Games Inbox: Is Valorant on PS5 a bad game?

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Free advice
I played Valorant on PlayStation 5 at the weekend. I want that time back. That may be the most bland and generic video game I’ve ever played. I’m assuming its success is based purely on the fact that it’s free but even so, surely people have better things to do with their time than that?

The rise of free-to-play games worries me on several levels but mostly just the fact that they’re so unoriginal. They’re all just copies of something else, and the quality of the games doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the success. I guess it’s because it’s really expensive to keep a live service game going (apparently that was the problem with Destiny 2 for Bungie) so they need to make sure it’s not going to put anyone off with something crazy like a new idea.

Valorant is just a bad game, with a dozen similar titles that are far better, but because it’s free it somehow gets a free pass. Not only that but it encourages other games to be just as bland and original, which we saw just recently with Concord and Marvel Rivals (yes, I know Concord isn’t free but it’s not full price either).
Allegore

Royal mix-up
I don’t think I’ve ever gone from interested to appalled so quickly, as I did when reading that story about Xbox setting up a new team to work on smaller ‘AA’ games. That’s exactly what the industry needs, I thought, and maybe a means for Phil Spencer to finally get his new Hexen game.

And what’s the reality? They’re getting King to make a bunch of spin-offs to Blizzard games like Starcraft and Overwatch. King… the makers of Candy Crush, who don’t seem to have made a console game in their life. There’s a good chance this is only mobile games they’re talking about but whatever it is, it’s a terrible waste of what would’ve been a good idea.

I think I’d rather just live in ignorance and pretend the story is what I originally thought it was.
Zeiss

Just say no
Crazy to know that Larian Studios had actually started work on Baldur’s Gate 4 and then just gave up because they wanted to do something of their own. If that doesn’t work out they are going to be in serious trouble but I absolutely admire the commitment to going it their own and turning down easy money.

There’re very few companies that would ever do that, developer or publisher, and all too often you see when a developer does hit it big that the first thing they do is a sequel and sign up with, or get bought by, a bigger company. I think Larian implied that Microsoft had tried it on with them, so good on them for saying no.
Socker

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Black Friday preparations
Both congratulations and how the hell, to all that beat the final boss of the Elden Ring DLC.

He is just relentless. I have had him down to a third left on his health bar but then I get hit with a yellow explosion from nowhere. My fault for starting the DLC at New Game +2 but I had no idea how bad it would be. Back to finding more scadu fragments I guess.

On a tangent, do you think that the Meta Quest 3 will have a good price drop in the autumn sales? I kind of want one but not at £500.
Bobwallett

GC: It’s likely, yes. The Meta Quest 2 was last year.

Highs and lows
Some good articles over the weekend and I also feel like there’s a general apathy in the air now, in regards to gaming as a medium. Not so long ago I’d have been able to chat with colleagues and friends about games we’re currently enjoying but now, if we ever chat it tends to be negative.

As an example, I give a younger fella a lift to work in the morning. He basically only plays FIFA and Call Of Duty, games I have absolutely no interest in. I bring it up because each day he gets into the car he’s either buzzing or completely depressed, based on his previous evenings experience with each game. He spends hundreds of pounds each week trying to buy players on FIFA and if he gets beat at it, it sends him into a rage.

The other morning, he told me he smashed his room up after losing a match. It just seems like such an unhealthy and destructive art form at this point, at least for many people. I honestly feel like the big gaming companies are manufacturing games now to specifically target young, possibly unstable people. Of which I’m happy to say I’m neither. Which brings me back to the initial point that if this is how they think then why would I persist with gaming? I’ve already decided I won’t update next generation until the very end of it, if at all.

Apologies for the long message but just feeling very negative about something I love right now!
Chris

Eyes wide shut
The doom and gloom merchants lament over the impending demise of the console gaming industry. Things, however, have never looked so good in reality. Several factors, firstly they have the ability to instantly sell a new game title, without the need of pressing discs or making physical cartridges, that’s a huge saving already.

Then the audience. At one time it was solely the preserve of the young male spotty geeks. Lingering over their Panasonic 3DO (remember those?) or SNES, eagerly bashing buttons with parents not able to comprehend what was going on. Today, and I’m now in my 60s, they have a massive target audience, and numerous platforms to distribute their wares on.

Take me, I have PC, Switch, PlayStation 5 with PlayStation VR2, and indeed a Meta Quest 3. As time goes by we do perhaps see less unique content for a single platform, but this is often made up by excellent multi-platform releases. I’m a fan of Xbox and PC releases you can play on both, and indeed Game Pass.

Actually, it’s probably more the addressing of internet speeds in the UK that I feel are of most concern. I’m in London and they are slow! No gigabit connection here, it’s almost pedestrian, with 38 Mbps your max, if lucky.

Consoles will always have a place, even if we look at alternatives, like streaming games, if the internet cannot keep up, some form of downloaded or physical copy is a must. I think we’re entering a whole new era where gaming is even more open to all in society, more than it ever was. The only limit is the game creators and their content! Thanks for reading.
TAYLOR

Cheap replacement
So, a couple of years ago I bought a gaming laptop, not cheap. Yesterday, I got the blue screen of death. Tried everything and when I get to the advanced options it won’t let me reset or factory reset. Took to shop and they said gives us an hour, should be fine. Three days later, no solution or fix.

I googled it and this is a common problem with Windows. The biggest software company in the world with the most machines running on it, yet it’s not fit for purpose. And this is why there will always be a place for consoles, turn on and play and if it breaks get another. Still way cheaper than a decent gaming set-up.
TWO MACKS

Surprise me
I found myself mostly disagreeing with Anthony’s feature on innovation for all intense and purposes reaching its pinnacle in modern games.

I will say modern games are mechanically as good as ever and in many ways gamers have never had it so good. There’s also innovation that wouldn’t be possible on much older hardware.

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s physics-based emergent gameplay and Microsoft’s Flight Simulator’s ultra realistic graphics, combined with cloud data for realistic, accurate terrain and weather feel like modern console marvels.

But although, like the feature, I can point to best-in-class innovation in recent games the truth is the vast majority of triple-A games don’t employ that innovation. Chief among them, Ubisoft open world games and their many clones.

My gut feeling is Star Wars Outlaws will be similar to games we’ve seen many times, with competent but shallow systems and gameplay design that wasn’t that innovative to begin with and follows the prevalent triple-A model of focusing on surface level appeal in great cinematic graphics – to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

I might be wrong about Outlaws, it not being out yet, so will reference Ubisoft’s last open world game Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, which does adhere to all the legitimate complaints about lack of innovation in triple-A gaming.

The feature ended asking the question what kind of innovation are you seeking in modern games. My greatest hope is they come up with something innovative I couldn’t think of. But I’d take them implementing more of the innovative systems we have seen in others games, to try and create something that feels different and innovative in the way it’s implemented. So, for Outlaws maybe a proper Elite space exploration/trading system with realistic Outer Wilds like planetary system models.

Anything really, other than another icon-filled, copy and paste open world with lots of meaningless collectables and progress bars and bland mission design.

I think the fact that examples of better-than-ever innovative design being pretty rare in triple-A games shows we haven’t scaled to the summit of innovative game design just with what’s possible, never mind the stuff that we can’t quite imagine yet.
Simundo

Inbox also-rans
Why is my brain misreading all the Bungie stories as Bungle all of a sudden?
Pugmartin

Dear Konami, please stop making new Silent Hill games. Just stop. I’m a fan and even I’ve had enough before half of them are out. You got three good games out of it, just let it rest at that.
Fobar

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