Mario Kart 64 – the second best kart game? (Picture: Nintendo)

The Friday letters page advises against playing Alan Wake 2 on hard mode, as one reader asks for a Sonic the Hedgehog strategy game.

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Second best
Nice review for the last of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, GC. Seems crazy that the game has been around for nine years now. It’s kind of like GTA 6 in that it’s been the number one game on the consoles it’s on for two generations in a row.

I’ll be checking out the new courses at the weekend, having bought the Booster Pass long ago, and agree that it is excellent value for money. I also agree that Mario Kart 8 is the best game in the series but what I’m not certain about is which is the second best?

I am tempted to say Mario Kart 64 but is that just nostalgia speaking? I’ve seen some say Double Dash!! but aren’t they just being contrary? I thought nobody liked that one? I guess the slightly boring answer is probably Mario Kart Wii or 7, since they’re the next most recent, but I also have a soft spot for Mario Kart DS.

It’s really difficult to say, so I’ll just go with 8 as the best and 64 as my runner-up. That’s what my heart says.
Garry
PS: What happens in a couple of hundred years when Mario Kart 63 needs a sequel? Will we see Mario Kart 64-2?

The gathering storm
I love how the comments for the GTA 6 announcement were complaining that it was a non-story and who cares, and then we find out that 145 million people saw the tweet and 1.4 million liked it.

This game is going to be bigger than anything, and that’s literally true. GTA 5 was already the biggest entertainment launch of all time, the sequel is going to be bigger than the moon landings and the World Cup put together.

People joke about breaking the internet but this is going to cause literally chaos for weeks. I can’t wait.
Pillbug

Draining news
So the Sony clown show is still intent on driving off the cliff that is live service games, eh? I’m not sure what cutting their plans in half means for them. Now they’ve got 50% less chance of anything being a hit and given how few of these games are the mega hit they want the actual chance of any of these six being successful seems miniscule.

Even as a fan the idea of cartoon multiplayer version of Horizon or a multiplayer The Last Of Us does not sound appealing at all. I assume they’ll probably be free, so I guess I’ll try them, but what upsets me is all the time and money being wasted on games Sony knows fans don’t want, and the poor developers being forced to make games they aren’t any more interested in than we are.

If Sony want to initiate a brain drain then they’re going the right way about it, and I’m sure Microsoft will be happy to take advantage.
Focus

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Space age adventure
The worrying thing for me about Mass Effect not being out till 2029 or later is not so much how long it’s going to take but the fact that I literally might be dead by the time they finish a second trilogy. If Mass Effect 4 is going to take six or more years then the second one wouldn’t be till 2035 and the third till 2041. That’s insane.

The amount of time it takes to make video games is completely out of control, even for younger folks. If you played Mass Effect 1 when you were 18 you’d be 52 by the time Mass Effect 6 came out, and that’s using the more optimistic guess of a 2029 launch for Mass Effect 4!

Mass Effect used to be a famous franchise, I thought, but it’s going to have been in hibernation for 12 years, if you take the time between Andromeda and 2029. Empires have risen and fallen in the time it’s taken to make these games.

I’m genuinely surprised EA hasn’t tried to get some sort of spin-off out there to keep the name alive in the meantime. Considering how good the combat is in these games it seems to me it would be an obvious thing to do.
Grant

Spending spree
I wonder if Microsoft will ever get buyer’s remorse over the companies it’s bought? Starfield clearly isn’t going to win many game of the year awards and it hasn’t had any affect on console sales, Call Of Duty is going to be the worst entry ever, and even Forza Motorsport doesn’t seem to have made much of a splash.

I’m not even sure what their next big game is? If it’s Fable then I struggle to see it doing much better. It’s not a particular popular franchise to begin with and the developer of Forza Horizon making it doesn’t fill me with confidence, especially given how awful all the speaking parts are in that game.

They must’ve spent $80 billion or more on developers over the last few years and their position hasn’t improved in any measurable way. That doesn’t seem great value for money.
Krabs

Half and half
Completed Alan Wake 2, loved and loathed it in equal measure.

The survival horror combat and Mind Place were my biggest dislikes.

Being survival horror the combat wants you to feel at a disadvantage but it steps over to being annoying. Reloading and healing is very slow and the dodge action I’d liken to stubbing your toe on a slightly raised paving slab and awkwardly stumbling.

I played on hard, which made the whole experience with combat pretty infuriating, because it meant the enemies were tanks and you could lose health and ammo very quickly.

The Mind Place as a device to keep tabs on things was not bad. I didn’t like how often you were going in and out of it though, especially at the end.

Alan’s abilities and sections I liked a lot, as I do like the Remedyverse in general. I feel the pay off when you do get answers to some of the mystery isn’t as good as the build-up but in general I find it pretty enjoyable. There were plenty of sections in Alan Wake 2 I really enjoyed.

Definitely a game worth checking out if you like narrative heavy games, as although I wasn’t bowled over I can understand why many would really take to it. I wouldn’t recommend playing on hard though.
Simundo

GC: No, neither would we. If anything, we’d advise playing it on easy, not because it’s especially hard but because the combat is so aggravating.

Forced sequel
I’ve just been basically forced to download Modern Warfare 3, despite not owning it.

All those updates and when I go to play Modern Warfare 2 I still have to re-install the multiplayer! I had no aspect of Modern Warfare 2 left on my PlayStation 5 after all those updates! I had to manually re-install!?

I hope this doesn’t show up on their figures as a Modern Warfare 3 download, as I’m not buying the game until it’s at least half price.
TommyFatFingers

More: Trending

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour
I hate to sound like a downer, although I’m pretty much right about this. I think everyone is raising their expectations for the reveal trailer of Grand Theft Auto 6. Much too highly. They’re expecting an in-depth look at the dual protagonists. A massive expose of the setting and the activities, a release date and pre-orders to begin immediately. Followed by thousands of content creators and reactors losing their minds and fans breaking the Internet.

That is a fairytale. I know how this will go. It will follow the same route of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto 5. A one minute trailer, showing a tiny portion of the city and the landscape, followed by a title card and that’s it. With Rockstar, they follow the mantra of show less, but enough to drum the hype train up. We’re also not seeing a release date. There’s no chance, in hell of that happening. For a game as massive as this, and as anticipated as this, it’s not coming until 2025 or 2026. Because Rockstar work slow and take their time.

Another thing is that I don’t see the game trailer being revealed during The Game Awards. Rockstar is far too enormous for any game award show. It will be expected, but that’s the mantra of any show hosted by Geoff Keighley. Disappointment is a sacred tradition, at this point. Summer Games Fest was that exact type of disappointment and I don’t see a colossal company, feeling the need to reveal the most anticipated title, using Geoff’s baby as a platform.

They’re content to use their own resources to elevate their titles. I’m not attempting to downplay the hype of this instalment. I’ve never been this absolutely hyped for a title in my life. My pre-order is already set in stone but I’m worried that fans are setting their hopes too high. The trailer will be a short tease. Not a 20 minute gameplay trailer packaged with a release date. Count on it.
Shahzaib Sadiq

GC: The Red Dead Redemption teaser trailer, below, included both a rough release date and the chance to pre-order. Given recent trends in marketing it would be very surprising if a trailer was released for a game as far off as 2026; late 2024 is far more likely. Although it was subsequently delayed, the teaser below promised a launch roughly 12 months later.

Inbox also-rans
I don’t like to be judgemental but if you’re an adult cheating to win at Pokémon, I think you need to have a word with yourself.
Sublie

Seeing as Sega owns all these PC strategy developers, why have we never had a Sonic strategy game? There must be something they could do with that idea!
Hubert

This week’s Hot Topic
With this year’s Call Of Duty due out his week, the subject for this weekend’s Inbox asks which is your favourite entry in the franchise and do you consider yourself a fan?

Call Of Duty has been one of the most popular video game series in the world for over two decades now but what do you think of it and do you feel it deserves its success?

How many of the games have you played and what do you think are the best and worst ones? How would you like to see the franchise evolve in the future and do you think it will ever see a major decline in popularity?

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The small print
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MORE : Games Inbox: What will be in the GTA 6 trailer, Shepard in Mass Effect 4, and Modern Warfare 3 fans

MORE : Games Inbox: How AI could change video games, The Finals verdict, and The Last Of Us multiplayer

MORE : Games Inbox: Modern Warfare 3 unfair criticism, Alan Wake 2 pros and cons, and RoboCop swearing

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The Friday letters page advises against playing Alan Wake 2 on hard mode, as one reader asks for a Sonic the Hedgehog strategy game.