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Games Inbox: Will Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic be a good game?-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
The Monday letters page thinks Elden Ring: Nightreign is just repurposed DLC, as a reader worries about the release date for The Witcher 4.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet – were you impressed? (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
The Monday letters page thinks Elden Ring: Nightreign is just repurposed DLC, as a reader worries about the release date for The Witcher 4.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing our content for over the Christmas period and will need a number of Reader’s Features, so if you’ve been meaning to write one but never quite got round to it we could do with as many as possible before Monday, December 23.
First impressions
Am I the only one that wasn’t that impressed by Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet? And I’m not just talking about that cringey subtitle. It looked fine, the graphics are good, obviously, but it has an overwhelming air of smugness to it that I can well imagine comes as standard for Naughty Dog developers but I’m not sure is warranted here.
The main character didn’t do or say anything to make me like her and despite the trailer being quite long I didn’t really get a feel for what the story was or what the gameplay is going to be. I guess a third person fighter? But considering how simplistic the combat is in other Naughty Dog games I’m not sure I have much faith in them taking on Devil May Cry or whatever.
I didn’t really like the design of the protagonist, the robot you saw for a minute, or the buster sword she seems to be using. It all felt like one of those games that are patched together with ideas from other people’s titles and I expected more from Naughty Dog. I’m not writing it off but I’m not super excited either. I hope it’s a good game, but I wouldn’t bet on it at this point.
Focus
Main event
Very excited to hear about more Elden Ring, although I get the feeling that Nightreign was probably originally DLC and they decided to expand it. FromSoftware often add in new multiplayer options after launch and turning your game into a roguelike has been very common with other developers lately, when it comes to making DLC.
That’s not a criticism but I think it’s pretty obvious this is a side project and not their main game at the moment. I’d bet good money Hidetaka Miyazaki is not the director too.
Finding out what he is working on next will be the most important information for me in the coming year and I’m not sure if the possible Sony buyout of From’s parent company makes that more or less likely. Here’s hoping the beans get spilled soon.
Grackle
Quick job
Crazy to think that The Witcher 4 is going to be out 2028 at the earliest and quite possibly two or more years later than that. It’s getting to the point where it’s going to become common for developers to not stay on a game for the whole of its development. Five years is longer than I’ve stayed at any one job, and I wouldn’t say that’s particularly unusual. In fact, I’d say six or seven is relatively unusual.
The job layoffs all around probably make people more keen than usual not to move away, and stick at a studio, but the whole thing seems so difficult to organise. What’s the longest it ever takes to make a movie? Three years, maybe? And the average has got to be a year or less.
Never mind people leaving, people are going to die of old age waiting to finish a game soon. Well, I hope it works out anyway, as I am fine with Ciri being the main character and double fine with the idea of more Witcher of any kind.
Pinky
Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Wish granted
Firstly, merry Christmas GC and Happy New Year, keep up the good work.
Writing in for a small bit of Inbox magic this Christmas.
While everyone has been heaping praise on the new Call Of Duty and Indiana Jones games, as a Switch only owner I have been playing Yakuza on the Switch, which quietly dropped onto the Switch for the sensible sum of £18, for those that don’t know.
This was my first Yakuza game (exciting) and I really enjoyed it, but with a fight on almost every street it left me yarning to play the slower-paced Shenmue series, so how about a small Xmas Inbox miracle and a Shenmue collection on Switch please guys?
Chris
GC: Since the publishing rights now belong to ININ, who were behind the recent Taito Milestones 3, that’s probably quite likely.
No more Monopoly
I’ve been going back through the Dark Souls games, and I’m currently being destroyed in the Pained World of Ariandel by some creatures that look like the baddie in Through The Dragon’s Eye (I’m old) in Dark Souls 3.
You get someone in to occasionally review and recommend board games. I’m wondering if the Dark Souls board game is any good? I’ve got a nice bit of time off over Christmas this year so I’m thinking of trying to get into something a bit different but not sure if it’s any good
Any help would be appreciated.
Simon
GC: It’s rather old now, compared to other video game board game adaptions, but the consensus seems to be that it’s pretty good. Here’s Lucy Orr’s rundown of the best new tabletop games for Christmas, which includes Mass Effect and Halo.
Rainbow Islands: The Movie
For any Amiga Fans out there, there is a Blu-ray documentary available to pre-order, with videos on the making of games such as Frontier, Kick Off, Sensible World Of Soccer, RoboCop 3, and Rainbow Islands, as well as other Amiga games. It’s made by the people who made the From Bedrooms to Billions documentaries that have covered various home computers and consoles, including PlayStation, Spectrum, and Amiga 500.
The Blu-ray is region free, signed and numbered for £35 plus postage. It is a lot of money but it is a niche product and needs to be that cost to happen. It’s available for pre-order until Thursday, 19th December 2024 with delivery estimated at February 2025.
Also this week, the ZX Spectrum The Rubber Keyed-Wonder documentary Blu-ray is finished as well and is being posted out to backers (like me) of the Kickstarter campaign too, as that is finally finished after three years. it is also available to buy on digital format from here if you missed the campaign.
Andrew J.
Currently trying to platinum Astro Bot (PS5) before the new year!
Welcome back
Great news about the return of Fumito Ueda. I’ll be honest and say I’d completely forgotten about his games over the last decade or so, but the trailer of the new one brings it all back. Sony were silly to let him slip out of their fingers, but then their handling of all their Japanese teams seems poor, going back since before The Last Guardian I guess – considering when he left.
Overall, a really good The Game Awards, I’d say. I didn’t stay up for it but reading about everything in the morning it was clearly a good one and there’s at least four or five games I’m definitely interested in without even knowing more. The trailers seemed longer and better too, before they were basically just a logo and nothing else.
Cranston
The wrong side of bed
So I already know there’ll be a few letters dedicated to the thoughts over Friday night’s Game Awards and I’d like to take this time to share mine. I’m vehemently regretful of spending my time wallowing in the disappointment and underwhelming events of the show. So, I’ll say that the announcements, for a start, weren’t as groundbreaking as I’d hoped. Kudos for beginning with the announcement of The Witcher 4. I’m stoked for the title, but we all know it’s precisely three to four years away. Let’s not kid ourselves. This will release the exact same time frame as the PlayStation 6 and I quite frankly can say it was too early to announce this.
Why showcase a trailer, that’s four years away? It was a fantastic opener, but it’s head-scratching for lack of a better word. I’m excited to see Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and The Last Of Us Part 2, release on PC. Those were two great surprises. But I’ll resort back to being sceptical, by saying that I’m kind of puzzled over Laura Bailey’s new project. I don’t see the need for something that seems so forgettable, to include a voice actress of her calibre. Is anyone remotely even interested in this? Why is Aaron Paul working on this, when he truthfully hasn’t made anything close to the calibre of Breaking Bad, since it ended?
I see this flopping hard and being forgotten, in less than a week. I’m puzzled to see Black Myth: Wukong win Best Action Game. It’s essentially another Souls clone and, if I’m being honest, I would have liked to see Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 win instead. Congratulations to Metaphor: ReFantazio on the multiple awards, very well deserved. I’m still kind of astounded to see Silent Hill 2 remake completely snubbed. Luke Roberts was absolutely robbed of Best Performance and Silent Hill 2 was robbed of Best Audio Design. It deserved that accolade at the very least.
I don’t see the yearning for a mobile game set in Westeros and the world of Game Of Thrones. It’s of course another cash grab and my expectations are zero. I was, however, disappointed with the so-called massive announcement rumours. Ōkami 2 was announced and we also saw the first glimpse of what Naughty Dog have been working on. A space odyssey named Intergalactic. Am I the only one who actually expected more? I’m not stating this will be a dreadful experience, but after onslaught of anime titles and Fortnite advertisements that I couldn’t care less.
Finally, I’d like to conclude this on a note of surprise and confusion. Astro Bot won the Game Of The Year prize. Astro essentially swept the show and if I’m being fruitfully honest, I expected Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to win. I hoped for it to win. But a platformer with quaint level design and enjoyable gameplay granted, but minimal story, wins over Metaphor and Rebirth. I’m kind of upset over that. But it is what it is.
Elden Ring is also back, with a co-op title, and I’d like to hope this can be single-player unlike It Takes Two, but I’ll cross my fingers. Overall, I found the show was less than what people hoped for. Considering I stayed up for the entire duration, until 4am it felt as if it was ultimately time wasted. I could have read about it all the next morning. You get what you pay for.
Shahzaib Sadiq
Inbox also-rans
Vampire Survivors on the Switch. Looks rubbish but if ever there was ever a case of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ in games… and it’s only four quid.
Chevy Malibu
GC: We agree entirely, the disconnect between how it looks, and even how it plays at first, and the actual level of enjoyment it offers is vast.
I just thought that GC’s offices must be called GCHQ. That’s it. That’s the email.
Ali K
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.
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