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Games Inbox: Christmas price cut for PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 May release, and Deadlock apathy-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
The Thursday letters page is impressed by Hellblade 2’s graphics but not its gameplay or storytelling, as one reader remembers 12 years of Sleeping Dogs.
Is a price cut more important than a new model? (Sony)
The Thursday letters page is impressed by Hellblade 2’s graphics but not its gameplay or storytelling, as one reader remembers 12 years of Sleeping Dogs.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Permanent cuts
I’ve been following all the speculation about the PS5 Pro and PlayStation 6 lately, but it’s hard to really be engaged when Sony hasn’t said a word and there’s no clue whether it’s all true or not. Not that I’m particularly doubting anything, but all the rumours seem five steps ahead of where Sony actually is.
I’ve still only got a PlayStation 4, so obviously I’ve got a vested interested here, but what I’m most hoping for is a simple price cut. I missed out on the ones earlier in the year, but I do think it would be better for Sony in general if the price of the PlayStation 5 was permanently lowered.
Throw in a bundled copy of Astro Bot and that would definitely be something for me to aim for this Christmas, and I wouldn’t really think twice about the PS5 Pro. We all get caught up in specs and better graphics, but I think we forget for most people the biggest consideration is price. Or at least it definitely is for me.
Ramsey
GC: We’d be shocked if it wasn’t cheaper during Black Friday at the very least.
Clear run
I don’t know what to think about the release date for the Nintendo Switch 2, it seems like people are just trying to convince themselves that a spring release is still possible, but it sounds to me like it’s probably not going to happen.
If it comes out in April or May then you’re going to run face first into the summer games drought, which happens for a very obvious reason: most people aren’t very interested in playing video games when it’s nice out or they’re on holiday.
So, if it does come out in May its momentum is going to be immediately stopped and then it will have to start up again in August/September. Personally, I think they’ll go for a September or October release and it’s probably best to start assuming that, then if it happens to earlier it’ll be a nice surprise. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Oscar
Sleeping forever
A reader mentioned how there weren’t many GTA clones anymore and funnily enough I saw that it was the 12th anniversary of Sleeping Dogs this week. I really liked that game and I’d say it was one of the last proper attempts to beat GTA at its own game. I thought it had a better story and it definitely had better combat, so I think it was pretty successful.
It can’t have been much of a hit though as there was never a sequel. I do seem to remember there was talk of a movie at one point though. Activision was the publisher, so that means Microsoft owns it now. I doubt we’ll ever see Phil Spencer wearing a T-shirt with logo that on it, let alone him ordering a sequel, but it’s fun to think about what could’ve been if the original had been more successful.
Tostie
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New Valve
I know I’m not the first person to say it, but Deadlock looks really uninspired. There’s videos all over the place now and it seems so generic. You can so obvious picture Valve having a meeting saying they should combine Overwatch with Dota 2 and… that’s it. I guess there’s only so much you can do with an online shooter but watching the leaked footage I couldn’t get over how underwhelming it all seemed.
You could technically call that a new idea, because at least it’s a mash-up of two different things, but to me it seems the least interesting and lowest effort way of creating anything original. I haven’t played it but I’m not sure I would, even if I was given an invite.
I imagine it’ll be free-to-play, so we’ll all get a go soon enough, but I really hope the rumours about Half-Life 3 finally happening are true. I miss the old Valve that used to make original and interesting single-player games.
Tolly
Single-player movie
I have seen the Borderlands movie and while it’s not very good there’s no way it deserves to be at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s below average, not the worst film ever made. As a moderate fan of the games it does stick pretty close to the original game, although I’m not sure why given Borderlands 2 was so much better and seems a much more obvious thing to adapt.
I’m not sure why Roland is in it either, because who cares about Roland. The biggest problems are this: the script is bad and it’s not funny, all the action is bad and uninteresting, the film looks cheap, and everyone is miscast – except maybe Tiny Tina.
Maybe the biggest issue is that it doesn’t play up the four-player co-op angle of the games, which I’m sure everyone would agree is the most memorable bit. There aren’t even enough normal characters for that, which seems a really obvious flaw.
Higgins
Turning point
I know better than to get excited about Gamescom, especially with PlayStation and Nintendo not involved but I also know I’ll probably end up watching it anyway. I hope for something unexpected, like the new Tomb Raider or Fable, but I doubt we’ll even get Borderlands 4, given how slow everything seems at the moment.
I saw a rumour the other day about 2025 being Sony’s big year but how many times have we heard that now, and nothing ever happens. Being optimistic though, my hope is that these rumours about Sony going back to single-player games is true and we will start to get new announcements again. Perhaps Astro Bot will end up being the turning point.
As to whether Jim Ryan left of his own accord or was pushed, I always thought his exit was suspicious and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if was given a golden handshake and told to be on his way. If all this live service nonsense was his idea he deserved to go, I just hope the damage can be repaired relatively quickly.
Focus
Film of the game
In response to Scooner and favourite game films, my personal favourite Game Film is Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.
I didn’t think I’d like it because Ryan Reynolds but I loved it and it got me to play the 3DS game. I liked that game and then I got and liked the Switch sequel.
LeighDappa
Technical accomplishment
I finished Hellblade 2 a while back and although the technical accomplishments are worthy of a mountain of commendations, and easily the apotheosis of what I’ve seen this gen on consoles, the gameplay and sense of agency and interactivity with your surroundings leaves much to be desired. Albeit, there were some quite engaging perspective-based puzzles, and the combat is certainly visceral and fluid, if a little too rudimentary and repetitive for my liking.
Fortunately, there were moments in the six to eight hour campaign that elicited genuine awe at the potent mixture of the state-of-the-art graphics and some captivating art direction. There’s also a certain homage to a cult classic British horror film from the early noughties that ascended above the mundanities elsewhere.
However, I did feel that the jumbled, ambiguous storyline and Sensua’s pathologically intrusive inner voices kind of detracted from the experience. The audio design is sublime on a technical level, but those incessantly dissonant voices soon become grating.
I understand Ninja Theory wished to accurately depict the devastating effects of the protagonist’s psychosis, and how this underpins her harrowing bronze-aged exploits, but I felt the exploration of such delicate subject matter as extreme mental health issues wasn’t as nuanced and graceful as the likes of Celeste and Psychonauts 2.
I can only recommend Hellblade 2 on Game Pass for the technical showpiece aspect, as it’s little more than an opulently produced interactive movie for the most part, with tenuous gameplay mechanics and some of the most interminable tight space traversal sequences I’ve ever ‘played through’ in a game. The ending is also anticlimactic, to put it kindly. I’m still glad I experienced it though, for those unreal graphics and some visually striking cinematic moments.
Galvanized Gamer
Inbox also-rans
Apparently TimeSplitters 1 through 3 are coming to PlayStation Classics, if anyone here pays for the most expensive PS Plus tier. Not sure it necessarily means anything in terms of a new game but it’s nice to have I guess.
Gambit
Bit late to the party but just wanted to say how amazing the Resident Evil 2 remake is. I don’t know why I held off getting it, I guess I just though I’d already played it, but it really is the best remake I’ve ever played. The graphics are wild.
Dags
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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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