Games Inbox: Is Helldivers 2 proof of Sony’s incompetence?

Helldivers 2 – it was good while it lasted (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

The Monday letters page discusses the pros and cons of modern open world game design, as one reader enjoys Postmodern Jukebox.

To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

Failure to communicate

Sony has ruined something because of their lack of communication? I am so shocked! This whole thing with Helldivers 2 is just madness and underlines two things: gamers are nothing if not vindictive and impatient, and publishers are nothing if not distant and uncommunicative. And incompetent, let’s face it.

There’s a good chance now that a lot of those fans are not going to come back to Helldivers 2 and all that momentum is flushed down the toilet because Sony couldn’t be bothered to communicate things properly. Just like they can’t be bothered to explain what’s going on in terms of their first party games in general.

How you go from the total, and fully justified, dominance of the PlayStation 4 to the absolute shambles that has been this generation I do not know. And there’s no end in sight either. I wouldn’t bet on this summer’s showcase saying anything surprising, as Sony show just how bad they’ve got at being a games publisher.

Grackle

Evil aliens

Very interested to see what Resident Evil 9 will turn out to be. Capcom has been on a blazing streak lately and I would be very happy to see that continue. Especially as I’m not much of a Monster Hunter fan and was a bit worried that might be their only big game for a while.

I’m not really sure what I want from the new game though. Open world is fine, but I don’t know about going back to third person or not. I generally prefer it but then that means their remakes don’t look as special. But really, how many of those are there going to be now? They’ve missed the chance to do Code: Veronica and apart from another one for Resident Evil 1 I don’t think any of the other games make sense.

One idea I have for Resident Evil 9 though is if they try and do something with Lovecraftian style horror. Resident Evil is sci-fi horror, with no supernatural stuff, but I think a lot of people don’t realise that Cthulhu and that side of the mythos are actually just aliens. Considering how Alone In The Dark fumbled the ball it’d be interesting if the new Resi had Albert Wesker trying to get into contact with the Old Ones or equivalents.

Royston

Forgotten Tombs

I haven’t even played Stellar Blade and I still agree with the Reader’s Feature about Lara Croft. The Tomb Raider games were well ahead of their time in every way, and I really hate that they turned into something as bland and forgettable as the reboot trilogy (I’m literally struggling to remember what the second one was even about).

I really hope the new game is more old school, in terms of both the gameplay and Lara’s attitude. Like people have said, it’s fine to be sexy if it’s not just eye candy for men, and I don’t feel Lara was ever that. Here’s hoping the new game gets things right.

Louis

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Ocarina Of Tap

Only tenuously connected to video games but I had a fun evening Friday night when I went to see Postmodern Jukebox perform live. For those that don’t know their schtick is that they cover modern pop songs in a predominantly 30s/40s jazz or swing style. Check them out on YouTube if you don’t mind falling down a rabbit hole of quality content.

To my delight, and featuring the same insanely talented tap dancer, they performed their medleys of music from Super Mario and The Legend Of Zelda.

Hopefully these videos have made it back to someone at Nintendo HQ. I get the feeling the musically-minded Shigeru Miyamoto in particular would get a kick out of them.

Meestah Bull

GC: Those are amazing! It reminds us of The 8-Bit Big Band, which we’re big fans of.

Sora alert

In reply to Nick the Greek’s letter: the Sora amiibo was actually in stock again in the past month or two on the Nintendo Store, after it sold out in February 2024. I check the amiibo page each day on Nintendo Store to see if they have any amiibo in stock that I particularly would like, so I will check to see if Sora is in stock at the same time and I will email Game Central in the Inbox when it is in stock and hopefully it will still be in stock when the next Inbox gets printed.

I will also post in the Underbox if Sora is in stock but the problems with posting comments that they can be removed or rejected after a few hours. I recommend pre-ordering the amiibo before they come out, if you can as you don’t have to pay £1.99 postage on top. If you don’t pre-order and spend less than £20 then you have to pay £1.99 on top.

Andrew J.

Currently playing: Strange Brigade (Xbox Series X) and Vertigo (PS5)

Time flies when you’re shooting zombies

I couldn’t believe when I saw GameCentral’s article, not too long ago, about Resident Evil Village celebrating its third anniversary! How has time gone so quickly, I remember all the streamers and myself playing this pretty solid game, from this very successful franchise, seemingly very recently! Felt like maybe a year and a half or two at the most, but I guess yes, three years indeed.

We have been so spoiled with a brand new game in 2021 and an awesome recent remake of the original Resident Evil 4! That’s why there’s no need to rush any more out for a while and to take time to craft another title worthy of the Resident Evil franchise.

So, we were given hints at the end of Village about a possible new protagonist with some very powerful abilities. So there may be some hype starting now but there’s definitely no rush in wanting the game immediately. It should be well made and different in its design, so it’s not too similar, and action-orientated, for it to end up a catastrophe like Resident Evil 6!

I do wish the series would go slightly old school in some ways, and slow it down, maintaining the horror element of the game and inventing new, surprising ideas and mechanics. But it’s so difficult to be unique in this that, like films, I wouldn’t hold up too much hopes. But still, the Resi 9 rumours are starting now and are exciting no matter what!

Alucard

Advocating piracy

Agree with the Reader’s Feature about Star Wars. When I heard the rumours about Ubisoft making a game about the seedy side of the galaxy I thought it sounded perfect, but what we’ve seen in the trailers is not what I imagined at all.

Nothing about the story or characters seems interesting so far and yet that’s all they’ve really shown us. If this is some massive space trading epic with bounties and smuggling and piracy then great, but I bet it’s not. It’s just another open world third person shooter that didn’t even need to be Star Wars.

We’ll see how it works out, but I fear the reader is right and doing the game fans have been imagining for so long will take too much money. Which is doubly annoying given Starfield flubbed its chance to do the same thing but without the licence.

Focus

Open world preferences

There were a couple of related points raised recently that I’d belatedly like to respond to.

First there was the Reader’s Feature about Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which seemed to go down pretty badly with Underboxers. I’ve not even started Zelda: Breath Of The Wild yet (backlog issues), but it and its sequel now live in that Schrödinger’s cat zone of still being potentially the best games ever, but based on the open world issues occasionally raised, one I also may really not click with.

Jumping back 30 years, Zelda: A Link To The Past was probably my favourite game, and the memory of it still makes it a top five. When Ocarina Of Time came out the reviews sent my anticipation into insane overdrive. And then… for everyone raving about the scale and wonder, I just found the overworld experience diluted everything.

All the fun bits were effectively now further apart, making it take longer to slowly get from A to B on Epona, with occasional diversions cropping up. So much that people were praising about it just felt like it had been made more dull from the tight exploration of the previous version.

The second point came from the Fallout 4 next gen update review: ‘there was far more fun and longevity in collecting bric-a-brac for crafting, upgrading your weapons and armour’. Is this honestly the consensus opinion? That’s a genuine question, as if so, I’m clearly experiencing things differently then.

If I could pinpoint things I most dislike about the series, it’s probably the litter-picking-simulator aspects. I’m constantly crawling around the map, overloaded with junk, just on the off-chance that there was one thing that would actually be essential and make a difference. But in practically every occasion of weapon and armour crafting, I didn’t notice any change. And cycling through hundreds of options, none of which seemed to be different beyond basic range or ammo type, just became the bane of my experience.

I needed the radiation suit at one point, which is the only example I can think of where the change was noticeable, but then I just wore it for a while as finding and putting on the other kit afterwards just became a pain. Didn’t notice the difference and radiation protection could just have been a simple upgrade rather than an irritating costume change.

Each to their own and all that, I hated the base building in Fallout 4 too, but you were not forced to do it, so no issues having it in there for those that enjoy it. It’s when these factors directly impact the overall experience that concern me.

So, I still have big hopes the last two Zelda games will be amazing, but when I read that the things I dislike most about open world padding and excess get held up as the best bits, it certainly chips away at that anticipation. Maybe that’s for the best to avoid another disappointment.

Ernie

Inbox also-rans

A new version of NES Remix truly is scrapping the bottom of the barrel in terms of Wii U ports, and only a day after someone was asking why they haven’t done Xenoblade Chronicles X yet!

BeeLee

Just to state the obvious but the fact that the publisher of GTA 6 is cutting costs, despite making a $2 billion+ profit last year is just disgusting. They could have kept all those people on for free for decades just on that one year’s amount of money!

Protagger

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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.

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