The morning Inbox is not impressed by Sony’s back-tracking over Driveclub, as one reader fakes outrage at charitable GCers.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Appropriate length
I’m currently a couple of hours into Stick It To The Man on PS Vita and, while it is a good game, I was glad to see that it is only 5 to 6 hours in length. One thing I really appreciate about these smaller budget and indie games is their shorter running time.
Over the years I’ve had to drag myself to complete games I initially enjoyed (Or given up entirely on occasions as was the case with Assassin’s Creed II and Viewtiful Joe amongst others) because the developers are determined to make a game last 15+ hours whether the concept justifies it or not.
This often leads to what can only be described as ‘filler’ that is used just to artificially pad out a game. Going back to the examples I mentioned I recall an early mission in Assassin’s Creed II that required you to search for items around a villa that bored me to tears and that stupid boss run at the (I assume) end of Viewtiful Joe was just ridiculous. Give me a streamlined five hours over a longer game stuffed with filler any day.
drlowdon
PS: I am not saying all games should be short. I’ve put almost 80 hours into each of the Dark Souls games, as well as spending countless hours on games such as Fallout and Mass Effect but the concepts require them to be long games.
Toying with transfers
The announcement of the Nintendo figurines and how they will work on both 3DS and Wii U is probably the original idea which got twisted out of shape and became the Fusion console rumour.
As the old cynic that I am, I predict that the crossover features rumoured between the 3DS and Wii U Smash Bros. games will not be a simple transfer of a save file but will require the purchase of a figurine for every character individually. Now I suspect the games to work fine on their own, it will only be the transfer of data between the two games that will require the figurine.
It will probably be backdated to Mario Kart 7 and 8 too. Meaning a Mario figurine plus Mario Kart 7 will then unlock extras on the Wii U sequel.
PazJohnMitch
GC: The Fusion rumour is actually quite old, but we do think it’s very likely this is where all the talk of new hardware at E3 came from. You may be onto something with Smash Bros., although the 3DS NFP device won’t be out until next year and it’s the 3DS version of the game that’s out first this year. So maybe not.
The Xbox Live spirit
Am I the only person who’s horrified by the recent plague that’s blighting the Inbox? I am of course, referring to the selfless acts of giving, general feelings of togetherness and the overall outbreak of community spirit.
Come on people! We’re gamers, not hippies at a love in. We should be being incredibly offensive to one another and getting irrationally angry with little or no provocation. As the rest of you are clearly too busy with a massive group hug, I’ll get the ball rolling…
If you think Dark Souls II is hard then you’re just totally rubbish at games. I finished it without dying once, it was so easy. If you can’t get to the end, you must have hooves instead of hands and should give up gaming and start doing crown green bowling or taxidermy or something.
Hope you all feel suitably hurt,
Leafhelix (gamertag)
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Bearly stalking
I don’t know if any readers have seen Videogame Nation on Challenge…it’s not bad at all.
In the first episode, presenter Emily Hartridge wore a beaded, fitted vest-top with Houndstooth check Capri pants (I assume that, as the cameraman will not give us any full-length shots, preventing me from seeing below mid-thigh so I cannot keep a ‘footwear journal’ with appropriate screengrabs, never had this problem with Bits). She talked about some games and I think there was a man there… could have been a bear, I wasn’t paying attention.
In part two she changed into a very fetching black lace crop-top with a matching wet-look skirt. Once again, I cannot comment on length or footwear due to the aforementioned camera problems. She talked about more games and I think that bear was back.
I think Ms. Hartridge is a vegetarian according to what I could find whilst rummaging in her bins. She also throws away a lot of perfectly good toenail clippings.
Perksurx (PSN ID)
GC: We’re going to end up having to give your email address to the police, aren’t we?
Slowing down to South Park
You said that South Park: The Stick of Truth had, ‘Occasional frame rate problems when scrolling’. Well, that’s putting it mildly to say the least! On PlayStation 3 at least, the game becomes almost unplayable at times due to frame rate issues. It would be okay if was just the frame rates, but even the menus are a chore to navigate through, everything feels like it’s been coated in treacle. And please, do not get me started on the amount of loading screens I’m forced to sit through! Is the PlayStation 3 version particularly bad in these regards? Or is just me?
Unregardless (sic), the game itself is a joy. A great change of pace, particularly after sinking 100+ hours into Dark Souls II. I have spent most of my time so far just ambling through South Park, constantly giggling like a naughty school at the hi-jinks of the various characters I run into. As you say, it really is like watching an episode of the show, and that’s about the highest praise I can give it. It sort of reminds me of The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield although much, much better.
TheNudgeMan (PSN ID)
PS: ‘But we don’t approve of the use of any initialisms or acronyms, and you’ll see none in the Inbox… Well played GameCentral. Now I’m being pedantic. (I jest of course.)
GC: We are always the exception to the rule! As for South Park, we did review it on Xbox 360, but we don’t remember anyone else writing in to say the PlayStation 3 version was a lot worse.
Altering the deal
You’ve got to laugh. Originally the PlayStation Plus version of Driveclub was missing ‘a few cars and tracks’. Apparently ‘missing a few’ is now 40 cars or 80% of the total and 50 tracks, which is 90% of the total.
Now for me it doesn’t really matter, all a racing game does for me is give me an excuse to have a quick play about and enjoy the graphics. But I’m sure there will be some people that are plenty annoyed.
Obviously something went wrong with the development of Driveclub and Sony need to get back some of their investment. But I do feel like we’ve all been mis-sold the concept of Driveclub PlayStation Plus edition
There is a part of me that wonders if this is a new arrogance from Sony now that they are gaining a lead in the new generation.
irve77(gamertag)
GC: We’re not sure you can be mis-sold something that’s free. But yes, Driveclub does seem to have turned into a bit of mess – at least from a PR point of view.
Compelling horror
A final update to my ‘magic battery’ letter. Sadly, my respectful nightly bowing towards Japan has resulted in some rather pressing back twinges. So much so, a well respected doctor suggested my inability to straighten out may well be my own silly fault. But I was too clever for him. Seriously, if I wish to spend four weeks pretending to be a marble, then isn’t that my prerogative? Wish me luck!
CaptainFlibble
PS: What news of the compelling new horror, Sacrilegium? Things are far too quiet on that front. I’d even play it with my screen laid out on the floor if necessary. I’d still be fidgeting restlessly for The Evil Within of course. Long live the king!
GC: We don’t know anything new on Sacrilegium and it’s website doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2012. We are however going to a hands-on demo of The Evil Within later this month.
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Parallel generations
In response to Dom_V. I do feel that this generation came around too early, but then didn’t people say that about the last generation as well? By the end of the PlayStation 2 generation we had games like Burnout 3 and Resident Evil 4 which would have seemed impossible when the consoles first launched. It seemed like the existing consoles were sufficient for at least another year (especially the Xbox, which hadn’t been out that long) but Microsoft wanted to get a head start.
The standard joke on these pages was to mock the name ‘Xbox 360’ and point out that the games looked the same as those we already had. It’s a long time ago now but I remember reading GC on Teletext and letters were along the lines of, ‘someone should tell Microsoft that if you turn 360 degrees you end up back where you started- haha!’ (ahem). It was only once enough people had HD televisions got their consoles online that the last generation really hit its stride.
In fact every generation seems to have a varying degree of justification with some being immediately apparent that they offer something cutting edge and others taking a little longer to get going. I might need to be corrected but were the Master System and NES not seen as legitimate alternatives to Mega Drive and SNES that for years ran in parallel? There was no Internet coverage back then but the magazines I read had dedicated sections for each console and the Master System II in particular seemed to be aimed at a younger market or those looking for a budget option.
This ‘joint’ generation was defined by 2D platformers and beat ‘em-ups and unless you were a gamer I don’t think many people saw that much of a difference. My parents certainly didn’t. I remember asking for a Mega Drive (like the spoiled kid down the road) but ending up with ‘only’ the Master System.
Then the PlayStation generation came along and the market went crazy for anything 3D. Except for the odd SNES game this was completely new to most people (PC owners excepted). Even though in hindsight most of these games were smudgy messes, at the time it seemed like a huge step forward and is the biggest leap that I can remember.
The Xbox/PlayStation 2 refined 3D gaming and introduced online play, the latter of which really caught on in the last generation as I said before, but maybe the law of diminishing returns started as far back as this? I’m yet to see what the defining innovation of the current consoles will be now that Kinect and motion controls have been shown to be a dead end.
It all looks like a slightly more polished version of what I’ve already played and to be honest if you look at GTA V graphics don’t ‘need’ to be any better than this, but then I thought that about Resident Evil 4…
Matt A
GC: The Master System, and particularly the NES, were released much later in Europe than the rest of the world so their replacements caught up with them, as it was were, before they were meant to, and so there was indeed a period of overlap.
Inbox also-rans
After the Hot Topic about killer apps, how about the most you paid for a game? I paid £125 for Street Fighter II on PC Engine, plus £45 for a converter to play it on my Turbografx GT.
Mr HBK
GC: We have done one of those before, but that is an impressive commitment.
I’m sorry you don’t like Sonic Adventure, but that was a great game! If you really want to play a real bad one, I suggest Sonic The Hedgehog 2006.
weatherkid94
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?
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The small print
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