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Resident Evil Village – purposefully less scary? (pic: Capcom)The Wednesday Inbox wonders what an Xbox take on The Last Of Us might be like, as one reader is unimpressed by R-Type Final 2 on PC.
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Scary readjustmentI read that the Resident Evil Village review embargo is Wednesday, so I’m looking forward to seeing that, but I’ve also been reading that Capcom purposefully made it less scary because people thought Resident Evil 7 was too much. This is an immediate red flag for me because it suggests the game is going to be some lukewarm non-scary horror game, which is going to please no one.
The whole reason Resident Evil 7 was so scary is because Capcom had messed things up with Resident Evil 5 and 6, turning them into straight action games. Is it really only going to take one game for them to forget those problems and end up repeating them?
According to the director, Village is ‘tense’ rather than scary, which sounds, yeah… lukewarm. Resident Evil is my favourite franchise and I’ll be getting the new game whatever, but I really thought Capcom had learnt their lesson with 7 and things were only going to get better from there. Now I worry they’re just going to end up repeating the same problems, and readjustments, every other game.Iceman
Rival reportThis Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit is at least good for something: weird video game leaks that we would never have got otherwise! Maybe not new games exactly but seeing Microsoft dissect The Last Of Us Part 2 was very interesting. You don’t give it that kind of write-up and not want to make something similar yourself. Especially as they’re obviously implying that they could do the shooting better – not that I’ve heard anyone say it was anything worse than mediocre.
I would certainly rather see Microsoft create a new IP, even if it’s inspired by a Sony one, than more Gears Of War or whatever. Not since Bungie left Halo have the had a game with a decent story so I’m going to be very interested to see how Fable fares, especially as it’s from the developer Forza Horizon…
Of course, this begs the question of what Sony’s reviews of Microsoft games look like and while there’s no need to beat the dead horse over the Xbox Series X’s current line-up I’m willing to bet Killzone came about as a direct result of a similar review about Halo. Obviously, that didn’t work out so well though.
Uncharted was obviously influenced by Tomb Raider but while everyone has always known that does this mean it came about because of Naughty Dog/Sony doing a review of it and other games they thought they could copy/do better? I wonder how many games start this way and if we’ll be able to spot the Microsoft one that is inspired by The Last Of Us Part 2?Purple Ranger
Slippy: The MovieIt really is strange that Nintendo hasn’t capitalised more on the franchises they have outside of video games, seeing as how Mario is one of the most recognisable pop culture figures. The Super Mario film should have been out ages ago and we should have had a crappy animated TV series by now. I look at my own son and he seems Mario obsessed so I can imagine he wouldn’t be too fussed about whether the show was good or not.
I am not sure how the Zelda show would have worked as Link never spoke. The same could be said for Metroid, as it’s the sense of isolation that really makes the games work. I could see the Star Fox games working as a TV show where the team are called in to action during a crisis.Alek Kazam
GC: As long as Link is fairly laconic, we’re happy for him to speak in a show/movie and not in the games. We liked the reader’s idea yesterday, that a film would be an excuse to do things that wouldn’t work or aren’t possible in the games.
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Final portWell, as a shoot ‘em-up fan I had to pick up R-Type Final 2 but I don’t have a console that it’s released for and so picked it up on PC.
Nice short levels, with better design than the original Final. I can’t beat level 3 yet and I haven’t managed to unlock any ships, but I do have to say that I’m reminded why I tend to stay away from console ports on PC.
Apparently no controller support, or at least it never recognised mine so I had to resort to Joy2Key to get it to work. Plays great once it was all set up though.
What’s the deal with the password locked ships? I read somewhere that they will be doing streams where they let people know the passwords?Sven
GC: We had a brief play of the Switch version and that was pretty rough too. They may have overextended themselves with the extra formats, as it was a fairly modest Kickstarter. The password locked ships are special ones for backers.
Demo eraI’ve been an Xbox fan and supporter of the brand for 17 years now and have recently just reached 14 years of an Xbox Live Gold tenure. I really enjoyed the Xbox 360 era and feel it is by far one of Xbox’s best. One thing that made Xbox Live really enjoyable was that Xbox 360 had a decent variety of multiplayer demos that the community could play and enjoy.
What got me to play online more was the fact that you had access to numerous playable demos, so you wouldn’t get too bored of your games and could always use these playable demos of games that were not yet available and play them until the game’s official release date.
This is where the Xbox One marketplace and Xbox Live service is failing. Microsoft needs to be talking with developers and publishers to convince them to release playable online demos for games that they have not yet released, as a playable demo would generate more public interest in their games.
While Game Pass is a great feature it still doesn’t tackle the issue of long times to play a new game, when a playable demo would help people to be persuaded to buy the full game or get it on Game Pass. The Xbox Series X and S would be the perfect systems for Microsoft to be doing this with. It worked exceptionally well on the Xbox 360, so it baffles me why Microsoft aren’t doing this on the new Xbox and the Xbox Live service.gaz be rotten (gamertag)
GC: During the Xbox 360 era publishers discovered that playing a demo makes most people less likely to buy the full game, not more.
Run, interruptedI have to echo the pleas of other fans for a save feature of some sort during a Returnal run or it’s going to have to be shelved for now.
The difficulty isn’t putting me off. I’ve only had two deaths non-boss related but it’s the length of the runs that’s an issue, or dare I say it, bad game design in 2021.
Console and game updates happen and will ruin any rest mode plans. On top of that the game has glitches in later biomes that have caused me a crash.
The beauty of Hades was a 40 minute-ish run that empowered you as you failed. Returnal punishes failure and I’d argue its current systems balance punishes more than it rewards.
I really want to love it, but right now it feels like a game that doesn’t want to be loved.RJ
GC: You can turn off automatic updates if you’re that worried, but console updates are rare enough it never seemed an issue to us. We are concerned to hear that the crash bugs haven’t been fixed yet though, as that’s the only time we’ve ever had a run interrupted.
Solid auteurWhy wouldn’t Konami have a go at a new proper Metal Gear game? What did Kojima actually contribute to the series except over long and often boring dialogue filled cut scenes?
Give some fresh blood a go and move on from Snake. Make a new storyline that doesn’t need a flow chart to follow from game to game.Bobwallett
GC: Apart from inventing it and making all the games, you’re right; Hideo Kojima was basically the teaboy and had nothing to do with the series.
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Bad timingOn Persona 3, like GC said it’s a bit six and two threes between the versions. Persona 3 Portable is arguably the better game, thanks to the gameplay enhancements and quality of life improvements to make it more portable friendly… the main being you now control the whole party in combat and not just the main character, with the AI doing the others, which does transform the game.
However, the switch to a visual novel format outside dungeon crawling really harms the atmosphere and immersion much more than I expected. They’ve cut all real-time and anime cut scenes and the charm of the little low polygon cartoony characters walking around and interacting in the overworld environment is really missed. It was quite the shock coming to it after playing Persona 4 Golden on the PS Vita, the Persona 3 FES experience is much closer to that, stylistically.
With Atlus currently going over its back catalogue from that era you’d hope Persona 3 will return in some kind of remaster that merges the two games. Though redoing the story sequences with the female protagonist would be a considerable piece of work. It also might not be financially viable unless they can get it on Switch for big sales in Japan, the Persona franchise’s relationship with Sony might not make that feasible.
I’m looking forward to Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster in a few weeks, and hope GC will pick it up for review. Though like a previous reader said about Resident Evil 8, it’s just a shame it isn’t coming out during the height of the winter lockdown. Now the pubs are open, siting playing video games all weekend has lost its appeal. Monster Hunter Rise progress has slowed to a crawl recently so adding a massive Japanese role-playing to the mix probably isn’t wise…Marc
GC: At least being on the Switch, you could take it to the pub with you? But, yes. We’ll definitely be reviewing Shin Megami Tensei 3 HD. We just hope it stands the test of time as we have fond memories of that game.
Inbox also-ransBit gutted to see so many people are leaving Giant Bomb. Almost everyone that’s any good except for Jeff. Rumour is it’s all because of the company that bought them forcing them to relocate, which sucks. Along with GC they were always my trusted source for video game info.Kimble
I really hope Sony don’t give in to the petition for Days Gone 2. The first was such a meh game it would be a complete waste of time and talent. There are dozens of games similar to but better than Days Gone, can’t people just go play them instead?Durst
This week’s Hot TopicThe subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Tolly, who asks what’s the most obscure game you’ve ever played?
What game have you played that nobody else ever seems to have heard of? Did you like the game and what was its critical consensus, if any? Was the game unusual in any way or was it simply something you’d never heard of before?
How did you find out about it and did the experience encourage you to search for other less well-known games? Do you often try to seek out more obscure games and how do you make your choice of which to play?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
The small printNew 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.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
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