The Wednesday Inbox wonders how anyone will tell if Stadia has been a success or not, as one reader recommends indie game Superliminal.
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Personal hero
Congratulations to Yu Suzuki on picking up the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.
As someone who was a teen in the ‘80s and has always been an avid player of video games, Yu Suzuki’s contribution to the videos games industry has had a massive impact on me personally. I appreciate most readers will have their favourite producers but his games have stayed with me through the years.
I’ve always been a fan of OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner and all the other great arcade games he is known for. The time I sat in those hydraulic arcade cabinets for the first time will never leave me. I appreciate for some people these games don’t hold up so well now but I’m pretty sure I’ll still be playing them in another 30+ years and enjoying them as much as I do now.
BADMAFiA1972
Unknown success
With no boxed software on shop shelves and no download chart as such, how will you and the other players in the industry expect to measure the success of Stadia? Except for Google releasing their own figures, won’t it be difficult for us to see the impact of this new platform?
We’ve known for a while that the monetisation of streamed games is going to be a sticky issue for publishers and developers in terms of how you measure popularity (hours played vs. times played vs. frequency) and therefore how a games company is rewarded. I wonder how much data the publishers themselves will get.
For Stadia itself I guess we’ll be looking at social media impact along with Google’s own claims.
Owen Pile (NongWen – PSN ID)
GC: Telling how successful a game has been is only going to get harder and harder in the next generation. As for Stadia, if Google switch it off in two years… that’ll be a big clue.
Jedi rocks
For the most part I’m enjoying Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s the level design and Metroid exploring in a triple-A environment I’m enjoying. There’s technical issues but the overall feel and look is very good. The lack of fast travel doesn’t bother me. The rest of the game is average though and I’m not sure how anyone could score the game 9/10.
The combat is solid but frustrating, especially on hardest levels. It’s the parry timings, the visual cues when to tap block and when you’ve successfully performed a parry are hard to read. The trouble is until your opponent’s stamina has depleted from hitting and successful parries they will power through any of your hits like they are love taps. Take two swings then assume you have to parry or dodge, although dodging doesn’t gain you must distance. It’s more fun later on when you have Force powers and skill tree abilities, and you’ve got used to the timings. But overall the combat feels a little broken.
The story and characters are bland but one positive is this great tune playing (Mongolian mash-up of heavy metal and throat singing) at the beginning and in an area where the game actually feels like it’s got a bit of personality. A deeply flawed game but one I’m enjoying.
Anon
Fallen for it
I haven’t seen much positive said about it on these pages but I really enjoyed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The combat’s exciting, the graphics and sound are superb, there’s some great puzzles, a fantastic Star Wars feel, and loads of nice little touches such as being able to customise your lightsabre.
The backtracking is a pain, and its one major flaw, but hopefully that can be rectified in a sequel. And the characters and story are slightly bland, but when I’m playing the game I’m totally immersed and that’s the main thing.
Pete
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Super recommendation
If you liked The Turing Test or Portal you may want to check out Superliminal.
For the first time in my life I bought a game purely based on the description – I didn’t check any reviews or watch any videos as I had a good feeling about what I read and I wasn’t wrong. The line ‘… based on forced perspective and optical illusions.’ is what grabbed me and it’s been a really fascinating game to play with some parts even reminding me of the movie Inception.
You navigate through a series of puzzle rooms but the puzzles are unlike a lot of what I’ve experienced before with the main concept revolving around the size of objects you can pick up depend on how far away or close you are to them when you actually pick them up. Reading that might not make much sense but it leads to some very ingenious puzzles and solutions.
I don’t want to say too much about it so as not to spoil any of the great moments, but I’ve been marvelling at the foresight and imagination that Pillow Castle Games must have had in order to put a game like this together. They also add new mechanics every so often and sometimes you spend time just playing around with them, like the green apple room. I’ve spent more time than I should have just trying to fill up the entire room with huge green apples! (You’ll know what I mean if you play it…)
The only downside is, you could argue that the runtime is a little short, at I’m guessing maybe five-ish hours, but it was an enjoyable ride while it lasted and I wanted to sing Superliminal’s praises as it’s likely to get lost in the Christmas release rush, which is a huge shame.
PsillyPseudonym
GC: We’d never heard of it until now, but here’s the trailer for any that are interested.
Late update
Looks like some new DLC may be coming for Resident Evil 2 remake as an achievement has shown up with no name or description in the latest update for the game. Here’s the coverage on it by Residence Of Evil. Normally updates happen and there is not a new achievement that shows up.
I also see that the game won awards this year, all rightly deserved, and if new DLC is coming this is going to be good.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)
GC: It seems a bit late in the day, but we suppose it could be possible as a lead in to the inevitable Resident Evil 3 remake.
Relapse concern
I really, really hope that Sony aren’t going to massively mess up their fantastic position as generation leader. I’m referring to the latest revelations that the Sony patents were for SSD-type devices, which presumably will only work on the PlayStation 5. I was one of many who couldn’t justify spending an absurd amount of money on what was essentially an SD card – the PS Vita memory card. I didn’t get a Vita for that reason.
If Sony are going to repeat the same mistake with SSDs then I don’t know what to say. They’d likely be handing Microsoft the crown of the next generation.
Matt
Too good
After getting a PS4 Pro in January and slowly working my way through their games I’m worried I’ll soon never hit the gaming heights I’ve had in 2019. So far this year, in order, I’ve played and finished The Last Of Us Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God Of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and now halfway through Bloodborne. After that I’ve got Uncharted 4. But then… what? Have I reached the zenith? Any games come close to being anywhere near those?
I dipped into Batman: Arkham Asylum for old times sake in the midst of all those and it was just boring compared to that PlayStation 4 lot and certainly hadn’t aged well. Have I spoilt myself by binging on some of the best games ever? What else can I get my PlayStation 4 to do for me?
I’ve got a laptop for multiformats so more looking for PlayStation 4 must haves please.
SlimCini
GC: Are you a fan of Hideo Kojima…?
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Wait and I see
So… I didn’t get Shenmue III on Tuesday. I had pre-ordered it from my local indie store to support them primarily, but they didn’t have it. They had some sort of distributor problem. Odd, right?
Hopefully I’ll have it by tomorrow. Yes, I have to get it as soon as possible – this game is virtually critic-proof for me! You guys and the entire assorted press could give it 0 out of 10 (unlikely) and I would still get some enjoyment out of it!
It is still suspicious that there were no reviews available by or before today – I write on the 19th November, 2019 – so the undecided and the sceptical are not well served. And I would have to admit that this is very much a ‘dark horse’ candidate for game of the year – possible, but quite fanciful on my part perhaps…
DMR
GC: Game of the year? Have you played a Shenmue game before?
Inbox also-rans
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the quality of ladders and rope traversal in Death Stranding. Even other players online can leave these for you to journey through the terrain.
stanley71
It’s not exactly a round number but just to mention that Tuesday was the 13th anniversary of the launch of the Wii. Time flies, eh?
Torsen
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Xane, who asks whether you have a favourite console manufacturer?
Do you consider yourself loyal to Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo or anyone else and how far would you take that loyalty? Do you only buy their consoles or do you also consider other brands? If you only buy one or two consoles per generation how often do you switch loyalties and did that happen this generation?
Do you already have a preference for next generation, despite there being no concrete information, and are you prepared to give your favourite a certain amount of leeway before considering buying a competitor?
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