Starfield – could it take Zelda for GOTY? (Picture: Bethesda)

The Friday letters page explains how to get the cheapest deal on Game Pass Ultimate, as one reader recommends Planet Of Lana.

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Trapped inside
Pretty solid list of preview events I feel, apart from Sony of course. The only downer about the whole thing was over how much of it isn’t out till next year but I guess most gamers got what they wanted, a nice bit of hype and something to look forward too. Starfield looks like being the big hit of the year and the only thing that can stop Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom taking Game of the Year.

I’m not quite onboard with GC’s point that Xbox have shed the ShooterBox image… a lot of the bigger games shown definitely looked very ‘anglophone’ centric (Fable, Starfield, Avowed, Pay Day 3, etc.) which I guess is to be expected when you look at their market share, and those that aren’t are more than likely multiformat. Already confirmed so in the case of the Atlus games.

Anyway, while the actual game quality was there for Xbox I’m not entirely convinced it’ll turn the dial on the Sony and Microsoft rivalry. The main reason being… now we all have our digital libraries built up over the previous generation who is going to switch? PlayStation and Xbox are now like iOS and Android, we’re all trapped in our walled gardens, not willing to put up with the hassle to convert.

Hell, even as a Switch gamer I look at the 100+ (great) games in my eShop library and think, ‘Meh, I’ll just play some of those again after Zelda and save £500.’ Microsoft probably has done enough to persuade holdout Xnox One owners to upgrade… but steal gamers away from other platforms? I don’t see it unless they really do make Call Of Duty exclusive.

Didn’t Phil Spencer say the last generation was the most important one for this very reason?
Marc

GC: He did. We do think they’re making good progress on getting away from the ShooterBox label, but you’re right that they’re still far too reliant on North American and UK developers.

Built-in obsolescence
I am a big Forza Motorsport fan but also will not be buying the new Forza title due to the requirement of having to be online, even though it’s unlikely that I will venture online for a race.

It isn’t a broadband issue either, though, as I have a 250MB download speed and have no issue streaming games. What really concerns me is the way Microsoft delist Forza titles, often putting out statements that a title has reached end of life status. This has already happened to Forza Motorsport 7, although fortunately I can still return and play it as it didn’t have any online requirements put in place.

But what happens to the Forza reboot a few years down the line when it comes to being delisted? Does that mean the servers are turned off and the game essentially ceases to exist? For someone who likes to revisit their games over time this simply isn’t acceptable.
Chaosphere616

GC: That’s a good point. And it is likely to happen again because the real cars and such are only licensed for a certain period of time.

Adding up
PSA here for anyone who already has Game Pass Ultimate and wants to top up! I’ve just done this myself earlier in the week after researching the conversion ratios.

CDKeys are selling three months of Xbox Live Gold for £6.99 and six months for £14.99.

With their strange conversion rates, it is better to grab the three month ones (90 days Xbox Live Gold = 50 days Game Pass Ultimate) than the six month ones (180 days Xbox Live Gold = 79 days Game Pass Ultimate).

So, for 350 days, and thus almost a year of Game Pass Ultimate, you need to purchase seven three month codes for £6.99 each. This totals 630 days of Xbox Live Gold, which converts to 350 days Game Pass Ultimate. The outlay would be £48.93 for just shy of a year, at just over £4 a month.

I actually topped up when the price was £7.49 for three months, so it is a slightly better deal now.

Alternatively, you could just perform the age-old trick of waiting for your Game Pass Ultimate expire and then do the conversion trick again. At these prices, three years would cost just shy of £95: 12 x £6.99 three month codes for three years of Xbox Live Gold and then the £10.99 one-off purchase to convert Xbox Live Gold to Game Pass Ultimate.
NatorDom

Middle ground
The extra focus on performance this gen is a big positive for me, but it does seem to have created a breed of console elitists who say it’s unacceptable for a game to run at 30fps this gen. I’m pretty sure it’s not the PC gamers complaining, as they’ve labelled consoles ‘potato’ for generations and wouldn’t expect anything else from them.

I sit in the middle where I think the notion of all games being 60fps on console is unrealistic for whatever reason that may be, just not possible on the hardware or tricky, drawn out and hard to optimise for. But I think every game plays much better at 60fps and would postpone a game to play at 60 fps. I judge these on a case-by-case basis. Couldn’t hold out for a 60fps Switch 2 Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, so picked up a Switch and the game at launch.

What I am over though is the notion a game shipping on current gen consoles at 30fps is a massive problem and how much talk there is of frame rates over more important aspects that make up a game. I do still very much welcome the performance modes and PC style options on current consoles but man it’s come with a lot of nonsense and drama.
Simundo

GC: Well, quite. We can only assume these people only started playing console games in the last three years because before that 60fps was extremely rare and yet someone gaming got by fine without.

Make like a tree
With most people either talking about games showcases, Diablo or Zelda you would think someone would be crazy to release a small little game around now, but that’s what the makers behind Planet Of Lana appear to have done. However it’s a great little game so I wanted to give it some attention.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, just imagine a puzzle platformer like Inside mixed with the emotion-provoking soundtrack from Ori.

Its puzzles, while largely good, are potentially not on the same level as Inside (it’s been a while since I played Inside) but where Inside did a cheap trick to create mystery in its storytelling, Planet Of Lana does actually have a decent story arc that takes you from the events in the beginning to a final resolution. Despite the fact I think there’s potentially only two words spoken in the entire game. Did I mention the soundtrack is also excellent? Along with the look of the game.

Anyway, it’s now on Game Pass and if you have a spare five hours and like this kind of game, I recommend checking it out.
Tim
PS: While playing the game I couldn’t help think how much time someone spent just drawing trees, and how crazy conversations they have about work must be. What you been up to at work? Just drawing trees, did a brown one last week, but mostly green. What you doing next week? Just drawing more trees. In a couple of weeks I’m gonna draw some rocks. Then it’s back to the trees again.

GC: We didn’t like it nearly as much as you, but it sure is pretty.

The Force is absent with you
I thought that Microsoft showcase was their best in years. So many interesting games announced, I was really surprised Xbox managed to secure the reveals for some pretty significant third party games like Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Tactica, Atlus’s Metaphor, and Capcom’s Path Of The Goddess.

Those were among my favourite announcements and it’s certainly encouraging to see Microsoft making an effort to get more Japanese games on their platforms. The company has got a lot of flak this year for the poor performance of Redfall but the detractors conveniently forget that they started off the year in spectacular style with Hi-Fi Rush, a genuinely great exclusive, and a Japanese one at that.

Starfield looks ridiculously ambitious and I can see myself wasting hundreds of hours on it, but a lot of those characters models, dialogue and facial animations were anachronistic to put it nicely lol. Should’ve let CD Projekt lend their expertise in that regard. I’m still concerned about how varied and engaging to explore the supposedly hundreds of planets will be though.

I dug the art and gameplay style of Dontnod’s climbing game Jusant (terrible name). Clockwork Revolution was a genuinely exciting looking Xbox exclusive too, its steampunk art deco looks rather exquisite and I got some strong Bioshock Infinite vibes from it, which is always a plus in my book.

Both Fable and Avowed looked good too and it pleases me to see such games from Microsoft’s studios finally come to fruition. Hellblade 2’s trailer was underwhelming though because it was one long cut scene, albeit at least it was representative of the in-game graphics, I guess.

The 2024 update for Microsoft Flight Simulator looks pretty substantial too with all the varied new modes that, to me, is seemingly turning the game into a modern Pilotwings-like. The Spiritfarer dev’s new game, 33 Immortals, looked pretty bonkers too and the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC should be a major step up on the base game, in terms of polish at least. And that Sea Of Thieves x Monkey Island crossover actually looks interesting enough to get me to finally play the game. Kudos Rare, but Everwild; where?!

Overall, a considerably better effort than Sony’s pretty apathetic equivalent, in my opinion, with a lot of compelling looking exclusives on the horizon and a focus on single-player games and not this live service rubbish that severely undermined Sony’s strange showcase. Quite comfortably my favourite showcase this year so far.
Galvanized Gamer

GC: You must really hate Star Wars.

Full price
I cannot, for the life of Bill Murray, stop thinking about the ripe possibilities that lie in Starfield. I’ve not been this anticipated for a title since quite a while. I’ve pre-ordered, same as pretty much everyone, who’s a gamer or loves Bethesda. But I’ve finally placed my order for £70. Which is absolutely mental.

I didn’t think anything, not even the Silent Hill 2 remake, would lead me to spending that much money. But that’s Bethesda for you, making games such as Skyrim and Morrowind. They’re a special group of people, dedicated to these kind of titles, and the mods will indeed be beautiful.

I actually don’t see myself, taking this plunge, until Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 release, so it’s definitely special. I’m actually proud to see this releasing on Xbox. They deserve a great exclusive.
Shahzaib Sadiq

GC: What are you gaining by pre-ordering? Some tiny bit of cosmetic DLC?

Newest Fantasy
The demo of Final Fantasy 16 does a good job selling the next in the franchise but it definitely feels like it’s getting further and further away from what I liked about Final Fantasy. Though Final Fantasy 15 a few years ago did the job well, despite all the new technologies involved.

Gamers evolve with their favourite franchises and the good thing about popular franchises like Final Fantasy is the retro era of these classics are easy to get for a variety of devices and consoles/PCs. Watching the demo of Final Fantasy 16 was like watching a good epic drama and the TV series Game of Thrones seemed to come to my mind, as it got to the epic battle at the end and the drama between the characters.

The combat was quick and again, like the recent Final Fantasies, colourful and exciting with impressive attack manoeuvres and huge explosive power moves. Graphically awesome as usual and I’m loving the epic music, including the fan favourite battle win jingle.

But as impressive and exciting as the next game in the franchise is it’s still the retro influenced Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth which I am excited about more. The fact that Final Fantasy 7 could still surprise me even now, and the characters could have their fates changed, makes it like a multiverse adventure set in the Final Fantasy 7 world.

These are indeed exciting moments for us long-time fans eagerly waiting to see what developments have been made to get the fans super hyped about one of the best gaming franchises of all time.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
RE: Zelda steam train. There you go. No practical use but I like it.
John Atkinson

GC: Wow, that really is amazing. We’re probably going to do another round-up of contraptions today, so we’ll add this to the list and give you a credit.

Digital Foundry have stated they expect Star Wars Outlaws to run at 30fps on console after analysing the footage. If they are proven correct, will gamers be more willing to accept ‘creative choice’ I wonder?
Anon

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MORE : Games Inbox: Star Wars Outlaws as the best showcase reveal, Fable gameplay, and sci-fi Far Cry

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The Friday letters page explains how to get the cheapest deal on Game Pass Ultimate, as one reader recommends Planet Of Lana.