The Thursday Inbox discusses the best video game sound effects, as one reader plays Resident Evil: Revelations for the first time.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Will they or won’t they?
So there’s a big Nintendo Direct tonight, eh? Probably the last one of the year? Question is what will be in it? There aren’t any top tier releases this Christmas but there are quite a few in total so it will take a while to go through them all, and yet I can’t see Nintendo spending all 40 minutes on things we already know.
That N64 controller business seems as certain as the Switch Pro (if not more!) and surely, at last, we’ll get some kind of proper update for Animal Crossing? That game has been completely ignored all year and it Is just staggering to me that Nintendo is completely ignoring one of their biggest hits ever. Madness. Typical Nintendo madness.
So what else? Or, to cut to the chase, will Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2 be there? I’m going to guess that it will. It was meant to be out this year and that may mean it’s early 2022 rather than later, so I think they could show more of it and maybe an Easter release date. I realise that’s optimistic but I don’t think it’s impossible.
As for anything else, who can say? Platinum seem pretty keen on unvealing Bayonetta 3 so that’s probably got a good chance too. I’m feeling good about this one, I think it could be a classic.
Onibee
Phoenix from the flame
I bought No Man’s Sky on release and was thoroughly underwhelmed. The game went in the draw to gather dust, until recently when I read about the latest updates and praise for the turnaround in the game. I decided to retry and am so glad I did, it’s now the game I hoped it could be. There is so much to do and try out, from running your own town, underwater bases, owing your own capital ship and a fleet of frigates to just learning more from each of the races.
I have not got that far into the story missions; I keep finding something else to try and have just completed the latest expedition. It’s a game you can play at you own pace and do what you want and I would recommend it and congratulate Hello Games on making the game that I was hoping for originally, rather than dumping it and moving on. Which for a fairly small studio most have been a tough decision.
bob1972 (PSN ID)
Sound idea
Just a random thought, that probably won’t go anywhere, but I got thinking the other day about something with my mate. Iconic video game sounds/jingles. Thought it might make an interesting Hot Topic as to what the readers think is their most iconic ones.
Whether it’s the iconic PS One boot up or a Sonic ring, Yoshi hatching, Mario coin, the original Resident Evil title announcement, the ‘Seeegaaa’ or even ‘Toastieee’ from Mortal Kombat, etc… It’s hard to condense the idea into a straight question but I hope you get my drift. Stay well team and thanks for the good work.
D Dubya
GC: It might be worth a go, we’ll see how the box art one goes first.
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Tried before you bought
Are you going to review Toem? It is a nice little exploration puzzle photography game. I wasn’t sure about it at first but I played the demo during the Steam Next Fest and was instantly sold. The gameplay is entirely puzzle based, where you explore and take photos using your camera to complete missions and get stamps that advance you to the next area. The atmosphere, humour, and artwork is fantastic. It has just been released on PC. Not sure about consoles though.
Another demo that I was sold on was Sable. This goes to show how a good demo can be a really useful marketing tool. No matter what research says, I would take a good demo over any CGI ‘gameplay’ trailer any time.
Ali K
GC: We’re not sure about Toem but here’s our review of Sable.
LINK!
Classic compilation
Sega has countless old arcade titles that should be remade for all consoles and PC. I have so many of them through emulation. There are so many Sega fans out there just waiting for them to wake up. The only good games that came out recently are Sonic Mania and, of course, Streets Of Rage 4, which has me hooked.
And Sega isn’t the only company. Nintendo, Capcom, Irem… on and on. I would lay out my hard-earned money for compilation discs packed with retro classic games. Who else is with me?
Anon
Exotic artwork
In the 16-bit era I tended to prefer the Japanese box art that I saw in gaming magazines and shops that sold grey imports, it always seemed more exotic than the stuff we got over here. I’m thinking mainly of Final Fight and Street Fighter 2 but there were plenty of others.
I quite like this article about the worst box art, the Cheggers one almost makes me want to seek the game out.
John Atkinson
Deux you see?
Just a heads up to say that Digitiser are going to have a Kickstarter for Digitiser Series 2 on YouTube. The Kickstarter starts on Tuesday, 28th September. I was going to back it as I backed Series 1. Here’s the video for the Kickstarter.
Andrew J.
PS: The Escapists is free on Epic Games Store from 4pm on Thursday, 23rd September. It has been given away before by Epic but you can get it now if you missed it before. Hopefully they won’t change the game or games by the time this letter is printed as they have done this quite a few times!
Backlog revelation
I’ve been working through my backlog recently, so I have a few games to write about (but I’ll try to keep them separate).
The first set I want to mention is Resident Evil – I got a collection of them from Humble Bundle years ago, and so I played Resident Evil Revelations.
It’s an interesting game. I played it on the 3DS but gave up after Chris fell down a short way, twisted his ankle and got mauled by dogs.
This time I played it to completion on the PC. I find it particularly interesting because it’s such an inversion of what Resident Evil normally is.
As in, rather than a cheesy and enjoyable story with intentionally bad controls, it was an actually engaging and surprisingly grounded story, with unintentionally unfathomably bad controls.
There was a particular stand out moment towards the end when I read the diary of a deceased researcher, who was under the impression that they were researching deadly viruses in order to predict and prevent dangerous outbreaks. One of my friends used to be a virologist, and that is pretty much what they do. It was a very welcome breath of fresh air from every employee of the villainous group either being evil for no reason, or just stupid (or maybe both).
I then tried to play Revelations 2, which seems good, but I was disappointed to see I only had the first episode, and I’m not willing to spend more on it at the moment.
Joseph Dowland
Currently playing: Resident Evil 6 (PC) and Ys: The Oath In Felghana
GC: Revelations 2 is probably the best co-op Resident Evil, if you can play it that way.
Inbox also-rans
Really enjoyed the Jon Hare interview. There is an interview with him on the QuicklyKevin podcast, which is a great listen, very funny and insightful into the early days of game development.
Paul
I read today there are strong rumours that Dying Light 2 could be day one Game Pass, like Back 4 Blood… do you think there is much to this rumour?
TWO MACKS
GC: There’s no good source for it that we’re aware of. It just sounds like someone making an educated guess.
I’ve no real interest in the Advance Wars remake but can we all take a minute to appreciate how great the name ‘re-boot camp’ is? The only other title I can think of with that level of punnery is an old, South America set PSP game named Chilli Con Carnage.
ANON
GC: Not interested in Advance Wars? We understand the words, but not the meaning.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader notoriouschucky, who asks what video game do you consider to be worth a full 10/10 score?
Accepting that 10/10 does not mean something is literally perfect, what game would you give that mark to and why? How well did it review on release and do you feel it got the recognition it deserved – and if not, why not?
What makes that particular game better than any sequels or similar games and how well do you expect it to age over time? If it’s already an old game how has its reputation changed over time and how much life does it still have in it?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
The small print
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