The Friday letters page is unimpressed by Sony’s 8K claims for the PS5, as one reader is unconvinced by Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s new name.
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A new beginning
Although I don’t understand exactly why Microsoft would make a second Halo: Combat Evolved remaster I do think that some kind of remake would be the ideal point at which to bring it to the PlayStation 5. At this stage there’s no point porting over Halo Infinite – a three year old game where the general consensus is that it’s good but not great.
The Halo franchise is in a bad place at the moment and while it used to be a game that PlayStation owners were envious of that’s certainly not the case now. Microsoft need to make it seem like a prestige franchise again and short of releasing a brand new game, that gets excellent reviews, an all bells and whistles remake seems to me like the best idea.
The problem is Microsoft doesn’t just need to release games on PlayStation to make more money but to get their games back in the limelight. If Halo Infinite 2 came out tomorrow it wouldn’t make much difference at all, as too few people have an Xbox Series X/S and no one on any format really cares all that much. But treat the remake as a kind of soft reboot and you have your new beginning and the perfect jumping on point for PlayStation gamers. I hope it happens.
Scourge
Unforced error
I’m sure no one bought a PlayStation 5 for its 8K support but it’s still terrible that it was pretending it could do it for all this time. As far as I understand the logo is on the new slim model too, so they had a chance to remove it then but just carried on anyway. They’re lucky they didn’t get sued for false advertising, as I don’t see how they would’ve had a leg to stand on.
The worst thing is, I bet they only took it off because they want to make a thing of 8K with PS5 Pro. Even then it’s going to be a con because you’d need a TV screen the size of a house to see any real difference with an 8K image, if you had a game or film that ran at that resolution – which you generally don’t.
PlayStation really needs to do better at the moment. It’s just one unforced error after another.
Gary Plankton
Borderline excitement
I’m curious to see Borderlands 4 just because I think the timing is interesting. Take-Two only just bought Gearbox so that kind of suggests that they saw how Borderlands 4 was coming on and instantly bought the company, I’d say that was pretty encouraging.
I didn’t enjoy Borderlands 3 at all, and found it very unfunny, but I have fond memories of playing the second in co-op with friends, so I’d be up for a redemption moment. Also, it’s well past time they had a proper open world.
As for Mafia 4… I know I’m not the first person to say this but who plays these games? I have literally never heard anyone in real-life talk about any of them. I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone talk about them online either, except to say what I just said.
Krakencookie
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Embrace your Destiny, too
About the only sensible next gen update (outside of the Switch) I could see is a new Xbox launched with a raft of good exclusives. An exclusive at this stage of the current Xbox generation’s life isn’t going to help them, as most players are already embedded with their consoles and are unlikely to buy a second one, or switch. But a next gen release, plus a batch of exclusives, could give them the reset that they so badly need.
I’d like to chip in for Destiny 2 praise. It’s one of the few games that’s kept me playing for its (long) duration, and while the seasonal content quality has fluctuated, the general trend is towards improvement, with lots of quality of life upgrades along the way.
The shooting remains excellent, and the storytelling has improved – although the first day of any new release remains a server related disaster. Still, better that than no server stress due to lack of players! With Beyond Light free on PS Plus last month, I’d still recommend it to anyone interested in co-op shooters.
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)
Dragon Age: The Vielgourd
Is it just me or is The Veilguard a really lame name, and not nearly as good as Dreadwolf? Also, I look forward to it being misspelt literally every time on the internet, just like any game with the word rogue in it. I guess it doesn’t matter but it just seems to be a weird thing to be messing about with and changing now.
Nearly a decade later and we still don’t know what the game’s about or when it’s coming out. We don’t even know what the Veilguard is. I mean, presumably they’re guarding us from things coming through the Veil but it could easily be the opposite. Not to mention that most people won’t know what the Veil is anyway. They wouldn’t know what Dreadwolf is either but at least that sounds like something bad.
Sanky
Sunk cost fallacy
I’d love to think that Warner Bros. has learned its lesson with Suicide Squad and is going to go back to making proper single-player games, but I have a hard time believing they will – especially as their boss, who doesn’t seem to know anything about games, is all for it.
Losing $200 million on Suicide Squad is hard to even understand. They would’ve saved so much money if they just gave up halfway through, ‘cause I’d hate to think how much they spent on marketing alone. I really can’t believe that nobody at Rocksteady didn’t see it was going to be a disaster though.
Even if the execs had convinced themselves it was gold I bet the ordinary developers knew exactly what it was and were dying for someone to say no. It’s a shame that when we say ‘Rocksteady’ messed up what we really mean is that the top people in charge fumbled the ball and everyone else had to try and make up for it.
I hope they can bounce back, with new leadership, but where their name would have guaranteed my interest 10 years ago, now it’s a big red flag telling me to hold off.
Garston
One out of four
If I had a year of inbox magic to wield and cast as I wanted, I would request immediate announcements of Dishonored 3, Wolfenstein 3, XCOM 3, and Civilization 7.
All released within the next 12 months. And with 9 out of 10 review scores please. This is surely not too much to ask is it?
Whiskeyjack11
GC: Civilization 7 has already been announced. Arkane Austin were reportedly trying to pitch Dishonored 3 before they got shut down, but we think you’re out of MP with these other three choices – much as we’d love to see them.
PC rising
Reading letters on GC, one thing people write in about that continually baffles me is this argument that ‘why buy a console when you can have a PC?’ You see it mostly now with Sony’s exclusives, that why would people buy a PlayStation 5 if games are on PC. Do these gamers not understand that despite both playing games the PC and console markets are really quite different? Yes, I’m sure the hardcore gamer leaning bias of a video game website letters page means many readers have both… but out there in the mass market that just isn’t the case.
Firstly, there’s the technology itself. Not everyone wants a to fiddle with drivers, patches, and settings to eke out marginal gains in performance. Remember, most people can’t tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps, never mind care what anti-aliasing is. Consoles are a closed system, where (in theory) you turn it on, load up a game, and you’re getting the optimised experience without thinking about it. Then look at a lot of recent PC ports, optimisation is terrible and requires a bit of knowhow just to match console settings, nobody wants to watch a Digital Foundry video to work out the optimal way to play.
However, more importantly, there’s just the practicality of PCs. Not everyone has a home office or man cave to run their hobby and entertainment out of and many more don’t want to sit in an office chair in front of a monitor to play games after work. I’m sure I could hook something up to the TV in the living room but I refer you to the previous point, that may come in time (handheld PCs and gaming laptops are better than ever) but it isn’t there for the mainstream now. I haven’t been able to accommodate a dedicated gaming PC since being a kid and having it in my bedroom at home.
I’m amazed by how many hardcore gamers think that all other gamers are like them, and how much that shapes the conversations we have about the industry. What is currently happening in gaming makes a lot more sense when you realise the hardcore market we all talk about is actually a small slice of the overall pie.
Marc
GC: While you have a point, the PC games market has shown the most growth of any format in the last year, so the idea that people are abandoning console in favour of gaming PCs is clearly true to some extent.
Inbox also-rans
The worst thing about Marvel’s Midnight Suns being free on the Epic Games Store is that I bet too few people bother to download it even now. It’s an amazing game, people! Play it now!
Dwebhead
So what’s the bet on how long it will take Sony to realise they should probably make their live service games all free? I give it until Concord has a bad launch and/or Helldivers 2 dips even further.
Kerium
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