The Friday letters page discusses the difficulty indie video games have in getting noticed, as a reader is unimpressed by Nintendo’s Alarmo.
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Estimated time of arrival
With the belated release of Red Dead Redemption 1 on PC, and rumours of a current gen console version, it got me wondering when we can expect to see a third game. Rockstar sis clearly still invested in the series so I don’t doubt it’s coming, but it’s hard to make any predictions because you can’t really measure the gap between GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, given GTA was on so many different formats.
But if we take from the PlayStation 4 version to Red Dead Redemption 2 that’s four years. Adjust for the extra length of time it takes to make games now and you’re probably looking at at least six years. The question is whether they’ve already started making it, but if they haven’t, and they don’t properly start till after GTA 6, we might not be looking at Red Dead Redemption 3 until around 2031.
That seems an incredible amount of time. I don’t even want to think about how old I’d be at that point. I don’t see AI helping without just doing talented people out of their jobs, but something has to be done about how long games take now. Especially if it’s only going to get worst next gen.
Focus
Under the radar
Thanks for posting my message about Arco but, just as a follow-up but I was surprised you hadn’t heard of it as it did get a 9 in Edge and 4/5 in Eurogamer recently and has generated positive reviews from the (too few) publications/sites that have spent time with it.
But it seems to have gone massively under the radar and I think the devs have said it’s performed terribly. It has real artistic vision so hopefully some further coverage from yourselves will give it a much-deserved boost.
I’m not connected to the game in any way just feel sad for the devs that a game with this level of passion and originality can be buried by more generic titles!
Chris D
GC: The great problem for games in general, and indie titles in particular, is discoverability. We discussed it in some detail with indie publisher No More Robots last year. Indie developers can’t afford marketing and we – and we’re sure every other website – get sent dozens of press releases every day about new indie games. It is impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff without some kind of external recommendation, which means plenty of great games slip through the net all the time.
Making the list
I got selected for the mysterious Nintendo playtest thing. No idea what it’ll be other than the website recommends playing on TV and using a wired connection.
Perhaps it’s some sort of cloud-based gaming, but the Switch already has that, unless it’s a proprietary Nintendo version.
It’s fairly unbelievable that Nintendo originally said the application process would be open for five days. With only 10,000 places it was full almost immediately.
Can’t wait to find out what it’s all about, even if it’s the return of that Badge Arcade rabbit.
Euclidian Boxes
GC: How exciting!
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Bottom of the barrel
Great review of Until Dawn, GC. But what an absolute bizarre thing to spend all that time and money remaking and then it ends up worse than the original game, which runs perfectly well on PlayStation 5! I know it must’ve been cheaper and quicker to make than a brand new game but that must be almost literally the least wanted remake of any game Sony has ever made.
I don’t see the point of remaking any PlayStation 4 game and especially not because there’s a movie coming out that will probably flop because it somehow has a less well known cast than the actual game!
If you want to remake something remake the original God Of War, Ico, or an Ape Escape. Even the rumours of Forbidden Siren make more sense than this. I dunno, I just have very little faith that Sony is on the ball at the moment. They need to put out much more than just one good State of Play to make me a believer again.
Josh
Worth a chance
Got a good few hours into Silent Hill 2 now and I think your review was spot on. Some sections do last a bit too long, and look a bit too samey, but otherwise you’d swear this was a game made brand new this year. A particular shout out to the script and voice-acting which is really some of the best I’ve heard in a long time, while still keeping true to the tone of the original.
It’s hard to be scared of a game when you know what’s coming but this is still one hell of a creepy experience and while the fundamentals are the same there’s lots of minor changes that catch you out. I’m really impressed and I’m not sure they could’ve done it better really. Just goes to show you should give everything a chance I suppose.
Foline
Yearly sequel
I’m very confused about the announcement by Sports Interactive. As you said, the warning signs have been there, and it sounds like the game is a mess.
But why announce a March release date? So, they plan to release the game eight weeks before the season ends? At full price? Where is the logic? Surely, they’d lose sales when the game they release will be outdated after a couple of months.
And then that brings in the added pressure of the dev team releasing the next game in the same year. And wouldn’t they be worried about player fatigue too?
It doesn’t make any sense.
I seriously cannot imagine Football Manager 25 being released at all, and them going straight to Football Manager 26.
Also, surely they would of known a while ago the game was nowhere near ready, yet up until recently they were still taking pre-orders. That makes me uncomfortable about the whole situation.
Matt Bullen
GC: Cancelling it does seem the obvious course of action, but they likely have contracts with various companies and licensors, which stipulate the game has to be released. Whether Sports Interactive can talk them round remains to be seen.
Snooze button
Is it just me or is the Alarmo kind of rubbish? It barely seems to have any special features, beyond a normal alarm clock, and it seems like the sort of thing you’d get sick of within the first couple of days. I don’t want to be trying to beat my high score for how quickly I get up, I want the alarm clock to shut up and another 10 minutes in bed. Is that really so unusual?
At least the name is enjoyably bad.
Animal
Parental warning
Seeing your Roblox article has reminded me to let people with little kids know of the problems it can bring. The kids won’t see anything wrong but it could make adults uncomfortable. I was watching my niece play a game called Speed Draw. At the end of it another player had drawn a pornographic image. This is a kids’ game. How the hell can you not report these people?
The effer did it again on another round and I had to turn off the game without being able to explain properly why (she was only eight). I’m glad the kids play it a lot less now, but I dread to think what they have been exposed to when I wasn’t watching them.
Roblox needs a screen capture so this can be passed to some other authorities.
I hated it before this incident, as it seemed like it has been designed to rob parents blind. Every item needs Robux, in-game currency you can’t earn in-game. You have to pay real cash. I hope it goes down in flames but it makes too much money so until someone takes it on it won’t happen.
Just be aware, parents of young kids is what I’m trying to get at.
Sorry for the negativity but extreme sexual content on a young child’s game needs to be stamped out. Let kids be kids.
Bobwallett
Inbox also-rans
Nintendo trying to keep secret what developers are making games is a really horrible thing and I don’t know why they’ve started doing or what benefit they think it is to them. Surely, at the very least, it’s bad publicity?
Kyle
I believe I can beat Mark Zuckerberg at Civilization. 1,000 hours is nothing. I challenge him to a match, $1 million to the winner.
Lofi
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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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