The evening Inbox suggests Hideo Kojima learn a thing or two from indie gaming, as more readers call for comedy commentary.
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Don’t worry, just play
RE: Andrew Middlemas. I too share your trepidation about the future and wholeheartedly agree that the sixth generation of consoles hit the sweet spot for me, although if we had been paying attention we would have perhaps seen some of the things to come creeping into gaming back then.
If I recall correctly, at launch the PlayStation 2 had a fair bit of trouble with disc drives scratching discs (nothing on the scale of Red Ring of Death though) and it also had a really barren release schedule for at least its first year. Microsoft’s Xbox Live launched and while it didn’t become a runaway success it did point towards the future as it didn’t take long for developers start pushing patches post release, although this was largely for multiplayer modes.
Even Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat on the GameCube hinted at the direction Nintendo was to head and the release of SoulCalibur II with a different special character on each of the three platforms was perhaps an indicator at a future of exclusivity deals for downloadable content. The thing is though I don’t remember thinking this at the time, I don’t remember spending hours reading about all the negative aspects of the culture surrounding video games, I just remember playing some great games.
Perhaps it might be better for both of us to spend less time worrying about the negatives and more time cherishing the undoubted positives that modern gaming has to offer. I think I have my New Year’s resolution, albeit a couple of weeks late and should I lapse I can always dig out Metroid Prime or Metropolis Street Racer, etc. and relive my favourite period of gaming past.
James Hall
Celebrity cameo
The addition of Michael Myers as a playable character in Call Of Duty: Ghosts got me thinking about a potential Hot Topic question. The first thing that came into my mind when I read this story was the inclusion of Spider-Man in the second Tony Hawk game on the PS one.
I remember as a 12-year-old being really excited when I found the cheat in a cheat magazine (Remember how good they used to be?). My Hot Topic question would be; who are the best/ most unusual guest playable characters in a game? What do you think GC?
AckworthOwl (PSN ID)
GC: We’re not sure there are quite enough to support a whole Hot Topic, but we’ll see what other suggestions people can come up with.
Authentic exploration
Dear GameCentral, our team is developing an educational interstellar exploration based video game called Space Pioneer. We just launched our game on Kickstarter and would love for you to take a look at it (link is here). Real world astronauts, programmers, artists, designers and architects make up the core of our studio. Our goal is to make a game that is uncompromisingly entertaining and educational in nature.
Our studio would be immensely appreciative if you could mention us on your site. It would help us tremendously in getting the word out on our project! Thank you for your time.
Maximillian Kovtun
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
When the time is right
I wrote in yesterday about having to explain why I bought a Wii U and not a PlayStation 4 to a colleague. I questioned the ‘This is for the players’ advertising asking where the games were and I’d just like to add that yes when the Wii U launched it didn’t have many good games… which is exactly why I didn’t buy one at the time.
I bought my Wii U in October when it had some quality exclusive games I wanted to play and Super Mario 3D World was out soon. That’s why I’m not buying a PlayStation 4 yet, I’m sure its going to have many great games as time goes on and It’ll be a great console. I’m not a fanboy, I’m not interested in which console has sold the most, is more popular and cool.
I just like playing great games regardless of what system their on. So when the PlayStation 4 has three or four great exclusive games that I want to play I’ll happily buy one.
wasimr34
Viking saga
I just bought The Banner Saga from Steam and am incredibly excited to begin playing it. It was made by former BioWare employees and is a Norse-themed tactical role-player with a branching storyline based on the player’s decisions – a game could not play more to my interests! Just wondering what GC makes of the game if they have all ready come across it or if a review is planned?
Laurie Cunningham
GC: We should have a review ready this week.
Faded stars
What is the point in Nintendo Stars Catalogue? Spend possibly hundreds of pounds on the latest Nintendo games, scratch off the silver panels on the leaflet inside, log into your Nintendo account, register your code from the leaflet, fill in the monotonous survey, and what can you get in return?!Wait for it… a Yoshi polishing cloth, an old Super Mario Galaxy CD, a NES character notebook, cheap-looking Pikmin keyring or Wii/DS points. Seriously, why can’t they do Wii U or 3DS points?
I have had 7,500 points and spent them all on Nintendo character post-it notes! Whoop whoop. Surely Nintendo could put more effort into this?!
Westhamwhit
Less is more
Having had the chance to play a few games over the Christmas holidays it occurred to me just how much some big budget games could learn from indie titles when it comes to storytelling and characterisation.
In the build up to Christmas I finally got around to playing and completing Metal Gear Solid 4 and, although I quite enjoyed it, I decided to just skip all the cut scenes after about an hour into the game. Not only were they ridiculously long they were also dull and I quickly realised I really didn’t care what was going on to be honest.
Looking for something a bit shorter that I could play through in a few days I then decided to give Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Xbox 360) and Thomas Was Alone (PS Vita) a go. As you will know Brothers has no actual speech and Thomas Was Alone’s ‘characters’ are nothing more than an assortment of shapes and neither game has a single cut scene of longer than about 10 seconds.
Despite this I found I was far more interested in the story and characters than I had been with Metal Gear Solid 4. When it comes to games I think some developers have to learn that less is more and when you experience things through gameplay it has much more of an impact, its the very reason why Half-Life 2 would still rank amongst my top five games of all time.
drlowdon
PS: I know Metal Gear Solid 4 is an extreme example when it comes to cut scenes but it is far from the only game that has cut-scenes when gameplay would be more effective.
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Strange comment
RE: freeway 77 and frivolous commentary in sports games. I remember playing Michael Owen’s World League Soccer 99 on PS one as Arsenal. Ray Parlour was about to take a throw-in, when out of nowhere, match commentator Peter Brackley piped up with, ‘Ray Parlour, apparently quite a big fan of The Spice Girls.’ I spent the next 90 matches constantly passing to Parlour and trying to win throws on the halfway line, but Brackley never repeated it, nor uttered colourful titbits for any other players.
I haven’t played a lot of football games in this last gen, but I’m assuming they still offer the option for Spanish commentary? That always lightened the mood.
Related, who else remembers Wave Race: Blue Storm’s ‘grumpy announcer’ cheat?
Toby Balcombe
Inbox also-rans
With DayZ making a lot of noise at the minute, do you think it will come to consoles at some point?
Cain Valazquez
GC: It’s occasionally mentioned as a distant goal, but we wouldn’t hold your breath.
Thanks ever so much for that musical Zelda montage link from the other day DM! I’m man enough to admit it almost brought a tear to my eyes (stop laughing in the back!).
Galvanized Gamer
To Ponsenby’s letter this morning there’s a Nintendo Direct this Friday. So maybe they might show us a little Mario Kart 8 then.
woz_007 (NN ID)
GC: We’re pretty sure there’s not one this Friday. The announcement on Twitter was a fake.
Since your return from Christmas, do you realise that every evening Inbox starts with a paragraph referring to morning Inbox!? Shocking, and from journalists of such high standards! Please correct, and explain your reason for this error.
Kanbot (gamertag/NN ID)
Currently playing: Asura’s Wrath and Ace Attorney 1
GC: Reasons? Um… the dog ate our homework?
This week’s Hot Topic
Inspired by the currently empty release schedules this week’s Hot Topic asks the simple question of what do you do when there are no new games being released?
Do you loose interest in gaming when there are no new titles coming out or does it make no difference to you? Do you purposefully ensure you have a backlog of games to retreat to when there’s nothing new out or do you use the opportunity to buy some older titles you’ve missed out on?
How often do you buy games on or near their release date and does getting them as soon as possible matter to you? How annoying do you find the summer games drought and other periods where there are few new games? Do you think publishers should move to a more even release schedule or does it not bother you?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
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