The Tuesday letters page is worried about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, as readers recommend the best places to buy physical video games in the UK.
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25% done
So we’re closing in on 2025 being a quarter done and I just wondered what games other people were looking forward to for the rest of the year? (Not counting GTA 6, which hasn’t got a date and probably everyone is looking forwards to, to some degree.) I know that list is probably going to change a lot once the Nintendo Switch 2 is properly announced but I can’t afford a new console this year, so that’s not really an option for me.
Instead, I’m looking forward to Atomfall, depending on the reviews, and the same for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Doom: The Dark Ages. I’m not convinced by Elden Ring Nightreign yet, so I don’t know about that, but I think I will try Forza Horizon 5 when it come out on PlayStation 5, as I’ve never played any of the series.
If you assume that a lot of games for the second half of the year haven’t even been announced/confirmed yet I think it’s looking like a pretty good line-up. Especially if you assume the Switch 2 and GTA 6 are coming too. I’m not saying that will make this a ‘good’ year, but it’s something at least.
Woody
Dream ticket
I would be very surprised if Metroid Prime 4 was promoted as the main game at the Nintendo Direct in April but if the launch line-up is Mario Kart 9 and it then I would be very happy with that: a crowd pleaser and something for hardcore fans seems the dream ticket to me.
My only other request would be that we also see at least one big budget new IP. I don’t mind if it doesn’t come out at launch – there wasn’t one for the Switch 1 – but I would like to see some commitment to things beyond the core franchises.
I’d say that the lack of new franchises was the one flaw of the Switch 1 era, so if the Switch 2 can do better then that will be an improvement. I get that with the original Switch they weren’t sure if it was going to work but now we know that the Switch 2 is an almost guaranteed hit, so I’d like to see them run with that.
Lobo
Full Spectrum Stars
I don’t know whether going open world is the answer for Resident Evil 9, but it does seem like an obvious thing to try and I would certainly be interested to see if they can get it to work. Constant reinvention is the secret for any long-running franchise and Resi has done it plenty of times before.
One idea I thought of though, is trying to make the game a squad-based shooter, maybe like the old Full Spectrum Warrior game, if anyone remembers that. It could be more action-based; that doesn’t so much as the idea of controlling multiple characters at once. There are so many in Resident Evil now you could have whole squads made up of fan favourites.
I’m sure they wouldn’t do that for the main game, but I’d be interested in a spin-off like that. Although they might be put off by Operation Raccoon City being such a flop and I guess that’s a similar idea, except for some reason they used no-name bad guys instead of characters people like.
Heathcliffe
GC: There was actually an online mode where you could play as some of the heroes, but it was still a terrible game.
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The opposite of us
I’m curious as to whether anyone is actually looking forward to Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet? A new IP from Naughty Dog should be such an exciting moment but from the name on down everything about it looks and sounds so bad.
And now we find out that they’re trying to mimic Elden Ring in terms of gameplay and storytelling? That seems very unlikely to me. Naughty Dog has been making the same basic game, in terms of how it plays, since the first Uncharted almost 20 years ago now.
I guess they could try and hire a bunch of Soulslike experts, but I don’t know who that would even be in terms of Western developers. Maybe I’m wrong but I worry that success has gone to Naughty Dog’s head and now they just assume they can do anything.
What FromSoftware does is the absolute opposite of Naughty Dog and if they can pull off a Western Elden Ring I will be amazingly impressed. But if they mess it up, I won’t be surprised at all.
Johnson
Retail park shopping
I’d recommend Smyths for buying games in person. I don’t know if you’d class it as a high street shop, as they’re usually in retail parks, but so are most high street chains now.
Smyths has a wide selection of games, accessories, and assorted gaming merchandise. They often have physical copies of indie games (I’ve bought A Little To The Left from friends’ birthday presents three times from there now) and can be relied on for new releases. They’re like GAME but you can buy Lego and Transformers too. Which, come to think about it, is like GAME now too.
Except Smyths is cheaper than GAME and doesn’t feel on the brink of collapse every five weeks. I’ll be preordering the Switch 2 from Smyths, once I can.
Also, a shout out to Currys, who normally do a discount code for new Nintendo releases.
Euclidian Boxes
Shopping preferences
Regarding Maddle and where to buy new games from on the high street, I now go to Smyths Toys.
As a child’s toy shop mainly, it has a wider range of Switch games than either PlayStation or Xbox consolea.
I have also found (to my impatience/annoyance) that Switch games will be reduced in price by about £5 to £10 cheaper if you wait a month or so after release.
HMV long stopped selling games during the PlayStation 4/Xbox One era.
I also prefer CeX over GAME, because my local GAME store is run by an idiot. And GAME ended their rewards scheme last year, meaning there’s no benefit to shopping with them. Also, GAME no longer accept trade-ins or sell second-hand games.
I don’t like GAME.
LeighDappa
Standard response
When I read the story about the developers of Assassin’s Creed Shadows being protected I honestly thought it was going to involve guards at the studio. It doesn’t seem to, but I wouldn’t think it weird if it did.
Fans are out of control nowadays and if I was a developer working on anything that people had complained about I would not identify myself on social media or anything like that. Not that I don’t think Ubisoft hasn’t handled the game badly up to this point but nobody deserves the kind of harassment that is now treated as standard.
Holck
Late to the party
I’m finally about to dive into GTA 5 out of pure curiosity. It’s been on my PlayStation 4 drive for years. I’m afraid that after starting it, it will suck me in. I’ve never liked the sandbox mentality to modern games. I think a succinct beginning and ending is undervalued with these type of games. I’ve never played any Ubisoft nonsense for the reason that I’ve heard many people being put off by the weight of the game being a map cleaner.
I want a story. The only comparison to being told a story in metaphoric, corporate terms is a parent holding up an encyclopaedia and thruffing the volume of unopened pages between finger and thumb and saying to me ‘You’ll love it’.
But here I am about to embark. I heard good things about Sleeping Dogs, which is installed, and there are plenty of other things to look forward to, like the Uncharted series, Batman: Arkham trilogy, Ghost Of Tsushima, Detroit: Become Human, Amnesia and loads, loads more.
Basically, what I’m saying is that games need to be more focussed on the player and not the capture and stats of that. I get that they are big businesses, but they have lost a lot of the soul of our hobby.
Actually, hold that thought. It’s going to have to be Shenmue 1 & 2 remastered and 3 first. An illusion of open world but focus and telling a story. Where did those days go?
I’ve got all the time in the world to play anything at length now I’m retired but the question now is ‘What’s in it for me and the time I invest?’ I used to be excited about gaming and the developers refining their craft but now it feels akin to anticipating painting the garden fence.
D Dubya
GC: Succinct is not a word we’d use to describe Shenmue; especially as it has lots of sandbox elements.
Inbox also-rans
I’ve never even heard of that Star Wars live service game that they’ve apparently shut down after less than a year. And how much time and money did they waste on that little gem?
Lemmy
If Sony is hinting at doing a new PlayStation portable do you think we’ll get a new Ridge Racer as well? I miss those games always being PlayStation launch titles.
Gorgo
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