How big is Metal Gear? (pic: Konami)

The Monday letters page ponders the lack of new racing games in 2023, as one reader is confused by Warner’s Suicide Squad obsession.

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Snake in the grass
With new rumours about Konami maybe planning a new Castlevania and more Metal Gear remasters/remakes I have to disagree with the suggestion that they seem to be doing things backwards. Perhaps overall Metal Gear is more popular than Silent Hill but I wouldn’t say it was a household name or anything.

At least Silent Hill got a couple of movies, one of which was actually quite good, but I don’t think anyone that’s not a gamer will have had any chance to hear about Metal Gear anywhere else. It’s also not as if any of the games have been massive hits. They’ve been quite big but not compared to the real top sellers. If they were Konami wouldn’t have been so keen to turf Hideo Kojima out.

I’m not trying to attack the series, I played a couple of them and like them well enough, but some people like to think of them as the equivalent of Call Of Duty or Assassin’s Creed or something, and they’re really not. Metal Gear is a moderately successful series that is basically impossible to continue without its original creator. I can see why Konami would skip past it in favour of others when making new games.
Manos

Long time coming
Completely agree with the Reader’s Feature about the Suicide Squad. It looks terrible on every level. It doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with the comics, beyond the story. This is not the sort of gameplay you’d expect for any of these characters, and they could easily be swapped out for something non-comics related and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.

What gets me is that apparently Warner has been trying to get this game made since 2010. That’s not a rumour, they were actually talking about it back then. There was even a tease of it in Batman: Arkham Origins, back in 2013. Between this and the two films what is the obsession with an obscure comic book about a bunch of villains. And why, when you finally make the game, does it have nothing to do with the actual premise?
Ralts

Sporting chance
Although I agree the State of Play last week was not great I’ve got to hand it to Capcom for having the two best things in it, by a long mark. Resident Evil 4 is looking fantastic but the one that caught me by surprise is Street Fighter 6. Although I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for Street Fighter 2 I’ve been put off the sequels, especially 5, because of the emphasis on competition and esports.

I’ve seen less of that so far though and with all the talk of the story mode I’m really getting excited about it. I like the graphics too, which seem to be a really good compromise between cartoony and realistic, while still being distinctive in their own right.

I really hope Capcom realises that the whole esports thing puts people off as much as it draws them in, and for me the less I hear about it the more interested I’ll be.
Gooch

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Linear media
Interesting attempt to say that the video game version of The Last Of Us is more effective because its interactive but I don’t buy it. The action part of it is interactive but nothing else is. The Reader’s Feature talks about being an ‘an active participant’ and how ‘our moral responses to the decisions we make in that digital, vicarious life cause us to reflect and learn from our choices’ but there are no decisions to be made in the game? That’s the main argument against.

The whole finale revolves around a decision you have no control over and at no other point in the game can you alter even a small part of it. You can’t choose to kill people, you either kill them or you kill them and that’s it.

That’s not me saying The Last Of Us is a bad game – I enjoyed it – but the argument in favour of it being better than the show makes no sense. The show is clearly much better at telling a story and presenting the characters and I feel much more invested in them than in the game, simply because they seem more realistic and three-dimensional.
Causwell

New problem
So it’s not just Sony being weird about game announcements, eh? Now got Mortal Kombat 12 announced, for this year no less, in some boring business meetings? With not even a logo to go by? That’s got to be a mistake I think, they must’ve thought it’d already been unveiled, but I hope we get a proper reveal soon.

I’m curious to see what they’re going to do with the game though as the series seems to have hit a dead end now, through no fault of its own, and I really don’t know what else they can do with it. Most fighting games have that problem but with Mortal Kombat 12 I’m struggling to think of anything new they could do.
Benson

Second-hand opinion
This will be a controversial post. But it’s absolutely true. Persona 5 Royal is indeed, the greatest Japanese role-playing game of all time. Anyone can name Final Fantasy 7 or the other titles as worthy contenders, but the masterpiece from Atlus, is something special. Because how many titles can whip up a 100+ hour story without it becoming repetitive, a drag or tedious?

It’s absolutely brilliantly written, the city of Tokyo is phenomenally represented, it even showcases it in such a way that Ghostwire: Tokyo wished it had done. Joker serves as a memorable protagonist and the characters are fantastically portrayed. With the acclaim that it has garnered and the fanbase, that continue to sing the praises, one can only wonder why Atlus haven’t announced Persona 6?

It would become an instant box office sensation, but if we can live in a time where Silent Hill has resurfaced, via multiple titles and a film, anything is possible. I’ve also yet to actually play the game, I’m buying it on Nintendo Switch. Thought I’d throw in a curveball, as a final note. But it’s absolutely certain. Persona 5 is brilliant.
Shahzaib Sadiq

GC: That’s not a controversial opinion, except… you haven’t played it? Then how do you know how good it is or that Joker is memorable? Also, it was eight years between Persona 4 and 5, so Persona 6 won’t be overdue until next year.

Scheduled race
Looking through your video game release schedule, and given all the recent teasers and announcements, something has struck me and that is that there are absolutely no racing games either teased or scheduled for release this year and I’m actually quite disappointed to see it!

Hoping for a bit of Inbox magic and some announcements of some new racing games, arcade or sim – at this point I’ll take anything I can get!
Rickandrolla (PSN ID)

GC: They might not have release dates, and could easily slip into 2024, but Forza Motorsport, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, and The Crew Motorfest are all supposed to be out this year. There’s also Codemasters’ first WRC game and, presumably, F1 23.

Why indeed?
After watching the most recent State of Play, I can’t say I’m impressed by what was shown. I have no intention of getting PlayStation VR2; I got PlayStation VR a few years after it launched, in one of the good Black Friday bundles, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly. None of the PlayStation VR2 games I’ve seen look up my street – most of the ones announced yesterday seemed to be shooters – which is good because I can’t justify spending £550 on new hardware and a game, anyway.

The Baldur’s Gate 3 release date in late August was a pleasant surprise, as I thought we might be waiting a while longer for a console release after it leaves early access on PC. I still have Divinity: Original Sin 2 in my backlog to play through first though…

I’m interested to hear what others thought of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. From the gameplay shown, it isn’t the follow-up to the Arkham series that I wanted. The Arkham series is probably my favourite game series ever and Suicide Squad looks like it could’ve come from another developer entirely.

Why bother setting the game in a superhero universe if the player is powerless and spending all their time just shooting guns? The footage shown seems reminiscent of Gotham Knights, with its focus on co-op, character upgrades, and customisation, which isn’t a comparison that gives me much hope for the game. I’m willing to wait for reviews before passing judgement, but early impressions suggest I’ll be giving it a miss.
Hubert

Inbox also-rans
Nintendo sent me a email earlier in February saying that Bayonetta 1 would be released physically for the Switch in February. I was going to get a copy for myself, it has not appeared in stock yet and there is only two days left of February so not long to wait now.
Andrew J.

At first I thought there was no chance of most games coming out with a VR mode because Sony would’ve announced that already. Then I remembered the job they’d been doing so far with the marketing of PSVR2…
Toph

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The small print
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MORE : Games Inbox: PS5 State Of Play disappointment, Suicide Squad disinterest, and PSVR2 excitement

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MORE : Games Inbox: February State of Play predictions, open world Super Mario, and The Last Of Us 3

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The Monday letters page ponders the lack of new racing games in 2023, as one reader is confused by Warner’s Suicide Squad obsession.