The Tuesday Inbox wonders if executive meddling is to blame for Halo Infinite’s problems, as a reader asks for new Zelda recommendations.
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Overcompensating
So it seems something very strange is going on with Cyberpunk 2077 at the moment. I don’t know if a new patch came out recently as well, but ever since it went on cheap during Black Friday it seems to have become much more popular. Not just in terms of the number of people playing it through Steam but generally people saying that it has been underrated and it’s not as bad as previously said.
Not for the first time, this makes me wonder if anyone ever reads reviews anymore because the PC version, that always ran a lot better from the start, always had good reviews. I believe GC gave it an 8/10 and that seems about right to me. It’s not a classic but it is a good game, and I don’t see that anything has changed to alter that one way or the other.
The really weird thing though is that now the game is in danger of being overrated! A lot of people seem to be going overboard with the praise, with the internet, as usual, encouraging contrariness on a massive scale. What they don’t seem to understand is that the game has never been thought of as bad. A bit disappointing and definitely not as good as The Witcher 3, but that goes for about 90% of games.
Now people are going to come to the game with overinflated expectations and those are going to be a lot harder to meet than those that went in expecting the worst.
Wymes
Executive decision
I have no proof but I wonder if the weird decisions for Halo Infinite are a result of executive meddling? You hear about that all the time with movies but forcing them to show the game before they were ready and pushing people towards microtransactions with the progression system sounds exactly like the sort of thing that a non-creative exec would push for, rather than the people that actually make the game.
Once you accept that logic it’s easy to start seeing the same sort of thing in other games. We know for a fact that it was the execs pushing to release Cyberpunk 2077 last Christmas, with the developers trying to stop them, and you can imagine it was probably the same for Battlefield 2042 and pretty much any other game that released unfinished.
I realise the realities at work here. At some point a game has to be released and start earning money but it’s hard to imagine that any of the really bad decisions of recent years were actually made by the people that make the games.
Darius
Send more Zelda
After finishing playing Zelda: Skyward Sword HD on the Switch and needing another Zelda fix I decided to have a second playthrough of Breath Of The Wild. I have found how much more I appreciate the game more on a second playthrough than when I first played, which is not something I can say about the vast majority of games I have played.
As I come to the end of Breath Of The Wild are there any other Zelda type games for the Switch/Xbox that may have passed me by? I was hoping we might of got a remaster of Twilight Princess/The Wind Waker this side of Christmas but, alas, no news from Nintendo.
Scott (Halifax)
GC: There’s the remake of Link’s Awakening on Switch. Also, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a surprisingly successful attempt to try and copy Breath Of The Wild.
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Black Friday month
You’ve got to commend Sony for allowing any compatible SSD in the PlayStation 5.
As part of Amazon’s Black Friday (week) sales I saw an offer to good to be missed.
They had an the Adata XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB reduced from £176 down to £105.
On top of that I had a Visa credit card on my account, so Amazon gave me £20 credit just for adding a new payment method.
£85 in total and the process for installation was simple, the hardest step was taking the ‘wings’ off the console.
smell_ya_l8r (PSN ID)
Hare-brained adaptation
I just finished reading the Reader’s Feature about Resident Evil possibly being game of the year.
I have to say I agree with the reader 100%. I played Resident Evil Village from beginning to end and pretty much maxed out everything in the game and still come away from it feeling stupid.
The reason is, throughout the entire game your character, the protagonist, is headstrong about saving his wife. There was an enormous let down at the very end of the game when he [redacted]. So I said to myself: ‘What the hell was all that for?’
It felt to me like a complete waste of time. I was hoping for a heartfelt reunion and a satisfaction for all the work in trying to stay alive from those crazy bunch of misfits.
Call me crazy and sentimental but I didn’t get the satisfaction I was looking for. And I assume that I’m not the only one to feel this way.
And as you said in your article. It doesn’t take long to learn how to kill the monsters in the game. At times it was almost laughable to me.
I’ve been a huge fan of the franchise for many, many years. And this one I must say they could have left on the drawing board.
I would love to get your thoughts on the new Resident Evil movie that was just released title Raccoon City. I have a lot of misgivings about that too. A lot of us fans of the franchise were upset that the characters Jill Valentine, for one, does not look anything like the character in the game.
To me it just felt like a movie version of The Walking Dead.
In closing. I enjoyed reading your article and I look forward to reading more of your comments.
William
GC: We haven’t seen the movie yet; we’ll wait till it’s streaming somewhere. Our disdain for the various haircuts seems to be the thin edge of the critical wedge.
Man in the mirror
I’ve been playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my new Xbox Series S and I must say I am enjoying it so far. But I have an issue with this game, much worse than the frame rate or bugs which were prevalent at launch. It’s the mirrors. I know mirrors in games can cause quite a high load on the system, depending on how they’re programmed, which is why mirrors hardly ever work in games unless they’re needed for the gameplay.
In Cyberpunk 2077 the mirrors are electronic and only turn on when you use them. Seems a bit contrived but I’m happy to let that slide. But there is a point in the game where you see you are Keanu Reeves by walking past the only mirror in the whole city which doesn’t need to be turned on. Come on CD Projekt; get off the fence.
Evilmoomin
Three free years
Thought I’d send in what I think is a mega deal on the Ultimate Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft are currently offering to upgrade Xbox Live subscriptions to Ultimate for just £1. Amazingly you can upgrade up to 36 months! In the sales I have bought three 12-month Xbox live subscriptions for a total of £99… then upgraded it to Ultimate for £1!
So three years for £100 instead of £396! This is shaping up to be the best value generation ever!
CarrotCake
Harsh criticism
I feel I have to reply in defence of the reader that wrote the feature about Resident Evil Village.
Although I found it harsh, and disagreed about some of his criticisms, the comments were unreasonably harsh.
He has very valid points as to why it shouldn’t be game of the year and was surprised at how angry people were getting about it.
I would agree that it does not deserve a place on the game of the year awards, especially at the expense of a game like Forza Horizon 5.
I enjoyed Village a lot. I found it fun. I enjoyed the progression, and I enjoyed the exploration of the village itself. Also, the castle area was great. But the problem being after that section. That section was, in my opinion, the only part that felt fleshed out to me, and felt most like Resident Evil. Everything else felt too short or rushed.
People were complaining that Forza Horizon 5 is to similar to Horizon 4. OK?! That’s a bad thing, why? Horizon 4 was close to perfection in terms of an open world racing game. What a sequel doesn’t need is drastic changes. What Horizon 5 does is improve on things that need improving. More accessibility, an accolade system, friendlier online races, a bigger map, etc. It reminds me of Left 4 Dead to Left 4 Dead 2. A game that was almost perfect to begin with, that was just improved upon where it needed to be.
There is nothing wrong with a sequel being similar to its predecessor when the predecessor is so good to begin with, as long as the improvements are in the right areas.
Not sure why so many people were so salty to the guy, but in my opinion Village was not quite the sequel to 7 that it should of been. And I’m saying that as somebody that likes both games.
Matt
Inbox also-rans
I wonder if Nintendo will show anything at The Game Awards this year? They often do but I’m not really sure what to expect next. Is Breath Of The Wild too much to hope for? They never really gave any hint of when next year it’d be released.
Krampus
I really hope the new BioShock isn’t set in Rapture. They went back there too many times already, so they really need a break from the past at this point.
Yogurt
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Straybe, who asks what’s the best acting performance you’ve ever seen in a video game?
Even if you don’t know the name of the actor involved what character do you think is the best acted in terms of the voice and/or motion capture performance? What was their best scene (please try to avoid spoilers) and how do you think it compares to a performance in live action media?
How much do you tend to notice good or bad acting in a video game and how important is it to you enjoying a game? Also, are there any that were bad enough to put you off an otherwise good game?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
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 and content.
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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