The Wednesday Inbox thinks it’s too late for a good Terminator video game, as readers extol the virtues of digital-only gaming.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Different view
I know it’s just rumours but personally I was really hoping that Resident Evil 8 would use the third person view of the remakes. I realise that 7 needed to shake things up again but the main problem with 5 and 6 was that they were bad games, especially 6, not that there was any great problem with the formula.
Obviously I want the gameplay and story to be as original as possible but to me Resi is always a third person game and while I enjoyed 7 it just seemed a bit gimmicky it being in first person. I think the biggest problem though is it disconnects you from the main character. I would never have been able to tell you the name of the main character if it hadn’t been in the story and that is in sharp contrast to Chris, Jill, Claire, Leon, and all the rest – probably the best known cast of playable characters in all gaming. And despite being in a good game Ethan is nowhere close to joining them.
My hope is that there’s at least an option to switch between the two views, but I think probably that would require too much work and it won’t happen. Probably Capcom intend to do a trilogy of first person games and then maybe they’ll change over. I hope they at least make it VR again though.
Cranston
Natural end
Comparing the Terminator and Predator and Alien, and all the other 80s action monsters, to washed-up actors at a convention is so true I almost laughed, if the fact of it didn’t really hurt. I can’t bear what’s been done to these characters, which really are washed up but not because they’re irrelevant or outdated but because they keep being put in such terrible movies.
I don’t see a way back for any of them now, not without a good decade or so’s rest, and frankly having them appear as DLC is just kind of humiliating.
I do think a good video game would be a way to restore interest, although Alien Isolation did nothing for Alien and although the Predator game looks good I doubt it’ll be very high profile as it’s multiplayer only. I think sometimes an idea just comes to the end of its time and there’s nothing more to do with it. These monsters could’ve had more great films but they’ve flubbed too many chances and I think most people have just given up, as you saw with Dark Fate, which was okay-ish but nobody could be bothered anymore.
That’s not the fault of games but I don’t think they’ve really done anything to help.
Pinky
Dear diary
Good to see Journey To The Savage Planet getting good reviews from various sources, as I don’t know if GameCentral and its readers know that the developer who made it has a monthly column in Edge magazine.
It has been interesting to see it from his angle during development, just before release, and I presume after release too, when Edge magazine comes out next month.
Andrew J.
Currently playing: A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4) – I highly recommend it.
GC: We didn’t know that, no.
Plenty of room in the fridge
RE: Mike3. I read with interest your letter both praising physical discs, whilst being unsure of the advantages of download only. I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last game I purchased that was in a box! I certainly do not miss those days of rooting through a musty old shop searching for a game they may or may not actually be in stock anyway.
With regards to space and storage, this has never been an issue for me. A good size hard drive allows for plenty of space for even the most insatiable gamer. As of speaking, I have 32 full games downloaded ready to play (Red Dead Redemption 2 included in all it GB glory), with a further 129 ready to install if required. With the download speeds available now most games can be installed and ready to go in far less time than it would have taken to get in the car and drive to the game shop.
You make a great point with regards ’trade in’ and I see exactly where you are coming from. My only reply would be that if you wait for the download sales for a bargain you probably don’t need a pre-owned physical copy. I think the most I have paid for a digital game is over the last six months is about £15.
Obviously, we have the elephant in the room of supporting the high street and the effect digital sales are having, but I guess that’s a debate for a different day.
James
Fun work
I enjoyed your review of Journey To The Savage Planet but please tell me that it’s not like No Man’s Sky? The planet exploration part of that game was absolutely no fun and required no skill, just a lot of walking/scanning/zapping. Even with all the updates, it seems like they’ve still not added decent gameplay, just more chores.
I’m pretty sure a game should be fun/enjoyable, right… not hard work?
Brian
GC: There are some surface similarities with No Man’s Sky, but the gameplay loop is a lot more fun in Savage Planet.
Release order
I completed The Last Guardian sometime around August last year, and it was… OK, I guess.
I first played Shadow Of The Colossus, which was mind-blowing at the time. Then I played Ico, with the foreknowledge that Colossus was a prequel, explaining the origins of the horned children (and why they have magical properties that the evil queen was using to make herself immortal).
I didn’t like Ico as much, but it was still good.
Then, finally, The Last Guardian comes out. The reason it took so long was allegedly due to the artificial intelligence of Trico, and possibly for the graphical complexity of his feathers.
I honestly didn’t feel impressed – the feathers kept clipping through the model to such a degree that a graphical downgrade would have probably made it less jarring.
Some reviews I read said that Trico’s artificial intelligence makes him unpredictable and not follow instructions. Not for me, though. For me he followed every instruction to the letter. Any mistakes were due to my not pointing in exactly the correct direction (which was annoying, but it’s hard to compensate for).
There were a few scripted moments where he ended up killing me – he was meant to catch me with his tail, but instead would just miss – and a couple of times where he would fling me off a cliff by flicking his tail. These didn’t feel like realistic artificial intelligence, but more oversights and bugs.
Finally, the connection between Ico and Colossus was evident, but what did The Last Guardian have to do with either of them? Is the connection just thematic? Do the horned children turn into Trico’s species over time (since Trico also has horns). And what was up with the last boss? I’ve consumed so much Japanese media that the aesthetic seems to be shorthand for ’ancient aliens’ – are the colossi meant to be alien technology? Or is the black god-like entity (I can’t remember his name) meant to be an alien? Just what the hell was going on?!
It really felt like it should have been a PlayStation 3 game, at the very least.
Joseph Dowland
GC: We think most people were at least relatively disappointed by The Last Guardian, which was originally intended to be a PlayStation 3 game. Also, we would’ve played Ico first as the connection with the second game was never intended to be as straightforward as you’re implying, and the lore for all of them is meant to be open to interpretation.
Full digital
Having gone fully digital a couple of years ago I have no regrets. I have one game on my PlayStation 4 at a time, then delete it once it’s complete and start a new game. No backlogs!
What’s the point of buying a game to play in the future, it’s only going to get cheaper? Buy it when you want to play it. I have had regrets of trading in games in the past. Now I know if I get the feeling to play an old game it’s ready to be downloaded.
D313R1UM (PSN ID)
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Performance gap
RE: PC gaming. I bought my first gaming PC three years ago and have been very impressed with the PC.
PC gaming is very user friendly, stable, and well supported with drivers etc… now. I have so few problems with my PC. The ones I’ve had have been relatively easy to sort, thanks to how well most parts and software are supported.
The performance over current consoles is large. The load times on the SSD are far superior, as are frame rates. Love getting a rock solid 60 frames per second on ultra settings at 1080p.
But I won’t be going PC for the next gen. Or I should say high-end PC gaming.
The price of PC gaming is high. My PC cost £1,150. Come November the 6 teraflop, non-RTX GTX 1070 GPU will need changing to keep up with next gen. The GTX 2070 super is touted as a good match for the rumoured PlayStation 5 specs, that’s currently a £450 to £500 card. Probably be a bit cheaper come November, so let’s say a total outlay of £1,500. The CPU, SSD, RAM, etc. don’t need upgrading, for now.
But that’s to go from being superior to consoles to being roughly on par with them. Console offers magnificent bang for your buck and to stay ahead of them on PC is pricey.
The main reason I splashed out on a gaming PC was performance or, to be exact, 60 frames per second. The next gen consoles look like they will offer the performance I bought a PC for. The significant closing of this performance gap next gen makes a gaming PC seem far less needed.
I’ll still game on PC for the mouse and keyboard, indie games, and more diverse gaming library. But triple-A new releases shouldn’t feel like the compromised experience on the next gen over PC like they do now, for peeps who care about such issues.
It’s a cost exercise in the end, I guess. The extra expense of a PC won’t bring the performance gains it did this gen. PC gaming offers many reasons to choose it other than superior performance but it’s the big reason for me to own one. If I won the Premium Bonds today though I’d be on Overclockers straight away, as a gaming PC is a glorious gaming machine.
Anon
Inbox also-rans
In answer to the question of buying physical discs, it all depends on price on the Switch. Physical copies are often cheaper than the digital version and, whilst this makes no sense, I appreciate the saving.
Clive
Returning to the Science Museum this April is Power Up a hands-on gaming extravaganza featuring 160 consoles, with tickets from £8.
stanley71
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
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