The Monday Inbox wonders if Valve can still compete against other big name developers, as one reader falls in love with Return Of The Obra Dinn.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Another week
I realise that this question is getting old but is there any chance of the PlayStation 5 coming back into stock this week? There was all that talk of a big new wave of stock in January and all it’s turned out to be is a couple of stores getting a few consoles that sell out in minutes. Or is that all the fault of the scalpers? Whatever’s going on I can tell you I’m getting tired of it.
What has Sony said about the situation? This would all be a lot simpler if they just said that new stock would be available on day X and just hang on till then. Maybe have some sort of pre-order or ticket system so it’s not a case of just mashing the F5 key at 6am in the morning (bitter experience talking there).
This isn’t just the pandemic getting in the way and unexpected demand, this is all because of scalpers and companies not bothering to protect ordinary customers against them. After all that 4 the players stuff last gen I’m feeling pretty ignored and abused right now, as both a PlayStation fan and a potential customer.
Boson
GC: Sony has never said anything about stock. In fact, they haven’t said anything about anything all year, and neither have Microsoft. Rumours claim more stock is about to be released by major stores, including Argos, but nothing suggests it’ll be in any greater volume than usual.
No opinion
Read your story about Valve Software making single-player games again, but I need to ask does anyone care about Valve anymore?
In my opinion Valve are yesterday’s news, having been put to the sword by developers like Rockstar, Naughty Dog, PlatinumGames, FromSoftware, and countless others. I wish Valve luck.
Mr B
GC: Apart from VR games that most people haven’t had an opportunity to play, they haven’t done anything in the last 10 years to have an opinion on. Clearly plenty of people would care if that wasn’t the case.
Game of the year
I got Pikmin 3 Deluxe for Christmas and I have to say how much I’m enjoying it. It’s a very relaxing, charming game to play. I don’t know how well it’s sold on Switch but it’s a game every Switch owner should give a try.
It would have made my best games of 2020 if it wasn’t a rerelease and if I’d played it last year. It’s definitely taken the edge off of this lockdown for me.
Mitchell
GC: It’s done very well in Japan, despite the series never usually being a big seller, so that bodes well for a new entry. If you’re alluding to the Readers’ Top 20 you can vote for it – the only restriction for readers is that the game be released in the UK in 2020.
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
Scary cheese
I always enjoy it when a new game gets revealed and everyone is really positive about it, it’s such a nice change for the internet! Like seemingly everyone else I loved the look at Resident Evil Village and being lucky enough to own a PlayStation 5 I also downloaded the Maiden demo and was impressed by that too.
In gameplay terms it doesn’t seem to be doing anything new or different but it was very atmospheric and as GC pointed out in their review the best bit is to see the cheese of Resident Evil back. Resident Evil 3 was a disappointment in a lot of ways but for me the biggest problem was that it seemed to suggest a future for the series that took itself completely seriously. Not in term of the gameplay or plot, which was still completely stupid, but the complete lack of any real humour or, well… cheese.
A 9 foot tall vampire lady is not something you can get all grimdark about though and I already love her. I don’t know where else the game is going to go, especially the Chris Redfield side of things, but unless something else comes up I’m totally on board for the least serious, most scary survival horror out there.
Baskin
Resident Evil Appendix
I can see that the name Village was shoehorned into the new Resident Evil game just so they could the letters as Roman numerals.
Makes me wonder what the next instalment will be called. Maybe Resident Evil Vixens or Pixies perhaps.
Barry Burton
GC: Vixens almost sounds plausible. We hope you’re in it.
Red means danger
It’s a night-time infiltration mission. You’re surveying the landscape with your binoculars. Attempting to memorise enemy movements and thinking of whether a stealthy approach would be easier, you pan up to a sentry on a higher level. He seems rather nonchalant with a cigarette in hand, seemingly fine with how his life has turned out. He seems especially content to guard a red barrel with a sign reading ‘DANGER HIGHLY FLAMMABLE’. Doesn’t faze him in the slightest. He shares a word with another sentry who’s ambled over, wondering if he can help out guarding it.
After a few nods and hand movements the two of them cease to natter and seemingly stare out into the vastness of space. I audibly groan, take aim and complete the biggest, most tedious and eye-rolling gaming cliche in history. A red barrel, with a witless, brain dead solider guarding something that will vaporise him in milliseconds. Why does this nonsense still exist even in this era of photorealism?
Wonka
Fear bad news
I was looking through all my old PlayStation 3 games the other day, with a view to selling them on eBay. I’d kept hold of them initially because I believed eventually Sony would release a console that was fully backwards compatible.
Sadly, I don’t now think that’ll happen and I no longer have space under the TV for my old fat PlayStation 3. Looking through the, literally hundreds, of games though I realised I didn’t really want to play many of them again anyway. In fact, the only games I really fancy playing again are the F.E.A.R. games, especially the first one. Surely it deserves a remake. Maybe The Darkness games as well? Make it so Inbox magic.
Neil
GC: The Darkness involves a comic book licence, so that’s almost certainly not going to happen. F.E.A.R. belongs to Warner Bros. now, who don’t tend to be interested in remasters.
Price parity
How exactly do these free upgrades work when you buy a last gen game? Aren’t all PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S games are more expensive than the last gen equivalents?
Surely, there’s no need to buy the expensive version when you can get something for nothing…
ttfp saylow (gamertag)/SW-5758-6539-2383
GC: Most are not more expensive, no. The ones that are generally don’t have a free upgrade option.
Good example
Well Lucas Pope has done it again. Return Of The Obra Dinn is just fantastic! A wonderfully original idea superbly executed. The detective work is extremely satisfying, especially when your hunches bear fruit. Like a real detective I changed my line of enquiry several times through the game and each time it brought up completely new info I had missed. The investigation just felt very organic and the stories that came to light were enthralling.
The unique visuals offer some absolutely stunning scenes and show the importance of art design/style over graphical power. Certain images wowed me more than anything in The Last Of Us Part 2, which is really saying something. My only complaint was going to be that towards the end the game began to rely on blind guesswork a little too much. Reading up on it now though I realise I completely missed a major, fairly easy to find clue so that’s my flaw not the games. All in all, just a fabulous game.
I would love to see more games in this detective style but not necessarily from Lucas Pope. It was very wise and commendable for him to do something so different from Papers, Please for his follow-up. Personally, I’d like to see something completely original from him again.
It’s not surprising that indie game sequels don’t sell as well as the originals as part of the joy of indies is their creativity and innovation free from the constraints of larger budget games. More developers should follow Pope’s example, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!
Ryan O’D
Inbox also-rans
I think Shadow Hearts need a reboot for the PlayStation 4 or 5. Classic Japanese role-playing games!
Anon
GC: We’d welcome it, but they weren’t published by Sony.
As an addition to how to fix the comments from Friday, if that doesn’t work you might need to first click ‘Allow All’ and then you can deselect anything except the ‘consent’ option. Just been trying another browser (Opera) and had to do this.
Magicsquirrel
Cheaters everywhere in Call Of Duty: Warzone, I’d say 70% are doing it. When are Activision gonna ban them?
Anon
This week’s Hot Topic
Every year at the end of January we run the Reader’s Top 20 of the year, where you get to vote for your favourite games of the previous year, so that we can collate a top 20 of everyone’s favourites.
To take part in the 2020 poll all you need to do is email us a list of your top three games and, if you want to be part of the Hot Topic at the weekend, an explanation of why you picked them.
Although we impose certain restrictions on our top 20, such as no remakes, you can vote for any game you like as long as it was released in 2020 in the UK.
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 Reader’s Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
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