Games Inbox: Death Stranding pre-orders, Marvel’s Avengers video game, and Call Of Duty 2019 reveal

Interesting that only a few days after a reader asks whether Hideo Kojima is overrated we get a surprise annoucement that Death Stranding is out this year and you can already pre-order! (I realise that the reason he probably thought of the question is because there were rumours an annoucement was coming, so bear with me).

I know a lot of people are against pre-orders here, and normally I’d be one of them, but in this case I will be pre-ordering purely based on my appreciation of Hideo Kojima. I don’t even know if I’d go as far as to call him a genius but I greatly respect his work as a developer and designer and I always feel his games are made with love and real artistic ambition, never just as a cash grab. And Death Stranding being so weird seems to be him at his most unrestrained.

I believe that sort of effort should be rewarded and I’m definitely willing to take the risk on his name alone, which I probably wouldn’t say for any developer other than Shigeru Miyamoto (who doesn’t really make games on his own anymore) and Hidetaka Miyazaki. Although I’m not sure how many other people think that I’ll be very interested to see how the game sells, as so far it does not look like mainstream material.
Onibee
PS: What do people think are the chances of Death Stranding getting a PlayStation 5 remaster? I’d say it has to be a strong possibility.

So Sony’s big Christmas games are looking like Death Stranding and MediEvil? Neither of which we’ve seen much of so far. So remind me again why they’re not at E3? With those, Dreams, The Last Of Us Part II, and Ghost Of Tsushima it seems to me they’ve got plenty to talk about, especially when you add in smaller games and indie titles.

It seems to me that Sony just doesn’t want to be part of E3 anymore. Or rather they don’t want to be seen as competing with Microsoft, Nintendo, and others. Given the runaway success of the PlayStation 4 you can kind of see where they’re coming from but I think one of the good things about their performance this gen is that they haven’t got arrogant like many assumed they would.

But thinking you’re above the rest of the industry and undermining the big trade show where everyone else acts almost as equals is a shame as far as I’m concerned. Whether they’re going to have other mini-online announcements over the next couple of weeks I don’t know but I’d much rather they just did things as normal and played the same game as everyone else.
Tolly

Thanks for all the coverage of the Oculus Quest, GC, it is has been much appreciated. I don’t understand why VR is treated to so little coverage by most big sites. I’ve barely seen the Quest mentioned elsewhere and it only seems to be Sony published games like Blood & Truth that ever get reviews across the board.

As a proud PlayStation VR owner I have been consistently impressed by so many of the games and the fact that the technology is still so early on almost impresses me more, considering how far it obviously has to go. VR will be one of the things I will be following most closely with the next gen and I really hope that the PlayStation VR 2 is wireless like the Quest, as that and the roomscale tracking sounds amazing.

I don’t know how feasible that is though, with the connection you need to console, so maybe that isn’t possible yet. Which makes me really tempted to the get the Quest anyway, even though it’s expensive. As a Star Wars fan the idea that I’m missing out on the dream lightsabre game is really burning me up!
Ponda Baba

Had to laugh at Gifford’s thoughts on the 2006 Sonic The Hedgehog game being not only the worst Sonic game ever, but in his view possibly the worst game ever made. I’ve never played the game in question, but I’d like to throw a different game into the hat: The Simpsons Hit & Run from back in the PlayStation 2 days.

It’s terrible for many of the same reasons attributed to the Sonic game, such as unbelievably terrible controls, a nutso camera that constantly went walkies, and so many glitches it’s hard to believe every member of the quality control team wasn’t lined up and shot after its release.

The game was basically an excuse for characters to race around Springfield in cars to do… something. You know, like they do in the show. Such a strange idea. I was a big Simpsons fan back in its peak days and the fact that the game had most of the shows voice actors doing an OK job with a completely dire script added to the disappointment (kind of like modern days Simpsons actually).

Like Looney Tunes, I had always wondered why we didn’t get more games. I never wondered again after playing this. Such a wasted opportunity.
Chris

Interesting to see a Detective Pikachu sequel game announced now that the movie is in the rear-view mirror. I am not sure how much money the movie made but I would have thought they would have looked to release a new game alongside it or at least port the original to the Switch. Games companies never do make sense though as we all know, especially Nintendo.

I never played the first and whilst I though the movie was OK but nothing great, I would be interested in getting the new game, particularly if they did release it bundled with a port of the original.
Pigfish2 (PSN ID/NN ID)

GC: It will probably take merchandise sales (which are likely to be considerable) to make the movie profitable, so it wasn’t really the hit many expected. We’d be very surprised if the game sequel didn’t also come with a port of the original, given how few people ever played it.

So it looks like this year’s Call Of Duty is finally being announced on Thursday, which is unusually late. Especially for a game everyone already seems convinced is a Modern Warfare reboot. I’ve mixed feelings really, because while I loved the original Modern Warfare trilogy that seems a long time ago now and I haven’t really enjoyed any of the other Call Of Duty games much for years now.

I’m always interested though and since this will probably be a pivotal year though I’m curious to see how they’re going to cope with declining sales this time. Although I’ve got to echo the thoughts of other readers and say that if only Activision bothered to make some different games they wouldn’t have to worry so much about Call Of Duty slipping slightly. I mean, it’s still always the biggest game of the year anyway – does it really matter if it’s not quite as big?

I mean, it does if it’s all they got but that’s their fault – not the poor developers that must be constantly under pressure to try and maintain the series’ crown. We’ll see what happens tomorrow but there’s only so many times Call Of Duty can go back to basics and not actually try something new.
Pike

Sony confirmed from 7 June until 17 June the PlayStation VR Starter Pack will be reduced to £179.99 and PlayStation VR Mega Pack will be reduced to £209.99, along with other reductions on games, PlayStation 4 consoles, DualShock 4 controllers, and headsets at participating retailers while stocks last.
stanley71

GC: That’s a great deal for those tempted to give VR a try. Especially if you bear in mind the headset is going to be backwards compatible with the PlayStation 5.

I know you were out on Wednesday, GC, so just in case you missed it Square Enix has confirmed that they will be announcing their Avengers project at E3. Or rather the Avengers Twitter announced it, where they called it Marvel’s Avengers, which I assume is its official name as that matches up with Sony’s Spider-Man and Iron Man game.

They aren’t part of the MCU you though so I’ll be interested to see if the new game is, as that’s definitely what the original teaser seemed to imply. It’s probably my most anticipated reveal all round actually, as the rumours were it was originally some kind of loot shooter like Destiny and was redesigned after the Star Wars: Battlefront II loot box revolt.

I assume it’s still primarily an online multiplayer game though, so here’s hoping it’s both good and still manages to have some kind of story mode that shows the characters properly and doesn’t just reduce them to just their superpowers. Will also be interesting to see who exactly is playable as there are a lot more characters now then there was when the game was first announced. Will GC be seeing the game at E3?
Vic

GC: Yes, we already have appointments booked to see the Avengers game.

Tune into Square Enix Live E3 2019 for the worldwide reveal of “Marvel’s Avengers”! ?️ The event begins June 10th at 6pm PT: https://t.co/SCYMbJYt8j #SquareEnixE3 #Reassemble #PlayAvengers pic.twitter.com/2fWM6ekUue

— The Avengers (@Avengers) May 29, 2019

Interesting to see you mention it in the Blood & Truth review, as replayability is one thing that always worries me about VR games and one reason that’s put me off buying one. There seem to be a lot of good games but none that you’d come back to after you’ve ‘experienced’ them.
Soldat

The Witcher 3 on Switch seems impossible to me. I don’t see how it would be even remotely possible considering it doesn’t even run that great on a base PlayStation 4.
Wotan

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was inspired by reader Purple Ranger, who asks what is the best Nintendo exclusive ever?

Following similar topics for the best PlayStation and Xbox exclusives we want to know what you think is the best exclusive released on any Nintendo console. That includes portable and home formats, such as the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Switch, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, DS, and 3DS. Anything is eligible as long as it was a Nintendo exclusive at some point – it doesn’t matter if Nintendo themselves published it or not.

Why do you like the game so much and do you feel it was important to the success of the host console? Did it make any special use of the console’s unique features and how did it compare to other exclusives of the same period?

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