Games Inbox: Was Alan Wake 2 a flop, GTA 6 trailer predictions, and Wolverine supervillains

Alan Wake 2 – who knows how well it really did (Picture: Remedy)

The Wednesday letters page is glad that Elon Musk hasn’t bought a video games company yet, as a reader contemplates 100 years of Pokémon.

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Still asleep
I realise it wasn’t for everyone, and the original wasn’t a major hit itself, but I do worry that Alan Wake 2 has been another flop. Like you say, telling whether a game has done well or not is very hard nowadays, especially if it’s digital-only, but what worries me is that I never hear anyone talking about it, either here or elsewhere on the internet or, god forbid, real life.

It’s like the wider world doesn’t know it exists, which is very likely the case. What’s also concerning is that it’s already getting a major Black Friday discount to £27 on PC, which doesn’t sound very healthy either. I suspect if it had been given a physical release it’d be one of the most heavily discounted games of the month.

Poor old Remedy, they never seem to have any luck. I suppose that’s not true when it comes to Epic Games having their back, which is definitely a win, but in terms of anyone actually bothering to play their games I’m not sure they’re doing any better than before.
Focus

One step behind
Pokémon is planned to last for hundreds of years? I just envisage everything else being perfectly real, running on a holodeck or plugged into your head, and Game Freak has only just got up to PlayStation 5 quality.

But seriously the whole franchise needs to be put on ice for like five years (barring spin-offs and whatever) while they create some new tech and get the priorities straight. That will never happen, obviously, so I’m not sure where any change is going to come from.

Also, that guy pretending to answer the question about the tech problems is hilarious. It’s just a word salad that means nothing and has absolutely zero to do with the question he was asked. That’s execs for you, I guess.
Willden

The future of business
It is so weird to think of Elon Musk, richest man in the world, wasting his early life being bad at Quake. It’d probably be better for the world if had decided to become a pro gamer or started up his own company or something, but that would definitely be gaming taking one for the team.

It does make me wonder though, what the next generation of business execs are going to be like when they grow up. I bet video games didn’t even exist when Jim Ryan was growing up but if the next billionaire techbro gets into a position of power are they going to be buying up developers just for the LOLs or to troll whatever console they don’t happen to like?
Tasker

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Super villains
Can’t see Wolverine facing down Stilt Man or Paste-Pot Pete (Trapster as he became) – they are primarily Daredevil and Trapster is a Human Torch/Fantastic 4 protagonist, but it would be quite amusing I suppose.

Personally, I would quite like the idea of a game set in Madripoor during his Patch days. I actually quite like the idea of trying to keep your identity under wraps and only getting out those claws if you absolutely had to. A great cast of characters too. Almost like a detective story with added claws. Alternatively, Japan (as per the first Wolverine limited series), there’s a lot you can do there.

And as for ‘edgelord’… Well yes, it’s Wolverine, you know, ‘I’m the best at what I do ‘ and all that.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Have fun gaming y’all!
The Dude Abides

Fried bacon
Sadly, the Hogs Of War Kickstarter failed to get funded as they only raised £47,478 but their goal was £150,000. With Kickstarter, for those who don’t know, it is all or nothing, so the developer will receive no funds from the raised amount.

I have backed 25 Kickstarters and one Fig crowdedfunded one too. As I said before, I have only had two fail to get funded out of 26. The developer of Hogs Of War are very upbeat and still plan to go ahead with the game and they have said the Kickstarter has raised the profile for the game with all the interest.
Andrew J.
PS: I have just had the new Splatoon Triple Pack amiibo characters delivered from Nintendo Store and the manta ray in it looks amazing and is very big; the two characters that come with it are OK. No wonder it cost £38.99, as it looks really high quality.

I’m sure it’s just a glitch
He might never have ever said it but I feel confident in saying that Shigeru Miyamoto would definitely agree with the idea that, ‘A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.’ It was interesting to see how the quote just seemed to spawn itself but what really struck me was GC’s comment that CD Projekt has proven that the quote is no longer accurate.

On the one hand you could say that it means that every game can be saved, as long as the foundations are good, but on the other it also means that there is absolutely no incentive to get things right the first time. Who cares? It’ll still sell the same and you can start making money from it straight away. To quote Dick Jones: ‘Who cares whether it works or not?’

This is a sad state of affairs and as good as 2023 has been for games it’s unfortunately true that the number of broken games at launch is only increasing. I fear that CD Projekt getting away with Cyberpunk 2077 and now showing no obvious remorse has set a bad precedent that more and more companies will follow.
Wolf Cloud

No excuse
Nice review of the Atari 2600+. I won’t be getting one as I have an original. I’m sure anyone interested in buying one would already have an original Atari and if not they could pick one up for a similar price as the new one.

Berzerk is not an Atari game, it was made by Stern Electronics so Atari would have had to pay a licence for it. That doesn’t mean they can get away with charging £25 for it, especially when you can pick up a loose cartridge from eBay for around £7! Merry Christmas to you and your many readers!
Tim Keeling

GC: As far as we understand the Atari 2600 version was published and developed by Atari themselves. As you say though, £25 is pushing it no matter what.

More: Trending

Before the storm
Maybe it’s the troll in me, but I can’t help but wonder what fans will do if the GTA 6 trailer is just the logo and a shot of Miami. I mean, it could be, right? That’s what teasers often are for movies and games.

I doubt it though. It probably won’t be all that long, but I imagine it’ll blow the doors off in terms of graphics and we’ll be talking about it for months. Maybe people don’t remember what it was like in the run-up to GTA 5’s release but it was nuts and people were going crazy for every little detail.

And the best thing? It pretty much lived up to the hype. Say what you like about the game itself but in terms of the graphics and game world, which is what you’re really judging in the trailers, it was better than people expected.

Does that mean GTA 6 will be? No, but given Red Dead Redemption 2 and how long they’ve been working on this I don’t expect anything other than excellence.

We’re moving towards a post-GTA 6 era now, people, and things are never going to be the same again…
Thingmy

Inbox also-rans
So if Fortnite goes back into decline as soon as they switch away from all the retro stuff are they just going to keep repeating that first Chapter again and again forever? I’ll be like Star Wars.
Crellin

Just thought I’d share this Toys ‘R’ Us advertisement from 16 years ago! £75 for a new N64 release and £55 for a new PS1 game. I’ve never complaining about a price of a game again.
Adam_Lion_23 (PSN ID)
Currently playing: Hogwarts Legacy and Super Mario Galaxy

GC: Those are American game boxes, there are even Genesis games at the bottom – instead of Mega Drive. We’re not sure if it’s Canadian or US dollars but it’s definitely not £75.

Things were never quite that bad (Picture: Adam_Lion_23)

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader JesseM, who asks what is your favourite 16-bit video game?

So as to not get bogged down in technical details, we’ll accept any game from a fourth generation home console, so that includes the Mega Drive, SNES, PC Engine, Neo Geo, and peripherals like the Mega-CD. We’ll also accept any PC games or coin-ops released between 1987 and 1993, plus the Amiga and Atari ST home computers.

What is it you like about the era and how do you think its best games stand up to modern titles? Does your favourite have a modern day equivalent and if not what would you imagine it’d be like?

E-mail your comments to: [email protected]

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE : Games Inbox: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time turns 25, Spider-Man 2 vs. Miles Morales, and Ico 4 hopes

MORE : Games Inbox: Buying a Nintendo Switch for Black Friday 2023, Mario Kart 9 DIY, and Bluey Xboxes

MORE : Weekend Hot Topic: Three years of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

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The Wednesday letters page is glad that Elon Musk hasn’t bought a video games company yet, as a reader contemplates 100 years of Pokémon.