Starfield – have Bethesda already paid for themselves? (Picture: Bethesda)
The Thursday letters page hopes Starfield inspires a new wave of space games, as readers offer help for Armored Core 6’s Sulla and Balteus.
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Buyer’s remorse
This whole business with Starfield reviews seems to be another example of Microsoft being too loose with its management of its developers. Someone sensible should’ve told Bethesda not to get themselves into this situation, but apparently Bethesda are free to do whatever they want. If that’s the case, why bother buying them? Microsoft could’ve saved themselves a few billion and just signed individual games up as Xbox exclusives.
Then again, Starfield is probably going to be good and certainly seems to have inspired a lot of interest in Xbox. Microsoft might be handling them poorly, but Bethesda was a much more sensible purchase than Activision Blizzard. Not only are the Call Of Duty makers stupidly expensive but all their big franchises are currently in decline.
If this year’s Modern Warfare 3 is not as big as usual I wonder if Phil Spencer and co. will begin to regret it all. $69 billion is such a ridiculous amount of money, I can’t help thinking there must be an infinite number of other things worth spending it on than Activision Blizzard.
Mailor
Badge of honour
I think it’s pretty obvious what Bethesda is doing with the reviews codes in the UK. They’ve realised that all the sites most likely to give low scores all happen to come from here (Eurogamer, Edge, Metro, and probably others I don’t read) and figured they might as well take them all out with one blow. They were probably going to make up some excuse as to why but don’t seem to have bothered with that in the end.
Now the Metacritic score will be as high as possible on day one and it’ll be at least a week before it goes down. That’s what they want, it makes perfect business sense really, even if it is a scummy thing to do.
Personally I’d take it as a badge of pride that the UK is being singled out for having more honest reviews than the rest of the world. I don’t think Bethesda’s beef is with any one in particular, they’ve just decided that having that Metacritic score as high as possible is worth ruining relations with the press in their second biggest market. That’s just how these people’s minds thing.
Cranston
Life is stranger than fiction
I did not know that, about gas giants having cores of diamonds, although I guess that makes sense if you consider how they’re made on Earth. I hope Starfield encourages a whole new wave of, at least relatively, accurate space games. It’s such a missed opportunity given how weird the universe is and yet how every space game and film still seems to be set in a Doctor Who quarry most of the time.
With games it’s not really a question of money, like it is with a film, but imagination, and that’s a shame. Destiny gets maybe the closest but you can’t do anything but shoot in those games and they don’t bother changing the gravity.
As far as I can see gravity is different in the various planets of Starfield and that’s a good start. Now let’s start having lakes of methane and three mile tall geysers of water, like we do in our own solar system.
Walter
GC: We may be behind on the latest theories but we believe there’s also the chance of it raining diamonds on gas giants.
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Not bovvered
So, Sony has raised its PS Plus prices again. Oh well, won’t bother me one bit, in the last 18 months I’ve bought two one month subscriptions. The way it’s looking Sony are going to price everyone out of online gaming. Even GC has said the best one on PS Plus is Saints Row and even that’s not worth getting excited about.
All I’ve pre-ordered this year is Spider-Man 2, of course, and Assassin’s Creed. As for the new Call Of Duty, I normally buy myself and my brother it for his Xmas gift, but even I’m not bothered about that this year. I’m not paying £70 for a game that should of been a DLC for the previous game.
So, Sony I’m sorry but not this year will you be getting my money and if I’m honest, if there is one more price increase this gen I’ll be selling my PlayStation and giving up gaming because it won’t be long till their games get a price increase, because of the extra costs to make the games – which is the reason Sony will give.
David
GC: We have never used the words ‘Saints Row‘ and ‘best’ in the same sentence, unless also accompanied by the word ‘avoid’.
Only what you see
I know there is a lot going on at the moment, but I wanted to make mention of No Man’s Sky. The recent Echos update just dropped and it gave a huge boost to the PlayStation VR2 version by way of implementing foveated rendering.
I encourage PlayStation VR2 users to check it out again, it’s made a huge difference.
r-s-w
GC: For those wondering, foveated rendering means the console doesn’t have to render anything you’re not looking at in as much detail, allowing more processing power to be spent on what is actually in front of you.
Core beliefs
RE: my letter on Armored Core published on Wednesday. From games are funny sometimes… after many failed attempts on Sulla I went back, bought a tank platform, two 8-pod vertical missile launchers and a better FCS and lighter arms, and got him on the second go!
Then going to Balteus, which I feared would be terrifying, I stuck on double plasma rifles and back-mounted laser cannons and got him in five goes! Just really got into his space and honestly if you can survive a couple of attacks and get his shield down quickly, he is actually very easy.
It is such a great feeling to overcome hard bosses like this and already I can tell this is my favourite game since Elden Ring, as I’ve been thinking about it even when not playing!
100% recommend it – it is hard but you can do it.
Tom
Video tutorial
I also struggled with Balteus and came up with a build and tactic that cheesed him, the video is below.
That’s the thing I am loving with Armored Core 6, as an older gamer without twitch skills anymore, you can build your way out of trouble. Onto chapter 2!
Cj Danby
More: Trending
An old idea
In response to Si’s letter on Monday (I’m catching up) RE: Xbox One being playable on phones and the PlayStation Portal being a me too moment, I remember way back in the PlayStation 3 days (so Xbox 360 days for him) you were able to play your PlayStation 3 using Sony Xperia phones (I’m sure any phone could have been used but Sony limited it to their own models). So this concept predates the Xbox One, and in fact even the PlayStation 3 I believe.
The GameCube let you play games on the Game Boy Advance, although not wireless and my memory of the experience isn’t clear (I remember plugging my GBA in to play a game, can’t quite remember the why).
Remote play has probably existed before this, but I couldn’t name any further examples.
Re review copies being held, as it seems to be only UK being held back, you can link this to the CMA blocking the deal, and it’s probably a snide action by Microsoft snubbing the UK market (you have said in your article that reading between the lines it’s not them, but you didn’t qualify that in any way, what makes you think it’s not Microsoft doing?).
Solabound
Inbox also-rans
Bethesda blanking out a whole country in terms of reviews (except with some exceptions?) seems very weird and I guess we’re never going to get an explanation. Do you know of anything similar happening before, GC?
Holly
GC: We’ve never known anything like it.
Is there a link to be found between the unavailability of Starfield copies for UK review and the UK’s judgement on the Activision buyout? Is the UK being punished?
Ranny2011
GC: No, c’mon. That’s just silly.
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Frpgman, who asks what is your favourite side character in a video game?
Assuming a side character is anyone that’s not playable or the primary antagonist, which is your favourite character who’s not the main focus of the game? It doesn’t matter how long they’re in the game for but tell us why you enjoyed them and how well you feel they were used.
Is the character popular and did they ever turn up in any sequels? If not, why do you think nobody else took to them like you did?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
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The Thursday letters page hopes Starfield inspires a new wave of space games, as readers offer help for Armored Core 6’s Sulla and Balteus.
