The Thursday Inbox is not sure what Sega is going to do with a billion dollars, as one reader recommends Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
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Infinite unknown
We’ve had some big disappointments in terms of reviews in the last few weeks, but I’ve realised I really don’t know what to expect for Halo Infinite. Everyone seems to like the multiplayer gameplay but there’s also been a lot of complaints about the progression system and Microsoft getting greedy with the microtransactions. So I don’t know how that’s going to affect things.
The biggest question mark for me though is the story campaign and even though we have had previews of it I still feel it’s a big unknown. The thought of it being open world seems a bit too… obvious? I’m not sure I really want to be picking icons off a Ubisoft style map in a Halo game and I’ve not heard anything to suggest there’s any real new ideas there, other than Halo hasn’t been open world before.
That doesn’t mean I’m not optimistic, I just don’t really know what to expect. Although I am already disappointed that the game isn’t an Xbox Series X exclusive, as the graphics don’t look like they’re going to be all that great. We’ll have to see though I guess. I assume the review is next week, GC?
Dorack
GC: It is.
Plan B activated
I’m getting increasingly worried about Halo Infinite is going to become and what it means for Microsoft’s whole approach to first party games. They must’ve known there was a chance it would flop but it’s clear they had a plan B all ready if it wasn’t, where they’d immediately started fleecing players under the cover of the game being free-to-play.
The game isn’t even out yet and already they’re pushing you into buying battle passes, extra subscriptions, and expensive standalone DLC. Yes, it’s all cosmetic but that’s not the point. I can live without it (even though collecting it is the entire point of the progression system at this point) but this is going to convince even more kids and vulnerable people to waste money on things that literally have no value.
Like any company that has been behind for a while, the moment Microsoft sense they’re over the hurdle they immediately stop trying to win people over and switch to trying to rip them off. Sony was exactly the same when they got behind in the PlayStation 3 era, and it’s kind of depressing to see it happening time and time again.
Godot
Financial experience
Reading that story about the terrible Sonic The Hedgehog concert it made me think of how Sega really are the class clown of the games industry. They do some good stuff occasionally, but everything thinks of them as goofy and unreliable. Like if I had to list a bunch of companies that could be relied on to make a decent game Sega would be at the absolute bottom. But as GC says, it’s not just that. They wear the clown shoes for everything they do.
And then I remembered all the stuff about them spending billions on acquisitions and ‘super games’. Surely I’m not the only one that can’t imagine that ending in anything but disaster? When has Sega made anything big budget in the last 20 years? I don’t know how much those PC games cost but I still doubt it’s anything close to what Sony and Microsoft spend on their top tier games.
I just don’t know why they don’t let Microsoft buy them. Microsoft are clearly up for it but I don’t even know that it’s Japanese law stopping. It’s probably just Sega messing up something as simple as someone wanting to give them free money.
Tristan
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Without warning
I managed to be right next to my phone when Stock Informer went off (barely made a sound though). Went straight to the Xbox store and quickly placed an Xbox Series X in my basket and thought, ‘This is gonna happen only for it to say out of stock when I clicked on confirm order. How the heavens is anyone meant to get a Xbox Series X when they go out of stock that fast?’
I quickly rushed to other websites, but they were out of stock with the exception being Argos, who had one in store at Northampton with no delivery option, collection only.
Stock Informer can go off 24/7, not just early in the morning, so it’s feels like a complete lottery to me. No one seems to have any prior notice of Xbox Series X stock either which doesn’t help. Sigh.
Whilst, I’m here does GC know when Microsoft are going to release the 2TB Seagate expansion cards by any chance? I’ve looked in several places and they don’t seem to exist.
Chaosphere616 (gamertag)
GC: So did you get one or not? We’re not clear from your comments. The 2TB cards were supposed to be out ‘soon’, but that was October 21 and there hasn’t been an update since.
A big gamble
I picked up a copy of Sackboy: A Big Adventure for the PlayStation 5 during the Black Friday sales as something of a gamble purchase, because I’d asked for pretty much everything else for Christmas and didn’t want to miss out on a good deal. It was also a gamble because I was still in a plaster-cast after having surgery on my wrist. It turns out that I tempted fate and after my consultant appointment last week, where I expected to have it removed, it wasn’t. I’ve still been able to play Sackboy, albeit rather awkwardly, but I’ve been grabbing the odd hour or two on it here and there nonetheless.
I have to say that I have been really pleasantly surprised by how good it is though. As you said in your review, it really opens up after you get to the second world and has some really interesting ideas and power-ups that are realised quite well with at times almost Nintendo-esque level design! I’m also loving the use of music, I played through a level earlier that used David Bowie’s Let’s Dance as its theme, with enemies and environmental features linked to the beat, and did so with a huge smile on my face. For £30 it was worth it for that level alone!
Rickandrolla (PSN ID)
Too good and true
Agree with Benton that there’s some great stuff on Game Pass that I would probably have never tried. Hades is a great game to dip in to and progress as your skills improve.
Also enjoying Ring Of Pain, which is something I would never have otherwise tried.
There’s plenty of other games, new and old, that I’ve tried and mostly enjoyed, helped as well by the Game Pass app which encourages you to try games to get reward points.
Seems almost too good value at the minute.
WoDMaN
Moon river
Just a quick message to say I have seen some new amiibo listed on the Nintendo Store. They are out of stock at the moment, but there may be a possibility they might come back into stock. Two are Bayonetta ones, which GameCentral is interested in. But, as I said, they are currently out of stock.
Andrew J.
GC: They’re always out of stock, sadly. But we appreciate the heads-up.
Controller preferences
Reading DarKer saying about PC gamers on the new Halo I assumed he was going to say the problem was cheating, not players using mouse and keyboard!
Now I’ve been playing first person shooters since Doom (man, I remember that on my mate’s 386 PC) and as I’ve always played mouse and keyboard I literally cannot play first person shooters with a controller. I have tried, I remember playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on my nephew’s Xbox 360. He could play as well on controller as I could on mouse and keyboard. I tried it and I could barely move in a straight line, let alone shoot anything!
It’s a tough one. I love the fact I can cross-play Fortnite with my nephew, me on PC him on Xbox, but getting the balance right between auto aim and the like is tough! Not long back mouse and keyboard players were complaining the aiming assist was too strong.
To be honest, I’m a below average player, always have been, so me playing mouse and keyboard I would probably still get my butt kicked by most controller players!
I generally use mouse and keyboard for first person shooters, then controller for third person games and pretty much everything else (although I switched to mouse and keyboard on Control halfway through and never looked back, and Fortnite – although officially a third person game it plays more like a first person one). Oh, and my wheel for most racing games.
Whatever you game on, and however you play, enjoy! Oh, and down with PC cheaters!
The Dude Abides
Inbox also-rans
My word, I think I desire those tea bags more than an Xbox Series X. Legendary.
Matt
Dead by Daylight and while True: learn() Data Scientist is free on Epic Games Store from 4pm on Thursday, 2nd November.
Andrew J.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Straybe, who asks what’s the best acting performance you’ve ever seen in a video game?
Even if you don’t know the name of the actor involved what character do you think is the best acted in terms of the voice and/or motion capture performance? What was their best scene (please try to avoid spoilers) and how do you think it compares to a performance in live action media?
How much do you tend to notice good or bad acting in a video game and how important is it to you enjoying a game? Also, are there any that were bad enough to put you off an otherwise good game?
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The small print
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