The Friday letters page asks how often you replay your favourite video game, as one reader wonders if the MultiVersus relaunch has been a flop.
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Second place shooter
With the release of the new expansion, I decided to go back to Destiny 2 for the first time in more than a year. I used to be a regular player but fell off after a while – not because there was anything wrong with the game but because I didn’t want to be playing only that forever.
My first impressions were not good, as the game is really weird about welcoming you back, with tons of cut scenes and info dumps and putting you straight into a mission. But after a while I started to get into it and I realised… this still has the best gunplay in any game ever. The satisfaction of shooting your gun and scoring a hit is absolutely second to none and given how old it is I’m not sure it’s ever going to be beaten.
I’m not saying Destiny 2 itself is the best game ever, it still feels weirdly bare bones even after all these years, but in terms of its action it is near perfect. So much so I’m not sure what the second best even is. Halo is up there, but that’s just Bungie again. Beyond that, maybe Resident Evil 4 or Doom?
Focus
First impressions
I appreciate what the developers are trying to do with having no battle pass for Concord but I don’t think it’s going to work. It reminds me of the time Nintendo made that Super Mario game for mobile and they said it won’t have any microtransactions, but it will cost £5 or so. Nobody bought it, just because they’re used to everything being free and they consider any price a rip-off (remember, most people spending nothing on live service games).
Concord has already been labelled as unoriginal and expensive and I don’t think it’s going to be easy to shake that off. Maybe it’s not fair but I’m not sure it’s fair that Helldivers 2 completely avoided those criticisms, considering it’s not exactly groundbreaking itself.
Sometimes a label just sticks, fairly or not, and that’s it for most people. Maybe if Concord seemed more unique people would give it a second look, but I think one is all it’s going to get.
Lotom
Positive influence
After reading about it, and the work put in, I will definitely be giving Fallout London a try, as it sounds like it could literally be as good as a new release. Although, I hope it will be a proper British sense of humour, rather than the very dry Bethesda games.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the Bethesda games, but the scripts have always been pretty bad and taking out the humour that was in the original 2D games is such a bad decision. At times Bethesda Fallout does try to be funny but it never works and I think they realise that, which is why they barely try most of the time.
The TV show was funny though, with proper screenwriters, and I’d like to see that become a key part of the franchise from now on. The show is good and while it’s not really that much like the games, despite the surface similarities, I think it could end up having a very positive influence on the series, as could Fallout London.
Lempton
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Seeing for yourself
I realise I’m late to the party here but I picked up Suicide Squad for next to nothing in the recent Amazon sale, just because I was curious what all the fuss was about, since I still didn’t understand what kind of game it was exactly.
After playing it for a few days I’m still not sure I understand it. Why was this a DC Comics game? Everyone is using guns and the city is this weirdly designed BioShock style place that doesn’t look real but also doesn’t look particularly comic book. Harley and the sniper guy have virtually no personality and the other two are very note.
There’s virtually nothing appealing about the game, other than the action is… okay. It’s an all right third person shooter, but what has that got to do with being a superhero type game? It’s very weird and it being a flop is the least unsurprising thing ever now I’ve played it.
Gorf
No change
I think the problem with hero shooters, and you can see this in Concord and Marvel Rivals, is that all the effort is going into creating the characters and nothing in terms of making the games unique. Obviously, the characters are a big part of the appeal but they’ve all got to work within the same framework. It’s not as if any of the characters added to Overwatch over the years have radically changed that game.
That’s why these games all have the same modes and style of maps, with no effort going into changing anything at the core, just the details around the edges. You could probably say that about a lot of popular genres but for hero shooters it’s just extra obvious.
Tacle
Not worth the wait
Modern Warfare 3 is the worst Call of Duty… so says all the online and offline opinions. However, it’s on Game Pass so I’ll give it a go, right?!
Well, having started the pre-download at midday Wednesday, after seven hours I get back and check on its progress… less than a third done, with an able to play marker at about three quarters!
So, Xbox is left in standby, all quick resume games are closed, and I even hold off playing anything. Come around midnight Wednesday I turn it all off and go to sleep, it’s still not able to play. So, Thursday I get back around 3pm, start up the Xbox to resume download. Should of put it on in the morning, but I was in a rush, staying up to watch bloody downloads. At around 6pm it’s ready to play, however, it now needs an update!
It’s now fully installed at around 10pm Thursday night, so let’s get a veteran difficulty playthrough going… oops you’re missing some content! The single-player campaign! What?! Only another 25GB install, what the heck has it been installing for the last day and a half, give or take? I’m already sick of the effin’ thing and I ain’t even started it yet!
I swear downloads were never this bad ever and no, that’s not just rose tinted download glasses speaking.
big boy bent
GC: Call Of Duty games are notorious for having massive download sizes, far beyond most other games.
Cheap rival
Is it me or is nobody talking about MultiVersus, after the relaunch? The only time I see it mentioned is in terms of new leaked characters, but does anyone really care? I think they should’ve sold it as a normal game, just with DLC, and tried to make it a true rival to Smash Bros.
As it is now, it just feels incomplete, at the same time both expensive and cheap feeling. Lots of money has obviously gone into making the characters, and getting the right voiceovers and so on, but the lack of modes and single-player makes it feel as if it’s only half-finished. Considering how overloaded with content Smash Bros. is, it’s not really a fair fight.
Matts
One and only
One thing that has always confused me about video games is the concept of replayability. That’s a word going back a long way in gaming but I’m not sure why it’s ever been relevant. Apart from multiplayer games, which don’t have an ending, I don’t think I’ve ever replayed any game once I’ve beaten it.
Especially in terms of modern game, who has the time to replay anything? Even if it’s a game I really like I’ll always prefer to play something new rather than the same thing again. Remasters and remakes are the only real exceptions but they’re pretty rare, at least in terms of them being something I’m interested in.
Am I alone in this or is this relatively common? I can understand New Game+ to a degree, because it’s a relatively different experience having so much unlocked from the start, but it’s still a major time commitment that I can’t justify.
Although saying that I never really had the inclination even as a kid. Maybe it’s just me but I wouldn’t like to think I was being that weird about it.
Tribock
Inbox also-rans
I haven’t got the money to buy it but that Super Mario World Lego model is amazing. Perhaps it’s time to make an early Christmas list…
Zeiss
I still can’t believe Shadow The Hedgehog is a character that has actual fans. I’m curious though, would they like him to go back to using a gun or was that just a phase he was going through in his early days?
SageWonka
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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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