The morning Inbox thinks Nintendo should ditch third parties completely, as another reader comes out against Battlefield Hardline.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
A whole new Persona
Wow, wow, wow! That Persona 5 trailer is amazing, it’s exceeded my expectations and more! I know I already sound like a fanboy but despite having no real interest in Japanese role-players before I was intrigued by all the talk of the series in the Inbox, and a couple of great Reader’s Features, and picked up a copy of Persona 4. Completely loved it and quickly devoured everything else from the series (although I do admit 1 and 2 are a bit too old school now).
Looking at the trailer I just love how stylish it is. I mean how many games would show off their menus in the first trailer, just because they look good? The platforming and exploration looks great, with a much more zoomed in camera, and is that some sort of stealth gameplay I see? The only minor disappointment is that the battle system doesn’t seem to have changed that much, and so will probably still be the one thing to put people off as it’s the only part of the game that’s ordinary. Or maybe it’s more changed that it looks, you can’t really tell.
I can’t wait to spend hundreds of hours in the new game, and getting to know all these characters. And you can bet that if it isn’t released in Europe this year I’ll definitely be pre-ordering it.
Ishi
Late review
I know you were asked this the other day, but do you have Evolve in for review yet? It’s out on Tuesday and I was hoping that reviews would already be appearing by now. For a game that won all those awards at E3 the publisher seems to be acting awfully shady all of a sudden, especially with all this nonsense surrounding the DLC.
Once again though I’m sure they won’t be punished for it, and the only way it’ll actually flop is if people are worried about being a non-sequel. I was fairly set on doing the opposite of that, but now I’m getting very suspicious. I mean if they’re that confident about their game why not make sure reviews are available before release, not have them slowly drift out over the next two weeks.
Andy Pandy
GC: Our copy is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow. But the servers won’t be turned on until Monday morning, so there’s no way we, or we assume anyone else, can have a review in time. It’s frustrating, but there’s not really much we can do to speed things up.
Life is good
I am so glad I waited for your review of Life Is Strange. I had seen glimpses of the game and had heard of its similarity to The Walking Dead and other less well received ‘interactive adventure’ types.
I remember starting Remember Me and being intrigued but ultimately uninspired by the combat. However I do recall being impressed by the art direction and the realisation of a future Paris.
Whether it’s the understated indie soundtrack or the gently nuanced setting that grabs my attention I don’t know. It is a real breath of fresh air compared to the increasingly stretched Telltale Games formula.
Perhaps I am a little bit soft-centred but the section where Max escapes to Chloe’s house is full of resonant moments that tug on the heart strings. Especially the flashback dialogue mixed with the evocative main title music on the swings and sofa.
Anyway thank you GC for your, as always, honest review. Especially when certain other media outlets were less glowing in their praise. IGN seemed to suggest that the dialogue was distractingly bad, then again they thought The Walking Dead: Season 2 was game of the year material.
baby machine-5 (PSN ID)
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Tough love
Wow, the Resident Evil remaster is brutal. I played both the PS one and GameCube versions all those years ago and, while challenging, don’t recall it being this difficult. Have they tweaked the difficulty for the new one? I literally cannot find any bloomin’ ammo in the Spencer Mansion. Apart from my starting 15 bullets I think I’ve found maybe two other clips in several hours of play – one behind a sideboard in the ‘dog’ corridor and another in an upstairs room in the East Wing.
That’s it. Considering the zombies take five or six shots to drop (and that’s before they get up again) that hasn’t gotten me very far. Dodging is all but impossible due to the width of most of the corridors and the knife is as good as useless – I just seem to stand there flailing away while ol’ stinky-face casually saunters up to me and starts snacking on my neck. My current save (my sixth) finds me with no bullets, no healing items and my health in the red zone – doesn’t look good does it?
Another thing I’m having a hard time getting used to is the static backgrounds. I keep wanting to pan the camera with the other analogue stick, then remembering I can’t. Despite all this, I’m still loving it. NO GAME, before or since, has ever done zombies as well as this. The first night I played it was the night of the ‘thunder snow’ storms. It was actually thundering and lightening outside as I played, as well as in-game. Talk about atmosphere.
Regarding being watched while I play, I don’t mind it but my preference is for solitary gaming. My son (who’s six) loves me to watch him, though, and is almost insistent on it. Are all young kids like this or just mine?
Karl S
GC: All the changes are peripheral things like graphics, sound, and control systems. The actual game is the same as the GameCube version, although that was in turn more difficult than the PS one original.
Batman: Metroid Asylum
I’ve really grown to love Metroidvania games over the last few years, although I’d never even heard the term before that (and I still don’t quite understand what Castlevania has to do with it, as that doesn’t really add anything extra to the existing Metroid equation). Unfortunately I can’t play Apotheon because I only have an Xbox One, but it does look pretty great.
But with this and Metroid Prime Trilogy out this week it got me thinking whether any of these games have ever been successful? I mean I’d never heard of them before and I’m guessing the same would go for a lot of non-hardcore gamers. Metroid and Castlevania certainly aren’t big sellers and most of the others are indie games. We need a big budget Metroidvania, then we’d have even more of them!
Artie
GC: The closest would probably be Batman: Arkham Asylum, which doesn’t follow the formula exactly but is clearly influenced by Metroid.
Nintendo TV
I’ve been reading with interest all the back-and-forth about what Nintendo should do next, and I do agree that just making a more powerful console is not the answer. People who think like that are just basically asking them to make a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One again, who needs three consoles that look and work almost exactly the same?
But unless they do do something like that they’ll never get third parties, and without third parties they won’t be able to break out of their niche. It’s a conundrum but I wonder if the answer is working with someone else like Samsung to make peripherals for smart TVs. Basically you’d have Nintendo as like a subscription channel where you can get all of their games, and they’d be completely outside of the usual games industry.
They could exist entirely on their own first party titles but their reach would be much bigger than normal consoles because basically everyone with a television could play their stuff instantly (I’m imagining all this will be streamed, like OnLive). You could still buy proper gamepads and whatever but there’d be some kind of SNES style controller built into the TV that you could pop out and use.
I think something like that is a much better direction for them then. Nintendo’s problem is that they need to find away to comfortably do without third parties, not find a way to attract them.
Ashton Morley
Make the effort
All I can say is that Bloodborne better be a success, especially if all the graphics tarts are going to rush out and buy The Order: 1886 – even though they’ve had plenty of warning that it’s all mouth and no trousers. The fact that Sony are doing a hardware bundle is a good sign, but I hope they go in really hard with the marketing. It was a bit of a weird one for them to sign up in the first place, so it’d be a horrible waste if they just released it to no fanfare and it was a flop.
Uter
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Hardline cynic
As some people will (probably not) remember I wrote a feature a few months back regarding the first Battlefield Hardline beta. The TL;DR of the feature was essentially ‘meh’ combined with a bit of ‘doesn’t justify a full-priced release’, and a very small helping of ‘potential is there but it needs work’.
I’m very, very happy to say that my rampant cynicism has once again proven beautifully accurate and the new ‘beta’ (this is a demo, guys – the game is out next month, no feedback from this will affect the launch product) is just as uninspired and awkward as the old one.
The police setting still makes no sense, the maps are awful and the game is unmistakably Battlefield 4 in disguise. This makes even the laziest FIFA sequel seem like the most innovative thing since the mechanical bread slicer. Granted the single-player could justify it, but for me, and I daresay almost every other fan, the single-player is not even a consideration.
The only things that have changed from the Battlefield 4 formula are an over reliance on auto aim (giving the game a very floaty, Call Of Duty feel – not necessarily a bad thing but not very Battlefield) and the very obvious downgrade in graphics – not just from last year’s beta but even from 2013’s Battlefield 4.
The lack of vehicles hurts it too, as without tanks and jets it all feels very empty. And I haven’t even mentioned the god awful rap music and the overly profane tone of the game. Now I don’t mind a bit of swearing, but it just doesn’t feel natural. The swearing all feels forced, like it’s some child’s idea to make the game feel more ‘mature’ and ‘street’.
All-in-all from what I have played of the beta I will certainly not be going anywhere near the final game. Not only is it not a direction I want the series to go in, but it just isn’t a very good game either. Battlefield Hardline is an oxymoron. Not only is it a Battlefield without a Battlefield, but its attempts at a hard take on criminal life leave it looking more juvenile hall than supermax penitentiary.
StalinsEpicTash
Inbox also-rans
SNES more powerful than the Mega Drive? You’re having a laugh, GC. Surely you’ve overlooked the awesome processing power of the Mega CD and 32X… I’ll get me coat.
iSickle
BRING BACK FREEDOM FIGHTERS, PSI-OP, and SECOND SIGHT.
cfeeney
GC: OK, but only if you stop shouting.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was inspired by reader StalinsEpicTash, who asks what’s the worst section in a good game you’ve ever played?
It can be a whole level, a boss battle, a story cut scene, or just a small section of a larger stage or open world; but we want to know exactly what went wrong and why it seemed so out of place compared to the rest of the game. Was it a mistake the game kept making or did it seem even more out of place because the rest of the game wasn’t like that?
How much did it affect your opinion of the game as a whole and how much better do you think the game would’ve been without it? Do you think a game can still be considered a classic even with such problems and how tolerant are you of drops in quality if the overall experience is good?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
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