The Callisto Protocol – will it be scary and a good game? (pic: Krafton)
The Tuesday letters page looks forward to the second Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer, as one reader is upset there’s no new F-Zero.
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Real game
As a big fan of Dead Space I’m looking forward to getting stuck into The Callisto Protocol at the weekend, even though I’m not entirely sure what to expect from it. This made me think about what is the best horror game, rather than the question of what the scariest is – which is the one that usually gets asked.
Games like Silent Hill, Project Zero, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent are all very scary, but I think on a technical and gameplay level they are not so great. They’re great horror games but they’re not really great games in their own right, if you see what I mean.
I think Resident Evil is probably the best example of a game that would be good even if it didn’t have horror elements, although I think it would seem very repetitive if you were just shooting human bad guys all the time.
Horror games are odd in that many of the qualities you’d demand from a normal game, like decent controls and combat, aren’t really a necessity and I think that’s one of the reasons I love Dead Space, because it is much better at those things while also being really creepy. Curious to know what others think.
Dunston
Investor relations
Infuriating to hear about Nintendo saying no to a new F-Zero because the developer wasn’t big enough, but could’ve been if only they’d said yes and given them a budget. I can’t help but wonder why Nintendo doesn’t apply this logic to Game Freak, who are by all accounts understaffed and overworked.
As other readers have said, Nintendo should be helping with the technology but it shouldn’t end there. Nintendo obviously runs a tight ship, they know how to make games, how to do QA, and how to manage expectations but despite being around for so long Game Freak do not.
Nintendo still owns a major part of Game Freak so why aren’t they investing in them more? Giving them all the money they need and ensuring the games are as a perfect as a ‘normal’ Nintendo game? Unless there’s some weird legal reason for it I just don’t get it.
Josh92
Cracking down
With basically every big game getting leaked and streamed a week or so before release this year I do worry what effect this is going to have on publishers. They already don’t like physical games and while I’m sure they’d be happy to drop them completely I don’t think they’d go quite that far just yet. What I can see them doing though is making sure every game is like Call Of Duty, with nothing stored on the disc, so that if people do get copies early they can’t do anything with them.
You’d still be able to sell the game on like normal but it basically be just a big round receipt. It’s not ideally but shops are doing this to themselves. They must know they’re being lax, as it’s not usually like this, but if every game’s going to have its story spoiled a week before it comes out what’s the point? It’s an unfortunate situation.
Specsaver
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Late achiever
On an awesome extra discounted Black Friday deal, I managed to get a Sonic Frontiers physical cart on Switch for only a little over £20. Delivered on Sunday, woop woop!
Other than the camera snapping around at some random points, proper liking it.
Will say, why did it take Sega so long to make a good 3D one? If similar could have been out in Dreamcast era, it could’ve saved Sega (as they were then).
On a side point, I am thinking of writing a Reader’s Feature about handheld emulator consoles. How would this stand for the (usual) grey area of emulation?
Si
GC: As long as they’re officially released consoles that’s fine. You just can’t talk about ROMs or anything that could be construed as piracy.
Next generation
Count me as one of the people that don’t know what the fuss is with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The graphics are not great but I wouldn’t say they were awful either. And I haven’t had any performance issues either, beyond a few frame rate hiccups.
Can I instead give a shot out to some of the new pokémon designs. The last couple of generations have all been good but I particularly like Tinkatink evolution Tinkaton, which is a sort of gremlin/fairy thing with a giant hammer and the dolphin evolutions which get amusingly weird.
The puns are also especially good and I had a sensible chuckle over Annihilape, Fidough, and Cyclizar. It’s a great game as far as I’m concerned and I will continue to play it for many hours to come.
Sibob
Invader Xim
I read this article about Overwatch 2 players getting angry at console gamers using a keyboard and mouse; always interesting to read about XIM usage.
Some things are incorrect though. You do not get mouse movement with a XIM. Reddit users claiming that people can 180 twice as fast is untrue. You can only move as fast as a right analogue stick allows.
For PlayStation 5 users, you cannot use a XIM unless you install the PlayStation 4 version of the game, negating the frame rate advantages you get from PlayStation 5. For anyone doing that, you can simply use the officially licensed variants of a XIM.
The Hori Tac Master gives mouse and keyboard on PlayStation. It is identified as a controller too and you get aim assist while using it. Again, it’s an emulator and is actually right analogue stick movement posing as a mouse.
In addition, there’s the Splitfish Frag FX product. With this you can use a nunchuck and mouse. Again, you get aim assist, and it can be used for any game at all on PlayStation 4. All games identify these as standard DualShock 4 controllers.
The main difference between these products and XIM is that XIM allows you to use whatever mouse or keyboard, nunchuck, etc. you want. It’s a bit more versatile but it’s simply a third party variant of officially licensed controllers. It’s like what Scuf is to a Razer Raiju.
On Xbox you can use a XIM because it is backwards compatible with other controllers.
I have a XIM. I’ve used it for years. I cannot use it for Overwatch 2 on PlayStation 5 so I have simply adapted to controller again, as I have for Battlefield. I had a Splitfish prior (I’m hopeless with a keyboard) and that was fine but I had some issues with the mouse and moved to XIM.
Hope this helps bring some well needed balance to these discussions as it simply isn’t the cheat device people imagine it to be.
Tony
Prattling on
I see the second trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is going to be revealed on Tuesday, so looking forward to this. I imagine it’ll have Princess Peach and some of the other characters in it but the big test is if we hear more from Mario.
There wasn’t really much to judge in the first trailer so now we find out whether Chris Pratt really was a good choice or not.
Focus
Crowded track
So with the news of a probable PC port of Gran Turismo 7 it left me wondering: who’s it for?
Sim racing on PC is already really well served, even with the death of the Project CARS series we have Automobilista 2 picking up the baton with a variety of car classes and tracks, as well as Asseto Corsa Competizione if you just want GT3 and GT4 racing.
Then you have the original Asseto Corsa, RaceRoom, and iRacing, to name a few all available.
Project CARS 3 (which I think is still available) pretty much copies the Gran Turismo formula of buying and upgrading cars – and we all saw how well that was received!
For lighter, more arcadey fare there is the GRID series.
We also have Ian Bell and Mildly Annoyed trying to get a new sim racing series going.
I guess the point is sim racing is a niche and yet crowded market on PC. I think Polyphony Digital imagine with brand recognition they can waltz in and clean up but I’m not so sure that will happen.
Still, it will be interesting to see if anything becomes of it!
The Dude Abides
Inbox also-rans
Why has there never been a proper hedgehog pokémon? The only one I know of is Shaymin, who is really rare. Is this some kind of deal with Sega not to step on their toes?
Winston
Can’t say I got any decent bundles over Black Friday. The only thing I was hoping for was Elden Ring and it wasn’t budging. Neither am I.
Cobble
This week’s Hot Topic
It’s The Game Awards next week which, especially in the absence of E3, has become the biggest single venue for new game announcements and footage of upcoming games, so we want to know… what are you hoping to see?
It doesn’t matter whether the game has already been announced, as long as there’s a reasonable chance of it being revealed next week (we’d say GTA 6 is very unlikely, before everyone writes in about that – but who knows).
If it’s a game that’s been announced but for which little or no footage has been shown, what are you hoping for in terms of the first trailer and what the game itself will be like? Overall, what is your most anticipated game of 2023 and beyond?
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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 via email or our Submit Stuff page, 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.
MORE : Weekend Hot Topic: Best looking games of the PS4 era
MORE : Games Inbox: PS5 Pro predictions, Silent Hill 2 remake success, and Pokémon Scarlet/Violet remaster
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The Tuesday letters page looks forward to the second Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer, as one reader is upset there’s no new F-Zero.
