Resident Evil 4 – out now (pic: Capcom)
The Friday letters page doesn’t think Sony was the best publisher of 2022, as one reader wishes the Sonic Master System games got more respect.
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Today’s the day
So by the time you read this Resident Evil 4 remake will be out and I will be taking a day off work to play through it. As far as I’m concerned the original is the best game ever made and while I’m prepared to admit that there’s no way the remake can hold up to that today, given too much has changed, I really haven’t heard a bad thing about it. Not in terms of anything that would put me off playing it, judging by GC’s review.
The graphics look great, the humour sounds great, the controls seem to be solid, and just the whole vibe is perfect. Those cute little anime skits Capcom keep releasing are great too. Better than any of the live action movies or shows, for sure!
The changes and additions, that I know about, all seem good too. I really can’t wait and at the very least I hope it’ll end up being the best game of the year. Capcom are on a roll at the moment and all power to them.
Chozo
GIGO
It’s interesting seeing the Metacritic charts for 2022 but while the methodology seems to make sense in theory, in practice it just seems to throw up nonsense as the results. Sony had a weak year last year, with God Of War Ragnarök the only standout and Horizon Forbidden West a good few steps before. But the other high ranking companies were even worse.
I don’t even know who Paradox are and Activision Blizzard were third and yet even Metacritic themselves note they didn’t have any particularly good games, just a bunch of okay ones. 2022 certainly wasn’t Nintendo’s best year ever but to not have them inside the top 10, and beyond some weird indie company nobody’s ever heard of is just silly.
So, yeah. Interesting idea but the execution is terrible.
Salty
Local hero
I must give a hearty recommendation to Tchia, which I completed last night. It reminded me of the PlayStation 2 era, when you’d play a game that felt like it had been made by passionate developers free from the constraints of the corporate big wigs.
It’s a small studio and although there’s obviously a few rough edges, it’s a delight from start to finish. A massive plus is that it contains the local New Caledonian dialect (plus French) and is basically a love letter itself to their country. In an era where games set in a foreign country still contain American accents it’s refreshing to play something so free from corporate big wiggery.
Wonk
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Original release
RE: Sonic Origins Plus reveal. Does it bug anyone that they call them GameGear games and not Master System games? I know it’s for the American market, where the Master System was barely a thing, but it’s that platform that is today more highly regarded. And, correct me if I’m wrong, it was the original format for Ancient’s Sonic 1.
Those games certainly looked better on the Master System than Game Gear due to the screen size, so I really hope they give us that plus proper widescreen viewing of Sonic and co. in these re-releases.
Lastly, if by playing as Amy we now learn that she, Tails, and Knuckles are all about the same speed, then what makes Sonic himself so special?
Owen Pile (NongWen – PSN ID)
GC: But they are GameGear games. That’s the versions they’re using and many of the games included were never released on the Master System. We did say in the article though, that it’s a shame they didn’t include the Master System versions as well.
Some lag included
I downloaded the Luna app on my Firestick and tried it out and I have to say I was fairly impressed with it. I am an Amazon Prime customer so had foir games free. The two notable games were Mega Man X and a rip-off game of Zelda: The Wind Waker, didn’t try the other two. Mega Man was good, didn’t notice anything unusual. The Wind Waker rip-off had some lag, but it wasn’t so bad as to suggest it was game breaking.
There is an additional sub for Luna, I may try the free trial later on when there are more games. The most notable game I could see was Resident Evil 2. I liked that I didn’t have to buy a separate device for Luna. With the way the whole Luna app worked with the Switch controller was really good, didn’t take much to set up.
If cloud gaming is the future, then I’m all for it. I worry, though, that there will be competing services like the current streaming wars where you end up with so many subs. The Ubisoft one on there was £14.99, I think.
Alek Kazam
Game over, no?
On the subject of Daytona USA, I had a go at the latest version (Daytona Championship USA) in Butlins last week. I believe it was released in 2017, but I’d never had a chance to play it until then. For some reason the sound had been turned off, which seemed a real shame considering the legacy of the series’ fantastic music and hard-hitting sound effects. Whilst I didn’t feel I was getting the full experience, and my overall judgement is perhaps skewed as a result, my overall impression was that it seemed very bland in comparison with the arcade originals.
The handling of the car was fine, but all of the Daytona character had seemingly been stripped out. The iconic track details of 777 Speedway (Sonic wall!) have been replaced by a generic loop design and the cars have a very bland, NASCAR-esque look to then. Whilst this is no doubt truer to the real-life Daytona experience, it left me feeling it was all a bit pointless. Why bother to remake/update Daytona USA only to then remove everything which made the original so appealing? I’d be intrigued to know whether other readers have played it, perhaps with the full audio/visual experience!
As a side note, I agree with the reader requesting a console version of Daytona USA 2. I would extend that to many other Model 2/3 arcade games which have never seen a home release of any form – leaving emulation as the only current means to play them. C’mon Sega!
Adzz1986 (PSN ID).Adz86 (Steam ID)
GC: It sounds like a licensing issue. Are you sure it was actually made by Sega, and they hadn’t sub-licensed the game to someone else?
Free download
Following on from yesterday’s letter, I’d say the Switch is my favourite Nintendo console. It’s such a good device that Nintendo being Nintendo worries me with what they will follow it up with.
But that said, I’d like to give a shout out to the DS with its download play feature. That was such a good idea for families to play together. My kids are currently wanting us to all play Splatoon and while we’ve got enough consoles, the idea of spending well over £160 to get four copies of the same game, for the 12 occasions we’d actually use them, all really make me miss the DS.
Tim
A is B, B is A
In response to Grackle’s excellent letter on Thursday.
For me the SNES will always be the best Nintendo console.
I never liked so many titles on one console since. It pushed the envelope to its limits and if they would have released Donkey Kong Country at the console’s release, it would have made jaws drop.
I know it took them years to realise how to program the SNES to run graphics like Donkey Kong Country, and I’m too long in the tooth to be seduced by great visuals these days, but it does turn heads.
Remember this is one step up from the 8-bit NES and it still looks impressive today, on the small screen at least.
Street Fighter 2 was definitely the game of that generation and the SNES ran it effortlessly.
Its role-playing games were second to none and probably still are, and that’s before I get started on Mario, Zelda, and Star Fox.
Although I have to say if you’re looking for quality over quantity the N64 was a beast to be reckoned with.
Having said all that, I think the GameCube had the best controller. Every button felt different and for someone like me, that struggles with what colour buttons to press or what shape is on the button, it was a godsend for QTE moments.
Incidentally, does anybody else have trouble remembering the buttons? Or am I on my own?
freeway 77
GC: Going between the Switch Pro Controller and an Xbox gamepad is a nightmare. If we ever met the person at Microsoft who decided to reverse the naming system, we will not be held responsible for our actions.
Inbox also-rans
What ever happened to the VR GTA: San Andreas that Mark Zuckerberg mentioned was in production? That was a while ago now.
Tundra
GC: Mark Zuckerberg has said a lot of things about VR.
That Lego driving game actually looks pretty good. Gave me City Undercover vibes, which I feel is a very underrated game and better than any of the movie games it is similar to.
Royston
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Grant, who asks whether you’ve ever dreamt about video games?
That doesn’t mean daydreaming about an imagined sequel or remake but a game that has had such an effect on you that it’s ended up in your dreams. It doesn’t have to be a nightmare but what games have you dreamt about and why do you think they made it through to your subconscious?
Was it because you were playing them a lot or because their story or gameplay had a profound effect on you? Or do you find it inexplicable that they turned up that way?
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The small print
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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.
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The Friday letters page doesn’t think Sony was the best publisher of 2022, as one reader wishes the Sonic Master System games got more respect.