The Tuesday Inbox tries to imagine the Nintendo Switch if the pandemic had never happened, as one reader imagines their ideal Judge Dredd game.
To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]
Old gods
A lot of rumours floating around about the PlayStation showcase at the moment, but I can’t say any of them are particularly exciting to me. Does anyone really want another inFamous. And even if they did would Sony want to spend $200 million making it? I find it hard to imagine they would.
That Square Enix Forspoken (whatever that’s supposed to mean) game probably will be there though and maybe the Alan Wake remaster, although I can’t imagine anyone describing that as a ‘big’ announcement. The second game could be anything really, and GC are right to say that Sony are better than others at creating new IP, so I hope it’s a good surprise and not just a low budget indie game or something.
My dream Sony announcement would be Bloodborne 2 or another From game, but I don’t think there’s any suggestion that’s happening. Instead, I imagine all the focus will be on the new God Of War, which I’m totally fine with as long as it looks good, which I can’t imagine it won’t.
My only slight concern is that the whole Norse gods thing is starting to get very familiar at this point, so I hope they find a way to shake it up. Get a bit more weird and metaphysical and have Kratos travel to visit other gods from different religions. I get the feeling that the end game for the series is having Kratos wipe out all gods so that humankind is left to its own devices, but I’ve no idea how long a term plan that might be if it is true.
Sully
Too much risk
That Judge Dredd skin in Call Of Duty was an unexpected surprise but I would love to see a standalone game. I guess the problem is that while it’s obvious how a game could be good it’d have to be such a huge budget to work properly that it would be too much of a risk. Especially after all this talk of next gen games costing $200 million to make.
It almost seems like the Dredd name would be too much of a liability as people might have a negative view of it, whereas if it was a new IP they would feel neutral at first. But then that’s a liability too as new IPs are always a risk in themselves. Which, as the ex-Sony guy said, is why we’re always stuck with things we’ve seen before.
It might not happen but the idea of GTA style version of Mega City One would be pretty much my dream game. Arresting perps, going on patrol, taking part in block wars, and then building up to taking on Judge Death and his gang. It could be amazing, but I better it never will be.
Anton
Perfect console
I can’t believe that there won’t be another Nintendo Direct this year but I’m less confident that it will announce anything very new. I think our best chance of a big reveal this year is at The Game Awards, which Nintendo has used before and is really the only thing other than a Direct that could host a reveal like that – since Nintendo never go to the Tokyo Game Show (although why I couldn’t tell you).
The pandemic might be mostly to blame but it’s sad to think that the Switch will never have another year like its first two, where it was just cranking out hit after hit that was not only really good but came out quite quickly after one another. We went from having the best Zelda and Mario ever in the same year to not even being able to update Animal Crossing, which is pretty sad.
Although they did have a quiet year before that I feel that if the pandemic didn’t happen Nintendo would’ve tried to return to that early tempo and we could’ve had the perfect console from them. Now it’ll just be a case of what could’ve been if not for coronavirus.
Thunderbahlm
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
Free is better than not free
Good news from Sony on Saturday. They held their hands up and said they got it wrong with not offering an upgrade path for Horizon Forbidden West other than locking it behind a £20 more expensive deluxe version. They will now offer the Horizon Forbidden West PlayStation 4 to 5 upgrade for free and even better have committed to a £10 upgrade path for future first party cross gen games, citing Gran Turismo 7 and God Of War Ragnarök.
Similarly, 505 Games also said the other day that they got it wrong with the lack of upgrade options with Control. Can’t see EA saying anything about the FIFA 22 upgrade being locked behind a £30 Ultimate Edition though. When it comes to extracting the maximum amount of cash out of a loyal fan base those boys and girls know their onions.
Simundo
GC: We’re not sure charging £10 for an upgrade is especially good news, considering they were all meant to be free at launch.
MovieCentral
I know I shouldn’t overdo the film recommendations but as it seems GC has a good taste in obscure Japanese movies and seems to be having a weekend movie night then I’d add Takashi Miike’s Happiness of the Katakuris which is a wonderful comedy horror, the mesmerisingly insane Tetsuo the Iron Man which rivals Eraserhead and the highly underrated Horrors of Malformed Men. All are certainly worth a watch.
The most underrated movie to me however, is the animated adaptation of Richard Adam’s The Plague Dogs which I regard as an unappreciated masterpiece. Much like When the Wind Blows it’s a bleak but beautifully told tale of companionship.
Anyway back to questions about your upcoming Deathloop review…
Andee
GC: Tetsuo we have seen, and we’ve heard of Happiness of the Katakuris, but never Horrors of Malformed Men. To keep things at least somewhat on topic, we’d highly recommend Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney adaptation, which is still the best video game movie ever made and, unless something has changed recently, impossible to get on Blu-ray in the UK.
Three times the disappointment
Many consider the Far Cry 5 ending to be the worst ending in the franchise, although it has three endings, a canon, non-canon, and a secret ending. Not going to lie, I also hated the ending in 2019 but after it was revealed that a new game, Far Cry: New Dawn, was launching, which was going to be a direct sequel to Far Cry 5, it gave fans a hope that they will get to see what happens after the protagonist and Father reached the bunker.
In the secret ending you walk away at the start of the game, not arresting the Father, because if you take too long to arrest him the sheriff will realise that there would be problems and stops you. The non-canon ending is pretty similar, only with a twist as again you are given two choices: walk away (bad) or resist (good). Now here, resist is the bunker ending and walk away is the non-canon one; you just walk away, not arresting the Father, but there is twist. While Leaving Eden’s Gate, the sheriff plays a song in the car which was used in the game by another boss to hypnotise and train you to kill people. Slowly the screen turns black and red and the game ends, this basically states that you were forced to kill your teammates.
Now coming to the point, Far Cry: New Dawn continued with the story of the good ending in Far Cry 5. It is assumed that the protagonist was changed by Father and vice versa. If there was no Far Cry: New Dawn then definitely Far Cry 5’s endings were going to be worse but as the main ending of New Dawn gave fans a good answer as to what actually happens to Father and Eden’s Gate, Far Cry 5 endings are not bad.
Anon
GC: If you say so. We didn’t like much of anything when it came to New Dawn, which was also one of the worst selling entries of the series.
Shadowy request
Any news on a console release date for Nightdive Studios’ Shadow Man Remastered?
I really enjoyed the original on the N64 and then again on the Dreamcast, so I’ve been keeping an eye on this one since they announced it, but all has been quiet since the PC release back in April.
I’m still very much enjoying your site on a daily basis, so thanks and keep up the good work.
Eliot
GC: Thanks. Shadow Man Remastered on console does seem to still be on track for this year, but there’s no specific date yet.
Two for the price of one
There have been a couple of topics in the Inbox recently that have caught my eye. The first of these was the Sony pricing policy. I am not sure what anybody expected, to charge for an upgrade was the only logical step. If upgrades were free all that would be needed would be for anyone to buy the (assumed) cheaper PlayStation 4 version and then upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version. Who would pay £70 for the PlayStation 5 version if they could buy the PS4 version cheaper and get the upgrade at no extra cost?
To do anything other than charge for upgrades would seem to be madness. The only alternative would be to charge the same for PlayStation 4 and 5 games and then allow free upgrades, but that then alienates the massive PlayStation 4 user base.
The other topic is the ongoing assessment of Red Dead Redemption 2. Someone asked today if people preferred the first one and I have to admit I did. As a western fan, playing the first game was like playing a classic spaghetti western or other classics like the Magnificent Seven, when westerns were more of an offshoot of the action genre. That is what I want in a western game.
The sequel was more along the lines of Unforgiven, a gritty retrospective of the Old West and, whilst more detailed and ‘worthy’ and interesting in its own right, it could not exactly be classed as fun.
So, two very different topics but both ones that I thought I needed to give my thoughts on.
GB72
PS: Thanks to the Inbox magic, I have written in a few times about having a marvel spin on XCOM and it is now on the way.
GC: Next time, could you please write in about a Han Solo simulator and us winning the lottery?
Inbox also-rans
In response to the question about Red Dead Redemption 1 vs. 2 I loved 1 – played it through in the original and then the zombies version. I had to quit Red Dead Redemption 2 due to boredom!
Bruisemonkey
Is there enough new content in Death Stranding Director’s Cut on the PlayStation 5 for you to review it?
Johnny five stars
GC: We don’t know yet, but we’ll give it a go and find out.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cubby, who asks what has been your favourite Achievement or Trophy to unlock in a video game?
It doesn’t matter whether they were difficult or not, but which one did you enjoy doing the most and which did you think was particularly well designed or just had a funny name or concept? What is the secret of a good achievement and which developers are particularly good or bad at them?
What factors encourage you to try and get achievements and what’s the most effort you’ve ever put into unlocking one?
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.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
Source: Read Full Article