The morning Inbox ponders the solution to releasing unfinished games, as one reader enjoys an exclusive puzzle game via customer support.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Please note: We’re currently starting to get our Christmas and New Year coverage together, which as usual will include retrospectives on the outgoing year and previews of what’s to come in 2015. It will also be a chance to run a number of Reader’s Features, so if you’ve ever thought of writing one but never got around to it now would be a great time – especially as we still need new ones for the rest of December too. The Christmas ones don’t have to be seasonal in anyway, but if you’ve got a preference for when they’re shown do let us know.
Best of the biggest
I know there’s been a lot of love for Dragon Age: Inquisition lately in the Inbox but in my opinion the best big budget mainstream game of the year has to be Far Cry 4. Yes, it’s all very familiar but as an action fan this to me feels like the one game where the people making it were actually having some fun. Not just in the dialogue but just all the things you can do and the way the world is made. They clearly didn’t really care if things were realistic or not but they also didn’t go completely out there, so as to keep some sense of immersion.
I’d say my second favourite of the year was Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare and I really did think the multiplayer was something new and interesting. But for me the story campaign was a disappointment, and too much of it just felt like they were following a formula. But unlike the Far Cry guys I got the feeling they resented it and wanted to do something else. I have no evidence for that other than my gut feeling, that’s just how it comes across to me. Does that make sense to anyone else?
Big Mike
Simple solution
I’ve read several letters in the Inbox recently about Dragon Age: Inquisition being broken and unplayable. In my previous letter I praised the game, stating that it was now my favourite role-playing game of all time. I’d just like to clarify that I’ve been playing the PlayStation 4 version for over 100 hours now, and although I’ve seen a few minor bugs since the last patch (mainly objects hovering in mid-air). I’ve not witnessed anything game breaking. The problem seems to be mainly with the last generation console and PC versions.
It’s a real shame that such a brilliant game is now tarnished because it was obviously released too early without being thoroughly tested. This has become a worrying trend in gaming lately, and I personally can’t see a solution to the problem. Can you GameCentral? How about the readership discussing the subject in a future weekend Hot Topic?
Crazy-Crusha (PSN ID)
GC: You can’t see a solution to releasing unfinished games? How about… not releasing unfinished games?
PlayStation 4 U
Enjoyed your article about which console to get for Xmas. As a grown-up person (not according to the Mrs!) I can get any console l want really. This gen l’ve decided on the double whammy of a Wii U and a PlayStation 4. l got a PlayStation 4 because l really enjoy sports games like Pro Evo Soccer, Formula 1 and Tiger Woods Golf (incidental GC any news on F1 and EA golf or whatever it’s to be called on PlayStation 4?). Also prefer the Sony exclusives like Uncharted and God Of War, etc.
The Wii U offers unique games like Pikmin 3,The Wonderful 101, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart and Super Mario 3D World. Then have you seen the video for new Zelda? That game l must play. Also, the Wii U games seem complete (almost as good as cartridges) on release, unlike the part broken messes that get released on PlayStation 4/Xbox One. Overall, l’m pleased with my consoles and probably will be for about the next six or seven years.
TheCRASSman (PSN ID/NN ID)
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Beat that Quentin!
Another brilliant interview with Jens Matthies. It hadn’t occurred to me how the idea of the Da’at Yichud might appeal to those nutters who think the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is worth losing sleep over, but there you go. As an idea it seemed to point more in the direction of the Nakam group, or the Bielski Partisans, Jewish militia groups who fought back against the Nazis during and after the war. But that whole area of history is just too sobering for any pop cultural contribution to avoid legitimate concerns over taste and sensitivity.
That said, Jens sounds a lot more clued in than most game developers, and I respect his work, even if I had my own problems with the game. It was certainly preferable to Inglorious Ba$*****, of which the late Christopher Hitchens said that watching it was like sitting in a darkened room while someone slowly poured a pot of warm wee wee over his head.
And on that seasonal note, have a peaceful Christmas everyone.
Tingle’s Therapist
Portal 3: Dell Edition
I’ve never played on-ine multiplayer games, I don’t like the idea of it – heck, I never liked playing Action Man with other people when I was younger. But last Friday I was persuaded by a work colleague to have a go on a co-op puzzle solving game.
It started off quite well, we had voice chat and everything was polite and pleasant but then I realised that my team-mate didn’t really know what he was doing and just kept repeating the same moves over and over again, with the occasional restart.
We played this game for five hours solid, the two of us hardly speaking, with only the occasional prompt for me to push a button. He then said he had to go and logged off, without solving the puzzle. I was annoyed and baffled because he had told me he was an expert.
So this morning, I decided to have another crack at it but this time in single-player mode. I have to admit I cheated and looked things up on the Internet and after about four hours managed to finish the game.
To be honest the game was really dull and although I managed to finish it I don’t think I’ll want to play Dell Technical Support again.
James
PS: To be fair on Dell, the person I was talking to was really polite but just didn’t know what the problem was. He did phone me back today to see if the it had been sorted out, so that was nice.
PPS: It was Microsoft’s fault. Yes, them! They can’t even get games working on a frickin’ games console so it’s no wonder they put out an update that crippled PCs across the planet.
PPPS: The problem was the graphics card, which Dell replaced within 24 hours. But the driver wouldn’t install. I found the answer looking on gaming forums.
Casual ignorance
That isn’t a very exciting list of games for the Christmas number one is it? Call Of Duty 11 (that’s not a joke, it is the eleventh one), FIFA 15, or GTA V (a great game but also a 2013 game). I guess Christmas is not the time to be expecting any great avant garde games to be making their impact on the chart, but does that ever happen really?
The success of Just Dance 2015 was interesting though. It shows that the casual audience is still out there and the problem is not that they lost interest but that companies just didn’t care enough about trying to give them what they wanted.
I mean Nintendo themselves gave up on the Wii about two years before its end, and most other companies never even bothered. Fair play to Ubisoft. They’re not making anything I want to play but at least they realise there are other types of game players out there.
St1nger
Alpha and omega
I appreciate you pointing out the differences with Street Fighter V but I’m sure most people were thinking the same thing I was while watching: this looks exactly the same as the last game. Now don’t get me wrong: Street Fighter IV is a great game and I have no idea what anybody would do for a sequel, but if the answer to that is nothing is that a reason to just give it a rest until you’ve got some new ideas? Especially when the few you do have are nicked from Injustice.
Obviously there’ll all pretty much the same game but I’m actually very glad the game is an exclusive, because I’d hate to see Capcom lose money on this one and yet I have a feeling that just as Street Fighter IV started the fighting game comeback I suspect Street Fighter V is going to end it.
Pinky
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
3D gaming: ’80s style
As a grown man I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas, in fact if I ruled the world I’d cancel it. Back when I was a kid of course I loved December the 25th and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. The best gaming presents I can remember Santa delivering were my LED table-top consoles,
I don’t know the official classification of these machines, but you could only play one game on them. For me back in the eighties this was enough. I unwrapped a table-top machine called Astro Wars one year, a Phoenix variant with a magnifying screen, I was transfixed by it for months.
My best Christmas present by far though was Entex Defender, which did its best to mimic the arcade cabinet in miniature (the planet’s surface even exploded if all your humans were abducted).
I wonder, did any other GC readers own these LED table-top machines? With hundreds of titles ready on disc and for download it’s hard to imagine contemporary gamers either young or old being satisfied with a machine that could only offer a single game.
I guess if the game was good enough, lack of choice wouldn’t matter.
msv858 (Twitter)
GC: No, but we did have a Tomytronic 3D. According to the Internet it must’ve been the one called Sky Attack.
Inbox also-rans
Just a little thank you to Stanley 71 for the free copy of Kingdom Hearts II.5. Made my 11-year-old nephew very happy to get this early Christmas present and I get to share a game I loved with him. Merry Christmas to everyone at GC and all the readers out there.
Grumith
Well, that interview did the job. I am now going to look for a copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order. Good job as ever guys!
Toxie
This week’s Hot Topic
As usual we don’t ask you to name your favourite games of the year until the end of January. But since this is the last Hot Topic of the year there’s only one other obvious subject: what have been the worst games of 2014?
As with the best of list you’re free to name any game you like, as long as it was released new in the UK in 2014. You can even name a top three if you want, but we want to know exactly why you didn’t like the games and whether you think they could ever have been good.
Since most readers will be sensible enough to avoid the truly bad games feel free to name the most disappointing instead, and why they didn’t live up to your expectations.
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
The small print
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