The Thursday letters page is upset at the decline of GAME and physical releases, as one reader thinks Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is slightly overrated.
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Healthy state
So that was actually a decent State of Play for once. The pacing was poor, because I was convinced it was going to be a boring one for at least half the time, but it had a good ending and while I’m not as big a fan of Returnal as GC is, those magic words ‘new single-player only IP’ were music to my ears.
I also liked that Chinese Dark Souls/Devil May Cry thing set in London, the stop motion horror game [The Midnight Walk – GC], the new Onimusha, and Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance. What does worry me though is that I think Saros was the only new Sony-made game, except for the Days Gone remaster.
So, we’re still only finding out what their developers are doing at a snail’s pace. But if that’s because they’ve all been moved off live service games and are now doing proper single-player games instead then that’s something I can live with.
I’d give the State of Play a B+, let’s see if we can keep the ball running and the next one’s good too. Although I guess it won’t be, because they seemed to say the next was going to be dedicated to Borderlands 4 only.
Cranston
Acceptable grab
Can’t help but agree with the reader who wants to see what the ‘real’ next game from FromSoftware is. This Elden Ring spin-off sounds like such a minor thing. I don’t want to call it a cash grab, because I love all their stuff, but I will be shocked if that’s not what it ends up being known as.
I don’t mind. I’m happy to give From cash even if it does seem a bit of a push. The mid-budget price tag certainly makes it clear, to me at least, that Nightreign is not a full game and just something they put out there as a quick money-maker. Someone suggested it probably started as DLC and that sounds believable.
It’s out in May though and so hopefully that leaves things clear for a reveal of something new at the Summer Game Fest in June, which I believe is where Elden Ring got its debut. I don’t really mind what the game is, but I’d be especially happy if it was something new and not a sequel or remake. Maybe the sci-fi Soulslike that people have been calling for, for years?
Limpton
Mostly great circle
Just reached the credits on Indiana Jones And The Great Circle on Xbox. I think they absolutely nailed the Indiana Jones aesthetic and feel, and the slapstick combat was fun. I appreciated the non-linear level design, particularly in the first couple of locations, which really felt worth exploring.
The side missions were also more inventive fare than you normally get in games these days and felt genuinely worthwhile. I experienced a few bugs, the worst being when the game crashed at the end of a cut scene that I had to rewatch it in its entirety (it was a lonnngggg one), but generally speaking it was all very slick.
Overall, I enjoyed it but I felt like the game dragged a bit in the final quarter, so I wasn’t quite as enamoured with it as some, probably an 8/10 for me (the very last fight, in particular, I thought was really naff.) Shout out to Tony Todd, very poignant ending given his recent passing.
Magnumstache
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So good I bought the company
For the first time in my life, I’ll be buying a game that’s actually going to make me money when I buy it.
I’m so convinced of GTA 6’s success that I bought shares in Take-Two Interactive a couple of weeks ago. It’s already turned out to be quite lucrative because following an earnings report from them late last week, I’m sitting on a 14% return. The share price jumped because their losses were not as much as expected(!).
Imagine the share price jump when the next trailer drops, let alone when GTA 6 comes out.
The returns I get when I eventually sell up won’t be life changing, but to think that the game I’m so excited to play is going to end up funding our next family holiday is pretty nuts.
Rangersingh (PSN ID)
Currently playing: the stock market
Limited release
I’m surprised at how little Alan Wake 2 has sold. 2 million seems to be very low for a game that got so many awards, and which seemed to be constantly in the news around the time it was released. Then I find out that not only did it not get a proper physical release but it’s not even on Steam – I didn’t realise that.
Did they not want the game to succeed? Was this some kind of secret tax write-off? On top of that I don’t remember any actual marketing for it at the time, so it seems like they spent all that time and money making it and then just sent it out to die.
Tacle
GC: It was published by Epic Games, so it’s not going to be on Steam for ‘a long time.’
Physically upset
My first reaction on reading the story about GAME scalping Pokémon cards is not the fact that they were doing something wrong but the fact that they still exist at all. I haven’t set foot in one for over a decade and haven’t seen one in the flesh in what must be two or three years.
I’m not particularly sad to see GAME go but it is a shame that it means that games are basically invisible in any physical shop nowadays. I think maybe John Lewis and some larger supermarkets carry them but I’m not sure and I haven’t noticed them myself in quite some time.
And before you say, ‘So what?’ the very obvious answer to that is that it means that physical games in general are going away and so Sony can suddenly cut access to all your games at a moment’s notice and not care at all that it happened or bother to give any compensation to ordinary people.
There’s no one set of people to blame here, especially as a lot of it is down on fans being too quick to embrace digital downloads, despite the obvious problem, but the end result is that we now have far less control over the things we buy.
Imagine if a GAME manager broke into your house and stole back the game you bought from them for a couple of days. That’s exactly what Sony did at the weekend and yet nothing will be done about it.
Campbell
A long shot
I wonder if the GTA 6 trailer will be shown off in the State of Play. Sony has done a few deals with them, like free GTA Online money and it’s getting to a point where a new trailer needs to drop.
Normally Sony will give a few hints what’s in their broadcast but this time, nothing. I wonder if today is the day the internet goes hot because GTA 6 Trailer 2 is shown in all its glory.
David
GC: You’ll know by the time you read this, but there were certainly no rumours of it beforehand.
Forgotten anniversary
So according to the This Day in Gaming section on the GameFAQs site, which I check every single day, Super Mario Bros. 3 is 35 years old.
I didn’t get to play it until 1995, via the Super Mario All-Stars pak on SNES.
I would later re-play it via the Game Boy Advance version.
It’s a shame Nintendo didn’t celebrate this milestone, though re-releasing this game that has already been released eight times wouldn’t be as special, so maybe they should have made some cool MyNintendo merchandise.
Or even better, and something I would absolutely love, is to re-release the Super Mario Bros. 3 LCD Watch.
I really wanted one as a kid but never got one, though I did play one.
Buying one off eBay is a no-no as a second-hand one will mean wearing others’ sweat!
Bleugh!
LeighDappa
GC: Super Mario Bros. 3 will be 37 years old on October 23. That’s the original Japanese release date and all Nintendo will care about.
Inbox also-rans
It would be just Sega’s luck if this Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds managed to come out at the same time as the new Mario Kart. Poor Sega, they never seem to catch a break.
Lambo
The rumours the Switch 2 can be played upside down brings back good memories of the Atari Lynx, which could flip the screen for left-handed people, if I recall correctly. Here’s hoping for Blue Thunder and Todd’s Adventures In Slime World ports to Switch 2…
Mark Matthews
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