The morning Inbox starts up its own Mario Golf: World Tour tournament, as one reader argues in favour of a one format future.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Hybrid heaven
While ordinarily I’d view the idea of Nintendo releasing another piece of hardware not long into the life of either the 3DS or Wii U negatively, I can’t help be a little disappointed that rumours of an announcement at E3 appear unfounded. A replacement for the Wii U is certainly out of the question when they’re making such a push for it with the release of Mario Kart 8. But it’d be something of a masterstroke in my view if they replaced the 3DS with a new Wii U compatible handheld.
Technically feasible and at a competitive price, they’d probably need to ditch the dual screen feature, certainly the 3D, making it closer in appearance and technology to the PlayStation Vita, thereby affording a screen closer in size to the GamePad. Backwards compatibility with the 3DS could be achieved for most games and, where possible, mapping the second screen functionality onto the larger single screen.
Upon its release the handheld would be graced with a formidable back catalogue of underperforming WiiU software, downloadable in the first instance, and all forthcoming releases that being on a high definition system would showcase the new technology. A ‘premium’ version including the hardware, cables, controllers, sensitivity bar and so on, to rig it up to a television could be sold in addition.
The pay off for Nintendo would be enormous. All software could be designed for just one system, effectively doubling the output of what hitherto was available on a single format. This would allow for more niche-oriented and experimental software with third party publishers having a major incentive for producing software on it. The success of the handheld division, particularly in Japan, would map directly to sales of consoles, giving Nintendo a significant commercial advantage over Sony and Microsoft.
By offering mobile flexibility for home-oriented entertainment in the form of a handheld/console hybrid, it could also help ensure the viability of the console market. It would need a distinctive name, unrelated either to the Wii or DS branding.
It would be a great move for Nintendo, for the industry as a whole and even better for gamers. It’d provide a lifeline to the Wii U, enabling Nintendo to plough all their resources into making games for it irrespective how it is currently selling. Phasing out the Wii U after releasing the hybrid, by centring production on one likely successful machine, production costs, investment in research and design as well as marketing would all be reduced.
Given their well-documented travails, the direction in which the industry appears to be heading and the fact there has been no announcements on forthcoming software for the 3DS, there are strong reasons to suspect this is on the cards. I’ll be surprised in fact if something along these lines isn’t already at an advanced stage of design, close to production and released within the next year or so, possibly even this year.
Luma
GC: It does seem likely and Nintendo themselves have even hinted at it, but it’s the timing that’s the real question. When all this would happen is almost impossible to guess at, but E3 2014 did always seem to soon.
Sick list
Well, all I have to do is try to play (but this time complete) Deus Ex: Human Revolution without feeling dizzy and nauseous again and my ‘must play games’ list is complete! My list included Catherine, L.A. Noire, Far Cry 3 and so on.
Admittedly, I crossed some out: Batman: Arkham City, The Last Of Us, etc. for different reasons. I’m wondering if I’ve missed any ground-breaking or great games of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 generation. So has GameCentral or any other games website, etc. compiled a ‘must play games’ list?
Darren
GC: We did an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 list back in 2011, but haven’t updated it since. But we have to ask, why did you skip Batman: Arkham City and The Last Of Us when they’re probably more highly regarded than the other ones you listed?
You know his name
I have loved Sonic The Hedgehog since the first Mega Drive game, it’s a classic. So is Sonic The Hedgehog 2, my brother (as Tails) and I co-oped that game before co-op was a gaming term. Recently, I still remembered where all of the warp rings are in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, having not played the game for about 10 years so I could become Hyper Sonic at the earliest possible opportunity – which kind of breaks the game but I’ve completed every Mega Drive Sonic game so many times it doesn’t matter.
They are all incredibly replayable, like watching a favourite film. I also liked Sonic 4 (yeah, that was me), it was good fun. Sure it felt slightly different but it felt good and I’ll take what I can get when it comes to that hedgehog. Sonic Generations was excellent, loved it, more of that please Sega. Basically, I love Sonic the Hedgehog.
Reading the killer app Hot Topic has prompted me to write in because having downloaded the Sonic Anniversary pack on PSN a few years ago I remember excitedly starting to Sonic Adventure for the very first time and… it’s terrible. Huh… I thought it was supposed to be good so I persevered. Nope, pretty terrible. Keep going, I love Sonic. Man, what a slog that game is, I managed to finish the Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles levels but unless the other character levels fix the appalling camera, awkward controls, boring bosses, uninspired level design, laughable physics, tedious role-playing elements and broken world that you will fall through if Sonic goes fast(!) then I don’t think I’m missing out never finishing this game 100% like the other games I listed.
I tried, really I did but as much as I love Sonic (not said Sonic in a while) the boredom and frustration is not worth it. Still, Sonic CD was in the pack and I hadn’t played that before either and that more than made up for Adventure once I understood it as a puzzle game starring (last time) Sonic.
Beastiebat (PSN ID)
GC: Sonic Adventure was never any good. It just looked quite nice and was better than most of the other 3D games that came after it.
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
GC Tour
For those of you that are currently enjoying Mario Golf: World Tour can I take this opportunity to recommend the equally as good Mario Tennis Open. It took me a while to get used to all the special shots but once I did it turned into a very addictive and surprisingly tactical game, especially playing doubles. I can even hold my own online… on the odd occasion.
I have created a tournament on Mario Golf for GC readers. It’s open for seven days, until about 21:30 on Sunday 11th. Any readers who would like to participate simply search for a private tournament by code. Good luck! GameCentral Open 20-9680-3037-0786
DevilRed79 (PSN ID/NN ID)
PS: No alcohol permitted on the course.
Old problem
Having recently completed Star Fox Adventures I was moved to read the sad story of SolidPete82 and his epic struggle against that stupid rail-shooter part with the towers (Games Inbox, April 17th) Stupid, because that flying dinosaur never avoids any missiles for all its weaving, which only makes shooting them harder. It’s probably worse than the Test of Strength, which – public service announcement – can at least be won quite reliably using a pen, side of a thumb, or basically anything that can rubbed from side to side rapidly over the button.
Anyway, when the missiles first launch it’s fairly simple to compensate for the camera motion and shoot most down, but as they close in, two extra factors make it seem inevitable that some get through. The screen distance between them increases due to perspective, not usually a problem except they also turn increasingly sharply to compensate for homing in on a weaving target. Even anticipating when the camera will turn far enough for them to be visible, the cursor can’t be moved fast enough if they are approaching from both sides. As they frequently do.
So, expect to take some hits, and let one missile through rather than leave the cursor out of position for several. If you can keep it down to no more than three hits per run, you’re doing well. Sometimes you might take no hits if the random spread is in your favour. A steady rhythm is required on the fire button while the missiles are approaching, and don’t even consider shooting the tower until they are all gone. Then, train the cursor over the tower target, holding it there even as you turn the corner, and step up the firing rate to manic hammering. Get this right and each tower will fall on your second pass, so you’ll only have to endure eight rounds of pain.
When you do hopefully beat this part, there’s something to beware of fairly soon afterwards. If you want to revisit areas or cash-in cheat tokens, don’t save at any point after entering the fifth Krazoa Shrine.
DaveWaves
Lack of finish
Here I am, getting stuck into Mass Effect. The combat controls are a bit clunky and I unintentionally made the shape of my FemShep’s head to be hideous (will I be able to make changes when I start Mass Effect 2?). For all the minor faults, it’s all shaping up to be an epic game, potentially the most epic one I’ll have ever played.
However, therein lies the problem, as I’m worried I’ll once again leave the game unfinished. To make things worse, I couldn’t resist the temptation of getting Pokémon X, when I saw it second-hand for the equivalent of £13. My logic being I paid about £20 for Pokémon Black (also unfinished), so it made sense at the time…
ttfp saylow (gamertag)
Now playing: Mass Effect, Pokémon X
GC: You can change your Shepard’s features at the beginning of the second game.
Dark horse
I was perusing the release schedules the other day and I noticed a game called Bound By Flame due for release this Friday (May 9th) on last gen consoles, PC and PlayStation 4, but not Xbox One strangely. Anyway I’d never actually heard of this game and there isn’t a great deal online about it either, it seems to be a Witcher style role-playing game but there doesn’t seem to be any in-depth features or previews of the game anywhere in games magazines or online. I’ve never even heard of the developers, Spiders. All I found are brief descriptions and a couple of gameplay videos.
On the face of it this doesn’t bode well for a game that will arrive in the shops almost stealthily but, to be honest, it actually looks OK in the videos, there’s even a touch of Dark Souls about it. Bearing this in mind I was wondering if GC knows much about the game or if you’ve got a review lined up any time soon?
dyniner(PSN ID)
GC: We’ll try to have a review, but they haven’t sent it to us in advance yet. At the moment we know nothing about it other than apparently it is a bit like Dark Souls.
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
One format fantasy
I’ve said in the past that at least Microsoft and Sony should make a console as a joint enterprise (Nintendo will always want to do their own thing) rather than being rivals. If you explained the current PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One situation to a stranger who knew nothing about gaming then what would be their reply?
‘There are two games consoles that were both designed independently at huge expense over a number of years to be almost exactly the same as each other and very similar to a PC. One has slightly more memory, but this is almost never used as most games have to come out on both systems. The other has less memory to keep the price down so a camera add-on can be included, but only two games that actually use it have been released. Only eight exclusive disc-based games are currently scheduled to be released for the consoles in the whole of 2014′.
I’m sure they would say that was crazy. Developers would have so much to gain from a shared format:
- Half the research and development costs.
- Half the hardware losses (both companies would make their own branded consoles, but they would be internally the same and play the same games).
- Extra sales in Japan for Microsoft, extra sales in the US and UK for Sony.
- Microsoft’s huge cash reserve could pay more of the upfront costs
- Extra sales for first party games (PlayStation owners would buy Halo or Gears Of War, Microsoft owners would buy Gran Turismo or The Last Of Us).
- No money spent on conversion costs.
- No money spent on exclusive content (Assassin’s Creed IV, FIFA series) or exclusivity periods (Call Of Duty) or third party exclusives (Titanfall, Splinter Cell: Blacklist).
- No money spent on making ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ games to match the other console’s exclusives, e.g. Killzone 2, Forza Motorsport, etc. that sell far fewer copies.
- No need to rush games or consoles to market to beat their rivals.
- Less advertising spend on consoles.
While consumers get more too:
- Only have to buy one console rather than two (Nintendo fans excepted).
- The best of both worlds from Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus.
- Companies don’t need to price gouge or have rip-off downloadable content in order to turn a profit.
- Less risk of an industry-wide crash.
- A larger userbase can allow some (slightly) riskier titles to be made.
- If you think that less formats or a single format would mean prices would rise, there’s no evidence of that.
- If they tried charging £100 a game for example, sales would be pathetic so they would be forced to lower the price back down to normal or lose a fortune on a developing a £100 million+ game that no-one bought.
Jean-Paul Satire
Inbox also-rans
With all this fuss about a lack of software on the Xbone/PlayStation 4 and also the fact that we are already getting re-releases from the last gen has got me thinking… I would love Ubisoft to re-release Far Cry 3 on the new consoles. Put it in 1080p and 60 frames per second and I’m sold! I think that is one game that would benefit from the extra processing available.
KingShomari (PSN ID)
There’s a Kickstarter for Harmonix to bring back an updated Amplitude for PlayStation 3/4. Details here if you fancy getting involved.
Rolph
This week’s Hot Topic
The talking point for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader DarkSapphire, who asks what video game has the best soundtrack?
Regardless of the quality and nature of the game itself which do you think has the best music? And not just in terms of one memorable tune but overall consistency and how much it adds to the experience. Did the music make an immediate impression or is it something you only registered after several hours of play?
Generally speaking how important is music to you when playing a video game and have you ever played a game more than you otherwise would because of its soundtrack – or less because it had a bad one? Do you play your own music at the same time as playing a game and if so what have you found to be a good mix?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
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