Gaming

Games Inbox: Buying physical copies of games, Silent Hill hopes, and Demon’s Souls PS5 remake


Do you still buy physical copies?

The Tuesday Inbox wonders what’s next from the makers of What Remains Of Edith Finch, as one reader admits the Wii U was doomed to fail.

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

 

Fighting the future
With the next generation approaching but streaming apparently only being a complement to the consoles, or at least that seems to be how Microsoft is describing it. But that brings the question of do I still buy games on discs? I’ve always done it for two reasons, one that I like having a shelf full of games, I just think it looks neat, and secondly, you can resell a game when it’s on a disc but not when it’s digital.

I’m curious how many other people are still buying all or mostly physical and how those that have gone all-digital feel about not being able to recoup any money on a purchase. It seems to me like it would be very limiting on what you buy as I’d never feel I could ‘afford’ to take a risk like I can now. I guess Game Pass is the modern alternative but it still doesn’t give me enough freedom as it does now.

I’m just not sure what the benefits of downloading are supposed to be, other than you don’t have to insert at disc. But as soon as you’ve got more than a few games on the hard drive you have to install them instead, which seems like even more of an inconvenience. I’m not sure I want physical to go away.
Mike3

 

The future of gaming
I’m sure I’m not the only one that use to imagine, as a kid, what games would look like in 10 or 20 years’ time, which is basically where I’m at now. In a lot of ways the current state-of-the-art is pretty much where I hoped it’d be in terms of graphics, even if a lot of the games haven’t really changed that much in terms of gameplay.

But I do wonder what my young self would think if you told him that some of the best game actually still looked like NES games, and that most indie games were trying to look old-fashioned rather than as good as possible (I actually don’t know how much of it is a budget problem, but you know what I mean).

One of my favourite games of recent years is Celeste and it looks ridiculously old-fashioned but is great and very acclaimed. I wonder how long this will continue though. I’m sure it will next gen, but when we’re all using VR and plug games into our heads will some of them still be 2D platformers? I have no idea, but I’m glad they’re still going at the moment.
Jerp

 

Welcome back
Wow, can’t believe Konami actually responded to those Silent Hill rumours! That is actually, really encouraging. Of course there’s a world of difference between them making them and them being any good but I’m kind of hopeful now. It looks like they’re definitely making a comeback with games and I’d much rather that than them just sort of sulk on their own not doing anything (except apparently making loads of money with their other businesses).

Contra: Rogue Corps is a big worry but I’m going to stay optimistic that they’ve found some devs that know what they’re doing and can revamp Silent Hill and others. No matter how bad a company has been in the past, and I including publishers like EA and Bethesda in this, I always welcome them to turn over a new leaf and try again.

There are too many great games out there that I’d like to see new versions of and famous companies that I’d rather not see disappear. Someone mentioned the other day that you’re only as good as your last game, so just make the next Silent Hill good and all, or at least most, will be forgiven.
Ishi

 

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

 

Not the worst
£26.99 doesn’t seem like too bad a price for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath to me. It’s a really brilliant game, worse stuff gets released for £50 or £60 most weeks.

Obviously, I guess it’s not much of a looker these days but I’m not sure flashy graphics were ever really a big part of the Oddworld franchise’ appeal.
Charlie

GC: The graphics were very good at the time; it was an Xbox exclusive originally.

 

Ears blown
How do. The readers who picked up on David not upgrading from TV speakers are right.

Back in the PlayStation 3 days, I thought the upgrade from SD to HD was amazing. Then I got a 5.1 home cinema and some pricey Turtle Beach headphones. Immersion level +100.

For me, I think the leap in audio quality from sorting out the sound system surpassed the leap in visuals from SD to HD.

Do yourself a favour David, splash a few hundred on a cinema kit or high-end headphones. You’ll be like Millhouse in that Simpsons episode when he plays that new game (Slaughterhouse 3?), face and hair getting blasted back by the sounds! Thrillhouse.
Flemmo

 

Demon day one
Personally, I’ve everything crossed that the PlayStation 5 exclusive that Bluepoint Games is working on is Demon’s Souls. Given how jaw-dropping Shadow Of The Colossus PlayStation 4 remake looks it’s truly salivating what they could do with Demon’s Souls on PlayStation 5. I’ve also been withholding playing the game on PlayStation 3 in the hope of a remake.

Although not a household name as a launch game I think it would be an extremely strong title as it would continue the excellent fan service from Sony this gen, with things like Colossus and the free WipEout VR patch. That game, holding off a month or so for Cyberpunk 2077, plus a couple more strong launch titles would be a pleasing day one PlayStation 5 purchase.
Anon

 

Radio silence
Just finished What Remains Of Edith Finch on Game Pass.

Wow. What a unique narrative experience. The bit with the guy working in the fish factory was a great storytelling mechanic and only possible in a video game.

I can’t wait to see what they make next. They seem a developer to watch.
Jez

GC: That’s a good point actually; they haven’t announced any new game since Edith Finch came out in 2017.

 

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

 

Doomed to fail
I guess many of us agree with Ansel’s letter regarding the Wii U, though I can’t comment on Nintendo Land I did personally really enjoy ZombiU and at the time considered it to be my favourite third party launch game. It is a shame Nintendo didn’t get more use out of the GamePad screen, let alone anyone else, but to be fair between ZombiU’s features and wasting all that real estate on a map screen I wonder if there was anything more that could’ve been done with it that wasn’t done well enough at launch.

It does make you wonder if there were bigger plans for it but Nintendo simply held back because of the Wii U’s poor sales performance, it would’ve been nice to see them support it more convincingly but it seems they decided the resources needed were better spent elsewhere, and it paid off in the end with Switch.

Branding and marketing of the Wii U were both terrible. I can’t help but think that with the Wii moniker included they predicted an unwarranted success. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo riding on the success of Wii felt like they were in a position to command third party titles, ‘so long as you use the GamePad feature’ which no doubt could’ve discouraged developers further for the very same reasons Nintendo themselves didn’t back the system with more conviction. And why would they?

I’d be very surprised if Nintendo ever launches a console again without a high calibre launch line-up that appeals to either a large market or their core demographic.

Additionally, the GamePad battery was so poor, they may as well had a cable attaching it the system, as you couldn’t walk far out of the room the console unit was in without losing signal.

What were they thinking?
Bad Edit

 

Inbox also-rans
Horrible news about Kobe Bryant but I can’t have been the only one to notice the NBA Courtside N64 cartridge that was very prominent in the pictures of fan tributes the BBC was using! Great game. RIP.
Dustin

I’d definitely be up for a Metal Gear Solid remake. It’s very much like Final Fantasy 7 in that it’s a really important game but it’s been kind of hard to get hold of until very recently and is really showing its age in its original form. Just make sure it’s better than Twin Snakes though!
Blue

 

This week’s Hot Topic
The question for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Franky, who asks what was your favourite game of 2019… that wasn’t released in 2019?

We’ll be running our annual Reader’s Top 20 of the year shortly but what game did you enjoy most last year that wasn’t a new release? Was it something that’s been in your backlog for a while, a game you’ve played before that you’ve returned to, or an ongoing online title that you’ve been playing for a long time?

How much of your time do you spend playing new games versus older ones and how big is your backlog at the moment? How do you rate the game in question compared to newer releases and your all-time favourites?

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 4Player viewer features 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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