Final Fantasy 16 – try it for yourself (pic: Square Enix)
The Thursday letters page thinks 2023 is a classic year for gaming, as one reader gives up buying Forza Motorsport because of always-online.
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Devil may cheer
I downloaded the Final Fantasy 16 demo, now that it’s out, and whilst spending a bit of time debating whether I should just wait until release I caved in and booted it up. Got to say that, despite all the detractors who seem to think it sacrilege to turn it into a Capcom style arcade game, it’s pretty damn fantastic.
I tried to only sample some of it, so as not to fully spoil the final experience, but at the moment it’s getting a thumbs up from me. Not sure when the embargo is up but I assume GC is probably playing through the full game at the moment aims a double wink in GC’s direction.
Wonk
Multiple choices
I’ve been surprised at all the negativity about Fable in the Inbox this week. I always enjoyed the games and I would argue they were good even though there were lots of things they never did end up including, that Peter Molyneux had talked about being in the games, so personally I will be playing it day one and so will most of my friends.
Anyway, now that I’ve defended Fable, I thought that was a great show that they put on but as much as I’m now looking forward to Starfield, especially for building my own ship, and Star Wars Outlaws because it looks like the Star Wars game of my dreams, I think I am most excited for Cities Skylines 2. Can’t wait to get my hands on that one in October.
Pumpkindude86 (gamertag/PSN ID)
The thirst is real
I can totally understand why, because I’m one of them, but GTA 6 fans have got to be the most desperate in gaming. This isn’t even the first time I’ve heard about them thinking there’s clue about the game in clothes added to GTA 5.
The worst thing is I’ve no idea whether this is something Rockstar would do or not. It seems silly but then Rockstar aren’t exactly the sort to just rock up to the Xbox Games Showcase, or whatever, and just drop a trailer.
So what should we be waiting for? Are there any accepting warning signs for when a GTA 6 reveal is imminent? I’m really hoping it’ll be this year.
Gorn
GC: The most likely thing is that there’ll just be a tweet out of nowhere, teasing further tweets and eventually a trailer; that’s how it worked for Red Dead Redemption 2. There’s a good chance it’ll happen this year but absolutely no guarantee.
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Wait and see
After a month of playing Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom I think it is absolutely deserving of the almost universal praise from reviewers.
I’m quite happy to potter about doing things in my own time and eventually work my way through the story. That works fine for me but then I see videos pop up on social with these amazing contraptions people have built just because they can. The one I saw tonight was a steam train and in my opinion it is an incredible achievement by the developers to have made a game that you can enjoy in pretty much whatever way you choose to.
At the moment it’s definitely a contender for the best game I’ve ever played but to avoid recency bias I’ll reconsider my opinion in a years’ time, I might have finished it by then!
John Atkinson
GC: You could’ve included a link to the steam train.
Devolved conversation
I’m genuinely surprised with the positivity in the Inbox around the Ubisoft presentation. I found it long-winded and dull. It has the air of a meeting that should have been an email. The small audience looked like parents at a school play, politely applauding other people’s children while they wait for theirs to turn up.
At one point a guy said something along the lines of ‘never mind the talking, show the gameplay’ then proceeded to waffle on about the game for a couple of minutes before showing anything.
By the time Star Wars Outlaws turned up my spirit was so crushed I could barely get excited by it. It does look good, a sort of Red Dead Rebellion, but Ubisoft’s lacklustre presentation style sapped so much fun out of what was shown for me.
I remember enjoying previous Ubisoft offerings, so I don’t know where they’ve gone wrong. Maybe they should ask Devolver for tips.
Euclidian Boxes
A fine year
There’s been disappointments this year, like Redfall, but looking at what’s been released and what’s to come it is a fine gaming year.
Hi-Fi Rush, Dead Space, Metroid Prime Remastered, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Street Fighter 6, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Armoured Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, Pikmin 4, and Alan Wake 2. Some nice surprises too, like Humanity, and there was also the release of PlayStation VR2 which though expensive is a top notch piece of kit.
Nice to see triple-A representing so much this year too. I’m hoping some games that are down for this year will get official release dates too, like the next Professor Layton game: Professor Layton And The New World Of Steam.
Anyway, I’m now off to watch the Xbox extended show. It’ll have some more reveals apparently. Spencer was wearing a Hexen shirt in the showcase. I wonder if that was a tease, probably not. Do we know what id Software are currently working on?
Simundo
GC: He’s worn a Hexen T-shirt before and it’s not amounted to anything, but no: there’s currently no clue what id Software is working on. Although Hexen was actually by Raven Software, who are now owned by Activision and who Microsoft may in turn end up owning sooner or later.
Out of the race
In response to Forza Motorsport being always-online, I’m out. Shame, it looked great, but the reality is that my internet is rubbish. I cannot afford Game Pass or pay to play online, and this sadly marks yet another game that’s ruled me out, Diablo 4 being the other most recent.
It’s a worrying trend, following the PlayStation Showcase and Jim Ryan’s 60:40 ratio in favour of online live service games. If PlayStation 5’s 40% don’t have online-always requirements, and the majority of Xbox does, then for me it will have to bye bye Phil and hello Jim as I sell the Xbox.
Down with always-online!
Rob
Time is money
That’s not that surprising to hear that big budget games can take up to six years to complete.
You’ve only got to look at Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom to see that. While the main game was finished a year ago, it still took them a year to iron out all the creases and even then it still had a few kinks.
That’s already working from a template that was probably already in production eight or nine years ago and I assume most the same team working on it.
Grand Theft Auto 5 has crossed three generations with not another sequel out for a while.
It was something I never really gave any thought into in the past, as consoles got more powerful, but now it seems big budget games could start production at the start of a console’s release and finally turn up in the winter of its lifespan.
What I did see as an inevitability though, was graphics so good that the games companies would have to do something else to impress their audience.
It seems to have come full circle now, ironically, in a sense. Back in the day, the price of memory on a cartridge or arcade machine was what was holding developers back. The boot is now firmly on the other foot and it’s not lack of memory holding them back, it’s lack of time and we all know time costs money.
That’s not me having a dig at today’s developers. The guys back in the day had to work around the constraints of the business.
The guys today have slightly different constraints but that doesn’t mean they can’t make a good game.
It’s time to start taking inspiration from the past and start getting inventive again. As I feel that’s the only way forward.
freeway 77
GC: Five years has been the minimum for a good, big budget game for quite a while now.
Inbox also-rans
So what’s the betting Embracer gets out of the games business entirely by the end of the year? They’ve always seemed so shifty and they’ve done so little with all the dozens of studios they’ve bought. They make Microsoft look good!
Piri
I love that the discussion around building spaceships in Starfield is all centred around making it look like famous sci-fi ships that already exist – not actually making anything new. And you wonder why Fortnite and the like is filled with random pop culture cameos.
Argo3021
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The Thursday letters page thinks 2023 is a classic year for gaming, as one reader gives up buying Forza Motorsport because of always-online.