The Wednesday letters page is concerned about Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s influence on Mass Effect 4, as a reader worries GTA 6 Trailer 2 won’t be this year.
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The wait begins
So if The Witcher 4 is only entering full production now, when does that mean it will come out? High-end games nowadays take longer than five years but I’m not clear whether the pre-production counts as part of that? I know there’s no point being impatient at this point, because it’s clearly going to be a long time, but it really is mindboggling how long it takes to make a video game nowadays.
The Witcher 3 will be 10 years old next year and while that makes me feel very old myself, I do hope that will be the sign for the first trailer to be released. I never really like Cyberpunk 2077, since I prefer fantasy to sci-fi, and kind of resent CD Projekt spending the last several years making and fixing it, so it feels like The Witcher 4 is very overdue to me.
I’m curious to play the remake of The Witcher 1 in the meantime though, as I’ve never played it before. I hear it’s nowhere as good but I’m curious to see how much it might be improved on new formats.
Xane
GC: You would assume at least three years more till it’s out, so maybe late 2027 at the very earliest. But it could easily be two or more years later than that. Some kinds of trailer is possible next year, but it’d almost certainly only be pre-rendered.
Add it to the list
I know it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems with Trump but everything around these tariffs sounds both stupid and incredibly worrying. We can’t suddenly switch to streaming, there isn’t the infrastructure for it, and it will always be inferior to playing a game locally, whether you get an unexpected broadband outage or not.
It could really mess up Nintendo’s plans too and I’m already thinking the reader that said they might be delaying a Switch 2 reveal because of it may be right. What would be even worse for the industry is if Trump tries to give Xbox a free pass because Microsoft are American, even though the hardware’s still made in China.
That is going to cause so much resentment and politics within the industry I don’t even know what the end result would be. I bet it’s nothing good though.
Candle
Last minute update
Sony suddenly changing the sales of the PlayStation 2 just as the Switch gets close is so transparent it’s hilarious. It’s so obvious what they’re doing, but what is the point? Come to think of it I don’t remember the PlayStation 2 being the best-selling console being used as a point of trivia anywhere but on games websites or forums – it is not a know fact anywhere else, in my experience.
It’s pretty obvious Nintendo don’t care as the DS came very close to beating the PlayStation 2 and if they were as petty and insecure as Sony they would’ve kept it going for a bit longer, or fudged the numbers in some way, to beat it. But they didn’t, because it doesn’t matter.
Onibee
The Zelda formula
Perhaps Nintendo could adopt a similar approach to Metroid as they do with Zelda. Bigger 3D titles taking their time to be released, propped up by 2D remasters or new smaller titles.
I’d like to see them off Samus to indie devs too, like how Cadence Of Hyrule got made. I’d say offer it to Team Cherry, but I’d like to see the game out this century.
In the meantime, I hope the rumoured remasters of Prime 2 and 3 are announced soon and they’re as well done as 1. It’ll be interesting to see if 3 retains the achievement like system and the decals for the ship.
Euclidian Boxes
GC: If Metroid Prime 4 does well that does seem a strong possibility, although it’s worth noting that Metroid Dread is the best-selling entry in the series so far.
Dragon Age effect
I echo concerns about the future of BioWare and Mass Effect, knowing what EA are like. They were clearly banking on Dragon Age: The Veilguard being a mega hit on the scale of Skyrim or The Witcher 3, so I don’t think doing okay is going to be good enough – even if it was BioWare’s best opening.
Personally, I just don’t think the game ever really had much of a selling point. It wasn’t clear what it was going to do different to either other fantasy role-playing games or the last Dragon Age. It also had a stupid name and meh graphics. That’s why I didn’t get it anyway. I’ll get Mass Effect 4 the second it comes out though, I’m just hoping it actually does.
Colm
One-armed bandit
I’d always assume that when people mentioned one-handed gaming, they were being subtle about certain types of ‘adult’ games. I have to say, however, I am now or have been one for around two months now.
I injured my elbow, and it caused me physical pain to use a controller or keyboard, it’s still sore but I can play for a small amount of time now. I digress.
The thought of doing nothing was honestly depressing until I was browsing my Steam library and remembered I had Age Of Empires and Grey Goo. Two excellent games that allow mouse only use.
The month of nothing but real-time strategy gaming has allowed my elbow to heal to some extent and renewed my love of this somewhat neglected genre. I’m looking into reacquiring Age Of Mythology, the HD update or remake or whatever they’ve done to it. Command & Conquer could be after it but I didn’t love 3 and the future one so I don’t know if I want it.
So now there are at least two types of one-handed gamers and I’m not ashamed of the version I have become. Cheers to the creator of the mouse.
Bobwallett
GC: Our favourite was always Supreme Commander, although we’re not sure how easy it’ll be with one hand as it helps to set up a lot of keyboard shortcuts.
The point of no return
The fans have certainly outdone themselves with this latest GTA 6 rumour. It’s the biggest load of nonsense I’ve ever heard but what did interest me is that we’re way past the point where Rockstar announced a trailer reveal last year. I didn’t realise it was in early November.
You’d have to assume that either they’re not going to do one this year or it will be at The Game Awards this time. I don’t see why it would be if it wasn’t last time, which means it probably will be next year? I’d laugh if the Switch 2 and GTA 6 Trailer 2 debuts were in the same week in January!
Cushon
Too late to help
RE: Soldat and Black Friday deals, the newest I bought was Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for £17.50 on the PlayStation Store.
I’ve never really thought Black Friday should be for very recently released games, though. I also got the following from my wishlist within minutes of looking at the same store’s deals:
Subnautica: Below Zero – £12
Vanquish PS4 remaster – £5
Frostpunk – £5
Marvel’s Midnight Suns – £9.75
That’s five games I’ve been very interested in for a total of under £50, one of which came out this year. The non-sale prices add up to £175 and they could arguably occupy all my gaming time for the next six to eight months.
Factor in discounted PlayStation Store wallet top-ups from CDKeys and I got everything for £45.
Although it’s a nice healthy range of different games, I wish I could’ve justified buying them when it would’ve made more of a difference (at least for Prince Of Persia and Midnight Suns). But it continues to underline what I see as the elephant in the room when it comes to gaming content, and that’s time rather than financial constraints.
Even if I won’t have time to play all of the above for a while, I can at least now let them jump closer to the front of my playing queue at those prices. But what does it say for the prospect of my buying anything other than a couple of the new releases I’m most hyped for over the next several months?
Panda
GC: It’s sad but Prince Of Persia and Midnight Suns were big enough failures that they gravely affected their developers. For that matter, we also worry about the current state of PlatinumGames.
Inbox also-rans
All the speculation about the next God Of War setting and Santa Monica Studio’s rumoured sci-fi game is clearly missing the obvious answer: we are finally getting the Kratos vs. Xenu showdown we’ve all been waiting for. I’m sure Sony’s lawyers wouldn’t make any attempt to veto that.
TGN Professor
Just to let people know, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is currently £2.99 in the Steam sale. How long can it go?!
BLD
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