Cuphead and the first Ori are on Switch).
Leap of faith
I’ve already made my mind up a long time ago, I’m getting PlayStation 5 and will pre-order for day one delivery. Why, you ask? Look at what’s came out for PlayStation 4 and Xbox. Xbox, you can count their games on one hand. I don’t care about theirs being more powerful, I don’t care if it has 99 teraflops, there is nothing to play on it. Really, in two years that console will be half price and that’s without release dates being changed, whereas PlayStation 5… yes, some games will change but some will not. Some will be a simple update for a game that came out on PlayStation 4 to play on PlayStation 5.
In all honesty I don’t get Xbox, they are bringing out a new console but hoping third party developers will prop it up till their games are ready. Why spend £500, at least, on their machine when I can buy a machine cheaper that will do round about the same, gave or take. for me Microsoft are going the wrong way about it, they should be saying we got these games coming out, that’s why you should buy it.
One of the biggest problem though is PC. They say it will come out on PC at the same time, so why would someone go out and buy Xbox Series X when their PC will play it? PC is killing the reason to go out and buy a console. That’s my view anyway, others will disagree and they’re entitled to the opinion.
David
GC: If you’d taken this attitude with the PlayStation 3 we can’t help but imagine you’d have been very disappointed. But neither company has announced the price of their consoles and the only ones that have revealed any games are Microsoft, with Halo Infinite and Hellblade 2. Also, Sony are rumoured to be releasing some, or maybe all, of their games on the PC.
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Busywork: The Game
I hope everyone is all good considering a lot of us all have to stay in but on the plus side I have had a lot more gaming time than usual.
I recently started playing Assassin’s Creed Unity, the first one in this series that I’ve played for a long time, and it has brought back memories of why I didn’t really like them. There is a lot to do, which is great, but 80% of it is just collecting chests or whatever the little rosette things are.
I enjoyed the crime quests and the main story but I spent most of my time running around collecting chests just to satisfy the OCD in me. I’ve got Assassin’s Creed Origins to play through, but I think I may have reached my limit for the series if it’s along the same lines. Luckily Final Fantasy 7 Remake is just around the corner so I may just wait for that!
Chris
GC: Unity was always one of the worst one.
Decent foundation
Are you going to review the new Control DLC, The Foundation? I’m currently going through the base game and while it is very enjoyable, I do get your criticism about it not being weird enough.
So far, I have only been going through a concrete office building fighting human-like enemies with guns. The psychic powers though are lots of fun and the highlight of the game. Only wish they were put to better use than fighting waves of respawning enemies in an office building.
Ali K
GC: It does get weirder later, bit still not as odd as we were expecting form all their talk. We don’t generally review DLC unless it’s very long or very different to the parent game, which we don’t believe is the case for The Foundation.
Doomed to be expensive
I have been enjoying Doom 64 on the Switch and looked at downloading Doom 2016. It is available but for the eye watering price of £50! CeX has the Xbox version listed as £6 pre-owned while the Switch version is £42. It’s a similar story with Wolfenstein.
The so-called Switch tax is well known but this to me seems rather extreme. I know Nintendo games rarely come down in price, but I expected third party games to come down at least a little.
Barry
GC: We suspect the physical version for Switch is fairly rare. It’s on Amazon, for full price, but it’s not even listed on GAME or ShopTo.
WTH Moon Studios
I wrote in the other day saying how much I’m enjoying Ori And The Will Of The Wisps. I have now completed and collected everything and did all side quests. The game crashed on me completely six times, taking me out of the game. Even after I defeated Shriek the game crashed, so I had to fight her again. The game froze on me hundreds of times.
The icing on the cake is the game didn’t give me three Achievements for getting all the health, strength, and finishing the game. I read online that these Achievements are broken. Such a shame to leave a bad taste after with all the bugs is a fantastic game. Please try and fix it the developers Moon. Probably can’t now due to lockdown but soon Moon.
woz 007 (gamertag)
GC: Are you sure you have the patch, because it was largely fixed a few days after launch. Or did they release another patch that caused new problems? Either way, Moon don’t have any central offices and everyone already works from home, in lots of different countries, so they haven’t got that excuse.
Nostradamus reviews…
I am looking forward to when The Last Of Us Part 2 comes out and understand why they delayed it, I have it on Amazon wishlist and for a while I have noticed that it had 3 stars out of 5, even though it is not even out yet.
I clicked on it to see how possibly anybody can review it and some of the reviews and questions about the game are quite funny.
Andrew J.
PS: I don’t know if this is a good idea or not for a Hot Topic but what is your favourite DLC for a game?
Unique stats
You know how games companies often like to boast about their games, releasing tons of stats like numbers of concurrent players, hours played, etc…?
I like to think there’s some Nintendo execs looking at the Animal Crossing stats, thinking ‘How shall we obliterate all the gaming stats out there?’
ttfp saylow (gamertag)
Now playing: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Batman: The Telltale Series
GC: It’s going to end up being number of coconuts collected or something like that.
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Reverse psychology
Given Nintendo’s predilection for doing the opposite of what everyone expects, I’ve become increasingly concerned by the confidence with which people assume that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be included in the mooted collection of remakes or remasters, which have so far only been rumoured to include Super Marios 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy 1.
Therefore, to redress the balance and remove the temptation for Nintendo to do the completely unexpected, I’ll go ahead and predict that Galaxy 2 will be omitted from said bundle. Perhaps they’ll see more profit to be made from a separate download once people have acquired a taste for the series, rather than wasting further resources on an inclusion that likely won’t increase sales of the original collection.
In any case, it gives me no pleasure to announce this prediction, but I do so in the hope that it somehow deters the Big N from its usual strategy of taking the road less imagined. Now it’s on record that someone’s thought of it, so just… don’t go there, Ninty. The gig’s up, so the bigger surprise would be to do what I’ve said you won’t.
That’s how it works! Probably?
Dynamite Headdy
Currently reading: Reverse Psychology For Dummies
GC: That prediction makes no sense, so given it’s Nintendo there’s a 50/50 chance it’ll happen. Although let’s see if the original rumour is true first.
Inbox also-rans
Been playing Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic on my Xbox 360. They look amazing. 1 and 2 are both on sale on the store, for just over £3 each. Highly recommended.
Gasget
Was wondering if we’ll be seeing a review of Good Job on Nintendo Switch from you guys. Seen good stuff on it in terms of reviews but, for games I’m not sure of, I trust your opinion most. Keep up the great work during these difficult times.
Lord Crump
GC: Thanks, we hope to but between it launching out of the blue and Final Fantasy 7’s embargo being earlier than expect our review schedules are a bit of a mess at the moment.
This week’s Hot Topic
The question for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Tenhunter, who asks what retro video game would you most recommend to a modern gamer as something they’d enjoy today? Especially given so many people are currently stuck at home with nothing new to play.
Assuming retro means anything from the PlayStation 2 era backwards (including PC games up to 2006) what games do you think have held up the best, and why? What games have aged well and which ones, even if they’re considered classics, do you think are now hard to appreciate for someone that didn’t play them the first time round?
Have you been playing many retro games during lockdown and are there any you regularly getting out when stressed or bored?
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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
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