Games Inbox: AAA video games in crisis, Suicide Squad worries, and Midnight Suns disappointment-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice – we all saw this coming (Picture: WB Games)

The Monday letters page contemplates Xbox’s plans for Hi-Fi Rush and other exclusives, as one reader beats his first Zelda game.

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

Stop now
Watching Suicide Squad walk into a bear trap of its own making, that we all saw coming years ago, has been very depressing. A literal slow motion train wreck. There’s no point me, or any ordinary gamer, pointing fingers, as we don’t know how or why this happened. Even if it does smack of corporate interference, especially given what Warner has been saying about live service games in general lately.

I think it’s been obvious since the generation began that AAA video games are out of control and I’d say that this is the point at which it’s just got to stop. I actually think it’s the length of time they take to make that’s the major problem, beyond just the money. As the Reader’s Feature pointed out, Suicide Squad took so long to make it managed to miss the boom for multiple trends it was aiming at and now looks outdated and unwanted.

We all want great graphics but they’re just not sustainable. Even Spider-Man 2 ended up ridiculously expensive and Sony immediately started talking about cutting jobs. This can’t go on. We should all accept that the PlayStation 4 era is as far as graphics need to go and just leave it at that until something significant changes in terms of technology. I full expect publishers not to do this.
Wildfire

A Rush is coming
They might not have announced it at their Developer_Direct but it’s very obvious that at the minimum Hi-Fi Rush is going multiformat. And considering how little dent that’s going to make in anything that can’t be the only one. I think it’ll end up being like Sony’s PC policy, where at first it was the just random experiments and now they’re speeding up the rate they come in and it’s clearly going to end up being everything.

Will Microsoft allow Halo on PlayStation? That’s the red line but from the way they’ve been talking lately I think they will do it. Maybe not this year, maybe not till the next game is ready, but at this point they’re limiting their profits needlessly by having the Xbox the only console they’re on.
OSB

Suicide Squad, assemble
I have to agree with the Reader’s Feature about Suicide Squad. It’s the fact that it’s taken so long that is the real problem, so that it’s managed to come out now when it’s basically the most unappealing design it could possibly be. I also fear that Rocksteady are not going to make it through this.

Even if people buy the game I don’t see them staying playing it for years on end like Destiny. If it really is like Marvel’s Avengers then I would imagine it’ll have the same fate as that game and it will be obvious very quickly as to how well it’s doing.

It’s all bad news on top of bad news for developers looking to keep their jobs at the moment and Rocksteady have my sympathies.
Purple Ranger

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Hate to agree
After just completing The Short Message freebie and I have to agree with your review. There’re numerous reasons why it’s simply not scary for me. Seeing the in-game cut scenes play out in third person shatters the illusion that you are the character, especially as the facial animation is really poor, with her hair seemingly always behind her glasses, thus rendering them pointless.

The constant monologuing also shatters any atmosphere being built up. The audio and sound effects, one of the most fundamental parts of a good horror experience are not only far too quiet, they’re also just not generating any tension as you’re ambling around because they’re just not very good. The narrative about suicide obviously has potential for a traumatic experience, yet it is executed poorly.

The voices she heard would’ve benefited from being more demonic and guttural. The tension in the monster sections is not earned fairly. It’s just an immediate ‘Here’s a maze to run through’, which becomes highly repetitive and feels completely disconnected from everything else going on. It’s also aping the excellent P.T. to the point where, even though P.T is Konami’s property, it feels less like homage and more like plagiarism.

Nowhere near as terrible as the self-immolation frenzy that Ascension was but still another nail in the franchise’s coffin. One can only hope Naughty Dog take over the Silent Hill 2 remake and save it from a critical panning.
Wonk

Clear and present danger
I know most people are desensitised to this by now but can we just take a minute to recognise that the people who made Spider-Man 2 – a game everyone seems to have liked and who were the victims of a serious hack that exposed all their staff’s personal details – have received ‘violent threats’ from fans.

Of course, I use fans in the loosest possible sense. These are people (and notice it was threats in plural) that enjoyed the game, are no doubt big PlayStation fans, and yet they’re threating the people that made the game they liked with death or worse. And remember they could well know where the developers live.

I’m sure this happens with everything, not just games (didn’t Taylor Swift have stalker problems recently?) but to get this obsessed over a New Game+ mode. I don’t know how you function in society if that makes your blood boil.
The Bishop

Name that game
Could GC shed some light on a recently released game named Project Downfall?

I remember that you featured some up and coming games by indie devs ages and ages ago and I was struck by the visuals of a certain one. I never bookmarked the article and I’ve been kicking myself since.

At that time, it was looking like a crude 2D, first person affair but it looked amazing. The aforementioned title is the only thing to resemble what I saw in your report. It looks gorgeous (albeit graphically enhanced from what I recall) in what can only be described as a 16-bit, neon, first person, Blade Runner esque, John Wick experience.

If this is the same game that you shone a light on back then, I’m happy to invest, especially since it’s on discount right now for Switch (it isn’t Prodeus).

If I’m wrong then I don’t guess I’ll ever find the one that you featured.
D Dubya

GC: We’ve never featured Project Downfall, so the only thing that comes to mind is Shadows Of Doubt, which is due out on April 24.

Completion envy
I just completed Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS XL. The first Zelda game I have completed.
I know it’s a little late! But it is an amazing game, varied gameplay, and the puzzles not too difficult. The 3D effect was also excellent.

I have two other Zelda games to play on the 3DS – Ocarina Of Time and Majora’s Mask – which I’m looking forward to.
Rave

GC: We envy you playing them for the first time.

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Cold light of day
After investing quite a fair few hours I can now, unfortunately, say that I have tried and failed to see Marvel’s Midnight Suns through to completion.

It’s a game I really wanted to like, and there are certain aspects that are enjoyable, but overall it’s just not quite what I was expecting. I did have high hopes due to the game being made by Firaxis (who also made XCOM 2, which is one of my favourite games) and it’s a turn-based strategy game which is a genre I love, but it just wasn’t as great as I was hoping it would be and in the end it began to feel like a chore whilst playing it.

My main issues came from how much time was spent at the Abbey sorting out squabbles, wandering around the grounds trying to work out puzzles, and upgrading things within the Abbey itself – as well as upgrading the hero cards. Speaking of which, that was the other big issue I struggled with, the cards.

Combat is turn-based with three selected heroes having to fend off a wave of enemies, attempting to stop a truck leaving with intel or various other objectives. At the start of each turn of combat seven random cards are dealt, which are the actions you can take on that turn. So, for instance you may have Blade, Iron Man and Captain Marvel as your three heroes and you might get three Blade cards, three Iron Man cards, and one Captain Marvel card to use.

Some cards are defensive and give you armour or status effects, whilst others are ‘Hero’ cards which allow you to attack. Now, to use Hero cards you need Hero points which you can get by using the defensive cards (this is a very basic example of the gameplay), which is to give some balance to the game so that Iron Man doesn’t wipe the floor with everyone with his first attack.

And herein lies my problem, you have no idea what you’re going to get, so can’t plan anything tactically. There are times you’ll have a hero in your party and you quite literally can’t use them as they don’t get a card dealt so they just have to stand there like a gormless non-player character. There are other times when the game gives you a set of cards that are practically useless, as you don’t get the cards with enough hero points to allow you to use your strong attacks.

There are times when you can get a card refunded, or draw a new card in the hope of getting something better, but the combat doesn’t work as well as it could. It’s a shame as I feel like there’s a great game lurking somewhere within Midnight Suns, but I can’t quite find it.

Maybe I’m being a tad harsh with my criticism and I do applaud Firaxis for trying something new with regards to turn based combat, but it’s just not for me.
Torro

GC: We thought the combat was excellent, but we agree there was far too much busywork at the Abbey. If not for that we’d regard it as a classic.

Inbox also-rans
Completely agree with the Reader’s Feature about non-scary horror games. I was getting Alan Wake 2 anyway but if I’d bought it because they said it was a survival horror game I’d want my money back. That free Silent Hill game is rubbish too.
Korna

This Elden Ring DLC secrecy is driving me crazy. It could be out in a couple of weeks or it could still be a year or more away, why won’t they end my torment?!
Bosley

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gadfly, who asks what is your favourite superhero video game and what new ones would you like to see?

Despite what you might imagine, superhero games are relatively rare and even the Marvel name is no guarantee of success. But if budget was no issue, what kind of superhero game would you like to see and who would you like to make it?

You can also include other non-superhero comic books but try and explain how you think the gameplay would work and what would make it different from a regular video game.

Email 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 via email or our Submit Stuff page, 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 2: Readers’ Top 20 of 2023

MORE : Weekend Hot Topic, part 1: Readers’ Top 20 of 2023

MORE : Games Inbox: Hideo Kojima – genius or hack, Spec Ops: The Line disappearance, and Project 007 news

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