The Monday letters page has more trouble waiting for Call Of Duty downloads, as one reader wishes for a modern equivalent of Stunt Car Racer.
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Quiet canine
It occurred to me today that we no longer know anything about what Naughty Dog is working on right now. One minute they had a ton of remakes and remasters, and that cancelled multiplayer game, on the go and now they’ve got nothing at all.
They’re supposedly working on a new IP, that may have a fantasy setting, but while they’ve always implied that The Last Of Us Part 3 is miles away or not happening at all, I can’t really believe that. There’s no way that Sony didn’t offer them the earth to make a third one, given the success of the TV show. Apart from anything it would give them more to adapt!
There’s no point wondering why they haven’t announced anything yet, because then you get into a whole other conversation about Sony in general, but I’d like to know. For such an acclaimed developer, Naughty Dog doesn’t really have much variety in its line-up, if you only count since the PlayStation 3.
Personally, I hope they do something new and something that isn’t a third person action game with the same gameplay as Uncharted. I’m not the biggest fan of The Last Of Us and would like to see them move beyond it.
Castor
Accepted behaviour
Interesting that the Reader’s Feature at the weekend mentioned the Nintendo comment about games taking longer to make in the future. I was also surprised, and disappointed, by their response to that, in the way that they seemed to think it was unavoidable and not something they could fight against.
Who knows what they really think in private, since Nintendo often seem to prefer to put people off with vague blanket statements, but I think it’s right to be concerned that the Switch 2 might bring with it some bad habits. A price rise for games, to at least £60 is inevitable, I think, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they made some live service or gatcha games too.
As the reader said, they’ve already experimented with these sort of things and if they think it’s a good way to make money, and the methods have been accepted by the majority of people as normal, then they’ll go for it. Or not… I guess we’ll see.
Johnson
Minor savings
If I was a voice actor I’d be going on strike too. I’d also be looking for a new union, given the terrible deal their current one has lumbered them with. As was implied, it seems so short-sighted to treat actors like this when you know you’re going to still need them.
I guess the idea is that the worse you treat them the more they’ll be willing to put with being treated badly? And then you can just wait it out until AI can do any voice in any role and you won’t need to pay a human at all… just all those AI programmers, who I imagine are at least as expensive.
Even if they save a small amount of money is it really worth all this upheaval? In their minds it must be, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. Just pay people what they are worth and let human beings make our entertainment.
Collie
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No price low enough
PlayStation VR2 could be £100, and I still wouldn’t buy it. There’s a reason why retailers are slashing the price and Sony have paused manufacturing new stock. Not to mention, making it compatible with PC. Sony aren’t supporting it; with no indication they will change their mind.
It’s a shame, because the tech is good. When you can get a wireless headset (Meta Quest 3) that doesn’t require a console, for a much cheaper price it isn’t a contest! PlayStation VR 2 faced an uphill battle once it was revealed it wasn’t wireless. Sony’s apathy towards VR has sealed its fate.
Si
Baby steps
At last! Legacy Of Kain is back and we’re getting remasters of both Soul Reaver games! I realise it’s still a long way to go from that to a new game but at least I can hope. Especially if they’re making new merch, which already proves this isn’t a one-off.
I wonder when it was supposed to be officially announced though? Maybe later at Comic-Con, I suppose, but perhaps some kind of online event? I’d love if there was something equivalent to that Silent Hill 2 announcement for its remake and spin-offs. I realise Legacy Of Kain was never that big, but neither was Silent Hill, so I’m going to continue to hold out hope anyway.
Farmlad
Long campaign
RE: big boy bent and his nightmare downloading Call of Duty, I had a similar issue as well recently. I got the newer Modern Warfare 2 on disc for the PlayStation 5 and wasn’t allowed to even boot it up until I downloaded a mandatory (and quite large) update and created an Activision account. The campaign was then treated like some hidden feature, buried away in the labyrinthine menu, and once I found it I was made to download another file as DLC.
I was then deemed worthy of playing, but when I returned for my second session I was expected to download another chunk of the campaign in order to progress, swallowing more hours of my precious free time.
I should add that my PlayStation 5 is at my family’s home, which I only visit every week or two, so this was an ongoing saga for about a month.
I get that Call Of Duty is to be pushed as a multiplayer game, but can Activision and Microsoft not appreciate that some of us just enjoy the single-player component and let us play without all the fuss? The whole debacle has made me reticent to play another one in the future and reminded me why modern games can be so frustrating at times.
ANON
On purpose
That Gran Turismo 7 bug looks hilarious, they should keep it in as an extra mode. Although I’d have it as a whole separate game if it was me. It reminded me of Stunt Car Racer on the Atari ST, which actually had a similar bug, and I’d love to see a modern equivalent.
For those that don’t know, it involved you racing along what was basically a roller-coaster and was a ton of fun, even if it was very janky. Sadly, since we can’t even get non-indie arcade racers anymore, I don’t hold out much hope for that.
Olliephant
Superhero fatigue
The problem with DC’s Suicide Squad game, and the MultiVersus game, is that they’re great to look at but very unoriginal with the gameplay and the world they’re in. I could never play these games and quite frankly it’s not surprising why these are not big hitters anymore.
I presume that market enthusiasm was not researched properly and when I look at the gameplay from a streaming channel I am at a loss as to know where the excitement comes from. First person games like Call Of Duty: Warzone and multiplayer shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends, along with games like Sea Of Thieves and League Of Legends are great to look at and exciting to play and watch steamers having fun.
I feel I don’t get that from the MultiVersus game, as the streamers are usually playing them because they’re being sponsored or just because it’s happening now with a little hype behind it, at least until it is forgotten about and gamers have no reason to keep on playing it.
I wish these companies would just invest money in good quality games which last and are actually interesting to play and get involved in. It’s so hard to get my head around these superhero style multiplayer games. It just seems like throwing money into the void.
We’ve seen far too many job losses in this industry and making games that are obviously doomed to failure is a terrible thing. Where’s the imagination? That’s why I love indie games and developers creating amazing games for way less, instead of bigwig business folk totally misreading gamers’ minds.
We’ve had a great year of decent game releases so far, so let’s not spoil people’s livelihoods by forcing great developers to make run-of-the-mill experiences. Let’s take responsibility and pride in this fantastic video gaming industry that we all love.
Alucard
Inbox also-rans
Fallout London sounds great and everything but it’s been two days now and I still haven’t got it to work for more than five minutes at a time. I really wish Bethesda had helped out on this, I bet their code is a mess for anyone else to try and deal with.
Crosscut
I still can’t believe the PS5 Pro isn’t launching aside any new games. That’s why I believed the rumours of a delay but I guess Sony don’t care after all.
Sodastreamer
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