Games Inbox: Dead Space legacy, Animal Crossing relaunch, and The Elder Scrolls 6 graphics

Does Dead Space deserve a remake? (pic: EA)

The Monday Inbox is unimpressed by the petition to stop Hideo Kojima’s Xbox game, as one reader hopes for some new HD era lightgun games.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Unwanted purchase
I have a bit of a quandary. On the one hand I’m a big fan of survival horror but on the other I really don’t like Dead Space. I played the first and second games, as they were well thought of at the time, but I found them to be generic and uninspired in terms of both gameplay, story, and monsters. There were some good horror moments – everyone remembers the bit with the eye – but they were few and far between.

The whole thing was a mishmash of ideas from other people’s movies and other people’s games, and I really struggled to get through them, especially with the constant ‘go here and fix that’ mission design.

In normal circumstances that would be fine, I didn’t like it so no need to get the next one (which I didn’t with Dead Space 3). But with survival horror so rare now I feel like I should support whatever comes out. The new game could be good, on a surface level at least, if it looks and plays as well as Resident Evil 2 but I just have no enthusiasm for the prospect. Which is not usually a good reason to spend £50-odd.
Egbert
PS: Don’t even get me started on the idea of the horribly untalented Bloober Team working on Silent Hill…

Tunnel vision
100% agree with the reader saying that Rockstar, and others, should make other smaller games in between their big projects. I never got the impression that game developers, the ordinary workers, were paid all that much so the idea of just working on basically the same game, and its DLC, forever with no hope of doing anything new or different sounds awful. You might as well just be developing spreadsheets, or whatever, at that point.

I think some people joked about it a few years ago but we really are now looking at major developers only making one game per generation. We’re already there with the likes of Rockstar and Rocksteady, and Naughty Dog aren’t far off either. This is only going to get worse as the amount of time and money a top game takes to make increases over time.

As far as I’m concerned developers have to make smaller games as well or they’re going to suffer from some serious tunnel vision and reduce even further the scope of what they’re doing, as only the graphics and presentation improve.
Noctourn

Lost Horizons
Completely agree with the weekend Reader’s Feature about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In the last few months in particular the amount of new content has been reduced to a trickle. That’s the worst possible time too, because at the one year anniversary it’s the point at which anyone that started it from launch is going to completely run out of new things to do.

I know the pandemic is the reason but I really don’t think that’s any kind of excuse given how successful the game has been and how rich Nintendo is. As the reader said, this is the perfect game for having just little DLC extras to fill in the gaps while they get something bigger together and yet they haven’t even done that.

To me the game needs a relaunch, with lots of new content and new abilities. I would’ve done this for the first anniversary but now it just needs to be ASAP really. It feels such a waste to see the game dry up like this, with Nintendo not even mentioning it in their last few Directs.
Kikkomon

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Cross-gen driving
Since Gran Turismo 7 will also be on the PlayStation 4 it does make you wonder why this could not have just been a PlayStation 5 exclusive, instead of it also being available on the PlayStation 4. Any Gran Turismo fan who was hoping to enjoy this on the PlayStation 5 will now wonder why they should buy the PlayStation 5 version when they could just get the PlayStation 4 version instead.

Didn’t Sony say that this game would be exclusive to the PlayStation 5 now that it’s coming to PlayStation 4? I’m sure this could hold the game back and it’s now another reason that I am holding back from getting a PlayStation 5. Yes, the PlayStation 5 is going to be a great console but this decision to bring Gran Turismo 7 to the PlayStation 4, which has a weak CPU by today’s gaming standards, is going to create headaches for fans and will mean it will be many years before we ever see an actual Gran Turismo game being exclusive for the PlayStation 5.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds and hope this is an improvement over the previous game.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)

GC: It’s one of several games that was implied to be a PlayStation 5 exclusive but is now a cross-gen title.

Trouble in the cloud
Good morning GC. I will have to say something games related before I mention Thesmaul’s reference to Crowded House…

Oooh I know! I’ve been trying the xCloud beta on my laptop and iPad. I have a 100Mbit line with a download speed of roughly 65MB per second and upload of around 7Mbps.

The image quality is absolutely superb and loading is swift. My PlayStation 4 controller connects and works great but the fly in the ointment is input lag.

The delay is around 0.75 seconds and it renders any shooter or car game unplayable. However, anything slow-paced is absolutely wonderful.

I will be keeping an eye on it but my hope of playing some Xbox exclusives has been rather dashed.

Anyway, Thesmaul, I respect you feel Crowded House is run of the mill but Neil Finn, the lead singer and main songwriter of all their albums, is a great lyricist. I urge you to listen to their album Woodface. It’s incredible. To me, anyway.

Best wishes to all of you.
Matt

Room for improvement
Looking at everything else they’ve done I will be shocked if Elder Scrolls 6 is anything more than average in terms of its graphics. I’d love if Microsoft helped them out with that side of things but they kept saying that they’re not going to interfere and will just leave Bethesda to work as normal. But that’s the last thing you’d want when it comes to things like graphics and bugs.

I’ve enjoyed a lot of Bethesda games over the year but the more Microsoft convince themselves that they’re the best developer ever, in some sort of corporate version of buyer’s remorse, the more they’re going to ensure Elder Scrolls 6 and the rest is a disappointment.

Starfield, in particular, will be made with little chance for Microsoft to influence things and when then that turns out to be the use buggy mess, with ugly graphics and potato-faced humans, it’s not going to make for some good headlines. This is the perfect opportunity to bring Bethesda’s work to the next level but it’s not going to get there if they start believing their own hype and think there’s no room for improvement.
Galen

Three good reason
Personally, I do think the Switch Pro exists but I don’t think it’s going to come out this year. I think Nintendo delayed it because of three things: the semiconductor shortages, Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2 not being ready, and Nintendo hating all the leaks.

There’s no way to know when Breath Of The Wild 2 will be out next year but I imagine the Switch Pro will be linked to that. My guess would be next Christmas, because if they can get it out in the first few months they probably would’ve just pushed for it to be late this year.
Casper

More: Gaming

Joke demands
I knew something like that would happen, with the petition to cancel the Hideo Kojima and Xbox project. It is truly pathetic but also very predictable. Gamers are so self-absorbed and entitled it always seems like a joke the sort of demands they make.

Now, obviously these clowns are at the extreme end of the scale and nobody sensible is going to have any sympathy for them, but I think we could all do well to think of the times we thought something was ‘unfair’ and all we really meant is that it was something we don’t like.

Not only do companies (well, maybe not Microsoft) have to make a profit but developers have their own plans and desires for games too. It seems like Kojima wanted to make a cloud-based game so who is going to go to other than Microsoft? Sony, who have already signed up to use the same tech as Xbox?

Being a customer doesn’t mean these companies instantly become yours to order about and make demands of for all time. That’s not me attempting to absolve publishers of all their many anti-consumer practices, but you know what you should do when a company does something you don’t like? Stop buying their games.

It’s the single most effective thing you can do and yet no-one seems to be able to resist the temptation and would rather use petitions and death threats to get their way instead.
Ashton Marley

Inbox also-rans
Have there been any lightguns and lightgun games released recently that work with HDTVs?
LoRd SiNn

GC: No, but there is a remake of The House Of The Dead that’s meant to be happening. Although it’s never been clear whether it’ll actually use a lightgun or not.

Missed the Hot Topic but just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed Hitman 3 this year. I know it’s basically just a giant expansion pack but that doesn’t mean it’s not good!
MJH

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was inspired by reader Grackle, who asks what one feature would you add to the next sequel in your favourite franchise.

It doesn’t matter whether the sequel has been announced already, or how likely it is, but we want to know what you’d do to improve your favourite game. It can be something small, like a change to the control system, or something like a change of perspective from third to first person. Or perhaps a change of art style, story, or combat system.

Is your choice something relatively trivial, that’s only meant as a bit of fine tuning, or something that will fundamentally change the nature of the franchise? How likely do you think it is that your idea will make it into a future game?

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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.

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.

MORE : Weekend Hot Topic, part 1: The best games of 2021

MORE : Weekend Hot Topic, part 2: The best games of 2021

MORE : Games Inbox: GTA 6 as Rockstar’s next game, Ghost Of Tsushima upgrade fee, and Dead Space hopes

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