The morning Inbox is concerned again about the future of Capcom, as one reader wants to know what the best Mega Man games are.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Exceptional exception
As avowed Alien movie fans I can certainly understand why you’d be so excited about the pre-order bonuses for Alien Isolation, but wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that you were saying you didn’t understand why anyone pre-ordered and that it sent a bad message to publishers? I agreed with you then, and I’ll probably agree with you now if your excuse is (as I assume it will be) that this is the exception that proves the rule.
But it does show it’s impossible to make any generalisation about these sorts of issues, especially as you’ve already admitted the pre-ordering niche titles, which are unlikely to be easily available, is also reasonable.
Personally I never pre-order but I have to admit I am sorely tempted by this deal, especially as I assume Sega will just charge for the missions as extras if you don’t get them for free when you buy the game. I just wish Aliens: Colonial Marines hadn’t left such a nasty taste in the mouth.
Purple Ranger
GC: As exceptions to the rule go we’ve never seen any pre-order bonus even a tenth as interesting as the Alien Isolation one. Obviously we’d prefer it was part of the game as standard, but the other mitigating factor is that the game genuinely needs the extra exposure: it’s a big budget title that’s a genuine risk and part of a genre that hasn’t been mainstream for the best part of a decade. That, and the developer’s work is being unfairly (but understandably) judged against another game that has nothing to do with them. It’s the only big name game we could ever imagine pre-ordering ourselves, so until there are more that break the mould in the same way we’ll maintain our otherwise negative stance on the issue.
Proof of life
Does GC have any idea about what we can expect from Gamescom next month? Do publishers tell you what they’re going to have at these events ahead of time and just make you sign NDAs? I ask because I’m really hoping that Capcom have some big announcements up their sleeve, since they had nothing at E3 and I don’t think anyone uses the Tokyo Game Show for big reveals any more.
Capcom used to be my favourite publishers but I really worry about them nowadays. They’ve ruined Resident Evil 6 and they don’t seem to have any interest in any of the old series that made them great, just Western made rubbish like Dead Rising. I know people were talking about Nintendo buying them the other week, but I worry they’re going to be broken up or sold to some oily smartphone company or something.
We’ve not even heard much about Deep Down since it was annocued, which is so odd to me because the graphics looked amazing.
Ishi
GC: None of the major publishers have said anything about Gamescom yet, and most of the time they don’t tell anyone about the big reveals anyway – since games journos are pretty terrible at keeping secrets (except us of course).
Hellish trailer
Maybe I missed the memo but I was shocked when I stumbled across this trailer for a Heavenly Sword movie and found out it’s a real thing that’s actually happening. I mean.. who wants this? The game wasn’t a big hit, there was never any sequel, and I there’s nothing memorable about the characters or story. Actually scratch that, I do remember that Andy Serkis did a lot of the voices and motion capture but… he’s not in it.
The thing that gets me is that the game looks hardly any better than the game, which was quite an early PlayStation 3 game. Watching a Let’s Play on YouTube would be almost the same. And man, that dialogue… I particularly liked the bit about the heroine (I forget her name) being ‘on her own’ when she wasn’t in the game and the trailer actually has a shot with her pal that always helps out (I forget her name too).
Just… why does this exist? Why?
PolloP
GC: We hadn’t seen it before either. It looks and sounds terrible.
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Mobile reviews
Oh dear, I found myself completely incapable of reading the word ‘warmongering’ in your Civilization Revolution 2 review for a good ten seconds. I was thinking to myself ‘warm on what?!’
Anyway, the review reminded me of an idea I had a while ago for a Hot Topic (it is my quest in life to have an idea used for a Hot Topic). I know there’s a lot to loathe about the rise of smartphone games but there’s also some gems to be found. I was thinking people could send in their own mini-reviews of their favourite iOS or Android games? Maybe a maximum of three per person and scores would probably be unnecessary because we’d only be picking the games we really enjoyed.
Dominic
GC: We probably won’t insist they have to be reviews, but okay we’ll try and do a smartphone-related Hot Topic next week.
Sticking it to the norm
After all the reader appreciation of South Park: The Stick Of Truth I decided to treat myself, and so far it’s turning out to be a very refreshing change to the norm. The amount of references to the show is awesome and some of the humour is genuinely great – also acknowledging that it is a game many times, too.
Furthermore, the depth of the gameplay seems good – I’m only level 3 but there seems like a lot of tactics and strategy involved. Also loving the fighting animations and sound effects for the special moves.
I don’t know how much it cost to make the game but it’s very pleasant to play a game based on a franchise which is actually fun to play, and doesn’t just exist to milk your well earned beans. Or something.
Brando M83
GC: Well, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were involved and happen to be keen gamers, so that obviously helped. We doubt even Ubisoft know how much the game cost to make though as it went through severe development problems even before the collapse of original publisher THQ.
A real game
After the reader suggest it I now won’t consider my life complete unless we get a BioShock game made by the guys that did Wolfenstein. I really can’t say enough good things about that game, and that’s even though I’m willing to admit the flaws people always mention. It’s the first single-player game that felt like it actually was… a game in ages. Even though some of it involved just walking around and there was a lot of story it was an experience that you couldn’t imagine ever happening in a video game.
Things like Call Of Duty are fine but they’re basically just interactive roller coasters that rip off whatever the big movie was the previous year. Wolfenstein though… the weird mood swings were actually my favourite bit. Games do that all the time and I’m sick of them trying to be like movies.
But by the end of Wolfenstein I’d not only played a great shooter but I’d really grown to like the characters, and given how cheesy the final boss battle was I was real cut up about it all. Considering the plot made a Michael Bay movie look plausible I think that’s quite an achievement.
Pinky
Drake dies at the end
With some GC readers wanting to find out how Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is going to turn out I am going to let rip with some ‘major story spoilers’ (dun dun dun). In the second act of A Thief’s End Nathan finally finds what he has been looking for through all four games. Which turns out to be Sir Francis Drake’s tax returns, which still need to be filled away.
Once located the player travels back to the good ol’ USA and Nathan and Sully go back to their day jobs at the accountancy firm Sully & Co. and the game ends with Sully shouting from his glass-walled office for Nathan to go grab him a coffee.
Shura_Charger (PSN ID)
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
MOBAphobia
Having been a long term fan of OddWorld Inhabitants I lamented their disappearance after the release of Stranger’s Wrath it was rather lovely to see them return and great to hear more from Mr Lanning, who has long been a favourite games type person because he talks such sense.
Anyway, my main reason for writing is the news that a first person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is on its way from Gearbox but if it is anything like Dota 2 I would rather visit a wasps nest and tap it a few times with a newspaper.
A friend asked me to try Dota 2 recently and whilst I thought the presentation was absolutely top notch and the graphics were charming I found it to be utterly tedious. Tactics are a major factor in whether a team wins or loses but I found the prescribed rules of play to be so limiting that I would have had just as much fun randomly clicking around my desktop.
To skip to another topic, I truly hope that at some point the marketing men are culled from the industry and the mainstream games market make a unified move away from the diminishing returns of chasing reality in favour of fun and innovation.
Big Lizafish (gamertag)
PS: Though my opinion frequently opposes Mr Up4Banter’s I thoroughly enjoyed his feature at the weekend. Well done sir.
PPS: Also sorry to Mr Zen for being a bit tetchy the other night.
GC: We know as much as you do about Bloodborn at the moment, but given their approach to dungeon crawlers with Borderlands we expect it’ll only be loosely adapted from traditional MOBAs.
Inbox also-rans
I know you’ve already had plenty of praise over your Lorne Lanning interview but I just have to say what an excellent, if depressing, piece it was. I’ll definitely be buying New ‘N’ Tasty, this guy, and others like him, deserve our support.
dyniner (PSN ID)
After downloading and enjoying Mega Man Maverick Hunter X on the PS Vita, I was wondering if you know the better games in the series to pick up?
Simon
GC: We can’t pretend it’s our favourite franchise but Mega Man 2 and 3 (both NES games) and Mega Man X4 (PS one) are generally regarded as the best. There’s also Maverick Hunter X sister title Mega Man Powered Up, a remake of the very first game in the series – although the gameplay and art style is very different. We also enjoyed the Mega Man Battle Network spin-off series on Game Boy Advance.
This week’s Hot Topic
Although this year isn’t as bad as some we’re now well into the traditional summer games drought, with not a single retail game of note released all month.
So for this weekend’s Inbox we want to know what you, as gamer, do during this time? Do you take the hint and not play much in the way of video games, or does the lack of new titles make no difference to your usual routine? Do you find the uneven release schedules, where most games are released in the autumn and winter, irritating or does that match up well to when you actually play/buy them?
How important are video games in your life, in terms of the amount of time you spend playing them and compared to to other interests and hobbies? And does it bother you that even the industry itself doesn’t seem to consider them something you do all the year round?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
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