The Monday letters page doesn’t think there’ll ever be a good video game movie, as one reader accuses Black Ops 6 of being play to win.
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The last hop
The Reader’s Feature at the weekend was right about the strange lack of new releases this month but that just seems to par for the course this year, with all the strange goings on. The only thing to really look forward to for the rest of the year seems to be The Games Awards in December.
But I can’t figure whether it’ll be another disappointment or something that might really have a lot of announcements. I’ve heard people talk about Resident Evil 9 and the new Tomb Raider but as far as I know this has never been confirmed, so it just sounds like wishful thinking to me.
Some people even talk about the Nintendo Switch 2, but I can’t see that happening. And yet there must be some kind of big reveal at the end, as there always is. I’m going to guess Resident Evil 9, just because Capcom did use it to unveil Monster Hunter Wilds. But that almost seems too obvious now.
Whatever happens I hope the final mic drop reveal is something genuinely interesting and not just whatever company paid the most for advertising space.
Gannet
GC: So far there’s been no official clues as to what any of the reveals will be.
Straight to streaming
I do find it kind of funny that the biggest cinematic success for video games is still Sonic The Hedgehog. People talk about the quality increasing but it seems like people are really thinking of The Last Of Us and Fallout, which are not movies. Borderlands is a movie, and that was terrible.
I have never seen a Sonic film, so I’m not going to comment on its quality. But I’m going to guess it hasn’t exactly been up for any Oscars.
I’m not sure a good quality video game movie is ever going to happen now. Because any good idea that does come up, and seems a perfect fit for live action, is going to be turned into a TV show because of both Fallout and The Last Of Us and the fact that game’s are really long in terms of story and don’t easily fit into two hours.
Already Tomb Raider looks like it’s going to be turned into a show, not a new film, and I imagine everything else will be the same. So only things with no story in the first place, like Sonic, end up as movies.
Constance
Evergreen sales
When it came out I don’t think anyone would have predicted that the Switch would still be selling as well as it currently is, even with the large boost the OLED Model must have given it.
However, the bigger achievement must be Mario Kart 8. Nintendo’s started doing TV ads for the Switch again (unlike Microsoft and Sony who haven’t figured out adverts help sell stuff) and what games do they pick to sell the console? Mario Kart and Animal Crossing.
The game is now 10 years old, but it’s still the reason someone is going to buy a Switch!
It also makes predictions about Switch 2 launch games interesting. Lots of people have been saying Mario Kart 9, but how often do you get the next game in a series when months before its predecessor is still getting TV ads?
Tim
GC: Funnily enough, we have a feature about this coming up very soon.
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Call to action
Can’t help but agree with the Reader’s Feature about Microsoft’s latest marketing campaign. It’s just embarrassing. I don’t think any normal person is going to understand what it means and even if they do, what are they supposed to do about it? Suddenly sign up to Game Pass and start playing on their smart TV? Like the feature says, the ads don’t even seem to mention Game Pass and you’d need a controller anyway.
To be honest I find it hard to care about Xbox anymore. They basically don’t exist to me, as a PlayStation 5 owner. If they have a decent game, it’ll come to my console anyway and beyond that what have they got to offer? Nothing.
I really don’t think Microsoft has anything to counter this point. All they’re interested in is new customers and growing the market, but I think you’ve got to accept that if you were interested in playing video games, beyond just FIFA and Call Of Duty, you would’ve done it already. Nothing Xbox is attempting to do at the moment is going to make any difference.
Coline
Missing the boat
I think the failure to do any kind of story game or mode with Overwatch will always be its biggest failing. I don’t think there’s any reversing its declining popularity now, it’s just too late, but I don’t get is why it never happened earlier. It’s not a technical problem, they’ve already got the gameplay, they just needed to sort out a story and some scenarios.
If the main team didn’t have time to do it, then that’s the sort of thing that could easily be farmed out to another developer. In fact, that sort of thing happens all the time with shooters, so I don’t understand why Blizzard didn’t do it. Maybe it could happen now, with all their Microsoft money, but somehow I still don’t get the impression they’re going to bother.
Ishi
Complex strategy
I see people are putting two and two together about news that Blizzard is making an open world shooter and assuming it’s Starcraft. I hope it’s something like what I thought Command & Conquer: Renegade was going to be, where you’d be playing it as a shooter but also able to build structures and vehicles like a regular real-time strategy game.
It seemed to me this was a common idea round about the time real-time strategies were beginning to fade out and people were looking for something new. Only game I know that did something similar was Battle Zone though, which was great but that is very old now.
I guess companies thought people would find it too complicated and the game itself would probably be too expensive to make. Shame, as I always thought it’d be cool and the obvious way to try and bring back Command & Conquer, if EA ever felt the urge.
Grackle
The buck stops here
I agree that the quality of the GTA Trilogy remasters is ultimately Rockstar’s fault. If this developer they’ve scrubbed from the intro wasn’t up to the job then Rockstar should’ve realised it and replaced them, not just released the game as it was anyway, since they knew it would sell anyway.
I found the remasters to overall be very disappointing. I would’ve much rather they do them one at a time and put in a lot more effort, maybe even make them full remakes, but they just seemed like a random, quickly botched together cash grab. The games are decades old, what was the sudden rush for?
Mikey
GC: It was GTA 3’s 20th anniversary the year they were released, but we know what you mean.
Spend to win
Nice review on Black Ops 6, and I agree it’s the best call of Duty campaign we’ve had since Infinite Warfare. I’m glad you said that, as I adore the Infinite Warfare campaign.
However, I have to say I feel very uneasy about this year’s Call Of Duty.
I have heard reports of them selling an audio enhancer which works very well with Warzone.
To me that’s flat out play to win. And on top of this they have brought back the (for me) dreaded gobblegums from Black Ops 3. I absolutely detested gobblegums as they destroyed public lobbies. I would try to play a game of Zombies only to find somebody popping a perkoholic and shopping free, thus opening the entire map on round 1. It killed the balance. I stayed away from public lobbies the whole year because of it.
Now they return with a vengeance. From season one you can directly buy gobblegums. And not just any. You can buy every single ultra gobbleum in the game, as well as legendary gums for 1,100 COD Points. Now I looked through the rewards that you get from prestiging. You get a gobblegum pack at some point every prestige. But only once do you get a single ultra gobblegum. Just once. But you can buy them all with cash. This is play to win. It matters not that Zombies is PvE as it would directly affect me when I play with others.
I was hoping Activision and gaming had gone past this, but apparently not.
Also, they have reduced how many COD Points you earn from the battle pass. It used to be 1,300, now it’s just 1,100. Just enough to buy the next. 200 may not seem like a lot, but over a game’s life cycle that’s about 1,000-1,200 COD Points. Yet they never stated they would change this.
These changes feel very nefarious in nature, and I’m just wondering if Microsoft has been encouraging this?
Either way. It’s not good for gamers.
Matt
GC: The audio stuff isn’t great but it’s not much difference from high-end gaming headphones that promise similar advantages. We’ve said for years that Zombies needs a complete rethink.
Inbox also-rans
I have codes for following games on PC that you can give to the readers. The codes can be redeemed on GOG: Dishonered Definitive Edition, Scorn, Coromon, and Duck Paradox.
Big Angry Dad82
GC: That’s very good of you. We’ll pass them on to whoever wants them, in exchange for a useable Inbox letter.
Just FYI but Lego are releasing a new Horizon set. It’s a relatively small one with a Shell-Walker, Sawtooth, Aloy, and Varl. It doesn’t seem to be on Lego’s website but I saw what look like official images online.
Doland
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