Are people being unfair? (pic: Microsoft)
The Tuesday letters page explores the involuntary memories of Resident Evil 2, as one reader enjoys The Last Of Us with his wife.
As a proud Xbox owner I can’t help but defend Microsoft against the recent Reader’s Feature and its ‘legacy of failure’, even as I acknowledge that many of the complaints have some basis in fact. If I was to guess I would say that Microsoft is probably fighting many different internal battles over what to do, and that often lead to them taking the wrong direction, most obviously with Kinect and Xbox One.However, I do believe that there are a core of game fans at the company that they are always trying to do their best and, as far as I can tell, this includes Phil Spencer. Yes, he’s a businessmen, which probably means his cupboard is full of skeletons but I think he loves games and wants to do the right thing. How capable a producer he and his underlings are I don’t know but then I don’t think Sony’s Jim Ryan knows much about making games either.
Xbox has made mistakes and it’s always kind of gross to see a giant corporation spending dozens of billions of dollars like it’s nothing, but I do feel that many gamers, and the media, are against Microsoft at the moment purely because they’re a big company. They’re attacking them simply because they’re rich and not because the move is bad or that Microsoft is doing anything morally wrong.
As I think everyone acknowledges, Sony would do exactly the same given the opportunity, so I’m not sure why Microsoft should be singled out when this is really more of an industry level problem, that will always be present.
Daz
Now or later
I downloaded the Resident Evil 4 demo over the weekend and I’m sort of stuck with a dilemma. Whilst it was perfectly fine it also felt slightly underwhelming. It might probably be because I’m still playing Resident Evil Village in VR and finding it genuinely excellent, so playing Resi back in pancake mode feels less bombastic. I’m undecided on whether to wait for the VR version of 4 or just play it in normal third person mode later this month.
I love the original and bought it on release for the GameCube (still the best version) so I know all the plot beats and set pieces but I think it’d be great to go into the new one playing it in VR. Problem being it’ll be at least a year until they release the free patch. Drat and double drat to that.
Whilst I know you won’t include them due to your rules about re-releases being up for the Game of the Year award, will the readers get chance to vote for Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village VR modes for this year? Both are equally transformative but Village is, for me, a legitimate contender already. Never fully played the flat version other than the demo but using the Sense controllers makes it feel like a completely new experience.
Wonk
GC: Sure, we’ll allow that. But we don’t know how many other people are going to vote for them, which might end up wasting your votes.
Manageable difficulty
I have played the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo and it is hard, but I have seen a video playthrough and it is quite manageable. There is ammo lying around in crates and drawers, but it isn’t plentiful. The guy who in the video didn’t even find the shotgun, yet they got through okay. He used parry and kicked the enemies a lot when they were stunned. Clearly he is better at it than me.
You can use stealth kills if you can get close enough undetected. I used it on the first lady in the village. You don’t have to kill all the enemies, you just have to survive long enough until they head off to the church and the demo ends.
It is a great demo. It looks fantastic and is very promising. Sad to see though that the dog that you could save, in the original, appears to be dead in the demo. So he won’t be any help later on. Maybe you can still save him in the full game. I can’t wait for 24th March.
Anon
After playing the Resident Evil 4 Remake Chainsaw Demo I am looking forward to this game. Although I’m pretty sure this hasn’t been covered, in the original Resident Evil 4 you could collect treasure and I am wondering if anyone has actually found treasure in this demo and if they are in different locations than the original game? Also, there is money in the Chainsaw Demo that can be collected if you shoot the crows.
Hopefully, as more people play the demo, they will find treasure locations so that when the full game comes out they will know where to get treasure and which locations some of it is hidden at, if any.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)
Proustian memory
Don’t think i’ve seen this mentioned before, but does anyone else get flashbacks of a game when they smell a specific scent?
There are two for me. The first was Metal Gear Solid on PS1. We had a new bunk bed set up just as the game came out, and that new wood smell always reminded me of the game as it was the only thing me and my younger brother played for ages.
The next one, but far more prominent, is the deodorant Brut. For some reason all we used as deodorant was Brut at the same time Resident Evil 2 was released. Every time I smell Brut it transports me instantly back to those police corridors. It was like for us, how the game world would smell, as strange as that sounds.
In fact, when I got the Resi 2 remake I made sure I had the Brut to accompany me down those corridors.
JDB
The smell of Evil (pic: JDB)
Internet daddy
Nice write-up on The Last Of Us on Monday. I haven’t managed to watch the finale yet, but I am incredibly excited to see what my wife makes of it tonight.
When I first completed the game back in 2013, I was so taken aback by the ending, I almost explained the entire story to my wife just so we could discuss the rights and wrongs of it. Obviously I value my marriage and try not to come across as the most boring man she ever had the misfortune to marry, so I refrained, and instead mulled over the events of the finale in mind.
So there are two positives of The Last Of us being the incredible adaption that it is. Firstly, I have been able to share the story and experience with my wife, which has genuinely been a joy for me. To sit there together, kids in bed with a glass of wine in hand, and for her to love it as much as I loved it, has been such a pleasure for me. I don’t know what she’s going to make of the finale but finally, a whole decade after I almost decided to bore the poor woman to death explaining the entire thing, we will get to chat about how far a person will go to protect people they love. (I realise this doesn’t necessarily make me sound any less boring.)
Secondly, there was some concern in the Underbox before the series aired that we would be watching a ‘remake of a remake of a remaster’ but the show has proved itself a worthwhile watch even for big fans of the game. Character relationships are built upon or changed in subtle but interesting ways. The TV show had to walk a tightrope here, because change too much and you upset the fanbase, but generally I think the changes were really successful.
It may also be that I played the game a long time ago and the memory plays tricks, but I also found the development of the bond between Ellie and Joel much more organic and fair, whereas originally I felt Joel’s de facto adoption of Ellie was more one-sided. As your article pointed out, Ellie is more feisty and holds her own better in conversation with Joel, and the added focus on her protecting and nursing Joel back to health was another stronger example of their growing inter-dependence than I remember in the game.
Like the positives I have two negatives. The first is the same as your article: goodness me that Now TV is cumbersome to say the least. It’s seemingly the most expensive of the streaming apps but also functionally the worst! The second negative is… my wife has seemingly fallen in love with Pedro Pascal and her Instagram feed is now exclusively Pedro memes, but what can you do. I can’t say I blame her.
Henshin Agogo
All the eights
In response to Chaosphere616’s letter yesterday. I have played the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo a couple of times now and absolutely love it. Got no issues with the difficulty. The only problem I had was trying to kill the chainsaw guy. Is it even possible to in the demo?
I found the shotgun but wasn’t able to keep him down. I ended up running away from him until it was time for everyone to go to bingo!
Tony- -1975 (PSN ID)
Crossed fingers
Just read your article regarding Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, where the purchase of Zenimax was discussed. Seems clear that the person who wrote the article needs to do some research.
When buying Zenimax Microsoft never promised new games would be non-exclusive. Games such as Redfall and Starfield were never mentioned to any regulator and were never promised for other platforms. Microsoft merely stated they would not withdraw content that was already released.
The article states that no new Zenimax games have been released on PlayStation since Microsoft purchased them! Making a statement such as this, but then not also referencing that no games from Insomniac Studios have been released on Xbox since Sony purchased them is the very essence of Sony fanboyism.
The comparison between that and what they’ve offered with regards Call Of Duty cannot be made, especially considering that Nintendo and NVidia have both signed 10 year contracts with Microsoft and Valve said they didn’t need one!
I think you should also have added in the piece that Jim Ryan apparently told some high up executive at Activision Blizzard that he ‘didn’t want a new contract, he just wanted to block the merger’.
Anon
GC: It’s not our article, it’s a reader’s. However, the story about Bethesda exclusivity, including The Elder Scrolls 6, did change after the merger, as we had cause to mention on Monday.
Inbox also-rans
Sony signs the deal to keep Call Of Duty on PlayStation for the next 10 years. Microsoft changes Call Of Duty name to Above And Beyond, declaring Sony got punk’d.
Bad Edit
I still can’t believe the surname of the guy in charge of Nintendo of America is Bowser. What are the chances? And kudos to him for not answering questions in such a way as to leave it completely open as to whether there’ll be a Switch 2 soon or not.
Dankle
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Korey, who asks what’s the longest you’ve gone without playing video games on a regular basis?
Perhaps you’re a lapsed gamer and lost in interest for a period of time, but if that’s the case what pushed you away and what drew you back in? Or maybe it was just a monetary issue or something related to work that stopped you from playing?
Do you consider gaming to be a major part of your life or is it just something you pay attention to when a particular game grabs you? If you became interested in games later in life what was it that finally caught your eye?
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 : Weekend Hot Topic: Famous franchises you’ve never played
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The Tuesday letters page explores the involuntary memories of Resident Evil 2, as one reader enjoys The Last Of Us with his wife.
