Gaming

Games Inbox: Best Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, Final Fantasy 7 Remake forever, and SNES game on Switch


Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare – is the reboot the best one? (pic: Activision)

The Wednesday Inbox is fed up with console wars and arguments about exclusives, as one reader is impressed by Persona 5 Royal.

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

Modern classic
So we’re getting pretty close to the point where Activision would normally announce a new Call Of Duty. On a normal year that is, which this obviously is not. I imagine the rumours of Black Ops 5 are probably true, as it’s becoming obvious that Activision itself is leaking some of this information on purpose to raise the hype, a sort of fake grassroots thing.

That makes me think the rumour about four Modern Warfare games being planned in total is probably true. Last year’s game has been hugely successful and is certainly the most successful I’ve seen the series in a good many years. But is it the best one ever?

For me the main contenders are the original Modern Warfare, Black Ops 2, and Advanced Warfare. A lot of people don’t seem to like Advanced Warfare but I thought it was easily the best of the near future games and a really good shooter in its own right, even if many people thought it wasn’t Call Of Duty enough.

The original Modern Warfare still has the best story campaign as far as I’m concerned, a genuine milestone for first person games, but the multiplayer now is too old-fashioned I think. Black Ops 2 is a better all rounder but I don’t think it does anything better than anything else, except maybe Zombies.

So… I think the reboot of Modern Warfare probably is the best. That doesn’t necessary mean I want four of them but you can’t help but be impressed by a series that has stayed relevant this long and has never had an outright terrible game for any of the main sequels.
Hammeriron

Real-life hero
Really enjoyed Kendle’s Reader’s Feature at the weekend, as someone who has both physical disabilities and mental health problems games are such an important part of my life – they let me escape to a world where I can be the hero and change things for the better.

I worked for many years in retail, so I know just how tough and stressful it can be, especially at peak times like Christmas, so it must be chaos right now for shop staff! Thank you Kendle and all the other key workers out there who are helping this country keep going in these troubling times.

You say you’re enjoying The Witcher 3 at the moment as you can ‘escape to a fantasy world where you can make a difference’, trust me you’re making a difference in the real world too! Thank you!
LastYearsModel

Personal time
I managed to get Persona 5 Royal delivered from Amazon yesterday.

I bought it on the strength of the GC review and I’m not disappointed, I started playing at around 3 in the afternoon and it was 9.45 before I knew it. I can tell that I’m going to be sinking a lot of time into this one, which is just the job in these uncertain times.

I’m also enjoying Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but that’s a game I like to dip into at different times of day, so I don’t really see it as being as much of a time sink as Persona 5.

I also have a question: is Animal Crossing compatible with amiibos? I’ve been playing for a while and Tom Nook has yet to mention them.

I hope everyone at GC and the readers are doing okay.
Mitchell

GC: It is compatible with amiibo, yes. The subject will be brought up soon enough if you’re playing every day.

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

Tribute band
I’ve just completed Stela on Xbox One, if you have played and enjoyed Limbo and Inside you should like this as it is very similar and very good, but not as good as the games it is imitating. The only thing is it is quite short, so £16 might be too much for a digital-only game that you can’t trade in. So best to wait for a sale if it is too much for a short game.

I couldn’t find a review of it on Eurogamer or GameCentral so I thought I would give it go from the trailer I saw of it on the Nintendo YouTube channel. Glad I took the risk in buying it as it was really good. The puzzles were not too hard after completing Limbo and Inside.

Another game that I recommend if you like Inside/Limbo is Black The Fall, as with Stela it is not as good as its original source but more of the same in a different setting.
Andrew J.
PS. I really hope that rumour of a Super Mario All-Stars 2 for the Switch is true as I will want to get that day one.

Never-ending story
Nice review of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, can’t pick it up as I’m a Switch-only player these days but may jump on the PlayStation 5 in a few years’ time so will look at it then. A few people have picked up on the episodes thing, wondering how many they’ll need to finish the story content from the original but isn’t there a more obvious take… HBO turned the Westworld film/book into a potentially endless TV show, and I’m sure that is what Square will be planning here, this could be their annual money maker for the rest of the 2020s.

You could add almost endless amounts of additional story content to the game, flesh out character side quests to full episodes (I seem to remember from the original Yufi’s home country being at war with Shinra, there’s an untold story there…), introduce new characters, etc. and keep it running for dozens of episodes. Now that the engine, assets and development teams are set up they could probably turn them around near yearly too.

I wonder if more games will head down this route, the obvious being Half-Life, which kind of tried it with its Episodes One and Two but then gave up for reasons not entirely known… behind the scenes wrangling I imagine. But now it’s back with Alyx maybe we’ll see it again. I can’t think of many game franchises that run this continuous story through all entries, Mass Effect?

Most story driven games with sequels ‘invent’ extra content in the movie sequel style (like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, Assassin’s Creed, or Resident Evil) as opposed to having a plan for multiple entries (that can be expanded or shrunk) from the outset and structuring the story appropriately.
Marc

GC: It’s still a remake of Final Fantasy 7, the story is basically the same.

Too realistic
The best new feature of Animal Crossing: New Horizons so far for me? The seamless integration of the smartphone into the traditional gameplay. Not something new in games per se, but it certainly fits the life simulator styling of the series.

None more so than when you invite friends to your island, and all their character does is stare at their in-game phone!
ttfp saylow (gamertag)
Now playing: Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Batman: The Telltale Series

Holding back
RE: David and Microsoft not having anything to offer.

I’ve been Sony this gen up. PlayStation 4 which I traded up for a Pro, bought PlayStation VR. Have, including PS Now games, 312 digital PlayStation 4 games. But being the most powerful console, backwards compatibility, and Game Pass saw me pick up a new cheap Xbox One X and I’m seeing the gen out on that, bar Sony exclusives.

I don’t know which way I’ll go next gen at launch as I think David is incorrect and Microsoft now have a very compelling proposition with an abundance to play on their machine. Game Pass and backwards compatibility, of which Microsoft are years ahead on over Sony, provide a huge variety and high quality of games to play. Currently from those services I’m re-enjoying playing The Orange Box and playing for the first time Remnant: From the Ashes, Two Point Hospital, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, and The Surge 2.

Regarding exclusives, it’s horses for courses. There’s more exclusives on Xbox I want to play than the Nintendo Switch, as I’ve no interest in Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion, Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, ARMS, etc. Two of my most anticipated games this year are Halo Infinite (adore Halo) and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Microsoft only having Halo as a first party launch exclusive for Xbox Series X is very likely a strategy Nintendo used with Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and the Switch. Holding back games for the first year of launch. Microsoft have said they see a constant stream of quality releases throughout the launch window as key. They’ve also bought a lot of new studio’s which should bear fruit next gen.

All cards on the table I think Sony and Nintendo do have more to offer than Microsoft. But Microsoft have a very compelling product in Xbox, be it on console or PC. Side note, Xbox Series X will be expensive but it’ll probably costs much more to get a similarly capable PC, it’s a big reason I will buy Xbox Series X rather than a PC for Xbox related goodness. It impressed me how close the £450 Xbox One X got to my £1,150 PC a year after I bought the PC. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will blow my PC out the water in most departments. Bigger and faster SSD, way more floppage, faster RAM, will do ray-tracing, etc.
Simundo

GC: Nintendo actually published three games at the Switch’s launch: Zelda, the rather good Snipperclips, and the rather poor 1-2-Switch.

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

Exclusive Police
I’m sick and tired of people like David in Monday’s Inbox rattling on about the Xbox ‘not having any games’. It’s got hundreds of games, just not many exclusives.

Fine, David doesn’t care about power or teraflops but ‘nothing to play on it’? There’s tons of multi-platform titles, which thanks to the Xbox One X, are generally the best performing console versions. There’s a huge library of backward compatible titles and I’m sorry David, but I’m quite happy with that. So happy in fact that my PlayStation 4 hasn’t been touched in months because, shocker, I don’t care about many of its exclusives.

Does David only play exclusives? Is that all he cares about? Is that all anyone cares about these days is exclusives? It’s so tedious hearing these people in their stuck-record chanting knowing for certain how the next gen is going to pan out.

You need to chill out a bit Dave, and stop being so angry at something you ‘don’t care about’. It seems to me that you care a great deal about something that seemingly doesn’t interest you, why be so dead-set against something you’re vehemently not going to buy?

You buy your PlayStation 5 and I hope you enjoy it, let others do the same with their selection. Ooh but by Jove if you’re found playing anything that’s multi-platform, the Exclusive Police will be round to confiscate your lovely console. Watch out.
Phil Spearpoint

Inbox also-rans
With all the talk of Sony games being on PC. Do you think we will see the likes of their VR line-up? I’d really like to play Astro Bot and Blood & Truth on my Oculus. Iron Man looks great too. I just don’t think I can go back to a PlayStation VR after using a more powerful PC and Oculus Rift S. If not then I can’t wait for PlayStation VR 2.
Mark

GC: Let’s wait and see if the rumours of more normal PC ports pans out. If The Last Of Us Part 2 does make the jump then that may signal that they’re looking to do most games going forward.

I have just recently got a Nintendo Switch, which I am enjoying immensely, and I was wondering if you knew how often the SNES catalogue gets updated or even at all, past the games they already have? I have looked online but can’t seem to find the answer and thought you may be able to help. Thank you so much for all that you do, stay healthy!
Anon

GC: Thanks. Not very often is the simple answer to your question. Here’s the current list of games, which should be updated when new ones come along.

This week’s Hot Topic
The question for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Tenhunter, who asks what retro video game would you most recommend to a modern gamer as something they’d enjoy today? Especially given so many people are currently stuck at home with nothing new to play.

Assuming retro means anything from the PlayStation 2 era backwards (including PC games up to 2006) what games do you think have held up the best, and why? What games have aged well and which ones, even if they’re considered classics, do you think are now hard to appreciate for someone that didn’t play them the first time round?

Have you been playing many retro games during lockdown and are there any you regularly getting out when stressed or bored?

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.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.

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.

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