The Friday letters page hears from two readers that have just beaten Horizon Forbidden West, as another Impossible Mission fan writes in.
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Minor upgrade
So I’ve read GC’s helpful review in progress, and other things around the web. I’ve watched some streams too, but I still can’t work out whether GTA 5 on PlayStation 5 is worth getting. The graphical upgrade looks disappointingly minor from my point of view and while 60fps gameplay sounds good that’s not really something you can see, you have to feel it when playing.
Considering how expensive it is even on PlayStation 5 I’m faced with the surprising (to myself) reality that I’m probably not going to buy a new GTA game. Maybe it’s because I was already burnt on the GTA 3 remasters but more than ever I just want to stop the messing around and get on with GTA 6.
Perhaps if the next gen versions of GTA 5 sell less than expected this will encourage Rockstar to get a move on. To be honest, they could probably do with the wake-up call in terms of not seeing themselves as unstoppable and being pushed into actually getting some proper work done on GTA 6.
Hansel
One is not amused
Over 100 hours’ worth of time put into the rather enjoyable Horizon Forbidden West. I won’t debate here the positives and negatives, other than one major bugbear that I’ve found has become a worrying trend in most games. That is the lack of Queen’s English subtitles. Guerrilla are Dutch and here we are again with an Americanised version. There’s a huge amount of difference between the two. Favorite, favor, center, specter, the list goes on.
Are the German subtitles Hoch Deutsch or Schweiz Deutsch? French subtitles to suit the Quebecois? It’s completely intolerable for books which are used in schooling and even more so in games where there’s no teacher next to the player to correct them. Maybe it’s petty but we need to protest for an American option and an English option.
I’m now off to read up why potassium, radium, sodium and uranium aren’t pronounced and spelt like aluminum.
Wonk
GC: The worst one by far is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which doesn’t make even the smallest effort to localise the text for British players, despite the many confusing Americanisms and the fact that so much of the audience will be young children.
Ending with a whimper
I’ve just finished the main story and a significant chunk of the side content for Horizon Forbidden West and have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. It was a perfect refinement of the original game and great extension of the story. Yes, Aloy is pretty much devoid of any kind of emotion and as a result feels pretty two dimensional as a character, but the machines, combat and side content more than make up for it.
I have, however, encountered a game breaking bug as I was trying to complete any remaining side quests – while trying to fight the boss machine in cauldron kappa I died. When it reloaded I was effectively swimming around inside the scenery and unable to return to the marker without falling into the sky to my death! I can’t fast travel from inside the cauldron either, so I’m pretty much stuck there until the bug is fixed.
Ultimately, this will likely signal the end of my time with the game now. Such a shame to end such a great game like that though! At least now I can get stuck into Dying Light 2 and Gran Turismo 7!
Rickandrolla
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Doesn’t fit
I agree with team_catcave, Gran Turismo 7 isn’t a great leap on from GT Sport. I loved GT Sport which means I’m also loving Gran Turismo 7. I do think that the online mode is better in Sport, but I’m sure that Gran Turismo 7 will improve.
I bought the disc version of Gran Turismo 7, but still had to download 90GB. Does the disk contain any data these days? I assumed most game data would be on the disc then require a reasonable sized day one patch.
Also, is Gran Turismo 7 cross-platform online (Sport mode)?
Thanks for all GC.
Ed
GC: Gran Turismo 7 comes on two discs for PlayStation 4, and probably should have for PlayStation 5. It does have cross-platform play though.
Glass half full
I’m not really sure what to make of the news about people leaving The Initiative.
I guess a positive note is for once the complaints aren’t about crunch or the studio being dictated to by the publisher (in this case Microsoft), which indicates good things for the studios they have been taking over. It seems all the complaints are about the top-down approach of the studio’s internal management.
The article also didn’t really come as much of a surprise. Four years in, lots of people were bound to leave as four years is a long time to work at any company these days and people will be getting better job offers. They also hired a lot of talent and I assume they were all sold this creative freedom vision, which can only be true for a limited number, as at some point you need to go in the same direction.
Doesn’t change the fact though, that after four years, there’s still no game whereas Hideo Kojima managed to setup a studio and get his game out in that same time frame.
Tim
GC: It was 50% of the workforce, including almost all the senior creatives.
Early success
Andrew J, it may interest you to know that Epyx published Mission Impossible, and it seems they shared the human sprite from their Summer/Olympic Games titles. Fine animation indeed. That’s good form!
The somersault was the only move one could use to avoid the robots, which meant one needed a pixel perfect knowledge of the distance the character would travel as there was no adjustment possible once in flight. So tough. As were the puzzles.
I confess, I loved it but never completed it. But my dad, who I am still acting as a Sherpa for in Elden Ring, did.
He was also one of the first 100 in the UK to complete Kokotoni Wilf, an old C64 game and we got a voucher and a copy of Fall Guy when Elite released it.
His last claim to fame is that he and his friend cracked the seed for the first Populous game on Amiga and had the full level list published in the tips section. He got a £10 voucher for it, which was quite the haul at the time!
Anyway, Impossible Mission was great. I loved searching certain receptacle type items because it looked like the character was urinating. Good times.
Matt
Rage inducing
RE: Elden Ring on PC. My main save file became corrupted yesterday. Level 129 character, 66 hours invested. I made the mistake of alt + F4ing off the game after getting slapped around yet again by the same boss.
2022, rage inducing game, can’t actually rage quit it without fear of losing your save. Brilliant. Apparently, the same issue exists in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Not acceptable from any game these days, having to be careful how we quit the game like it’s 1998 all over again. Embarrassing.
Tom Morgan
No excuse
You kind of hit the nail on the head about why Gran Turismo 7 has primarily been a flop. No one can get a PlayStation 5 console. I’m sure those that have a PlayStation 5 console may have purchased or thought about purchasing this game but the hardware is so scarce, unlike when Gran Turismo released on previous gen consoles.
I think it sucks for developers to see that sales just aren’t what they used to be because the supply cannot meet the demand. Would Elden Ring have sold a ton more copies of the game had there been more consoles out there? It would be interesting to see what the sales figures were like for Dark Souls 3 vs. Elden Ring considering Dark Souls 3 was for an older, but way more accessible console.
So until consoles can meet the demands of those wanting them I’m sure that most games could be considered a flop for now depending on your metrics of what a flop is. If it’s just a sheer amount of copies sold then everything I believe would be underwhelming unless it’s an independent game studio that sells millions of copies…
Thoughts?
Jeromy
GC: Gran Turismo 7 has not been a flop. The PlayStation 5 is Sony’s fastest selling console ever. Elden Ring outsold the lifetime total of Dark Souls 3 in just three weeks.
Inbox also-rans
Not interested in The Quarry until Supermassive start putting some proper gore in their games. If these so-called interactive horror movies really were movies they’d be PG at worst.
Taylor Moon
From added markers to the map in Elden Ring?! At this rate it’ll be indistinguishable from a Ubisoft game by, oh… the year 3000 or so.
LLJ
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Simey, who asks what is the least favourite part of your favourite game?
Nothing is perfect, so what do you consider to the be the least perfect part of your favourite (or close to it) game? Is it just a minor irritation or something more significant? Is it something like a particular level or area that the game would have been better off without or perhaps a technical or control issue?
Did the issue get resolved in any subsequent sequels? How tolerant are you generally about flaws in otherwise good games, in terms of both playing them and considering them to be true classics?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
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