The Thursday letters page is not convinced Sega is the best publisher of 2024, as a reader thinks Dragon Age: The Veilguard needed a name change.
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Too old
It’s always interesting to think about what video game sequels could’ve been made but probably never will. EA definitely should’ve made Battlefield: Bad Company 3, but the time for that was 10 years ago. Now it’s just too late. Too few people will remember the original and EA will have to spend so much time explaining what it is to new fans it’s just not worth it.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about what games might be on the Switch 2, most of which will be sequels or spin-offs of some kind, but my mind always goes back to old PlayStation franchises that I once hoped would return but which I now don’t think will.
Parasite Eve, Colony Wars, G-Police… we all have our favourites, although one I ways always holding out for is a new Resistance game. So, I was very upset to hear that Insomniac have no plans for it and no plans for anything other than superhero games and Ratchet & Clank, for at least a decade.
Resistance is an odd franchise in that the first one isn’t that great and the third one is by far the best. It’s a shame that just as it was getting into its stride it had to stop. Curious to know what games other readers would like to see PlayStation bring back.
Halman
Shrinking down
EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty are down in sales and consoles dropped by 25%? And hardly any of the best selling games from 2024 were actually released that year? Yeah, I would say gaming has got a bit of a problem at the moment.
Take out GTA 6 and Nintendo Switch 2 and this year would be worryingly empty, so I don’t think it was any kind of a blip or that anyone learned from what was obviously going wrong last year. We could all see it: the lack of new game, the lack of new announcements, the layoffs… gaming is not in a healthy spot right.
If Rockstar and Nintendo can turn things around then great but what happens after their contributions fade away and everyone else has to pick up the slack? The games industry is beginning to feel smaller and smaller, especially in terms of the number of companies that know what they’re doing in it.
Coolsbane
Endless games
It’s been said before, but I really don’t think Gears Of War and Halo have the sort of draw Xbox thinks they do anymore. Or Fable for that matter. I can easily imagine them trying to use Gears Of War: E-Day as a launch title for the next gen Xbox but who exactly is that going to attract? A prequel to a game that was popular 15 years ago and is probably filled with fan references and confusing lore.
If they’re expecting PlayStation 5 owners to buy a remaster collection and suddenly go wild at this amazing game series that they’ve been missing out on I think they’ve got another thing coming.
Not that Gears Of War is different than most long-running series. Sometimes you just want things to end or at least go away for a long time. I feel the same about Assassin’s Creed.
Baldrick
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The real winners
How on earth does Sega top the list of best publishers three times? I think that just underlines the flaws in Metacritic in general. Sega only win because of a single Atlus game that does well that year and the fact that they hardly release anything else, I’d hardly call that a reason to name them the best publisher of the year.
It was very interesting though, to see how few American companies made it into the list, which I would not have guessed. But then I suppose so many of them nowadays are owned by Microsoft and that means Activision Blizzard and Bethesda all have to share the same spot.
I feel the real winner of the list was Sony, who had a lot more games out last year and yet still maintained a very high overall score. Although beyond Astro Bot I’m not sure I could name anything else they put out, except I guess Concord? Which actually didn’t review that badly (I never played it).
BOB
Distinguished name
I can’t believe Dragon Age: The Veilguard was such a flop that it’s already on PlayStation Plus. I’m genuinely surprised EA hasn’t already shut down BioWare and if I was working there I’d be very worried indeed. I really don’t understand what went wrong though, as I enjoyed the game.
If anything, it was EA’s fault for the bad marketing, which made it seem almost like a kid’s game. Plus, that name really is terrible and Dreadwolf would’ve been a lot better. Or, you know, just Dragon Age 4. Sometimes I feel a number after a name makes a game feel distinguished.
It’s not like movies, where you it just feels like a cheap cash-in and you know they can’t possibly extend the story any further. With games you know that if they get to four or more then it’s for a reason and it’s probably worth checking out.
Newkey
Faulty analysis
I’m also very much looking forward to the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct in April. I can’t believe it’s been eight years since the original launched. I don’t remember what its Direct was like, just the initial rooftop reveal trailer, but hopefully this one will be memorable.
The internet is even more obsessive now than it was then though so I honestly can’t wait to see all the insanely detail analysis videos and predictions, none of which I imagine will be accurate. I remember people picking apart the Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom trailers and basically nothing anyone came up with was right.
Saying that, I am reasonably convinced by the open world theories for the new Mario Kart, so if that turns out to be true maybe we can put more stock in the other stuff that’s likely to come out.
I don’t have too many specific requests, but I would like to see a new 3D Super Mario, some kind of Zelda remaster or spin-off, and a big budget new game. Give me that and a couple of quirky indie-esque games and I just might buy the console.
Although I won’t lie, I’ve pretty much made up my mind now already that I will. The Switch did not disappoint in any way and I’m hopeful the second one will be the same.
Lemmy
Wired for reboot
I just read your article on Acclaim being revived, exciting times! Just want to say one of their games I seriously miss and would love to see a remaster/reboot of was an old late 1990s real-time strategy called Machines: Wired For War.
Absolutely adored that game and have spent many a year since dreaming of it getting a revival, maybe now this can hopefully happen!
A happy Acclaim fan
Next gen pro
Since it sounds like we’re going to be hearing more about the next gen Xbox soon I can’t help wondering if it would’ve been better for them to just release an Xbox Series X Pro instead. At this point the PlayStation 6 isn’t going to be much more powerful than what we’ve got now, so why push it to the limit, when that still won’t make much graphical difference and it will only make it much more expensive than it needs to be.
If Xbox rebrand the Pro with a decent name and just call it next gen who’s to call them wrong? Is anyone really expecting such a massive leap from the PS5 Pro to the PlayStation 6 that it’ll be blowing anyone’s mind?
I actually feel Xbox has a small advantage here, because there’s virtually nothing Sony can do to make the PlayStation 6 seem like a must-have, but Xbox has a bit more room to play. If they want to make a handheld then it’s going to be a lot easier trying to make it work as a mid-generation upgrade than a full fat Xbox 5.
We’ll see what they do but I’m not sure what PlayStation’s plan is at the moment, other than just them assuming whatever they do people will buy it. That doesn’t seem to have been the case for the PS5 Pro though and I doubt the PlayStation 5 will beat the PlayStation 4 either.
Grimace
Inbox also-rans
I’m old enough to remember Head Over Heels and how it was called the best game ever at the time. Back then I’d barely even heard of Nintendo and certainly couldn’t afford any of their consoles or games. It is sad how British gaming history is so forgotten now.
Limpton
Will you be reviewing the Suikoden 1 & 2 remasters that just got released? I always wanted to get into the series and there seems to be quite a bit of hype around them at the moment.
Grant
GC: We’ll try to. We do have them in but they’re not short games. If we don’t get time here’s our review of a previous re-release of Suikoden 2.
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