The Tuesday letters page thinks BioShock 4 would be better with less action, as one reader hopes for Aliens: Dark Descent 2.
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Something fishy
With the video games word at a crossroads, with the whole concept of consoles and big budget games up in the air, I want to talk to you about the most important issue of our times: which game has the best fishing mini-game?
I was compelled to write in after finding, to my surprise, that even Stellar Blade has one. It’s quite good even, although it’s a bit too simple to make my top 10. My top three contenders, in no particular order, are Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Red Dead Redemption 2, and World Of Warcraft. I will also give a shout out to Sega Bass Fishing on the Dreamcast, but since that’s a dedicated game I don’t think you can count it as a mini-game.
I think probably Red Dead Redemption 2 is my favourite, since it makes sense in context, is reasonably difficult, and the graphics are great, but I’ve loved so many fishing mini-games over the years. I wonder what it is that makes developers think to put it in, even when it’s completely irrelevant – like in Stellar Blade.
Are all game developers secretly fishing fanatics in real? It can’t be because it’s easy to do because all of these could quite easily go without the mini-game and nobody would mind, so really it’d be easier to leave it out. I approve though and am always excited to find a new one. Perhaps the better question would be which is the most unexpected game to have a fishing mini-game?
Satyr
A game of two halves
BioShock is a strange series of games because I feel the story and the action really do not work well together, despite both being very good in their own right. The original BioShock is really unappreciated at how good of a first person shooter is, but everyone remembers the unusual setting and story. I feels like if you took the action out as a separate game, or the story, they’d probably both be better than BioShock as a whole.
BioShock 2 was kind of all-action but they never tried to do a more story orientated game and I think that’s a shame. BioShock Infinite felt especially odd at times because you were meant to be in this big city and you hardly ever saw anyone, except the people you were fighting. It would’ve been a lot more interesting if you were talking to people and doing dialogue choices and the like.
I hope that when the fourth game does turn up it addresses this to some degree.
Bobsen
Unhappy anniversary
Just wanted to point it out, because I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere, but Half-Life 2 is 20 years old this year. Apart from making me feel old it is still incredible to me there’s never been a proper sequel. Yes, there was Half-Life: Alyx but it was only on PC VR (why was it never on PlayStation VR2?) and I don’t think it moved the story forward much anyway, from what I understand. It just retcons the end of Episode Two.
The entire idea of Half-Life 3 has been a joke for years and now it’s obvious that the reason there isn’t one is that most people involved with the series have left Valve and those that are left just aren’t interested. It seems such a crying shame. With all that infinite Steam money, I wish they’d just pay someone else to do it or give it to the fans or something.
Gurney
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Xbox Lite
I’ve seen a lot of people mention that with Game Pass being built into TVs and being on Fire stick means that a console isn’t needed. To me though that’s a bit like saying the Xbox Series X isn’t needed as the Xbox Series S plays the same games. Or any product that is sold in tiers, be it a Dyson or electric toothbrush.
Game Pass streaming is a good entry level product, but it only does 1080p and is limited to games in Game Pass. Call it Xbox Lite if you will.
An Xbox Series S gives you all the games and better graphics, and an Xbox Series X gives you Xbox’s best graphics.
I can’t see streaming replacing a device any time soon, but I don’t see why it can’t be a great little low cost service. If you’ve got a PlayStation, buying an Xbox for a couple of exclusives is probably a waste, but why not sign up for a month or two to play one that might interest you?
Tim
According to requirements
With the letters and recent Reader’s Feature, one idea I had a while back is Nintendo should release a Dock Pro. Some computational power to upgrade graphics to 4K, bit of storage for upgraded textures.
Don’t think the Inbox magic will work, as Switch is on the trajectory to being succeeded.
On another point, I do like how Nintendo only brings out a new console when it feels like it needs to.
Sony and Microsoft just release a new console to compete with each other, when (as many have recently said) doesn’t seem needed.
Si
Cost effective
As tempting as it is to imagine what Nintendo would do if working on a much more powerful machine, I think we have to accept that not only is it never happening but that it would fundamentally break how Nintendo work as a company. They took six years to make Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and that was on a low power machine that borrowed the same basic map from an existing game. How much longer would it have taken on a more powerful console, especially if it was a completely new game?
The short answer is they just wouldn’t make anything of that size or complexity and that obviously would be a great loss. A lot of Nintendo games seem to be quite low budget, especially compared to their competitors, and if they couldn’t be, because they need to create all the complicated assets needed for a high-end console, then a lot of them simply wouldn’t exist.
Remember that things like Animal Crossing and Smash Bros. started off as low budget, experimental side projects, and now look at them. More companies should look to work like Nintendo and I’m very interested to see Capcom’s new Path Of The Goddess game, which seems to be doing weird and interesting things on a modest budget.
We need much more of that and far less of low concept copycat junk like Concord. I don’t care how good the graphics are, I want something that’s actually new.
Tacle
Solo gaming
I’m surprised to find out that Link will be playable in Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom, as that’s not the impression given by the trailer. I hope it’s only a small amount, perhaps a bait and switch at the beginning, as I do feel Zelda deserves her own proper game to herself.
I’m really looking forward to that game and am once again amazed that Nintendo has such an unexpectedly good line-up this year. If Mario & Luigi is good as well then I’ll probably get that too.
Sentinel
To be this good takes ages
I don’t know if the rumours about 343 Industries being downsized, over their handling of Halo, is true or not but if it isn’t it, it really should be. Microsoft should’ve taken them out to pasture years ago, once it was obvious they weren’t up to the job. Even when they did something right, like with the multiplayer of Halo Infinite, they managed to mess that up, with inadequate support that just let the game die an unnecessary death.
The sad fact is that there’s just no saving Halo at the moment. It’s got to go away for at least a decade, until people miss it enough to want it to return. Release one in a year or two and it’d still be tainted by the last several games (and I don’t see who they’d get to make it, that would be any good).
It’s just total mismanagement on the part of Microsoft and 343. Halo was the mascot of Xbox and it says everything about the console and brand that Halo is in the state it’s in at the moment. Imagine if Nintendo was as bad at maintaining Mario or Zelda, or Sony with The Last Of Us or God Of War.
I feel that one of Microsoft’s main problems is that it still doesn’t know how to nurture first party developers and that because it’s constantly in a rush for a killer app it never gives one time enough to mature. It took Sony three generations to get consistent about its first party games. There’s no way Microsoft has the patience for that.
Haymaker
Inbox also-rans
I read today Xbox stopping people stacking their Game Pass subscription from up to three years to 13 months. This is from September but does not affect anyone who has already stacked their Game Pass.
TWO MACKS
As much as I like the film, Aliens: Fireteam Elite wasn’t very good. I’d much rather get a sequel to Aliens: Dark Descent. That was a really good game, regardless of the licence, but sadly I don’t think it did very well.
Focus
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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.
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