Games Inbox: Starfield: Shattered Space impressions, Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom 2, and Resident Evil 9 reveal-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Starfield: Shattered Space – it is very purple (Bethesda)

The Wednesday letters page is worried about the future of Ubisoft, as one reader recalls the awfulness of Activision’s Bobby Kotick.

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

Shattered expectations
I’ve been playing Starfield: Shattered Space for a few hours now and I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s as good as the main game. So far at least, it seems like the whole of the DLC just takes place on a single planet – the purple looking one from the trailers – and there doesn’t seem to be any space travel in it. But surely that was the whole point of the original game? I know it’s what drew me to it.

I know it got a lot of stick from some people but I enjoyed it, warts and all, and yet the DLC just seems to be a kneejerk reaction from Bethesda, where they’re trying to turn it into a kind of sci-fi Skyrim – which the original really wasn’t.

Problem is that Skyrim was really visually interesting to explore. But this planet is just bare rocks and purple skies. Maybe there’s more to it later but it is not somewhere you want to explore from just seeing it. As for the story… the whole snake cult thing seems both silly and boring. I didn’t like it when it came up in the main game and I don’t like it now it’s the focus.

I know good games having bad DLC is not a new thing, but I’m very disappointed in this so far.
Sasquatch

A small price to pay
Fascinating to see the Switch’s accomplishments mapped out in detail, although I think anyone’s going to be surprised at the idea that it has the most games. I knew there was a lot of junk on the eShop, but I had no idea it was that much.

A part of me wishes Nintendo would be proactive in terms of enforcing standards but if the price of the Switch’s success is a bunch of shovelware I’ll never see or hear about then I’m perfectly fine with that. Although I’m struggling to understand who actually buys or even looks for that junk. These people clearly exist though.

Not at all surprised to find it has more top-rated consoles than anyone else. It’s been a new golden age for Nintendo, with the best, or close to it, entries in almost all their franchises, big and small. I have strong doubts that they’ll be able to repeat that success with the Switch 2, just because I think they’ll get too full of themselves, as always happens in these situations, but I don’t think the Switch 1 is going to be beaten for long time.
Gaza

Divorcing Zelda
Like seemingly everyone else I’m really enjoying the new Zelda game. I would also agree though that I would’ve been happy if it was even more divorced from the regular games. I don’t think it needed the dungeons or the sword-fighting at all. I think if it’d been all open world, and about using your abilities to get around and fight monsters, that would’ve made it seem even more unique.

I get they have to call it Zelda so that people buy it, but I do feel they could’ve got away with being more radically different and no one would’ve minded. Doesn’t spoil anything but I hope if there’s a sequel they consider going this route and/or making it a 3D game.
Basil99

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Usual business practice
17 Blizzard games cancelled part way through being made. 17 games? What a joke. And they keep going on about how they’re losing money and need to charge me for games. I’m sorry but if they started games they was going to finish and release they wouldn’t be broke. Now, yes, you can see it’s how it’s been done for years but, as they say, gaming has changed.

In Titan they pumped $80 million into a game then said, ‘Nah, forget it.’ I mean come on, if they didn’t make bad decisions in the first place they wouldn’t be losing so much money and then going cap in hand to gamers saying more. And I’m sorry, no matter what anyone says I’ll never agree to £100 game when the company is wasting it on half-baked ideas. It’s a joke and people running these companies need to be gone and bring in someone that knows what they’re doing.
David

GC: As we pointed out, companies cancel games all the time. It’s just usually you don’t get to find out about what could have been.

First anniversary
We all knew Bobby Kotick was awful but hearing it out loud, that he didn’t see games as anything but product and was happy to run Guitar Hero into the ground just to make some short term profit, is somehow still really upsetting.

Not that I imagine much will have changed at Activision since he left though. In a few days, Microsoft will have been in charge of Activision Blizzard for a whole year, and we’ve not heard even a hint from them of letting Activision make anything other than Call Of Duty or doing anything different to how they’ve always been.

I’m sure we’d be told it’s too soon, but too soon for what? A hint? A promise? A CGI trailer? You’ve had time for all of that in the last 12 months and yet I bet none of it ever happens.
Coldbant

Science fantasy
I know everyone else is looking forward to a Switch 2 announcement at the moment and I am too, to a degree, but I was never that big into Nintendo and I’m much more interested to see a reveal for Resident Evil 9. Now that the Tokyo Game Show has been and gone, I think the only chance for an unveiling this year is The Game Awards, but I do think that is a good chance. In fact, I’d say it was almost certainly going to happen.

They’ve used the show before, the game’s out next year so it needs to be shown sooner or later, and well… I really want to see it. Aren’t those good enough reasons?!

The big question for me, even more than whether it’s going to be third person or not (I bet it is) is where they’re going to go with the story. Will they go for a more supernatural angle, like with the werewolves of Village, or a more sci-fi one? I realise it’s all technically sci-fi, but Resi is a series that can have its cake and eat it in terms of atmosphere.

Personally, I think it’s time for, and I would welcome, more sci-fi. It seems a long time since we’ve had the big science lab, genetically bred cyber-monster threat and I’m all for that. I’m not sure what the context should be, maybe set it up so it seems supernatural at fist (maybe vampires?) and then reveal it’s even more science-based than usual.

I like the sound of that. There was always a big Aliens/The Thing vibe to early Resident Evil and I would like to get back to that again for the next one.
Rich

Further reading
For all those writing in about the old video game magazines, I’d recommend giving a podcast called The Back Page a listen.

It’s hosted by two ex-magazine writers/editors and they quite often have guests on to talk about their time working on magazines as well.
Drlowdon

Another one bites the dust
I know Ubisoft aren’t many people’s favourite publisher but I do worry that they may be circling the drain at the moment. Star Wars Outlaws hasn’t done well and they’ve clearly made a hash of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. At the same time, they’ve got trouble from investors who are trying to get them to sell up (or go private, for some reason).

We all saw what happened, in terms of job losses, when Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard and exactly the same thing is going to happen with Ubisoft if they get sold off to some other company, even if it’s for less than they’re worth.

On top of that it’ll be yet another third party publisher that just disappears. After that what have we got left? EA, Take-Two, and that’s pretty much it for Western companies. I mean, that is literally it in terms of big companies, except for Warner Bros. – which is already owned by someone bigger.

If Ubisoft goes then all big budget Western games will be made by either Microsoft, Sony, EA, or Take-Two, with everything else just taking a tiny piece of the pie. If that doesn’t worry anyone then I don’t think you’re paying attention.

I know it’s hard to love Ubisoft, I certainly don’t but the smaller the number of people making our games the smaller the chances of them being anything new or interesting. For me their biggest problem is not their ‘formula’ but the fact that they waste so much time and resources on live service games, despite never having had a hit with anything except Rainbow Six Siege.

At least Sony seems to be quickly realising that the concept is a dead end, at least in terms of making it your focus, but Ubisoft has been doing this longer and still doesn’t understand. And that may cost them dearly in the future.
Zeiss

Inbox also-rans
When PSN went down on Tuesday, did Sony explain why? I heard it was a DDOS attack but I can’t imagine why anyone would be that upset with them at the moment. Unless it’s a disgruntled Concord fan!
Godot

GC: Sony didn’t give a reason.

I still can’t believe they made a new Secret Of Mana game, that looked exactly like the original but in 3D, and didn’t give it co-op. I bought and enjoyed Visions Of Mana and yet it seems to have been such a flop it’s one of the only Japanese developers that are laying people off at the moment. A mad decision.
Buntz

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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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