Games Inbox: What are the best video game graphics ever?

The Wednesday letters page has an idea for a Resident Evil remake and reboot, as one reader is confused as to why Nintendo bought Shiver Entertainment.

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Pretty rivalry
Very interesting to find that possibly the best graphics of the generation are to be found in a game that was only made by 80 people. I’m assuming Spider-Man 2, which I would have said was the other contender, must’ve had at least three times that many people working on it, considering Wikipedia says Insomniac Games has 450 people. Ubisoft Montreal has over 4,000 so who knows how many people are needed to make their games – I guess you could count them up if you watch the credits?

If the game is super short though I’m not sure it’s really that much of a saving. Especially if the game is not very good. It certainly doesn’t sound good to me and I’m sure I enjoyed Spider-Man 2 more than I ever would Hellblade 2. It also doesn’t sound like the levels are very interactive, like no destructible scenery or moving parts?

I mean, kudos to the team, because the videos do look impressive, but it barely seems to qualify as a game. If I had it on Game Pass I would play it just to see the graphics, and it sounds like maybe that’s why it was made, but it all seems a bit of a waste.

If the best graphics ever aren’t Spider-Man 2 I’d say it would be Horizon Forbidden West. Neither are the best game ever, but they do sound like more of an actual game than Hellblade 2.
Grackle

GC: The only interactivity is the layout-changing puzzles and the water moving realistically.

Games without gameplay
There’s probably plenty of people who will be content with the linear, semi-interactive, slow-paced nature of Hellblade, as it’s dealing with a serious subject matter, but I’m personally of the opposite opinion. You can deal with a serious subject matter and still attach a video game to that. One with a solid gameplay loop to it. Not every game has to play fast-paced like Returnal but there you’ve got a story about trauma with some heavy themes combined with a very engaging combat system and gameplay loop.

Each to their own but I don’t buy this approach to gaming. I find it odd that titles that like to be ‘cinematic’ tend to give the player barely anything to do and for a game that has a five hour running time it feels that it would’ve been better served as an actual cinematic movie or a six part series. The graphics are easily good enough to be used for a non-interactive story to be told.

As you pointed out in the review, it’s a shame that a talented development team in certain areas haven’t expanded to incorporate more unique gameplay ideas in their repertoire.
Wonk

Maximum RPG
Absolutely agree that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a total classic. I have already pre-ordered the remake and am really looking forward to it, so glad to see it got a good review.

I hope it does well because now we’ve got to convince Nintendo they’ve been getting the franchise wrong for the last 20 years. I would love to see a new Paper Mario early on in the Switch 2 that had proper role-playing and proper weird looking camera, instead of this stupid rule where everyone has to look the same.

I’m hoping the chances are good though because they also remade Super Mario RPG and I know they said that sold better than expected. Based on that I’d love to see them go even more hardcore on the role-playing stuff, with stats and job classes and all the trimmings. I don’t see why not, I’m sure most Mario fans have played that type of game before so why not go all in?
Onibee

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Impulse purchase
So, Nintendo buying that developer is pretty weird, huh? Why would they do that? They don’t seem to be very good, they’re not famous, and I don’t really see what Nintendo needs ports for. Unless these guys are going to be handling the imagined remasters for the Switch 2?

I hope not. I imagined them being done by the original developers, maybe with some extra stuff on top. I’m not sure handing over the work to a no-name, apparently no-talent, Western developer really makes any sense. That Mortal Kombat 1 port made headlines because of how bad it is and that’s the company they want to own?

Maybe they just felt sorry for them being owned by Embracer and they thought they were so dirt cheap, why not? That doesn’t sound like a very Nintendo thing for them to do though.
Winston

Personality types
I think the reason that Microsoft and the other don’t like learning from Nintendo is that they’re just such completely different mindsets. Nintendo is the strong but silent type, just getting on with their work and taking their time to do a good job. There’re no shortcuts with them and they will happily delay things to get them right. They also don’t like talking about themselves in public much and never make big claims about anything unless it’s literally launching right then.

Microsoft is the absolute opposite. They can’t stop telling everyone how great they are and they’ve got no patience. I feel like Sony has learnt more, especially in terms of the importance of first party games, but I think their problem is they want to prove they’re better than Nintendo, so they often go off the rails when they think they’ve got a unique idea, like VR, and then it ends up they were just wasting their time.
JohnnyG

2 for 1
I know what I’d do for the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil and that’s to reboot the whole franchise. We’re getting Resident Evil 9 next and the rumour of a Resident Evil 1 remake… they seem like pretty round numbers to end on. I saw a rumour that Leon is going to be 48 in Resident Evil 9. That is getting a bit old to be a top special forces operative, let alone having hair that floppy.

So what I’d do is remake Resident Evil 1 again but also make that the first entry in a new reboot series. I am convinced this is a genius idea because this would allow you to have the same basic thing but updated for the modern day and able to be planned out a bit better so that everything matches up more cleanly.

That way you could do a new Resident Evil 2 and it wouldn’t be a remake it would be something completely different. Like an alternative universe version of what could’ve happened or something. Maybe Wesker does get the virus this time or the zombie outbreak is stopped and Umbrella goes underground.

That seems a much better idea to me than trying to drag the story out until the characters are fighting with Zimmer frames and we’re still having references back to games that came out 30 years ago. Just my suggestion!
Purple Ranger

Opaque storytelling
Yeah, I did not get that Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree story trailer at all. How can it be a story trailer if you haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about and they don’t say much anyway? I’ll be getting the DLC anyway, because I loved the main game, but I don’t pretend to really understand the story at all.

I can see how working out the lore from the descriptions can be fun, but I feel they should’ve given us a bit more to work with if you’re not into that stuff. I still don’t even really understand what the elden ring is, and yet apparently that’s what my character is after?
Gifford

Whales and minnows
Absolutely tragic news to hear about IGN buying Game Network. There goes the last vestige of the old school UK games magazine market. I know Eurogamer and the others had no direct connection, but they had the same attitude and shared history and that’s what I loved about them.

It’s not that I’m worried that IGN will tell them to tone it done, which I’m sure they will, but that they’ll start shutting them down sooner or later. I don’t think IGN bought them so they could own them, they bought them so they could sabotage them and get rid of some competition. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Every corner of the games industry seems to be ruled over by uncaring execs who are buying up everything, until we will literally be left with only a handful of companies who own everything.

I know obviously we still have Metro and The Guardian and things like that in the UK but, no offence, it’s not the same as a dedicated games site that only does games. The fact that even US sites aren’t even like that now, with all their movie and TV coverage, makes this even worse.

All of this is so crazy to me because a year or two ago it seemed like the games industry was at the top of its game and things were only getting better all the time. Now it seems like we can’t go a day between someone being bought up or shut down, or hundreds of people being laid off.
Cranston

Inbox also-rans
Here’s a drinking game to practice in advance of Xbox’s announcement of its next gen plans. Take a swig every time they mention the word ‘AI’. I bet it’s going to get you drunk within minutes.
Tonfu

Well, this game could save the industry – nay, the world – if Hasbro and Capcom can just do an official version.
FoximusPrime81 (gamertag/NN ID)

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