The Monday letters page has a go at predicting Nintendo Switch 2 reveal games, as one reader explores the difficulty of making new Silent Hill sequels.
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Limited options
No offence to CeX but the idea that they are now the UK’s biggest games retailer is beyond depressing. In terms of high street stores though, I don’t even know who the competition is. Argos, I guess? I don’t think any of the toy shops sell them anymore. I’m not sure about HMV but I don’t have one near me, so I can’t check.
I realise the battle between digital and physical was lost a long time ago but the idea that there are so few places to buy new video games in person is just awful. It’s still easy enough to get them from Amazon and other online website but it’s not the same and takes longer.
Argos is usually quite cheap, and I do use them sometimes, but if anyone can suggest somewhere better than I’m all ears. Clearly I’m old fashioned but I just like to go into a shop and buy a game on the spot, end of story. But it’s obvious publishers just aren’t interested in me doing that anymore.
Maddle
Milestone news
I’m going to go along with everyone else and say I’m really looking forward to the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, not for the ordinary reasons of being excited about a new console launch but the hope that it will be a milestone for the current depression in video games.
If things go right then it’ll be the kick up the backside that gaming has been needing all generation and hopefully lead to lots of exciting new games and ideas.
If it’s a failure, and we know from the Wii U that it could be, then I’m really not sure what else there’s going to be on the horizon to lift things. GTA 6 is going to be huge, of course, but that’s just one game that’s not going to do anything to help anyone but Rockstar.
Gandalf
Moving on
Starfield on PlayStation 5 is a given at this point, and I can absolutely see that it would make Microsoft more money to release it on another format, but after that Bethesda really need to give up on the series. It hasn’t worked out, the DLC only made things worse, and it’s close to a laughing stock.
It will sell on PlayStation 5 based on Bethesda’s name but it’s not going to enhance their reputation, quite the opposite. Bethesda need to accept it’s an experiment that didn’t work and put all focus on The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5.
I wouldn’t normally be the sort to be demanding sequels, but these are big, important franchises that have been away for too long. They’re also need to repair Bethesda’s reputation, which after Starfield is not looking good. Skyrim feels like it was 100 years ago now and if it doesn’t get a sequel soon it may be too late to make sense.
Lancey
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Some of the people
The next game by some of the people who made Disco Elysium is launching a Kickstarter campaign sometime today and stars the narrator of Disco Elysium, Lenval Brown. I was going to back it to get a digital copy on PC or PlayStation and get my name in the credits!
It’s being made by a new developer Longdue, based in London. I didn’t realise until GameCentral and Eurogamer said that there is at least three or four games being made from the developers who left the ZA/UM game developer. I am excited to see the final game, after how highly rated Disco Elysium is.
Andrew J.
Just completed: Deadlight (PS4)
Currently playing: The Mummy Demastered (PS4)
Once a generation
Just a little anniversary nod, because I know people like that sort of thing, but Tekken 5 is 20 years old this month. Tekken 8 was only out last year but Tekken 5 was all the way back on the PlayStation 2, which seems wild to me.
Surprisingly though the series is in pretty great shape right now as 8 was one of the best entries ever and I believe it sold well too (and I suspect it will turn up on Switch 2).
It is a little crazy just how long sequels are beginning to take now though. If this continues then Tekken 10 might not come out until the PlayStation 7. Which is pretty wild to think about.
Bort
Lynchian horror
I don’t know who’s got compromising photos of Konami execs, that they keep forcing them to make Silent Hill games, but it truly is bizarre that they keep announcing more, even though none of them ever sell that much.
That might seem a strange thing to say for someone, like me, that is a fan of the series but it is all very bizarre and I feel ultimately will end up killing the series completely, when Konami eventually give up.
Silent Hill f does look more promising than many of the other recent games and at first sight the Japanese origins seem promising, since the originals were all made by purely Japanese teams.
But the problem is that Silent Hill, especially Silent Hill 2, is actually a very Western style game. The story and style is a mixture of David Lynch and Jacob’s Ladder and very little about it has anything to do with being made by Japanese developers. It’s like the opposite of Ghost Of Tsushima.
This is why Bloober team were able to do such a good job with the remake, since they understood the original and weren’t at a disadvantage in not fully understanding Japanese sensibilities.
Silent Hill 2 is a game with a lot of depth and hidden meaning in its story and it’s that which Bloober understood for the remake and is missing from most of the other games.
Focus
Product appeal
Never mind about EA not understanding Battlefield, I’m not sure they even understand why people like football. It’s all money to them and games are just a way to addict people enough to keep giving them money, there’s nothing more to it from their point of view.
The idea that they would make a game for artistic reasons, or because a developer had an idea they wanted to do, would not even cross the mind of an EA exec for even a minute, I’m sure. It’s not that their games are bad, they’re just clinical products produced to appeal to some very basic desires. Beyond that I don’t think they care in the slightest.
Garp
Off-TV is back on
Some Switch 2 predictions… The Switch 2’s secret button is for a pairing mode (Switch Link) similar to the tech the Wii U used to link the console with its GamePad screen. This will allow for two-player (or more) off-TV play, using the power of each console for multiplayer experiences without split-screen performance compromises. Up to four players can link wirelessly for local multi-player each with their own console.
Mario X Splatoon: Ink Vs. Water. Mario Sunshine style FLUDD packs for the Mario characters, which use water to wash away the Inklings’ ink. They can’t swim through the ink but have other moves (such as surf boards) that the inklings don’t. With an extensive story mode that sees the Inklings as Mario’s adversaries at first and then coming together as a team to battle the real threat.
Pilotwings: Sports Resort. Mario and friends complete flight challenges for their pilot’s wings and other sports all over a revamped (and huge) Wuhu island. Packed with characters and vehicles, secrets and fun things to do.
Nintendo Land 2 (or Nintendo World), a video game version of their new theme parks with new versions of the asymetric multiplayer games possible with Switch Link.
SiFiJedi
Inbox also-rans
Hideo Kojima has been resting on his laurels for most of his career, as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I hate that Konami cancelled Silent Hills, because he was finally doing something different and it seemed like it was really working out too.
Dodo
I didn’t realise Rainbow Six Siege wasn’t free-to-play already, although I guess maybe it came out before that was commonplace. Despite all the Ubisoft negativity I’ll give it a go now, if it won’t cost me anything.
Excelsior
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The small print
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